One Cannot Attain Enlightenment After Death

Answer: If the gap when the five aggregates have dispersed and the four great elements have separated, before the antarā-bhava has arisen, were true suchness, then at that time there should be nothing at all except true suchness—no manas, no six consciousnesses, no physical body, only true suchness. That would be the state of nirvāṇa without remainder, already liberated from the suffering of birth and death within the three realms. If everyone, after death, were in the state of nirvāṇa without remainder, then what would be the point of our painstaking cultivation and study of the contemplation of the four foundations of mindfulness, of studying the principle of the Four Noble Truths, of eliminating self-view to seek liberation? Would the Buddha's coming to this world to expound and transmit the Āgama sūtras, teaching sentient beings to attain liberation, likewise be entirely meaningless? Clearly this is a grave error.

In the gap after death before the antarā-bhava arises, the physical body and the six consciousnesses have all ceased, but the manas certainly cannot cease—otherwise, how could the antarā-bhava appear a moment later? How could there be the five aggregates and the world of a future life? It is because the manas needs the antarā-bhava that the tathāgatagarbha gives birth to the antarā-bhava to satisfy the manas's need. Since the manas of ordinary beings and of those before the third fruit (Anāgāmin) cannot cease, in this gap the seventh and eighth consciousnesses both exist. How can it be said that this is true suchness? To go to the extreme and grant the point—suppose that at this time there is only true suchness, that it is true suchness, that it is the state of nirvāṇa without remainder—then who is it that becomes enlightened? With the sixth and seventh consciousnesses gone, who is there to awaken? Could it be that true suchness awakens to itself? Obviously not.

Since in this gap after death the manas still exists, with the seventh and eighth consciousnesses coexisting, neither able to be apart from the other, can enlightenment occur at this time? If enlightenment were possible, it would be the manas's awakening alone, without the assistance of the mind consciousness, without the mind consciousness guiding the manas by saying "this is true suchness." Could the manas, entirely on its own, possess such great wisdom as to discern true suchness? Obviously it could not. Otherwise, the probability of beings becoming enlightened after death would be enormously high, and many people would then hope to die early in order to attain sagehood. Based on the above contemplation and analysis, whether this person is enlightened or not, judge for yourself—there is no need for me to spell it out.