The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary

Sankh!yita=sankh!dita; Vism 257.
Sankh!ra
Sankh!ra [fr. sa'+k%, not Vedic, but as sa'sk!ra Epic & Class. Sk. meaning "preparation" and "sacrament,"
also in philosophical literature "former impression, disposition, " cp. v!san!] 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 D"gha 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. viññ!*a), 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 -- sankh!ra with
"uss!ha, payoga, up!ya, paccaya -- gaha*a"); 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. !yusa=kh!ra, life --
element D ii.106; S ii.266; PvA 210; bhavasankh!ra, j"vitasa=kh!ra, D ii.99, 107. (ii.) Essential conditions,
antecedents or synergy (co -- ordinated activity), mental coefficients, requisite for act, speech, thought:
k!ya˚, vac"˚, 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 -- cetasik!
dhamm! -- 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 sa=kh!ra's form the
mental factor corresponding to the bodily aggregate or r(pakkhandha, and are in contrast to the three
khandhas which represent a single mental function only. But just as k!ya stands for both body and action,
so do the concrete mental syntheses called sankh!r! tend to take on the implication of synergies, of
purposive intellection, connoted by the term abhisa=kh!ra, q. v. -- e. g. M iii.99, where sa=kh!r! are a
purposive, aspiring state of mind to induce a specific rebirth; S ii.82, where puñña',
-- 665 --
opuñña', !*eñja' s. abhisankharoti, is, in D iii.217 & Vbh 135, catalogued as the three classes of
abhisankh!ra; S ii.39, 360; A ii.157, where s. is tantamount to sañcetan!; Miln 61, where s., as khandha, is
replaced by cetan! (purposive conception). Thus, too, the ss. in the Pa&iccasamupp!da formula are
considered as the aggregate of mental conditions which, under the law of kamma, bring about the inception
of the pa&isandhiviññ!*a, or first stirring of mental life in a newly begun individual. Lists of the
psychologically, or logically distinguishable factors making up the composite sa=kh!rakkhandha, with
constants and variants, are given for each class of citta in Dhs 62, etc. (N.B. -- Read cetan! for vedan!, §
338.) Phassa and cetan! are the two constant factors in the s -- kkhandha. These lists may be compared with
the later elaboration of the sa=kh!ra -- elements given at Vism 462 sq. -- 3. sankh!r! (pl.) in popular
meaning. In the famous formula (and in many other connections, as e. g. sabbe sankh!r!) "anicc! vata
sankh!r! upp!davaya -- 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 sankh!r! means "everything, all physical and visible life, all creation." Taken
with caution the term "creation" may be applied as t.t. in the Pa&iccasamupp!da , when we regard avijj! as
creating, i. e. producing by spontaneous causality the sankh!ras, and sankh!r! as "natura genita atque
genitura" (the latter with ref. to the foll. viññ!*a). 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 Pa&icca -- samupp!da meant to the people that which it meant or was supposed to mean in the
subtle and schematic philosophy (dhamm! duddas! nipu*!!) of the dogmatists. -- Thus sankh!r! are in the