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Human being
• Mind and matter (nāma-rūpa).
• The phrase nāma-rūpa includes physical and
mental factors of the individual.
• “What is nāma-rūpa?
• Feeling, perception, mental formation, and
consciousness – this is called nāma. The four
great elements and their derivatives - this is
called rūpa.” (Saṃyuttanikāya).
• “Evam khandhesu santesu hoti satto ti
sammuti.”
(SN)
• “We called ‘a being’ in our usage when the
aggregates are there.”
• “Just as, with an assemblage of parts, the
word ‘chariot’ is used; so, when the
aggregates exist, there is the convention
‘a being’.” [SN]
Buddhist views
about the nature of life in the womb.
• viññāṇa paccayā nāma-rūpan, nāma-rūpa
paccayā salāyatanan.
• Majjhima Nikāya: “On the dissolution of the
body, after death, it is possible that this
consciousness of his, leading [to rebirth], may
pass on [to rebirth] in the imperturbable
(āṇañjūpaga).
• Viññāṇa in this context is not the mere act of
being conscious, but the mental factor which is
responsible for continual existence through
saṃsāra.
Buddhist views
about the nature of life in the womb.
• ‘Were consciousness (Viññāṇa), Ananda, not to fall
into the mother’s womb, would the sentient body
(nāma-rūpa) be constituted there?’ ‘It would not,
Lord.’ ‘Were consciousness, having fallen into the
mother’s womb, to turn aside from it, would the
sentient body come to birth in this present state?’ ‘It
would not, Lord.’ (D. II.62–3)
• The flux of consciousness from a previous life is an
essential condition for the arising and development
of nāma-rūpa in the womb.
• “When in his mother’s womb, the first mindmoment has arisen, the first consciousness
appeared, his birth is (to be reckoned as) from
that time. I allow you, monks, to ordain one who
is aged twenty from being an embryo (gabbhavīsaṃ).” (Vin. I.93)
• Relinking’ mind or consciousness (paṭisandhicitta) connects to a new life, immediately after
the end of the previous one (Vism. 460, 554).
• At what point would Buddhism see ‘relinking’
consciousness as arising?
• “If there is, here, a coitus of the parents, and it is the
mother’s season, and a gandhabba is present: it is from
the conjunction of these three things that there is
descent of the embryo [and not if only the first, or only
the first and second, condition is met]. Then, monks, the
mother for nine or ten months carries the embryo
(gabbham) in her womb with great anxiety for her heavy
burden. When it is born, she feeds it with her own lifeblood . . . that is to say, mother’s milk.” (M. I. 266)
• Gandhabba indicates a person who is ready to be
reborn.
The aggregate of Matter or Form
(rūpakkhandha).
• cattāro ca mahābhūtā catunnañca mahābhūtānam
upādāya rūpam, idam vuccati rūpam.
• The four great elements and the form depending on
them - this is called rūpa (SN).
• Y. Karunadasa says: The term rūpa has nine
meanings. The material aggregate, the physical
body of a living being, color, form or figure or
configuration, the meditation object, condition or
cause, nature and the cosmological and
psychological meanings.
• The four Great Elements [solidity (paṭhavi),
Fluidity (āpo), Heat (tejo) and Motion (vāyo)] and
the derivatives of the four Great Elements
comprise the five material sense organs (eye,
ear, nose, tongue and body), as well as their
corresponding objects in the external world.
The aggregate of sensation or
feeling (vedanā)
• vedanā: Vedanā refers to the actual experience of
the senses, always qualified as being either
pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
• One experience vedanā through their six sense
organs.
• The sixth organ, the mind, is also a sense organ.
the aggregate of Perception
(saññā)
• Saññā is the perception that recognize objects
whether it is physical or mental (SN).
• Rhys Davids: ‘cognitive assimilation of ideas by way
of naming’.
• Perception is produced through contact of the six
sense organs with the external world.
• The aggregate of perception determines the
recognition of object.
the aggregate of Mental
Formations (saṅkhāra)
• “karmic formations”/volitional activity
• Saṅkāra can be seen as the driving force, the
fuel, or the energy that keeps the five
aggregates bound together within the cycle of
life and death (SAMSARA).
• ‘‘Avijjā paccayā saṅkhāra, saṅkhāra paccayā
viňňāṇa...
• saṅkhāra is conditioned by ignorance and
viňňāṇa is conditioned by saṅkhāra.
• A human being accumulates volitions through
his bodily, vocal mental activities.
• Volitional activities connected with the objects of
senses can be good, bad or neutral (kusala, akusala
or avyākata).’
• All these kinds of activities are produced by the six
sense organs when they come into contact with their
corresponding objects.
• All volitional activities are associated with “Kamma”.
• The mental activity which one commits through the
activity of body or speech or mind is called volitional
activity.
• Viññāṇa is the active agent in the process of rebirth.
• Consciousness is considered to continue like a
stream and is thought to be somehow transmitted
from one life to the next, thus enabling karmic
causality over lifetimes.
• Mahāpadāna Sutta: “If viññāṇa did not descend into
the mother’s womb, the growth of nāma-rūpa would
be prevented.”
• Buddhism require three factors to complete
conception.
the aggregate of Consciousness
(viññāṇa)
• Samyuttanikaya:
“Because
it
recognizes
[something], it is called consciousness.”
• Saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇa, viññāṇa paccayā
nāma-rūpa...
• viññāṇa is conditioned by saṅkhāra and nāmarūpa is conditioned by viññāṇa.
• Viññāṇa is the faculty responsible for
apprehending what manifests itself through each
of the six senses. It is a key factor in the
emergence of the first (rūpa).
• Thus, nāma-rūpa depends on viññāṇa and