Paṭicca Samuppāda > Paṭicca Samuppāda in Plain English

Revised May 19, 2019; May 13, 2021; May 19, 2021 (#10-#12); September 9, 2022

Introduction

1. Nāmarūpa can have different but related meanings in different contexts. Nāmarūpa in the standard upapatti Paṭicca Samuppāda is different from the “nāmarūpa” involved in idappaccayā Paṭicca Samuppāda which takes place moment-to-moment.

▪Idappaccayā means “what happens at this moment depending on the conditions at this moment.” Thus, it describes “events in real-time” that bring vipāka in real-time, in addition to vipāka in the future. See, “Idappaccayatā Paṭicca Samuppāda.”

▪The upapatti Paṭicca Samuppāda process describes how viññāṇa energies created up to and within this life lead to future births (i.e., vipāka in future lives via future births). Here “uppatti” means “birth.” See, “Akusala-Mūla Upapatti Paṭicca Samuppāda.”

Nāmarūpa in Idappaccayatā Paṭicca Samuppāda

2. Let us first discuss nāmarūpa involved in Idappaccayatā Paṭicca Samuppāda, i.e., how a jāti can arise in the current life based on one’s avijjā (ignorance) and saṅkhāra (thoughts, speech, and actions).

▪Jāti is not restricted to “births as a human, a deva, an animal.” Many different jāti (births) arise during the current life itself; see “WebLink: suttacentral: Jātidhammādi Sutta Dasaka (SN 35.33).”

▪We will discuss two examples below which explain how a “thief” and a “drunkard” are “born” during the current life itself.

“Viññāṇa Paccayā Nāmarūpa” During a Lifetime

3. “Nāmarūpa” involved in Idappaccayatā Paṭicca Samuppāda mainly refer to those “visual images” created by the person when making an “expectation” (viññāṇa) to achieve/maintain a certain goal.

▪Here, “nāma” refers to whatever the “name” given to the subject involved in the Paṭicca Samuppāda process, and “rūpā” are the associated objects themselves. Thus, the corresponding “nāmarūpa” are the mental images of the subjects in question.

4. Let us take an example. When a thief plans to steal something (say a watch from a store), the process starts with the step “saḷāyatana paccayā phasso;” see, “Generating Kammic Energy in the ‘Upādāna Paccayā Bhava’ Step.” That corresponds to him seeing the watch on display and realizing that he could take it without anyone seeing it.

▪That is when he starts acting with avijjā initiating a PS cycle at “avijjā paccayā saṅkhāra”; he starts thinking about the plan because of his ignorance of the consequences.

▪Here “nāma” or the name is “watch,” and “rūpa” is the watch itself. But “nāmarūpa” is the mental image of that watch: That is formed in HIS MIND. In addition, various other types of nāmarūpa related to the plan will go through his mind.

▪For example, he may also make visuals of how he will be doing the stealing: “nāmarūpa” are the visuals he has in his mind to get the job done.

▪He starts doing vacī saṅkhāra first: thinking to himself about how to go about stealing the watch. This is “saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇa” and that gives rise to viññāṇa for stealing the watch.

5. The more he thinks and makes plans (i.e., makes more and more nāmarūpa in his mind, that future expectation for stealing that object (i.e., the viññāṇa for it) will get stronger.

▪Here the Paṭicca Samuppāda process runs backward, “nāmarūpa paccayā viññāṇa.” This is called an “aññamañña Paṭicca Samuppāda.” [aññamañña : (adj.), mutual.]

▪These forward and backward steps may run back and forth while he is planning the robbery, and the Buddha said that both viññāṇa and nāmarūpa get stronger due to this feedback. They depend on each other and feed on each other.

▪The more he thinks about it, the stronger those viññāṇa and nāmarūpa.

▪Ven. Sariputta provided a simile for this inter-dependence between viññāṇa and nāmarūpa saying it is like two bundles of hay leaning against each other and supporting each other without any other support.

A Second Example

6. Let us take another case of a teenager whose peers influence him to drink alcohol. Because of his ignorance about the consequences, he engages in such activities and also in planning activities: “avijjā paccayā saṅkhāra.”

▪Here saṅkhārā includes not only drinking activities but also planning. Therefore, all three types of saṅkhāra are involved: mano, vacī, and kāya saṅkhāra.

▪While he is participating in drinking he is doing kāya saṅkhāra; he will constantly talking about having such parties and those are vacī saṅkhāra; it is also in the subconscious and many times a day they come back to his mind as mano saṅkhāra. All these are included in “saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇa.”

7. Most people do not realize it, but that process of “thinking and talking to oneself” (vacī saṅkhāra) can make a big impact on the formation of nāmarūpa and the cultivation of viññāṇa. Many people spend hours and hours doing that assuming it does not contribute to “viññāṇa (or kamma) formation”; see, “Correct Meaning of Vacī Saṅkhāra.”

▪In the above example, even when he is not drinking, such mano saṅkhāra comes to the mind automatically, and he starts consciously thinking about drinking activities: he visualizes pictures of “party scenes,” including friends, bottles of his favorite drink, any food that goes with it, etc.

▪That conscious thinking is also vacī saṅkhāra, and those also strengthen the viññāṇa via “saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇa.”

▪Now those mental pictures that arise during that process are nāmarūpa that arise due to “viññāṇa paccayā nāmarūpa.” Therefore, Paṭicca Samuppāda steps do not just flow in one way. They can run forward and backward.

8. If the teenager keeps his bad habit of drinking, he gets trapped in that bhava (state of mind of a drunkard), the more “drunken jāti” will result, i.e., more frequently he will be drunk. When one gets excessively drunk, one tends to behave like an animal without any sense of decency. The long-term consequences could be rebirth as an animal.

▪Suppose that “viññāṇa of a drunkard” stays strong to the time of death (the cuti-paṭisandhi moment at the end of his human bhava). In that case, it could lead to a new uppatti bhava via the uppatti Paṭicca Samuppāda process mentioned in #1 above. We will discuss this second type of Paṭicca Samuppāda

▪The important point is that such a paṭisandhi viññāṇa is likely to give rise to rebirth in the animal realm, as mentioned above.

9. In both these examples, it is clear that those reverse steps also occur: “nāmarūpa paccayā viññāṇa” can happen, and does happen, together with “viññāṇa paccayā nāmarūpa.” The more one visualizes related nāmarūpa, the stronger that viññāṇa gets.

▪As we saw above, this happens in other steps too (for example, “saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇa” and “viññāṇa paccayā saṅkhāra”) and such is referred to as an “aññamañña Paṭicca Samuppāda step.” Here “aññamañña” means “inter-dependent.”

▪This is especially true also for the “saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇa.” The stronger the viññāṇa gets, one is more likely to engage in the same kind of acts, i.e., saṅkhāra, i.e., “viññāṇa paccayā saṅkhāra.” They feed on each other. This often happens in habit formation; see, “9. Key to Ānāpānasati – How to Change Habits and Character (Gati).”

Viññāṇa Paccayā Nāmarūpa at Paṭisandhi (in Upapatti PS)

10. At the end of existence (bhava), a given lifestream jumps from one kind of existence to another. The easiest to visualize is the case of a Brahma to a Deva transition. The “nāma” part changes from a Brahma to a Deva, and the “rūpa” part changes from 2 pasāda rūpa for the Brahma to 5 for the Deva.

▪That transition happens in the latter part of the last citta vīthi of the life of Brahma. At that cuti-paṭisandhi moment, the “Brahma nāmarūpa” dies and a “Deva nāmarūpa” is created by kammic energy. This is discussed in a bit more detail in the post “Cuti-Paṭisandhi – An Abhidhamma Description.”

11. For humans (and animals,) the situation is a bit more complex because the first type of “human nāmarūpa” created is a human/animal gandhabba.

▪In the cases of a human or an animal, the second type of nāmarūpa forms when that gandhabba merges with a zygote in a womb. That nāmarūpa is the basis for the physical human body. So, it depends on the particular case at hand.

▪Let us consider the case of a human dying and born into a deer. A gandhabba is involved in both lives.

Example of a Human to Deer Transition

12. In general, as soon as the viññāṇa for the next existence was determined at the last citta vīthi by the step “saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇa,” the next step of “viññāṇa paccayā nāmarūpa” gives rise to the nāmarūpa for the next life.

▪When human life ends, that “human gandhabba” will die, and at that cuti-paṭisandhi moment a “deer gandhabba” will arise.

▪Thus here, “nāma” includes the basic level of viññāṇa for the new deer’s existence, which is much different from the “nāma” of a human. The “rūpa” is that of a deer and not of a human. Thus “nāmarūpa” makes a huge transition at the end of the “bhava” from human to a deer.

▪Of course, now that “deer gandhabba” needs to be pulled into the womb of a female deer (i.e., doe) to be born a deer.

13. I have discussed previously how a “deer gandhabba” could be reborn many times as a deer until the kammic energy of the “deer bhava” is exhausted; see, “Bhava and Jāti – States of Existence and Births Therein.”

▪In such instances, at the death of the deer, a “deer gandhabba” emerges from the dead body and waits for a suitable womb for the “deer mother” to become available. Here the new “nāmarūpa” may be somewhat different, but still, that of a deer so any change would be minor.

▪Therefore, the “viññāṇa paccayā nāmarūpa” gives rise to a new set of “nāmarūpa” only at the paṭisandhi to a new existence.

Viññāṇa is a key concept in Buddha Dhamma. We can analyze it at various levels, and a deeper analysis is at “Viññāṇa Aggregate.”

Next, “Nāmarūpa Paccayā Saḷāyatana”, ………