This Dharma talk is presented by Zen master and author Sean Murphy. Drawing on his long career as a Zen teacher, he presents a reframing of the important Buddhist concept of the five skandhas. The English translation of the five skandhas is often presented philosophically or as Buddhist psychology which may be difficult to understand and apply. Sean offers a simpler system called the “five conditions” which he originally learned from Zen teacher Bernie Glassman. Having taught and evolved this heuristic for several decades, he gives us a lively lesson on the central Zen teaching of the five skandhas simplified as sensation, feeling, reaction, recognition, and “the story.”
