Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
vijñāna-skandha
Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics
Quick Facts
Sanskrit:
“aggregate of thought”
Pāli:
viññāṇa-khandha
Related Topics:
skandha
See all related content
Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

vijñāna-skandha

Buddhist philosophy
Also known as: viññāṇa-khandha
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

vijñāna-skandha, in Buddhist philosophy, one of the five skandhas, or aggregates, that constitute all that exists. Thought (vijñāna/viññāṇa) is the psychic process that results from other psychological phenomena. The simplest form is knowledge through any of the senses, particularly through the mind (citta), which is regarded as the coordinating organ of the sense impressions. Thoughts are classified by the Theravāda tradition of Buddhism under some 89 headings, depending on their qualities and consequences; other schools classify thoughts in six groups correlated with the five originating senses and the mind. See also skandha.