How Do the Five Aggregates Operate?

Take drinking tea as an example. Drinking tea is a process of the combined operation of the five aggregates as a whole, involving all five aggregates—form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness—as well as the eighteen realms comprising the six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six sense consciousnesses. The three factors—sense faculties, sense objects, and consciousness—come into contact and operate together in harmony. The director of this process is the mental faculty, which coordinates and regulates the activities of contact, feeling, perception, and mental processing involving the six consciousnesses and the five sense faculties and six sense objects. The most agile and swift is the mental faculty; often, things are completed before consciousness even becomes aware of them. The five consciousnesses cooperate as if devoid of thought, completely loyal to the intentions of the mental faculty, leaving consciousness sometimes unable to fathom how things were accomplished.

The entire process of drinking tea is similar. If the tea is too hot and spills onto the hand, it will cause one to jerk reflexively and fling it away before consciousness has time to discern and analyze the situation. When the mental faculty intends to pick up the teacup and drink the tea, the sense faculties and sense objects come into contact, giving rise to the six consciousnesses to cooperate and carry out the instructions of the mental faculty, enabling the tea to be brought to the mouth. Regarding the specific operation of the six sense faculties and the functioning of the six consciousnesses, one must personally observe and match them to one's own experience, especially paying close attention to the details. It is necessary to clearly understand the concept of the five aggregates and the functions of the eighteen realms.