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Sāriputta addresses the monks at
Jetavana and tells them
that, just as the foot of every creature will fit in the elephant's footprint,
even so are all right states of mind comprised within the Four Noble Truths. He
then goes on to explain that dukkha consists of the five
upādānakkhandhas -
visible shapes, feelings, perception, sankhāras and consciousness. The
constituents of these attachments are the four principle elements: earth, water,
fire, and air. Each element is of two kinds personal (ajjhatta) and external (bahiddhā)
- and each is transient and subject to decay. The chain of causation entails all
that makes up the five attachments. Where there is eye intact, on which external
shapes come to focus, and where there is developed pertinent material to sustain
it, there is developed a manifestation of the pertinent section of
consciousness. Thus arises the upādānakkhandha of form; similarly with the
others. M.28.

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