Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

by Joseph Goldstein

Which Aggregate Is Predominant in the Moment Besides focusing on a particular aggregate for some time, we can also strengthen this aspect of right view by recognizing which of the aggregates is predominant in the moment, and by seeing the interplay and changing nature of them all. For example, you might be walking outside and feeling the sensation of the movement of walking. This is mindfulness of the material elements. Then you feel the warmth of the sun or a cold blast of wind. The warmth and cold are also physical elements. But then the feeling of pleasant or unpleasant may become predominant. We recognize that as the feeling aggregate, arising in the moment and passing away. You hear a sound and recognize it as that of a bird, or see something and recognize it as a tree or a building or a person. That moment of recognition and perhaps subliminal naming is the aggregate of perception. Then you might be gladdened by the sun’s warmth or a birdsong, or be reactive to a person walking by. These mind states are all part of the aggregate of mental formations coming into the foreground. And sometimes you might be walking, simply resting in awareness, with mindfulness predominantly on this knowing faculty. There is no particular order in which the different aggregates come into the foreground. Right view, as the wisdom factor of mind, simply investigates what is predominant and sees its impermanent, selfless nature.