That section of the video requires a detailed explanation of why the underlying thought process of that bhikkhu was good, but cuti-patisandhi does not really happen (or can be stopped) just according to one’s wishes.
– I will try to explain this again in a new series of posts starting with the next post. Everything happens via Paticca Samuppada. There is no “self” directing one’s own wishes at EVERY MOMENT. However, one can make decisions when one is generating vaci sankhara CONSCIOUSLY. This is a finer point that needs to be grasped.
– Cuti-patisandhi happens in a citta vithi that takes place in a billionth of a second. There is no time to consciously decide. It happens according to one’s gati. For example, a Sotapanna would not have “apayagami gati” and thus his mind will AUTOMATICALLY reject a transition to a bhava in the lowest four realms.
That bhikkhu was just recalling memories. If he was close to the cuti-patisandhi moment, his kammic energy for the human bhava would have been exhausted, and he would have made a transition to the next bhava. It is not a conscious decision to reject a transition to the next bhava.
That is why the following statement does not make sense:
” However, Lal says that this cuti-patisandhi transition does not occur at every death, only at the end of a bhava (so it could also happen days after the death of a body, in the Gandhabba, I assume) Is it to be assumed that we all, when we die in this life, will experience these flashes but we might not necessarily grasp for anything, such that our bhava will just continue (in the same way as someone who just has an NDE but “decides” to return back to his life)?”
– One needs to understand the difference between the death of the physical body and the cuti-patisandhi moment that happens at the end of the human bhava.
“Bhava and Jāti – States of Existence and Births Therein“