(13) No Life Without Death | Thich Nhat Hanh, (Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France)

[French] "La question, c'est

y a-t-il une vie après la mort?"

Question: "Is there life after death?"

"Life is always with death,

you cannot be

by yourself alone

you have to inter-be with

the other side.

It's like the left and the right

if the right is not there,

the left cannot be.

And that is what in Buddhism we call

"inter-being" -

"inter-être" [French].

So that is true with good and evil,

before and after,

here and there,

you and I.

[There is no] happiness without suffering

there's no life without death.

Many cells die

every moment of our daily life,

you can already see birth and death

happening in the present moment.

And because of the dying of cells

the birth of cells

is possible.

Don't think you were only born in that moment --

that moment written in your birth certificate

is just one moment.

What you call birth and death are only transformations

and when you touch the continuation,

the nature of no birth and no death

you are no longer afraid of

dying.