Saṅkhāra

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Translations of

saṅkhāra
English: conditioned thing,
mental formation
Pali: saṅkhāra
Sanskrit: saṃskāra
Sinhala: අභිධර්ම
(abhidharma)
Chinese: 行
(pinyin: xíng)
Japanese: 行
(rōmaji: gyō)
Vietnamese: 行
(hành)
Tibetan: འདུ་བྱེད་
('du.byed)
Buddhism Glossary
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Saṅkhāra (Pali; Devanagari: सङ्खार) or saṃskāra (Sanskrit; Devanagari: संस्कार) is a term figuring prominently in the teaching of the Buddha and related Indian religions (see article sanskara). The word means either 'that which has been put together' or 'that which puts together'. In the first (passive) sense, saṅkhāra refers to conditioned phenomena generally but specifically (within liberation teachings) to those structures within the unconscious that are the basis for all worldly activities and future rebirth. These are called 'volitional formations' or more popularly 'karmic seeds', the latter expression indicating that they are causes that ripen into effects at a later time to when they were 'sown' (ie. formed in the unconscious). In the second (active) sense of the word, saṅkhāra refers (in the teaching of the Buddha) to that faculty of the mind/brain apparatus (sankhara-khandha) that puts together those formations.[1] English translations for saṅkhāra in the first sense of the word include 'conditioned things,'[2] 'determinations,'[3] 'fabrications'[4] and 'formations' (or, particularly when referring to mental processes, 'volitional formations').[5]

Contents

[edit] Conditioned things

In the first (passive) sense saṅkhāra can refer to any compound form in the universe whether a tree, a cloud, a human being, a thought or a molecule. All these are saṅkhāras. The Buddha taught that all such things are impermanent, arising and passing away, and that knowing this is wisdom. Saṅkhāra is often used in this first sense to describe the psychological conditioning (particularly the habit patterns of the unconscious mind) that gives any individual human being his or her unique character and make-up at any given time (see Volitional formations below)

The last words of the Buddha were (English and Pali):

'Disciples, this I declare to you: All conditioned things are subject to disintegration - strive on untiringly for your liberation.' (Mahāparinibbāna Sutta)

handa'dāni bhikkhave āmantayāmi vo, vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā ti.

[edit] Volitional formations

The view of Indian religions generally is that over the course of many lifetimes the mind has evolved incrementally as a cumulative effect of repeated incarnation into material form (for example, life as animal or human). As a result of the experiences gained during each incarnation the mind learns and thus evolves (this is not evolution as understood by contemporary Western theoretical biology). At the end of each life, the body experiences biological death but the mind/consciousness does not. On the contrary, whatever lessons have been learnt or deeds committed in the previous life are inherited informationally as saṅkhāras which then form the basis for the character of the new life as the mind/spirit passes on to incarnate into a new biological form. In the ordinary person without wisdom these saṅkhāras are being created throughout each life giving impetus to fresh rebirth in the future. This process goes on indefinitely until the mind becomes disenchanted with incarnation and seeks liberation. Following a spiritual discipline (such as the eightfold path) enables one to dissolve existing saṅkhāras and refrain from creating new ones.

[edit] Sankhara-khandha:The builder of lives

  The 12 Nidānas:  
Ignorance
↓
Formations
↓
Consciousness
↓
Mind & Body
↓
Six Sense Bases
↓
Contact
↓
Feeling
↓
Craving
↓
Clinging
↓
Becoming
↓
Birth
↓
Old Age & Death
 
 The Five Aggregates (pañca khandha)
according to the Pali Canon.
 
 
form (rūpa)
  4 elements
(mahābhūta)		  
 
    ↓
    contact
(phassa)
    ↓ ↑
 
consciousness
(viññāna)
 
 
 
 
 
→
←
 
 
 
←
  mental factors (cetasika)  
 
feeling
(vedanā)
 
 
 
perception
(sañña)
 
 
 
formation
(saṅkhāra)
 
 
 
 
 Source: MN 109 (Thanissaro, 2001)  |  diagram details

In the second (active) sense, saṅkhāra (or saṅkhāra-kkandha) refers to the form-creating faculty of mind, often described as "volitional" or "intentional."[6] States the Buddha:

'And why do you call them 'fabrications'? Because they fabricate fabricated things, thus they are called 'fabrications.' What do they fabricate as a fabricated thing? For the sake of form-ness, they fabricate form as a fabricated thing. For the sake of feeling-ness, they fabricate feeling as a fabricated thing. For the sake of perception-hood... For the sake of fabrication-hood... For the sake of consciousness-hood, they fabricate consciousness as a fabricated thing. Because they fabricate fabricated things, they are called fabrications.'[7]

In the doctrine of conditioned arising or dependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda), saṅkhāra-khandha is understood to be that which propels human (and other sentient) beings along the process of becoming (bhava) by means of actions of body and speech (kamma).[8] The Buddha stated that all volitional constructs are conditioned by ignorance (avijja) of the reality (sacca) behind appearance.[9] It is this ignorance that ultimately causes human suffering (dukkha). The dissolution of all such fabrications (sabba-saṅkhāra-nirodha) is synonymous with Enlightenment (bodhi), the achieving of arahantship.

As ignorance conditions volitional formations, these formations in turn condition consciousness (viññāna). The Buddha elaborated:

'What one intends, what one arranges, and what one obsesses about: This is a support for the stationing of consciousness. There being a support, there is a landing [or: an establishing] of consciousness. When that consciousness lands and grows, there is the production of renewed becoming in the future. When there is the production of renewed becoming in the future, there is future birth, aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. Such is the origination of this entire mass of suffering & stress.'[10]

Tradition relates that after the Buddha's complete enlightenment he uttered the following words (English and Pali):

'Seeking but not finding the housebuilder,
I have traveled through the round of countless births.
How painful is birth over and over again.
Oh housebuilder! You have now been caught!
You shall not build a house again.
Your rafters have been broken. Your ridgepole demolished.
The unconditioned consciousness has been attained.
And every kind of craving has been destroyed.'
(Dhammapāda, verses 153,154)

Aneka jāti samsāraṃ sandha vissam anibhissam
Gahakaraka gavesanto dukkhajāti punappunam
Gahakaraka ditthosi puna geham nakahasi
Sabba te phasuka bagga gahakutam visamkhatam
Visamkhāragatam cittam tanhanam khayamajjhaga.

The 'housebuilder' to which the Buddha refers is just this mental faculty of sankhāra-khandha whose products, the volitional formations, are conditioned by (created due to) ignorance.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ See, for instance, Bodhi (2000), p. 45:
    Saṅkhāra is derived from the prefix saṃ (=con), "together," and the verb karoti, "to make." The noun straddles both sides of the active-passive divide. Thus saṅkhāras are both things which put together, construct and compound other things, and the things that are put together, constructed, and compounded.
  2. ^ See Piyadassi (1999). This is also suggested, for instance, by Bodhi (2000), p. 46, who in writing about one sense of saṅkhāra states: 'In the widest sense, saṅkhāra comprises all conditioned things, everything arisen from a combination of conditions.'
  3. ^ According to Bodhi (2000), p. 44, 'determinations' was used by Ven. Ñāṇamoli in his Majjhima Nikaya manuscripts that ultimately were edited by Bodhi. (In the published volume, Bodhi changed Ñāṇamoli's word choice to "formations.")
  4. ^ See, for instance, Thanissaro (1997b).
  5. ^ See the extended discussion at Bodhi (2000), pp. 44-47. Other translations considered by but ultimately rejected by Bodhi include 'constructions' (p. 45) and 'activities' (p. 45, especially to highlight the kammic aspect of saṅkhāra).
  6. ^ This facet of saṅkhāra – cetana – is translated at times by Thanissaro as "intention" (e.g., see Thanissaro, 1995), while Bodhi consistently translates it as "volition" (e.g., see Bodhi, 2000, p. 45).
  7. ^ Thanissaro (2001).
  8. ^ See, for instance, SN 12.2 (Thanissaro, 1997b), where the Buddha states: 'And what are fabrications? These three are fabrications: bodily fabrications, verbal fabrications, mental fabrications. These are called fabrications.'
  9. ^ In a similar fashion, in SN 45.1, the Buddha identifies ignorance as leading to wrong view which leads to wrong resolve, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness and wrong concentration – that is, the antithesis of the Noble Eightfold Path (Thanissaro, 1997a).
  10. ^ SN 12.38 (Thanissaro, 1995).

[edit] Sources

  • Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trans.) (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-331-1.


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