“y not” said: “But you will recall that in the gandhabba posts it is stated, and more than once, quite simply that the gandhabba exits only in human and animal realm”.
What I meant was that the word “gandhabba” is used to describe the “trija kaya” that is created at the cuti-patisandhi moment for animals and humans only. “Trija” means with three “kaya“.
Both gandhabbas and brahhmas have a “trija kaya“, but a brahma kaya is NOT referred to as a gandhabba.
Four types of bodies or “kaya” are possible, see, “Manomaya Kaya (Gandhabba) and the Physical Body“.
There is a key reason why only the “trija kaya” of a human/animal has a special name of gandhabba. The word gandhabba comes from “gandha“ + “abba” or “inhaling aroma” (gandhabba means “aroma”). See #6 in my previous reply. This is why brahma kaya is NOT referred to as a gandhabba; brahmas do not do “gandha abba“.
Even if a gandhabba is born with a trija kaya at the cuit-patisandhi moment, it is likely to acquire the fourth kaya. There may be different gandhabbas out there with “different densities of the fourth kaya“. Another point is that when a “gadnhabba descends to a mother’s womb”, any fourth kaya it may have comes off, and only the “trija kaya” merges with the zygote in the womb; see, “What does Buddha Dhamma (Buddhism) say about Birth Control?“.
By the way, devas have all four “kaya“. They are born at the cuti-patisandhi moment with all four kaya, but the karaja kaya is extremely fine. It is said that numerous devas can fit in to an area of the size of a hole in a needle. So, you see the mechanisms are different in different realms.
It will take time to sort out these issues. It is not possible to discuss all these details even with many posts. So, there could still be details that are not even in the posts. Even though these could, in principle, be explained in much more detail, I have time limitations and space limitations (the web site already has over 500 posts). Furthermore, I cannot anticipate all the questions people may have.
But these are important issues to be cleared up. This is why it is important to have the discussion forum.