诸行无常

　　[中译]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——“诸行无常!”——这是上座部佛教国家通报亲人去世的用语; 不过我在此引用这个偈句，非是作为讣告的开端，仅是为了介绍本文的主题—— sankhara[行]这个词本身。有时候，一个巴利单词具有如此丰富的内涵，仅仅坐下把它们勾画出来，对于阐明佛陀的教导，作用不亚于一篇义理长文。Sankhara一词的确可当此说。该词正居于佛法的核心，对其内涵的种种线索探究一番，即是对佛陀本人的现实观作一管窥。

　　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一词来自前缀 sam 与名词 kara 的组合; 前者意谓“共同”，后者意谓“做、造”。 诸行因此就是“合造”，即与其它事物共同行动的事物，或者被其它组合事物造作起来的事物。对这个词的译法，众译家已有种种表达: 造作、合成、活动、过程、力量、化合、组成、制造、决意、协同、构造。这都是为了把握一个我们并无准确对应的哲学概念所作的粗陋尝试，因此一切英译必然是不准确的。我自己用的是 formations [ 造作]与 volitional formations[有动机的造作/意志的造作]，亦知其缺憾不少于任一别译。

　　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. 不过，虽不可能为sankhara找到一个确切对应的英语词汇，透过对其用法的探讨，我们仍然可对它在佛法“思维世界”中的功能获得领悟。在经文中，该词出现于三类主要的教义语境。一类是十二因缘的连锁公式，在其中 sankhara[行/造作]居系列的第二位。经文中说，它们以无明为缘，又作为意识的缘。把诸经中有关句子归纳起来，我们可以看见，诸行乃是负责造作重生、从而维持生死轮回继续运行的有业力活性的意志。在这个语境当中，诸行与语源学上一个相近的词kamma[业] 基本上同义。

　　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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