The Mystery Hidden Behind the Operation of the Five Aggregates

Machines manufactured in modern times are all automated processes; some are so automated that no manual operation can even be seen. These machines run ceaselessly, proceeding from one program to the next. All of this running is dharma of causes and conditions—there are definite causes and conditions that make the machines run; machines do not run without reason. There are many conditions for a machine's operation, and each condition is different. When the conditions differ, the patterns of operation differ, and the products that come out of the processing differ as well. But what is the cause of a machine's operation? Can a machine run automatically all by itself?

Take another example: the washing machine at home, churning the clothes in the water, turning round and round without stop. This is a process. How does this process come about? Does the washing machine turn by itself? Without a person operating it, a washing machine is just a pile of scrap metal; it can do nothing. It is only when a person presses the button that the washing machine can run. Moreover, washing machines are automated processes designed by human beings; only when humans supply electricity can the washing machine work. It runs through one process after another—is this something that exists naturally? What can we see in the operation of a machine?

If a child who does not yet understand the ways of the world, he would not know that machines are operated by people, because when adults are not beside the machine, the machine moves by itself. But a person who already understands the ways of the world, even if he cannot see anyone operating the machine, knows that the machine is being operated by someone. The washing machine is a metaphor for our five-aggregate body; the operation of the five aggregates is like the process. This process does not arise without reason, nor does it arise without cause. There are conditions, and still more, there is a cause. What is the cause of the operation of the five aggregates?

Since the five aggregates are not truly existent, yet they can still operate—is this not strange? One should raise the question: why can something false still have function? What, in the end, is the reason? If one takes the five aggregates as existing naturally, one will not raise a questioning doubt; without raising doubt, one will not investigate, and then one will never know the truth of the facts. When we look at anything, we cannot look only at surface appearances. How many secrets lie hidden behind appearances—do we know them? What is the essence of all things? Is it really what appears on the surface? The wise should investigate and strive to understand the truth of the facts, to uncover the mysteries within.

Behind the process of the five-aggregate body's operation, if there were nothing real, would the five-aggregate body still operate? Could there still be a process? After the five aggregates of the physical body perish, what remains? After the body is cremated, what remains? After an arhat enters nirvāṇa, what remains? If one believes that nothing remains, that is the view of annihilation, annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), which contradicts the Buddha's teaching. If one believes that when the five aggregates perish, there is still a spiritually knowing mind that does not perish—a mind that can know all things and can go to future lives—that is the eternalist view. It does not exist everlastingly; to claim that it exists everlastingly is the eternalist view, which contradicts the Buddha's teaching.