How Does the Intermediate State Arise and Enter the Womb?

Q: In the event of sudden incidents such as explosions causing the physical body to be shattered or instantly vaporized, leaving no remains, does the intermediate body manifest suddenly or gradually? How does the intermediate body grasp a fertilized egg to enter the womb?

A: The emergence of each intermediate body occurs because the previous physical form has been damaged and rendered unusable. The mental faculty requires another physical form for its use, and there can be no gap in between. Therefore, the intermediate body arises rapidly. The mental faculty requires the activities of the five aggregates to interact with all phenomena in the world. This is because the mental faculty is not empty; it possesses self-view and self-attachment, as well as dharma-view and dharma-attachment. Due to this attachment, it is unwilling to relinquish the world and the five aggregates. During life, one accumulates karmic seeds for future lives. With these seeds present, after death, there will be future lives; extinction does not occur. In the case of a sudden explosion where the physical body is blown apart and becomes unusable, the karmic seeds provide support. The mental faculty desires another physical body for its use. In response to this wish of the mental faculty, the Tathagatagarbha, based on the karmic seeds accumulated during life, manifests a temporary physical form called the intermediate body to temporarily satisfy the needs of the mental faculty.

If a substantial physical body were to arise, it would require a long time for the four great elements to gradually gather. However, the mental faculty cannot wait. Therefore, only a temporary, insubstantial physical body composed of the four great elements can manifest, distinguishing it from a human body. Because it is not formed by the aggregation of substantial seeds of the four great elements, it lacks the obstructive quality of a physical body formed by such aggregation. Consequently, the intermediate body possesses minor five supernormal powers. Due to the urgent need of the mental faculty, the intermediate body cannot arise slowly but manifests rapidly.

When death occurs suddenly due to an accident without psychological preparation, it is said that such a death cannot lead to rebirth. The deceased can only exist in a spiritual form, drifting like a ghost in the air without a substantial physical body to rely upon, causing great distress. To be reborn, one must seize another spirit as a substitute to take one's place for rebirth. Thus, the deceased will linger at the scene of their death, waiting for an opportunity to create a similar accident to cause another's death, enabling them to be reborn. Therefore, in the world, we observe that locations where accidents occur often witness repeated similar accidents over several years, which is the origin of the notion of "seizing a substitute."

In cases of natural death, the intermediate body exists for a maximum of seven times seven days, forty-nine days. Generally, rebirth occurs by the third seven-day period. The more distinct one's good and evil deeds are during life, the more certain the outcome, leading to earlier rebirth. If good and evil are difficult to distinguish clearly, rebirth still occurs within the forty-nine-day limit. When the opportunity for rebirth arises, the intermediate body rushes to the future parents and enters the womb with the fertilized egg, immediately disappearing. Without the mental faculty, the intermediate body disperses. Wherever the mental faculty is, there will be a physical body.

How does the mental faculty within the intermediate body grasp the fertilized egg for rebirth? Because the mental faculty has not severed desire, upon encountering the conditions involving the parents within the intermediate state, it is attracted by their sexual desire and participates in it. If the karmic force designates one to be male, lust arises towards the mother; if female, lust arises towards the father. Mistaking the parents' sexual union as one's own union with them, at the moment the parents' sperm and egg combine to form the fertilized egg, the intermediate body enters the mother's womb along with it. Those destined to be male face the mother within the womb, while those destined to be female face away from the mother. Consequently, when the fetal body grows, a female fetus shows a visible pregnancy bulge, while a male fetus does not.

In sudden accidents, not only is the physical body shattered, but the conscious mind also suffers extreme fright, causing the "soul to scatter." What scatters are the first six consciousnesses, which, without the physical body to support them, cease and disappear. Only the mental faculty flies out of the physical body, separating from it and becoming isolated. The Tathagatagarbha follows behind, containing all its treasures, yet the mental faculty remains unaware. At this point, the mental faculty, helpless, desires another physical body and five aggregates for its use to pursue worldly phenomena again, oblivious to the priceless jewel behind it. In Buddhist practice, mastering the mental faculty means mastering all dharmas. Not knowing about the Tathagatagarbha is temporarily acceptable. From this, is it not childish and laughable to seek realization through consciousness or to understand the mind through consciousness? Is it not foolish to place hope on a dharma that can vanish in an instant? What wise person would store their treasure in a mirage city or an illusory tower in the air?

Rebirth in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss also occurs from within the intermediate body. Without great supernormal powers, who can see the intermediate body sitting on a lotus flower flying to the Pure Land? What worldly people call rebirth is mere speculation and imagination, not direct perception.

The intermediate body also exhibits gender differences, which are also karmic. The mental faculty, regardless of time or stage, always corresponds to karma, karmic seeds, and karmic force. As long as there is karma for male or female, there will be gender. The gender of future lives is not fixed; it is determined by karmic seeds. Whether one engages in actions characteristic of a man or a woman in this life determines the gender of future lives. These actions include mental conduct and disposition; actions correspond to mental disposition and change accordingly. Therefore, a person with a masculine disposition will manifest a male body in the future life; one with a feminine disposition will manifest a female body, except for those with strong vows. In our monastic precepts, there are many strict rules for bhikkhunis to restrain feminine habits and tendencies, gradually moving away from feminine traits and closer to masculine ones, preparing for a future male body. In real life, we also observe some women who are forthright, magnanimous, and possess a masculine demeanor; they were men in past lives and may become men again in future lives. Conversely, some men inherently exhibit feminine traits; they were women in past lives and may become women again.

Gender is also determined by merit. In the form realm heavens and above, there are no gender distinctions; male and female do not exist. This is supported and determined by the merit of the four dhyanas and eight samadhis. The merit from concentration is immense, enabling beings to temporarily escape the three evil paths, human existence, and the desire realm heavens. The state of the form realm heavens is supremely blissful, far surpassing that of the desire realm heavens. When I attained the first dhyana, I experienced joy daily like an immortal—an indescribable bliss beyond words, unimaginable to ordinary people. The joy of samadhi far exceeds worldly pleasures. Before I practiced Buddhism, I felt heavy-hearted every day, as if a large stone weighed on my heart. From the age of thirteen, I constantly thought of death. After attaining the first dhyana, it felt like ascending from hell to heaven.

In the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, there are also no gender distinctions, supported and determined by great merit. Therefore, without cultivating merit through Buddhist practice and reciting the Buddha's name, obstacles arise everywhere. How then can one be reborn in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss to gather with all superior good beings?