#7.What are the components of a human being? 15dec14.

Zen Buddhism has an interesting way to describe the various components of a human being and in fact of all living beings. It calls them: the 5 aggregates.

The classification is very practical and includes:

Physical:

1)  Form.= Matter  Form is our body from head to toes including 5 senses

2)  Perception=  Our sensorial recognition of our surrounding .

Mental:

3)  Feelings = Sensations  Our emotional brain/mind* which always reacts 10 times faster than our mental one. This is why we usually react emotionally before reacting rationally.

4)  Mental formations =Volition=  Our mind storage and actions: thoughts, ideas, opinions,prejudices,

5)  Consciousness: our individual consciousness is part of a global one shared by all living beings called Collective or Global or Streaming consciousness.

* Brain and mind are viewed as a single unit a bit similar to a computer where the hardware is the brain and the software is the mind.

Our death includes the death of the first four aggregates (Form, Perception, Mental, Feelings). Only our consciousness leaves us to reintegrate the global one. Details of birth and death are not discussed here.

Thanks.

Ven. Ji Gong Sunim.