3.2.8. Name and form (MIL3.2.8)

The king said: ‘You were talking just now of name-and-form. What does “name” mean in that expression, and what “form”?’

‘Whatever is gross therein, that is “form": whatever is subtle, mental, that is “name.”’

‘Why is it, Nāgasena, that name is not reborn separately, or form separately?’

‘These conditions, great king, are connected one with the other; and spring into being together.’

‘Give me an illustration.’

‘As a hen, great king, would not get a yolk or an egg-shell separately, but both would arise in one, they two being intimately dependent one on the other; just so, if there were no name there would be no form. What is meant by name in that expression being intimately dependent on what is meant by form, they spring up together. And this is, through time immemorial, their nature.’

‘You are ready, Nāgasena, in reply.’

The Questions of King Milinda, translated from the Pali by T.W. Rhys Davids.

Part 1 (to section 5.4.10) was originally published as Volume xxxv of “The Sacred Books of the East”, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1890.

Part 2 (from section 5.5.1) was originally published as Volume xxxvi of “The Sacred Books of the East”, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1894.

This SuttaCentral edition was prepared by Bhikkhu Sujato based on the digital text of the Internet Sacred Text Archive. The work of the Sacred Text Archive to make this text publically available is gratefully acknowledged.

In preparing this edition minor editorial changes have been made. The structure has been adapted to agree with the Mahāsaṅgīti Pali text as found on SuttaCentral. In addition, the corrections proposed by the translator in the “Addenda et Corrigenda” of the original editions have for the most part been adopted.

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Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.