Consciousness before Nāma-rūpa

To answer your questions: Firstly, why does consciousness come before nāma-rūpa in the present life?

You must understand that in the Paṭiccasamuppāda, viññāṇa is always talked of as being paṭisandhi viññāṇa, which is the relinking consciousness to the next birth and is thus (as they say) ‘free of sense doors.’

Paṭisandhi viññāṇa is that viññāṇa which displays the nimitta that is the symbol leading one to grasp at the moment of conception. To understand this, you must forget the word ‘consciousness’ which almost certainly mistranslates viññāṇa here. My understanding of viññāṇa is that it is a combination of ‘vi’ equalling ‘divided’ plus ‘ñāṇa’ equalling ‘knowing.’

In other words, the one citta (eka cittaṁ equals ekaggatā) splits into two (subject/object) and instead of there being pure ñaṇa (which is unlimited) the citta is driven by avijjā plus kamma to discriminate and thus to become ‘this’ knowing ‘that.’

Again by virtue of kamma, the ‘this’ becomes nāma and the ‘that’ becomes rūpa. But this occurs immediately, without any time interval. It is comparable to an engine pulling the cars of the whole train. The engine is the cause, but the whole lot moves together – one does not go off before the other. This is as far as my understanding goes, but I may yet have to revise my views.

No need to feel ashamed of not understanding this matter. Dependent Origination is very subtle and few people understand it fully. Tan Acharn hardly ever talks of this end of the Paṭiccasamuppāda. He just says it is too high.

This reflection by Ajaan Paññāvaḍḍho is from the book, Dear Jane, (pdf) pp. 312-313.