Saṅkhāra and reactivity
This page examines the Pāli word 'saṅkhāra' which occurs three times in the Sixteen Steps of Anapana meditation. We will see what it means, and how that helps us to understand better the purpose of Anapana practice.
What we experience in Step 7, and bring to stillness in Step 8 of Anapana practice, I have called "reactive movements". This is not an obvious translation of the Pāli text, and is not what you'll find in other translations of the Sixteen Steps you may come across. I hope though that it is more helpful than some of the others when we come to practise these steps. To understand what the Pāli text is really saying, we have to take a little detour through the word it uses, saṅkhāra.
Saṅkhāra of mind and saṅkhāra of body
What we are asked to make still in Step 8 is citta-saṅkhāra, that is "saṅkhāra of heart-and-mind". In Step 4 we experienced the stilling of kāya-saṅkhāra, or "saṅkhāra of body". How we understand both Steps 4 and 8 will depend on what we make of this word, saṅkhāra. Other translations speak of "tranquillising the bodily formation" and "tranquillising the mental formation",Footnote 1 of "calming bodily fabrication" and "calming mental fabrication", Footnote 2 or of "calming the bodily function" and "calming the mental function". Footnote 3 While these translations are correct, they will make little sense to most readers. What is a formation, a fabrication or a function? Just what is it that's being referred to here?
Saṅkhāra: something conditioned
The basic idea of saṅ-khāra is of something put together and conditioned by what went into its composition. Anything composed, made or formed out of pre-existing ingredients or conditions, whether a material object or a psychological state of mind, will reflect the nature of what has helped to form it.
For example, a raft might be built out of fallen branches, sticks and any other pieces of wood one might find near a river bank, all tied together with plaited grasses also found growing there. Or a medicinal ointment might be prepared by taking herbs and other ingredients, and blending them together into a smooth paste. Words related to saṅkhāra are used in Pāli texts for both "a well-constructed raft" and for "preparing an ointment". Footnote 4
The value of the medicine may well depend on the condition of the herbs that went into it. The strength of the raft will depend on the condition of the grasses and fallen branches it was constructed from. More generally, a definition I've found helpful is that "saṅkhāra are the 'conditioning factors' that produce the experience of being 'conditioned' (saṅkhata) by them." Footnote 5
Conditioning factors and reactivity
So citta-saṅkhāra are "conditioning factors of heart-and-mind", they are what has shaped heart-and-mind and so causes us to react the way we do. Since our conditioning is what leads to our reactivity, I've called them "reactive movements". Reactivity involves a psychological "jump" when the mind "moves" or "jumps" from one state of mind into another. This language also suggests the parallel with kāya-saṅkhāra, the conditioning of the reactive, un-still body we calm in Step 4.
A central concern of Anapana
However we may translate it, it's clear that our saṅkhāra are a central concern of the Anapana practice. The first phase culminates in the stilling of our bodily saṅkhāra, the second phase in the stilling of our mental saṅkhāra. The way we have been conditioned, and the effect that has on how we respond to life, our reactivity, is what these steps seek to end. And only when it has been stilled can we move on to the third phase with our complete psychological transformation, and then the fourth phase, the life we can then live.
Footnotes
2. Ñanamoli and Bodhi, 2015 [1995]: The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, on MN 118, p. 944.
3. Dhammatalks.org on SN 54:6, MN 118 etc.
4. Thich Nhat Hanh, 1991 [1975]: The Miracle of Mindfulness, London: Rider, p. 130.
5. Anālayo, 2010: From Grasping to Emptiness, New York: Buddhist Association of the United States, p. 39.
6. Stephen Batchelor 2015: After Buddhism: Reshaping the Dharma for a Secular Age, Yale UP, p. 143.