Chapters

Coming up next

Transformation at the Base

The title, description and transcript may contain inaccuracies.

Death is a Transformation

Thich Nhat Hanh · July 24, 2014 · Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France

Transcript English

In this short excerpt from a teaching given at Upper Hamlet on July 24, 2014, Thay speaks to us about the vision of Interbeing and interdependent co-arising, the Buddha’s teaching on the genesis of the world, and shows us that birth and death as we understand them are merely notions.

Teaching offered by Thay during the 2014 Summer Retreat at Plum Village - Upper Hamlet.

Note: this description was automatically sourced from existing YouTube descriptions and other sources. Please ‘Suggest Edit’ if it’s incorrect.

Previous Talk July 23, 2014

Questions and Answers: Summer Opening 2014, Session Number Three

Next Talk July 27, 2014

Solidity with Each Step

Next: Transformation at the Base

Next from: La mort, le deuil, l'accompagnement, l'après

1h 24m

Transformation at the Base

3/5 • Autoplay next: Off

The title, description and transcript may contain inaccuracies.

Transcript English

Scroll back to current moment in transcript

View Complete Transcript

Reincarnation, Continuation, and Karma

00:04:54

We can say that the five-year-old child is already reincarnated in the adult. And reincarnation happens in every moment of our daily life. We do not need to die in order to be reincarnated. In this present moment, we have a body, feelings, perceptions, and so on. But these are not the same as yesterday or the day before. We flow like a river.

00:05:50

So today, we are not exactly the same person we were yesterday. The person of yesterday is already reincarnated in the person of today. So we can say that reincarnation happens at every moment. We renew ourselves in every instant.

00:06:17

And the value of our presence depends on the value of our actions. Because everything we think, everything we say, everything we do, has an effect on the chain of causes and effects.

00:06:47

It has already been said that a person is the sum of their actions, as Jean-Paul Sartre said. That is the definition of a human being. A person is made of their thoughts, their words, and their actions. The quality of a person depends on the quality of the thoughts, words, and actions created by that person. That is karma. Karma means action.

View Complete Transcript