[Buddha-l] Aupaduka

[Bradley Clough]

On Jan 24, 2009, at 10:37 AM, Piya Tan wrote:

> Dear Dan (or anyone interested),
>
> I need to consult you on a technical term.
>
> Max Deeg, in his paper presented to the "Closer to Reality  
> Conference,"
> held in Kuala Lumpur in Dec 2008, translates aupapaaduka as "being  
> just
> before rebirth" (Tib brdzus te ske-k'ai sems-can) in connection with  
> the
> Wheel of Life, saying that Viniitadeva takes it to mean bar-ma-do'i
> srid-pa'i sem-can (being between two existences). In other words,
> aupapaaduka refers to the intermediate being.
>
> (1) Could you please let me know if the Tibetan quote is correct (if
> possible give me their spellings in the Tibetan script, too).
>
> (2) What do you think of Pali "opapaatika" and "aupapaaduka" being
> synonyms. As such, the Pali term opapaatika would both mean  
> "spontaneously
> born" (for non-returners" as well as "intermediate being".

Sorry for just sending out a blank message: I hit the send button too  
soon!

Yes, the Pali Text Society's Pali-English dictionary defines  
opapaatika as "spontaneously born" or "born without a cause" (meaning  
"born without parents"). But I don't see any connection with the  
intermediate state or the intermediate state being, since the Pali  
tradition does not subscribe to a belief in the intermediate state. It  
does seem to posit a space of time between death & rebirth, but it  
doesn't call it the "intermediate state" and certainly no such thing  
as the "intermediate state being" is accepted (in contrast to SOME  
other early traditions). Rather, they refer to the "rebirth-linking  
consciousness" (pati.sandhi-vin~n~aan.a) as the entity which passes  
from one life to the next. (This idea is not found in the Pali  
Nikaayas or Vinaya; it is first found in the Milinda-pan~a, and then  
later is more fully defined in the Visuddhimagga and other later  
commentarial material, as well as the 12th century 'Summary of  
Abhidhamma' [Abhidhmmattha-sam.gaha]). As for Sanskrit equivalents,  
the dictionary sees the "Buddhist-Hybrid"  Sanskrit  aupapaaduka as a  
"curious distortion" of the Pali  opapaatika.

Bradley Clough
The University of Montana
bradley.clough at mso.umt.edu