Dear Stephen (and all)

How are you?

You asked:

"Out of interest, where in the Thervadin Abhidharma is the
antaraabhava explicitly denied ?"

Please read Section 505 and onward, Kathaa 74, Eighth Group
(A.t.thamavaggo) in Kathaavatthu. Kathaavatthu is the fifth book of
Abhidhamma Pi.taka.

Please see also my critique of Kumara Bhikkhu.

7711 Kumara Bhikkhu As A Paravaadii (Was: Commentaries {Re: Re-
reading.

There, I wrote:

"Please keep in mind that the Arahant Mahaa Moggaliputtatissa has
profoundly refuted the concept of antaraabhavo in Section 505,
Kathaa 74, Eighth Group (A.t.thamavaggo) in Kathaavatthu when he
presided over the Third Congress Recital (Tatiya Sangiiti)."

You also wrote:

"If my understanding of the Theravadin doctrine of death/rebirth is
correct, there is no role or need for a gandhabba. Please elucidate
why the Buddha speaks of the gandhabba as a necessary factor for
conception to occur but do first look carefully at all the data the
Nikayas give on the gandhabba."

Your understanding of Arahants' teaching (Theravada) on death and
immediate rebirth is correect. And the occurrence of the
term "gandhabba" in the Buddha's teachings is also true.

But, the Buddha did not use the term "gandhabba" as a floating
observing entity in limbo state as paravaadiis would claim. The term
is used in the sense of someone who still has kamma for rebirth and
is about to be conceived in a new womb. It is used to convey a
delicate synchronization between a dying person from this life and a
mother's receptive womb as a kamma-driven destination to the next
life.


With Noble Compassion (Ariyakaru.naa)

Suan Lu Zaw

www.bodhiology.org

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "Stephen Hodge" <s.hodge@...> wrote:
> Dear Bhante,
>
> Your wrote:
> > But then, I think that is no way to argue, because I will say
that my

<snip>

of the gandhabba in the suttas. If my understanding of the
Theravadin
> doctrine of death/rebirth is correct, there is no role or need for
a
> gandhabba. Please elucidate why the Buddha speaks of the
gandhabba as a
> necessary factor for conception to occur but do first look
carefully at all
> the data the Nikayas give on the gandhabba.
>
> Best wishes,
> Stephen Hodge