Q10. Which Aspect of the Teaching, as Recorded in the Pali Texts, Did the Buddha Teach Most of All?

~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

Answer once again by quoting the Buddha: ‘The five khandhas are impermanent (anicca) and not-self (anattā).’ These five khandhas are the five aggregates into which a person is divisible. The body aggregate is called rūpa; the aggregate of feeling, both pleasurable and painful, is called vedanā; memory, recognition, and perception is called saññā; active thinking is called saṅkhāra; and the cognition that knows this or that object via the six senses is viññāṇa. Rūpa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, viññāṇa: these five are called the five aggregates or khandhas. These five aggregates are impermanent and devoid of selfhood, which is what the Buddha taught most of all. These five aggregates don’t last, continually flow, and constantly change. They can’t be ‘self’ (attā) because they are in perpetual flux, and no one can take them to be ‘me’ or ‘mine.’

To summarize this once again, all things are impermanent and nothing can be held to be ‘me’ or ‘mine.’ Keep this brief statement in mind as what the Buddha taught most of all.

(From “Buddha-Dhamma for Inquiring Minds”)

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Buddha-Dhamma for Students (title of original translation) was composed of two talks given by Ajahn Buddhadāsa in January 1966 to students at Thammasat University, Bangkok. It was translated from the Thai by Rod Bucknell, and revised in 2018 by Santikaro Upasaka. To read/download as free ebook (pdf).

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Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives E-27