The karmic condition for the flow of birth and death is craving and love

At the time of death, if the mind is dominated by craving—whether craving for family members and relatives, craving for worldly life, craving for wealth or for affection—one will take rebirth in the ghost realm. If the final thought at death is one of anger—no matter at what, if it is relatively severe—one may well take rebirth in hell.

Therefore, if you pin all your hopes on the final moment, believing that at death you will be able to recollect the Buddha and keep your mind pure, that is extremely unreliable—who has guaranteed this for you? Anything might happen at the time of death, and you cannot know what your state of mind will be. If you cannot even control your thoughts in daily life, then at death, when the four great elements dissolve and karmic obstructions manifest, it is almost one hundred percent certain that you will follow your karmic conditions as thoughts arise and cease, and fall into the three evil destinies. There is no guarantee of avoiding the three evil destinies.

The only way to ensure not falling into the three evil destinies is to strive to eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and to see one's true mind, or to accomplish the third contemplation in the Contemplation of the Infinite Life Sūtra—the contemplation of the ground. Even being able to foresee the time of one's death through recollection of the Buddha is not reliable; if at that time the mind of recollection is not single-pointed and sincerity is insufficient, the Buddha will not come to receive you.

Ninety percent or more of Buddhist practitioners take rebirth in the three evil destinies at death, and most of them go to the ghost realm, because one hundred percent of people have craving and have not eliminated craving. The condition for eliminating craving is that after eliminating self-view, one attains the meditative concentration of the first dhyāna, and within that concentration eliminates craving and ill will; apart from this, everyone has a mind of craving. However, even if a stream-enterer (Srotaāpanna) or a once-returner (Sakṛdāgāmin) has a mind of craving, because they have severed the three fetters, they will no longer take rebirth in the ghost realm; they can only take rebirth in the desire-realm heavens or among humans, where they continue to crave, and gradually eliminate craving.

Such is the mercilessness of the six realms of saṃsāra—it shows no favoritism. Without genuine practice and realization, at the end of life one drifts along according to karmic obstructions, taking rebirth following thoughts of craving, with no room for choice. Because one has not trained in daily life, or has not succeeded in training. Only those who have eliminated self-view are those whose training has succeeded.

But those with false elimination of self-view and false awakening to the true mind still count as not having succeeded in training; they still have not severed the three fetters, and they will still follow thoughts of craving to take rebirth in the ghost realm—this is unavoidable.

Countless Buddhist practitioners remain unaware of this, still craving food, clothing, and lodging every day, fond of enjoyment, fond of so-called freedom and ease, fond of glamour, fond of comfort. These fondnesses are the knots and fetters of affliction, binding oneself within the six realms; they are diseases of the mind, and they are the karmic conditions of future lives. In this life, everyone has enjoyed everything they were meant to enjoy—but what about future lives? Which is more important: enjoyment now, or freedom from the suffering of the three evil destinies in future lives?

There are also some lofty-sounding methods of practice, such as saying that when eating meat one should not conceive of it as eating meat. As for those who truly do not conceive of it as eating meat when eating it—those whose minds have already been transformed—Master Jigong counts as one; how many others can achieve this? Since one is no longer interested in meat, why must one insist on eating it? Would it not be better to let one fewer animal die? At the time of death, when the owner of that meat comes to collect the debt, will you have the ability not to repay it?