This term has, according to its context, different shades of meaning, which should be carefully distinguished.
(I) To its most frequent usages (s. foll. 1-4) the general term ”formation” may be applied, with the qualifications required by the context. This term may refer either to the act of ”forming or to the passive state of ”having been formed” or to both.
1. As the 2nd link of the formula of dependent origination, (paticcasamuppa^da, q.v.), sankha^ra has the active aspect, ”forming, and signifies karma (q.v.), i.e. wholesome or unwholesome volitional activity (cetana^) of body (ka^ya-s.), speech (vaci^-s.) or mind (citta- or mano-s.). This definition occurs, e.g. at S. XII, 2, 27. For s. in this sense, the word ”karma-formation” has been coined by the author. In other passages, in the same context, s. is defined by reference to (a) meritorious karma-formations (pun~n~”a^bhisankha^ra), (b) demeritorious k. (apun~n~”abhisankha^ra), (c) imperturbable k. (a^nen~j”a^bhisankha^ra), e.g. in S. XII, 51; D. 33. This threefold division covers karmic activity in all spheres of existence: the meritorious karma-formations extend to the sensuous and the fine-material sphere, the demeritorious ones only to the sensuous sphere, and the ”imperturbable” only to the immaterial sphere.
2. The aforementioned three terms, ka^ya-, vaci^- and citta-s. are sometimes used in quite a different sense, namely as (1) bodily function, i.e. in-and-out-breathing (e.g. M. 10), (2) verbal function, i.e. thought-conception and discursive thinking, (3) mental-function, i.e. feeling and perception (e.g. M. 44). See nirodhasama^patti.
3. It also denotes the 4th group of existence (sankha^rakkhandha), and includes all ”mental formations” whether they belong to ”karmically forming” consciousness or not. See khandha, Tab. II. and S. XXII, 56, 79.
4. It occurs further in the sense of anything formed (sankhata, q.v.) and conditioned, and includes all things whatever in the world, all phenomena of existence. This meaning applies, e.g. to the well-known passage, "All formations are impermanent... subject to suffering" (sabbe sankha^ra anicca^ ... dukkha^). In that context, however, s. is subordinate to the still wider and all-embracing term dhamma (thing); for dhamma includes also the Unformed or Unconditioned Element (asankhata-dha^tu), i.e. Nibba^na (e.g. in sabbe dhamma^ anatta^, "all things are without a self").
(II) Sankha^ra also means sometimes ”volitional effort”, e.g. in the formula of the roads to power (iddhi-pa^da, q.v.); in sasankha^ra- and asankha^ra-parinibba^yi^ (s. ana^ga^mi^, q.v.); and in the Abhidhamma terms asankha^rika- (q.v.) and sasankha^rika-citta, i.e. without effort = spontaneously, and with effort = prompted.
In Western literature, in English as well as in German, sankha^ra is sometimes mistranslated by ”subconscious tendencies” or similarly (e.g Prof Beckh: "unterbewu?te Bildekr?fte," i.e. subconscious formative forces). This misinterpretation derives perhaps from a similar usage in non-Buddhist Sanskrit literature, and is entirely inapplicable to the connotations of the term in Pa^li Buddhism, as listed above under I, 1-4. For instance, within the dependent origination, s. is neither subconscious nor a mere tendency, but is a fully conscious and active karmic volition. In the context of the 5 groups of existence (s. above I, 3), a very few of the factors from the group of mental formations (sankha^rakkhandha) are also present as concomitants of subconsciousness (s. Tab. I-III), but are of course not restricted to it, nor are they mere tendencies.