THE FIVE GROUPS OF EXISTENCE

And what, in brief, are the Five Groups of Existence? They are
Corporeality, Feeling, Perception, [mental] Formations, and
Consciousness.
Any corporeal phenomenon, whether one's own or external, gross or
subtle, lofty or low, far or near, belongs to the Group of
Corporeality; any feeling belongs to the Group of Feeling; any
perception belongs to the Group of Perception; any mental formation
belongs to the Group of Formations; all consciousness belongs to the
Group of Consciousness.
[Our so-called individual existence is in reality nothing but a mere
process of these "bodily and mental" phenomena, which since immemorial
times was going on before one's apparent birth, and which also after
death will continue for immemorial periods of time. In the
following, we shall see that these five Groups, or Khandhas-either
taken separately, or combined-in no way constitute any real
"Ego-entity," and that no Ego-entity exists apart from them, and hence
that the belief in an Ego-entity is merely an illusion. Just as that
which we designate by the name of "chariot," has no existence apart
from axle, wheels, shaft, and so forth: or as the word "house" is
merely a convenient designation for various materials put together
after a certain fashion so as to enclose a portion of space, and there
is no separate house-entity in existence:-in exactly the same way,
that which we call a "being," or an "individual," or a "person," or by
the name is nothing but a changing combination of physical and
psychical phenomena, and has no real existence in itself.]