Can the Physical Body Go to the Land of Bliss (sukhāvatī)?

Question: When one recollects the Buddha and is reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī), does one sit on a lotus flower with one's physical body?

Answer: Rebirth through recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) does take place by sitting on a lotus flower. This lotus flower is created and fashioned by one's own tathāgatagarbha in accordance with the manas, and it is composed of subtle four great elements. When a practitioner of recollection of the Buddha wholeheartedly yearns for the land of bliss, and after the mind attains purity, makes the vow to be reborn there, the tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with the manas's wishes, builds in the lotus pond of the land of bliss a lotus platform that belongs to oneself and matches one's level of spiritual cultivation. This lotus platform is made of extremely subtle material of the four great elements; our substantial, coarse physical body cannot sit on it, for the substantial physical body cannot make contact with the subtle material form of the lotus platform.

At the time of deathbed rebirth, it is the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) that sits on the lotus flower and is reborn in the land of bliss. Because the neutrino-body is also not a substantial, coarse material physical body, it corresponds exactly with the lotus platform, and thus the neutrino-body can sit inside the lotus. After sitting on the lotus, in the space of a finger-snap the lotus platform and the neutrino-body arrive in the land of bliss. The neutrino-body transforms into the heavenly form-body of a being in the land of bliss, and is then wrapped up by the lotus petals, with the form-body dwelling in the lotus palace manifested by one's own tathāgatagarbha. Why does the neutrino-body arrive in the land of bliss so quickly? Because the land of bliss is also a dharma within one's own mind, the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha does not need to travel to any location within its own mind, and the manas, following the tathāgatagarbha, likewise does not need to traverse an infinite distance; hence in a finger-snap one can arrive at the land of bliss within the tathāgatagarbha—in fact, the speed is even faster than a finger-snap. To speak of a "speed" is already very slow, for within its own mind the tathāgatagarbha has no time and no distance at all, and therefore there is no speed.

Upon arriving in the land of bliss, the neutrino-body immediately disappears and is replaced by the beautiful and adorned form-body of beings in the land of bliss, without distinction of male or female; in the land of bliss one is forever young and adorned, forever without aging, death, illness, or suffering. Because the neutrino-body is an extremely subtle material form-body, it can drift to the land of bliss in an instant, whereas our physical body cannot. The physical body is extremely coarse material, unable to drift or float; it cannot even rise a few meters into the air, let alone reach the distant land of bliss. This is precisely the reason that humans with physical bodies lack superknowledge, whereas ghosts and spirits, devas, and non-humans, whose form-bodies are composed of subtle material, do possess superknowledge—they can drift and fly, and in the blink of an eye can reach other worlds.