And to add to that In the tradition taught by Ledi Sayadaw it said that Venerable Sariputta said that when we die the last faculty we have is the awareness of breath. All other senses are gone So it’s important to develop awareness sensation and awareness of breath because that will come when we die and if we have that ability the faculty to naturally observe the breath, so even at the time of death we can take a dip into the stream of Nibanna
I’m curious to know where Ven. Sariputta said that when we die the last faculty we have is the awareness of breath; I’ve not read that.
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I believe Patis 1.3 (commonly attributed to Sariputta) is the source of this claim.
Patis 1.3 outlines a complex breath meditation sequencing and terminology — I’m not very well informed in it beyond a cursory curiosity once, this stuff is usually too heavy for me. 
But (the claim that breath is the last thing we’re aware) I believe has something to do with the idea that breath is a singular manifestation of the life faculty, which is supposed to be the last faculty to disappear with death.
So, interestingly there’s a canonical, kind of Abhidhammic explanation about it that’s quite beyond my head.
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The Buddha did say this in MN 62, after describing the full development of anapanasati:
When mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated in this way, even as the final breaths cease they are known, not unknown.”
Evaṁ bhāvitāya, rāhula, ānāpānassatiyā, evaṁ bahulīkatāya yepi te carimakā assāsā tepi viditāva nirujjhanti no aviditā”ti.
He’s not explicitly saying that the last faculty we have is the awareness of breath. But he is at least saying that those last breaths can be known if one has cultivated anapanasati well enough. And we can certainly say that after you stop breathing at the end of life, death is imminent. So if that last breath is not the last thing you experience in this human life, it’s definitely one of the last.
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Not to derail the thread, but current scientific studies point to hearing being the last sense faculty to remain before death, with evidence that people in a pre-morbid state can still react to sound, at least neurologically.
Evidence also indicates that, not surprisingly, “internal” mental states may be experienced even after the heart and breath have stopped.
https://www.utmb.edu/mdnews/podcast/episode/death-and-the-brain
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And this one, I think, is the argument of the Theravadin Abhidhammas.
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Death involves two interdependent yet separate processes - the Body and the Mind.
The termination of bodily processes is usually by way of cardiorespiratory arrest. Its physical markers are the breathing pattern (Cheyne Stokes breathing culminating in apnoea) and the heartbeat (irregular beats/ ECG culminating in flat line asystole).
The termination of mental processes culminates in irreversible loss of brain function. The EEG shows a progressive decline in electrical activity, with occasional brief spikes of Gamma waves ending in a flat reading.
Either can happen first. One leads to the other. The outcome is the same.
Its interesting to contemplate on what this might personally feel like. Would one panic? Would there be sorrow and lamentation at what is inevitable with a craving to hold on to what is fast disappearing.. or even to come back? Would the mind be filled with regret and recrimination or would it be calm and content?
Being Mindful, Tranquil and Aware at life’s end is the Buddha’s prescription to deal with this inevitable situation. Anapanasati, IMO is a good practice to calm the mind by way of calming the breath/ body - Metta is a good practice to calm the breath/ body by way of calming the mind.
Hopefully, our spiritual practice would have given us the tools to be able to rise to the occasion!
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Hi it’s part of the IMC discourses, I assume it’s from the commentary’s, the Vipasanna Meditation Tradition they and Goenka teach enables you to feel sensation that is associated with any thought, it’s an ugly type of feeling you get when any thought comes into your mind is the only way I can explain it, and the only way to get to that and beyond is through the awareness of breath which becomes extremely subtle, it makes sense to me, you can also get to a place of no thoughts through other methods but that just pacifies the mind, through created objects. The awareness of the touch of the breath is not an object created by the mind so at the time of death if all you’ve got left is awareness of breath as what’s reported to have been said by Sariputta it makes so much sense, there are people meditating in the Goenka tradition right now on a 60 day course. It’s about day 40 if you’ve ever had a chance to go deep in that tradition and the only way is to sit long courses because the 10 day courses are just set up as an introduction so that people can get the Seed of sensations throughout their body. People that sit long courses don’t talk about their experiences but I’m sure if you were able to track someone down and ask them sincerely what they experienced most people would give you the same answer not everybody gets to experience it but that doesn’t mean they’re not developing on the path. There’s a belief that Goenka is bringing the way to Nibanna to the second Sasana, but that doesn’t mean that other Buddhist teachers are not teaching the right thing. It’s just different ways of getting to the path.
Damian
When I think of the Buddha’s teachings a a whole, I see a path leading away from a life and consciousness established in and operating from the sensory world and the grasping aggregates. I read suttas again and again that the path out is to understand what’s happening in sensory experience, contemplate the danger and drawbacks of the body and feelings, the mind in perceptions, sankhara and consciousness and then cultivate restraining and abandoning that sensory world in order to cultivate a mind able to see clearly.
In anapanasati, the meditative trajectory is just that. To me, the breath is there to stay in the present, but I don’t see any instruction to fixate on the sensations of the breath as an object. To me, that would keep one rooted in the physical realm. Once it’s well enough understood that the body is just a body, it doesn’t really need to be examined forever, it can be stilled and let go of.
The somewhat cryptic mentions in MN 62 and Patis 1.3 appears to be such an extremely rare subject, that if it were important, it would show up more often and would elaborate on it.
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It seems that if the goal is nibbana, this would be the best option for last moments…?
I’ve been quite enjoying this thread. Very contemplative. Thank you.
AFAIK, dying people stop breathing long before inactivity of the mind and brain so this is surprising to me. 
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Well, MN 62 indeed says that activity of the mind is still present when the breath stops. To me, it says that through extended cultivation of using the breath in meditation, the breaths are easily known and seen to cease.
When mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated in this way, even as the final breaths cease they are known, not unknown.
Another question to ask about this passage is, was the Buddha implying death or the deepest jhanas where there is no need for breathing? I’ve heard Ajahn Brahm say on multiple occasions about how at a point in jhana, the mind is so refined and stilled that the body has no need for breathing.
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Anapana is used to develop Samma Samadhi in this tradition but it is not the main technique it’s part of the technique and becoming aware of gross and subtle sensations with help anapana and observing sensation systematically enables you to experience Bungha which is described in the Satipathanna “I shall breathing experience in the whole body. I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body” this is a phenomenon that occurs naturally . I doubt very much that these two suttas are instruction manuals but a record of the different experiences people have when practicing with samma samadhi so we are able to confirm we are heading in the right direction. That said its very difficult to have this experience of Bungha while practising Anapana which is explained very well by the principal teacher in Australia Patrick Given-Wilson talking about Webu Sayadaw and the relationship he had with Sayagyi U Ba Khin and the importance of developing this faculty which will automatically in my opinion come to our aid at the time of death. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs2yRU4JKVloxWX7659jp8V4URXcDWV5v&si=Tdkn zGQXmyQxnGyy
This is a list of suttas from “ A survey of the use of the term Vedana (sensations) in the Pali Nikayas
By Sean Salkin
DN 22, DN33, MN 2, MN 9, MN 39, MN 44, MN 52, MN 64, MN 106, MN 111, MN 117,
SN 12, SN 12.1, SN 12.15, SN 12.61, SN 12.2, SN 12.67, SN 22, SN.59, SN 22.79, SN 22.95
SN 36, SN 36.3, SN 36.7, SN 36.11, AN 6.63, SN 4.10, SN 4.11, SN 4.12, SN 4.13, SN 4.14
SN 4.15
Abhidhamma Piṭaka
- · Dhammasaṅgaṇī (Abhidhamma Piṭaka, Book I).
- · Vibhaṅga (Abhidhamma Piṭaka, Book II).
- · Paṭṭhāna (Abhidhamma Piṭaka, Book VII), with special reference to:
o Tikapaṭṭhāna
o Kusala-tika Pañhāvāra (Investigation Chapter)
Commentarial and Paracanonical Sources
- · Paṭṭhānappakaraṇa-aṭṭhakathā.
- · Atthasālinī (Commentary to the Dhammasaṅgaṇī).
- · Sammohavinodanī (Commentary to the Vibhaṅga).
- · Paṭisambhidāmagga.