[HugoZyl]

Feedback to, ‘Note that the translator has translated “gandhabbo” as “spirit.” It is not a “spirit” in the sense of a “ghost.” It is the “mental body” of the human that will be born as a baby! Why don’t people ask that translator what that “spirit is”? This is why Buddha Dhamma has been hidden for all these years.’

 

Dear friends and venerables 🙏🏻

  Trust this post finds you all well. Stay warm and wooly. 🌸

  These are my humble thoughts concerning the quote, and the question which ends it, after about 15 years of numerous trips around the spiritual landscape of the internet-world. Feel free to disagree.

  Point 1. Non-westerners don’t question translators. We can clearly see this in the strange fact that white people write the history books of other countries. If a Chinese wants to read the history of China, he can read it written by a Chinese person. If anyone else wants to read the history of China, you’re going to read something written by a white person. Strange but true.

  Point 2. There are four ‘cool’ religions in the world today;

    A. Charismatic Christianity

    B. Hindu Devotionalism (Hare Krishna)

    C. Hindu Non-dualism

    D. Buddhism (Zen, then Tibetan, then Theravada in 3rd place)

A and B are for extroverts. C and D are for introverts. This is of course an incredible simplification.

  Point 3. There is perhaps an 80% chance that someone who is a westerner, and who would thus be interested in questioning the translator, if that person is following Theravada now, they followed Hindu Non-dualism before. It is just more attractive for the average spiritual person. If you see a real master of Hindu Non-dualism, you know you are in the presence of a Divine Being (a Brahma). If you see an Arahant… (Let’s leave that sentence unfinished) 😊

  Point 4. Those who left Hindu Non-dualism, and now turn their sights to Theravada, will not ask the question ‘who?’ (Referring back to the quote from the article which asks, ‘who is the spirit?’). As soon as you ask ‘who?’, you are back at Hindu Non-dualism. (For those dear friends who are perhaps confused by this statement, Hindu Non-dualism asks, who is suffering?… I am… Who am I?… [Now don’t be laughing. Hindu Non-dualism can get you to jhana much faster than Theravada])

  Conclusion. The person who is interested in questioning a translator is most probably a western person who was already been exposed to Hindu Non-dualism, and thus the person will be very reluctant to ask ‘what is that spirit?’ because it seems to be taking them right back again to Hindu Non-dualism. If you ask ‘who’, you are a Hindu. If you ask ‘why’, you are a Buddhist.

  Thank you for reading. Please feel free to disagree or add or take away.

  Namo Buddhaya 🕊️

[Lal]

Yes. The concept of a gandhabba (mental body) is necessary for at least two reasons:

1. Some babies die within a few months, and some even die in the womb within a few days of conception. If the ‘human existence’ is limited to the ‘birth with a physical body,’ does the ‘human existence’ end after such a short time for them?

2. In rebirth accounts, there is always a gap of several years (sometimes hundreds of years; see “Rebirth Account of Dorothy Eady“) between consecutive rebirths. See “Evidence for Rebirth.” What happens to the ‘person’ in between two consecutive lives with physical bodies?

• Without the concept of a gandhabba (mental body), it is not possible to explain the above observations. 

3. Even while living inside a physical body, the gandhabba (mental body) can ‘pop out’ in some situations, especially during heart operations or close to the death of the physical body. See “Near-Death Experiences (NDE): Brain Is Not the Mind.”

_________________

4. The following is an excerpt from another post: “Distorted Saññā Arises in Every Adult but Not in a Newborn.”

“2. A big “mental block” exists in many people’s minds to view the gandhabba as an alien entity. You are your “mental body,” and the physical body is secondary. Your thoughts (cittās) arise in your mental body. Once outside the physical body, the mental body can see, hear, and think independently; of course, it cannot taste, smell, or touch.

• It has been ingrained in our minds (primarily via modern science) that our physical body (or the brain) creates thoughts. But the physical body is just a “shell” that becomes useless once the mental body (gandhabba) emerges from it.
• As we have discussed, a human bhava (existence) may last many thousands of years. It is that “mental body” that lasts through that whole time.
• Your essence is not your physical body or the brain but your mental body (gandhabba).  However, the physical body and the brain play significant roles while the mental body is inside the physical body. 

Mutual Interactions Between Mental Body and Physical Body

3. The issue is understanding how the gandhabba (mental body) trapped inside the physical body receives sensory inputs from the external world. That must be understood before understanding how gandhabba recognizes things in the external world (saññā).

So, the first step is: How does the gandhabba receive information about the external world? How does it see someone standing in front of the physical body?

Facts:

1. Gandbabba consists of only a hadaya vatthu (seat of the mind) and five pasada rupa (cakkhu, sota, ghāna, jivhā, kāya.) 
2. If the gandhabba is outside the physical body (as in an out-of-body experience, such as an OBE/NDE), it can see and hear by itself; see the chart in #5 below. Here, seeing and hearing happen via mechanisms we don’t understand.
3. However, when the gandhabba is within the physical body, it is completely shielded from the external world; the body must function effectively to transmit sensory signals to the gandhabba. Take vision first. To see something, the physical eyes must work. That light signal must be transmitted to the brain via the optic nerves and processed there. The brain MUST pass that information to the gandhabba (by a mechanism we don’t fully understand).
4. Sometimes, during accidents or due to other medical reasons, one of those three components (physical eyes, optical nerves, or brain function) may permanently or temporarily stop.
5. If the brain function stops (temporarily), the patient cannot see, hear, or respond in any way. 

4. That is what happened to the woman in the following video. She temporarily lost brain function.

Notes:

1. In most cases, the patient is unaware of the external world until the brain recovers. However, in the above case, the patient’s gandhabba came out of her body and enabled her to see without the aid of her physical body.
2. The woman’s gandhabba may have come out of the paralyzed body at some point. It was in the room when Dr. Greyson came and followed him to the other room, where her friend was. The gandhabba was watching and listening to the conversation between her friend and Dr. Greyson.
3. Once medical treatment restored her brain function, she could recall the conversation and tell Dr. Greyson about it in great detail. She not only heard but also saw the full details. That is why she noticed the stain on Dr. Greyson’s tie!
4. So, she was able to see with her gandhabba body. Can there be any doubts about that?
5. The gandhabba coming out of the physical body is not a common occurrence.  However, he mentioned (perhaps in another video) that approximately 10% of people have experienced such an OBE. It is more common when patients undergo heart operations because the hadaya vatthu in the mental body overlaps the heart in the physical body.”

[Author]

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