How does it feel to be dead?

Thay answers questions on 21 June 2014. Question 1

(Half bell)

(Bell)

(DUTCH)
What does it feel like to be dead?

How does it feel when you are dead?

(Crowd laughs)

The question is: 'After you die,
do you still have feelings?' Right?

'How do you feel when you have died?'
Right?

This is a very good, deep question.

Suppose you ask the cloud that is
floating in the sky the same question.

'My dear little cloud, I know
you will die some day.'

'You will not be a cloud anymore.'

'So what is your feeling now and
what is your feeling after you die?'

'After you die, will you
have any feeling?'

We ask the cloud.

And if we listen carefully we may
hear an answer.

Do you think that a cloud
is afraid of dying?

You are there floating in the sky.

But you know that one day
you will have to...disappear.

You have to die.

The same thing is true
with a man or a woman.

This is a not a child's question
but a philosopher's question.

And if the cloud knows how to
practice meditation...

- who knows? -

the cloud will find out
that it can never die.

It can never die.

Beacause 'to die' means
you become nothing.

From something you become nothing.

That's what we mean by 'dying'.

You are there and suddenly
you are no longer there.

That is 'to die'.

But is it possible for a cloud to die?

Is it possible for a cloud
to become nothing?

No!

A cloud can become
rain or snow or ice or fog.

But a cloud can never be nothing.

So the human being is like that too.

It looks like we die,
but in fact we cannot die.

We always continue,
not in this form, but in other forms.

Can you see that?

In fact there are many clouds in us.

Every day we drink a lot of cloud.

Here is a cloud!
I am drinking a cloud.

So 70 percent of my body is cloud.

And if the cloud does not die,
I will not die!

I continue always!

So when you are a cloud,
you feel as a cloud.

But when you are no longer a cloud
you can be the rain and you feel as rain.

So there will still be feelings after
the cloud becomes the rain.

And after the dissolution of this body
you don't feel with this body,

but you feel with
other bodies that follow.

Remember, it's impossible
for something to die.

That is the teaching of the Buddha.

And not only the Buddha,
many scientists have seen that.

There is a French scientist who says:
'Nothing is born, nothing dies.'

His name is Antoine...

Lavoisier,
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier.

'Rien ne se crée. Rien ne se perd.'

It means 'nothing is born,
nothing dies.'

That applies to the cloud.
The cloud has not been born.

In our mind we think 'to be born' means
from nothing you suddenly become something.

But a cloud has not come from nothing.

Before it was a cloud,
it had been something else,

like the water in the ocean,
the heat generated by the sun.

So before it was a cloud,
it had been something else.

It has not come from nothing.

Therefore we know that
it's impossible for a cloud to be born.

It's impossible for a cloud to die.

And a human being is like that.

You have not come from nothing.

The moment when you were born,
you had been already there.

Before your mother conceived you
in her womb, you did exist,

half in your father
and half in your mother.

And the half in your father met
the half in your mother

and became a little you, very tiny.

So the moment of conception is not
the beginning. There is no beginning.

There is no end.

So...

Your nature is like the nature
of the cloud: no birth and no death.

Don't worry.

And meditation helps us to see
the nature of no birth and no death

and to remove the fear of dying,
the fear of non-being.

This is a very deep
teaching of the Buddha.

And when you grow up,
you continue to meditate

and you will touch the truth
of no birth and no death.

And you no longer have fear.

And scientists have already
discovered the same truth.

This morning there was
a question in the bell:

"What do you think about the Big Bang?"

The Big Bang is the
beginning of the world.

But in this teaching, in this practice,
there is no beginning.

If there is a Big Bang,
than there will be a Big Crunch.

This is a very interesting
subject for meditation.

So people invented
the theory of the Big Bang

because they feel the need
of explaining how the world began.

But if they touch the truth
of no beginning, no ending

they don't need to
create a theory like that

in order to explain.

Because if you think there is a Big Bang
you have to believe in a Big Crunch.

And you violate the first law
of thermodynamics.

You violate the law:
nothing is born, nothing dies.

We have to continue to meditate
on this subject which is very deep.

So my answer is:
there is a feeling when you are a cloud

there will be feelings
when you become the rain.

There is feeling when we have this body,

there will be feelings after
you take up other bodies.

Ok?

What a question!

(Crowd laughs)

(Half bell)

(Bell)