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InterBeing: The Nature of Birth and Death
This title has been reviewed for accuracy.
Thay develops the teachings on the nature of birth and death. What happens when we die? What happens when we live? Thay offers the metaphor of the cloud to explain that the nature of the cloud is the nature of no-birth and no-death, elaborating that in Buddhism we can speak of two levels of truth: the conventional and ultimate truths. On the conventional, relative, level we have birth and death, we have creation and destruction. But if we go deeper, we can see that a cloud never dies, because to die means that from something we become nothing, and that is not possible, also according to science. Thay then introduces the teachings of the Manifestation Only school, which began in the third and fourth century AD, and their relevance for the twenty-first century.
This is the eighth talk in a series of thirteen given during the What Happens When We Die, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2014. Thay offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.