Thank you. I wonder if I could ask you about the nature of gandharvas.Malcolm wrote: ↑Mon Nov 05, 2018 9:21 pm "Gandharva" is simply name for a being born in the antarabhāva, the intermediate state, or bardo, just like "human being" is a name for someone born in the human realm, "animal" is the name for a being born in the animal realm, "preta" is the name for a being born in the preta realm and so on. The term was derived from gandharvas, which are somewhat equivalent to fairies, and often depicted with horses heads in Indian mythology, they are associated with music. In this case however, the term was chose because beings in the antarabhava persist on smells— gandharva literally means, "odor eater."
In the Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta which I quoted above, it speaks of the three conditions necessary for a human birth which includes the existence of a gandharva. What are the conditions necessary for the birth of a gandharva? Would it be correct to say that what is born after the death of a human being is a gandharva? (And perhaps, what is born after the death of the gandharva is a human being?) And how are the skandhas of a gandharva different (“subtle types”?) than the skandhas of a human being?