Section 8 | Religion and History of Ideas | Session 10
Ineke Van Put, Catholic University of Leuven
Intermediate existence refers to a transitory period/zone between death and the next life. In the post-Vedic tradition it would correspond to the period when one has departed (preta) but has not yet achieved the status of pitr (father, mare). In Buddhism, the concept of intermediate existence (antarabhava) was probably developed in the Bactrian area, more specifically among the Sarvastivadins and Pudgalavadins. Antarabhava is translated into Chinese as chûu or chûin, i.e. intermediate existence or intermediate skandhas. The latter, ancient translation is interesting, because it seems that the character for in (= andha) may have been used to phonetically represent skandha, while at the same time referring to skandhas within the context of antarabhava as the dark intermediate zone between this life and the next one, cosmologically situated in the intermundane darkness of lokantarika. Opposite to yin, is yang, i.e. light, the sun, Amitabha. His land lies outside the Triloka and is the bright transit zone between this life and nirvana, the ultimate Buddhist goal. Assigning antarabhava the cosmological space of lokkantarika is something that befits the personalists rather than the “scholastics.” This may also be said of Sukhavati, where skandhas continue to exist. Finally, the jô in Jôdo means śubha («pleasant») not sukha.
Mark Blum, State University of New York at Albany
The Antarâbhava sūtra was translated into Chinese by Zhu Fonian sometime at the end of the fourth century. It displays a highly heterodox understanding of the antarâbhava doctrine associated with the Sarvâstivâdin school, which posits an intermediate existence between death and rebirth as a kind of temporary staging ground from which one jumps into the womb of his/her next existence. In this, a Mahâyâna sutra, there is a buddha who enters that intermediate state in order to save the beings there. I will show how this sutra combines elements from Indian, Chinese, and Central Asian cultures, and offer the thesis that it was produced by a monastic community belonging to or deriving from the Sammitīyan school and living in Central Asia. Insofar as the sutra's conception of a buddha present in the afterlife who is there as a result of his personal vows to save sentient beings, and he offers his religious assistance to anyone in such a way that this results in the individual altering his heretofore predetermined karmic destiny, the sutra shares much with the Sukhâvatīvyūha myth of Amitâbha/Amitâyus. I will show how the sutra makes allusions to this buddha and Aksobhya Buddha as well, suggesting a kind of oblique relationship. This sutra had considerable impact in both China and Japan, and was brought to Japan in the Nara period repeatedly. It thereafter was often quoted to explain the Buddhist view of the postmortem state.