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.