The Difference Between the Form Aggregate and the Form Sense Object

Material sense-objects (rūpa-viṣaya) are material form composed of the four great elements; they are inanimate things, objects to be recognized and acted upon, lacking initiative, lacking self-nature, without ignorance and afflictions, and it cannot even be said of them that they are pure or impure.

The aggregate of form is the aggregating function upon material sense-objects. Material sense-objects themselves have no initiative, and thus no aggregating function; it is a functional operation that the conscious mind imposes upon the material body. A material body driven by the conscious mind is called the aggregate of form. When the conscious mind operates upon the material body, the material body is a living being; a material body without the conscious mind operating within it is an inanimate thing, a corpse, one of the material sense-objects. The conscious mind's operation upon the material body is bodily and verbal action; where there is action there is karma, and where there is karma, karmic seeds are left behind. In this way karmic results are aggregated, and in future lives there will be painful results, pleasant results, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant results.