Our Last Thought and Emotion in This Life

By: Sogyal Rinpoche

…Our state of mind at death is all-important. If we die in a positive frame of mind, we can improve our next birth, despite our negative karma. And if we are upset and distressed, it may have a detrimental effect, even though we may have used our lives well. This means that the last thought and emotion that we have before we die has an extremely powerful determining effect on our immediate future…This is why the masters stress that the quality of the atmosphere around us when we die is crucial. With our friends and relative, we should do all we can to inspire positive emotions and sacred feelings, like love, compassion, and devotion, and all we can to help them to “let go of grasping, yearning and attachment.”

From: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

State of Mind at the Moment of Death

By: His Holiness The Dalai Lama

At the time of death attitudes of long familiarity usually take precedence and direct the rebirth. For this same reason, strong attachment is generated for the self, since one fears one’s self is becoming nonexistent. This attachment serves as the connecting link to the intermediate state between lives; the liking for a body in turn acts as a cause establishing the body of the intermediate (bardo) being.

From: Lati Rinbochay and Jeffrey Hopkins, Death, the Intermediate State and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism.