Abhidhamma > Gandhabba (Manomaya Kāya) > Manomaya Kāya (Gandhabba) and the Physical Body

Revised April 20, 2016; July 31, 2017; September 6, 2019; March 14, 2021; July 16, 2022; October 31, 2022 (#15)

Introduction

1. Manomaya kāya means a “mental body.” We should not perceive the “mental body” in the same way as our physical body. The mental body is mostly energy than matter. It is called a “body” more in the sense of a “collection,” as in a “body of water” or a “body of evidence.”

▪The Pāli term for a physical body is āhāraja kāya or karaja kāya.

▪The mental body or “manomaya kāya” is also called gandhabba kāya or simply gandhabba. The manomaya kāya is made of three parts called utuja, kammaja, cittaja.

2. Therefore, we have four types of bodies (kāya): āhāraja, utuja, kammaja, and cittaja. The āhāraja kāya is the physical body. The other three are parts of our “mental body,” the gandhabba.

▪It is easy to visualize a “person” consisting of two overlapping bodies: the physical body that we see and the gandhabba with an “energy body” (it is not a body in the sense we are used to but more like a “misty ghost”). The fine body of the gandhabba “overlaps” the physical body (solid or coarse versus that fine gandhabba body.)

▪The gandhabba makes the physical body “alive.” Without it, the physical body is like a piece of wood and is inert. If you touch a dead body, you will feel the difference compared to touching a live person.

▪A dead body is comparable to a metal wire without a current flowing through it. When a current flows through the wire, it becomes “energized.”

▪In the Tirokuṭṭa Sutta (Kp 7) in the Khuddaka Nikāya, gandhabba is called a “tirokuṭṭa.”

3. The physical body (karaja kāya) that we see is built from the food we eat (āhāraja kāya). Starting with a single cell (zygote) in the womb, it grows by taking food from the mother.

▪The gandhabba consists of the other three kāya: kammaja, cittaja, utuja.

▪Under stressful conditions (or with abhiññā powers), the misty gandhabba can come out of the physical body, and the physical body is no longer under the control of the gandhabba. But it is not dead because the jīvitindriya that maintains life is still there.

▪Only at death do both the gandhabba and the jīvitindriya leave, and the body becomes inert like a log.

Kammaja Kāya is Primary

4. Let us follow the time sequence of how a gandhabba evolves to acquire a physical body (in human and animal realms only.) That happens via several steps per Tipiṭaka: “jāti sañjāti okkanti abhinibbatti khandhānaṁ pātubhāvo āyatanānaṁ paṭilābho.” See, “WebLink: suttacentral: Vibhaṅga Sutta (SN 12.2).”

The basis of all the other three kāya is the kammaja kāya; it arises from the kamma seed responsible for that particular bhava or existence at the cuti-paṭisandhi moment.

▪A kammaja kāya has three components called “dasaka” or “ten units.” Those ten units are eight suddhaṭṭhaka and modes of rotation and spin. The three components are vatthu dasaka (hadaya vatthu or the seat of mind), kāya dasaka (blueprint of the final human body), and bhāva dasaka. The latter is loosely translated as man/woman nature, but it encompasses many other features related to one’s gati or bhava).

▪More details at “The Origin of Matter – Suddhaṭṭhaka” and “Gandhabba – Only in Human and Animal Realms.”

▪The formation of the kammaja kāya is called the “jāti” moment of birth.

5. Immediately following its birth, kammaja kāya gives rise to a thought stream (cittaja kāya).

▪Both kammaja and cittaja kāya start producing fine rūpa and immediately give rise to a very light physical form called the utuja kāya. At this stage, cakkhu, sota, ghāṇa, and jivhā dasaka are also present. That is called the “sanjāti” moment of birth.

▪This subtle body with three kāya (kammaja, cittaja, utuja) is a gandhabba. Since all three types of kāya have their origin in mind, the gandhabba is a “mind-made body” or a manomaya kāya. But soon, it will acquire a faint physical body by inhaling aroma (gandha + abba), thus the name gandhabba. Therefore a gandhabba would have all four “bodies” (kammaja, cittaja, utuja, karaja).

▪The five sets of dasaka (kāya, cakkhu, sota, ghāṇa, and jivhā) arrange around the hadaya vatthu (vatthu dasaka) in the subtle or “misty” body of the gandhabba. This gandhabba may exist in that state for a long time, waiting for a suitable womb.

▪That manomaya kāya or the gandhabba will now have to wait for a suitable womb to enter. That could take months or years.

Gandhabba Descending to a Womb

6. When a suitable womb becomes available, this fine gandhabba enters the uterus. At that time, it collapses to a size smaller than a single cell and merges with the single cell (zygote) formed by the union of mother and father. This moment of entering a womb is called the “okkanti moment” of birth.

▪The physical body (karaja kāya) results from that single cell (zygote). It grows first by extracting food from the mother’s womb and then consuming regular food once born as a baby.

▪The physical body grows according to the “blueprint” in the subtle body of the gandhabba. The subtle body of the gandhabba expands with it so that it overlaps the physical body. For example, there is a nervous system in the gandhabba that overlays the physical nervous system.

▪The initial growth stage of the fetus inside the womb is the “abhinibbatti stage” of birth.

7. Then, the fetus inside the womb starts developing and forms the physical senses and the brain over many weeks. The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and nervous system grow during this time. Furthermore, the brain develops too. It will have processing units to analyze signals from those five physical senses.

▪In Buddha Dhamma, the cakkhu indriya is NOT just eyes but also includes the brain’s associated processing centers. Similarly, for the other four indriya: sota, ghāṇa, jivhā, and kāya.

▪Signals generated in these five indriya get to the five pasāda rūpa located around the hadaya vatthu (seat of the mind) as described in “Gandhabba (Manomaya Kāya)- Introduction.”

▪The “khandhānan pātilābho” stage of birth is complete with the formation of all six sense faculties.

▪When that baby is born (i.e., comes out of the womb), that physical body can use all six āyatana (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind) to fully interact with the external world. The final stage of the birth process is “āyatanan pātilābho.”

▪A better description of āyatana at “Contact Between Āyatana Leads to Vipāka Viññāṇa.”

8. Ven. Sāriputta discussed that sequence of events when he analyzed the Dhammacakka Pavattana Sutta in detail to the bhikkhus in the WebLink: suttacentral: Sacca Vibhanga Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 141): “Katamā cāvuso, jāti? Yā tesaṁ tesaṁ sattānaṁ tamhi tamhi sattanikāye jāti sañjāti okkanti abhinibbatti khandhānaṁ pātubhāvo āyatanānaṁ paṭilābho, ayaṁ vuccatāvuso: ‘jāti.’”

▪Those who do not believe in the gandhabba state (i.e., a gandhabba) need to contemplate that point. The gandhabba state is there only in human and animal realms.

▪At death, if that human bhava has more kammic energy left, the gandhabba comes out of the dead physical body and waits for a new womb.

▪If kammic energy for the human bhava is exhausted, then a cuti-paṭisandhi transition occurs, and the above discussed time sequence is repeated. A brand new gandhabba in a new bhava emerges from the dead body. For a technical analysis of this process, see, “Cuti-Paṭisandhi – An Abhidhamma Description.”

The Manomaya Kāya

9. We can get an idea of the fineness of the manomaya kāya from the following comparison. The average human weighs about 70 kg (70,000g) and has a body volume of about 70 L; the Density of a typical fog (that we can barely see) is approximately 0.1 g per cubic meter. Thus the weight “of the fog of volume equivalent of a human body” is about 0.01g.

▪Thus a “human body made of fog” weighs only a tiny fraction of the average human weight.

▪For another comparison, the weight of a mustard seed is about 0.002g.

▪A gandhabba would have a “misty body” like a human figure made of fog, but will be MUCH SMALLER weight; it is immeasurably small. Sexual intercourse between a man and woman creates a zygote (a human cell) in the womb. Then a gandhabba descends to the uterus and takes hold of the zygote; see, “Buddhist Explanations of Conception, Abortion, and Contraception.”

▪My late Noble teacher, Waharaka Thero, has seen how a gandhabba enters a womb. When getting closer to the mother, gandhabba rotates rapidly and loses all its body other than the hadaya vatthu, jīvitindriya, and bhāva dasaka. So it becomes much smaller than an atom in modern science (at the suddhaṭṭhaka level). That tiny body (which would not be seen even by the most powerful microscope) is pulled into the womb through the mother’s body and gets attached to the zygote in the womb. I heard him describe this in a desana.

▪So, a human body starts with two cells from the mother and father (which make the zygote) and an even smaller gandhabba. Thus virtually all the weight of a human comes from nutrients. First from the mother’s body, and once comes out of the womb by eating food.

10. We can easily see the role of the manomaya kāya with the actions by its three components:

▪Kammaja kāya is the most important. It is the blueprint for that existence (bhava). It has the blueprint of the physical body too.

▪Cittaja kāya is what we EXPERIENCE moment-to-moment. We see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and think about concepts with thoughts: cakkhu, sota, gandha, rasa, phoṭṭhabba, and mano viññāṇa.

▪Those thoughts NORMALLY depend on our habits (gati), āsava (cravings), and kamma vipāka, all in the kammaja kāya; see, “What is Mind? How Do We Experience the Outside World?.”

▪If thoughts arise ONLY DUE TO our past kamma and the habits and cravings acquired through them, then kamma would be deterministic. And we will be like robots (which is the case for many beings, like animals). LUCKILY, we can THINK on our own (unlike animals) and change our destinies.

11. That last sentence summarizes the message of the Buddha. Please do not lose this opportunity to get out of this saṁsāric suffering when we have this precious human life, which will last only about 100 years.

▪Even if we are reborn humans, what guarantees will we have to listen or read about Buddha Dhamma?

12. If anything is “transferred” from one existence (bhava) to another, those would be the “gati” and “āsavā” of that lifestream. But they also keep evolving. If we do not act mindfully, we let our minds “go with the flow.” Then our actions will be determined by our saṁsāric habits. That would only further strengthen such habits. That is why it is essential to identify bad habits, eliminate them, and cultivate good ones.

▪That is the process of mind purification called Bhāvanā (Meditation) detailed in Satipaṭṭhāna (see “Mahā Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta”), Ānāpāna sati (“6. Ānāpānasati Bhāvanā (Introduction)”). I have also written about the Sabbāsava sutta: “Habits and Goals,” and a bit more in-depth analysis in “Key Points in the Sabbāsava Sutta” at the end of the post, “The Sotāpanna Stage.”

▪Also, see the post, “The Importance of Purifying the Mind.”

Living Beings in Other Realms Have Different “Bodies” and Different Manomaya Kāya

13. The above description is valid for humans and animals. In Brahma realms, there are only manomaya kāya and no physical body. There are physical bodies in the deva realms, but those are much less dense than human bodies.

•In other realms, different mechanisms (mainly opapātika births) operate; see, “Gandhabba – Only in Human and Animal Realms.”

14. In the post, “What Reincarnates? – Concept of a Lifestream,” we mainly talked about the cittaja kāya, the stream of thoughts, and the physical body. We saw that, If an animal dies and is reborn a human:

▪The physical body in the animal realm is very different from that in the human realm.

▪The cittaja kāya, or the stream of thoughts associated with animal existence (bhava), is also very different from the cittaja kāya of human existence (bhava). That is what is meant by “bhava paccayā jāti” in the Paṭicca Samuppāda: the birth is according to the bhava that latched on at the moment of death, i.e., “upādāna paccayā bhavo”; see, “Akusala-Mūla Paṭicca Samuppāda.”

15. Thus, it is clear that both the physical body and manomaya kāya make “quantum jumps” (large instantaneous change) when switching from one existence (say an animal) to another (say a human).

▪The kammaja kāya has all the kammic potentialities (kamma seeds) acquired up to any given time; see “Saṅkhāra, Kamma, Kamma Bīja, Kamma Vipāka,” and “Saṁsāric Habits, Character (Gati), and Cravings (Āsavas).” But one of those seeds (which embeds matching gati) becomes operative for the “new bhava” and becomes the “bhavaṅga” for that life. The remaining kamma seeds will retain their gati; each kamma seed embeds the gati at the moment of its creation. One of those will rise to the next bhava or existence; that would be the one best matching the mindset at that paṭisandhi moment. Thus, different “gati” are in different kamma seeds. That is why an Arahant’s mind would not grasp any kamma seed with any gati.

▪That is why “no-self” was not approved or rejected by the Buddha: the new life is not the same as the old life. But it is not entirely different either because those gati and āsavā propagate (but they all keep changing too). And similarly, the Buddha neither approved nor rejected the idea of a “self.”

▪A living being is a “life-stream” that changes moment-to-moment based on cause and effect: Paṭicca Samuppāda. Even though there is no “unchanging entity” such as a “soul,” the life-stream has its characteristics (gati and āsavā), which also keep evolving.

More on the Manomaya kāya at: “Manomaya Kāya and Out-of-Body Experience (OBE).”

Next, “Ghost in the Machine – Synonym for the Manomaya Kāya?”, ………..