The History of Buddhist Thought c13.13

c13.13

There are several terms occurring in it which also occur in another formula, the five groups (*khandhas*) which make up the individual. In the legend of Māgandiya (*Majjh.*, i, 511) Buddha says to him: “If I were to teach you the doctrine as to what health and Nirvāna are, and you were to come to know what health is and to see Nirvāna, then when vision arose you would cast away your passion for the five groups of grasping, and you would think, ‘long indeed have I been cheated, deceived, and deluded by this my mind in that I went on grasping at body (*rūpa*), sensation (*vedanā*), perception (*saññā*), the aggregates (*saṅkhārā*), and consciousness (*viññāṇa*). On account of my grasping (*upādāna*) coming to be (*bhava*) arises, birth, old age, grief, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair arise. Even thus is the origin of this whole mass of pain.’”