A Critical Study of Rūpa in the Theravada Buddhist Scriptures

Abstract

The research was aimed to critically study the Rūpa and its objectives, the cause of rising Rūpa (matter) and Nãma (mind) and then to criticize the essence of Rūpa (matter) as appears in the Theravada Buddhist Scripture. The results revealed that the materiality or Rūpakhandha refers to all conditioned things that arising, remaining and decaying by the causality. The materiality is composed by the four elements viz. earth, water, fire and wind. The term Rūpa can be clarified as Mind and Matter and the conditioned arising of Rūpa and Nãma depend on the planes of existence. The Rūpa and Nãma always arise in the planes of Five Aggregates (pañcavokãrabhũmi) and the Rūpa and Nãma cannot arise in two planes of existence viz., planes of Four Aggregates (catuvokãrabhũmi) and planes of One Aggregates (ekavokãrabhũmi). The results showed that the occurrence of Mind and Matter relate to the mundane called ‘Rũpadhamma- materiality’. The causes of materiality are cravings and greed that attach to the Three Worlds viz. the world of sense-desire, the world of form and the formless world and three of them are heading to the state of impermanence or that is called the state of materiality – Rũpa.