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Enjoying Life and Death
After death, we do not go to a fixed point, but continue to manifest through the coming together of conditions in the present moment. We need to awaken insight based on right view and right thinking in order to liberate ourselves from fear. Do not wait until the end of life to ask, “Where will I go?” Instead, ask yourself, “In this very moment, where am I going?” to realize that we are not only form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness, but also a stream of giving and receiving countless conditions from the universe. The ashes of Uncle Tu, Thay Do-ri’s mother, Em Phong, and practitioner Xa Ly have all been scattered in Upper Hamlet and Lower Hamlet, nourishing the trees and symbolizing impermanence, non-self, and interbeing between the living and the deceased. In Lower Hamlet, 1,250 plum trees have been planted to provide fruit for poor children; each time a tree dies, it is replanted, maintaining the flow of compassion.
All phenomena—falling leaves, the flame in a matchbox, a bowl of muesli, a lotus flower—demonstrate that in every instant there is divergence and convergence: input and output, nourishing and being nourished. Do not get caught in the two notions of annihilation or permanence; the Middle Way teaches us to transcend the pairs of opposites: being–nonbeing, birth–death. Practicing mindfulness in daily life—breathing under a tree, urinating in nature, eating in silence, contemplating the separation of form to see the formless—helps us live with awareness, recognize our true face, and comfort our loved ones at the time of death.
- Ask yourself, “Where am I going in this very moment?” so that your journey begins from insight, not just at the moment of death
- Practice mindfulness and contemplate dependent origination in every daily activity
- Go beyond the two attachments of annihilation and permanence to live freely and peacefully in the unborn, undying continuation of your own being