Dependent Arising 14: Name-&-Form 2

“Insofar only, Ānanda, can one be born, or grow old, or die, or pass away, or reappear, insofar only is there any pathway for verbal expression, insofar only is there any pathway for terminology, insofar only is there any pathway for designation. Insofar only is the range of wisdom, insofar only is the round of samsāra kept going for there to be a designation as the this-ness, that is to say: name-and-form together with consciousness.” — Mahā-Nidānasutta “And what, bhikkhus, is name-&-form? Feeling, perception, intention, contact, attention: this is called name. The four great elements and the form derived from the four great elements: this is called form. Thus this name and this form are together called name-&-form.” — Vibhanga Sutta “Name-&-form means a formal name and a nominal form. Form is known with the help of name. Just as feeling, perception, intention, contact and attention represent the primary notion of ‘name’, even so the four great elements form the basis for the primary notion of ‘form’.” —Venerable Bhikkhu Kaṭukurunde Ñāṇananda “There is a tangle within, and a tangle without, The world is entangled with a tangle. About that, oh Gotama, I ask you, Who can disentangle this tangle?” “Where name-&-form As well as resistance and the perception of form Are completely cut off, It is there that the tangle gets snapped.” — Jatā Sutta “From where do currents turn back? Where whirls no more the whirlpool? Where is it that name-and-form Is held in check in a way complete?” “Where earth and water, fire and wind find no footing, From there it is that currents turn back. There the whirlpool whirls no more And there it is that name-and-form Is held in check in a way complete.” — Sara Sutta “He has cut off the whirlpool And reached desirelessness, The stream, dried up, now no longer flows. The whirlpool cut off whirls no more. This, even this, is suffering’s end.” — Dutiya-Lakundakabhaddiya Sutta