Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 4-minute talk, Ven Sangye Khadro teaches a fundamental Buddhist perspective on death and rebirth. She begins by explaining what death means according to Buddhism — the nonphysical mind separates from the body and takes a new rebirth depending on the karma created in life. But there’s a crucial factor beyond karma itself: the state of mind at the moment of dying. If our mind is peaceful and filled with love, compassion, and faith, positive karma ripens and brings a fortunate rebirth. If our mind is caught in anger, attachment, and fear, negative karma ripens instead, leading to suffering. She emphasizes a practical point: learning to manage our mind and emotions while alive is essential preparation for maintaining a peaceful state at death.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1.05 Taking Rebirth.mp3
UUID: 2e98114c-9a91-47ee-8c19-2a81232d05fa
Teacher: Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald
Collection: Heart advice (Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 4.2 minutes
Words: ~703
So this is something else that Buddhism has to say about death, is that at the time of death, what death actually means is the separation of our non-physical mind from our physical body. And then the non-physical mind or consciousness goes on to take a new life, new rebirth, depending on the karma that we created in this life. Another important factor that determines the circumstances of our next life or next rebirth is the state of mind that we have at the time of death. So that’s very crucial. The state of mind that we’re in when we’re dying.
Because we have a huge collection of karma or karmic imprints on our mind. We have good ones and bad ones. I mean, none of us is perfect. So as we go through life, we sometimes make mistakes. We do harmful things.
But we also do a lot of good things. So we have this big collection of both good and bad karma in our mind at the time of death. So then there’s the question of, okay, which karma is going to be the cause for our next rebirth? So that is answered by the state of mind that we have at the time of death. If our mind is in a positive state, for example, if we’re peaceful and accepting of what’s happening to us, if we’re able to feel love and compassion for the people around us, and other positive states of mind such as faith and devotion to whoever our objects of refuge are, whether it’s the Buddha or God or whoever.
So if we can have positive thoughts, positive states of mind at the time of death, then that state of mind will be the catalyst for one of our good karmic seeds to ripen, to come to the surface and be the cause for our next rebirth. And in that case we’ll be born in a good situation. But on the other hand, if at the time of death, our mind gets caught up in disturbing negative thoughts, feelings, attitudes, for example, feeling angry, you know, we may be angry that we’re sick and dying or angry at somebody around us. Or we may have excessive attachment and unwillingness to leave behind our loved ones, our possessions, our home, our body, and so forth. So if our mind is caught up in some kind of disturbing negative attitude, then that negative state of mind becomes the catalyst for one of our negative karmic seeds or bad karmas to come to the surface, ripen, and be the cause for the next rebirth, which will be an unfortunate one.
So there’s two main factors then that determine the next rebirth. Where our mind goes. What kind of life we’re born into. One is our karma, the actions that we created during our life. And the second one is the state of mind that we have at the time of death.
So according to Buddhism, and I believe it’s true for all other religions and spiritual traditions, it’s considered very, very important to try to die with a positive, peaceful state of mind, a mind free of disturbing negative emotions such as anger, attachment, fear, and so forth. And that also shows us how important it is to be prepared for death. Because if we don’t learn how to manage our mind while we’re alive, if we don’t know how to keep our mind free of negative thoughts and emotions, and if we just let our mind get caught up in anger and attachment and other disturbing emotions, if that is what’s happening during our life, then it will be difficult, if not impossible, for us to keep our mind peaceful and positive and free of negative emotions at the time of death. Whereas on the other hand, if as we go through life, we learn how to manage our mind, how to manage our emotions, how to keep our mind positive and peaceful, and how to deal with negative emotions when they arise, then that’s a really helpful, really essential preparation for being able to have a peaceful state of mind at the time of death.