The Foundations of Buddhism

The Abhidharma 2J7

done in the immediately previous life that is significant. What i~

said to be crucial in the process of rebirth is one's state of mind

at the time of death. It is understood that at death significant

acts performed during one's life tend to present, themselves to

one's mind. Certain kinds of action-for example, certain types

of murder -are regarded as so 'weighty' that they cannot but come

to mind at the time of death. In the absence of these what tends

to come to mind are one's habitual actions or the actions that

one performs close to the actual time of death. The widespread

Buddhist understanding that actions performed at the time of

death can be of crucial significance in determining the nature

of one's rebirth relates to various customs aimed at turning the

mind of a dying person to some meritorious action that he or she

has performed. Thus flowers, incense·, lamps, or chanting may

be offered on the dying person's behalf. And because the dead

person's new state may be short-lived or, in the Tibetan view, a

temporary 'in-between state', relatives and friends may continue

to perform actions for his or her benefit for some time after death.^14

The Tibetan belief in the bar-do or 'in-between state' (antarii-

bhava) is inherited from the Sarvastivadin Abhidharma and is

associated with the elaborate practices of the Bar-do Thos-grol,

the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead. This notion of the 'in-

between state' was a subject of dispute among ancient Indian

schools of Buddhism; the Theravadins denied that it was co-
herent from an Abhidharma perspective, since an in-between
existence must be another kind of existence.^15
Essentially Abhidharma is a device for promoting mindfulness

and understanding. The study of Abhidharma encourages the

practitioner to pay attention to the kinds of mental states that

are occurring whatever he or she is doing. It also draws the prac-
titioner's attention to the way in which the spiritual process is
understood to unfold. To this extent it can be seen as simply

the elaboration of the analysis of the five aggregates and the

twelvefold chain of dependent arising.

One cannot make oneself think nice things or have beauti-

ful wholesome thoughts, by simply wishing it. The mind works

according to certain laws and principles that are in significant