- This topic has 8 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 2 days ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
We each humans are essentially just two components no? Correct me if I am wrong:
1. our body
2. our gandhabba
When our bodies die our gandhabba essentially waits for rebirth and goes to the next body to inhabit.
However when one attains Arahantship and fully understands Anicca Dukkha Anatta and gains enlightenment-at the end of their life-is it the gandhabba that disappears permanently afterwards?
-
Yes. A human has a subtle/invisible “manomaya kaya (gandhabba)” and a physical body.
- Brahmas only have a manomaya kaya (no physical body), which is not called a gandhabba.
- In humans, a gandhabba enters a womb to initiate the formation of a physical body. Between two consecutive births with physical bodies, a human gandhabba lives without a physical body.
-
Lal wrote: “Brahmas only have a manomaya kaya (no physical body), which is not called a gandhabba.”
Oh I see. How come it is no longer called a gandhabba if I may ask?
-
Gandhabba comes from Gandha + Abba, which means to absorb odour. The gandhabba becomes a little dense after absorbing odour but still not visible to human eye.
A Brahmas body doesn’t do that and also that is a completely different mind and body which doesn’t crave sensuality. A human Gandhabba craves for sensuality but cannot experience it in that state so has to wait for a physical body
-
-
1. If the gandhabba does not smell odor is its body completely without any density?
2. Can it pass through walls when it is at its most subtle?
3. Can it pass through walls when it becomes more dense or will it not be able to pass through when it becomes more dense when it smells?
4. The word gandha means smell- I would know I’m Bengali. Is the word gandhabba alluding and tattle telling on what humans do unknowingly- which is intentionally sniffing and even enjoying ones gas smells- I ask because this could be one way for the Buddha to use it as tactic for humans to become detached and disillusioned with the glitz and glamour of superficial human life.
5. When a gandhabba craves for sensual pleasures but can’t -is that called a peta? ( hungry lustful ghost)?
-
1. Brahmas cannot smell. It has only the sight and hearing. The taste, touch, and smell faculties are absent in a Brahma. That is why it is not called a “gandhabba.”
2. Yes. Even the human gandhabbas can go through walls.
3. A gandhabba can become a bit denser by inhaling orders of flowers, etc. But their “bodies” are still invisible and they can go through walls.
4. Is there a question there?
5. Since it cannot feel touch, a gandhabba cannot have sex.
- Petas are a different category belonging to the apayas, a lower realm.
- A human gandhabba belongs to the human realm. Our essence is a gandhabba; the dense physical body is just a shell. All sensing faculties are in the gandhabba (hadaya vatthu is the seat of the mind, and the five pasada rupas are effectively the five senses.
- See “Manomaya Kaya (Gandhabba) and the Physical Body“
-
I have seen many people not grasping what is meant by disattachment so I will try to make it clear as I understand as it’s very important.
Even many bhikkus in India teach that in order to be free from sexual cravings, focus on the filth of the body and see how disgusting that is. It includes everything , the bones, blood ,rotting nature ,etc.
That is completely wrong.
If the mind generates aversion towards anything thinking that it’s disattachment, it’s not so. It’s still attachment but now through Aversion (earlier it was through Desire). If something creates a disgusting feeling in the mind, it’s a flawed concept, nothing is disgusting and nothing is beautiful. Everything is Neutral.
We must realise that this feeling is being generated in our minds. There are people who desire to have sex with dead bodies, some eat rotten bodies. Why don’t they experience any filth or disgust? It’s all in the mind.
Instead focus on the burning nature of the mind whenever it experiences desire, aversion and delusion.
That happens because this mind which is a process experiences itself as a Self.
So no need to generate any aversion towards anything thinking that it’s disattachment.
Disattachment is realising that there is no value in any Rupa,Vedana,Sanna,Sankhara and Vinnana. Realise their neutral nature and also how we experience a Self
1 user thanked author for this post.
-
Once again thank you Yash for addressing my point in number 4 about gas smell. You are correct that would be generating aversion.
Yash wrote: “That happens because this mind which is a process experiences itself as a Self.
You wrote something similar like that in the other thread about Tilakkhana. Can you explain further? About 1. no self and 2. energy vibrating at different frequencies? Is viewing the self as one continuous entity mistakenly and everything around us too as one continuous stream when it is actually something different like energy vibrating at different speeds or frequencies??
-
For the energy one,
There is just energy out there in the “free form” like light energy, heat energy, etc. and in Condensed or compressed form which is Matter.
I don’t know the exact details as I don’t have intrinsic knowledge about this stuff, I would advise you to talk to some AI like meta or chatgpt for this query, it’s very helpful.
What we should know is that there is just energy and the mind has created its own world.
The Self part
It’s not something that’s absolute. It’s not an energy. But the mind could be seen as an energy or a process that can think.
It’s a mental feeling. The same way we feel things to be “fixed”. That fire example of how we feel a Manifestation to be an Entity.
Same for our mind. It’s just a process that interacts/cognizes.
Check this video, it explains everything in detail. This is not something difficult. It’s only Subtle.
Is threading a needle difficult? No. It’s very subtle and requires strong focus. Same with realising the truth!
It’s like a Magic trick, if once understood would lose all its value and the mind would attain freedom.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.