Saṅkhāra

Saṅkhāra (Pali; Sanskrit: saṃskāra) is a key Buddhist term that means “formations”—both things that have been put together and the process that puts them together. It has two main senses. In the passive sense, it refers to conditioned phenomena in general, and more specifically to mental dispositions. These are called “volitional formations” because they arise from volition and also give rise to future volitional actions. English translations include “conditioned things,” “determinations,” “fabrications,” and “formations.” In the active sense, saṅkhāra refers to karma (the saṅkhāra-khandha) that drives conditioned arising and dependent origination.

The word is cognate with the Sanskrit saṃskāra, which appears in classical and epic Indian philosophy—including the Upanishads and works by Panini—but not in Vedic Sanskrit. In Buddhist texts, saṅkhāra has a range of meanings that differ somewhat from those in the Upanishads, especially regarding impermanence. It is a complex concept with no single English equivalent, blending object and subject as interdependent aspects of consciousness and epistemology. It conveys impression, disposition, conditioning, and the shaping of sensory and conceptual faculties, as well as any preparation or sacrament that influences how one thinks or feels.

In its passive sense, saṅkhāra covers all conditioned things—physical or mental, from a tree to a thought. The Buddha taught that all such formations are impermanent and lack essence. Because they are perceptions without real substance, they are unreliable sources of pleasure. Understanding this is wisdom. This sense appears in the Four Noble Truths and in dependent origination, where ignorance about impermanence and non-self leads to craving and rebirth. The Buddha’s last words, according to the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, were: “All conditioned things are subject to disintegration—strive on untiringly for your liberation.”

In its active sense, saṅkhāra (or saṅkhāra-khandha) is the mind’s form-creating faculty, part of dependent origination. Here it means karmically active volition or intention, which generates rebirth and determines its realm. It is synonymous with karma, covering actions of body, speech, and mind. The saṅkhāra-khandha states that beings are reborn through such actions. The Buddha said that all volitional constructs are conditioned by ignorance of impermanence and non-self, leading to suffering. The cessation of all saṅkhāras is awakening (bodhi) and nirvana. As ignorance conditions volitional formations, these formations condition consciousness: what one intends, arranges, or obsesses about supports the stationing of consciousness, leading to renewed becoming, future birth, aging, death, and suffering.

Mental factors (cetasika) are formations concurrent with mind, apprehending an object’s quality and coloring the mind.

The Buddha emphasized purifying dispositions rather than eliminating them completely. Scholar David Kalupahana notes that eliminating dispositions would be “epistemological suicide,” since they shape our perspectives. The development of personality toward perfection or imperfection depends on one’s dispositions.