I found something by Ayya Khema on intention on the Vipassana Fellowship site . It’s a good read and it touches upon the “residual mind continuum” having an influence on where we’d be reborn. I would like to read the simile she talks about but there is no sutta ID given and I can’t find it. Does anybody know the sutta ID?
The residual mind continuum that we bring with us certainly has a bearing on this life, particularly on where we are born, under what circumstances and in what sort of family. The Buddha gave a simile for that: “If there is a herd of cows locked in a barn, and the barn door is opened, the cow that is the strongest will go out first. If there isn’t one like that, then the one who is the habitual leader will go out first; if there is no habitual leader then the one nearest the door will go out first. If there is none like that, they will all try to go out at the same time” This depicts the mind moments at death. Since death is imminent for everyone no matter what their age, it is skillful to be ready for it now.
Not a sutta. Maybe Ven @Dhammanando can recognize it from the commentaries.
There are echos of this in the Cūḷagopālaka MN34 sutta, but it’s very different and has nothing to do with death. Echos in AN4.113 Assājānīyapatoda as well, but again, not the same.
Thank you Ven. @Snowbird and thank you @Beaver for linking the thread.
Yes, it seems that Invo was asking for the exact same reference. The Dhamma teacher in that video talks about the simile but she doesn’t give the reference.
edit 2:
I just re-read the other thread. So, its origin remains unclear. Hm, it’s a bit mysterious Or have you had any luck @Invo?
Venerable Sujato covers the notion of Deathbed Kamma here. So the reason it can’t be found in the suttas is that it isn’t there.
Also, Bhikkhu Bodhi talks about how different intentional actions generate different kamma with different potentials of result. So some kamma has the potential to generate a rebirth in a particular realm and some kamma doesn’t. Here’s a quote:
"Of course a person collects many different karmas through their actions, but in the way I think is being conceived here that it’s a particular type of karma out of all of those Karmas that a person does, generally it’s held that it’s one particular karma that takes on the role of generating the rebirth. and what I found to support my hypothesis there’s another sutta in AN 6.63
This one says karma should be understood and so forth and then it raises a question what is the diversity of karma. so it says there is karma to be experienced in hell, karma to be experienced in the animal realm, karma to be experienced in the realm of the petas, karma to be experienced in the human realm, karma to be experienced in the deva realm. So you can see that the Karma is of different types, sort of with a disposition to bring its results as a rebirth into one or another of these various realms. so that seems to correspond to the idea of what I call the genotype of the Karma."
Also, AN 6.63 says:
And what is the result of deeds? The result of deeds is threefold, I say: in this very life, on rebirth in the next life, or at some later time. This is called the result of deeds.
Thanks for linking the explication by Ven. Sujato! It makes sense to me that what matters is the kamma made throughout one’s life that determines one’s rebirth and only in exceedingly rare circumstances intentions/thoughts that occur shortly before death.
I just find it curious that two Dhamma teachers (independently?) refer to the same simile and nobody seems to know the origin of the story (even if it’s not in the Nikayas). Triggers my inner Sherlock Holmes.
I would suspect that Ayya Khema might be the source for the other. She (and her writings) have been around for a long time. It’s also possible it comes from a non-Pali tradition.
But Khemā seems to be talking about reserve kamma (kaṭattā kamma) rather than death-proximate kamma, albeit giving it a new name of her own.
Reserve kamma, too, isn’t explicitly mentioned in the suttas, but it seems logically necessary to posit it, since some people pass away in early infancy (or even in their mother’s womb), having neither performed any weighty kamma nor any particular kammas habitually. And so in the absence of habitual or weighty kamma, their rebirth could only be determined by some unripened kamma from a former life.
It’s a genuine Buddhist quote, but just misattributed. The source isn’t the Buddha but Sumangalasāmī, in his Abhidhammatthavibhāvinī, a ṭīkā to Anuruddha’s Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha.
I suspect Ayya Khemā likely learned it from her teacher, the Sri Lankan monk Ven. Nārada.
Strongest cow: This refers to either the five heinous crimes, which invariably lead to Niraya (hell), or to path and fruition (magga-phala), which invariably prevent bad rebirths.
Habitual leader: Rebirth is determined by habitual kamma, based on repeated actions. For example, a professional butcher, a habitual liar, a person with a strong habit of virtue or generosity, or a regular meditator.
Proximate cause: This refers to the death-proximate kamma— the mental state at the moment before death, which can be deliberately cultivated. This includes recollecting past good actions, making merit, or developing meditation on the deathbed.
Reserve kamma: If none of the above factors are present, the reservoir or stored kamma will determine the next rebirth. This kamma is more unpredictable, as it is drawn from the broader accumulation of past actions, including past lives
Yes, this confused me too because she talks about reserve kamma and death-proximate kamma in the same paragraph and that’s why I wanted to read up on the simile.
In the next two paragraphs she then solely talks about the deathbed kamma.
Or have you had any luck 
