This is something we can remember, we can practice.
If we sit close to a person who is dying,
we should talk to him or her and touch the seed of happiness in him or in her.
We should be able to recognize these seeds in the agonizing person.
Even if that person is in a coma, we should also talk to him or her
because there is a way, by which that person can communicate with us.
There was a student in Bordeaux, France
who learned that his mother was dying and he came to Plum Village to get some teachings...
some instructions in order to to help his mother.
Sister Chan Khong told him to do that,
to talk to his mother and talk to her only about the beautiful, happy things in her life.
When he arrived in California, where his mother was dying, his mother was in a coma.
Doctors have tried to revive her to bring her back to consciousness, but they failed.
And the young student just practiced according to the instructions and...
he just talked to his mother.
About 45 minutes later...
she came back. She woke up. It's very amazing. The doctors could not believe it.
You know the Fellowship of Reconciliation. When I first came to America,
Alfred Hassler, who was the general secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation,
a peace organization in Nyack, New York,
helped me to tour in America to speak about the situation in Vietnam. That was in 1966.
With the help of Alfred and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, we have organized...
peace activities a little bit everywhere in Europe, in Asia and so on.
And...
we have shared a lot of time together working for peace in Vietnam.
There were very joyful moments
when we worked together to end the war in Vietnam.
One day Sister Chan Khong, myself, and a number of our friends were driving to...
I think Omega Institute, in upper New York City, to lead a retreat.
We learned that Alfred was agonizing in a catholic hospital not very far from there
so we decided to go there and to see him.
When we arrived, Dorothy, his wife and Laura, his daughter, were there.
Alfred was being fed with glucose injection but he was still in a coma.
Laura, his daughter, who used to work in our peace office in Paris.
She was so glad to see myself and Sr Chan Khong coming to visit his father.
She tried her best to wake Alfred up:
"Daddy, do you know that Thay is here? Sr Chan Khong is here!"
But Alfred did not wake up.
Then I told Sr Chan Khong to sing for Alfred
the song I wrote using the words of the Buddha
in the Pali Canon, also in the Chinese Canon, the same text: "This body is not me.
I am not caught in this body. I am life without boundaries.
My nature is no birth and no death."
It goes on like that.
When Sr Chan Khong sang it for the third time, Alfred woke up.
You see, there is a communication possible.
We were very happy to see Alfred awake, and I massaged his feet
to give him the feeling that he was there.
And Laura said, "Alfred,
you know that Thay is here, Sr Chan Khong is here!" Alfred was not able to speak, but his eyes...
showed that he was aware that I was there, Sr Chan Khong was there.
And then Sr Chan Khong began to talk to him.
We have learned what to talk about.
"Alfred, do you remember the time we were in Rome?
when 300 Buddhist monks were in the prison of Vietnam because they refused to be drafted into the army?
And in Rome we have been able to invite 300 catholic priests to come for a demonstration...
and each catholic priest wore a name of a Buddhist monk in Vietnam?
Do you remember that, Alfred?"
She continued to talk to him about happy memories during the time working together for peace.
And you know what happened?
After about 10 minutes, Alfred opened his mouth and said,
"Wonderful, wonderful!" two times.
After that, he sunk back into the coma.
It was late and we had to give an orientation talk at Omega Institute in the Upper New York...
That is why we had to leave, but we told Dorothy and Laura to continue the practice.
And the next morning very early I got a telephone call from Laura.
She said that her father died very peacefully without any pain.
Shariputra did the same thing
while being with Anathapindika, he tried to water the good seeds, the seeds of happiness in him
by practicing the Four Recollections.
After that, Anathapindika was able to smile.
They continued the guided meditation: "Let us practice together, three of us," he said.
"Breathing in,
I know that my eyes are not me.
My ears are not me. I'm more than my eyes, my ears, my nose or my tongue.
Breathing in, I know this body is not me.
I am not caught in this body. I am life without boundaries.
The disintegration of this body is not my disintegration.
My true nature is the nature of no birth and no death.
Breathing in, I'm aware of the element of heat in me, "fire."
The heat in me, the element 'fire' in me, is not me.
I'm more than the element 'fire.'
Breathing in, I'm aware of the element 'water' in me.
I'm not the water; I'm more than the water.
I'm not caught in the element 'water' in me.
You know the Four Great Elements, Mahābhūta:
fire (heat), earth, air, and water.
Breathing in,
I know the form that I see with eyes is not me. The sound I hear with my ears is not me.
This guided meditation helps the dying person not to identify with his six sense organs.
It's very important.
This body has come from nowhere.
When conditions are sufficient this body manifests.
It has not come from the north, the south, the east, or the west.
Before the manifestation you cannot say it did not exist;
After the manifestation you cannot say that it exists.
You know exactly what we just heard in the Dharma talk.
And by that time the Venerable Ananda saw...
that tears began to roll down the eyes of Anathapindika.
He felt sorry for Anathapindika. He asked, "My dear friend, why are you crying?
Do you regret anything?"
Anathapindika said, "No, Venerable Ananda, I don't regret anything."
"Or maybe you didn't succeed in your meditation?"
"Venerable Ananda, I succeeded very well in my meditation."
"Why are you crying then?"
"Venerable Ananda, I cry because I'm so moved.
I have served the Buddha, the Sangha, and the Dharma more than 30 years,
and I have never received and put into practice
such a wonderful teaching like the one given to me today by the Venerable Shariputra...
the teaching on no birth no death, no coming no going, no being no non-being."
Ananda was still young... He said,
"Dear friend, this kind of teaching, we monastics receive almost every day!"
Anathapindika looked at the venerables and said,
"Dear Venerable Ananda, when you go home, please tell the lord...
that, we lay people, even if many of us are busy,
not capable of receiving such wonderful teaching,
there are those of us, as lay people,
who are free enough, who have enough time
to receive this teaching and to put it into our practice.
so please tell the Buddha to dispense this kind of teaching to us lay people as well.
And that was the last request made by Anathapindika.
Ananda accepted to do the commission.
After that Anathapindika died peacefully.
If you like to read the story again, it is in the Plum Village Chanting book.
And if you are social workers or doctors or psychotherapists
who have the duty to accompany the dying people,
I think it's very helpful very wonderful to study and to practice this teaching.
If you have non-fear, if you have touched the nature of no birth no death in you,
you'll be a very precious element for that person to die in peace.
You will be very inspiring to him or to her.
Your presence, like the presence of Shariputra, will help the dying person die peacefully without fear.
I'd like to ask Sister Chan Khong to come and sing
the song "This Body Is Not Me." I don't know whether she still remembers that song.
This body is not me.
I am not caught in this body.
I am life without boundaries.
I have never been born, and I will never die.
Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,
manifestation of my wondrous mind.
Since immemorial time, I have been free.
Birth and death are only doors through which I pass,
sacred threshold on my journey.
Birth and death are a hide-and-seek game.
So smile to me, take my hand, let us say goodbye,
say goodbye, till we meet again.
We meet today. We shall meet tomorrow.
We are meeting in all walks of life.
This body is not me.
I am not caught in this body
I am life without boundaries.
I have never been born, and I will never die.
Birth and death are only doors through which I pass by,
sacred thresholds on my journey.
Birth and death are a hide-and-seek game.
So smile to me, hold my hand, let us say goodbye,
say goodbye till we meet again.
We meet today. We shall meet tomorrow.
We are meeting in all walks of life.
This body is not me. I am not caught in this body.
I am life without boundaries.
I have never been born, and I will never die.