Sankhara aggregate

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Spiny Norman
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Sankhara aggregate

Post by Spiny Norman »

I thought it might be useful to have a discussion about the sankhara aggregate. How is it described, what activities does it include, how does it function, and how does it relate to the other aggregates?
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Mkoll
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by Mkoll »

This essay by Ven. Bodhi is very informative: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... ay_43.html
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Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

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Mkoll wrote:This essay by Ven. Bodhi is very informative: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... ay_43.html
Thanks. This seems to be the relevant section:

In the later Pali literature the sankhara-khandha becomes an umbrella category for all the factors of mind except feeling and perception, which are assigned to aggregates of their own. Thus the sankhara-khandha comes to include such ethically variable factors as contact, attention, thought, and energy; such wholesome factors as generosity, kindness, and wisdom; and such unwholesome factors as greed, hatred, and delusion. Since all these factors arise in conjunction with volition and participate in volitional activity, the early Buddhist teachers decided that the most fitting place to assign them is the aggregate of volitional formations.
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daverupa
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by daverupa »

http://ahandfulofleaves.files.wordpress ... n_1996.pdf

Identity and Experience, by Sue Hamilton

Starts on page 66.
  • "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

    "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.

- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]
vinasp
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by vinasp »

Hi Spiny,

On sankhara's I found this passage:

"And why, bhikkhus, do you call them volitional formations? (sankhara)
'They construct the conditioned,' bhikkhus, therefore they are called volitional formations. And what is the conditioned that they construct?
They construct conditioned form as form, they construct conditioned feeling
as feeling, they construct conditioned perception as perception, they construct
conditioned volitional formations as volitional formations, they construct
conditioned consciousness as consciousness. 'They construct the conditioned,'
bhikkhus, therefore they are called volitional formations."
[BB, TCDB, part of SN 22.79]

This is not easy to understand.

Regards, Vincent.
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by vinasp »

Hi everyone,

The essay by Bhikkhu Bodhi is excellent, but may I also recommend the section
'sankhara' in the General Introduction at the start of his 'The Connected
Discourses of the Buddha.'

"In Pali we can clearly see the connection: the sankharas, 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 sankharas in the passive sense, called in the commentaries
sankhata-sankhara." [page 47]

Regards, Vincent.
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Sam Vara
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by Sam Vara »

Let us now turn to the beginning of the paticcasamuppāda formulation and consider the word sankhāra. The passage from the Cūlavedallasutta quoted in §5 evidently uses sankhāra to mean a thing from which some other thing is inseparable—in other words, a necessary condition. This definition is perfectly simple and quite general, and we shall find that it is all that we need. (If a sankhāra is something upon which something else depends, we can say that the 'something else' is determined by the first thing, i.e. by the sankhāra, which is therefore a 'determination' or a 'determinant'. It will be convenient to use the word determination when we need to translate sankhāra.)
Nanavira, http://www.nanavira.org/notes-on-dhamma ... asamuppada

There is also a very nice little section in Ajahn Sucitto's Kamma and the end of Kamma, in the first chapter.
http://forestsanghapublications.org/ass ... ucitto.pdf
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by vesak2014 »

Spiny Norman wrote:I thought it might be useful to have a discussion about the sankhara aggregate. How is it described, what activities does it include, how does it function, and how does it relate to the other aggregates?
SN 12.2 Vibhaṅgasutta:
"Katame ca, bhikkhave, saṅkhārā? Tayome, bhikkhave, saṅkhārā– kāyasaṅkhāro, vacīsaṅkhāro, cittasaṅkhāro. Ime vuccanti, bhikkhave, saṅkhārā."
"And what are fabrications? These three are fabrications: bodily fabrications, verbal fabrications, mental fabrications. These are called fabrications."
There is also sutta which describes saṅkhāra as cetanākāyā (cetanā = intention) :
SN 22.57 Sattatthana Sutta:
"And what are fabrications? These six classes of intention — intention with regard to form, intention with regard to sound, intention with regard to smell, intention with regard to taste, intention with regard to tactile sensation, intention with regard to ideas: these are called fabrications. From the origination of contact comes the origination of fabrications. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of fabrications. And just this noble eightfold path is the path of practice leading to the cessation of fabrications... The fact that pleasure & happiness arises in dependence on fabrications: that is the allure of fabrications. The fact that fabrications are inconstant, stressful, subject to change: that is the drawback of fabrications. The subduing of desire & passion for fabrications, the abandoning of desire & passion for fabrications: that is the escape from fabrications...
:anjali:
vinasp
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by vinasp »

Hi everyone,

There is also an interesting passage in SN 22.81 - Parileyya.

"Here, bhikkhus, the uninstructed worldling .....regards form as self. That regarding, bhikkhus, is a formation.[133] That formation - what is its source, what is its origin, from what is it born and produced? When the uninstructed worldling is contacted by a feeling born of ignorance-contact, craving arises: thence that formation is born.
Thus, bhikkhus, that formation is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen; that craving is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen; that feeling is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen; that contact is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen; that ignorance is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen.
When one knows and sees this, bhikkhus, the immediate destruction of the taints occurs."

My comments:

1. Although 'regarding' is used in this passage, many views are described later using exactly the same words.

2. Later, it says: "... that eternalist view is a formation ...", so we can say that views are formations (sankharas).

3. Views are not normally seen as impermanent - quite the opposite! Here it means: capable of ceasing, vanishing.

4. The view, and the craving, feeling, contact and ignorance, are all said to be impermanent - capable of ceasing.

5. All these are also said to be 'conditioned', Bhikkhu Bodhis term for whatever is made by the constructive activity which is a sankhara.

6. All these are also said to be 'dependently arisen', part of the chain of items in Dependent Origination.

7. The chain seems to be: six-bases, contact, feeling, craving, clinging?
View-clinging is one of four kinds of clinging.

8. The constructive activity and what it makes are, I think, just two aspects of the same thing. So do sankharas depend on sankharas? Yes, some things can only be made if something else is already being made.

9. In the later (abhidhamma) list of fifty items in the sankhara khandha,
contact, volition and views are included, feeling, craving and clinging are not found, (greed, lobha, is included and may substitute for craving and clinging).

Regards, Vincent.
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retrofuturist
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,
Sam Vara wrote:
Let us now turn to the beginning of the paticcasamuppāda formulation and consider the word sankhāra. The passage from the Cūlavedallasutta quoted in §5 evidently uses sankhāra to mean a thing from which some other thing is inseparable—in other words, a necessary condition. This definition is perfectly simple and quite general, and we shall find that it is all that we need. (If a sankhāra is something upon which something else depends, we can say that the 'something else' is determined by the first thing, i.e. by the sankhāra, which is therefore a 'determination' or a 'determinant'. It will be convenient to use the word determination when we need to translate sankhāra.)
Nanavira, http://www.nanavira.org/notes-on-dhamma ... asamuppada
I find this explanation adequate. It also provides useful context to the Pali notion of sankhata-dhammas (formed/conditioned dhammas)... they are not just formed, but exist only in dependence upon necessary conditions. Paticcasamuppada shows that the condition that underpins all sankhata-dhammas is avijja.

If pressed on why then there are five aggregates, this merely represents that these are the classifications upon which conditioned experience may be delineated. Delineating an experience under one aggregate, does not mean it could not have alternatively been delineated under another. Any attempt at trying to create mutual exclusive boundaries between the five leads to needless complication and artificiality.

Metta,
Retro. :)
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by Spiny Norman »

retrofuturist wrote:Delineating an experience under one aggregate, does not mean it could not have alternatively been delineated under another.
In that case why is the 5-fold classification of the aggregates repeatedly used in the suttas? Are you saying it's an arbitrary classification? Are you saying that attempts at classification are pointless, and if so, how does one try to analyse experience?

But anyway, returning to the OP, what do you think the sankhara aggregate represents?
Last edited by Spiny Norman on Wed Jun 11, 2014 8:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

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Thanks, but that looks very technical. Could you say briefly how Nanavira views the sankhara aggregate?
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by Spiny Norman »

daverupa wrote:Identity and Experience, by Sue Hamilton
Starts on page 66.
Thanks - I think I read this some years ago.
I found this bit interesting:

Similarly, the analysis into skandhas shows that a human being can function without the involvement
of the samkhirakkhandha, without volitions in the sense that is intended here.
......The feeling can be agreeable, disagreeable or neutral, but the samkhiirakkhandha is only involved if there is
a concomitant volition concerning the feeling: if it is an agreeable feeling, a
concomitant volition might be to desire it; if it is a disagreeable feeling, one
might be revolted by it. In practice, the feelings of an unenlightened
individual usually are accompanied by volitions, and this is illustrated by
the fact that in the paticcasamuppiida formula feelings are said to be the con-
dition for the arising of craving (tayhi). But one can, and ultimately should,
experience feelings without any concomitant volitions: an arahant is able to
experience pleasant and unpleasant feelings while remaining entirely
detached from them.
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Spiny Norman
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by Spiny Norman »

vinasp wrote: "In Pali we can clearly see the connection: the sankharas, 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 sankharas in the passive sense, called in the commentaries
sankhata-sankhara." [page 47]
I think this needs some unpacking. The "active constructive forces instigated by volition" sounds descriptive of the function of the sankhara aggregate - is that what he means?
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Sam Vara
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Re: Sankhara aggregate

Post by Sam Vara »

Spiny Norman wrote:
Thanks, but that looks very technical. Could you say briefly how Nanavira views the sankhara aggregate?
Retro has beaten me to it, but I think Nanavira is explaining how the term means "necessary condition" for the arising of a phenomenon; its determinant, or what is required for us to experience it as we do. This does not mean that sankharas are one of five different "essences" or substances which objectively exist out there in reality. It makes more sense to see them as a way of looking at our experience; a reminder that our experience is conditioned and dependently arisen.

I found this hard to accept when I first read Nanavira, but I tried reading this meaning into every use of the term "sankhara" in the suttas, and it became an increasingly settled and intriguing way of seeing it.
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