The Human Personality and Human Destiny

What Makes a Person?

One of the most distinctive features of Buddhist thought is its detailed account of human personality. Rather than positing a permanent soul or self at the centre of a person, Buddhism analyses experience into a flow of changing processes. The Theravada tradition breaks this down into the Five Aggregates (Pali: khandhas; Sanskrit: skandhas). These five — form, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness — arise together, interact constantly and give rise to the experienced sense of “self.” Yet no single aggregate, nor all five combined, constitutes a permanent, unchanging “I.”

The Five Aggregates in Everyday Life

To understand how the Five Aggregates work, consider Kiran, a young Theravada Buddhist who attends the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Hertfordshire for a day retreat. As Kiran sits in the meditation hall, the physical body (form) is present — the sensation of the cushion, the temperature of the room. The feeling-tone (sensation) of the silence is pleasant. Kiran’s mind recognises “this is calm” (perception). The intention to maintain attention arises (mental formations). And through all of this runs the simple knowing of what is happening (consciousness). What Theravada teaching highlights is that this whole process occurs without needing a separate, fixed “Kiran” behind the scenes directing it — the aggregates themselves are the full story.

Mahayana Buddhism: Sunyata and Buddha-Nature

Mahayana Buddhism, which developed later and is dominant in Tibet, China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, deepens the Theravada analysis in two important directions. First, it extends the concept of no-fixed-self to all phenomena through sunyata (emptiness). The Heart Sutra, a central Mahayana text, teaches that “form is emptiness, emptiness is form” — not that nothing exists, but that nothing exists with a fixed, independent nature. Everything is empty of inherent self-existence.

Second, Mahayana Buddhism introduces the concept of Buddha-nature (tathagatagarbha). Rather than simply analysing the absence of a fixed self, Mahayana teaching holds that every sentient being has within them the potential to attain full Buddhahood. This does not contradict sunyata — Buddha-nature is not a “self” but rather a luminous quality of awareness that can be uncovered when ignorance and craving are removed.

Human Destiny: The Arhat and Bodhisattva Ideals

The question of where the Buddhist path leads differs significantly between Theravada and Mahayana traditions. In Theravada Buddhism, the highest ideal is the Arhat — literally “a worthy one” or “a perfected person.” The Arhat has eliminated all defilements (the Three Poisons of ignorance, greed and hatred), attained nibbana (liberation from the cycle of rebirth), and will not be reborn after death. The Arhat ideal is sometimes described as “individual liberation” — the monk or nun who through rigorous practice reaches the end of suffering for themselves.

Mahayana Buddhism views the Arhat ideal as incomplete. Instead, it elevates the ideal of the Bodhisattva — a being who has generated bodhicitta (the mind of Enlightenment), aspiring to attain full Buddhahood not for their own sake but for the benefit of all sentient beings. Bodhisattvas vow to remain in the cycle of existence until every being has been liberated. Famous Bodhisattvas in Mahayana devotion include Avalokiteshvara (the Bodhisattva of compassion, known in China as Guanyin) and Manjushri (wisdom).