nàma: (lit. ‘name’): ‘mind’, mentality. This term is generally used as a collective name for the 4 mental groups (arūpino khandha), viz. feeling (vedanà), perception (saññà), mental formations (sankhàra) and consciousness (viññàõa). Within the 4th link (nàmaråpa) in the formula of the pañiccasamuppàda (q.v.), however, it applies only to karma-resultant (vipàka) feeling and perception and a few karma-resultant mental functions inseparable from any consciousness.
As it is said (M. 9; D. 15; S. XII, 2): “Feeling (vedanà), perception (saññà), volition (cetanà), impression (phassa), mental advertence (manasikàra): this, O brother, is called mind (nàma).” With the addition of 2 more mental factors, namely, mental vitality (jãvita) and concentration (samàdhi), here ‘stationary phase of mind’ (citta
ṭṭhiti), these 7 factors are said in the Abhidhammattha Sangaha to be the inseparable mental factors in any state of consciousness.
For the complete list of all the 50 mental formations of the sankhàra-kkhandha (not including feeling and perception), s. Tab. II.
nàma-kàya: the ‘mind-group’ (as distinguished from rūpa-kàya, the corporeality-group) comprises the 4 immaterial groups of existence (arūpino khandhà; s. khandha). This twofold grouping, frequent in Com., occurs first in D. 15, also in Pts.M. (I, 183); nàma-kàya alone is mentioned in Sn. 1074.
nàma-rūpa (lit. ‘name and form’): ‘mind-and-body’, mentality and corporeality. It is the 4th link in the dependent origination (s. pañiccasamuppàda 3, 4) where it is conditioned by consciousness, and on its part is the condition of the sixfold sense-base. In two texts (D. 14, 15), which contain variations of the dependent origination, the mutual conditioning of consciousness and mind-and-body is described (see also S. XII, 67), and the latter is said to be a condition of sense-impression (phassa); so also in Sn. 872.
The third of the seven purifications (s. visuddhi), the purification of views, is defined in Vis.M. XVIII as the “correct seeing of mind-and-body,” and various methods for the discernment of mind-and-body by way of insight-meditation (vipassanà, q.v.) are given there. In this context, ‘mind’ (nàma) comprises all four mental groups, including consciousness. – See nàma.