The Buddha unambiguously states that the five skandhas or aggregates are suffering which make up what we know as our corporeal body. He also states that this fact is the first noble truth. The first noble truth is not just suffering, in general, but the fact that these suffering aggregates are the actual first noble truth. This should be underscored.

The aggregates are the source of oppression such that we are always exposed to suffering in some degree like prisoners in a prison from which we cannot find a means of escape. The Buddha’s teaching of rebirth makes the situation even worse. Death is not the end. It is a door opening to another life, possibly worse than this one or perhaps somewhat better. It’s almost a throw of the dice.

Craving these aggregates causes us to wander from one existence to the next without the slightest pause. This is saṁsāra which never fails to bring us rebirth, aging, illness and death. So where does the teaching of non-ātman (P., anattā) come into this equation? It stems from our ignorance or rather our inability to distinguish between our composite, conditioned world, and the unconditioned absolute. We crave the conditioned five skandhas as who we really are, namely, our ātman. But in doing so, we just deceived our self. By no stretch of our imagination is this corporeal body of ours the ātman! It is a cauldron of impermanence and suffering, devoid of atman—to be transcended. The Buddha states:

The ear is suffering…. The nose is suffering…. The tongue is suffering…. The Body is suffering…. Thoughts are suffering. What is suffering is not the atman. What is not the atman should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ’This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my atman.’ (S. iv. 2).

This should tell us something: stop craving what amounts to a false ātman—this is not who we really are. But when we decide we’ve had enough suffering (which is often too late), we find it difficult to buy the idea of ātman as being who we really are, yet, mysteriously transcendent. It is too Hindu—so the liars tell us. And so we we enter into another round of saṁsāra completely deceived still believing that with death comes the absolute end. This is insanity.