The five constituents of personality (Pañca Upādānakkhandha)
The Pali term upādāna is translated here as personalization and not as clinging or grasping because the meaning conveyed by the term upādāna is personalization, which is to regard something as mine, me, or myself (etaη mama, eso hamasmi, eso me attāti). The personality is created by personalizing the constituents (khandha) as “mine” or “myself.”
The term khandha is translated as constituent and not as aggregate because the term khandha refers to the constituents that constitutes the personality.
An effort has been made here to convey the meaning of the statement in relation to the meaning of the words.
Personality is the product of personalization of the constituents of personality. The constituents of the personality, however, are not the constituents of the body as some tend to think. It is the constituents of the subjective process of perception that we tend to personalize and regard as “my self.” It is the process of perception that the Buddha analysed as mental image (rūpa), feeling (vedanā), sensation (saññā), construction (sankhāra) and perception (viññāṇa). Therefore it is the constituents of the process of perception, which are personalized to form the personality, or “self.” To explain this further, we need to go into a discussion of what is called an experience.