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2. 37-49]
First, regarding the body: the gross body is produced from the combination of birth caused by delusion and womb birth. The transformation body is produced from sudden birth. It can also be acquired. The nutritive body is auspicious (derived from pure pudgala substance), pure (action without sin), and free from obstruction, and it is that of the fourteen former monks. Birth is the beginning of the body; therefore, the description of the body comes after birth. Various questions related to the body will be discussed further in sequence.
Types of bodies and their explanation: The embodied souls are infinite, and their bodies are also varied; thus, they are individually infinite. However, from the perspective of similarities in function and cause, their five types are briefly described, such as gross, transformation, nutritive, luminous, and karmic. The body is the means for the soul to act. 1. The body that can be burned and can be cut is gross. 2. The body that can take various forms—sometimes small, sometimes large, sometimes thin, sometimes thick, sometimes singular, sometimes multiple, etc.—is transformation. 3. The body that can only be created by the fourteen former monks is nutritive. 4. The body that is luminous serves as the cause of the ripening of consumed food and is the source of radiance; that is luminous. 5. The collection of karmas is the karmic body.
Among the five bodies mentioned above, the gross body is the coarsest, the transformation body is subtler than it, and the nutritive body is even subtler than the transformation body. In the same way, the luminance body is subtler than the nutritive body, and the karmic body is subtler still.
Question: What is meant by gross and subtle here?
Answer: Gross and subtle refer to the looseness and density of the composition, not the quantity. The transformation body is subtler than the gross body but is coarser than the nutritive body. Similarly, the nutritive body and others are subtler compared to the earlier ones and coarser compared to the later ones; that is, this gross-subtle quality is relative. It implies that a body whose composition is looser than that of another body is coarser, and the other is subtler than it. The looseness and density of the composition pertain to pudgala transformations.