Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1801061 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 218 pages

Customer Reviews

Very good English - The 5 aggregates
Dr Sue Hamilton in an up and coming Buddhist Scholar in Kings College London and this is an analysis of the 5 aggregates, the constituents of being according to early Buddhism.

These are body, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness. This book is a somewhat exhaustive appraisal of each in turn from a scholarly vantage seeking to explain what they are. The book represents an analysis of the idea of no-self, much misunderstood.

It should be good reading for students philosophers and psychologists interested in self and various views of self.

Excellent Scholarly Book Uncovering New and Profound Interpretions
Sue Hamilton has done a great service to Buddhist studies with this book. Well written and penetrating, she sets out the goal of examining the five khandhas or aggregates that the Buddha laid out as key to understanding what a human being is.

Examining primarily the suttas contained in the four nikayas of the pali canon, Dr. Hamilton makes strong arguments for the case that the five khandhas were described more as "processes" than "things." From this insight, she shows how the Buddha was interested in more how things work rather what they are as part as his soteriology.

The book does a great job in elucidating difficult technical terms in the pali canon and draws attention to very important metaphors, loka or the world for instance, that do not have the emphasis they observe.

Overall this is an excellent scholarly work, and those who have a more scholarly interest in early buddhism will find it a treasure house of ideas and insights.