Tobias asked: “Why is a physical body necessary for distorted sanna and hence kamma generation?”
- A human gandhabba is the essence of a human. It has ‘distorted saññā‘ (i.e., kāma saññā).
- It is just that it cannot fulfil its desires for tastes, smells, and touches since it does not have a physical body.
- Since it does not have a physical body, it cannot engage in killing, stealing, or sexual misconduct. But even though it cannot speak out, it can still generate vaci kamma with vaci saṅkhāra. See #7 of “Correct Meaning of Vacī Sankhāra.” Even though it is unable to do the three types of kamma with the physical body, a gandhabba still generates the urge to engage in them, i.e., generate vaci saṅkhāra. Thus, it probably lives a frustrated life.
- Therefore, it can still generate kammic energies through vaci saṅkhāra and mano saṅkhāra. It is just unable to carry out some of the wishes.
I hope the above answers questions in DammaSponge’s mind. If not, feel free to ask any remaining questions.
