Exploring the Path - Pāli Course

Attanā hi kataṃ pāpaṃ, attanā saṃkilissati;
Attanā akataṃ pāpaṃ, attanāva visujjhati;
Suddhī asuddhi paccattaṃ, nāñño aññaṃ visodhaye.¹

By oneself an evil deed is done, by oneself only one gets tainted,
By oneself only an evil deed remains undone, by oneself one gets purified,
Pure or impure depends on oneself, no one can purify another.²

The Ekakanipātapāḷi, Aṅguttaranikāyo, specifies in various paragraphs the ‘one thing’ (ekadhammampi) that supports the arising of wholesome states and the reduction of unwholesome states. In the second section, the Dutivaggo, preceding paragraphs to this selection depict how wrong view or right view is the respective ‘one and only thing’ that support, multiply and increase the growth or dwindling of corresponding unwholesome or wholesome states:

Nāhaṃ, bhikkhave, aññaṃ ekadhammampi samanupassāmi yena anuppannā vā akusalā dhammā uppajjanti uppannā vā akusalā dhammā bhiyyobhāvāya vepullāya saṃvattanti yathayidaṃ, bhikkhave, micchādiṭṭhi. Micchādiṭṭhikassa, bhikkhave, anuppannā ceva akusalā dhammā uppajjanti uppannā ca akusalā dhammā bhiyyobhāvāya vepullāya saṃvattantī’ti.

Nāhaṃ, bhikkhave, aññaṃ ekadhammampi samanupassāmi yena anuppannā vā kusalā dhammā uppajjanti uppannā vā kusalā dhammā bhiyyobhāvāya vepullāya saṃvattanti yathayidaṃ, bhikkhave, sammādiṭṭhi. Sammādiṭṭhikassa, bhikkhave, anuppannā ceva kusalā dhammā uppajjanti uppannā ca kusalā dhammā bhiyyobhāvāya vepullāya saṃvattantī’ti.

Different paragraphs refer to micchādiṭṭhi³ and sammādiṭṭhi and explain their respective results in unwholesome or wholesome states. They likewise highlight how distracted attention (ayonisomanasikāro) or thoroughly fixed and well-applied attention (yonisomanasikāro) help to increase or reduce wrong or right view. They likewise point out how views (diṭṭhi) and attention (manasikāra) foreshadow, after the breakage of the body, either a painful birth and life in the lower fields or a bright future thereafter.

The selected passage, the bījavaggo, shows with the famous simile of bitter and sweet seeds as to how and why respective negative or positive effects can be expected, as they result in different conditionings (saṅkhārā). The expression ‘saṅkhārā’ that is used here, describes one of the five parts of the physical-mental phenomena, the groups that constitute the upholding of existence, attachment or clinging.^[4] In this Pāli course, it is translated as ‘mental conditioned reaction’, whenever it is related to a volitional, mental, conditioned activity that gives rise to (kammic) results.

It is an expression that is described by PTS as “a term in which the blending of the objective-subjective 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 translation”.

The noun is derived from the combination of the prefix saṃ (‘together’) and the universal verb karoti (‘do’, ‘make’). In this way it expresses manifold possible creations, formations, relations, the sum of conditions or properties making up or resulting in life or existence: ‘thus saṅkhārā are both things which put together, construct and compound other things, and the things that are put together, constructed and compounded.’ (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Saṅkhārā can only be grasped and properly understood in the Pāli context.⁵ Therefore different approaches in translation will be needed to fit according to its Pāli usage. For example, when referring to ‘all conditioned things’:

Aniccā vata saṅkhārā uppādavaya-dhammino

or as a link in the dependent origination in the Paṭicca Samuppāda:

Avijjā-paccayā saṅkhārā; saṅkhāra-paccayā viññāṇaṃ

or as one of the ‘members’ of the pañca upādānakkhandha:

Iti rūpaṃ, iti vedanā, iti saññā, iti saṅkhārā, iti viññāṇaṃ.

At one time the Buddha, when staying at Sāvatthi, explained to the Bhikkhus in the Khajjanīyasutta⁶ that someone, who was able to recollect one’s past lives would be able to recollect and remember one or more of the pañcupādānakkhandhā. And then he explains in regards to saṅkhārā in the following way.

Kiñca, bhikkhave, saṅkhāre vadetha? Saṅkhatamabhisaṅkharontīti⁷ kho, bhikkhave, tasmā ‘saṅkhārā’ti vuccati. Kiñca saṅkhatamabhisaṅkharonti? Rūpaṃ rūpattāya⁸ saṅkhatamabhisaṅkharonti, vedanaṃ vedanattāya saṅkhatamabhisaṅkharonti, saññaṃ saññattāya saṅkhatamabhisaṅkharonti, saṅkhāre saṅkhārattāya saṅkhatamabhisaṅkharonti, viññāṇaṃ viññāṇattāya saṅkhatamabhisaṅkharonti. Saṅkhatamabhisaṅkharontīti kho, bhikkhave, tasmā ‘saṅkhārā’ti vuccati.

Why, Bhikkus, do you name them saṅkhārā? They are called saṅkhārā, Bhikkhus, because they precondition what was conditioned. And how do they precondition what got conditioned?

They precondition conditioned sensation as ‘formhood’.

They precondition conditioned form as ‘sensation’.

They precondition conditioned perception as ‘perception’.

They precondition conditioned saṅkhārā as ‘saṅkhārā’.

They precondition conditioned consciousness as ‘consciousness’.

They precondition, Bhikkhus, what becomes conditioned that is why they are named saṅkhārā.

Then the Buddha continues by questioning the Bhikkhus in the same order as will be presented in the Anattalakkhaṇasutta:⁹ if any of those five aggregates of clinging were permanent, if what was impermanent could be perceived as happiness and if anything that would produce suffering could be considered as I, me, mine?¹⁰

Of course the best way to realize how saṅkhārā arise, develop, maintain themselves, spread, and influence, disappear or get dissolved is through self-observation in meditation!

A meditator will notice that they are wholesome or unwholesome and generate a certain volition that again manifests itself in mental, verbal or physical conditioned thoughts, words or actions. Saṅkhārā are described as maintaining different effects of different period. They may have a threefold input of frail and subtle character, may have a longer lasting impact or affect with deep and thorough influence.¹¹ One’s job as a meditator is not only to perceive but finally to realise on an experiential level that all conditioned aggregates, that any of the pañcupādānakkhandhā, have the same characteristic nature as so well expressed in the Dhammapada:¹²

saṅkhārā aniccā’ti,
yadā paññāya passati;
atha nibbindati dukkhe,
esa maggo visuddhiyā.

‘Impermanent are all compounded things.’
When one perceives this with insight,
then one turns away from suffering
this is the path of purification.