I have observed a correlation between the Skandas (roughly: mental fetters) in Buddhism and the Jungian dichotomies in analytical psychology. I think there is a strong connection between psychology and metaphysics that I hasn’t been explored very much in depth. As such, I will elaborate on this idea.
Personality is innate, it is the way in which we metabolize information into behaviors and actions.
The first Skanda is Form (Rupa), which constitutes all physical information that we gather from the material world. It is correlated with the Jungian dichotomy of Sensing, how skilled people are at taking action and constructing harmonious environments.
The second Skanda is Feeling (Vedana), in essence, it is the emotions that we express outwardly and feel internally. It corresponds to the Jungian dichotomy of Ethics (aka Feeling), having to do with the person’s charisma and ability to form character judgements.
The third Skanda is Perception (Samjina), which is all that we know and understand. It is connected to the Jungian dichotomy of Logic (aka Thinking), focusing on how good people are at learning new information or logical reasoning.
The fourth Skanda is Mental Formations (Samskara), which is the information that originates in mind and is interpreted through the imagination. It is associated with the Jungian dichotomy of Intuition, or how well people can generate ideas and understand how events might unfold in the future.
The fifth is Consciousness, which isn’t correlated to a dichotomy, but it is at the core of what we experience as both independent from reality and personality. Like the Cartesian image of oneself sitting inside one’s own mind, understanding reality as if it were watching a movie.
A lot of confusion can emanate from discovering who we are as an independent entity. How do we know that the “self” that we are presently aware of only exists in the mind and is produced out of thought?
The best way to think about this is to use an analogy I came up with. The exterior of the car is the material “self”, the engine of the car is the personality of the individual and the passenger is consciousness. The “I” is the totality of self, personality and consciousness, it includes everything.
