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Nanavira uses the term 'determinations' for sankhara and, such as myself, makes reference to MN 44 for the meaning. I use the word 'determinators' or 'conditioners' rather than determinations.

Whereas in English, one will not find much on this by Buddhadasa. He did not discuss the sankhara much in public lectures. He generally only described sankhara in a general way as "the power of concocting".

For me, I disagree here. To me, sankhara are the 'means' of concocting rather than the power. The sankhara are the objects of satipatthana as defined in the Anapanasati Sutta.

Ignorance needs a 'means' to condition the mind, speech & body. It does this via perception & feeling, thought & the breathing.

When can explore this in our meditation. When the breathing is agitated, the body is stressed. When we calm the agitation in the breathing, the body relaxes, consciousness becomes clearer & the mind calms. The agitation in the breathing is ignorance itself.

Ignorance > sankhara > consciousness > body-mind

Certainly, sankhārā may, upon occasion, be cetanā (e.g. Khandha Samy. vi,4 [3]); but this is by no means always so. The Cūlavedallasutta tells us clearly in what sense in-&-out-breaths, thinking-&-pondering, and perception and feeling, are sankhārā (i.e. in that body, speech, and mind [citta], are intimately connected with them, and do not occur without them); and it would do violence to the Sutta to interpret sankhārā here as cetanā.

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