(Update Pending)
In this post, we discuss namarupa, a term Buddha uses to describe all epiphenomena with rupa, which is, “in Sanskrit and Pali, “body,” “form,” or “materiality,” viz., that which has shape and is composed of matter. More generally, rupa refers to the materiality, which serves as the object of the five sensory consciousness (vijnana): visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile.” materiality.
We begin with Buddha’s Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination, known in Romanized Sanskrit as pratityasamutpada.
Pratityasamutpada (Chinese=緣起), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, “dependent origination,” “conditioned origination,” lit. “origination by dependence” (of one thing on another): one of the core teachings in the Buddhist doctrinal system, having both ontological, epistemological, and soteriological implications.” Furthermore, “in one of the earliest summaries of the Buddha’s teachings (which is said to have been enough to bring Sariputra to enlightenment), the Buddha is said to have taught: When this is present, that comes to be. /From the arising of this, that arises. / When this is absent, that does not come to be. / From the cessation of this, that ceases.”
As discussed earlier, in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination, Buddha teaches that the lifecycles of all phenomena in the universe, from their origin to their demise, follow twelve interconnected links. Each link serves as the cause (Romanized Sanskrit=nidana, Chinese=因緣/尼陀那) for the origination of the following link until the lifecycle ends.
The twelve interconnected links are:
i) Non-luminosity (Chinese=無明)
ii) Samskara (Chinese=行)
iii) Vijnana (Chinese=識)
iv) Namarupa (Chinese=名色)
v) Sadayatana (Chinese=六入)
vi) Sparsa (Chinese=觸)
vii) Vedana (Chinese=受）
viii) Trsna (Chinese=愛)
xi) Upadana (Chinese=取)
x) Bhava (Chinese=有)
xi) Jati (Chinese=生)
xii) Jaramarana (Chinese=老死)
When discussing namarupa, our focus is on the first seven links of the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination.
1) Non-luminosity (Chinese=無明) is the first link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination. A requirement for the first link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination is that it cannot itself be dependently originated. If it were, it would produce a chicken-egg dilemma. For example, if one deems ignorance the first link, one must answer if a human, or his ignorance, comes first.
As discussed in Such is the Way of Dharma, non-luminosity is a “noncausal” phenomenon, i.e., it is a natural phenomenon that has existed since immemorial without any cause. Indeed, as the only noncausal phenomenon in its domain, non-luminosity is uniquely the only phenomenon that can serve not only as the first link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination but also as the foundational block of Buddha’s conscious universe.
We will defer discussing the second and third links until after we discuss Namarupa.
4) Namarupa is the fourth link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination.
Namarupa (Chinese=名色), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, “name-and-form,” “mind-and-matter,” “mentality-and-materiality;” a term for the mental and physical constituents of the person; with “name” subsuming the four mental aggregates, ….and form (rupa) referring to the material aggregate.”
However, as discussed in the context of the Five Aggregates, material aggregates do not exist because all the five constituents of all beings in the universe are mental. Additionally, as the experience of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara demonstrated, his realization that all the Five Aggregates are mental was what enabled him to fulfill the Buddha’s soteriological goal and liberate himself from his existential suffering.
Indeed, if materiality and mentality were different entities, there would be no delusional misunderstanding of reality. Without delusion, there would be no existential suffering resulting from it. Without existential suffering, there would be no need for Buddha’s soteriological mission, which is to help people understand their delusions and thus liberate them from their existing suffering. Without the need for Buddha’s soteriological mission, there would be no need for Buddhism.
Additionally, the enlightenment experiences of Adyashanti and the two Chinese monks verified that the universe is illusional and that there is Nothing but Mentality in the universe, as the material universe vanished upon their enlightenment when their minds were quiescent.
Therefore, instead of “name” subsuming the four mental aggregates,… and form (rupa) referring to the material aggregate,” as defined for namarupa in the definition above, the correct interpretation should be that nama, the “name,” should subsume all the Five Aggregates.
So, how can we understand that namarupa is “name-and-form,” “mind-and-matter,” or “mentality-and-materiality.” While it is true that namarupa refers to “name-and-form,” “mind-and-matter,” or “mentality-and-materiality,” however, form, matter, or materiality are form, matter, or materiality in name only. It is because while all namarupa are epiphenomena that appear as form, matter, or materiality, their underlying essence is mentality. It was the reason why Buddha lectured Ananda in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra (Chinese=首楞嚴經); all rupas are “illusions delusionally considered observable phenomena; their true nature remains enlightened and luminous (Chinese=幻妄稱相，其性真為妙覺明體).”
Therefore, the correct meaning of namarupa is that a rupa is rupa in name only, or nominally rupa.
2) Samskara (Chinese=行) is the second link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination.
3) Vijnana (Chinese=識) is the third link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination.
To understand why these two Aggregates are sandwiched between non-luminosity and namarupa, we need to know what the namarupa of the fourth link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination represents.
As discussed in several earlier posts, all phenomena in the universe, from ripples in the quantum realm to giant galaxies, are epiphenomena. In other words, everything in the universe is a namarupa because they are all nominally rupa. The significance of the namarupa discussed here is that it arises from non-luminosity, where “neighbor-to-emptiness dust” is the epiphenomenon.
When discussing Buddha’s Particle Physics without a Theory in the previous post, we understand that “microscopic dust where rupa gathers (Chinese=色聚之微塵)” follows “neighbor-to-emptiness dust (Chinese=鄰虛塵)” as the next larger dust. The difference between them is that while “neighbor-to-emptiness dust” is an epiphenomenon without rupa, “microscopic dust where rupa gathers” is the first epiphenomena to have rupa.
As the fourth link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination, the namarupa in question also follows “neighbor-to-emptiness dust” because it follows non-luminosity, where “neighbor-to-emptiness dust” resides. Therefore, we can infer that the namarupa in question is a “microscopic dust where rupa gathers,” the first epiphenomena to have rupa in the universe and the equivalent to the Higgs Boson.
With this understanding, we can infer that the second and third links represent the process that imparts rupa to “neighbor-to-emptiness dust.”
As we learned when introducing the Five Aggregates, all the Five Aggregates are needed to complete the process that eventually leads to the understanding that all rupas are “mere projections of consciousness.” So, why are the other two Aggregates, the Aggregate of Sensing and the Aggregate of Active Mentality, missing?
To understand this, we again seek the help of our familiar image from Dr. David Tong, showing epiphenomena as ripples in the quantum field.
As the image shows, these epiphenomena lack materiality and, therefore, they do not possess sensory organs, such as eyes, ears, noses, tongues, or tactile body parts. Nor do they contain a brain structure.
While the epiphenomena in Dr. Tong’s image are ripples in the quantum energy field, Buddha’s epiphenomena, “neighbor-to-emptiness dust,” are fluctuations in non-luminosity, which is a field of mentality rather than a quantum energy field.
As a fluctuating mentality, “neighbor-to-emptiness dust” is, by definition, pure consciousness. Therefore, the Aggregate of Sensing is not necessary because, as pure consciousness, “neighbor-to-emptiness dust” can sense each other without senses. A similar reason applies to the Aggregate of Active Mentality. The Aggregate of Active Mentality is unnecessary because, as pure consciousness, “neighbor-to-emptiness dust” is an active mind even though it is without the structure of the mind and can let the contents that the Aggregates of Sensing sense become “reading in of the mind,” in the words of Dr. Fisch.
After the Aggregate of Active Mentality comes the Aggregate of Samskara (Chinese=行), or the Aggregate of Action, which is the second link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination. The “Action” here refers to what Dr. Fisch calls “conceptualization in ways we do not govern.”
After the Aggregate of Action comes the Aggregate of Vijnana (Chinese=識) or the Aggregate of Consciousness, the third link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination. The role of the Aggregate of Consciousness is to project the already conceptualized contents that the Aggregate of Sense senses to be “seen” as the “world we experience,” as described by Dr. Fisch.
The “world we experience” refers to the world of ruparupa, which is constructed from the namarupa in question, the fourth link in the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination.
5) Sadayatana (Chinese=六入). The fifth link, Sadayatana, according to The Princeton Dictionary Buddhism, refers to “in Sanskrit, the six bases of cognition.” The six bases of cognition refer to the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mentality. Indeed, with the presence of rupa, these six human senses form.
6) Sparsa (Chinese=觸). The sixth link, Ayatana, according to The Princeton Dictionary Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit,” “content….. referring to the sensory contact between a sense organ and a sense object.” In the words of Dr. Fisch, the sense object is the “content” that “the world impacts us in a causal manner through all our senses.”
7) Vedana (Chinese=受). The seventh link, Vedana, is the same as the first Aggregate of the Five Aggregates, the Aggregate of Sensing or Receiving. In the words of Dr. Fisch, this Aggregate means that the senses receive the “contents” that the world impacts on us in a causal manner through all our senses.”
The “contents” that the senses sense can, of course, be the objects of craving (Romanized Sanskrit=Trsna; Chinese=愛) and clinging (Romanized Sanskrit=Upadana; Chinese=取), which form the eighth and ninth links. With craving and clinging come existence, or the process of becoming (Romanized Sanskrit=Bhava; Chinese=有), which leads to [re]birth (Romanized Sanskrit=jati, Chinese=有) and, eventually, to old age and death (Romanized Sanskrit=jaramarana, Chinese=老死), which are respectively the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth links of the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination, respective. In other words, what and how much one craves and clings to provide the conditions that determine the direction of your future, in this life or a future one.
As discussed in the Three Delicate Marks, karma and causality are inescapable for anyone born with consciousness and, therefore, unenlightened, which the Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination confirms again.
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