Second thoughts on the last thought

Bhante Dhammika of Australia

Recently a friend of mine who is suffering from a terminal illness told me that he is anxious that his last thought moment in his life will be a positive one and asked me what he can do to assure that it is so he can have a positive rebirth. For many years he has been an enthusiast of the Abhidhamma which teaches the idea that the last thought one has before death will be the determining the quality of the next life. This is a widespread and popular belief but is it true?

Let us now examine some developments of the Buddha’s doctrine of kamma and rebirth that may well distort them rather than be in harmony with them. While the Buddha understood the mind to be a “flow” or “stream” of mental events (vinnanasota), different thoughts, feelings and impressions blending and mixing with others. Later thinkers speculated that it was actually a string of individual thought moments (cittavithi) arising and passing away with great rapidity. Later still, the theory developed that the last of these thought moments (cuticitta) before a person dies will, not just condition, but determine their next life.

The theory of the importance of the last thought moment is not mentioned in any of the Buddha’s discourses or even in the later Abhidhamma Piṭaka. The Tipitaka records many occasions where the Buddha counselled people who were either dying or critically ill and yet he never bought up the idea of the last thought moment, the most appropriate time to do so one would think. The Buddha’s cousin Mahanama once confided to him his anxiety about dying at a time when his mind was confused and bewildered (musati), thinking it might result in him having a negative rebirth. The Buddha reassured him that because he had developed various spiritual qualities for a long time, he had nothing to fear if such a thing should happen.

Two brief and similar discourses of the Buddha in the Itivuttaka have been translated in such a way and interpreted to mean that one’s post-mortem state is determined by the last thought moment. The relevant texts say: “Here monks, some person has a pure mind (pasanna cittam) and knowing his mind with my own, I know that if he were to come to the end of his time at that time (imamhi cayam samaye puggalo kalam) he would be reborn in a heaven realm. And why? Because of his pure mind.”

The passage is a bit unclear and open to several different interpretations, including one supporting the crucial role of the last thought moment. However, the line “because of his pure mind” tips the balance away from this interpretation. An impure mind cannot be made pure by a few positive thoughts just prior to death, or vice versa. It would take many and persistent thoughts, words and deeds over an extended period to do that.

The theory of the importance of the supposed last thought moment first appears in an undeveloped form in the Milindapanha (circa 1st century BCE / 2nd century CE) which says: “If someone did unskilful things for a hundred years but at the time of death was mindful of the Buddha for one moment, he would be reborn amongst the gods.” By the time the Visuddhimagga was composed (5th century CE), this idea had been worked out in detail and had come to be considered orthodox in Theravada. In other words, the last thought theory did not originate from the Buddha but from speculation many centuries later.

Apart from not having been taught by the Buddha, there are several philosophical, ethical and logical problems with the theory that the last thought moment is the determining factor in one’s circumstances in the next life. If a person had lived a relatively good life but in the anxiety and confusion just preceding their death they had some negative thoughts they would, according to this theory, have a negative rebirth. Likewise, one could have lived an immoral and dissolute life but pass away with ease and in peace and therefore have an advantageous rebirth.

This negates the whole idea of kamma, the teaching that the sum total of our intentional thoughts, speech and actions conditions our future, both in this life and possibly the next. Further, it is very difficult to understand how just one or two thought moments, each of them supposedly a millisecond (khana) long, can cancel out perhaps many years of good or evil thoughts, speech and actions. This theory also fails to take into account causation.

If everything is conditioned, and the Buddha taught that it is, and there are thought moments, then the last thought moment must be conditioned by the second last thought moment which in turn must be conditioned by the third last thought moment, etc. This means what we are thinking, saying and doing right now will have an impact on what is in our minds at the time we die. Therefore, to emphasise the last thought moment, even if there is such a thing, is to give exaggerated significance to the effect and neglect the cause or causes, i.e. how one is living here and now.