諸行無常

　　[中譯]良稹

　　Anicca Vata Sankhara

　　by Bhikkhu Bodhi

　　Anicca vata sankhara — "Impermanent, alas, are all formations!" — is the phrase used in Theravada Buddhist lands to announce the death of a loved one, but I have not quoted this line here in order to begin an obituary. I do so simply to introduce the subject of this essay, which is the word sankhara itself. Sometimes a single Pali word has such rich implications that merely to sit down and draw them out can shed as much light on the Buddha”s teaching as a long expository article. This is indeed the case with the word sankhara. The word stands squarely at the heart of the Dhamma, and to trace its various strands of meaning is to get a glimpse into the Buddha”s own vision of reality. Anicca vata sankhara——“諸行無常!”——這是上座部佛教國家通報親人去世的用語; 不過我在此引用這個偈句，非是作爲訃告的開端，僅是爲了介紹本文的主題—— sankhara[行]這個詞本身。有時候，一個巴利單詞具有如此豐富的內涵，僅僅坐下把它們勾畫出來，對于闡明佛陀的教導，作用不亞于一篇義理長文。Sankhara一詞的確可當此說。該詞正居于佛法的核心，對其內涵的種種線索探究一番，即是對佛陀本人的現實觀作一管窺。

　　The word sankhara is derived from the prefix sam, meaning "together," joined to the noun kara, "doing, making." Sankharas are thus "co-doings," things that act in concert with other things, or things that are made by a combination of other things. Translators have rendered the word in many different ways: formations, confections, activities, processes, forces, compounds, compositions, fabrications, determinations, synergies, constructions. All are clumsy attempts to capture the meaning of a philosophical concept for which we have no exact parallel, and thus all English renderings are bound to be imprecise. I myself use "formations" and "volitional formations," aware this choice is as defective as any other. Sankhara一詞來自前綴 sam 與名詞 kara 的組合; 前者意謂“共同”，後者意謂“做、造”。 諸行因此就是“合造”，即與其它事物共同行動的事物，或者被其它組合事物造作起來的事物。對這個詞的譯法，衆譯家已有種種表達: 造作、合成、活動、過程、力量、化合、組成、製造、決意、協同、構造。這都是爲了把握一個我們並無准確對應的哲學概念所作的粗陋嘗試，因此一切英譯必然是不准確的。我自己用的是 formations [ 造作]與 volitional formations[有動機的造作/意志的造作]，亦知其缺憾不少于任一別譯。

　　However, though it is impossible to discover an exact English equivalent for sankhara, by exploring its actual usage we can still gain insight into how the word functions in the "thought world" of the Dhamma. In the suttas the word occurs in three major doctrinal contexts. One is in the twelvefold formula of dependent origination (paticca-samuppada), where the sankharas are the second link in the series. They are said to be conditioned by ignorance and to function as a condition for consciousness. Putting together statements from various suttas, we can see that the sankharas are the kammically active volitions responsible for generating rebirth and thus for sustaining the onward movement of samsara, the round of birth and death. In this context sankhara is virtually synonymous with kamma, a word to which it is etymologically akin. 不過，雖不可能爲sankhara找到一個確切對應的英語詞彙，透過對其用法的探討，我們仍然可對它在佛法“思維世界”中的功能獲得領悟。在經文中，該詞出現于叁類主要的教義語境。一類是十二因緣的連鎖公式，在其中 sankhara[行/造作]居系列的第二位。經文中說，它們以無明爲緣，又作爲意識的緣。把諸經中有關句子歸納起來，我們可以看見，諸行乃是負責造作重生、從而維持生死輪回繼續運行的有業力活性的意志。在這個語境當中，諸行與語源學上一個相近的詞kamma[業] 基本上同義。

　　The suttas distinguish the sankharas active in dependent origination into three types: bodily, verbal, and mental. Again, the sankharas are pided into the meritorious, demeritorious, and "imperturbable," i.e., the volitions present in the four formless meditations. When ignorance and craving underlie our stream of consciousness, our volitional actions of body, speech, and mind become forces with the capacity to produce results, and of the results they produce the most significant is the renewal of the stream of consciousness following death. It is the sankharas, propped up by ignorance and fueled by craving, that drive the stream of consciousness onward to a new mode of rebirth, and exactly where consciousness becomes established is determine…

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