gzugs

གཟུགས
(visual) form; material form [RB]

recollection, recollecting power, retention, substance, appearance, "form". sight objects, metaphor [in poetics]. image, figure, body, [visible / physical] form, form skandha, form-body, rupakaya. one of the phung po lnga the five aggregates / skandhas. object for the organ of sight mig gi yul statue. [dharani]. long sacred verbal formula. (visual) form; material form, solid forms [RY]

form material substances [RY]

matter [ggd] [RY]

things [capable of] having visual form/ sense qualities * [power of] recollection, retention, substance, appearance, sight objects, poetic metaphor, image, figure, body, form [skandha/ body/ realm, rupakaya, statue, dharani * [f 'dzugs],, will [insert, hold, found, establish, set up, construct, hoist, plant, poke, prick, stab] [IW]

rupa, physical, material, forms, visible form, stature, objects, sight, beauty, relatively stable patterns, color-form, objective constituent of any cognitive situation, gestalt, concretizations, substance, appearance, thrust into, SA 'dzugs pa, body, outward form of anything, matter, matter, color-shape, visual forms [JV]

Discussion

Form. Characterized in the sutras as able to be form. What this means is that form is that which can be harmed: it can be destroyed or deformed. This derives from the etymology of the Sanskrit word rūpa. It is interesting the that English word form has exactly the opposite etymology--stressing the fact that something can be put together or formed--but in essence the meaning is the same, because all that is formed must disintegrate. Form is synonymous with matter. Forms include the internal sense bases of eye, ear, nose, tongue and body, and also the external sense bases of form, sound, smell, taste and touch. Form also refers specifically to the objects of the eye consciousness as well as to the ten sense bases in general. Forms are not just static material objects: physical actions such as prostrations or killing are also forms, because they are the objects of eye or other consciousness. Sometimes translated as matter, but the translation form is preferable both because it is more common and because it allows differentiation between the terms form and matter, which although synonymous, are characterized differently. DKC