BONUS – Naming, Forming, and Reimagining the World: On Nāmarūpa and Steve Jobs’ Insight
How Name and Form, Innovation, and the Seven Layers of Manifestation Shape Our World
Recently, I sat working through several Sanskrit terms for an upcoming essay and began reflecting on those that have served me well since my study of Sanskrit in Graduate School. Admittedly, there are many that have come to be essential to the work both my wife and I do in service to helping people and groups navigate their internal landscape. Nāmarūpa is certainly among my Top Ten.
In Sanskrit, the word Nāmarūpa (नामरूप) translates simply as “Name and Form.” Yet contained within this simple phrase is a vast philosophy of how the world comes to be—not only the natural order, but the human-derived world of systems, structures, and social constructs. To name something is to give it identity. To form something is to bring it into expression. Together, name and form reveal a truth often overlooked: what surrounds us is not inevitable. It is the residue of thought, imagination, and consciousness given shape.
This concept echoes through cultures and philosophies the world over and throughout all known human epochs. In Vedic thought, Nāmarūpa is a way of understanding the phenomenal world. In Plato’s dialogues, the “forms” are eternal templates shaping the visible. In contemporary terms, it is the recognition that every artifact of human life—from the Constitution to the smartphone—once lived as an idea in someone’s mind. Ideas precede reality. Just as every action is preceded by a thought—no matter how subtle the thought. Always has, always will.
The World as Invention
It was this same recognition that Steve Jobs articulated in a now-famous 1995 interview. Reflecting on his life and work, he said:
“When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is… Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact: And that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
Jobs’ words have become a touchstone for entrepreneurs, creators, and dreamers alike—this author included. But the deeper resonance is philosophical. He was speaking not merely of technological innovation but of the plasticity of human life itself. What we assume to be fixed—laws, institutions, traditions—are human inventions, or rather constructs. They are Nāmarūpa: names and forms, conjured and codified.
This realization is fascinatingly liberating. It shifts the world from a stage upon which we passively perform to a canvas we can actively paint. Once we see the human-made quality of life, we are no longer bound to accept it as “the way things are.” We can imagine otherwise.
The Aging of Ideas
Yet here lies the paradox. Because names and forms are human-made, they are not eternal. They age. They calcify. They outlive their usefulness. An idea that once organized society can become the very barrier to its renewal. A form that once liberated can begin to constrain.
Consider the feudal system, monarchy, colonialism, pre-14th Amendment American life, or even outdated economic models—each of these was once a solution, a “form” born of human imagination. But as consciousness evolves, the forms that once held promise begin to buckle under the weight of their limitations. They require renewal, reinvention, or transcendence.
This is what Einstein meant when he observed: “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of consciousness that created them.” Solutions do not come from endlessly patching old forms but from elevating consciousness to imagine new ones.
Consciousness as Blueprint
The essential insight, then, is that consciousness is the blueprint. Every human-derived reality begins in mind. When one’s consciousness is narrow, the forms one produces are brittle. However, when one’s consciousness is expansive, the forms one produces are resilient, life-giving, and capable of growth. Tremendous growth.
This is why the cultivation of consciousness—through reflection, meditation, study, and daily spiritual practice—is not an escape from life but the deepest engagement with it. By touching the source of thought through transcendence, one gains the power to reshape thought’s expressions in the world. In this sense, inner development is not merely personal; it is deeply social and thus beneficial to a great number of one’s fellow humans.
Nāmarūpa reminds us that there is no line between inner vision and outer reality. What we name, we form. What we hold in thought, we project into being. And as Jobs suggested, once we fully grasp this irreducible fact, we are never the same again. Admittedly, over the past three decades, and through many experiences, I have come to see this as a foundational truth—a constant companion shaping all I think, say, and do whose roots reach back to 1993, when I initially encountered U.S. Anderson’s book Three Magic Words (See my reflection titled The Stranger, the Spring and the Seed for the complete story.).
From Name and Form to Manifestation
The Vedic insight of Nāmarūpa—that name and form shape our world—finds an echo in what I call the Seven Layers of Manifestation. If consciousness is the blueprint, then the Seven Layers chart how thought moves from subtle idea to lived reality.
At the first layers, we encounter consciousness itself—pure, silent, the field of all potential. From there, subtle stirrings of intention and imagination arise, clothed in name and form, and gradually emerge into the tangible world. Human institutions, social systems, even the devices many of us hold in our hands to either read or listen to this reflection—all pass through these layers on their way from possibility to actuality.
Recognising this movement is crucial. For if we are surrounded by outdated names and forms, it is not enough to adjust the surface. We must return to the deeper layers—our inner consciousness, our collective imagination—and begin anew from there. Only then do we create forms capable of carrying us forward, forms aligned with life’s deeper intelligence.
The Work of Renewal
The question then becomes: how do we respond when the names and forms around us no longer serve?
First, by recognising their provisional nature. The world as we see it is not fixed; it is malleable. Second, by refusing despair. If all is human-made, then all can be remade. And third, by elevating our consciousness so that what we create next does not replicate the failures of the past but embodies a higher vision of the possible. Key here, is an idea I have long espoused, we must move from the belief in a task as being “Impossible” to that of “I’m possible.” In so doing, we both recognize and act upon the intelligence at our root and all around us—Pure Consciousness.
This is why movements for justice, innovation, and renewal often begin in the imagination—in art, in philosophy, in spiritual experience. They are acts of naming and forming at a higher octave. They declare: this is what could be, and therefore this is what must become.
Toward a Conscious Future
Standing at the crossroads of our own time—with crises encompassing the ecological, political, and technological—the lesson of Nāmarūpa, Jobs’ insight, and the Seven Layers of Manifestation framework could not be more urgent. We are surrounded by names and forms that no longer serve: outdated institutions, inequitable social systems, and technologies that evolve faster than our ethical frameworks.
But this does not mean collapse is inevitable. It means we are invited to consciously create anew.
The path forward requires courage—the courage to question the forms we have inherited, the creativity to imagine forms that do not yet exist, and the consciousness to ensure that what we create uplifts rather than diminishes life.
When we understand that every human-derived thing is a manifest monument to an idea—be it good or bad—we realise our responsibility: to craft ideas worthy of the human spirit. Ideas expansive enough to carry us forward. Ideas aligned with the deeper truth of our shared consciousness—Oneness.
Nāmarūpa whispers across centuries: name it, form it, but never forget—you are free to name again.
So, in the immortal words of Arsenio Hall, former Late-Night Talk Show Host, “Let’s get busy!”
Suggested Practice: Naming and Reimagining
Reflection Prompt
Think of one “name and form” in your life—a system, belief, or routine—you inherited without question. Does it still serve you? Or has it outlived its usefulness?
Journaling Exercise
Write down the original idea behind this form (as best you can discern).
Ask yourself: what was its purpose then? What is its impact now?
Imagine: if you could name and form this anew, what would it look like today?
Optional Guided Step
During your next meditation, hold the thought gently: “Consciousness is the blueprint.” Allow any images or impressions of renewal to surface naturally. Write down what arises afterward.
—
Dr. Baruti KMT-Sisouvong is a consciousness scholar, executive coach, and Certified Teacher of Transcendental Meditation® based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His work—spanning the Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress and the Seven Layers of Manifestation framework—explores how Pure Consciousness, neuroscience, and social systems transformation intersect in the evolution of both the individual and society. Alongside his wife, Mina, he co-directs the Cambridge and Metropolitan Boston TM Program, where they have taught thousands the art and science of meditation.
An author of several forthcoming works on the future of consciousness in an age shaped by technology, he writes and teaches from the conviction that the most important race is not between nations or machines, but between the conditioned mind and the awakening soul. They are the proud parents of four children. To learn more about him, visit: https://www.barutikmtsisouvong.com/.