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Sādhu, I’m glad to have run across your videos. This is very well said May you live long

Excellent video. Ajahn Geoeff states that the literal meaning of sankara is “co-doing,” which I always felt should just be the translation used. But when I read the Q & A sutta between Sariputta and another monk and he stated that the breath is the body sankara, it clicked that sankaras are the irreducible fundamental phenomena upon which more complex systems stand or depend. In that sense, Buddhism is a form of reductionism like Science, except external “objective” phenomena is of little concern because most of that stuff isn’t relevant to the 4NTs. Anyway, loved this video. Great stuff, as always .

@TheDhammaHub

3 ай бұрын

I find the translation of "co-doing" also pretty good depending on the context! There is always the connotation that there is a bit of our "doing" involved in the process of suffering. That doing part would be the sankhara/condition/source of suffering ;D

Brilliant channel!

Thank you Flaus. Excellent talk. Your explanation is very clear, particularly the example from MN 146 of the tree and the shadow. You have cleared up many years of confusion.

@kzantal

3 ай бұрын

He turned upright what had been turned upside down, revealed what had been concealed, showed the way to you who was lost, held up a lamp in the dark for you! 😉

It'd be interesting to see when and how the understanding of sankharas diverged from their sanskrit cognate, the Hindu / Vedic samskaras, which are basically the subconscious patterns of action / reaction formed throughout life that get activated / triggered in certain contexts and form the foundation of a personality, so to say (something modern day Cognitive Behavioural Therapy would work with by "rewiring" the inadequate samskaras having established a certain degree of mindfulness in the patient vis-a-vis said inadequate samsakaras)

Excellent Sir.🧐

I have a completely different approach to understanding sankharas. It is interesting to see it explained philosophically.

Great video!! I would suggest a follow up video looking at the meaning of sankhara in the context of the 12 links, in particular looking at the meaning of the cessation of sankhara 'here and now'. I think this is an area of great confusion, mixed in with centuries of confusion and commentarial dogmas.

@TheDhammaHub

3 ай бұрын

I think I have done a few videos on that in the past but I will look if it makes sense to revisit the topic in the near future!

@kzantal

3 ай бұрын

@@TheDhammaHub Yes, you have for sure, but it would be helpful to focus on sankhara exclusively. Maybe addressing common wrong views when it comes to this word in the 12 links context and how it should be understood instead in this particular context. Explaining also how "ignorance conditions sankhara which conditions consciousness" does not contradict the fact that consciousness and name-and-form conditions one another and that "it's not possible to go back further". If you see what I'm pointing at here.

@1hullofaguy

3 ай бұрын

@@TheDhammaHubFlaus do you have a video that really goes in depth through each of the nidana in DO? If not that could be a really good mini series of videos

@TheDhammaHub

3 ай бұрын

@@1hullofaguy I think I talked about that topic in Chapter 6 of the Dhamma lecture as well as 2 separate videos. That said, I will probably do a video on tha again soon... but since I prepreoduce a bit in advance, it will take quite some time until it airs^^ If you have a "deep question" on that, yo umight want to pose it in the suggestion channel on the server and Saif and I will do a video on it!

Thoughts on the themed topic is very good, but the pitch of speech is high, if it had been slow, could have been more effective.

@TheDhammaHub

6 күн бұрын

KZread offers the option to slow down the speed of a video by as much as 75%. If the way I speak appear too fast for you, that is always an option. I cannot really optimize the speed I speak with for all possible preferences^^

Posted by one of my facebook friends in response to your video: "Great descriptions of the meanings of sankhara, which should be useful in working out translations. I especially liked the first-floor, second-floor analogy, and the tree and its shadow. At 5:45 just after a mention of looking at the underlying causes and the fuels that keep the process going, you say, "...although the word sankhara is not too special..." but I disagree: it is special. Though you did a terrific job of looking at what it conveys, and at its semantic origin, I believe you've missed a critical layer of meaning provided by its contextual origins. The Sanskrit version is saṃskāra, and is still important today though in a less powerful version. These days it represents what we call "rites of passage" but in the Buddha's day it represented rituals of self creation, which is the essential lesson of dependent arising: how our habits of thought (beginning with contact, feeling, etc) cause us to generate what passes for a lasting self, those concepts of self are what leads to quarrels and disputes (dukkha). It is clear to me that the Buddha carefully chose the word for rituals of self-creation to help us see what he was pointing out -- but we have lost the contextual link. Restoring that context deepens insight into the underlying causes of our habitual thought patterns -- our rituals, so to speak. I commend to you Brian K Smith's book, "Reflections on Ritual, Resemblance, and Religion" which amply enriches understanding of why the Buddha used the terms he did, given the culture he and his listeners were steeped in."

@TheDhammaHub

Ай бұрын

My choice of words of "not too special" was referring to the fact that using the _word_ Sankhara in the Suttas is not too special, as every teaching the Buddha gave included dependent origination to some degree^^ You can approach the topic through Sankharas but you can also so that through the 7 factors of awakening, the foundations of mindfulness, or the 4 Noble Truths. In that sense, it is one way of _expressing_ the Dhamma out of many

@justalittledust

Ай бұрын

@@TheDhammaHub Understood (says the friend of Birk's, here speaking up again). But for me, in my comments, "not too special" was simply a hook to start my comment, not the point of the comment. But wow do I ever agree that (I'd say: whether it's obvious or not)) a great many of the Buddha's talks, short or long, are referring to dependent arising (DA). Anyway, I do hope you're understanding what I'm saying about sankhara's origins in rituals, because (I have found) that understanding enriches the teaching of DA, and all that the Buddha said and did.

@TheDhammaHub

Ай бұрын

@@justalittledust I understand^^