Five Aggregates and Suffering

The last of the eight sufferings — the five aggregates — means attachment to form (physical things), perception (operation of the perception of pleasure and pain), mental conceptions and ideas (the operation of conceptions and symbols), volition (the operation of various mental processes including that of volition), and consciousness (the operation of conscious judgment and of consciousness itself). This set of aggregates refers to all phenomena, both internal to the sentient being and external in the form of environment. Since clinging to them binds the sentient being to the world of transmigration with its inherent miseries, the suffering of the five aggregates can be said to correspond to that of the world of transmigration.

The Beginnings of Buddhism