Signlessness: A Cloud Never Dies | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

The Second Door of Liberation
is signlessness.

"Sign" here means the appearance,

and many of us are fooled
by the appearance of things.

When your favourite cloud
is no longer there in the sky,

you are sad.

By the way, you have to remember
that 70% of our body is made of cloud.

Clouds on the inside,
not clouds in the sky,

and every day you
continue to drink clouds.

When a cloud is no longer seen in the sky,

you think that the cloud is not there,

and you think that your cloud
now belongs to the realm of non-being.

Yesterday,
it belonged to the realm of being,

but today,
it belongs to the realm of non-being.

That's a wrong perception.

You think that your cloud has died,

but the other day we have said that
it's impossible for a cloud to die,

because to die means from something
you become absolutely nothing.

A cloud cannot become nothing.

A cloud can become
the rain, the snow, the ice...

So if you are caught by
an appearance of cloud,

you are not capable of seeing
your cloud in it's continuation.

You have to see your cloud in the rain:

"Hello, my cloud, I see you
in your new form: the rain."

And that you are free from signs.

And when you drink your tea,
and you see your cloud inside:

"Hello, my cloud,
now I see you in the form of tea."

So you are free from the appearance,
so this is signlessness.

So the person you used to be with,

she is no longer there,
and you grieve for her loss.

You are despairing because
the person you love is no longer there,

and you believe that she has
passed in to the realm of non-being:

She is no longer there, she has died;

but that's not true.

It's impossible for a cloud to die.

It's impossible for you to die...

or your beloved to die.

If you have the eyes of signlessness,

you can see your beloved one
in her new form.

You can see the cloud in the rain,

and the rain is calling you: "Darling,
darling, I am here! Don't you see me!"

You don't see her in the rain.

You don't see the cloud in the rain,
because you are caught by appearance.

You do not have
the eyes of signlessness.

So when you see a block of ice,
you can see your cloud.

When you see the snow falling,
you can see your cloud.

Nothing can die,

and that is why,
with the eyes of signlessness,

with the concentration of signlessness,

you are free from the notion
of being and non-being, birth and death,

and you don't suffer any more,
even from your own death,

because you cannot die.

We have to learn how to
let go of our notions,

including the notion of
being and non-being, birth and death.

We believe that now is life,
death will be for later,

in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years,

but the fact is not that,

death is happening
right now and right here.

In this very present moment,
many cells in our body are dying.

Thousands and thousands of them are dying.

Death is happening
right here and right now,

and you don't know.

You think that death
will be much later on.

And death is very crucial for birth.

Cells have to die
in order for other cells to be born.

Thousands and thousands of cells
are being born in this very moment,

and birth and death,
they like to be together,

like the right and the left.

If you think that today is only birth,
and death will be 100 years later,

you are wrong.

Birth and death,
they happen at the same time.

Many thousand of cells are dying
in this very moment,

and you are so busy you have no time
to organise their funerals.

(Laughter)

And many of the new cells [that] are born,
have no time to celebrate their birthday.

(Laughter)

So where there is birth, there is death,

and death is not destructive,
death allows birth to be possible.

It's like the left and the right.

Without the left the right cannot be,

and they have to learn to look
at reality in that way.

The birth of something,
is always the death of something,

is always the birth of something.

The death of the cloud
is the birth of the rain.

If the cloud does not die,
how can the rain be born.

But that is when we talk
about birth and death.

In reality,
there is no birth and no death.

So, two layers of truths.

On the conventional level — we see
on the level of the conventional truth —

we see there is birth and death.

The cloud dies
in order for the rain to be born,

and the rain, has to die
in order for the tea to be born.

But that's not dying,
that's transformation.

You always continue.

And that is why
we have to train ourselves,

to look with the eyes of signlessness,

and you will be free from
all kinds of anguish, fear, [and] despair,

and scientists have found out that
matter and energy, their nature,

is also the nature of
no-birth and no-death.

If you are still looking
for the beginning of the cosmos,

if you still believe in the Big Bang as
the beginning of the cosmos,

you are still caught
in the notion of birth and death.

If you believe in
the Big Bang,

then you have to believe in
the Big Crunch later on,

(Laughter)

and if scientists, they still put question
of birth and the death of the cosmos,

they violate
the first law of thermodynamics,

there is no-birth, there is no death,
there is only a continuation.

So with that kind
of looking deeply,

we touch the nature
of no-birth and no-death,

and we throw away these notions
of birth and death, coming and going,

and we are free:
there is no longer any fear,

any anger, any despair.

That is the Second Door of Liberation.

It's not philosophy,
it's practice.

Mindfulness concentration brings insight,

and when you get
insight of emptiness and signlessness,

you are free.

The last exercise of mindful breathing
proposed by the Buddha is "letting go,"

letting go of notions,
including the notion of birth and death,

being and non-being, coming and going.

When you come to a practice centre
you learn many kinds of practice

that can bring you relief
from fear, anger, distress,

but the greatest relief you can get,

is only when you touch your nature
of no-birth and no-death,

no being and no non-being,

and if you do not have
the time to meditate,

to contemplate,

to practice the concentration of
emptiness and signlessness,

we cannot touch our true nature
of no-birth and no-death.

Let us imaging a wave
appearing on the surface of the ocean,

and the wave may be caught in ideas of
beginning, ending, birth and death,

coming up, coming down,
being dead, not being dead,

and she will suffer a lot
because of these notions,

but if the wave comes home to herself,

and touches her true nature
which is water,

then she looses all kinds of notions.

It's nice to begin,
it's nice to end.

It's nice to come up,
it's nice to go down.

She can lead the life of a wave,
but she can also lead the life of water,

and the moment when she touches
her true nature, water,

she looses all kind of fear.

The fear of beginning,
the fear of ending,

the fear of going up,
the fear of going down,

the fear of being,
or not being,

and the wave
does not have to go to search for water,

she is water, right here and right now,

and that is true with us.

We don't have to go
and search for nibbana.

We don't have to go and search for
our nature of no-birth and no-death.

We are well established in it.

Our true nature is
the nature of no-birth and no-death,

and that kind of awakening,
realisation,

will help us lose, release,
all kinds of fear, and discrimination,

and true joy
of living will be possible.

(Bell)

Let us visualise a cloud in the sky,
and one half of her has become the rain,

and the rain can be seen now

as a stream of water, a source,
and a cloud above looking down,

and [the cloud] sees himself
— part of himself, part of herself —

down on Earth,
and he waves to the creek and says:

"Hello myself down there!"

(Laughter)

"I will join you very soon!"

"Have a good time down there!"

You do not have to wait
until the dissolution of this body,

in order to be reborn
in to something else.

Half the cloud can be reborn
in to rain and snow,

and half still retain
the form of a cloud,

and that is why we have to look
with the eyes of signlessness,

and see our continuation.

You already have your continuation.

Look around.

And that is my practice.

When you look in to this direction,
and say "This is Thay,"

that's not... that's not the whole truth.

This is only a tiny part of Thay.

You can see Thay in a different way.

If you go to Vietnam, Thay's homeland,
you see Thay is there at this very moment,

operating,
trying to help people to practice.

He has continued:
he has already his continuation there.

And there are many prisons
in Europe, [and] America,

where our friends have been coming

to help our people
to breathe, to walk, and suffer less.

Thay is there, in these prisons.

You have to see Thay like that.

If you think that this body is Thay,
that's wrong perception.

So Thay does not have to wait
until this body disintegrates completely,

in order to be reborn.

No, he has been reborn in many forms,

and there is some of Thay in yourself,
now.

So that is the wisdom
of the eyes of signlessness.

You are not caught in the forms.