Are cetasikas and sankharas identical/the same thing?

Discussion of Abhidhamma and related Commentaries
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Lombardi4
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Are cetasikas and sankharas identical/the same thing?

Post by Lombardi4 »

From Wikipedia: "Within the Abhidhamma, the mental factors are categorized as formations (Sanskrit: samskara) concurrent with mind (Sanskrit: citta)."

Are cetasikas and sankharas the same thing then or is there a difference?
santa100
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Re: Are cetasikas and sankharas identical/the same thing?

Post by santa100 »

Stephen18 wrote:Are cetasikas and sankharas the same thing then or is there a difference?
Notice that Sankhara is a very broad term with different meaning for different context. In its broad sense, it means all conditioned phenomena, in which Cetasikas is a part of.
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BlackMagic
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Re: Are cetasikas and sankharas identical/the same thing?

Post by BlackMagic »

Sankhara is the formation of cetasikas and the cetasikas the formation sakhara; discernment is the middle way of those formations in regard to the relative and absolute as well as the three discernments of Impermanent, not self, and suffering.

Sitting here it is raining, sitting under there it is and it isn't raining... letting go of both? It stops raining; now here and now there; neither here nor there; and one just sits.

The cure of: Impermanence, not self, and suffering is: Time.

Q: Why are you all wet?

A: Where were you sitting?

Happy trails Rhinoceros!
What has happened; Is that which has yet to come. What will be ...Already is.
Upathissa
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Re: Are cetasikas and sankharas identical/the same thing?

Post by Upathissa »

With Metta,

The word ‘Sankhara’ has different meanings and it has to be understood by the contest, as one of the comments mentioned previously. One such contest is the ‘Sankhara Skandha’ that comes in Five Aggregates. Five Aggregates are Rupa (Form), Vedhana (Feeling), Samjna (Perception), Sankhara and Vijnana (Mind).

Citta (Mind : 1), Chethasika (Mental Factors: 52), Rupa (Forms : 28) and Nibbana (Nirvana: 1) are the eighty-two ‘ultimate realities’ or Paramaartha Dharma that are explained in the Abhidhamma. Out of these fifty two Mental Factors, two are classified as separate Aggregates namely, Vedhana (Feeling) and Samjna (Perception). The rest of other Mental factors (remaining 50) are collectively called ‘Sankhara Skandha’.
In that sense, yes… 50 chetasikas are called ‘Sankhara’.

I hope this is somewhat a satisfactory answer and as English is not my first language, I apologize for any inconveniences in understanding because of how I have worded this.
Lombardi4
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Re: Are cetasikas and sankharas identical/the same thing?

Post by Lombardi4 »

Thank you! I understand.
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