Thank you for clarifying that, Jay.
Yes. It is possible that I missed that part you quoted above. I will try to listen to it again and will post if I see anything otherwise.
It is commendable that Venerable Bhikkhu Samāhita provided those insights.
It must be noted that these details about the manomaya kaya (gandhabba) are not available in detail in the Tipitaka.
– Those details were in the Sinhala Atthakatha (early commentaries) that have been lost.
– So, it is only when a Jati Sotapanna like Waharaka Thero (who had learned these details in a previous life) is born and is able to provide details, that we get to see the details. Not all Jati Sotapannas can provide such details either.
– Those details can be backed by recent findings in science. Furthermore, many accounts of rebirth stories, Near-Death Experiences, Out-of-Body Experiences, etc. are now available thanks to the internet. Both provide invaluable supporting material to this complex subject.
The role of the manomaya kaya is very important since the physical body is just a shell. It dies in about 100 years, but the manomaya kaya (gandhabba) may live for thousands of years in the human bhava.
– A fly lives only a week or so, but that “fly bhava” (or the existence as a fly) may last many thousands or even millions of years.) So that fly lives in the gandhabba state too.
– As we have discussed, the gandhabba state is not there in Brahma and Deva realms. Their bhava and jati are literally the same. They are born once in those bhava.