9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we've come back to Stourbridge. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I think many of us have been here[br]several times already, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And feel very at home here. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So as we said yesterday, there are a couple[br]of questions that got hidden in the bell. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We didn't have a chance to look at. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So maybe we can begin today by looking at [br]those two questions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So one is about getting lost in our thoughts[br]during our sitting meditation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Actually we get lost in our thoughts[br]at other times, too. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Not just when we're doing sitting meditation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When we're sitting on the bus or the train,[br]we may also be lost in our thoughts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And in Buddhism...Yesterday you looked at [br]the Noble Eightfold Path, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you saw that one of the factors of the [br]Path is Right Thinking. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we have Right Thinking, and we have [br]Wrong Thinking. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And meditative concentration is fine with [br]thinking. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It always says that the first level of[br]meditation, meditative concentration, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it has thinking in it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we don't have to throw thinking out[br]altogether. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And as you can see in our guided mediations, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we've also been using Right Thinking. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Right Thinking goes along with Right[br]View. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we know that, as we heard this morning 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the Precept Transmission, [br]the Mindfulness Trainings Transmission, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that the view Interbeing, the understanding[br]of Interbeing, is Right View. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, the thinking that goes in the direction[br]of Interbeing, we can call Right Thinking. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we can use that a great deal [br]in our sitting meditation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So if possible, in your sitting meditation, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 make use of the guided meditations 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in order to keep the Right Thinking there 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and not get lost in the non-stop Thinking, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which we could also call the Wrong Thinking. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we've had a guided meditation on seeing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that we inter-are with our mother and[br]our father. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We can also do a guided meditation to see 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that we inter-are with the leaf on the tree 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or with the tree. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There are things that we can do like this. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then we go..Right Thinking is like 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the conventional realm of thought. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But if it's Right Thinking, it can take us 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from the conventional, from the historical, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into the ultimate dimension. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That is the dimension that goes [br]beyond words. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the thinking has a role to play. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Thank you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's also helpful, before you begin to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 meditate, to decide what you're going to [br]meditate on. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When I sit down to meditate, the first thing[br]I do is like bring my body and mind 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 back together, and calm my body and mind. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That is "Breathing in, I calm my body." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Breathing out, I smile." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I do exercises like that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But when I feel peaceful enough, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I ask my Store Consciousness,[br]the deep level of my consciousness, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "What do you need today?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Which meditation do you need today?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then I allow Store Consciousness to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tell me what I need. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it may say that I need to do the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Loving Kindness meditation, which now 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I'm going to talk about. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Or it may tell me that now I need to do 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the meditation on interbeing with my [br]parents, or something like that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So there's a book, it's called 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Blooming of the Lotus, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that I am indebted to for my meditation[br]practice. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that book has, I don't know how many, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 more than thirty, guided meditations. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I translated them into English, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then, now they're in English. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then I learnt them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so they are all in [br]my Store Consciousness, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I can call them up when I want to. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I think you also, before your meditation, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you can read the book, and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 then you see one that is suitable for 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 your situation at the moment. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then you try to remember it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you use it in your sitting meditation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And there are wonderful meditations on 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 no birth and no death, like the meditation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on the wave and the water. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The wave going back, the wave breaking 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on the shore and then going back to the[br]water. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Which, when we are dying, can be very helpful. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the meditation on the no birth and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 no death of our in-breath is also 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 very helpful. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the no birth and no death 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of our body. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These kind of meditations are very deep 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and in the book we are led into them slowly. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And they can be very helpful to us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So now we come to the loving kindness[br]meditation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This morning in our Mindfulness Training 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Transmission, in the Third Mindfulness Training 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we heard about True Love. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 True Love and the four elements of True Love. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Loving kindness, compassion, joy and[br]equanimity. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And these four elements are also called[br]limitless minds. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Infinite -- they don't have any limit. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When you meditate on loving kindness, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you feel that you have limitless space 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and that your loving kindness is not limited. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's not something, "Oh, I can have[br]loving kindness for this person, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but I don't think I can have loving 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 kindness for the other person." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our loving kindness can embrace everything. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So these four limitless minds belong to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 every tradition of Buddhism. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And they also belong to the Plum Village[br]tradition of Buddhism. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And some time ago, Thay developed 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 loving kindness meditation - 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that's one of the limitless minds - 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into nine parts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the first thing we recognize is what [br] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was pointed out by Buddhaghosa is that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we must have loving kindness for oneself. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if you get not yet enough loving [br]kindness for me, what you consider me, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 then you can't go on to have loving[br]kindness for you, or for someone else. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Buddhaghosa in the Visuddhimagga, a[br]book of commentary on the Abhidhamma, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 say that if you want to start a fire, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you have to have dry wood. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then when the fire is going well, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you can put the wet wood on top. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the dry wood is you yourself. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The loving kindness for you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because you yourself is closest to you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sometimes we say, "Nobody understands me!" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But you have to ask yourself, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Do I understand me?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Do I understand myself?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And you might say, "No, I don't either." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So why do we expect other people to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 understand us, when we don't understand[br]ourselves. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The first step is to understand ourself. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then when we understand ourself, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we understand the happiness that we need, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we shall be able to offer ourself happiness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that is what loving kindness meditation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is about -- it's about offering happiness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But the first person I need to offer 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 happiness is to me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And some people when they are on [br]their death bed, and you ask 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "What do you regret?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They will say, "I did not allow[br]myself to be happy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I could have been happy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I see now there were many times 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I could have been happy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But somehow, I thought I didn't deserve it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I didn't deserve to be happy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I didn't allow myself. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the loving kindness meditation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is meditation when you allow yourself 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to be happy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I don't know if you want me to read it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if I can remember it, and then I can tell 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you what the different elements are. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But you will be able to find it in the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Plum Village Chanting book or 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on the Plum Village app. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Brother Phap Lai is not sure. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But, anyway, never mind, I'm going[br]to tell you now. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "May I be happy, peaceful and light[br]in body and in spirit." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, I want to be happy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Not just my body, but also my spirit. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I want to be peaceful. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How can I be happy if I'm not peaceful? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's another thing that Buddhaghosa said. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He said when the mind is agitated, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 no other positive mental formations[br]can be present. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we need a mind that is peaceful. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when the mind is peaceful, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 then other positive things, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 like happiness and understanding, [br]will come up. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, "may I be happy, peaceful and light[br]in my body and my spirit." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And you have to really want it for yourself. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when you feel strongly that you want, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that's what you really want for yourself, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 then you can offer yourself happiness by 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the second part: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "May I be safe and free from accident." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We know that life is insecure. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We don't know what is going to happen to us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But deep down, we all have a desire to be safe. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There is no one who doesn't have that desire. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And sometimes we feel, we feel safe. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sometimes when we can, when we have that[br]peacefulness.... 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We have that understanding. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We feel completely safe. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But it's not all the time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I think Wittgenstein is not a Buddhist[br]practitioner, but he also mentions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 somewhere, in the tractatus or somewhere, [br]I think 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There are times when I feel absolutely safe. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So on the one hand, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we spend a lot of our time feeling 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 insecure and unsafe, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but on the other hand, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the seed of feeling safe is in us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we deeply want that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We need that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, we have to wish that for ourselves. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The most important thing maybe is not to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 wish it for yourself but to see how much 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you want it, how much you need it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then you will see that other people, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that's what they want, too. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's what they need, too. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And sometimes they do things trying to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 get that safety and security, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 like controlling or having power, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where they feel they can be secure 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if they are in control or they have power,[br]outside power. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But that isn't the real safety. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The real safety is a seed that is deep [br]in our consciousness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the third thing is: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "May I be free from anger, anxiety and worry." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, anxiety and fear, sorry. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I think that anxiety, we could say, is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 one of the sicknesses of our time, of our era. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Many people suffer from anxiety and fear. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And none of us want to be angry. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Even though we sometimes get angry, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we express our anger, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I don't think there's anybody who has 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a desire to be angry. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We all want to be free from anger. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we have that deep desire that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when we are put in a situation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which waters our seed of anger, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we will be able to come back to ourself 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and take care, so that we don't express [br]our anger in a harmful way, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 towards others and towards ourselves. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So that the first triad, those three. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then the second triad is: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "May I learn to look at myself with eyes[br]of understanding." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we already mentioned that often 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we don't understand ourselves. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Ourselves is really a non-self, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 changing at every moment, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 different one moment to the next, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so it's not particularly easy 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to understand oneself. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But we can get closer. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We can get closer to understanding ourselves. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And often in a retreat, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's what people manage to do. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 To come back to themselves, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and understand a little bit more 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about themselves. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Understand about their feelings more, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about their mental formations, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about their perceptions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So understanding oneself 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is something we long for. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it's not just something Buddhist. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We know that Socrates, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 over the place where Socrates taught, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 he wrote "gnōthi seauton", 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Know yourself" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when we know ourself, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 then we suffer much less. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We know our own mind, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we can control our own mind. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, know yourself. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And may I recognize -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 this is a little bit like the Right Effort, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that you probably heard about yesterday, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Four Diligences. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "May I recognize the wholesome seeds[br]in myself." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if you don't recognize 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 any wholesome seeds in yourself, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what should you do? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Go to your good friends, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 your Sangha friend, your Dharma friend, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and say to them: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "I don't recognize, I haven't recognized, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 any wholesome seeds in me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Could you please tell me what wholesome 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 seeds you see in me?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because often we the things that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are not wholesome in ourselves, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but we forget about what is wholesome. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So that is a real exercise, to be able 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to recognize what is wholesome. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The peacefulness you have, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the loving kindness you have, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the way you care for your children, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 your grandchildren. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That is a wholesome seed. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I've heard many stories in the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Dharma sharing about how 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 grandparents and parents, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they take care of their children. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So many of us have that wholesome seed. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we are also developing the wholesome 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 seed of mindfulness, concentration and insight. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the third part of the second triad is: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "May I identify the unwholesome seeds in[br]myself." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is a very important practice for me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I don't know about for you! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I know certain unwholesome seeds I have. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And one of them is my ego. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And one of them is my pride. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And often before I give a Dharma talk, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I talk to Thay. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I don't really talk to Thay there, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but I talk to Thay in me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That is my teacher, Thay. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I also talk to my mother and father. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sometimes before I give a Dharma talk, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I feel a bit nervous. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I don't know if I have anything to offer. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I ask my mother and my father 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to support me, and Thay to support me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when I talk to Thay, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I usually say that I want 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to remain humble, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that it's very important that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I remain humble. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if people after the Dharma talk, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they come up and praise me, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I want to recognize: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "You are partly right." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because those words of praise, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they are not really praising me, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there's no separate self that is me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I say to Thay please - because Thay 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 really helped me to develop humility 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and not so much pride -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I ask Thay please -- I know that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when I give this Dharma talk it's not me 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who gives the talk. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That everything I can teach, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's what Thay has handed on to me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, I ask Thay to keep me humble. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I recognize that seed of pride, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that seed of ego, in me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I identify it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that means it's good that I know it's there. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because if I don't identify the unwholesome 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 things in me, it means that I don't have 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a chance to transform them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They will just stay there like they are. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we need to identify the unwholesome things. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then the last triad is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "May I nourish myself with happiness[br]every day." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And you may think, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Oh, that's very selfish, wanting to [br]nourish yourself." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But actually it's not. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because the world really needs people 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who have the capacity to be happy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if I can be happy, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I can offer happiness to others. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And of course, the kind of happiness 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that I want is the happiness that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we talk about in True Happiness, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the second Mindfulness Training today. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The happiness that is not dependent 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on outer conditions, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but the happiness I can: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Oh, I'm so happy I can still walk!" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "I'm so happy that I have eyes to look at[br]the trees!" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That kind of happiness in our daily lives. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, may I nourish happiness in myself[br]every day. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then the next one is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "May I live fresh, solid and free." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Though we, sometimes we meditate on 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 being a flower, being a mountain, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 being space, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and during the meditation, we might 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 do it quite well. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But some other time, we may forget it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And sometimes when you come home from work, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you don't feel very fresh, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and Thay suggests that before you open 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the front door to your house, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you just stop a moment, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you breathe in: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 breathing in, I am a flower. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 breathing out, I feel fresh. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because I want to be fresh for my family 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when I walk in the door. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the last one is: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "May I be free from attachment and aversion,[br]but not be indifferent." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, we know how we suffer when 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we're attached to something 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or to someone. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And cannot be free when we are attached. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we want that freedom for ourselves. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And after that, we -- the opposite to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 attachment is aversion -- we want to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 be free from that, because 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when we have aversion for someone 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or for something, we also lose our freedom. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But we don't want to be indifferent. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because we are going to practice 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 loving kindness and compassion. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Equanimity, inclusiveness, doesn't mean[br]indifference. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It means the capacity to embrace 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and to hold. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Other people, other species. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So this is the way that we practice 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 loving kindness meditation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And as I said, we practice it for ourselves. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then, when we feel that we've 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 nourished ourselves and our fire is burning, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our fire of loving kindness is burning, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we can practice it for someone else. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We can practice it for "you". 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Maybe we can practice it for somebody 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who makes our life difficult. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And in that way we can look at that person 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 differently. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the way that we look at another person 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is important. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sometimes we think when we have 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a difficulty with someone else, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that it just comes from the other person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's nothing to do with us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They are a difficult person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But actually, it also comes from the way 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that we look at that person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And people that recognize very quickly 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when we look at them, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they recognize the kind of eyes we look[br]at them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if we have some aversion for somebody. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And even though we may smile and say 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 good morning, how are you and so on, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the aversion, it may come through our eyes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that person unconsciously, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 maybe not consciously bu subconsciously, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will pick up that aversion. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then that makes our relationship 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 more difficult. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we need to be able to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 develop our loving kindness for 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the person who is difficult 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so that when we look at them, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there is real love in our eyes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 not just a smile to show that we like them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [The bell is awoken.] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [The bell is invited to sound.] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So sometimes, I'm not afraid of death at all. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But other times, I feel fear of death. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So that is a seed in us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We have those two seeds. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We have the seed of fearlessness, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we have the seed of fear, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as far as death is concerned. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we need to be a little bit 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 afraid of death, because if we're not, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we might fall off a cliff very easily. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, we need to know there's the edge 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the cliff and we better stop. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we feel a bit afraid when 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we get too near. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So that fear is something very, is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 necessary maybe for our survival. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But also that fear, it kind of stretches 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 out a bit too wide, and then 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 takes over territory that we don't really 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 need it to be there. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, in then those areas, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we need to develop the fearlessness, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as far as death is concerned. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so the Buddhist teachers in the past, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they have said that the great work of a 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 meditator is the realization of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 no birth and no death. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So it's a great work. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it's not just an intellectual realization. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's a deep realization in our unconscious, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in our subconscious mind, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I don't know what you call it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the deeper levels of our consciousness, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that are usually subconscious. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That non-fear. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The intellect is not enough. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So when we give a Dharma talk, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we're usually on the intellectual level. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We use words. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We use concepts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The first Dharma talk I heard about 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 no birth and no death was the first 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 retreat I went to in Cumbria with Thay. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I organized the retreat for Thay. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And during that retreat, Thay was talking 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about the Heart Sutra, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and Thay held up a piece of paper, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and Thay asked, when is the birthday 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of this piece of paper? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When was it born? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then Thay asked, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and when is the death day of this piece 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of paper? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Thay said, maybe when the paper came 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 off the, off the machine in the factory, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and rolled off as a sheet of paper, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 then that was its birthday. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if we are to take a match, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and burn it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and it turns into ashes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that will be its deathday. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So that is our normal way of thinking 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about birth and death. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But if we look more deeply, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we will see that the paper 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is there in many things that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are not the paper. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The paper inter is, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 inter is with the cloud, with the sunshine. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because in the paper there is water. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And in the paper there is some tree 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or some plant or something that made 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the paper. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we can see that the paper is not 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 something that has a real birthday 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or a real death day either. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because when you burn the paper, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 energy is produced, the smoke is produced, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the ash is produced, the heat is produced. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So paper doesn't become nothing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the paper doesn't come from nothing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And normally when we think about death, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we think we become nothing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So yesterday, my friend said my self will 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 become nothing. This is what I heard. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 My self will become nothing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 My separate self will become nothing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when I die. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And this can be something that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we are afraid of, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 losing our separate self. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But the fact is that our separate self 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 doesn't exist when we are alive. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's not there now, while we're breathing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There is no separate self. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So in a way it can't die, because 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it doesn't really, it's not really alive 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There is no separate self. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So of course, the ash will go 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 back to the earth. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And maybe it will be fertilizer 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for the earth, and the earth 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will give rise to a flower. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The heat and the smoke will go 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into the universe. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So one person told me that when 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 his wife died, he took her ashes, and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 he put them at the foot of a magnolia 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tree in their garden. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And every year, the magnolia tree 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 blossoms on her birthday. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So when we say that the ashes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 go back to the earth, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's not just the ashes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There's also some other energy that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 goes with the ashes that goes back 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to the earth. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we also, in Plum Village, we also 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 had a young meditation student 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of 8 years old, who died, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of meningitis or something. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's very sad. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we put his ashes at the foot of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a plum tree, a plum tree he had saved up 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 his pocket money in order to be able 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to buy that plum tree for Plum Village. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so that we can sell the plums and send 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the money to hungry children in Vietnam. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So he saved up his pocket money to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 buy a plum tree. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when he died, we put his ashes at 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the foot of that tree. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that tree is always the first tree 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to blossom, and the last tree for the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 blossom to fade. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we can see that in the matter, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what we call matter, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there is also spirit. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We have these two energies. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Matter is a kind of energy, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 condensed energy, and then 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there is the energy we send out 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with our loving kindness, or 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with our anger, or whatever. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we usually distinguish between 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 matter and spirit, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but in fact, matter and spirit are, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you can't really take them out of each other. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You can't really separate 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 one from the other. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we have an idea of ourselves as 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 five skandas, we call the five skandas. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The body, is, the body we think of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as being matter. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The feelings, and then the perceptions, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then the mental formations, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and finally the consciousness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we think that is what my person is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 made up of, these five things. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And one of them has to do with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 material -- our body, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the other four have to do with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our mind, our spirit. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But actually, we make that division, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 even the Buddha, when the Buddha was 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 teaching, he made that division, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but in fact, you can't divide things like that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They always inter-are. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So in the ashes left from the body, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there is also some mental formations, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 some feelings, and so on. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When Anathapindika was dying. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Anathapindika was a lay disciple of the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Buddha, who donated the Jeta Grove 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Monastery in Savatthi. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So Anathapindika was a very diligent[br]practitioner. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He was sometimes successful, and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sometimes unsuccessful businessman. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He went bankrupt at one point. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But because he was such a good friend 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to so many people, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they helped him, and then 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 he became a successful business man again. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And he used to bring his businessman friends 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to listen to the Buddha's teaching. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then he was dying. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 At first the Buddha went to visit him. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And after that, he said Sariputra, one of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the disciples of the Buddha, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 should take care of going to visit 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Anathapindika, because Sariputra was 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the best friend of Anathapindika. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so Sariputra went with Ananda - 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - at that time, Anathapindika was on 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 his death bed - 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to give final teachings to Anathapindika. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the first thing they wanted to do 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was to take care of the feelings, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the perceptions, the mental formations 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the consciousness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Of course, when someone is dying, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we can also take care of the body. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We can massage while we are talking 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to the person, we can massage 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 their or their hands, in order to help 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 them feel that we are really there for them 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they are not alone. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So Thay often tells us how when one of his 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 lay friends was dying, Thay massaged their 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 feet. Alfred Hassler. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sister Chan Khong said, "Alfred, you know 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's Thay massaging your feet." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, but anyway, in this case, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sariputra wanted to concentrate more on 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the feelings, perceptions and consciousness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So Sariputra said to Anathapindika, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Anathapindika, remember the Buddha." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Remember the happy times that you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have had with the Buddha." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then, "Remember the Dharma." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Remember all the happiness that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 listening to the Dharma has brought you." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then, "Remember the Sangha, the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 happiness that you have received 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from the Sangha." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so giving these teachings is to take 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 care of the feelings and the perceptions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the person who is dying, to send the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 feelings and the perceptions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in a certain direction. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because they have to continue. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Those feelings, those perceptions, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they continue 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 even though they become, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 usually at death we say that the body 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 becomes separate from the feelings and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the perceptions, we also saw that that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is not completely correct, but in a sense 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they also have their own way to go, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have their own energy to go, to give. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we want that energy to continue as a 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 beautiful, peaceful energy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that by giving our attention 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to the happiness we receive from being 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in touch with the Buddha, the Dharma and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Sangha, those feelings can go in 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a good direction, a good energy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so when we are taking care of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 someone who is dying, it's important 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to know about the happiness of that person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If somebody was not a Buddhist, to talk 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it might not be helpful. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So you would need to talk about something else. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And sometimes remembering wholesome 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 things that that person had done 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 during their life time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When I was with my father, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I reminded him of the beautiful things 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that he had done in his lifetime, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and also the happy things that he had done. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 At one and the same time, we remind about 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 things that had a lot of happiness in, but 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 at the same time, those things that were 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 done that were very beneficial, that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 brought happiness to others as well. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we need to know about that person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then we can nourish that person with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 happiness, help that person be nourished 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by feelings of happiness, so that he or she 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is able to look deeply into non-self. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That is our true nature. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [Singing:] "Nothing whatsoever to remove 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from this. Not a single thing thereon to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 add. Properly regarding the true nature. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When truly seeing, complete liberation." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sorry, I don't have enough qi, eh? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Nothing whatsoever to remove from this. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Not a single thing thereon to add. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Properly regarding the true nature. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When truly seeing, complete liberation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So this meditation that was offered to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Anathapindika was for Anathapindika to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 be able to see the true nature and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 therefore be liberated from the sense of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 self and to be free at the moment of death. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So this meditation goes something like this. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You begin by meditating on your eyes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, normally we think these eyse are 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 part of me, they're part of my body. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Sariputra when guiding the meditation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for Anathapindika, he said that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "These eyes are not me. I am not 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 caught in these eyes." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So this is something we can prepare 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 ourselves before we lie on our deathbed. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's better, because Sariputra may not be 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there for us when we are on our deathbed. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we can prepare. It's good. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we have to look deeply at the nature 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of our eyes. When were our eyes born? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we see that our eyes are just the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 continuation of our mother's eyes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our father's eyes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And they are not really mine. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our eyes have been nourished by the food 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that we have eaten, that we've been given. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They inter-are with everything that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we eat every day. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our eyes, in fact, inter-are with the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 dust of the stars. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If there weren't the stars, the dust of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the stars, our eyes would not be there. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If we look into the elements that make 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our fleshly eyes, we will see the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 different chemical elements that are 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there, they come from the stars. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so, we have to learn to meditate on 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our eyes, to see that they are not me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The same with our ears. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But not only that, we need to meditate 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on the object of our eyes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the object of our vision. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Whatever we see and we consider to be 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 outside of ourselves, we also consider 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that to be me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When somebody was dying, they were once 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 asked, "Is there anything that you regret?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that person said, "Yes, I regret that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I will no longer be able to be in touch 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with the beauties of spring, the beauties 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of autumn, when I die, I won't be in touch 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with those things. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But in fact, that is because we think that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 those things are there for me, but when 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I die, the beauty of spring and the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 beauty of autumn, it doesn't die as well. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There will be other eyes which will be 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in touch with those things. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, and I inter-am with those other eyes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that will be in touch. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we have to let go of the idea that the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 outside world is something that belongs 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then of course, in our vision, it's 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 not just eyes and the light waves, and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the so-called objects out there that make 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 possible our vision. We need something else. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that is, we need our consciousness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Without consciousness, we wouldn't see 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 anything, even though our eyes are 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 perfectly good, our optic nerve is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 perfectly good, but without 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 consciousness, we don't see anything. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because the light waves that our retina 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is able to pick up, the nerves are able 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to pick up and send a message to our 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 primary visual cortex and our secondary 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 visual cortex, those light waves, they have 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to be interpreted. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we have to see that also this [br]consciousness, this visual cortex, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is not me, it's not mine, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's not myself. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So in this way we are liberated. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We don't identify ourselves with any of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the things that we normally in our lifetime 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 identify ourselves with. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In Plum Village, we often use the meditation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on the water and the wave. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We visualize ourself as a wave, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and there is a time when the wave is born, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then it exists for a while, and then, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it crashes on the shore or 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it goes back into the sea. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And at that time when it crashes on the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 shore, the water, it goes back into the sea. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And also there's the energy from the wave, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that you can hear on the shore, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you can feel on the sand on the shore, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you can feel the energy from the wave. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So it's true, that the wave has lost 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 its separate self. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Its separate self has gone back into 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 energy on the shore and water in the sea. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But nothing is lost. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's something very scientific. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's not metaphysics. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And as our friend said yesterday, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Buddha didn't like metaphysics. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Not he didn't like it, but he thought it 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was a bit of a waste of time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When the Buddha was asked: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "After death, do you continue to exist? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Or after death, do you cease to exist?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Buddha's reply was that the Buddha 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 only teaches two things, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 suffering and the end of suffering. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I can't answer that question. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the wave you can see that you can't 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 say that the wave continues to exist, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because it's not that wave that we saw 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that was there before. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But you can't say it ceases to exist, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because the energy is still there, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the water is still there. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And this is something very scientific. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The scientist Lavoisier, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the chemist Lavoisier. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Rien ne se créé, rien ne se perd." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Nothing is created, nothing is lost. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Everything is in transformation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that is something that was seen by 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 scientists when they do experiments in 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 their laboratory, chemists and physicists. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we know that the first law of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 thermodynamics is that energy is not lost. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, when we look at this matter of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 no birth and no death, we have to take 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in consideration what scientists say as well. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's not just something metaphysical. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the occasion when the Buddha said that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 he only taught about suffering and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 not suffering was when one of his 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 young disciples, a young monk, of the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 name of Anuruddha. He went out on the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 alms round in the early morning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then after the alms round, he thought 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 why don't I go and visit the pavilion where 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 all the monks of all the different 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 traditions are sitting having some kind 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of Dharma discussion. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So there were many kinds of spiritual 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 traditions in India at that time, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 not just Buddhism. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, Anuruddha walked into the pavilion, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they said, "Oh, look, there's one of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the disciples of Gautama Buddha!" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Why don't we ask him about what 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 happens to us after we die. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He must have heard from the Buddha 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what happens. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So they said, "Anuruddha, you're a disciple 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of Guatama Buddha. So please tell us: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 after death, will the Buddha continue to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 exist? After his death, will the Buddha 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 cease to exist? After death, will he both 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 continue and cease to exist? After death, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will he neither continue nor cease 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to exist?" This is Indian logic, at that time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Anuruddha was completely befuddled. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He didn't know what to say. He felt 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 very bad. "Here I am representing the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Buddha. But I'm a young monk, and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I never heard the Buddha talk about 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 any of these things." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So he couldn't answer. And he said, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Friends, I'm sorry, but I've never heard 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Buddha talk about any of these things." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then they said, "This monk either 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 just became ordained, or he is stupid." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And he didn't feel very good about that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But anyway, he went back to the Buddha 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and said "Lord Buddha, this morning I 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 went to the pavilion and I was asked 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 this question, and I couldn't answer. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Please sir, can you teach me, so the next 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they ask me this question, they won't say 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that I am stupid. I will be able to answer." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so the Buddha taught Anuruddha. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the Buddha said to Anuruddha, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Here is the Buddha sitting here." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "So first of all, is the Buddha the body?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Anuruddha said "No, the Buddha 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is not the body." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Is the Buddha feelings?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Anuruddha said, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "No, the Buddha is not feelings." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Is the Buddha perceptions, mental [br]formations, consciousness?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Anuruddha said, "No." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then the Buddha asked, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Is the Buddha possible without the body?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Anuruddha said, "No." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Is the Buddha possible without feelings?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "No." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Without perceptions, mental formations...." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so in the end, Anuruddha 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 could not find the Buddha. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the Buddha said, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Anuruddha, if you cannot find the Buddha 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 while he is alive, how to you hope to be 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 able to find him after he's died?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Anuruddha said "You're right." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then the Buddha said, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Yes, the Buddha has only taught 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 two things, suffering and the end of suffering." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [The bell is awoken.] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [The bell is invited to sound.] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And sometimes after a young couple have 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 been married, Thay will ask them to do 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 this kind of exercise. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So you ask your loved one questions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 like that: am I this body? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then the other person says no. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Am I my feelings? No. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then you recognize that person you love 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is not somebody you can find. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's not something you can grasp onto. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It escapes all definitions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then when that person dies, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you won't feel that it's only after 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they've died that you can't find them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You also see that when they were alive, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you could not find them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because when they are alive, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they aren't. They inter-are. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when they are dead, they aren't. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They inter-are. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This morning when we chanted the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Insight the brings us to the Other Shore, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we said "no being, no non-being." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that is a new addition to that sutra, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but Thay saw that it's very important. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We believe that things really are, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or that things really are not, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because we are caught in our perception 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of a sign. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We identify someone with a sign. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we say that person is. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when that sign is not there for us to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 identify, we say that person is not. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This line is infinity, it's not begin and end. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And on this line there's a sign that we 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 call "B", and that sign is the sign "birth". 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And there's another sign that we call "D". 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that's the sign "death". 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Birth is a sign. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's not an absolute reality. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We say where there is a sign, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there is a deception. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But we need signs in order to be able to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 recognize things. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Like you need a birth certificate 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in order to be able, I don't know 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sometimes you need a birth certificate 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I don't know when you need it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but you do, eh? [laughter] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And you also need a death certificate 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sometimes. Well, you don't need it, but... 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [laughter] somebody else does. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So anyway. Birth and death are signs. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we saw that when we looked at the paper, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's very difficult to find the birthday 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of a piece of paper, if you look deeply. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But, you can establish a sign, and say 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that was the birthday when it came off the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tread, or whatever it came off, I don't know. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And also for your own birth. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When they say "Oh, there's that new baby, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what it looks like, we can see with our eyes." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Then that is a sign, and we call it 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the birthday. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But some people call the birthday 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the conception day, the day when 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 conception took place. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But that is also another sign. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because before the conception there was 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 also mother's egg, father's seed. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So it's not exactly a birthday. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So death is also a sign. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you look outside, there are some poppies. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Yesterday there were two, and today 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there are three. Or maybe the day before. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Anyway, there are now three. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the two older ones, they're beginning, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the petals are getting a little bit faded 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on the edges. And then along side of them, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there are some seed pods, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 two flowers already changed into seedpods. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So you can say that two flowers have died. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But in fact, they've changed their sign. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Before they were red flowers, but now 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they are seedpods. And then the seed 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will at some time fall back to the earth, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then they'll be another sign of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 another flower coming up. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So it's not really a matter of death. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Normally we say that death is non-being. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But the flower hasn't become non-being. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The petals have gone back down into 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the earth and the seedpod is continuing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the flower. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then you say here, after the flower 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 has opened, it became being. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But that is just a sign. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Before that, when it was a bud.. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we say before that, it was non-being. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the idea of birth and death is connected 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to the idea of being and non-being. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you don't have an idea of being and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 non-being, you won't have an idea 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of birth and death. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because birth coming into being from 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 non-being, and death is going out of being 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into non-being. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we've all witnessed people who have died. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We've all. They are people in our family who 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have died, or we know people who have died. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we have to ask ourselves, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "After that person died, did they become 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 non-being?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 While they were alive, were they being? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Or while they were alive, were they non-being? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So now we look at ourself when 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we were a child. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if somebody took a photograph of us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And sometimes we will open the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 photograph album, and we will say to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our friend, "Do you know what, that's me! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when I was 6 years old or something." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the friend will say, "Oh really, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I would never have guessed it?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So that child in the photograph, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it looks very different from how you look 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when you are 30 or 40, or 80 or 90 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or whatever. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And not only the body of the child is different. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But also the feelings are different. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you ask yourself when I was that age, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what were my feelings like? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 What were my perceptions like? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You will see that they are quite different, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 although you can remember what they 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 were like, from what they are now. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we have to say that that child is not 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 really me, no really the same me as the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 me now. But on the other hand, we 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 can't say that that child is different, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because that child hadn't been there, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there's no way that this thing I call me 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 now would be here. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So this is some time, in this way of looking 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we have to go beyond our normal 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 concepts and categories. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Normally we say it has to be in a box 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 called "same", or we have to put it in a 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 box called "different". 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So either I am the same as that child, or 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I am different from that child. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Thay, when I first came to Plum Village, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 this was one thing that Thay was always 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 asking his students, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Is Thay the same as Thay was last year?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I would always say, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Yes, Thay is the same as last year." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then somebody else in the room would 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 say "No, Thay is different." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Thay would say, "You cannot put Thay 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in a box "same", you cannot put Thay in a 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 box "different". Thay is outside 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 those two boxes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's the same when people want to make 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a stupa for Thay. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When Thay dies, they want to have a 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 little bit of Thay's ashes that they can 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 put in that stupa. I think Thay doesn't 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 terribly want to have a stupa, I'm not sure. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Anyway, he said to the people. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Ok, you can make a stupa for me, but 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you have to put a notice on it, that says 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 'Thay is not in here.'" And then you also 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have to say 'Thay is not outside of here' 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 either, because inside and outside of here 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are also two boxes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, it gets deeper and deeper. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So if you have someone you love, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 be careful not to put them in a box. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you have someone you don't love, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 be careful , don't put them in a box. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That box is made out of signs. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 One sister I know practised very well. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Her father and mother died when she was 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 quite young. And she said now I see that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I am much closer to my mother and father 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 than when they were alive. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So this means that mother and father 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 continue in you, and they continue in 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 your siblings, they continue in their 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 children, in their grandchildren. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when Mother and Father were alive, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 maybe you put them in boxes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So you weren't able to be in touch with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 them as a whole, as part of everything, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as part of interbeing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So in order to free ourselves from ideas 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of being and non-being, we have to have 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 another concept which, with any luck, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will take us into the non-conceptual. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, before someone dies, they inter-are. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And after they die, they continue 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to inter-be. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sometimes, after someone has died, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you see them much more clearly 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in their children and their grandchildren 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 than before, because before they died, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you looked at them as separate from 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 their children. But after they die, you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 don't have anywhere else to look, so 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you see them in their children. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we've been practising to walk on 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Mother Earth, to place footsteps of love, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and to caress the Earth as we walk, to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 see that the Earth is not just matter, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but also spirit. And we've talked about 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Mother Earth as we are born from the Earth 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we go back to the Earth. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I think that this can remove a lot of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our fear also. Whenever we walk on the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Earth, we see, yes, this is where I will 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 go back to. A large part of me will 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 go back to the Earth. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the Earth is always ready to receive 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and embrace me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So an important part of developing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 fearlessness about death is to be able to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 see the Earth as your loving Mother who 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will receive you when you die. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we talked a bit about the teaching of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 no same, no different, not in those boxes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We also have boxes which are 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 no coming, no going. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 No, sorry, we also have boxes which are 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "coming" and "going". 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And often when people die, people ask, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Oh, can you tell me where he has gone?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Where can I find him now?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Thay used to light a match. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Do you remember Thay's box of matches? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We forgot the matches today. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Nevermind, you can remember. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So you have a box of matches, and then you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 take out one match and you ask, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Dear little match, will you produce a 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 flame for us?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Thank you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So first of all, we have to ask, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Where is the flame now?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We don't see a flame; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we don't have the sign of a flame. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But on the other hand, we know that all 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the elements to make the flame are present 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 inside this box and also outside, because 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you also need the oxygen, so inside and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 outside. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So now we have the match, we have the box, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we have the oxygen. We only need one 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 more condition for the flame to manifest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that is we have to do something with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our fingers. "So, dear flame, please manifest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Dear match, please help manifest the flame 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for the Sangha. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And now the flame is manifesting. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You allow it to manifest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And while it's manifesting it's giving 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 off light and heat. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And now it's giving off smoke. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So then we ask the flame, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Oh, dear little flame, where have you gone?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the flame says it hasn't gone anywhere. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Dear Sangha, I haven't gone anywhere. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I haven't gone North, South, East or West. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's just the conditions were not there 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for me to manifest anymore, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so I ceased to manifest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And similarly, I didn't come from anywhere. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I didn't come from the North, the South, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the East or the West, but the conditions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 were all there for me to manifest 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so I manifested. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So when somebody dies, and we ask them 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Where have you gone?" then the answer 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will also be "I haven't gone anywhere." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if you look, you can be in touch 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Somebody will say [singing] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This body is not me; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I am not caught in this body. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I am life without limit. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I've never been born, and I've never died. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Over there the wide ocean and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 millions of galaxies, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 all arise from the depth of consciousness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So smile to me and take my hand, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and wave good-bye. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Tomorrow we shall meet again, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or even before. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We shall always be meeting again 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on the millions walks of life. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We shall meet in every moment, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on the million walks of life. [end of singing] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Did I leave out a line? I think I did: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Birth and death are only a game 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of hide and seek. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Birth and death are only a threshold, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a door through which we go in and out. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Birth and death are only a game 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of hide and seek. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we use our understanding of interbeing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in order to be able find the person who 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 has died, to find they haven't gone 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 anywhere, they didn't come from anywhere, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they haven't gone anywhere. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When the conditions were right, they manifest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Conditions not right, they cease to manifest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the first place to look is in yourself, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to find that person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 To find the feeling they transmitted to you, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the perception that they left to you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So dear friends, our retreat is coming 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to an end. And thank you for being here. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we will have a kind of closing, I think, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by singing together. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we may have a little time 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to say thank you. A few people 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will say thank you to each other. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, we will listen to three 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sounds of the bell. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the three sounds of the bell are 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our good wish for you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Firstly, to have a good journey home. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And secondly, to be able to continue 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 whatever part of the practice that is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 most helpful for you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And thirdly, to come back again, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when we next have a retreat. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [a lotus for you] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [The bell is awoken.] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [The bell is invited to sound.] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [The bell is invited to sound.] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [The bell is invited to sound.] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [The small bell is invited to sound.]