The ‘Khandha Passages’ in the Vinayapitaka and the Four Main Nikayas

This book investigates all passages in the first parts of the Pali canon that refer to the teaching of the five branches of a person that should be distanced. 449 passages mentioning the series rupa, vedana, san n a, san.khara and vin n ana (translated as body, feeling, ideation, impulses and sensation) or hinting at them by means of the terms upada nakkhandha or khandha are recorded. All passages that are not repetitions are critically edited and translated into English. If the context allows, remarks on their soteriological function are made; if available, parallels in (hybrid) Sanskrit fragments, Chinese and Tibetan translations are referred to or quoted. The long introduction points to possible historical arrangements of different formulations of this teaching and discusses the meaning of the five terms rupa, etc, with special emphasis on san.khara. Appendix 1 shows where the terms upadanakkhandha or khandha can be found and whether a passage refers to a person that should distance the five items (ca.60% of the passages), or only speaks of distancing without mentioning a person (ca.40%), or denies the existence of a person (1 passage). Appendix 2 quotes, with English translations, the few traces of this teaching in the verse texts of the fifth Nikaya (none in the Suttanipata!). Apendix 3 refers to stereotype formulas and Apendix 4 contains ancient names and terms.