Saṅkhāra
Saṅkhāra,[fr.saṁ+kṛ,not Vedic,but as saṁskāra Epic & Class.Sk.meaning “preparation” and “sacrament,” also in philosophical literature “former impression,disposition,“ cp.vāsanā] 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 def.trsln.-- An exhaustive discussion of the term is given by Franke in his Dīgha translation (pp.307 sq.,esp.311 sq.); see also the analysis in Cpd.273--276.-- Lit.“preparation,get up”; appld:coefficient (of consciousness as well as of physical life,cp.viññāṇa),constituent,constituent potentiality; (pl.) synergies,cause-combination,as in S.III,87; discussed,B.Psy.,p.50 sq.(cp.DhsA.156,where paraphrased in defn of sa-saṅkhāra with “ussāha, payoga, upāya, paccaya-gahaṇa”); composition,aggregate.1.Aggregate of the conditions or essential properties for a given process or result -- e.g.(i.) the sum of the conditions or properties making up or resulting in life or existence; the essentials or “element” of anything (-°),e.g.āyusaṅkhāra,life-element D.II,106; S.II,266; PvA.210; bhavasaṅkhāra,jīvitasaṅkhāra,D.II,99,107.(ii.) Essential conditions,antecedents or synergy (co-ordinated activity),mental coefficients,requisite for act,speech,thought:kāya°,vacī°,citta°,or mano°,described respectively as “respiration,” “attention and consideration,” “percepts and feelings,” “because these are (respectively) bound up with,” or “precede” those M.I,301 (cp.56); S.IV,293; Kvu 395 (cp.trsln 227); Vism.530 sq.; DhsA.8; VbhA.142 sq.-- 2.One of the five khandhas,or constitutional elements of physical life (see khandha),comprising all the citta-sampayutta-cetasikā dhammā -- i.e.the mental concomitants,or adjuncts which come,or tend to come,into consciousness at the uprising of a citta,or unit of cognition Dhs.1 (cp.M.III,25).As thus classified,the saṅkhāra’s form the mental factor corresponding to the bodily aggregate or rūpakkhandha,and are in contrast to the three khandhas which represent a single mental function only.But just as kāya stands for both body and action,so do the concrete mental syntheses called saṅkhārā tend to take on the implication of synergies,of purposive intellection,connoted by the term abhisaṅkhāra,q.v.-- e.g.M.III,99,where saṅkhārā are a purposive,aspiring state of mind to induce a specific rebirth; S.II,82,where puññaṁ,opuñ‹-› ñaṁ,āṇeñjaṁ s.abhisaṅkharoti,is,in D.III,217 & Vbh.135,catalogued as the three classes of abhisaṅkhāra; S.II,39,360; A.II,157,where s.is tantamount to sañcetanā; Miln.61,where s.,as khandha,is replaced by cetanā (purposive conception).Thus,too,the ss.in the Paṭiccasamuppāda formula are considered as the aggregate of mental conditions which,under the law of kamma,bring about the inception of the paṭisandhiviññāṇa,or first stirring of mental life in a newly begun individual.Lists of the psychologically,or logically distinguishable factors making up the composite saṅkhārakkhandha,with constants and variants,are given for each class of citta in Dhs.62,etc.(N.B.-Read cetanā for vedanā,§ 338.) Phassa and cetanā are the two constant factors in the s-kkhandha.These lists may be compared with the later elaboration of the saṅkhāra-elements given at Vism.462 sq.-- 3.saṅkhārā (pl.) in popular meaning.In the famous formula (and in many other connections,as e.g.sabbe saṅkhārā) “aniccā vata saṅkhārā uppādavaya-dhammino” (D.II,157; S.I,6,158,200; II,193; Th.1,1159; J.I,392,cp.Vism.527),which is rendered by Mrs.Rh.D.(Brethren,p 385 e.g.) as “O,transient are our life’s experiences! Their nature ‘tis to rise and pass away,” we have the use of s.in quite a general & popular sense of “life,physical or material life”; and sabbe saṅkhārā means “everything,all physical and visible life,all creation.” Taken with caution the term “creation” may be applied as t.t.in the Paṭiccasamuppāda,when we regard avijjā as creating,i.e.producing by spontaneous causality the saṅkhāras,and saṅkhārā as “natura genita atque genitura” (the latter with ref.to the foll.viññāṇa).If we render it by “formations” (cp.Oldenberg’s “Gestaltungen,” Buddha 71920,p.254),we imply the mental “constitutional” element as well as the physical,although the latter in customary materialistic popular philosophy is the predominant factor (cp.the discrepancies of “life eternal” and “life is extinct” in one & the same European term).None of the “links” in the Paṭicca-samuppāda meant to the people that which it meant or was supposed to mean in the subtle and schematic philosophy (dhammā duddasā nipuṇā!) of the dogmatists.-- Thus saṅkhārā are in the widest sense the “world of phenomena” (cp.below °loka),all things which have been made up by pre-existing causes.-- At PvA.71 we find saṅkhārā in lit.meaning as “things” (preparations) in defn of ye keci (bhogā) “whatever.” The sabbe s.at S.II,178 (trsln “all the things of this world”) denote all 5 aggregates exhausting all conditioned things; cp.Kvu 226 (trsln “things”); Mhvs.IV,66 (:the material and transitory world); Dh.154 (vi-saṅkhāragataṁ cittaṁ=mind divested of all material things); DhsA.304 (trsln “kamma activities,” in connection avijjā-paccaya-s°); Cpd.211,n.3.-- The defn of saṅkhārā at Vism.526 (as result of avijjā & cause of viññāṇa in the P.-S.) is:saṅkhataṁ abhisaṅkharontī ti saṅkhārā.Api ca:avijjā-paccayā saṅkhārā saṅkhāra-saddena āgata-saṅkhārā ti duvidhā saṅkhārā; etc.with further def.of the 4 saṅkhāras.‹-› 4.Var.passages for saṅkhāra in general:D.II,213; III,221 sq.,M.II,223 (imassa dukkha-nidānassa saṅkhāraṁ padahato saṅkhāra-ppadhānā virāgo hoti); S.III,69 (ekanta-dukkhā saṅkhārā); IV,216 sq.(saṅkhārāṇaṁ khaya-dhammatā; id.with vaya°,virāga°,nirodha° etc.); Sn.731 (yaṁ kiñci dukkhaṁ sambhoti sabbaṁ saṅkhāra-paccayā; saṅkhārānaṁ nirodhena n’atthi dukkhassa sambhavo); Vism.453,462 sq.(the 51),529 sq.; DhA.III,264,379; VbhA.134 (4 fold),149 (3 fold),192 (āyūhanā); PvA.41 (bhijjana-dhammā).‹-› Of passages dealing with the saṅkhāras as aniccā, vayadhammā, anattā, dukkhā etc.the foll.may be mentioned:Vin.I,13; S.I,200; III,24; IV,216,259; V,56,345; M.III,64,108; A.I,286; II,150 sq.; III,83,143; IV,13,100; It.38; Dh.277,383; Ps.I,37,132; II,48; 109 sq.; Nd2 444,450; also Nd2 p.259 (s.v.saṅkhārā).
--upekkhā equanimity among “things” Vism.161,162.--ûpasama allayment of the constituents of life Dh.368,381; cp.DhA.IV,108.--khandha the aggregate of (mental) coefficients D.III,233; Kvu 578; Tikp 61; DhsA.345; VbhA.20,42.--dukkha the evil of material life,constitutional or inherent ill VbhA.93 (in the classification of the sevenfold sukkha).--paccayā (viññāṇaṁ) conditioned by the synergies (is vital consciousness),the second linkage in the Paṭicca-samuppāda (q.v.) Vism.577; VbhA.152 sq.--padhāna concentration on the saṅkhāras M.II,223.--majjhattatā=°upekkhā VbhA.283.--loka the material world,the world of formation (or phenomena),creation,loka “per se,” as contrasted to satta-loka,the world of (morally responsible) beings,loka “per hominem” Vism.205; VbhA.456; SnA 442.(Page 664)