I am reading Daniel Brown's Pointing Out the Great Way and I have come across this definition of a "seed" which reminds me very closely of Daniel's definition of formations / sankharas in MCTB
Seeds (thig le) are the most common type of aggregated simple appearance used in concentration training. A seed is a highly condensed perceptual event. In its simplest absorbed (bsdu ba'i thig le) form a seed is largely undifferentiated. A seed no longer pertains to a single sense modality like a visual form, but has "condensed the six sense systems into one" (Rangjung Dorje, the Third Karmapa. A Practical Manual forthe Simultaneous School of Mahamudra). A seed is the pool of sensory information occurring prior to the occurrence of a specific perception. A seed condenses all potential phenomena of samsara and nirvana within it. If it were thoroughly analyzed, the practitioner would find the seed ultimately to be the essential nature (rang bzhin) of all phenomena, namely space. Yet, just as something seems to arise from nothing, specific appearances come forth from a seed.
There seems to be a crucial difference, however, seeds seem to be kind of a blob of "undifferentiated" proto-perceptions before they are "interpreted" by the mind into actual perceptions, whereas an MCTB formation is a "fully formed" event in which coarse-level perceptions are merged into one synaesthetic whole. So it looks like a seed is the raw version of a formation, before it is elaborated by the mind into something "intelligible", so to speak.
(Or, rather, referring to the Tibetan classification of the mind in "coarse, subtle, very subtle" layers, a seed might be the subtle layer equivalent of formations, which might be coarse layer.)
It is also interesting that they are discussed in the context of shamatha and not of vipashyana.
Any thoughts on this?
