That which is made of iron, wood or hemp is not a strong bond, say the wise; (but) that longing for jewels, ornaments, children and wives is far greater an attachment. Dhammapada (vs. 345).

Through the Buddhist teachings we learn that what we take for “self”, for “our mind” and for “our body”, consists of changing phenomena. That part of the Buddhist teachings which is the “Abhidhamma” enumerates and classifies all phenomena of our life: mental phenomena or nama and physical phenomena or rupa. Seeing is nama, it experiences visible object through the eye-door. Visible object or colour is rupa, it does not experience anything. The eyesense which functions as the eye-door through which visible object is experienced is also rupa. The rupas which are the sense objects of visible object, sound, smell, flavour and tangible object and the rupas which are the sense organs of eyes, ears, nose, tongue and bodysense, are conditions for the namas which experience objects. 

Nama and rupa are interrelated. Nama and rupa are ultimate realities. We should know the difference between ultimate truth and conventional truth. Conventional truth is the world of concepts such as person, tree or animal. Before we learnt about Buddhism conventional truth, the world of concepts, was the only truth we knew. It is useful to examine the meaning of concept, in Pali: pannatti. The word concept can stand for the name or term which conveys an idea and it can also stand for the idea itself conveyed by a term. Thus, the name “tree” is a concept, and also the idea we form up of “tree” is a concept. A tree is actually a conglomeration of things; the component parts are just different rupas. The rupas of which a tree consists do not last, they arise and fall away. Through the eyes only the rupa which is visible object or colour can be experienced, through touch hardness which is another type of rupa can be experienced. Visible object and hardness are ultimate realities, paramattha dhammas, each with their own characteristic. These characteristics do not change, they can be experienced without having to name them. Colour is always colour, hardness is always hardness, even when we give them another name. The whole day we touch things such as a fork, a plate or a chair. We believe that we know instantaneously what different things are, but after the sense-impressions such as seeing or experiencing through the bodysense, there are complicated processes of memory of former experiences and of classification, and these moments succeed one another very rapidly. Concepts are conceived through thinking. We remember the form and shape of things, we know what different things are and what they are used for. We could not lead our daily life without conventional realities; we do not have to avoid the world of conventional truth. However, in between the moments of thinking of concepts, understanding of ultimate realities, of nama and rupa, can be developed. The development of understanding does not prevent us from doing all the chores of daily life, from talking to other people, from helping them or from being generous to them. We could not perform deeds of generosity if we would not think of conventional realities, such as the things we are giving or the person to whom we give. But through the development of understanding we will learn to distinguish between absolute truth and conventional truth. 

The “Abhidhammattha Sangaha”, a compendium of the Abhidhamma composed in India at a later time (This work has been ascribed to Anuruddha. It has been translated into English by the P.T.S. under the title of “Compendium of Philosophy”, and by Ven. Narada, Colombo, under the title of “A Manual of Abhidhamma”.), states that concepts are only shadows of realities. When we watch T.V., we see projected images of people and we know that through the eyesense only visible object is seen, no people. Also when we look at the persons we meet, only colour is experienced through the eyesense. In the ultimate sense there are no people. Although they seem very real they are only shadows of what is really there. The truth is different from what we always assumed. A person is a temporary combination of realities which are constantly in a process of formation and dissolution, and thus the flux of life goes on. We cling to a conglomeration of different objects, we take these as a solid  “whole”. So long as we do not see the disruption of the continuity of body and mind we continue to believe in a self which lasts. 

Ultimate realities are impermanent, they arise and fall away. Concepts of people and things do not arise and fall away; they are objects of thinking, not real in the ultimate sense. Nama and rupa, not concepts, are the objects of understanding. The purpose of the development of the eightfold Path is seeing ultimate realities as impermanent, suffering and non-self. If the difference between concepts and ultimate realities is not known the eightfold Path cannot be developed. The eightfold Path, that is, right understanding of nama and rupa, is developed through direct awareness of them. However, this is difficult and can only be learnt very gradually. When there is direct awareness of one object at a time as it appears through one of the senses or through the mind-door, there is no thinking of a concept of a “whole” at that moment. The study of rupas can help us to have more understanding of the sense objects and of the doorways of the senses through which these objects are experienced. If we do not have a foundation knowledge of objects and doorways we cannot know how to be aware of one reality at a time as it appears at the present moment. The study of nama and rupa is a condition for the arising of direct awareness later on.

The study of rupas is not the study of physics or medical science. The aim of the understanding of nama and rupa is the eradication of the wrong view of self and freedom from enslavement to defilements. So long as one clings to an idea of self who owns things, it can give rise to avarice and jealousy which may even motivate bad deeds such as stealing or killing. Defilements cannot be eradicated immediately, but when we begin to understand that our life is only one moment of experiencing an object through one of the six doorways, there will be less clinging to the idea of an abiding ego, of a person or self.

All three parts of the Buddha’s teachings, namely the Vinaya (Book of Discipline for the monks), the Suttanta (Discourses) and the Abhidhamma point to the same goal: the eradication of defilements. From my quotations of sutta texts the reader can see that there is also Abhidhamma in the suttas, thus, that the teachings are one, the teaching of the Buddha. I have added questions at the end of each chapter in order to encourage the reader to check his understanding. I have used Pali terms next to the English equivalents in order to help the reader to know the precise meaning of the realities which are explained in the Abhidhamma. The English terms have a specific meaning in the context of conventional use and they do not render the precise meaning of the reality represented by the Pali term. The texts from which I have quoted, including the scriptures and the commentaries, have been translated into English by the Pali Text Society (73 Lime Walk, Headington, Oxford OX 37, 7 AD.). 

The first of the seven books of the Abhidhamma, the “Dhammasangani”, translated as “Buddhist Psychological Ethics”( Pali Text Society, 1974.), is a compilation of all nama and rupa, of all that is real. The source for my book on physical phenomena is that part of the “Dhammasangani” which deals with this subject, as well as the commentary to this book, the “Atthasalini”, translated as “Expositor” (Pali Text Society, 1958.), which was written by the venerable Buddhaghosa. I also used the “Visuddhimagga”, translated as “The Path of Purification”, an encyclopedia by the venerable Buddhaghosa (I used the translation of Ven. Nyanamoli , 1964, Colombo, Sri Lanka. There is another translation by Pe Maung Tin under the title of “The Path of Purity”, P.T.S.)

May this book on rupas help the reader to develop right understanding of nama and rupa!

The Abhidhamma teaches us that in the ultimate sense our life is nama and rupa which arise because of their appropriate conditions and then fall away. What we take for person or self is citta (pronounced as chitta.) or consciousness, cetasika (pronounced as chetasika.) or mental factors arising with the citta, and rupa or physical phenomena. Citta and cetasika are nama, they experience objects, whereas rupa does not know anything. Citta experiences sense objects which are rupas through the five senses which are also rupas. The five senses by means of which cittas experience an object are called doors. When we think of something we saw or heard citta does not experience an object through a sense-door but through another door which is the mind-door. Thus there are six doorways. Through the mind-door citta can experience ultimate realities, nama and rupa, as well as concepts.

Citta experiences only one object and then it falls away to be succeeded by the next citta. We may have thought that there is one consciousness which lasts and which can see, hear and think, but this is not so. There can be only one citta at a time: at one moment there is a citta which sees, at another moment a citta which hears and at another moment again a citta which thinks. In our life there is an unbroken series of cittas arising in succession. 

Cittas can be good or wholesome, kusala cittas, they can be unwholesome, akusala cittas, or they can be neither kusala nor akusala. Seeing, for example, is neither kusala nor akusala, it only experiences visible object through the eye-door. After seeing has fallen away, visible object is experienced by kusala cittas or by akusala cittas. Thus, when an object impinges on one of the six doors there are different types of cittas which arise in a series or process and all of them experience that object. They arise in a specific order within the process and there is no self who can prevent their arising. There are processes of cittas which experience an object through each of the five sense-doors and through the mind-door. 

There is one citta at a time, but each citta is accompanied by several cetasikas or mental factors which share the same object with the citta but perform each their own function. Some cetasikas such as feeling and remembrance or “perception” (sanna) accompany each citta, others do not. Unwholesome mental factors, akusala cetasikas, only accompany akusala cittas, whereas “beautiful” mental factors (sobhana) cetasikas accompany kusala cittas.

As regards physical phenomena or rupa, there are twentyeight kinds of rupa in all. Rupas are not merely textbook terms, they are realities which can be directly experienced. Rupas do not know or experience anything; they can be known by nama. Rupa arises and falls away, but it does not fall away as quickly as nama. When a characteristic of rupa such as hardness impinges on the bodysense it can be experienced through the bodysense by several cittas arising in succession within a process. But even though rupa lasts longer than citta, it falls away again, it is impermanent. 

Rupas do not arise singly, they arise in units or groups. What we take for our body is composed of many groups or units, consisting each of different kinds of rupa, and the rupas in such a group arise together and fall away together. The reader will come across four conditioning factors which produce rupas of the body: kamma, citta, temperature and food. The last three factors are easier to understand, but the first factor, kamma, is harder to understand since kamma is a factor of the past. We can  perform good and bad deeds through body, speech and mind and these can produce their appropriate results later on. Such deeds are called kamma, but when we are more precise kamma is actually the cetasika volition or intention (cetana) which motivates the deed. Kamma is a mental activity and thus its force can be accumulated. Since cittas which arise and fall away succeed one another in an unbroken series, the force of kamma is carried on from one moment of citta to the next moment of citta, from one life to the next life. In this way kamma is capable to produce its result later on. A good deed, kusala kamma, can produce a pleasant result, and an evil deed can produce an unpleasant result. Kamma produces result at the first moment of life: it produces rebirth-consciousness in a happy plane of existence such as the human plane or a heavenly plane, or in an unhappy plane of existence such as a hell plane or the animal world. Throughout life kamma produces seeing, hearing and the other sense-impressions which are vipakacittas, cittas which are results. Vipakacittas are neither kusala cittas nor akusala cittas. Seeing a pleasant object is the result of kusala kamma and seeing an unpleasant object is the result of akusala kamma. Due to kamma gain and loss, praise and blame alternate in our life. 

Rebirth-consciousness is the mental result of kamma, but at that moment kamma also produces rupas and kamma keeps on producing rupas throughout life; when it stops producing rupas our life-span has to end. Kamma produces particular kinds of rupas such as the senses, as we shall see. Citta also produces rupas. Our different moods become evident by our facial expressions and then it is clear that citta produces rupas. Temperature which is actually the element of heat also produces rupas. The unborn being in the womb, for example, needs the right temperature in order to grow. Throughout life the element of heat produces rupas. Nutrition is another factor which produces rupas. When food has been taken by a living being it is assimilated into the body and then nutrition can produce rupas. Some of the groups of rupa of our body are produced by kamma, some by citta, some by temperature and some by nutrition. The four factors which produce the rupas of our body support and consolidate each other and keep this shortlived body going. If we see the intricate way in which different factors condition the rupas of our body we shall be less inclined to think that the body belongs to a self.

There are not only rupas of the body, there are also rupas which are the material phenomena outside the body. What we take for rocks, plants or houses are rupas and these originate from temperature. We may wonder whether there are no other factors apart from the element of heat which contribute to the growth of plants, such as soil, light and moisture. It is true that these factors are the right conditions which have to be present so that a plant can grow. But what we call soil, light and moisture are, when we are more precise, different compositions of rupas and none of these could arise without the element of heat or temperature which is the producing factor. Rupas which are outside the body are only produced by temperature, not by kamma, citta or nutrition. 

Rupas perform their functions, no matter one dresses oneself, eats, digests one’s food, moves about, gesticulates, talks to others, in short, during all one’s activities. If we do not study rupas we may not notice their characteristics which appear all the time in daily life. We will continue to be deluded by the outward appearance of things instead of knowing realities as they are. We should remember that the rupa which is the “earth-element” or solidity can appear as hardness or softness. Hardness impinges time and again on the bodysense, no matter what we are doing. When hardness appears it can be known as only a kind of rupa, be it hardness of the body or hardness of an external object. In the ultimate sense it is only a kind of rupa. The detailed study of nama and rupa will help us to see that there isn’t anything which is “mine” or self. The goal of the study of the Abhidhamma is the development of wisdom which leads to the eradication of all defilements.

25 January, 2002