Is there a tendency or an effort to keep sanskharas as it is?

Question

Sabbe sanskharas Anicca. But is there any tendency or effort to keep sanskharas as it is for as long as possible?

I personally suspect yes because there is a craving to keep the narrative alive.

Answer 1

Sankhara or Samskara is a technical term for anything that emerges from coming together of multiple constituent causes and conditions.

As the famous Buddhist sayings explain, all compound phenomena are impermanent because whatever comes together eventually falls apart.

But most of the time, it does not fall appart immediately, it exists for some duration of time. Why?

Two reasons. One, because the constituent causes and conditions change gradually, not all at once. As they change, they may still be in the zone where the sankhara continues to exist, even if it doesn't stay exactly the same.

Two, and more directly regarding your question. Many sankharas are in fact cyclic in nature, meaning, they have some kind of homeostasis going on, that maintains existence of the sankhara through regenerating one or more of the constituent causes. It doesn't necessarily make the sankhara alive in the biological sense of the word but it does make it a self-sustaining tendency.

Answer 2

This depends on the particular sankhara, the particular person, the particular time, the particular place, etc. Of course, for any particular situation (i.e. combination of person, place, time, sankhara, etc.) there may be an effort to keep a particular sankhara “as it is” for as long as possible.

The reverse may also be true though: there may be an effort to destroy a sankhara as quickly as possible, or there may be the wish that a particular sankhara lasts only a certain amount of time, etc.

Answer 3

The word sankhara in "Sabbe Sankhara Anicca" does not mean "mental formations". Instead, "sankhara" here refers to anything that is compounded/conditioned/formed (put together by various parts), which would include a rock, a cloud, a drop of rain, a planetary universe.

You may consider referring to this old blog post: The word ‘sankhara’ in context.

Form, friend Channa, is impermanent. Feeling is impermanent. Perception is impermanent. Mental formations (saṅkhārā) are impermanent. Consciousness is impermanent. Form is not-self. Feeling is not-self. Perception is not-self. Mental formations are not-self. Consciousness is not-self. All (sabbe) conditioned things (saṅkhārā) are impermanent (aniccā). All (sabbe) phenomena (dhammā) are not-self (anattā).

SN 22.90

Answer 4

Yes, the continuity of conditioned existence is sustained by craving. The fires of passion, aversion and delusion are fueled by craving.

“The past, reverends, is one end. The future is the second end. The present is the middle. And craving is the seamstress, for craving weaves one to being reborn in one state of existence or another. That’s how a mendicant directly knows what should be directly known and completely understands what should be completely understood. Knowing and understanding thus they make an end of suffering in this very life.”
AN 6.61

For a living arahant, as described in Iti 44, cravings have ended, and the fire has been put out, so the embers continue to glow till the end of his physical life.

Answer 5

avijja paccaya sankhara

As long as avijja is there. the sankhara will be remain. And as long as sankhara remain, it get stronger and stronger. Thus sankhara itself rebuilds it. or sustain it for long.

Lets take the case of addiction. You smoke cigar due to avijja. Not knowing danger in it. not knowing the source of pleasure etc.

Initially you feel pleasure of smoking. that pleasure reduces day by day. but by that time you are trapped in craving. Now you smoke even if there is no pleasure. just to get rid of the unpleasant sensation of not smoking.i.e pressure of craving.

The sankhara of smoking get stronger and stronger, to the point that even if you get cancer. You still feel the pressure of craving. and if you dont smoke you get physical problem, like headache, perspiration, vomiting, and what not.

Then you are put in rehabilitation centre, where you are forced to quit. in that situation first time , you endure the pressure of craving. the urge to smoke. the restlessness of it with proper assistance. Slowly your body adapt to not smoking. and you permanently quit. but still there remains desire to smoke, hidden within you. you still remember the pleasure of smoking etc. let few more year pass by. and point will come you realise that you lost that taste of cigaret too. Now you can even be in company with people who smoke in front of you and be comfortable.

So you can see here that even to uproot a sankhara you need another sankhara or practice/tricks. but at the end it is impermanent too.

before rehabilitation its was impossible to remove the sankhara of cigaret, but after rehabilitation you realise that it also goes away if you stop feeding it.

Note: dont take buddhas teaching as general phylosophy. dont apply it to outside world.like all things(star,moon, earth,tree, house) etc are anicca. by saying sabbe sankhara anicca. That way you loos the opportunity to work on yourself. As buddha clearly says Loka means 6 Sense base. There is no world outside you.