VOLITIONAL FORMATIONS - Sankharas
| Dependent on our spiritual blindness, ignorance, we
engage in actions. We activate our will. Sankhara means forming, constructing, creating,
putting together and here it refers specifically to mental formations. The factor of
sankhara is equivalent to kamma. Kamma means volitional formations or acts of will, which
are expressed outwardly through the body and speech. Whenever there is a volitional
action that arises in the mind encompassed by ignorance, that action leaves an imprint in
the mind, a formation with the capacity to mature, to fructify in the future. It is
deposited in the mind as a seed with a potency, a power of germinating in the future and
of producing results. In the context of dependent arising, the most important aspect of
volitional formations is their power to generate a new existence in the future, its power
to bring about rebirth. These volitional formations, depending on whether they are
wholesome or unwholesome volitions, will bring about a good or bad rebirth. Now we come to
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