Питер Харви пишет:
(I.6) The main Buddhist analysis of personality is that it consists of the five
khandhas, 'groups', or
upādāna-kkhandhas, 'groups of grasping'. These are five groups of processes that we normally grasp at as 'I' or 'me'. They can, thus, loosely be described as the 'personality-factors' (and they will be referred to in this way in this work). The five are:
i)
rūpa: '(material) form', meaning the body;
ii)
vedanā: 'feeling', the hedonic tone of any experience, its aspect as being pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral;
iii)
saññā: 'cognition', that which recognizes, classifies and interprets objects of the senses and mind;
iv)
the saṅkhāras: a number of 'constructing activities', of which the typical one is
cetanā, or volition; others include such things as emotional states and attention;
v)
viññāṇa: generally translated by the rather vague term 'consciousness', but, as argued in chapter 9, better seen as 'discernment': sensory or mental awareness which discerns the basic parts/aspects of its object.
http://books.google.com/books?id=1azdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA4THE NATURE OF THE CONSTRUCTING ACTIVITIES
(8.2) To explore how the constructing activities condition discernment, it is first necessary to understand their nature. The word '
saṅkhāra' itself is derived from '
saṃ-' (together) + '
kṛ' (to do) +'
a' (denoting an agent or action noun), that is 'putting-together activity', or 'constructing activity'. The term is sometimes given the prefix '
abhi-', which has the sense of mastery, as in over-coming (PED.61), but this adds little extra meaning. Either word means activity which is combining, constructing, coordinating, synthesizing, arranging, organizing, forming, preparing. It is also dynamically motivating, as shown at A.I.111, where '
abhisaṅkhāra' is used to refer to the momentum which keeps a free-rolling wheel turning for a while. The constructing activities occur both in the list of the twelve 'links' (
nidānas) of Conditioned Arising and that of the five personality-factors. As a personality-factor, they are 'the six collections of volition (
cetanā-kāyā): will (
-sañcetanā) for sights, will for sounds, for smells, for tastes, for touchables, and for mental objects' (S.III.60). As a link, they are said to be the three 'constructing activities' (
saṅkhāras): of the body (
kāya-), of speech and of mind (
citta-) (S.II.4), the three 'doors' of action. S.II.39-40 sees these three 'constructing activities as equivalent to bodily, verbal and mental will (
-sañcetanā). D.III.217 also talks of the 'three
saṅkhāras' as 'goodness-(
puñña-)', 'badness-(
apuñña-)', and 'imperturbable-(
āneñja-)'
abhisaṅkhāras. The 'constructing activities' link, then, is comprised of the activities of will in their aspect as that which leads to actions and the generation of karmic results, which
puñña- etc. lead to. It refers to the endeavouring, reaching-out aspect of mind, and so is seen, at Ps.I.52, to consist of 'strivings' (
āyuhanā).
(8.3) Will or volition (
cetanā) seems to be the central constructing activity. In the Suttas, this is seen as equivalent to karma: 'I say
cetanā is karma; having willed, one performs an action by body, speech or mind' (A.III.415). That is, it is that which initiates action.
http://books.google.com/books?id=1azdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA122