The Karmic Condition of the Cycle of Birth and Death Is Craving

At the time of death, if there is a thought of greed—whether craving for family members and relatives, or 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 possibly take rebirth in hell.

Therefore, if you place 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 it for you? Anything could happen at the time of death, and you cannot know what state of mind you will be in. If you cannot even control your ordinary daily thoughts, then at death, when the four great elements dissolve and karmic obstructions manifest, it is almost one hundred percent certain that, following karmic conditions, your mind will stir and you will fall into the three evil destinies—there is no guarantee you will not enter the three evil destinies. The only way to ensure not entering the three evil destinies is, as much as possible, to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) or to attain seeing the mind, or to accomplish the third contemplation—the earth contemplation—in the Contemplation of the Infinite Life Sūtra. Even recollecting the Buddha with foreknowledge of one's time of death is not reliable; if at that time the mind of recollection is not single-minded and sincerity is insufficient, the Buddha will not come to receive you.

Ninety percent or even more of Buddhist practitioners go to the three evil destinies at death to take rebirth, and most of them go to the ghost realm, because one hundred percent of people have greedy minds and have not eradicated craving. The situation of eradicating craving is this: after eradicating the view of self, one attains the first dhyāna, and within that meditative concentration eradicates craving and anger; apart from this, everyone has a mind of craving. But even if those of the first fruit and second fruit have minds 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, continuing to crave, and gradually eradicating craving.

Such is the mercilessness of the six paths of saṃsāra—it shows no favoritism. Without genuine cultivation and realization, at the end of life one is swept away to transmigrate according to one's karmic obstructions, taking rebirth according to greedy thoughts, with no room for choice. Because there has been no training in ordinary times, or the training has not succeeded. Only those who have eradicated the view of self are people whose training has succeeded.

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

Countless Buddhist practitioners are still unaware of this, still every day craving food, clothing, and dwelling places, fond of enjoyment, fond of so-called freedom and ease, fond of glamour, fond of comfort. These likings are afflictive fetters that bind oneself within the six paths; they are diseases of the mind, and they are the karmic conditions of future lives. In each person's lifetime, all that should be enjoyed has been enjoyed—but what about future lives? Is present enjoyment more important, or is being free from the sufferings of the three evil destinies in future lives more important?

There are also some lofty-sounding cultivation methods that say one should not entertain the thought of eating meat while eating it. As for those who truly do not entertain the thought of eating meat while eating it—people whose minds have already been transformed—Jigong the monk counts as one; among others, how many can manage it? 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, would you have the ability not to repay it?