Is there still suffering after enlightenment?

Thay answers questions on 21 June 2014. Question 1

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(French) What is it like
on the other shore?

Do you still think?

Do you still have suffering?

(Translator) Dear Thây,
when you have arrived on the other shore,

do you still think?
Do you still suffer?

Yes!

Even when you arrive at the other shore,
you continue to suffer,

but you suffer differently.

There is a way to suffer
that can help you grow,

that can help you heal,
that can help you help other people.

(Vietnamese)

(Translator) Can we have
a translator for our friend?

You might think that
the Buddha Shakyamuni, our teacher,

is a person who is only happy,
that he does not suffer.

But that is not true.

How can you do that
when so many people around you suffer?

When you are aware of
the suffering going on in the world,

you want to do something
in order for them to suffer less.

You are in good communication
with other living beings

and that is why you co-suffer with them.

You feel the suffering in them and in you.

But because you have transformed,
you have a lot of compassion and wisdom.

that is why you are not
a victim of that suffering.

You know how to
make good use of the suffering

in order to create
healing and transformation.

There are those of us who know
how not to be victim of suffering,

but who know how to make
good use of the suffering

in order to heal,

to make joy and happiness.

It is like you are a gardener.

The garden produces
many beautiful flowers and vegetables.

But as a garden it also
produces other things,

that are not like flowers and vegetables.

It produces both flowers and garbage.

But as an organic gardener,
you do not throw away the garbage.

You keep it and make good use of it
in order to nourish the flowers.

So if you want to grow a lotus flower,
you need the mud.

The mud is necessary to make a lotus.

The same thing is true
with suffering and happiness.

You need some suffering
in order to make happiness.

If you are a good gardener
you are not a victim of the garbage.

You are the boss.

You know how to make good use
of the garbage to make compost.

So the Buddha is someone like that.

He is a gardener.

He knows how to
make good use of the garbage,

of suffering, anger, fear, despair,

in order to transform them
into something else.

It is like the right and the left.

The left has to lean on the right
in order to manifest.

So suffering and happiness
are two aspects of reality.

If suffering does not exist,
happiness does not exist either.

On the other shore there is suffering,
but you are not a victim of it.

You know how to make good use of it.

My idea of the Kingdom of God is the same.

The Kingdom of God is not a place
where there is no suffering.

It is a place where people know
how to make good use of suffering

in order to create
understanding and compassion.

Because without suffering

you cannot bring about
understanding and compassion,

which are the ground of happiness.

It is very clear.
That is the view of interbeing.

Right View.

Our idea that the Kingdom of God
is a place where there is no suffering,

there is only happiness,

according to the insight of interbeing
is a wrong view.

Therefore,

if our sangha knows
how to make good use of suffering

and transform it into happiness

we are in the Kingdom of God right here.

And we have the power to build
the Kingdom of God by our practice.

To me, the Kingdom is now or never.

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