Saṃskāra

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saṃskāra (P. saṅkhāra; T. 'du byed འདུ་བྱེད་; C. xing; J. gyō; K. haeng =行) is translated as "formation," "volitional formation," "conditioning factors," etc. This term has multiple usages within Buddhism.[1][2]

  1. In its most general usage, this term refers to any phenomenon that has been formed, conditioned, or dependently brought into being.[1]
  2. This term is also used to describe the second of the twelve links of dependent origination (pratītya samutpāda)[1]
  3. and also the fourth of the five aggregates.[1]

Etymology

The Pali-English Dictionary states:

[Saṅkhāra is] one of the most difficult terms in Buddhist metaphysics, in which the blending of the subjective-objective view of the world and of happening, peculiar to the East, is so complete, that it is almost impossible for Occidental terminology to get at the root of its meaning in a translation. We can only convey an idea of its import by representing several sides of its application, without attempting to give a "word" as a definitive translation.[3]

The 84000 glossary states:

The Sanskrit term saṃskāra varies according to context. It literally means something that “causes aggregation” or “causes to be put together.” In a general sense it refers to any phenomenon that comes into being on the basis of causes and conditions. In more specific usage it is also the term describing the fourth of the five aggregates and the second of the twelve links of dependent origination. Although both of these latter uses have their own technical contexts, in both cases the term carries a more active and volitional aspect and refers to the formative factors, mental volitions, and other supporting factors that perpetuate birth in saṃsāra.[1]

Bhikkhu Bodhi states:

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.[4]

Bhikkhu Bodhi also states:

The past participle connected with saṅkhārā is saṅkhata, which I translate “conditioned.” Unfortunately I could not render the two Pāli words into English in a way that preserves the vital connection between them: “formed” is too specific for saṅkhata, and “conditions” too wide for saṅkhārā (and it also encroaches on the domain of paccaya). If “constructions” had been used for saṅkhārā, saṅkhata would have become “constructed,” which preserves the connection, though at the cost of too stilted a translation. Regrettably, owing to the use of different English words for the pair, a critically important dimension of meaning in the suttas is lost to view. In the Pāli we can clearly see the connection: the saṅkhāras, the active constructive forces instigated by volition, create and shape conditioned reality, especially the conditioned factors classified into the five aggregates and the six internal sense bases; and this conditioned reality itself consists of saṅkhāras in the passive sense, called in the commentaries saṅkhata-saṅkhārā.
Further, it is not only this connection that is lost to view, but also the connection with Nibbāna. For Nibbāna is the asaṅkhata, the unconditioned, which is called thus precisely because it is neither made by saṅkhāras nor itself a saṅkhāra in either the active or passive sense. So, when the texts are taken up in the Pāli, we arrive at a clear picture in fine focus: the active saṅkhāras generated by volition perpetually create passive saṅkhāras, the saṅkhata dhammas or conditioned phenomena of the five aggregates (and, indirectly, of the objective world); and then, through the practice of the Buddha’s path, the practitioner arrives at the true knowledge of conditioned phenomena, which disables the generation of active saṅkhāras, putting an end “to the constructing of conditioned reality and opening up the door to the Deathless, the asaṅkhata, the unconditioned, which is Nibbāna, final liberation from impermanence and suffering.[4]

General usage: conditioned things

In its most general usage, saṃskāra refers to any phenomenon that has been formed, conditioned, or dependently brought into being.[1]

The Princeton Dictionary states:

In its more passive usage (see saṃskṛta, P. saṅkhata), saṃskāra refers to anything that has been formed, conditioned, or brought into being. In this early denotation, the term is a designation for all things and persons that have been brought into being dependent on causes and conditions. It is in this sense that the Buddha famously remarked that “all conditioned things (saṃskāra) are impermanent” (anityāḥ sarvasamskārāḥ), the first of the four criteria that “seal” a view as being authentically Buddhist (see caturnimitta).[2]

Bhikkhu Bodhi states:

In the widest sense, saṅkhārā comprises all conditioned things, everything arisen from a combination of conditions. In this sense all five aggregates, not just the fourth, are saṅkhāras, as are all external objects and situations. The term here is taken to be of passive derivation—denoting what is conditioned, constructed, compounded—hence I render it simply “formations,” without the qualifying adjective. This notion of saṅkhārā serves as the cornerstone of a philosophical vision which sees the entire universe as constituted of conditioned phenomena. What is particularly emphasized about saṅkhāras in this sense is their impermanence. Recognition of their impermanence brings insight into the unreliable nature of all mundane felicity and inspires a sense of urgency directed towards liberation from saṃsāra...[4]

The Buddha taught that all saṅkhāras are impermanent and essenceless.[5][6] These subjective dispositions, states David Kalupahana, "prevented the Buddha from attempting to formulate an ultimately objective view of the world".[7]

Since conditioned things and dispositions are perceptions and do not have real essence, they are not reliable sources of pleasure and they are impermanent.[7] Understanding the significance of this reality is wisdom. This "conditioned things" sense of the word Saṅkhāra appears in Four Noble Truths and in Buddhist theory of dependent origination, that is how ignorance or misconceptions about impermanence and non-self leads to "craving" (taṇhā) and rebirth.[8]

According to the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, the last words of the Buddha were: "Disciples, this I declare to you: all conditioned things are subject to disintegration – strive on untiringly for your liberation."[9]

The Kīrtimukha Translation Group states:

It is this broad use of the term that is used in the Bhavasaṅkrāntisūtra when King Bimbisāra asserts that “formations are empty”.[1]

Within the twelve links

The term saṃskāra is also used to describe the second of the twelve links of dependent origination.[1]

Bhikkhu Bodhi states:

As the second factor in the formula of dependent origination, saṅkhāras are the kammically active volitions responsible, in conjunction with ignorance and craving, for generating rebirth and sustaining the forward movement of saṃsāra from one life to the next. Saṅkhārā is synonymous with kamma, to which it is etymologically related, both being derived from karoti. These saṅkhāras are distinguished as threefold by their channel of expression, as bodily, verbal, and mental (II 4,8–10, etc.); they are also divided by ethical quality into the meritorious, demeritorious, and imperturbable (II 82,9–13). To convey the relevant sense of saṅkhārā here I render the term “volitional formations.” The word might also have been translated “activities,” which makes explicit the connection with kamma, but this rendering would sever the connection with saṅkhārāin contexts other than dependent origination, which it seems desirable to preserve.[4]

Within the five skandhas

The term saṃskāra is also used to describe the fourth of the five aggregates.

The Princeton Dictionary states:

Saṃskāra is also the name for the fourth of the five aggregates (skandha), where it includes a miscellany of phenomena that are both formed and in the process of formation, i.e., the large collection of factors that cannot be conveniently classified with the other four aggregates of materiality (rupa), sensation (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and consciousness (vijñāna). This fourth aggregate includes both those conditioning factors associated with mind (cittasamprayuktasaṃskāra), such as the mental concomitants (caitta), as well as those conditioning forces dissociated from thought (cittaviprayuktasaṃskāra), such as time, duration, the life faculty, and the equipoise of cessation (nirodhasāmapatti).[2]

Bhikkhu Bodhi states:

As the fourth of the five aggregates, saṅkhārā is defined as the six classes of volitions (cha cetanākāyā, III 60,25–28), that is, volition regarding the six types of sense objects. Hence again I render it volitional formations. But the saṅkhārakkhandha has a wider compass than the saṅkhārā of the dependent origination series, comprising all instances of volition and not only those that are kammically active. In the Abhidhamma Piṭaka and the commentaries the saṅkhārakkhandha further serves as an umbrella category for classifying all mental concomitants of consciousness apart from feeling and perception. It thus comes to include all wholesome, unwholesome, and variable mental factors mentioned but not formally classified among the aggregates in the Sutta Piṭaka.[4]

Formations concurrent with mind (mental factors)

Main article: Mental factors

Mental factors (Skt. caitasika) are formations (saṃskāra) concurrent with mind (citta).[10][11][12] They can be described as aspects of the mind that apprehend the quality of an object, and that have the ability to color the mind.[13]

Formations not concurrent with mind

Main article: Formations not concurrent with mind

The Sanskrit Abhidharma tradition identifies formations not concurrent with mind as formations that are neither mind nor matter. Unlike the mental factors, these formations are non-concurrent with mind; they do not arise from the mind or with the mind.

Alternate translations for "saṃskāra"

  • Activities (Ajahn Sucitto)
  • Conditions
  • Conditioning factors
  • Conditioned things[14][15]
  • Determinations[16][17]
  • Fabrications[18]
  • Formations (Bhikkhu Bodhi)[19]
  • Karmic formations[20]
  • Mental constructions
  • Mental formations (Bhikkhu Bodhi, A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma)
  • Volitional activities (Gethin, p. 136)
  • Volitional formations (Bhikkhu Bodhi)[21]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Internet-icon.svg 'du byed, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. saṃskāra.
  3. ↑ Thomas William Rhys Davids; William Stede (1921). Pali-English Dictionary. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 664–665. ISBN 978-81-208-1144-7. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Bodhi 2000a, Introduction.
  5. ↑ Jonathan Walters (2015). Donald S. Lopez Jr., ed. Buddhism in Practice: (Abridged Edition). Princeton University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-4008-8007-2. 
  6. ↑ N. Ross Reat; Edmund F. Perry (1991). A World Theology: The Central Spiritual Reality of Humankind. Cambridge University Press. pp. 120–121. ISBN 978-0-521-33159-3. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 David J. Kalupahana (1992). A History of Buddhist Philosophy: Continuities and Discontinuities. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 71–72. ISBN 978-0-8248-1402-1. 
  8. ↑ Paul Williams; Anthony Tribe; Alexander Wynne (2002). Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition. Routledge. pp. 65–67. ISBN 978-1-134-62324-2. 
  9. ↑ Pali: handa'dāni bhikkhave āmantayāmi vo, vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā ti.
  10. ↑ Guenther (1975), Kindle Location 321.
  11. ↑ Kunsang (2004), p. 23.
  12. ↑ Geshe Tashi Tsering (2006), Kindle Location 456.
  13. ↑ Geshe Tashi Tsering (2006), Kindle Location 564-568.
  14. ↑ 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."
  15. ↑ 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.'
  16. ↑ 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.")
  17. ↑ According to Nanavira Thera 'the word sankhāra, in all contexts, means 'something that something else depends on', that is to say a determination (determinant).' (Notes on Dhamma: Sankhāra)
  18. ↑ See, for instance, Thanissaro (1997b).
  19. ↑ 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 karmic aspect of saṅkhāra).
  20. ↑ Milinda's questions. Sacred books of the Buddhists;. I.B. Horner (trans.). London: Luzac. 1963. 
  21. ↑ 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).


Sources

External links

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