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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: Tammy on July 28, 2011, 01:42:41 PM

Title: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Tammy on July 28, 2011, 01:42:41 PM
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!!)

Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: diamond girl on July 28, 2011, 08:09:08 PM
Tammy, you have raised an interesting question. I will not dare to say that what I understand will "enlighten" anyone but I will share what I understand. And would appreciate more input to make this topic better understood to benefit many.

Karma, the principle of cause and effect, is the basis of everything in life. What we have, good and bad, and our experiences are a result of cause and effect. What we practise can "alleviate" (should this be the correct word) the effects of karma, especially the negative karma. For instance if we do not adopt a spiritual practise we may suffer negative karma in a level much worse than if we did adopt a practise. In my context here, I address the buddhist practise.

Let me share with you what happened to my friend, Adam, who had an accident but was left without any physical harm, but his car had to endure expensive repairs. On the night before he had the accident, he attended a pooja and received blessings from his Guru. It was by chance the Guru was giving blessing that pooja. In addition to this, Adam had recently started doing community work. When I heard of the accident, I was shocked. I later learnt that the accident was bound to happen, but because of the blessing and his recent spiritual work, he had "diverted" the negative karma of the accident from being fatal to his life.

As for what I understand about rebirth and our last thoughts, if we are grasping and attached to something when we die, it can lead us to a lesser rebirth. However, I do know that my understanding is rather shallow. I believe that there are practises which only one's Teacher can teach for us to control our rebirth. It is very high tantric practices.

I hope that I have not made it more confusing for you... It has made me think more...   
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: dsiluvu on July 29, 2011, 10:24:35 PM
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!!)


Hi Tammy,

From what I have learnt... it is actually both the above that you mentioned that will affect your next rebirth. The very last thought you have at the time of death is actually a trigger point that opens up your accumulated karma that you have been collecting.

So for example in this life if I was very attached to food and a lazy person in this life and at the point of death I could not stop thinking about how thirsty or hungry I am...I could open up the seeds of an animal and take a rebirth as an animal. The severity of what type of animal, where and in what conditions also depends of the karma I have created. Let's say if I was not kind to animals in this life and I don't like animals. I could take rebirth as an animal that will be hunted or abused, basically I will experience the very same things I did to animals when I am being reborn as an animal! Basically I will be on the receiving end. Hence the saying goes you sow what you reap and cause resembles the effects.

Another example is that if you are very attached to a person and at the time of death you keep thinking or worry about that person, you could end up either a) be reborn as a spirit  or  b) be reborn close to that person... you could that person's child or I suppose dog... basically you reborn close to that person. That is why in Dharma they say that everyone was once your mother!

Hence at the point of death it is important that our mind is focused on what your Guru has advice and the practices He has given you. So if we do have a spiritual guide, we must cherish this fortune of ours, for our Guru will have a road map drawn out for us to become better, we just have to follow it.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Big Uncle on July 30, 2011, 05:18:24 PM
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!!)


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.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: vajrastorm on July 31, 2011, 03:22:43 PM
Yes, both Karma and Our Last Thoughts(or state of mind at point of death, which is also linked to Karma) together, determine where we will be reborn.

The Law of Karma is also the Law of Cause and Effect. Positive actions of body, speech and mind create the cause for happy or fortunate experiences and negative actions create the cause for unhappy experiences and suffering.

Our deluded minds are full of mental afflictions which have been habituated in us over innumerable lifetimes.These propel us towards negative actions all the time.Our actions are constantly and continuously prompted by the three poisons of anger/hatred, desirous attachment and ignorance (that leads us to self grasping.). Thus, unless we practice Dharma and mind transformation and  work on these habituated mental afflictions and delusions, we are going to continue engaging in negative actions and reap more negative karma.And at point of death our habituated negative state of mind  will present itself, trigger off a negative Throwing Action's imprint  which will throw us into a rebirth in the lower realms of suffering.

Not only that, the negative actions will manifest as negative Completing Actions at point of death. A negative Completion Action at point of death will result in an experience of great suffering in our  rebirth. Say, for example, that a positive Throwing Action at point of death results in our attaining a human rebirth. But let's say that unfortunately a negative Completing Action manifests at point of death. This will result in our being born in a place where we will experience great suffering, like Somalia.


According to Pabongka Rinpoche in the Lamrim (Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand), we have accumulated an overwhelmingly great amount of negative karma as compared to the relative small amount of positive karma that we have collected. Thus our mind-stream which carries imprints of actions of innumerable previous lifetimes carry much more negative ones than positive ones. So at point of death, there is the greatest likelihood that the imprint of a negative Throwing Action (and the imprint of a negative Completing Action) will be triggered off.

Thus it is imperative that we practice the Dharma via Moral Discipline , Mind Transformation , Guru Devotion, Self-Purification and Accumulation of Merits. THrough Guru Devotion, through carrying out all our Spiritual Guide's instructions to us(he is the assassin of our ego, the root cause of our collecting negative karma and consequent suffering and rebirth in unfortunate realms), we will be able to attain full liberation from suffering and from samsara. We will be be able to attain full Buddhahood. Once we attain Full Buddhahood, we will be beyond Karma and uncontrolled rebirths. 
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Damian.D on July 31, 2011, 08:53:51 PM
I was taught this a different way.. no need to be technical about it.


What is karma but the result of action.

Actions are determined by thoughts which can be either positive neutral or negative / resulting in positive, neutral or negative results (or karmas)

What determines the thought behind the action is the motivation.

What determines whether the motivation is positive or negative is whether it is to benefit others or to benefit ourselves.

Benefiting others will create either karma, merit or both.

Benefiting ourselves will only create karma which can be either positive, neutral or negative.




How does all this work at the time of death?

Well a practitioner of Buddhism will realise that at the moment of death what is required to take a good rebirth is both karma and merits gained from a lifetime of habituated practice.

Whereas someone who doesn't practise Buddhism will need to rely on their karma also created by a lifetime of habituated practice.

Rebirth is the result of cause at the time of death.
Look at your own life and its habituations...
these will be the cause for your Rebirth at the time of death.

Look at the many different beings in our world, animals, humans, no need to go into that which is unseen.
The dominant traits of these beings were the cause for them to have the results we see today.
Or... look at the dominant habituations of your friends and family... what cause do you think they are creating, what result do you think will be the outcome?

Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: kurava on August 02, 2011, 03:01:51 AM
Both karma and last thought are interlinked.

During our life time when we are fit and healthy, we can't control our thought even for one second. I seriously doubt if  we can control our last thought  when we are weak in body and mind on our death beds.

One of the types of effects from causes created is effect similar to cause i.e. our habituations. Therefore if we have strong habituation of attachment or hatred , without engaging in spiritual practice to transform / change our habit; it is almost certain that our last thought will be that of either attachment or hatred.

With dharma , we intellectually know what we should abandon and acquire but left on our own , our practice always lack power and produce no results.
Out of his great compassion, the Guru constantly reminds, "scolds"  and encourages us to abandon all our bad habits while at the same time strive towards virtues.

If we were fortunate to have a qualified Guru , our last thought  should focus on our Guru because he's the embodiment of all things virtuous.

If we don't have a qualified Guru but have on our own been doing practices of any Yidam or Protector, then we should focus on  the Yidam or Protector as our last thought.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: WoselTenzin on August 03, 2011, 03:36:08 AM
Both karma and last thought are interlinked.

During our life time when we are fit and healthy, we can't control our thought even for one second. I seriously doubt if  we can control our last thought  when we are weak in body and mind on our death beds.

One of the types of effects from causes created is effect similar to cause i.e. our habituations. Therefore if we have strong habituation of attachment or hatred , without engaging in spiritual practice to transform / change our habit; it is almost certain that our last thought will be that of either attachment or hatred.

With dharma , we intellectually know what we should abandon and acquire but left on our own , our practice always lack power and produce no results.
Out of his great compassion, the Guru constantly reminds, "scolds"  and encourages us to abandon all our bad habits while at the same time strive towards virtues.

If we were fortunate to have a qualified Guru , our last thought  should focus on our Guru because he's the embodiment of all things virtuous.

If we don't have a qualified Guru but have on our own been doing practices of any Yidam or Protector, then we should focus on  the Yidam or Protector as our last thought.

Well explained Kurava.  In fact, all spiritual practices are geared towards handling our moment of truth which is our death.  The reason why we even study Dharma and apply it to practice is so that we can rehabituate our negative propensities to positive and virtuous ones.

Like what Kurava has just said, if at the time we are fit and healthy we can hardly control our minds, there is no way for sure we can direct our thoughts to what we want it to be when we are weak and dying at our death bed.  What will prevail at this time will simply be our habitual thoughts.  If our habitual thoughts are mostly negative, that's exactly what's going to pervade our mind at that time. Positive last thoughts are a result of a virtuous practice during our life time.

Hence, our last thought that will determine our next rebirth is largely dependent on our habits and what we practise throughout our life.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: KhedrubGyatso on August 10, 2011, 04:29:36 AM
I agree with Kaurava's comments which are very meaningful and useful. There are generally 3 broad categories of repercussions from one's actions.

1. Ripened effects
2. Effects similar to the cause
a) tendencies   b) experiences
3. Environmental effects

The habituations are due to one's karmic tendencies which are effects similar to the cause - category  2(a). This will manifest more during death as our gross senses dissolve into our subtle minds in the same way when a seemingly perfect gentleman can become shamefully discourteous when they drink too much and begin to lose control of  their gross senses.
Karmic seeds planted in our past are the substantial cause for everything to happen while last thoughts and other objects in ou rpresent life are the supportive or environmental conditions which trigger those seeds. Virtuous seeds = happy results.



Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: dondrup on August 14, 2011, 07:15:24 PM
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!!)


Buddha taught the Twelve Dependent-related Links that explains the process of our existence in samsara.  The Twelve Dependent-related links are: ignorance, compositional actions, consciousness, name and form, six sources, contact, feeling, craving, grasping, existence, birth, ageing and death.

We can use dependent-related existence to answer your questions.  Dependent-related existence is a mental action or intention that has the power immediately to produce the next rebirth.  Whereas dependent-related composition action is the distant cause of samsaric rebirth, dependent-related existence is the close cause. It is not definite that a compositional action will ripen since it is possible to purify a non-virtuous action or destroy the potentiality of a virtuous action, but it is definite that dependent-related existence will produce its results.

Dependent-related existence can be either virtuous or non-virtuous even though it is always induced by the delusions of craving and grasping.  For example, if after generating grasping, a dying person performs a virtuous mental action e.g. going for refuge to Buddha, this will ensure that virtuous potentialities are activated.  When this happens it is definite that the dying person will take rebirth in the higher realms.  By contrast, if a dying person develops grasping and this induces a non-virtuous mental action e.g. harmful thought or wrong view, this will ensure that non-virtuous potentialities are activated.  When this happens it is definite that the dying person will take rebirth in the lower realms.

Hence it is important to maintain virtuous thoughts at the moment of death.  To be able to do that we have to start now to train our mind to be virtuous at all times.  Also we need to purify as much as we can all the negative karma within our mind. We need also to accumulate lots of merits now so that at the moment of death, we will have gahered all the necessary good causes and conditions for a smooth and good rebirth.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Reena Searl on August 19, 2011, 06:10:23 PM
Quote
[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./quote]

Thank you Big Uncle for the above teaching, i will take this as very precious and always remind myself to be prepared for death, to practice dharma and transform my mind.



Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: samayakeeper on August 20, 2011, 06:26:27 AM
I agree with the explanations given by Kurava, Vajrastorm, Big Uncle, dsiluvu, etc. What is vital is that we must start to train our mind now before it is too late. Well, how often do we say "I will do dharma when I am retired", "I have business commitments, my family and staff depend on me. I will learn dharma and do some volunteer work when I made my first million", etc. The thing is Death does not always give us prior warning.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Aurore on September 14, 2011, 10:34:33 PM
Both! Our last thought and karma.

What I was told ...
If we are constantly miserly, we create the karma to be reborn as a spirit.
If our last thought we are constantly worried about security, bills, car, money, etc, we could also be reborn into a wealthy family which will enable us to collect more negative karma or be reborn poverty stricken.

At the end of the day wherever we will be reborn to, it's to another state where we will be collecting more negative karma to continue on that particular attachment unless we are free from the 6 realms.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: dorjedakini on September 15, 2011, 01:26:00 PM
Mainly our last thought.

If whole life we have been chasing for relationship, money, business for ourselves, very less good karma and merits created. At the time of death, even we think of our Guru and Protector, but due to our life times of habitual action, we will be affected by our negative thought and karma.

When we die our senses started to dissolve, we are not familiar with it as we never meditate, we starts to have fear and worry, our untamed mind cannot focus, so if we do not practice Dharma, do our daily prayer, how are we going to be sure that we can still think of our Guru or Protector when we die? Therefore we should not give up our spiritual practices.

But i heard cases that some people who practice Dorje Shugden strong, when their relative who never practice Dharma, because of their samaya with their Lama and Protector, their relatives got a good rebirth. It shows that Dorje Shugden is so powerful and suitable for this era.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: pgdharma on September 15, 2011, 04:11:00 PM
 It is very important to maintain and have virtuous thoughts at the time of death. But how focus can we be at the time of death? Are we willing to train ourselves now to let go of our lifetimes and lifetimes of habituation of attachments, laziness and procrastination? If yes, we may have a chance of a good last thought and good karma ripening at the time of death for us to take a better rebirth. If not, then we will just have to flow with the wind of karma.

If we have the good karma to meet a Guru, but we have this habituation of always resisting what our Guru tell us to do now, even at death if our Guru wants to guide us to a better rebirth, due to our habituation of resisting, we will not listen and follow his guidance. So it is better to start cutting out the attachments and resistance now before it's too late.

.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: whitelion on September 15, 2011, 10:15:22 PM
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.

Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Dolce Vita on December 14, 2011, 06:14:38 PM
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. :)
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Reena Searl on December 14, 2011, 07:10:03 PM
 

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?

Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: fruven on October 14, 2012, 05:13:59 PM
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.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Dondrup Shugden on March 07, 2015, 01:59:44 PM
"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.

Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: yontenjamyang on March 09, 2015, 10:13:05 AM
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.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: yontenjamyang on March 09, 2015, 10:15:28 AM
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.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: cookie on March 11, 2015, 10:20:54 AM
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.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Dondrup Shugden on March 11, 2015, 03:46:41 PM
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.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: tingtong on March 13, 2015, 04:16:17 PM
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...
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Pema8 on March 14, 2015, 06:03:38 AM
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.
Title: Re: What is more influantial to our next rebirth? Karma or our last thoughts?
Post by: Kim Hyun Jae on March 15, 2015, 02:40:45 PM
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.