人類的認知及情緒，與其身心健康和社會適應有高度的關聯性。現代心理學針對這方面的分析與解釋已發展出各派理論，佛教兩千多年來也持續在探索這方面的問題。在佛典中色、受、想、行、識合稱「五蘊」(或譯「五陰」)，是佛教認為人的五類組成要素，其中色是物質的成分，亦即肉體，而受、想、行、識則構成人類心理的層面。本文將探討想及受，並指出佛教對這兩者的闡釋與現代心理學對於認知和情緒的理解有相互交集之處。 Buddhism analyzes the human being into five aggregates (khandhas), among which sanna (apperception/conception) and vedana (feeling) are investigated in this paper. Sanna involves identification, forming concepts, and remembering. It is roughly coterminous with what is referred to as ‘cognition’ in psychology. According to some Buddhist texts, an ordinary person’s sanna usually goes astray to conceptual proliferation (papanca), and represents the purely subjective experiences that stem from a deep-rooted sense of ego. With regard to vedana (feeling), Buddhism makes a distinction between the mere reception of sensation and the subjective reaction to it. The secondary feeling as a subjective reaction to the mere reception of sensation can fall under the category of ‘emotion’ in psychology. A Buddhist text implies that the secondary feelings are conditioned by identification and remembering, which belong to saññâ. This idea coincides with the cognitive theories of emotion proposed by some psychologists.
