The fust fetters are abandoned by one 'going up-stream to Akanittha',
i.e. by the least advanced Non-returner; the fust two fetters are abandoned
by the antard-parinibbllyi Non-returner, and all three are
abandoned by the Arahat. The above distinction between 'becoming'
and 'arising' is most instructive. The 'up-stream' Non-returner is
clearly not beyond 'arising' in a rebirth, for he has ahead of him
several rebirths in the 'pure abodes', ending in Akani!tha. Only the
highest kind of Non-returner is beyond such 'arising' (uppatti-). He
is not an Arahat, though: one who has destroyed fetters leading to
'becoming'. As an Arahat is one who has attained nibbllna in his
present life, even up to the moment of death (Para.6.22), the highest
Non-returner must attain nibbdna after his death but before 'arising'
in any rebirth, this period being called 'becoming'.l4
(6.25) It can thus be seen that the 'early Suttas' did accept a
between-lives state, known as 'becoming',1s in which it is possible
for a Non-returner to attain nibbllna. An Arahat, though, attains
nibbdna in life, so as not to enter 'becoming', while most beings
pass through it and go on to arise in a rebirth.
THE NATURE OF THE INTERMEDIARY
EXISTENCE
( 6.26) It can be seen that an intermediary existence would act as
a transition between often disparate forms of rebirth. It would thus
be both a vehicle for transferring the continuity of character and
also a time for the necessary re-adjustment. 16 The similes la-c. in
Para 6.23 indicate that it consists of three successive phases, and
Para.6.15 provides terms which must be seen as names for these
phases: 'inclination', 'coming and going' and 'falling away and
arising'.
(6.27) Among the powers attributed to the Buddha and some
Arahats is that of the knowledge of how living beings are reborn:
knowledge of their 'coming and going and falling away and arising'
(0.1.162). At 0.1.83, knowledge of 'falling away and arising' is
likened to a man seeing that 'these men enter (pavisanti) a house,
these men leave (nikkhamanll) it, these men wander the carriage-road
track, and these are sat in the midst where four roads meet'. Here,
of course, the language of 'entering' and 'leaving' is reminiscent of
0.11.334 (Para 6.7), on the 'life-principle' of a dead person. The
simile shows that the three phases of 'becoming' are seen as like
leaving a house, wandering about on a road, and then sitting down
'in the midst where four roads meet'. It is worth noting, here, that
S.IV.194-95 likens a person's body to a border-town and his discernment
to the 'Lord' of such a town, he being sat 'in the midst, where
four roads meet' (representing the four physical elements). The
becoming seated 'in the midst ... • of 0.1.83, then, represents discernment
coming to be established in a new personality, after wandering
in search of 'it'. Another simile for knowledge of beings' rebirths
likens it to the knowledge of a man standing between two houses,
who would 'see men entering a house and leaving it, and going back
and forth and wandering across' (M.I.279). This simile emphasizes
the mid-stage of becoming as one of wandering and wavering, indeed
one of coming and going. Similarly M.l.261 (Para 6.13) refers to
beings 'seeking to be (sambhavesinatp)', who must clearly be those
in the intermediary existence.17
(6.28) It would thus seem reasonable to see the three stages of
this existence as:
i) 'inclination': leaving the body with a desire for a further rebirth,
like a man leaving a house, or a bit flying off a hot, beaten piece
of iron;
ii) 'coming and going': wandering back and forth seeking a rebirth,
like a man wandering on a road or between houses, or a hot iron
bit that flies up in the air;
iii) 'falling away and arising': falling from one's previous state, one's
previous identity, into a new rebirth, like a man settling down
in square or entering a house; or a hot iron bit falling and cutting
into the earth.
As shown in Para 6.19, the whole between-lives state is likened to
that of a leaping flame driven and fuelled by the wind, representing
craving. That is, craving provides the impetus and energy to seek
another rebirth, and the intermediary existence is flavoured by such
craving. As in Para 6.16, craving is the 'moisture' for becoming, and
discernment is its 'seed', so that discernment, will and aspiration
come to be 'supported' in another rebirth.
(6.29) The between-lives state need not be seen as a what we
call a 'fully conscious' state. 0.11.334 (Para 6.7) talks of the lifeprinciple
as leaving a person either in dreaming or death. Other
passages show that the 'early Suttas' talked of going to sleep and
dying in similar ways:
i) 0.1.333-34 uses the expression 'gone to one's day-bed (divaseyya'(
l)' for taking a siesta, while Sn.29 says 'I go no more to
a womb-bed (gabbha-seyyaT(l)' in the sense of 'I will not be
reborn'.
ii) 'Okkamati' is used both of the 'descent' of discernment into the
womb at conception (Para 6.9) and also of 'falling' into sleep
(Vin.I.I5).
(6.30) As will be argued in chapter 10, the discernment found in
(deep) sleep and at the death-moment is seen, in the Theravada
school, as of a kind which is radiantly 'brightly shining' (pabhassara).
This makes sense, from the Theravada perspective, of the
experience of a radiant light which the 'Near-death Experience' literature
says is reported by many people after they are resuscitated after
nearly dying. It also makes sense of the reference in the Bardo ThOtrol
('Tibetan Book of the Dead') to people confronting a pure white light
in the intermediary existence: in the fmt of the three stages of this,
the mind is said to be in an unconscious and luminous state which
is somehow equated with Amitabha, 'Infinite Radiance', Buddha
(Freemantle and Trungpa, 1978: 37). Such ideas also seem to connect
with the idea, in other Mahayana Buddhist texts, that this Buddha
will come to meet his devotees at death.
(6.31) Returning to the 'early Suttas', then, they see the betweenlives
state of becoming as entered when, fuelled by craving for
rebirth, discernment, the main process comprising the life-principle,
leaves the body. In a dream-like existence, it then wanders about
seeking a new life, kept going by craving and accompanied by will
and aspiration. On finding a new life, it falls into the womb (in the
case of rebirths involving this), and sets off the production of a new
mind-and-body, which had been craved for. This all takes place, of
course, within the parameters set by karma, the 'field' in which the
'seed' of discernment grows (Para 6.16). As for the duration of such
an intermediary existence, the opinions cited in later texts is that of
a week or more (K vu.A.l 06-07) or: as long as it takes to unite the
conditions for a new birth; seven days, seven weeks; very quickly
(L' AK.II.48-9).