Identity and Experience_Hamilton_1996

CHAPTER IV
The Sa~khiirakkhandha
SAMKHARA HAS BEEN VARIOUSLY AND often confusingly translated by terms
such as mental formations, habitual tendencies or dispositions, conditional
aggregates, and former impressions, terms which have little precise
meaning for us in English. The term samkhcii-a occurs in many different contexts
in the Nikiiyas, and has been notoriously difficult to explain and
understand. We can, however, substantially clarify its meaning by looking
at it in three distinct contexts: in the tilakkhaqa formula, as the second link
in the paficcasamuppida formula, and the samkhirakkhandha. We shall see that
the second and third of these contexts are closely linked through the cyclic
nature of karma and through the Buddha's ethicising of the law of karma,
and how this largely functions through the ethical life of the individual.
Though in both the second and third of these contexts one can initially
come to a relatively clear understanding of the meaning of samkhira, we
shall see that in fact the boundaries between the two contexts are blurred
and extended through their mutual involvement in the overall causal nexus
which provides the 'fuel' by which the individual persists in sapsira.
Samkhzra in the Tilakkhaca Formula
First, and fundamentally, the term appears in the tilakW2a~ formula. I put
this first, and say that it is fundamental, because the tilakkhana formula
describes the nature of sa~iric existence as a whole, insight into which is
liberating knowledge according to the Buddha's teachings. Claritjrlng what
it means in this formula also shows how different the meanings of samh-ra
can be, since in this context its meaning is significantly different from the
two which follow. In the passage in the Artguttara JVikya where this formula
is found,' it is stated that the formula refers to 'the fact that things are a
certain way' (dhammaa#ita@, and 'the fact that there is a regularity of things'
(dhammaniyimatii) which applies whether or not a tathigata (an epithet of the
Buddha) appears in the world.* The formula is: "all conditioned