The death consciousness

In Abhidhamma psychology, the process of dying is understood in precise terms. The final moment of consciousness in this life is called *cuti citta* — the death consciousness. It marks the last arising of mind-and-body in a given existence, conditioned by previous karma, just before the transition to the next birth occurs.

The death consciousness is functionally identical to the life-continuum consciousness (*bhavaṅga citta*) that flows quietly throughout life in the absence of active sense or mind-door processes. However, at the final moment of this life, *cuti citta* ceases, and with it, the current stream of existence ends. Immediately, a new rebirth-linking consciousness (*paṭisandhi citta*) may arise, conditioned by karma, beginning a new stream of existence in a new realm.

Importantly, there is no enduring self or soul that travels from one life to the next. Rather, there is a continuous chain of conditioned mental events, like a flame passing from one candle to another. The last moment of consciousness simply conditions the arising of the next, with no unchanging essence connecting the two.

For the awakened being, however, no new rebirth-linking consciousness arises after the death consciousness ceases. The complete exhaustion of defilements prevents any further becoming. The stream of existence ends entirely — not into annihilation, but into the unconditioned freedom beyond birth and death.

“Just as a seed exhausted of its nutrients produces no further sprout, so too the liberated mind no longer takes birth.”
— Visuddhimagga XVII.134 (paraphrased)