What Is Volitional Formation (saṃskāra)?

"Formations" (saṃskāra) means running, moving, changing, and flowing onward—not stopping or remaining unchanged. All eight consciousnesses have formations, have the mark of formations; they can continuously operate all dharmas, while themselves flowing onward moment after moment, mind after mind never abiding. Only because the seeds of consciousness arise and cease in continuity can all dharmas manifest and continue to operate without interruption, making the world of the five aggregates rich and colorful. The arising, ceasing, and changing of all things are the result of the operation of the eight consciousnesses; the arising, ceasing, and mutation of the body of the five aggregates are even more the result of the formations of the eight consciousnesses. Once the first seven consciousnesses cease to operate, life terminates and one enters nirvāṇa without remainder. But the eighth consciousness itself never perishes; it has its own seeds of consciousness that will continually sustain the operation of the eighth consciousness, and the five universal mental factors will continue to operate on without cease.

Who controls and governs the formations of the seven consciousnesses? The formations of the six consciousnesses are determined and dominated by the seventh consciousness, the manas; the formations of the manas are dominated by ignorance and the power of vows. The formations of the manas depend on several factors: one is the karmic seeds within the tathāgatagarbha, one is the inertial force of the manas' own afflictions, and one is the influence of environmental conditioning. But all these factors arise from the manas' ignorance. If the manas had no ignorance, it would not be subject to conditioning, would have no afflictions or inertia, and would not leave behind seeds of afflictions and karma.