Buddhism Glossary
Namarupa
Nāmarūpa (Sanskrit: नामरूप) is used in Buddhism to refer to the constituents of a living being: nāma is typically considered to refer to the mental component of the person, while rūpa refers to the physical. Most often found as a single compound word understood literally as name-and-form or named form.
Nāmarūpa is a dvandva compound in Sanskrit and Pali meaning “name (nāma) and form (rūpa)”.
Nama (name) and Rupa (form) is the simple worldly identity of any form by a name both of which are considered temporal and not true identity with the nameless and formless ‘reality’ or ‘Absolute’ in Hinduism that has manifested as maya. In Buddhism the loss of all names and forms (conception of distinct concepts) leads to the realization of the Ultimate reality of ‘Shunyatha’ or ‘Emptiness’ or Nirvana “Naked Truth” removed of Maya.