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No Birth, No Death (Teaching for Children)
One thousand five hundred and thirty-three people, including about a hundred children, gathered to practice joy, harmony, calm, solidity, and love. Looking deeply into the nature of life and death allows us to understand that the flame, like all things, comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. It manifests when conditions — the fuel, the oxygen, and the wick — are sufficient. Reality transcends the concepts of same and different; like a torch spinning in the night creating the illusion of a circle of fire, a permanent identity is an optical illusion. Everything changes in every moment, and our physical body, composed of billions of combusting cells, has no absolute identity.
Birth and death are absurd notions because nothing can be created from nothing, and nothing can be reduced to nothingness. A burned sheet of paper does not die; it transforms into smoke, a cloud, and heat. As Lavoisier said: “Nothing is created, nothing is lost.” This nature of no-birth and no-death is shared by all, including the Buddha and Jesus. The term Tathagata designates the one who comes from suchness, an ultimate reality free from coming, going, being, non-being, same, different, birth, and death. The practice consists of passing from the notion of creation to that of manifestation.
True happiness is established when we free ourselves from ideas and notions, because our concepts of happiness are often our greatest obstacles. Nirvana is the extinction of these notions that generate fear and suffering. To attain non-fear (abhaya), we must touch the ultimate reality through the Three Dharma Seals:
- Impermanence: a working tool showing that all physical, physiological, and mental formations are constantly changing.
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Mudita