SuttaCentral
Hello everyone,
I hope you’re all doing well.
Is expectation sankhara khanda? For example: ‘I expected or hoped he had driven more safely. He didn’t and I was disappointed.’
What about wandering mind? Which khanda is it equivalent to?
Thank you in advance 
As far as I know, disappointment is Soka- a kind of dosa while expectation is the function of Sankhara khanda.
Wandering mind is a mind led by Moha including Sankhara khanda with the help of other khandas. (5 khandas arise together and pass away together)
Thanks and regards,
Everything that is conditioned, comes to be, is sensed & experienced, all is formed, generated and is associated with sankhara.
Sankhara is conjoined with consciousness, perception & feeling, it is always associated with consciousness.
What you see that you generate [conceive in mind], what you generate that you perceive, what you perceive that you also cognize & feel.
Sankhara isn’t said to be conjoined with form aggregate because form is sometimes generated and sometimes not generated, it isn’t generated for one who is percepient of arupa jhana wherein the perception of form is stilled.
In as far as the doors of the eye, ear, nose, tongue and body goes, these and all that arises in dependence on these pertains to generation of form.
‘Whatever fabrications , bhikkhus, has passed, ceased, changed: the term, label, and description ‘was’ applies to it, not the term ‘is’ or the term ‘will be.’
"And what are fabrications? These six classes of intention — intention with regard to form, intention with regard to sound, intention with regard to smell, intention with regard to taste, intention with regard to tactile sensation, intention with regard to ideas: these are called fabrications. From the origination of contact comes the origination of fabrications. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of fabrications. And just this noble eightfold path is the path of practice leading to the cessation of fabrications…
The fact that pleasure & happiness arises in dependence on fabrications: that is the allure of fabrications. The fact that fabrications are inconstant, stressful, subject to change: that is the drawback of fabrications. The subduing of desire & passion for fabrications, the abandoning of desire & passion for fabrications: that is the escape from fabrications…
“And why, bhikkhus, do you call them fabrications? ‘They fabricate the conditioned,’ bhikkhus, therefore they are called fabrications.
And what is the conditioned that they fabrications?
They fabricate conditioned form as form;
they fabricate conditioned feeling as feeling;
they fabricate conditioned perception as perception;
they fabricate conditioned fabrications as fabrications;
they fabricate conditioned consciousness as consciousness.
‘They fabricate the conditioned,’ bhikkhus, therefore they are called fabrications.
- What about wandering mind? Which khanda is it equivalent to?
The wandering mind is something generated, these states are conceived & perceived based on the intellect & ideas. These states are rooted in desire. Attention produces them. Contact is their origin. Feeling is their meeting place. They are classed as wandering mind and as to whether accompanied by applied & discursive thought or not and so on.
Perception (sanna) is awareness of an object’s distinctive marks (blue, yellow etc.). If these marks are recognized, perception includes memory. Perception depends on views which have been formed, as do thoughts, so as path knowledge develops perceptions change (AN 4.49).
Thinking is sankhara.
Thoughts are form.
May I know why thoughts are form? I thought form is rupa which is the physical body.
When real truths like nama and rupa are mentioned, they just mean the nature of them. So, rupa doesn’t mean physical body but the nature of physical body which is “changing constantly” like 4 elements.
Thinking is a process; thus it is Sankhara.
In "Cittanupassana (Contemplation on the Mind), mind door and thoughts (as apparent objects) are rupa while observing mind is nama.
Thanks and regards,
Thank you for bringing this up, @Jacky and @ZawNyunt . I did a search on Discuss & Discover using ‘rupa’ and found a post that directs to suttas outright defining the five khandas, SN22.56 - SN22.57
Both say:
“And what is form? The four primary elements, and form derived from the four primary elements. This is called form. Form originates from food. When food ceases, form ceases. The practice that leads to the cessation of form is simply this noble eightfold path, that is: right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion.”
Indeed. The standard defenition of rupa in the suttas is the four great elements, and the form derived from them, where derived form is equivalent to sense objects.
So I don’t think it’s correct to say that thoughts are rupa. Thoughts would be an aspect of the sankharas aggregate, and can also be seen as mind-objects.