Sankara: FormationsAyyaSobhana wrote:Meanings of Sankhara: All conditioned things, the 5 aggregates of clinging in summary, the 4th aggregate taken by itself, volitional formations. This is from Analayo's article in Encyclopaedia of Buddhism. http://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg. ... nkhara.pdf
Lately I have found it useful to consider the sequence avijja - sankhara - vinnana in a psychological sense, where avijja is both the delusion of self and not seeing of things as they are; sankhara is a shorthand for pancupadanakkhandha, the five aggregates of clinging which are the Buddha's summary of dukkha; and vinnana is both the culmination of dukkha in pancupadanakkhandha and the relinking consciousness that takes us over to the next existence.
I know this is not the standard way to consider it, but find this approach very juicy for practice, both on and off the cushion. Are there others using this sequence in the Dhamma as a field for practice (that is, not just a theory)? Sorry about the diacritics.
As found in dependent origination
Ignorance conditions formations. Formations conditions Consciousness.