category of 'Thought' in 5 aggregates

gliang

'Thinking' or 'thought', under which category is it in the 5 aggregates?

perception? mental formations?

xabir

Mental formations.

gliang

Thanks xabir aka AEN.

Jeffrey

feeling too.. Good bad or neutral..

xabir

Jeffrey wrote: »

feeling too.. Good bad or neutral..

Not exactly.. In general, vedanā (feelings) refers to the pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations that occur when our internal sense organs come into contact with external sense objects and the associated consciousness. This occurs prior to gross concepts and thoughts.

"Feeling," not "emotion"

Regarding the relationship between vedanā and "emotions," American-born Theravada teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi has written:

"The Pali word vedanā does not signify emotion (which appears to be a complex phenomenon involving a variety of concomitant mental factors), but the bare affective quality of an experience, which may be either pleasant, painful or neutral."[12]

Similarly, Oxford-trained Vajrayana teacher Trungpa Rinpoche has written:

"In this case 'feeling' is not quite our ordinary notion of feeling. It is not the feeling we take so seriously as, for instance, when we say, 'He hurt my feelings.' This kind of feeling that we take so seriously belongs to the fourth and fifth skandhas of concept and consciousness."[13]

Jeffrey

I knew that as much. However I refer to a wider variety of phenomena as thoughts.

xabir

xabir wrote: »

Mental formations.

Btw part of perception and consciousness also fall under the category of 'thought'.

See http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Five_skandhas for explanations.