Commentary on the Fuzi Heji Sutra (81)

At the Moment of Approaching Death, One's Own Karmic Retribution Fully Manifests

However, the Buddha taught that at the boundary of death, when the life faculty ceases—that is, when one's lifespan is exhausted, at the moment when one is about to die but has not yet died, which is called the cessation of the life faculty—one phenomenon appears. The Buddha said that one's own karmic retribution fully manifests. What is one's own karmic retribution? It is the fruition of the karmic actions one has created becoming manifest, just as upon awakening from a dream, one knows what one did in the dream. Before our death at life's end, the deeds done in this lifetime, whether good or evil, appear very rapidly in the mind like a film reel. Then one knows what one has done throughout this lifetime, knows whether good or evil predominated in this life, understands what kind of retribution one should receive, and knows into which realm one should transmigrate.

Thinking it over repeatedly, one finds it strange in the mind: when creating karma, it was done unseen and unknown, the karmic actions have already vanished, yet at life's end they all manifest. Why do they all manifest? It is because when karmic actions are created, those actions exist as seeds, moment by moment, stored within the Tathagatagarbha. The actions vanish, but the seeds remain stored; actions, having form and appearance, can vanish, but the seeds, being formless and without appearance, do not vanish until the retribution is received. Only when sentient beings approach the moment of death do they know whether good karma or evil karma predominated in their lifetime, understand into which realm they should go to receive retribution, and know which karma they should follow to receive retribution. Their minds become perfectly clear, but they can no longer speak. The causality of karmic actions is truly inconceivable.