What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?

[whitelion]

I think our last thought decided our next rebirth, but our karma lead us to our last thought.

All the practice that we are learning now is to change our habituation, and we will not able to control our habituation at the moment of death, if we are not practice how to control it now. For an example if we hate someone very much even when the moment of death, we heard his name and bring back all the bad memory with this person, the anger will arise ; with anger in us at the moment of death, how could it possible to have a good rebirth ? But if we start to control our wild mind now, and at the moment of death, we will just let go and gone in peace and without any attachment, so we will sure have a good rebirth.

For the dissolution part on Guru Yoga, we are suppose to visualize that's a golden translucent light connected us to the Maitreya Buddha heart , we should start to train to have this visualization every night before we sleep and make it a habit, so when the time of death came, we are so used to it and our habituation will automatically function it that way. So just imagine one still visualize Maitreya Buddha at the moment of death, will he/she get a good rebirth ? Sure he/she does.

[Dolce Vita]

This is a very interesting question. I was curious about the last thought and karma as well, it makes sense to me that our last thoughts will trigger the karma we have with us, whether good or bad. When we have buddha in our last thought and we have the good karma in us, we will go to a better place and vice versa. Thank you for the answers given, it helped me to understand better.

[Reena Searl]

 

To me, I clearly understand that karma definitely will determine our next rebirth and always remind myself that the attachments I cling to may not help in my rebirth, the attachments i have may even become the cause/negative effect of my last thoughts that influence my rebirth?

[fruven]

I think our last thought decided our next rebirth, but our karma lead us to our last thought.

All the practice that we are learning now is to change our habituation, and we will not able to control our habituation at the moment of death, if we are not practice how to control it now. For an example if we hate someone very much even when the moment of death, we heard his name and bring back all the bad memory with this person, the anger will arise ; with anger in us at the moment of death, how could it possible to have a good rebirth ? But if we start to control our wild mind now, and at the moment of death, we will just let go and gone in peace and without any attachment, so we will sure have a good rebirth.

For the dissolution part on Guru Yoga, we are suppose to visualize that's a golden translucent light connected us to the Maitreya Buddha heart , we should start to train to have this visualization every night before we sleep and make it a habit, so when the time of death came, we are so used to it and our habituation will automatically function it that way. So just imagine one still visualize Maitreya Buddha at the moment of death, will he/she get a good rebirth ? Sure he/she does.

You brought up a good point about doing visualisation every night before we go to sleep. During the hour before I go to sleep my mind is the most tired and exhausted. Feeling extreme drowsiness my mind is unable to concentrate. I fall asleep with an exhausted mind and sometimes with mixed emotions. I guessed I need to practice to be joyful and rejoice of my own precious human life whenever I go to bed so that I have good mental state It reminds me of we don't know when we will die, therefore we don't know would we be able to wake up.

[Dondrup Shugden]

"I think our last thought decide our next rebirth, but our karma lead us to our last thought." Quote from WhiteLion.

I like the above caption which is simple to understand and also concur with all the comments posted that Karma and our last thoughts influence our next rebirth.

Believing in what I have quoted, the Dharma is a wonderful practice whereby during our being alive we practise virtuous thoughts (with right motivation and intention) carryout virtuous actions (which benefit others) and rejoice the benefit that is created. This process will generate merits for the purification of our negative Karma.

With negative karma held at bay, our thoughts at death may not be so harmful to lead to rebirth at the lower realms.

[yontenjamyang]

I always hear the following two conflicting (?) view points about what determines the form of our next rebirth, cam someone please enlighten me?

(1) what realms/forms we are going to be in our next rebirth depends on our karma and what we practice
(2) our next rebirth depends on our last thought (if we are attached to someone, we think of this person at the last moment of conciousness, we are most likely to be born as his/her dog!!)

Yes Big Uncle. I totally agree with you that karma and one last thoughts is totally linked. What one last thoughts before one die is a culminations of all the cause created during one lifetimes. That is why, one is advise to do only the virtuous and refrain from any acts non-virtuos.

Also, I will like to act that karma's ripens the strongest first, then the most familiar follow by the oldest. Since it is hard to say what karma is the oldest (and not point to speculate), we always practice the virtuous of the strongest which is of the Guru and the 3 Jewels and habituate ourselves with the works  and practices of the Guru and the 3 Jewels, so much so that we have the Guru and the 3 Jewels 24/7.

Then at the point of our death, we have the strongest possibility to think of the Guru and the 3 Jewels and our next rebirth and perhaps even future rebirth can be assured to be of the positive realms.

Dear Tammy,

1 & 2 are interdependently linked. You must understand that each of our thoughts arise due to causes and conditions brought about by experiences and past actions. Hence, the sum of all our actions will culminate with the last thoughts just before death. In other words, it is really karma that will determine our next rebirth and not just a random thought just before we died. If we want to be prepared for death, we have to practice the Dharma, transform out minds, have Guru devotion and good samaya, rely on a powerful Dharma Protector like Dorje Shugden together with upholding our sadhanas to our Yidams. We can give up on our partners, husbands, wives, children, business and so forth but we cannot give up on our Dharma practice as this 'stability' will be crucial at the hour we need it the most.

[yontenjamyang]

Sorry for the formatting problem above. Let me repeat here my reply:

Yes Big Uncle. I totally agree with you that karma and one last thoughts is totally linked. What one last thoughts before one die is a culminations of all the cause created during one lifetimes. That is why, one is advise to do only the virtuous and refrain from any acts non-virtuos.

Also, I will like to act that karma's ripens the strongest first, then the most familiar follow by the oldest. Since it is hard to say what karma is the oldest (and not point to speculate), we always practice the virtuous of the strongest which is of the Guru and the 3 Jewels and habituate ourselves with the works  and practices of the Guru and the 3 Jewels, so much so that we have the Guru and the 3 Jewels 24/7.

Then at the point of our death, we have the strongest possibility to think of the Guru and the 3 Jewels and our next rebirth and perhaps even future rebirth can be assured to be of the positive realms.

[cookie]

Hence, the consistent practice of POWA is important whilst we are alive, so that at the point of death we can automatically switch to POWA prayers to help us obtain a good rebirth.

[Dondrup Shugden]

Dear Cookie,

Yes I agree with you the practice of POWA whenever we recite our mantras will definitely help our mind to leave from our head and thereby to a realm where we can continue our Dharma practice.

Good that you brought up the practice of POWA. Thank you.

[tingtong]

I always thought karma could lead to next rebirth results and I wasn't aware that the person which you are thinking at that moment will also affect the next life outcome too..

It is definately something new to me.. and it does makes sense that eventually It both links...

[Pema8]

Thank you for this question. It makes sense, our karma which we create day by day will lead us to our last thought. That is why we should keep in mind that dead can happen at any time and it is now we should prepare.

[Kim Hyun Jae]

In the Lamrim on the 12 Inter-dependant links, at the point of death, where we go next will depend on the throwing karma that will ripen then. It is said it will sometimes takes up to 3 lifetimes for specific links in the 12 Inter-dependant links for the respective karma to be enacted, therefore it is better to collect good merits and positive karma and practice the dharma for us to better prepare for the final moments of our life.