The dissolution of the skhandas

The five skandhas (Pali: *khandhas*) — form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness — constitute the aggregates that make up the experience we call “self.” The Buddha taught that clinging to these aggregates as a permanent, independent identity lies at the very heart of suffering.

In deep practice, the dissolution of the skandhas refers to the progressive disidentification from these aggregates. The practitioner observes each aggregate as a process: form as the physical body, feelings as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral sensations, perceptions as classifications and labels, mental formations as volitional patterns, and consciousness as bare knowing. All are seen to arise and pass moment by moment, dependent on conditions.

As insight sharpens, the illusion of a unifying self behind these processes dissolves. The skandhas continue to function — the body moves, thoughts arise, emotions flow — but there is no longer the deeply ingrained assumption that these constitute “me” or “mine.” The aggregates become transparent, like a mirage shimmering in the desert heat.

The dissolution of the skandhas does not lead to nihilism but to freedom. Without the burden of identification, experience remains vivid, but clinging, fear, and defensiveness fall away. The practitioner moves through life lightly, without grasping at what is inherently ungraspable.

In this way, the dissolution of the skandhas reveals not emptiness as absence, but as profound openness — the spacious groundless ground in which freedom naturally unfolds.

“Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation.”
— Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, Dīgha Nikāya 16