[Alay]

Hi All,

If a human develops skills (such as languages, music, sport etc…) in this life and is reborn in the animal realm, does the gandhabba carry any of these “skills” to the next life? From reading information on the gandhabba, it appears that the “gati” is what is carried forward. Do such skills form part of gathi?
Given that in the animal realm, they are restricted by their animal form and capabilities, would these skills lay dormant?

Let’s say after many, many life times as an animal, this being is reborn as a human. At this point, would this human still have the ability to be more proficient with the skills that he/she excelled in a past life?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

With metta

Alay.

[y not]

Hello Alay:

As I read and understand the gati pertaining to a particular bhava manifiest only in that bhava; think what would follow if it were otherwise (!) so, yes, any others aquired in a different bhava would lie dormant.

So in the case that you mention, any human gati acquired in a human bhava will re-surface and develop only once another human bhava is attained. This goes too for other realms (human to deva, deva to human and so on).

One must not confuse this with the case where, say, a human ‘develops’ a deva bhava by thinking and acting like a deva and through the workings of paticca samuppada is inevitably reborn in the deva realm.

See what others have to say,

Metta

[Lal]

Alay asked: “If a human develops skills (such as languages, music, sport etc…) in this life and is reborn in the animal realm, does the gandhabba carry any of these “skills” to the next life?”

Yes. Such skills are maintained as one’s gati. Of course they manifest only when one is reborn again in the human realm. An animal cannot display musical talents, if we are talking about musical talents. However, it is possible that the animal may have liking to listen to music, for example.

“Let’s say after many, many life times as an animal, this being is reborn as a human. At this point, would this human still have the ability to be more proficient with the skills that he/she excelled in a past life?”

Yes. That is exactly right. That is why we have heard so much about “child prodigies”: A little kid who can play piano like a pro, a child who can pickup advanced mathematics easily, etc.

[Alay]

Thank you for your excellent explanation. Greatly appreciated.

[Author]

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