Identity and Experience_Hamilton_1996

124 Identity and Experience
more sense of nimariipa. And the alternative interpretation of nimanjpa also
makes more sense of the formula itself.
Nimarzipa is a relatively common term in the Sutta P$aka, and nima and
riipa are formally paired together in the canonical 'lists of twos'.22 In a postcanonical
text, the Milindapagha, the two are said to be in~eparable.~~ The
term has been interpreted by scholars as meaning 'mind and body' for two
reasons. First, there are a few passages in the Pali material where such a
meaning might be implied. For example, there are passages in the Sutta
Pitaka where it is used to indicate the individual as a whole, in much the
same way savi'n"fii&~a is. We find such a usage in the Samyutta Nzkaia, where
one of the metaphors describing an arahant's freedom from rebirth is the
total cessation of mind and body.24 A similar use of nimariipa occurs in the
Sutta jV$~iita.~= The second reason is because later Theravada Buddhist
exegetes have also understood ncmariipa to mean 'mind and body' and have
said so in some influential and widely read texts. In some passages, nimariipa
is defined as representing the individual as a whole. In his Visuddhimaga, for
example, Buddhaghosa states that in meditation a bhikWlu defines nimanipa
in terms of the five khandhas, with nima representing the four ariipakkhandhas
and rzipa the rzi~akkhandha.~~ In the chapter in the Visuddhimagga entitled
'Description of the Purification of View' (Dit/zihuddhiniddeso), Buddhaghosa
discusses definitions of nimariipa at some length. Quoting several canonical
passages which illustrate the selflessness of the human being in terms of the
handhas, the body, and d&a, he goes on to state that all such passages are
in fact saying that the human being is only niimariipa, and that no self is
found therein because in the ultimate sense there is only ~ziimarzipa.~~ This
clearly equates niimanipa with the five hndhas as representing the individual
as a whole, analysed according to body and mind. In two other noncanonical
Pali texts, the Netti Pakarap and the Abhidhammattha Sangaha,28 and
in the commentary on the Dhammapada, we find the same definiti~n.~~
Nimarzipa is most frequently found in the Sutta Pitaka associated with
vin"n"ina, usually as consecutive links in the pagccasamuppida formula, and
the two together have been understood by later exegetes to represent the
individual. In the version of the paficcasamuppida formula found in the
Diiha Nihya, for example, we read that ViEfiina and nimarzipa are mutually
dependent,30 and that the experience of the cycle of samsira is by means of
nimanipa together with ~in"n"iiy.~l Neither nimarzipa nor UijiEipi on its own is
sufficient cause for the subsequent development of an individ~al.~~
Elsewhere vififiina is said to be dependent on nimariipa, the other way
round from the pa~iccasamuppida formula.33 Though, as we have seen,
Buddhaghosa defined nZma as representing all four of the ariipakkhandhas, he
also discusses nimarCpa together with vififiina in the chapter of his
Visuddhimagga where he deals with each part of the paficcasamuppida formula
in turn. He interprets the two of them according to the analysis of the
person into Wlandhas. Thus riipa and vin"n"ip correspond to their respective