What determines life and death - How to be non-dualistic?

Thay answers questions, Plum Village June 2014.
life, death, non-duality, dependent co-arising, causes and conditions, mindfulness, meditation.

(Half-Bell)

(Bell)

Dear Thay, dear Sangha,
this is a really happy moment.

So I have two questions,
one is about:

what happens after we die...
(laughter in the audience)

So I have come close to certain situations

in my friends' lives.

My friend was pregnant and
expecting a baby within a week,

she had a miscarriage.

So the conditions were favorable

up to that point in time,

but something suddenly changed.

No one knew exactly the cause.

On the other extreme,
there were other situations,

someone in the ICU close to dying,

something miraculous saves them.

They say they are reborn,

almost touching their death,

and then springing back to life.

So I want to understand what is that makes

this manifestation shift possible.

My second question is:

I understand intellectually
that dualism is necessary

to maintain order in worldly affairs,

and non-dualism is necessary
to touch the reality.

So these are two contrasting concepts.

I would like to know how to embrace

non dualistic things, for example,
dualistic things such as

criticism, praise, positive, negative,
war, peace,

these opposite things,
how to embrace them in our daily life.

Thank you so much!

Dear Thay, dear Sangha,

our friend's first question is about

being born and dying.

For example,
when she looks around she has a friend

who was pregnant,

and who had a miscarriage after a week.

There seemed to be no apparent explanation

why that was the case.

It seems that conditions were sufficient

up to that point, and then conditions
were no longer sufficient for life.

At the other extreme,

someone who was extremely sick,

critically ill at the intensive care unit
of a hospital.

They seemed to be absolutely
at the point of death,

and all the conditions seeming to suggest

that this person will die,

then almost miraculously
they seem to be able to recover.

Our friend is asking,

what is it,
what is the energy that makes life

possible or not possible,
given the conditions.

Our friend's second question:

we have learnt in this retreat
about the need for opposites,

so that the daily world, our regular life,
can function,

opposites such as positive, negative,
praise, blame, peace war.

We have also learnt that we do need

to transcend these opposites,

in order to touch the ultimate,
in ourselves and in the world.

Our friend is asking how can she

transcend these opposites
in daily life.

According to the teaching of
dependent co-arising,

it is conditions that
determine everything.

Conditions come from the past,
from the future,

come from the present moment,

and come from several directions.

Something looks like
going in one direction,

but then another condition arises.

There is a turn,
a change of direction,

It happens very often.

It is like a young couple,
just married,

they go home, for a honeymoon period,
and get killed in an accident.

So many conditions have come together,

there is another condition
that disrupts everything.

It may come from past action,

from the present somewhere,

because we inter-are with everything.

Because anything that happens
in the world,

has an effect on us.

Suppose you don't drink alcohol,

you drive mindfully,

you can avoid accidents,

but that is only your part.

When you are out there on the street,

someone may be drunk,

then they cause an accident.

There are many conditions, many causes,
that come many different ways,

that happens every day.

When conditions are sufficient,

something happens.

At the last minute there may be
counter-conditions,

that make everything stop.

One winter in the hermitage,

suddenly it became warm,

and the flowers started to come out.

They said that this new year,

the solar new year,

we have some flowers in order

to decorate the Buddha's altar.

Suddenly a week after that it became cold,
all the flower buds died.

They said:
oh now, there are no flowers to decorate

the Buddha's altar in New Year's Day.

Then a week after it became warm again,

and the flower buds came out again.

It is very clear that everything
depends on conditions,

The question was,

whether the flower buds
that came the second time,

are they the same as the flower buds

that came the first time,
or are they different?

My mother before she gave birth to me,

she also had a miscarriage.

That child that did not come,

is he my brother, or is he me?

I am the same with that child
that was supposed to come,

or am I a different child?

That is a question.

According to the Buddhist insight,

that you gain from meditation,

the truth is:

neither the same as him,

nor a different person.

This is very clear,

because when you look at the family album,

and you see yourself as a 5-year-old girl,

and you may ask:

"Am I the same person
as that 5-year-old girl?"

and the answer is clear,
although you are not the same,

you look so different,

but you are not a totally
different person, either.

So that is the truth.

The flower buds that came later,

they are not the same,
they are not different,

that is the truth.

When the conditions are not sufficient,

they stop their manifestation,

and they manifest again later,

and everything has to obey
the law of impermanence.

No self, no sameness, no otherness,

if you can touch the
nature of no self like that,

you will no longer be surprised,

you won't ask the questions:

"Why, why and why?"

The cloud floating in the sky may enjoy,

being a cloud,

but a cloud becoming the rain
and falling down on earth,

can also be very beautiful, and joyful.

If you see that,
you don't discriminate anymore,

you don't say that:

"Unfortunately I can no longer be a cloud,
I have to be the rain."

But to be rain is wonderful also!

If you see that,

you see that you can manifest,

in many ways,
and any manifestation is a wonder.

So you don't have to ask anymore,

why do I have to change my form,
or manifestation.

To remove the notion of self,

is very important,
and that is the main practice, meditation.

No self does not mean you are not there,

you are there as a wonder.

You cannot be by yourself,

you have to inter-be with all of us.

We are all in you, and you are in us.

That kind of insight into inter-being,

makes us peaceful, calm, happy,

and we don't have to resist and
to complain.

As the two levels of truth are concerned,

mindfulness is good enough
in order to deal with them.

If it is a conventional truth,

you know it is a conventional truth,

and you are not caught.

If it is an outer truth,

you know that it is an outer truth,

and you are not caught
in the outer truth either.

You are free.

You accept both kinds of truths,

and you are not attached to any one,

including the outer truths.

Buddhism, which is something you like,

you want to protect, you want to serve
the cause of Buddhism

because it teaches enlightenment,
non-discrimination, and so on.

You might be attached to Buddhism.

That is not good
to be attached to Buddhism.

We should be free from Buddhism.

If you have that kind of freedom,

Buddhism continues to be good Buddhism.

No fanaticism, no claim that

only we have the truth,
you don't have the truth.

So that kind of insight,
that kind of freedom,

is very needed for the world.

Because you look deeply and you see,

the truth that Buddhism is made only of
non-Buddhist elements.

When you see that
all kinds of fanaticism disappear

and you are free from Buddhism,

you are free from the Buddha,

How wonderful to free from the Buddha!

How wonderful to free from Buddhism!

And you are the best kind of buddhist,

because you have that kind of freedom,

even from Buddhism,

even from the Buddha.

If every person on Earth
have that kind of insight,

there will be no war any more.

It is very important.

Mindfulness is powerful,

mindfulness set us free,

it is a conventional truth,

we know this is conventional truth only.

We know if there is an outer truth,

we know it is an outer truth only.

The outer truth does not have the right

to complain that it is the only truth.

(Half-Bell)

(Bell)