Dependent Arising 5: Saṅkhārā & Consciousness
Channel: Consciousness Research Centre
Date: 07/05/2019

This series is classified Vivartha-vāda | Rāja-yoga | Suśupti | Ājñā-cakra
“From saṅkhārā as condition arises conditioned consciousness ... with the cessation of saṅkhārā, conditioned consciousness ceases.” — Bodhi Sutta

The term saṅkhārā has connotations of deception or spuriousness. In Vedic culture, it was associated with costuming, makeup, staging and other preparations for a drama. Saṅkhārā can be bodily, verbal or mental. The magic show of consciousness is kept up by saṅkhāras. They also sustain the vortex between consciousness and name-and-form. 

Not understanding the relation between consciousness and name-and-form is itself avijjā. The spin, the whirling round resulting from that ignorance is saṅkhāra. Ignorance of 
this mental conditionality is also avijjā or ignorance, and the 
consequent fumbling or groping about in that darkness is 
saṅkhārā or fabrications. 

“And why do you call saṅkhārā fabrications? Because they fabricate fabricated things, thus they are called fabrications. What do they fabricate as a fabricated thing? For the sake of form, they fabricate form as a fabricated thing. For the sake of feeling, they fabricate feeling as a fabricated thing. For the sake of consciousness, they fabricate consciousness as a fabricated thing. Because they fabricate fabricated things, they are called fabrications.” — Khajjaniya Sutta

One of the terms denoting Nibbāna is sabbasaṅkhārasamatho: “The stilling of all saṅkhārā.” Then there are sabbupadhipaṭinissaggo, taṇhakkhayo, virāgo, nirodho and so on. The term Nibbāna—like all terms—is mind-made. It is only a target symbolic of complete relinquishment, cessation of clinging or grasping. Any of these terms is sufficient to denote that attainment.

To think, “I must somehow get this Nibbāna” or “I must somehow attain Self-realization” is a saṅkhāra. As long as one maintains such thoughts, one cannot attain Nibbāna because the saṅkhārā are still active.

“An uninstructed, run-of-the-mill person ... assumes saṅkhārā to be the self, or the self as possessing saṅkhārā, or saṅkhārā as in the self, or the self as in saṅkhārā. Those saṅkhārā tear away from him, and so from that cause he would come to disaster. He assumes consciousness to be the self, or the self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in the self, or the self as in consciousness. That consciousness tears away from him, and so from that cause he would come to disaster.” — Nadi Sutta

Buddha uses the example of a man being swept downstream in a flood. To save himself, he tries to grasp various branches, grass and other objects on the bank, but they are too fragile. They tear away and he is swept away by the current. Thus neither saṅkhārā nor conditioned consciousness can save us from suffering, because they are impermanent, dependently arisen.

“And what is consciousness? These six classes of consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, intellect-consciousness. This is called consciousness. ... That pleasure & happiness arise in dependence on consciousness—that is the allure of consciousness. That consciousness is inconstant, stressful, subject to change—that is the drawback of consciousness. Subduing desire & passion for consciousness, abandoning desire & passion for consciousness—that is the escape from consciousness.” — Sattatthana Sutta

Conditioned consciousness is a combination of the senses, their objects and perceptions based on our unconditioned awareness. This conditioned consciousness depends on saṅkhārā:

“A young woman or a young man who likes adornment, looking at the reflection of her or his face in a clean mirror or in a bowl of clear water, would be seeing depending on it, not independently. In this way, Ānanda, ... dependent on saṅkhārā arises the notion ‘I am’, not independently. Dependent on consciousness arises the notion ‘I am’, not independently.” — Ānanda Sutta

When one grasps the mirror one sees one’s form reflected in it. Saṅkhārā are the mirror reflecting the form of desire. And consciousness is the reflection itself.

“Sense desire is your first battalion
The second is called dejection
Hunger and thirst make up the third
And craving is called the fourth” — Padhama Sutta

==========
Dharmasār Video Series Index:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EZFqp9G893-LMYSm-ucUt3CylMTbfLV2/view?usp=drivesdk

Four States of Consciousness Diagram: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13OWr_2V857yq7AjS59yhF4ub2q9k8Kl9/view?usp=sharing

Dharmasār Complete Archive Library:
https://archive.org/details/dharmasar-essence-of-dharma