Skandha
(Sanskrit) or ( Pāḷi) means "heaps, aggregates, collections, groupings". In Buddhism, it refers to the five aggregates of clinging (), the five material and mental factors that take part in the rise of craving and clinging. They are also explained as the five factors that constitute and explain a sentient being’s person and personality, but this is a later interpretation in response to sarvastivadin essentialism. The five aggregates or heaps of clinging are: # form (or material image, impression) () # sensations (or feelings, received from form) () # perceptions () # mental activity or formations () # consciousness (). In the Theravada tradition, suffering arises when one identifies with or clings to the aggregates. This suffering is extinguished by relinquishing attachments to aggregates. The Mahayana tradition asserts that the nature of all aggregates is intrinsically empty of independent existence. Etymology () is a Sanskrit word that means "multitude, qua ...
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Nirvana (Buddhism)
Nirvana (Sanskrit: निर्वाण, '; Pali: ') is "blowing out" or "quenching" of the activities of the worldly mind and its related suffering. Nirvana is the goal of the Hinayana and Theravada Buddhist paths, and marks the soteriological release from worldly suffering and rebirths in ''saṃsāra''. Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on "cessation of '' dukkha''" in the Four Noble Truths, and the "'' summum bonum'' of Buddhism and goal of the Eightfold Path." In the Buddhist tradition, nirvana has commonly been interpreted as the extinction of the "three fires", or "three poisons", greed ('' raga''), aversion ('' dvesha'') and ignorance ('' moha''). When these ''fires'' are extinguished, release from the cycle of rebirth (''saṃsāra'') is attained. Nirvana has also been claimed by some scholars to be identical with