Saṅkhāra in DO & Nibbana description: karmic volition?

Explore the ancient language of the Tipitaka and Theravāda commentaries
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piotr
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Re: Translation of saṅkhāra in Dependent Origination: voliti

Post by piotr »

Hi,
retrofuturist wrote:I find the multiple instances of sankhara appearing on different sides of your blue flags confusing, so my apologies that I cannot really comment. Are you trying to fuse together the five aggregates schema with paticcasamuppada?
Paticcasamuppada shows how pancaupadanakkhandha (i.e. dukkha as defined in First Noble Truth) arise, so I guess it's relevant to look at it in this way.
Bhagavaṃmūlakā no, bhante, dhammā...
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mikenz66
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Re: Translation of saṅkhāra in Dependent Origination: voliti

Post by mikenz66 »

retrofuturist wrote:Greetings Mike,
mikenz66 wrote:Which particular statement of Bhikkhu Bodhi's are you thinking of? All I can find above is statements about dependent origination...
As quoted here: http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 37#p284797)
I don't undertand your conclusion (as usual when the alleged-incorrect-realism argument is wheeled out) so I guess we simply interpret the statements differently.

:anjali:
Mike
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Assaji
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Re: Translation of saṅkhāra in Dependent Origination: voliti

Post by Assaji »

Greetings Retro,
retrofuturist wrote:
Dmytro wrote:Isn't this just a Conditioned Arising connection of sensation (phassa) and volition (sankhara)?

http://dhamma.ru/lib/paticcas.htm
I find the multiple instances of sankhara appearing on different sides of your blue flags confusing, so my apologies that I cannot really comment. Are you trying to fuse together the five aggregates schema with paticcasamuppada?
This chart is an overview of Conditioned Arising links described in the suttas.
You can find detailed explanation in the suttas themselves, referenced below the chart.
For example, the phassa - kamma (sankhara) link is described in Nibbedhika sutta:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... tml#part-5

Blue flags denote transitions between lifetimes. "Sankhara" above refers to volitions in the previous lifetime. "Sankhara" in the middle - in this lifetime.
Dmytro wrote:Contact is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the formations aggregate
I'm not sure what the difference between "cause" and "condition" is, but it seems to be aligned with what I said above?
Conditioned Arising (paticca samuppada) describes the necessary conditions (paccaya). The condition (paccaya) isn't necessarily the cause (hetu). Ven. Nyanatiloka describes this in detail: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... 4.html#ch3

Metta,
Dmytro
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Freelance ExBuddhist
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Re: Saṅkhāra in DO & Nibbana description: karmic volition?

Post by Freelance ExBuddhist »

I wrote an article that discloses the intellectual history of western (mis-)interpretations of this text...

...with the most influential book being A.B. Keith's 1922 "standard textbook" that devoted a very non-standard chapter to the matter...

...and I'm sorry to say that you may be mildly shocked and horrified to discover how far English-language discourse has veered away from the thematic interest of the original Pali:
https://medium.com/p/46091f5da69

"Soaring abstractions about the 12 links are now the staple (and “stump speech”) of lectures from both religious authorities (career monks) and secular ones (career professors). There are difficult questions of how we really came to know the things that we presume to know (as dogmas) that must now be put to an entire generation of professors who are accustomed to repeating philosophical generalizations about Buddhism without any real skepticism about how these tenets have come to be so generally accepted."
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