Nāmarūpa () is used in Buddhism to refer to the constituents of a living being: nāma is typically considered to refer to the mental component of the person, while rūpa refers to the physical. Most often found as a single compound word understood literally as name-and-form or named form.
Nāmarūpa is a dvandva compound in Sanskrit and Pali meaning "name ( nāma) and form ( rūpa)".
Nama (name) and Rupa (form) is the simple worldly identity of any form by a name both of which are considered temporal and not true identity with the nameless and formless ‘reality’ or ‘Absolute’ in Hinduism that has manifested as maya. In Buddhism the loss of all names and forms (conception of distinct concepts) leads to the realization of the Ultimate reality of ‘Shunyatha’ or ‘Emptiness’ or Nirvana “Naked Truth” removed of Maya.
In Buddhism
This term is used in Buddhism to refer to the constituents of a living being:
nāma refers to the mental, while
rūpa refers to the physical. The Buddhist
nāma and
rūpa are mutually dependent, and not separable; as
nāmarūpa, they designate an individual being (or distinct things). Namarupa are also referred to as the
Skandha, "the psycho-physical organism", “mind-and-matter,” and “mentality-and-materiality”.
Psycho-physical constituents
In the
Pali Canon, the
Gautama Buddha describes
nāmarūpa in this manner (English on left,
Pali on right):
"And what monks is name-&-form? Vedana, Samjna, Cetana, Phassa, & Manasikara: This is called name. The four great elements, and the form dependent on the four great elements: This is called form. This name & this form are, monks, called name-&-form."[From Samyutta Nikaya 12.2 (Thanissaro, 1997).] | [SLTP (n.d.), 1.1.2, ]. |
Elsewhere in the
Pali Canon,
nāmarūpa is used synonymously with the five
skandha.
[Rhys Davids & Stede, op cit] or as the process of perception
[Ven. Dr. Punnaji, 2017] in modern interpretation.
Empty of self
In keeping with the doctrine of
anatman/
anatta, "the absence of an (enduring, essential) self",
nāma and
rūpa are held to be constantly in a state of flux, with only the continuity of experience (itself a product of dependent origination) providing an experience of any sort of conventional 'self'.
Part of the cycle of suffering
Nāmarūpa is the fourth of the
Twelve Nidanas, preceded by consciousness (Pali:
Vijnana; Skt.:
vijñana) and followed by the six sense bases (Pali:
Sadayatana; Skt:
). Thus, in the
Sutta Nipata, the Buddha explains to the Ven. Ajita how
samsara rebirth ceases:
In Hinduism
The term
nāmarūpa is used in
Hindu thought,
nāma describing the spiritual or essential properties of an object or being, and
rūpa the physical presence that it manifests. These terms are used similarly to the way that '
essence' and 'accident' are used in
Catholic theology to describe transubstantiation. The distinction between nāma and rūpa in Hindu thought explains the ability of spiritual powers to manifest through inadequate or inanimate vessels - as observed in possession and oracular phenomena, as well as in the presence of the divine in images that are worshiped through pūja.
Nāma Rupatmak Vishva is the Vedanta (a school of Sanatana Dharma/Hinduism) term for the manifest Universe, viz. The World as we know it. Since every object in this World has a Nāma and Rupa, the World is called Nāma Rupatmak Vishva. The Paramātma (or Creator) is not manifest in this Nāma Rupatmak Vishva but is realized by a Sādhaka(student) by means of Bhakti yoga (devotion), Karma yoga (action), Jnana yoga (knowledge), Yoga (Union, a Hindu school), or a combination of all of these methodologies.
See also
Notes
Bibliography
-
Ireland, John D. (trans.) (1983). Ajita-manava-puccha: Ajita's Questions (Suttanipata 5.1), from The Discourse Collection: Selected Texts from the Sutta Nipata (WH 82). Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society. Retrieved 2007-06-20 from "Access to Insight"
-
Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. A general on-line search engine for the PED is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.
-
Sri Lanka Buddha Jayanti Tipitaka Series (SLTP) (n.d.). Buddhavaggo (Samyutta Nikaya 12.1). Retrieved 2007-06-20 from "METTANET - LANKA" at http://metta.lk/tipitaka/2Sutta-Pitaka/3Samyutta-Nikaya/Samyutta2/12-Abhisamaya-Samyutta/01-Buddhavaggo-p.html .
-
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1994). Ajita-manava-puccha: Ajita's Questions (Suttanipata 5.1). Retrieved 2007-06-20 from "Access to Insight"
-
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1997). Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta: Analysis of Dependent Co-arising (Samyutta Nikaya 12.2). Retrieved 2007-06-20 from "Access to Insight"