There are two types of “sankhata.”
1. The first type includes everything we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch in the external physical world. It also includes all living beings in the world.
- As we have discussed in recent posts, both living and non-living (inert) things in the world are sankhata because they all have their origins in mind: “Mind-Pleasing Things” in the World Arise via Paṭicca Samuppāda.”
- All those are subject to arising (uppada) and decay. Anyone (including puthujjanas) can see that. That is the “mundane anicca nature,” i.e., we cannot maintain anything in prime condition for long times, even though that is what anyone would like or desire (icca).
2. The second type of sankhata is dhammā. These are kamma bija that accumulate via the abhisankhara generation.
- These dhammā also belong to the rupa category. However, they lie below the suddhatthaka stage. As we know, all sankhata in the first category above are made of suddhatthaka. See “What are rūpa? – Dhamma are rūpa too!.”
- These dhammā are responsible for the presence of sankhata of the first category in #1 above. The rebirth of a living being is brought by dhammā accumulated by that specific being. On the other hand, the presence of other non-living things is via the collective dhammās generated by all living beings. See “Sensory Inputs Initiate “Creation of the World” or “Loka Samudaya”.”
- The generation of dhammā (that type of sankhata formation) happens in the mind. That is what Buddha Dhamma is focused on.
- The discussion of uppada, ṭhiti, and vaya is focused on dhammā. Here, uppada is the arising of dhammā via abhisankhara formation. Once a dhammā (or a kamma bija) is initiated it remains in vinnana dhatu and can grow with further abhisankhara generation. The critical point is that vaya means the nirodha of those dhammās. Many translate “vaya” as “destruction,” but that is incorrect (the reason they do that is that they focus on sankhata of the first type in #1 above.) Nirodha or vaya means that an entity becomes ineffective. Nirodha also means “nir” + “uda” or “stop arising.” For example, an Arahant does not generate dhammā.