Hi Agrios,

> but when I check in dictionary of Pali Text Society it states:

This PTS article is far from perfect. To draw correct conclusions one
should study the Pali texts themselves.

'Sa'nkhaata' is the past participle ('constructed') of the verb
'sa'nkharoti'.

'San'khaara' means a process which constructs. For example, vitakka
and vicaara, reasoning and examination, are the processes which
construct or 'prepare' speech - 'vaci-sa"nkhaara'.

The good point to start exploring the meanings of this word is the
article:
http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/3/harvey2.html
http://buddhist.ru/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2404

Another prerequisite for understanding of the fine points is the
diagram of dependent co-arising:

http://dhamma.ru/lib/paticca.pdf

My understanding is as follows:

1. Firstly, 'sa"nkhara' is one of the 'khandha' which is sometimes
also called 'cetanaa' or 'kamma'.

(see http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/samyutta/sn22-056.html
)

2. Secondly, it is three types of counstructing processes,
'kaaya-sa"nkhaara', 'citta-sa"nkhaara" and "vaci-sa"nkhaara",
(see http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/majjhima/mn044.html )
which includes all khandhas except vi~n~naa.na . In this quality
'sa"nkhaara' is a second nidana (link) in the twelve-link formulation
of dependent co-arising chain.
(see http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/samyutta/sn12-002.html
)

3. Thirdly, "sa"nkharaa" can generally mean "sa"nkhata", i.e. all
constructed phenomena.

Best wishes,
Dmytro

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pali/message/5302