I invite everyone to look deeply into this flower with me. The flower has come to us. It is present in this moment. And when we look deeply into this flower, we may have a chance to discover the true nature of a flower. If you are a poet, and when you hear me saying that there is a cloud floating in the flower,

[01:03]

you might see it right away. In fact, there is a cloud floating in the flower. But you don't have to be a poet in order to see the cloud floating in the flower. Because you know that if there were no cloud, there would be no rain. And if there is no rain, no water, and no sunflower can grow at all. So when I touch the sunflower, I touch the cloud in the sky. The cloud is in the heart of the flower. Now suppose I have the power to return the cloud back to the sky. I take the element water out of the flower. I don't think that the flower can be here with us. A flower cannot be without water. A flower cannot be without a cloud.

[02:09]

A flower cannot be by herself alone without the support and the presence of a cloud. This is something that we all can see. And we don't need to be a poet in order to see it. Now I'm trying to touch the flower again a little more deeply. And I feel that I am touching the sun. The sun is very hot. I risk to burn my fingers if I touch the sun. But this is the sunshine. If I try to return the element sunshine to the sun, do you think the flower can be here with us? No. So the element sunshine is deep within the flower. A flower cannot be by itself alone.

[03:11]

It has to interbe with the sunshine. Without the sunshine, it cannot be. So let us visualize the sunflower talking to the sunshine. The sun is in what direction, you think? This direction. The sunflower looking at the sun. Dear sun, I know that without you I cannot be here. I know that you are in me. Without your light within me, I cannot be there. So that is the message that the sunflower is addressing the sun. And now we can imagine the sun talking to a cloud. Dear cloud, first people may say that you are out there and I am here,

[04:14]

but in fact you are in me also. And that is true. There is enlightenment, there is insight within the flower, because the flower is able to realize that in it there is the presence of a cloud. There is the presence of the sunshine. If you look deeply into yourself, you see that your father not only is out there, but your father is also inside. You cannot send back the element father from you, because if you do, you are not going to be there. And if I continue to touch the flower deeply, you know, I can touch the flower with my fingers,

[05:16]

but I can touch the flower with my eyes also. I can touch the flower with my mindfulness, with my meditation. It is the deepest kind of touching. So if I can touch the flower deeply, I can discover many things more, like the earth. The earth is inside, with all the minerals. We know that if we send these elements back to the earth, the flower cannot be. And there is the farmer, there is time, there is space, there is the mountain, the river, everything in the flower. And if you continue to practice looking deeply, you find out that everything in the cosmos has come together in order to help the flower manifest herself. So the flower is full of everything.

[06:23]

It is full of everything, it is full of the cosmos. So we can describe, we can use the word fullness to describe the flower. The Buddha sometimes called the flower empty, which is the opposite of being full. And we don't understand why he used the word empty. A flower is empty. We have agreed with each other that a flower is full of everything. The sunshine, the cloud, the earth, the minerals, the gardener, the father of the gardener, the mother of the gardener. Because if the gardener did not have a father and mother, the gardener cannot be there in order to grow the flowers.

[07:25]

So the flower is full of everything else. Except one thing, it is not there. That is a separate existence. And the Buddha called it self, separated self. The flower is full of everything except a separated self. It means, in our modern language, a flower cannot be by itself alone, it has to interbe with everything else. Everything is there in a flower except a separated existence. That is the meaning of empty, emptiness. Emptiness means no separated self. So we should not be afraid of the word.

[08:29]

The word only means that nothing can be by itself alone. Everything has to be with everything else. And that is why we have invented the word interbe. I inter-am, you are inter-are, we are, we inter-are with everything. Interbeing is a Buddhist term. Looking into the flower, we can see the garbage. You know, the flower is fresh, fragrant, beautiful, but the garbage is not fresh, it is not beautiful, it is not fragrant. Sometimes it smells bad, the garbage. But if you look deeply into the flower, you can see the garbage.

[09:35]

You know the compost that people use in order to grow flowers? That came from the garbage. And if we look deeply into the fresh flower, we can see the presence of the garbage in it. Now let us try to take the garbage out of the flower. The flower cannot be there. So not only the flower contains the sunshine, the cloud, the earth, but the flower contains the garbage also. And the garbage is essential for the manifestation of the flower. If you are a good gardener, if you are an organic gardener, you know how to make use of the garbage. You wouldn't throw the garbage away. You keep the garbage because you know how to transform garbage back into flower.

[10:40]

So flower and garbage, they inter-are also. You know, this flower, although she is beautiful, she is fragrant, but she is somehow on her way to the garbage heap. For those of you who don't want to practice meditation, looking deeply, you have to wait ten days in order to see. You can see the garbage in the flower. But for those of you who can meditate, you can see the garbage right now. You don't have to wait for ten days. That is the advantage of meditation, of looking deeply. You can see things very deeply and right here and right now. You don't have to wait. So I would like to repeat.

[11:43]

The flower is on her way to the garbage. But the opposite thing is true also. When we look into the heap of the garbage, and if we look deeply into it, we can see the flower already there. Because we are a good organic gardener, we are going to transform the garbage back into cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and flowers. So if the flower is on her way to the garbage, the garbage is on his way back into flowers. It's wonderful. And that is why garbage and flowers inter-are. There are garbages in us. Anger. Discrimination. Despair.

[12:45]

Jealousy. But if we are a good gardener, we don't have to be afraid of this garbage. We are going to transform them back into flowers. Compassion, understanding and love. So those who know how to garden organically, they don't mind if there is garbage in the garden. For those of us who know the art of meditation, we are not afraid of the garbage in us, of the anger, of the frustration, of the sorrow in us. Because we know the techniques, we are going to keep this garbage and transform them back into loving-kindness, compassion, understanding. And if we know the nature,

[13:49]

the true nature of the flower and of the garbage, then we can be at peace with ourselves right away. We can accept the flower in us and we can accept the garbage in us. And after we have accepted both, we have peace right away. We don't have to fight anymore. We know the techniques of breathing, of smiling, of transforming negative feelings and emotions into positive understanding and love. And that is why we have come to the retreat and learned these arts of healing and transformation. From now on, I am not going to be afraid of my garbage anymore. In fact, I learned how to keep my garbage because I know my garbage is so crucial

[14:54]

for the nourishment of my flowers. And that is the teaching of non-duality in Buddhism. I do not run away from something. I am not running after something. I accept reality as it is, in both aspects, negative and positive. And I am confident. I am confident. Please return the flower back to the water. Now let us meditate on a sheet of paper.

[16:04]

Anything can be the object of your meditation. Maybe you would like to look deeply into the matter, into the nature of birth and dying because you are concerned about birth and death. Birth and death are happening every moment in our body and in our consciousness. If we take time in order to touch ourselves deeply, we know that every second, in every second, birth and death happens.

[17:08]

Cells in our body continue to die and cells in our body continue to be born countless times a day. And every time a cell in our body dies, we don't organize funerals because too many of them die every day, we don't have time to make a funeral for each cell in our body. We don't mourn, we don't cry. And then there are many cells that are born every day and we have no time to organize a birthday party for them. If we organize a celebration for the birth of each cell in us, we won't have enough time because thousands of them, tens of thousands of them are born every day and tens of thousands of them die every day also. So birth and death are something that happen

[18:12]

continuously within us and yet we are afraid of being born, we are afraid of dying. And birth is so crucial for death and death is so crucial for birth and we need both. In order to be born, we need to die. In order to continue, we need to die. And dying is a very important process. And why should we be afraid of dying? Because dying is to open the door for new birth and new growth. We have to look deeply in order not to be afraid of one idea, the idea of birth, the idea of death. When I look into the sheet of paper, I can see that the sheet of paper is as wonderful as a flower. You can see a cloud floating in here? Yes.

[19:15]

Because if there were no cloud, there would be no tree and if there is no tree, there is no paper because trees are made of, papers are made of trees. So I can touch the trees, the forest in here. I can touch the clouds in here, I can touch the sunshine in here, exactly like the flower. You see a big difference between a flower and a sheet of paper and yet they are made very much of the same elements. And the sheet of paper is really a brother to a flower or a sister to the flower. And you may ask, when the sheet of paper came into being, what is the birthday of the sheet of paper? And that is what we are going to find out, looking deeply.

[20:19]

You may think that the sheet of paper was born the moment when the paste is pressed and the sheet of paper comes into existence. But let us examine more carefully our idea of birth. In our mind, to be born, what does it mean? In our thinking, to be born is from nothing, you suddenly become something. From no one, we suddenly become someone. That is our thinking of birth. And most of us think like that. To be born is from nothing, we become something. From no one, we become no one.

[21:24]

Let us examine that idea. That idea is very... deceiving. Because, let us be honest, let us try to find out something that is born from nothing. Can you find me something that could be born from nothing? No. The rain was born from the cloud. The rain was not born from nothing. The flower was born from the bush, from many things. A flower cannot be born from nothing. So if we re-examine reality,

[22:27]

we find out that nothing can be born from nothing. So, when I look into the sheet of paper, I find out that before this manifests itself as a sheet of paper, it had been something else. It was already there, in the form of a tree, in the form of sunshine, in the form of a cloud. So the day we call birthday is not really a birthday. It is a day of continuation. The rain was born from the cloud. The cloud was floating in the sky, and suddenly it became the rain. So the rain is not really born from nothing.

[23:28]

The rain is a continuation of the cloud, and that is why it makes more sense to say that that moment is a moment of continuation under another form, and not a moment of birth. Next time when you celebrate your birthday, instead of singing happy birthday to you, you say happy continuation to you. Yes. You have not come from nothing. You have not come from no one. Before your birth, you were already there in some other forms. So the fact is that continuation is a better word than birth. You have a birth certificate.

[24:29]

You were born on such hour, such day, such month, such year, and everyone seems to agree with you on that. But if you practice looking deeply, you will see that the birth certificate is not very correct. Because before the moment when you were born from your mommy, you had been there already in her womb. You see, you had been there a long time before your birth. If you really think that to be born is from no one, from nothing, you become something. From no one, you become someone. So you want to correct a little bit your birth certificate in order to be more accurate. You push it back nine months before. You take the moment of your conception as your true birth date.

[25:35]

But I want to insist. Are you sure that that moment of conception is really your birth moment? Before that, you were nothing? You had been there in your father and your mother before you were conceived. Conception cannot be realized from nothingness. So even before your conception, you had been there somehow in your father, in your mother. And even before your mother and your father were born, you had been already there in your ancestors. So the fact is that you have never been born. You have never been born. You have been already there. It is your nature of no birth.

[26:38]

Because to be born, according to your definition, is from nothing, you become something. From no one, you become someone. But looking deeply, you see that you have been there for a long time. There was no beginning. You don't need to be born in order to be there. And the form that you are now having is just a continuation of other forms of being. And if you were not truly born, you were not really born, then how can you die? Because to die, in our thinking, means from something, you suddenly become nothing. From someone, you suddenly become no one. Is that possible? Can you reduce,

[27:42]

can you reduce something into nothing? I don't think so. Something that is there, you cannot reduce it into nothingness. Like this sheet of paper. You think that you can make it into nothing at all? Let's try to burn it. To tear or to burn it. I have some match. Please observe with me to see whether it is possible for us to reduce something into absolute nothing. Fire.

[28:54]

Smoke. Have you seen the smoke? First of all, there was heat. I almost burned my fingers. The sheet of paper was transformed into heat. It has penetrated into my body, your body to some extent, and the heat has penetrated into the cosmos. If you are able to follow the sheet of paper in the form of heat, you see it can go very far. It can go very far. And the smoke that we saw, it has already joined a cloud in the sky.

[30:22]

You may say, Salaam, goodbye, see you again. You see, the sheet of paper has gone into many directions. And the sheet of paper is still there, the ash. Later on, the young monk will bring the ash and return it to the soil. And maybe if next year we have a retreat here, we can meet the sheet of paper again in the form of a flower. Why not? It has now returned to the earth in order to take another form, a grass blade, a tiny little flower, or a leaf. And the sheet of paper has already started its journey to the sky, to the cosmos, to the earth. And if you are interested,

[31:24]

you can follow the footprints of the sheet of paper. It is an adventure, it is a journey, it is a trip, very exciting also. So you cannot say that you can reduce something into nothingness. You can only help it to take other forms. And you can say, happy continuation, little sheet of paper, I am sure that I will see you again tomorrow, after tomorrow, under different kind of forms. So what we learn here is that from something you can never become nothing. From someone you can never become no one. Your true nature is no birth, no death. You are free from birth and death in your true nature. That is the teaching of the Buddha.

[32:24]

The Buddha said, where there is perception, there is illusion, there is deception. Our perception is not deep. Our perception of birth and death distorts the true nature of being. Let us examine a wave. A wave is made of water. And what we see is only a form. A perception, our perception of the wave may be very artificial, very shallow,

[33:56]

very wrong. We attribute to the wave the ideas of birth, of death, high, low, beautiful, not beautiful, this or that, being and non-being. But if we know how to touch the true nature of the wave, namely water, if the wave knows that she is water, she will not be caught by these ideas, birth, death, being and non-being. She is free from all fear. We are like a wave. We are very careful of our ideas, of our notions, including the notion of birth, of dying, of being, of non-being, of coming, of going. And we suffer very much

[34:58]

because of our ideas, because we have not been able to touch reality in itself, the true foundation of our being. A French scientist whose name is Lavoisier, he declared that nothing is born, nothing dies. Rien ne se crée, rien ne se perd. He was not a Buddhist. He just observed deeply what was there, and he found out the same thing. There is no birth, there is no death. There is only a continuation of reality in different kinds of forms. Matter and energy are the same. Matter and energy

[36:00]

belong to the same reality. Sometimes it manifests itself as matter. Sometimes it manifests itself as energy. And we should not be fooled by outer forms. The greatest relief that we get from the practice of Buddhist meditation is non-fear. Because once we can touch our nature of no birth and no death, we lose our fear. And true happiness can only be there when fear is no longer there. That is why non-fear is the greatest gift and the greatest relief. In the Heart Sutra that Buddhist monks and nuns and lay people love to chant every morning,

[37:00]

it is said that reality is free from birth and death. And that is why we should have an opportunity in order to practice looking deeply, touching deeply our reality, in order to touch the ground of our being, the kingdom of God, the Buddha nature, the nature of no birth and no death in us. That is the deepest thing, the most wonderful thing we can profit from the practice of Buddhist meditation. When a cloud is about to be transformed

[38:01]

into rain, it is not it is not it does not panic. It is not scared because it knows very well it is not going to become nothing. It knows that to be a cloud floating in the blue sky is wonderful, but to be the rain falling on rice fields, wheat fields in the middle is also a wonderful thing to do. That is why the rain falling down, sinking. But we cannot be like a cloud. We are very scared of dying because in our mind we think dying means to become nothing. Nothing can become nothing. Nothing can be born from nothing. That is the teaching of the Buddha.

[39:03]

The greatest relief that we can get from the practice is Nirvana. Nirvana means extinction of ideas and concepts including the ideas of birth and death, being and non-being. We are very scared of these terms, of these ideas, non-being and death. And to remove these ideas means to get the kind of freedom that allows us to be truly happy. And we can do it if we can liberate us from the daily worries, if we can now taste the pleasure of touching deeply

[40:07]

and looking deeply into reality that could be very rewarding because finally we can touch our true nature of no birth and no death, transcending both the idea of being and non-being. The Buddha said when conditions are sufficient, when conditions come together and then something manifests itself and we perceive it and out of that kind of perception we term it as being. We describe it as being. And we get attached to it. And when conditions are not yet sufficient or no longer sufficient,

[41:08]

death does not manifest itself. We cannot perceive it and we describe it as non-being. Both ideas of being and non-being are just ideas. They cannot apply to reality. That is the Buddha's teaching. Suppose we investigate into the idea of above and below. We are sitting here, half-lotus, chrysanthemum. We believe that this direction is our above and this direction is our below. But if you visualize our Japanese friends who are practicing Zazen on the other side of the planet, you can see them sitting upside down. This direction that we call above,

[42:13]

they call it below. And this direction we call below, they call above. So above is the truth or below is the truth. The idea of above and below cannot be applied to the cosmos. The idea of birth and death, as we have seen, cannot be applied to reality. Reality is free from birth and death, from below and above, from being and non-being. We think that is because we can perceive it. And we think that it is not because we cannot perceive it. Now if we have a television set and then we have a condition in order to receive the signals sent from us from many satellites,

[43:15]

and we say, well, the programs exist. There is a program of television. But if we do not have a television set, we see nothing. We say that there is no program. That is because of our wrong perceptions. We describe things as being or non-being just because of our perceptions. We live with our wrong perceptions. And that is why we suffer so much. When you see in the twilight, you see a snake, and you scream, you suffer. But when a friend brings a torch, you realize that it is not a snake. It is only a piece of rope. So wrong perceptions are the foundation of our fear, of our sorrow, of our unhappiness. That is why to practice looking deeply, to practice meditation

[44:19]

is to dissipate our wrong perceptions in order to enter in direct touch with reality in itself. That is called in Buddhism suchness, reality as it is. Not in the way we perceive it by our notions and concepts. That is why birth and death do not apply to reality. That is why being and non-being cannot be applied to reality. That is why we can say to be or not to be, that is not the question. Anathapindika is the name of a famous lay person who lived in the time of the Buddha. He was a young businessman living in the city of Shravasti

[45:22]

belonging to the kingdom of Kosala north-west above the Ganges River to the west. On the east side there was the small kingdom Kapilavastu where the Buddha was born. Below, on the side of the Ganges River there was the kingdom of Magadha where the Buddha got enlightenment and began to teach. He was residing in a monastery called Bamboo Forest donated by the king of Magadha whose name is Bambisara when Anathapindika from Shravasti came and visited. Before coming to the city of Rajagriha Anathapindika had not heard

[46:24]

the name of the word Buddha. But when he arrived at the home of his brother-in-law he saw his brother-in-law preparing a lot and ignored him. And he said, Why, this time you are cool to prepare something to welcome the king? And his brother-in-law said, No, my brother, we are not inviting the king we are inviting the Buddha to have a meal with us. And upon hearing the word Buddha Anathapindika fell in love with that name. Buddha, you mean? The person who is awakened? Yes, Buddha means the awakened one. So he was so excited to meet the Buddha. And finally he became a disciple of the Buddha and he asked the Buddha

[47:25]

to come to his country to share the Dharma, the kingdom of Kosala. He asked the Buddha to send someone with him and prepare the ground for his teaching in the city of Shravasti. And the Buddha sent his senior disciple the venerable Shariputra. So they went to the kingdom of Kosala and over there in the city of Shravasti Anathapindika found a very beautiful park belonging to a prince, Prince Jetha. So he tried to buy that beautiful park in order to offer to the Buddha as a place of residence so that he can stay long and share the Dharma in his country. Anathapindika had a happy family.

[48:30]

After he received the teaching of the Buddha, he lived accordingly to the five mindfulness trainings and he built up a very happy family together. And he continued to serve the Buddha for more than 30 years supporting him in his teaching and his building of the Sangha. And he got his happiness from the practice and the support of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. He brought so many businessmen to Shariputra and to the Buddha so that his friends in the business circle could profit from the teaching of the Buddha. The name Anathapindika was not his real name. It was given by the people of his city because he had a very beautiful big heart, great heart.

[49:32]

He cared very much for the orphans, for the destitute people, for the aged people. And that is why Anathapindika means the one who cares for the isolated, the poor, the destitute. His real name is Sudatta. The Buddha considered him as one of the happiest disciples, lay disciples. One day the Buddha learned that Anathapindika was very sick. So he went there to his home and visited him. After that he asked Shariputra to come and visit and take care of Anathapindika

[50:33]

because he knew that Shariputra, the monk, and Anathapindika, the lay person, they were very close friends to each other. One day Shariputra learned that Anathapindika is dying. So he asked his younger brother in the Dharma, the venerable Ananda, to come along with him and visit this wonderful lay person. And when they arrived, Anathapindika tried his best to sit up, but he was so weak he could not sit up. Shariputra said, No, my dear friend, you don't have to sit up. Just lie down quietly and we'll bring two chairs and we'll sit close to you. When they accepted, Shariputra asked, My dear friend Anathapindika, how do you feel within your body?

[51:34]

Is the pain in your body increasing or is it decreasing? So that is the first inquiry about the situation of the dying person. Anathapindika said, The pain within my body is not decreasing, it is increasing all the time. Thereupon Shariputra proposed that the three of them practice a kind of meditation called the recollection of the three jewels. You water the seeds of the Buddha, of the Dharma and the Sangha in your store consciousness. Shariputra was considered to be one of the most intelligent disciples of the Buddha. He knew very well that Anathapindika took a great deal of happiness, pleasure serving the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. That is why if he can touch

[52:37]

the seeds of that pleasure and happiness in the store consciousness of Anathapindika he could be able to relieve the suffering and bring back the balance within his body and consciousness. That is why the two monks, one dying lay person were practicing together what we call the recollection of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. In fact, it was very effective. After just five minutes of practice Shariputra noticed that the pain in the person of Anathapindika began to disappear and he was able to smile again. This is what we have to learn, all of us. In each person there are beautiful seeds, seeds of happiness. In a woman of dying

[53:40]

there must be a person who knows exactly what these seeds are in order to talk about it, to water about it. If you can water the positive seeds in the dying person you can restore the balance and have that person suffer much less and help him or her to practice in order to die peacefully and happily. So five minutes only could already restore the balance and they could see Anathapindika smiling because the seeds of happiness in serving the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha had been watered. And now Shariputra tried to help him to go deeper into the meditation. Dear Anathapindika, let us practice

[54:42]

a little bit deeper. We are here to practice with you. You should begin by breathing in and visualize these eyes are not me. I am not these eyes. I am not caught in these eyes. That is the meditation on the six sense organs eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. We have to look deeply in order to be able not to identify ourselves with these six organs. This body is not me. I am not caught by this body. I am alive without boundaries. This is very important because if you get caught in the idea that you are this body, you are going to panic, to be afraid.

[55:46]

And you may think that the decomposition of this body is your own decomposition. This body is not me. I am not caught in this body. I am alive without boundaries. After having meditated on the six sense organs, they meditated on the four elements. The element water in me is not me. I am not caught by element water. The element fire, heat in me is not me. I am not caught in the element heat. The element earth in me is not me. I am not caught by the element earth. The element air in me is not me. I am not caught in the element air. So the four elements within

[56:53]

and the four elements without belong to the same element. This is reality. I am not in, I am not out. I am free from both ideas of in and out, this or that. And the meditation continued until they arrived at the meditation of emptiness, of no-self. The whole story can be obtained in a discourse called Discourse on the Teachings to be Given to the Dying Person. It is available in the Shenten book in English. This is a few sentences

[57:53]

taken from it. Everything that is has the nature not to be born and not to die. Your true nature is no birth and no death. If you can touch that nature, you are free from fear, from attachment. Everything that is has the nature not to be born and not to die. Everything that is has the nature not to arrive and not to depart. You think you have arrived from somewhere and now you are departing to some unknown destination that is only a notion, a concept. When the conditions are sufficient, the body arises and manifests itself.

[58:55]

It does not come from anywhere. And we term it as being. So the idea of coming and being are wrong, cannot be applied to reality. And when conditions are no longer sufficient, the body disintegrates. It cannot perceive. You think that it is going somewhere. You think that it has become non-being. These notions cannot be applied either to reality. So he was trying to help Anathapindika to see that these notions of being and non-being, coming and going, are just ideas that you have to free, to be free from. And when the meditation

[60:10]

was successful and the dying person could touch his nature of no birth and no death, suddenly the venerable Ananda saw tears rolling down in the face of Anathapindika. The dying person was crying. The venerable Ananda did not understand because he was much younger than his elder brother Anathapindika. He asked, My dear friend Anathapindika, why do you cry? Did you fail in your practice or do you regret anything? Anathapindika smiled and looked at Ananda. He said, No, Lord Ananda,

[61:13]

I did not regret anything. I am so happy. My meditation is very successful. And why do you cry? I cry because I am so moved. I have been serving the Buddha more than 30 years, but I have never received and practiced a teaching that is wonderful like this. It relieves me. I am totally free now. Ananda said, Dear friend Anathapindika, You don't know, but this kind of teaching is offered by the Buddha to monks and nuns almost every day. Anathapindika said, Venerable Ananda, please go home and tell the Lord that many of us lay people, although there are those who are too much caught in their business and their daily life,

[62:14]

but still many of us are capable of receiving and practicing teachings that are wonderful like this one. And the Venerable Ananda accepted the promise that he would go back to the Jetha Grove and tell the Buddha about this request. The two monks stayed on for a while and then they witnessed the fact that Anathapindika was passing away in a very peaceful and happy way. We would be very lucky if in that moment we had a friend or two sitting close to us like that and helping us with our meditation on the freedom of ideas

[63:15]

concerning coming, going, being and non-being. In fact, we are fooled by our perceptions. When we don't perceive, we say that he is not there, he is non-being. And when we perceive something, we say that he is there, he is being. But in fact, our perception of truth is very shallow. We have to train ourselves in order to get rid of our notions, our ideas for a deep touching of reality to be possible. Nirvana is what? Nirvana is the reality free from all notions, from all ideas. Because our notions and our ideas may serve as the ground of our unhappiness and our fear.

[64:16]

Let us examine our notion of happiness. Each one of us has an idea as what happiness is. And we may just suffer because of that idea. We believe that to be happy means to have this, to have that, to be like this, to be like that. And you are committed to an idea of happiness. And you might have suffered a lot just because you entertained that idea of happiness. And if you remove that idea of happiness, you might be very happy right away. One nation, a whole nation may be committed to an idea of happiness, a kind of ideology. If only our country can realize such or such ideology, then happiness for the nation and for people will be possible. There is only one way

[65:20]

to realize that ideology. And you may be committed to that ideology, to that notion of happiness and engage in the course of realization of that idea for 70 years or more. And during the course of dreaming, of realization, you may produce hell, a lot of unhappiness, a lot of suffering, just because you entertain one idea about happiness. And if you are lucky, if your nation is happy, maybe 50 years after or 70 years after, you may wake up and realize that it is only an idea. So to remove ideas is the practice of Buddhist meditation. You remove your ideas

[66:23]

and you have more chance to get in touch with reality in itself. So one example can be taken, your idea of happiness. If you have been suffering a lot, that may be because you have got an idea of what happiness is. Because it is a pity that we are committed to just one idea of happiness. We eliminate all other avenues of happiness. That is why to remove our idea of happiness and allow happiness to come to us in several avenues that would be a much wiser attitude. So Nirvana, what does it mean? Nirvana means first of all the extinction of ideas and also the extinction of the suffering that are born from these ideas. Ideas about birth and death,

[67:25]

coming and going, are ideas that serve as the ground for our fear. That is why the practice of deep looking is to remove these ideas for us to have a chance to get deep into the foundation of our being, suchness. Om About six years ago I, Sister Trinh Khong, Annie, Therese, a number of us were driving a car to northern New York State

[68:26]

for a retreat. A retreat in Omega Institute, not very far from Woodstock. After having left New York we heard the news that our friend Alfred Hassler was dying in a Catholic hospital nearby. We decided to drop in the hospital to visit our friend because Alfred Hassler was a very active pacifist. During the Vietnam War he supported us very much in our attempt to call for a ceasefire to stop the killing in Vietnam. So I and Sister Trinh Khong we decided to stop by and to see Alfred. When we arrived only I and Sister Trinh Khong went up and other friends were waiting for us

[69:28]

down there. And Alfred was in a coma. His wife, Dorothy, was there. His daughter, who had worked with us in the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation in Paris for many years, she was also there. And when they saw us arrive they were so happy. And Laura tried very hard to wake Alfred up but he was in a very deep coma. He was being fed with liquids coming into his veins. Laura made an attempt to wake Alfred up but he did not wake up. So I proposed to Sister Trinh Khong

[70:29]

to sing to him the song of no coming, no going that I wrote myself based on the teaching of the Buddha on the reality of no birth, no death no coming, no going. And Sister Trinh Khong was standing very close and she was singing that song. And when she sang it for the third time Alfred came back. He woke up. There is something in there that we have to learn. When a person is in coma don't think that you cannot communicate with him or her. Just sit there and talk to him, talk to her. There is a way that you can communicate with him or her. Talk to him, talk to her as if she is awake. This is very important. It works several times.

[71:30]

I have witnessed so many instances where when you talk to the person who is in coma, there is communication. And the person has a great chance to wake up and to be with you. Talk to him, talk to her and talk about the positive things because you know him, you know her and you know the positive seeds in him or in her. So talk about these things. It is very important. We were very happy when we saw Alfred coming back to himself. And Laura, his daughter was asking him, Daddy, you know that Thay is there? You know that Sister Chan Khong is there? And Alfred was not able to answer but his eyes proved that he acknowledged. He was aware that I was there

[72:33]

and Sister Chan Khong was there. Thereupon, Sister Chan Khong began to talk about the work we have done together in order to stop the war in Vietnam. Because he himself took a great deal of pleasure in working to end the war in Vietnam. And our friendship grew very deep because of that kind of joint action. Alfred, do you remember the time you were in Saigon trying to see the high monk Thich Trich Quang? The United States of America a week before had decided to bomb Hanoi, not Vietnam. Thich Trich Quang was very angry and he made a decision not to see any westerners, hawks or doves. So you were very frustrated and you sat outside his door

[73:34]

and you wrote a note and slipped it in and you said, Thich Trich Quang, I am here as a friend. I want to support your action to end the war. I will not leave. I will fast until you open your door. And just 50 minutes after the venerable Thich Quang opened his door with a broad smile and invited you in, Alfred, do you remember these moments? And she continued to talk like that to Alfred in order to water the seeds of happiness in him. Because we have learned from this sutra and other sutras of the same nature. Alfred, do you remember the time when you were in Rome? Remember 300 Catholic priests wearing the names of 300 Buddhist monks who were in prison because these monks refused to be drafted into the army? They would prefer to be in jail rather than to go and kill people? Do you remember that?

[74:34]

And Alfred, although he was not able to speak but his eyes were very bright, he realized he remembered all of that. And we can see a big change. He could restore his balance and he could be with us. And at that time I was massaging his feet. And Laura said, Alfred, Daddy, do you know that Thay is massaging your feet? And again, Alfred did not say anything but his eyes spoke that he was aware. When someone is dying, his body becomes a little bit numb. And it would be helpful if you do massage and remind himself, create, recreate that feeling so that the communication becomes more deeper. And I was massaging his feet

[75:37]

and Sister Chan Khong was talking about the happy souvenirs and suddenly, Alfred opened his mouth and uttered a word, Alfred, wonderful, wonderful, two times. And after that he sank back into a coma. And from that time on, he never came back. We had to leave because 600 residents were waiting for us in Upper New York. But we told Dorothy and Laura that if Alfred returns, you have to continue the same kind of practice. That night I gave an orientation talk to the retreat and early morning I got the news from the hospital

[76:39]

that Alfred, after we left for a few hours, Alfred died very peacefully. So there are things we can learn, we can train ourselves. The best kind of gift you can make to the person who is dying is your true presence with non-fear, your stability. If you have practice and got the insight of no birth and no death, your presence is absolutely necessary, helpful to the person so that he or she can die peacefully without any regret and without pain, or at least a lot of pain. If you practice yourself and if you can touch your true nature of no birth and no death, the quality of your presence is very great. With your presence,

[77:41]

the other person, the person who is dying, will have great confidence and that makes a big difference. You can practice like Anathapindika, water the seeds of happiness, of joy that are in him or her to restore the balance and keep talking and helping, doing meditation together, breathing in, breathing out. That would be very helpful. The practice not only helps us but will be very useful helping many other people, the people we love. Each of us will have to pass by that moment and it would be wonderful that we can all be prepared in order to help us to begin our new continuation in the best way we can because there is no birth, there is no death, there is only continuation and we should prepare for our continuation.

[78:42]

Dear friends, it has been a pleasure for me to be with you during the last five, six days. We have been able to water some of the positive seeds in us and our practice will benefit not only us but the people we love at home, our children. And what I request in this moment is that please devote some of your time building a Sangha where you are. You can bring the practice home, yes, but with the Sangha supporting you you might not be able to continue the practice. We should practice for ourselves, for our family, but we should practice for our society. The Five Mindfulness Trainings are wonderful. I am sure, I am certain, I am confident that if you can live according to the Five Mindfulness Trainings you will be able to protect yourself, protect your family and improve

[79:49]

the quality of life in our society. We are somehow like a family. We are brothers and sisters to each other because we share the same insight, the same path, the path of mindfulness. Our family is big, our Sangha is big everywhere and we should be able to profit from each other's presence. I am confident that we will be together again for other retreats in order to learn more from each other, in order to practice together with each other and to bring a better quality of life to our society. I have great confidence. Thank you. Sound of the bell

[81:04]

Sound of the bell Sound of the bell Sound of the bell Shall I invite the monks and the nuns to come up here and we sing together Breathing In, Breathing Out? This body is not me. I am not caught by this body. Sister Chan Khang will offer you that song that she sang to André. Breathing In, Breathing Out

[82:17]

This body is not me. I am not caught by this body. Breathing In, Breathing Out This body is not me. I am not caught by this body. I have never been born and I will never die. Breathing In, Breathing Out

[83:26]

Breathing In, Breathing Out Look at the moon, look at the star, look at mountain, look at river, look at the ocean, all a manifestation of myself. Look at my daughter, my son, my friend, look at everything I touch, all a manifestation of myself. So please, laugh at me, smile to me, birth and death are just the threshold by which I go in and out. Birth and death are only a hide-and-seek game. Smile with me, laugh with me, say goodbye to me, because you will see me very soon in every walk of life. See you next time. See you today.

[84:29]

See you tomorrow. We will meet again at the spring. We are meeting every second in the thousands of rivers. This body is not me. This mind is not me. I am not, I am much larger than this mind. I am life without boundaries. I have never been born. I will never die. Birth and death

[86:03]

are just the threshold by which I enter and I go out. Birth and death are just a hide-and-seek game. I am everywhere at every walk of life. I am life without boundaries. Thank you. Please sing together with me. Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out. I am blooming as a flower. I am fresh as a dew.

[87:03]

I am solid as a mountain. I am firm as the earth. I am free. Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out. I am water reflecting what is real, what is true. And I feel a space deep inside of me. I am free,

[88:06]

I am free, I am free. I have arrived. I am home in the here and in the now. I have arrived. I am home in the here and in the now. I am solid and I am free. I am solid and I am free. In the ultimate I dwell. In the ultimate I dwell. See you in the next retreat.

[89:13]

Thank you.

[89:17]

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