WEBVTT

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(Bell)

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(In French)
So our question is:
Is there life after death?

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(In English)
Our question is:
Is there life after death?

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Two persons, one question?

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(Laughter)

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Life is always with death
at the same time,

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not only before!

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And...

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It cannot be separated from death.

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Where there is life, there is death.
And where there is death, there is life.

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And this needs a little bit of meditation.

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In Buddhism we speak of 'interbeing'.

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'Interbeing'.

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It means that you cannot
be by yourself alone.

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You have to inter-be with the other side.

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It is like the left and the right.

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If the right is not there,
the left cannot be.

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If the left is not there,
the right cannot be.

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It is not possible to take
the left away from the right.

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It is not possible to take
the right away from the left.

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Suppose I ask one of you to come
and bring the left to the Lower Hamlet

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and one of you to bring
the right to the New Hamlet.

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It is impossible!

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The right and the left,
they want to be together.

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Because without the other, you cannot be.

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It is very clear.

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Like the above and the below.

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The above cannot be there
if there is no below.

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And that is what we call in Buddhism:
'interbeing', 'interêtre'.

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They have to be there at the same time.

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So when God said:

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"Let the light be,"

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the light said:

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"Well I have to wait,
my God, I have to wait."

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God: "What are you waiting for?"

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Light: "I am waiting for darkness
to manifest together."

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Because light and darkness,
they inter-are.

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And God said:
"Darkness is already there."

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And the light said:
"In that case, I am already there."

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So that is true with good and evil,

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before and after,

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here and there,
you and I.

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I cannot be there without you.

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The lotus flower cannot
be there without the mud.

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Without the mud,
there is no lotus possible.

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There is no happiness without suffering.

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There is no life without death.

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And when a biologist observes...

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the body of a human being,

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he sees that life and death happen
at the same time in the body.

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In this very moment,

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thousands and thousands
of cells are dying.

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When you scratch yourself like this,
many dry cells fall down.

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They have died.

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And many cells die
every moment of our daily life.

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And because you are so busy,
you do not notice that you are dying.

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If they die, you are dying!

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You think that you are not dying yet,

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that you have to wait
50 or 70 years in order to die.

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That is not true!

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Death is not down the road,
death is right here and right now.

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So 'la mort', death, is happening
right in the here and now, at each moment.

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And because of the death
of a number of cells,

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the birth of other cells is possible.

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So many cells are being born
in the present moment.

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And we do not have the time
to organize a happy birthday for them.

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So the fact is that,
scientifically speaking,

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you can already see birth and death
happening in the present moment.

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And because of the dying of cells,
the birth of cells is possible.

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Because the birth of cells is possible,
the dying of cells is possible.

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They lean on each other to be.

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So you are experiencing
dying and being born

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in every moment.

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Do not think you were only born
on that moment.

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That moment written
on your birth certificate

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is just one moment.

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And that is not the first moment.

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Before that moment, there were moments
you were already there.

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Before you were conceived
in the womb of your mother,

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you had already been there
in your father and your mother

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in another form.

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So there is no birth, no real beginning
and there is no ending.

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So when we know that
birth and death are always together,

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we are no longer afraid of dying,

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because at the moment of dying,
there is birth also.

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(French) Birth comes with death.

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They cannot be separated.

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This is a very deep meditation.

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And you should not meditate
with your brain alone on this.

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You have to observe life...

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during your daily life.

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And you see birth and death
inter-are in everything:

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trees, animals, the weather,
matter, energy...

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And scientists have already said,

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there is no birth and no death.

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(French) 
Nothing is created, nothing is lost.

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There is only transformation.

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So transformation is possible, is real.

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And birth and death are not real.

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What you call birth and death
are only transformation.

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When you form a chemical reaction,

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you bring a number of substances together.

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And when the substances meet each other
there is a transformation.

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And sometimes you think
a substance is no longer there,

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it has vanished.

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But in fact, looking deeply,
you see the substance is still there

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under another form.

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When you look at the blue sky
you do not see your cloud anymore.

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You think your cloud has died,

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but in fact your cloud continues always
in the form of the rain and so on.

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So birth and death are seen
only on the surface.

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If you go down, deep down,
there is no birth and no death.

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There is only continuation.

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And when you touch the continuation,
the nature of no birth and no death,

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you are no longer afraid of dying.

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And not only the Buddhists
speak of no birth and no death,

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but science also speaks
of no birth and no death.

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They can exchange their findings.
It is very interesting.

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This is an invitation for us
to live our lives more deeply.

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So that we can touch
our true nature of no birth and no death.

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And, I know, Thây's answer...

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is only an invitation to practice.

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We have to live our lives
more mindfully, with concentration

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so that we can be deeply in touch
with what is happening.

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Then we have a chance to touch
the true nature of reality:

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no birth and no death.

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And that is described in Buddhism
with the term 'Nirvana'.

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'Nirvana' is no birth and no death.

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And in Christianity you may call it:

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'The Ultimate', 'God'.

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God is our true nature
of no birth and no death.

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And we do not have to go and find God.

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God is our true nature.

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It is like a wave.

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A wave believes that she is
subjected to birth and death.

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And every time she comes up
and begins to go down,

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she is afraid of dying.

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A wave is afraid of dying.

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But if the wave realizes
that she is water,

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she is no longer afraid.

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Before going up, she is water.
Going down, she is water.

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And after going down,
she continues to be water.

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There is no death.

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So it is very important that
the wave does some meditation,

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and realizes that she is wave,
but at the same time she is water.

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And when she knows she is water,
she is no longer afraid of dying.

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She feels wonderful going up,
she feels wonderful going down.

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She is free from fear.

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And our cloud is also like that,
they are not afraid of dying.

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They know that, if they are not a cloud,
they can be something else,

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equally beautiful, like
the rain or the snow.

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So the wave does not
go and look for water.

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She does not have to go
and search for water,

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because she is water in the here and now.

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The same thing is true with God.

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We do not have to...

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look for God.

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We are God,
God is our true nature.

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You do not have to go
and look for Nirvana.

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Nirvana is our ground.

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That is the teaching of the Buddha.

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And a number of us
have been able to realize that.

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We enjoy the present moment.

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We know that it is
impossible for us to die.

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(Bell)