(Half-bell)
(Bell)
If our true nature is no birth and no death
it means that we are condemned to live forever,
life after life.
So to me the teaching of no birth and no death
is not a solution, it is a problem.
(Laughter)
I don't understand how is it possible
not to feel desperate and lost with this teaching,
because this is not only thinking but also feeling.
It does not help me and it only creates more despair.
I prefer to die at the end of this life,
rather than to live again.
(Sister) Dear Thay, dear Sangha,
Our friend is saying
that the teaching about our true nature of no birth, and no death,
would appear to condemn us to live forever.
This teaching has, for him, not been a solution,
but a source of suffering,
not only intellectual suffering,
but a real feeling of fear and despair.
To him it seems much more appealing,
If he could die and be born again
if he could die.
(Laughter)
Because if we die, life is short and really intense,
so we can enjoy it as much as possible.
But if we continue to live,
sooner or later we will be really bored.
(Laughter)
There are two types of people.
(Laughter)
Many of us want to live forever,
they are really afraid of dying.
And that is why in the history of mankind,
many people are seeking immortality.
In Taoism, they try to find all kinds of herbs, medicines and chemicals,
in order to be immortal.
Immortality is what they seek,
and underneath that kind of wish, of desire,
there is the fear of annihilation,
the fear of non-being.
We don't want to pass from the realm of being,
into the realm of non-being, it is very frightening.
You have to understand the mentality of those who are seeking immortality,
who are afraid of dying.
They are suffering with that kind of view.
They are seeking for immortality,
afraid of non-being.
On the other hand,
there are those who are tired of life.
They get bored after 50, 70, or maybe after 30 years.
They find that life is unbearable.
They are seeking non-being.
Some of them think that to commit suicide,
is a way to end the suffering
and to pass from the realm of being into non-being.
That kind of wish is also based on a wrong view,
that there is something you call non-being,
non-existence,
annihilation,
and you'd like to go there, it is better if you don't suffer anymore,
it is no longer boring.
So you aspire to non-being,
to annihilation,
and that kind of desire is based on all sorts of wrong views.
But the right view is
that birth and death, life and death,
they always go together.
You cannot take one out of the other.
You are looking for death,
you try to leave life behind.
That is something impossible.
Because they always want to be together, like the left and the right.
You cannot take the left out of the right,
and the right out of the left,
That is the law we discover when looking deeply.
We see that this is a manifestation only.
The notion of left and right is more in our heads,
in our thinking,
than in reality.
So all the notions like boring, not boring,
suffering and happiness, being and non-being,
come more from our mind of discrimination,
from our mind of mental constructions, other than from reality.
We behave as if we know what reality is.
We only have to deal with reality.
But the reality we think we know,
is only a construction of our mind.
Birth and death are also a construction of your mind.
It is not reality.
We have learnt in this retreat
that birth, life and death, birth and death,
they are notions more than reality.
Being and non-being is a pair of opposites
that is there as the foundation of the notions of birth and death.
Your question reveals
that you still believe
in a self, in a soul,
that remains the same always.
But in reality there is nothing like that.
There is nothing that can remain the same
in two consecutive moments.
So who is bored?
Because the you of this moment
is no longer the same you from the previous moment.
Because you haven't gone deep enough,
and touched the true nature of no birth and no death,
no self and no other, no being and no non-being.
Those who seek Nirvana,
they may think that when you touch Nirvana,
you don't have to be reborn any more,
that you belong [now] to the realm of non-being.
That is the most misleading view about Nirvana,
that Nirvana is an eternal death.
For some people eternal death is salvation.
Because then you don't have to be reborn and to suffer.
That is a wrong view.
Many people - including some Western scholars of Buddhism -
they believe that the aim of Buddhism is to get eternal death:
complete eternal non-being.
But the Buddha has many times denied that:
"Our aim is not to reach nothingness,
to reach annihilation."
He has said so many times that:
"I am not teaching annihilation.
My view is the kind of insight
that transcends both notions - annihilation and permanence."
That is a pair of opposites.
Immortality is one extreme.
The immortal soul that can never die,
that is one extreme.
Annihilation is another extreme.
So right view is the kind of insight that transcends both notions,
immortality
and non-being, annihilation.
Meditation is for removing these kinds of notions.
There are many pairs of notions we have to remove.
And when you are able to remove these notions,
you have peace.
You don't worry anymore.
Especially you don't believe in a self,
that has to go through Samsara's birth and death.
There is no birth and death.
There is no self going through birth and death.
All of that are only notions.
When you get that kind of insight, you are light,
you are no longer afraid.
You see that everything renews itself, all the time.
Joy and happiness are possible,
the transformation of suffering is possible.
You can help so many people to suffer less.
Life has a meaning.
You don't tire yourself out. You don't get bored.
Because know your life has a meaning,
your life is useful.
You can generate the energy of compassion and joy,
in order to help heal the world.
There is no need for a permanent self, a soul,
ot the view of impermanence, the view of immortality,
or the view of annihilation,
because you are free of all of these.
Nirvana is possible,
the extinction of that kind of suffering and afflictions.
Like fear, anger and despair.
The extinction of these afflictions is possible only,
when you can extinguish notions like birth and death,
being and non-being,
So we can define Nirvana in very clear terms:
the absence of notions,
and the absence of suffering born on the basis of these notions.
(Laughter)
Very good! Good smile!
(Laughter)
Very good smile.
(Half-Bell)
(Bell)