ABSTRACT This article investigates the concept of intermediate existence in the early Buddhist theory of rebirth. The main sources investigated for this article are the Pāli canonical and commentarial literature. My main thesis is that early Buddhist discourses contain instances that suggest a spatial-temporal gap between death and rebirth known as ‘intermediate existence’ (antarābhava), in contrast to the idea of Theravāda Buddhist theory that rebirth takes place immediately without a spatial-temporal gap. In order to prove this, I argue that the ‘one who liberates in interval’ (anarāparinibbāyī) attains Nibbāna in the intermediate existence and the concept of gandhabbā in early Buddhist discourses refers to a being in intermediate existence, not to a dying consciousness (cuti-viññāna), and there are indirect inferences to an spatiotemporal gap between death and rebirth in the early Buddhist discourses.

中文翻译：

---

早期佛教重生理论中的中间存在概念

摘要本文研究了早期佛教重生理论中的中间存在的概念。本文研究的主要资料是帕利的规范和评论文献。我的主要论点是，早期佛教的话语包含一些实例，这些实例表明死亡与重生之间存在着时空差异，即“中间存在”（antarābhava），与上座部佛教理论的思想相反，即重生是在没有时空的情况下立即发生的。间隙。为了证明这一点，我认为“在区间中解放的人”（anarāparinibbāyī）在中间存在中获得了涅bb，而在早期的佛教话语中，gandhabbā的概念指的是中间存在，而不是指一种垂死的意识（ -viññāna），