The History of Buddhist Thought c17.28

c17.28

It is a Buddhist doctrine that the next state of a being to be reborn is determined by the last wish. Buddhaghosa gives examples of it in discussing the Causal Formula (p. 64). There is no necessary violation of the law of karma in this, for whatever that state is, the individual’s karma will begin to take effect in it. Nor can an individual at the end of a life make an arbitrary wish. It is really determined by the life he has led, by the character which he has come to be. We find a parallel to this in the modern parable of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll did not wish to cease to be Mr. Hyde. His accumulated karma had converted into a Mr. Hyde, and he wished to practise the life of a Mr. Hyde more than ever. What he did not wish was the unpleasant consequences.