Where Do We Go When We Die? | Thich Nhat Hanh, 2022 07 22 (Plum Village, France)

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Suppose you look up here in the
blackboard... in the whiteboard,

and this is a candle . . .

the candle . . .

and the candle

is emitting light

and heat

in many directions.

And this candle might take five hours,

seven hours to burn to the end, right?

And after all the wax is gone,

it's like the candle dies.

Do you think that the candle
goes somewhere

after it dies?

The candle has something like
five hours to live,

to burn.

And do you think
that after it has burned

to the end

it will go somewhere, or not?

And do you think that
this is the end of the candle?

That this line is the line
of the end of the candle?

There is a candle

from here up here.

I agree, you agree,
we all agree

that from this line up
there is a candle.

But do you think that
from this line down there is no candle?

No or yes?

[Soft laughter]

It seems that if you are
a buddhist, you have to believe

that there is something after,

after you die.

And if you are a Christian also,

you have to believe
that after you die

there is something,

that you'll go somewhere.

In the candle,
in the case of the candle:

Do you think that
there is something left

after the candle has
burned itself completely?

Who says yes?

Not too many.
[Laughter]

Who says no?

There is no...
no more candle after.

Many people are not decided.
[Laughter]

The Dharma is very deep

and lovely.

We have to learn to

to learn with all our heart
in order to really understand

the question
"Where shall we go after we die?"

It's a good question,

but without practicing looking
very, very deeply

we cannot have a good answer.

Look at this candle.

In this moment,
this is the present moment.

This line is the present moment.

In this present moment,

the candle is already going somewhere

because in this very moment

the candle is sending itself

in many directions,
in terms of heat and light.

So the candle is going
in this very moment.

It does not need to arrive here
in order to go somewhere.

You, the same.
You are the same.

In this very moment,
you are going somewhere.

There is a
coming and going that is...

that happens
in every moment of your daily life,

and you go

a little bit like the candle.

The candle goes in terms
of light and heat,

and you go in terms of

thought, speech,

and physical movement.

Three kinds...
three kinds of action.

Every moment of your daily life

you are offering

thinking, speaking and acting.

And you go in many directions.

Speech, you go into your children.

Anything you think,
anything you speak,

anything you act,
you go through your children,

and through your friends
and through the cosmos.

That is called karma, action.

We are spending ourselves, we are going.

I live my daily life in such a way

that I can go beautifully into the world,

into my disciples,

into my friends.

I want to think

beautiful thoughts.

The thoughts of loving kindness,

the thoughts of compassion,

the thoughts of understanding,
the thoughts of love.

And every time I have a thought,
I offer myself to you,

to my disciples,
to my friends and to the world.

That is ... that is going, that is a

That's my continuation.

And I don't want to offer
the negative things.

I want to

to transform the negative things

so that they become positive before I

I go.
Because I go, enter into the cosmos

and the closest are my friends,

my disciples.

So when you look
into my disciples, you can see me.

When you look into
my friends, you can see me.

And this is very scientific.

I continue to go into my disciples,

into my friends
and to the cosmos.

You can see me

outside of my body.

This is my practice.

The candle does the same, you see?

The candle is offering light and heat

and the light

is offered to the world,

the heat is offered to the world,

but the light and the heat
is offered to the candle by itself.

The light of the candle can

light the candle,

and the heat of the candle

can cause the

the wax to melt.

And it's because like that

that the wick can absorb the wax

so the flame can be powerful.

So any action

made by the candle

affects the world and affects itself.

Any action comes out from the candle

goes back to the candle also.

When you have a
thought of loving kindness,

the world profits

and you profit also.

The effect is immediate.

When you say something
very nice to another person,

you offer...
that person receives

has an effect on that person

and you also...

you also . . .

profit from

that loving speech.

Any action of you...
of yours

can affect the world
and affect yourself,

and some actions,

some thoughts,

some speech

come back to you right away
in this very moment.

But sometimes

a thought

or a word

would need more time
in order to come back to you.

You say something not true,

that speech affects you right away.

Now.

But later on it will go back to you.

And people will discover that it's a lie.

So that goes back to you

and you have to

to bear

to bear the effect of that.

There are things that we do now

but we have to suffer ten years later

or twenty years later.

So the karma, it means the...

the action

can have two kinds of effects:

immediate effect,

and a . . .

retarded effect.

It's like some medicines,

when you swallow the medicine

it will release a substance,
and it has an effect now,

but later on, it will
continue to affect you.

So, your thinking,

your speech, and your act

affect you right away,

but later on it will
continue to affect you.

So, suppose we are in the present moment

you do something.
You say something very strong.

It goes out to the world,

it affects the world.

And it goes back right in
and affects yourself.

But some...

some actions will
go back to you later on.

And the candle has to burn until

until this line in order to receive the

the retribution.

In Vietnamese we say

[Speaking Vietnamese]

The father eats very salty,

and the son has to drink a lot of water.

So . . .

whatever you do,

you think and you speak now

will have an effect right now
and will have an effect later on.

And suppose you have...
you do something very strong,

and you get have the effect

here.

It will be your son who
will have to get the retribution,

because your son is your continuation.

Your son is the most visible retribution.

Your son is the most visible em...

continuation of yours.

Or your . . .

Your daughter.

Your daughter is the most. . .

one of the most visible
continuation of yours.

And it's you,
your son is you,

your daughter is you,

your disciple is you,

your friend is you,

because you have been
going to them every day.

So I can see
my continuation not only

in this body, in this consciousness,

but I can see my continuation

in my disciples, in my friends,
and in the world.

You see,
I have written a number of books.

And some of my books go very, very far.

And it is affecting
the people who are reading.

I have offered many wholesome thoughts,

many insights in my books.

And some of the books
go into prisons,

into the prisons,

and prisoners have been reading

and practicing.

And I am in prison,

because I like to be in prison
in order to be helpful.

So there are many prisoners
who are my continuation.

And there are Catholic monks

and Catholic nuns

who live in cloisters

and they have read my book

and they have written letters to me.

They were able to release some

of their views,

they feel much lighter

and I am continued by them.

So I can see me

continued in many forms.

So when, at this point,

when you don't see my body anymore,
you will say that Thay is no longer there.

That's not true.

Thay is there, but you have
to have the eyes of

eyes of signlessness in order to . . .

to recognize him.

It's like when...

when the cloud has become rain,

the cloud is not lost,

and you can recognize the cloud

in her new form: the rain.

So when you don't see
Thay in this form anymore,

you can recognize Thay's presence,

Thay's continuation in other forms,

and the most visible is his disciples.

Look at the monks, the nuns
and the lay practitioners

in Plum Village.

You can see Thay.
It's not very difficult.

In the way they walk, the way they smile,

the way they cook,

the way they sweep the ground,

the way they help other people.

Well...

There is a lot of Thay inside.

So the question is...
can be answered like this:

If you know where
you are going in this moment,

there will be no difficulty in knowing
where you go after you die.

You are dying and you are being reborn

right here and right now
in this very moment.

You don't need to arrive
at this point in order to die.

You are dying in every moment,

and you are being reborn in every moment.

Not only inside of yourself,
but also outside.

We know that there are
many cells in the body

and the cells in our body... many cells
in our body die every moment.

In this very moment, many cells in our...
in us die

in order to make room
for other cells to be born.

So birth and death
happen right here and right now.

You don't need to arrive
at the age of eighty in order to die.

You are dying now, in order for

for you to reborn now.

Birth and death are
happening in every moment.

That is the teaching of the Buddha

and you have to practice
looking deeply in order to see

to see that.

So, when you say "after I die"

you mean that now you are not dying.

That's not true.
You are dying in this very moment,

and you are being born
right in this moment.

Suppose that happens...
that happens in every moment.

Many thousands, many million cells

die in this very moment.

Every time someone dies,
we organize funerals, and we cry.

But if

if every time a cell in our body died

and if we organize funerals and cry

and then we'd have no time to do anything.
[Laughter]

No time left to do anything at all.

Practice looking deeply
in order to see

to see that.

So, when you say "after I die"

you mean that now you are not dying.

That's not true.
You are dying in this very moment,

and you are being born
right in this moment.

Suppose that happens...
that happens in every moment.

Many thousands, many million cells

die in this very moment.

Every time someone dies,
we organize funerals, and we cry.

But if...

every time a cell in our body died

and if we organize funerals and cry

and then we'd have no time
to do anything. [Laughter]

No time left to do anything at all.

We have to accept birth and death

that happen in us every moment.

So in order to answer this question,

you have to practice looking deeply

the way the Buddha

proposed

so that you can see that birth and death
are happening in every moment

and you are reborn in every moment

not only in your body
and your consciousness,

but in other forms as well.

We will continue

because this question is so...

demands a lot of

looking deeply.

Ok.