Can one attain enlightenment in the intermediate state?

Question: Someone says that at the time of the end of life, when the five aggregates (including the material physical body and the deluded mind: namely feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness) have dissolved and vanished but the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) has not yet arisen, what remains is true suchness (tathatā), and this is the original face from before one's parents were born. In fact, one could also change this to investigating "What is it after death?" or "What is the face after death?" This saying is also incorrect, isn't it?

Answer: This saying is of course also incorrect. After death, when the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) has not yet arisen, it is not true suchness (tathatā), but rather the combined body of the seventh and eighth consciousnesses. The manas absolutely cannot cease and perish, except in the case of an arhat of the fourth fruit. At this time one cannot attain enlightenment; there is no mind consciousness, and the manas is not that powerful. One must investigate with both operating simultaneously, and there must also be no obstruction by karmic obstacles.

While still alive, one can investigate the face after death, but it is relatively difficult, because after death it is also a combination of the true and the deluded, not only the true. It would be better to investigate "Who drags this corpse around?"—this huatou is relatively easier.

Before the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) is born, there are the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness; one must not think that at this time there is only true suchness (tathatā). When the true and the deluded are combined together, one must not take the deluded as the true either; the combination of the true and the deluded is not true suchness (tathatā). This kind of enlightenment is an enlightenment of guessing and imagination, no different from not being enlightened at all.

Before the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) is born, there are only the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness, and at this time there is no way to attain enlightenment, because the manas cannot by itself discern the eighth consciousness; it cannot even distinctly discern the six sense objects, let alone the eighth consciousness, which is so hidden and secret? Even when the neutrino-body appears and the mind consciousness appears, it is still very difficult to attain enlightenment, because the mind consciousness is extremely weak and its discerning capacity is extremely low—how could one attain enlightenment?

For a person who has not eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), after death, when the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) has not yet arisen, there is especial panic and terror, fearing that the self is about to vanish and perish; at this time one still takes the five aggregates and eighteen realms as the self. How could the seventh consciousness take the gap after the five aggregates and six consciousnesses have perished as true suchness (tathatā)? It is utterly impossible. It would be better to use the gap between the previous thought not yet arising and the later thought not yet arising, which is easier for attaining enlightenment, because at this time there is after all the mind consciousness's knowing, and one is still in meditative concentration (samādhi).