sankhara

Saṅkhāra (Pali: सङ्खार) or Saṃskāra (Sanskrit: संस्कार) is an important term featuring prominently in the teaching of the Buddha.

Synonyms:

• 行 Chinese: xíng; Japanese: gyō; Vietnamese: hành
• འདུ་བྱེད་ Tibetan: 'du.byed

Saṅkhāra is used in two senses; as meaning either 'that which has been put together' or 'that which puts together'. In the first (passive) sense it can refer to any compound form in the universe whether a tree, a cloud, a human being, a thought or a molecule. All these are saṅkhāras. The Buddha taught that all such things are impermanent, arising and passing away, and that knowing this is wisdom. Saṅkhāra is often used in this first sense to describe the psychological conditioning (particularly the habit patterns of the unconscious mind) that gives any individual human being his or her unique character and make-up at any given time (see also sanskara).

In the second (active) sense (sankhāra-kkandha) it refers to the form-creating faculty of mind (volition) that propels human (and other sentient) beings along the process of becoming by means of actions of body and speech (kamma). In the doctrine of conditioned arising or dependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda) the Buddha showed that all such volitional constructs were conditioned by ignorance of the reality behind appearance. It is this ignorance that ultimately causes human suffering.

Tradition relates that after the Buddha's complete enlightenment he uttered the following words:

Aneka jāti samsāraṃ sandha vissam anibhissam/ Gahakaraka gavesanto dukkhajāti punappunam/ Gahakaraka ditthosi puna geham nakahasi/ Sabba te phasuka bagga gahakutam visamkhatam/ Visamkhāragatam cittam anhanam khayamajjhaga.

Seeking but not finding the housebuilder, I have traveled through the round of countless births. How painful is birth over and over again. Oh housebuilder! You have now been caught! You shall not build a house again. Your rafters have been broken. Your ridgepole demolished. The unconditioned consciousness has been attained. And every kind of craving has been destroyed. (Dhammapāda, verses 153,154)

The 'housebuilder' to which the Buddha refers is just this mental faculty of sankhara conditioned by ignorance.

The last words of the Buddha were:

handa'dāni bhikkhave āmantayāmi vo, vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā ti.

Disciples, this I declare to you: All conditioned things are subject to disintegration - strive on untiringly for your liberation. (Mahāparinibbāna Sutta)

See also

• Sanskara
• Skandha

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