WEBVTT

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(Half Bell)

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(Bell)

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Dear Thay, dear Sangha,

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if I set a cause into motion in this life

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but the conditions are not right
for the effects until the next life,

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who reaps the effects if there is no self?

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This is the object of tomorrow's Dharma talk.

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(Laughter)

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The question is whether the actor
and the receiver of the fruit of action

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are the same person or different persons.

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Because things are impermanent

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that person who produces 
a good action today

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and the person a few years later

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that harvests the fruit of the action:

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are they the same person?

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Or are they two different persons?

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And that is the teaching of 
"the Middle Way."

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That is very deep.

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"No self"

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does not meant you are not there.

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When we look into our own body,

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we see there is a community of cells;

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and the cells in the body 
working together in harmony.

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And you don't see any cell

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that pretends to be the president,
the leader, of all the cells.

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(Laughter)

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A biologist can experience 
the truth of no self

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in just looking into the body.

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Neuroscientists, they have said 
that the neurons in our brain,

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they work together.
They operate like an opera.

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There is no conductor at all;
there's no self.

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There is a feeling, but no feeler.

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There is a thought, 
but there is no thinker.

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Suppose you say,

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“The wind blows."

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Blowing is the action,

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and the wind is the subject.

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Suppose the wind does not blow.

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It is not the wind at all.

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Like, “The rain falls."

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If the rain does not fall

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it is not the rain at all.

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So the raining, 
the rain is the real thing.

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There is no rainer.

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There is no rainer outside of the rain.

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There is no blower outside of the wind.

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And that is something quite scientific.

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So this is a deep experience.

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There is no separate self.

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People cannot “be."

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People can only 
"inter-be” with each other.

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And that is the meaning of "no self."

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"No self" does not mean 
that there is no action

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and there is no fruit of the action.

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The chain of cause and effect 
continues always.

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You don't need, a self

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in order for a chain of causation
to be possible.

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This is a subject of meditation.

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(Bell)

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(Bell)