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No Birth, No Death

Thich Nhat Hanh · April 15, 2010 · Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France · Audio Only
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In Buddhism, the historical dimension corresponds to changing phenomena (like waves), while the ultimate dimension, hidden beneath these forms, is unchanging: “nothing is created, nothing is lost.” Birth, death, being, non-being, coming and going are only notions of the mind; meditation allows us to touch the ultimate (nirvana/God), non-birth and non-death, and to dissolve all fear.

Organization of the Heart Sutra of Perfect Understanding:

  1. The five skandhas: form, feeling, perception, mental formation, consciousness
  2. The eighteen spheres of elements: six sense organs, their objects, six consciousnesses
  3. The four noble truths: suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering (well-being), the path
  4. The twelve links of interdependent origination

Three doors of liberation:

  1. Śūnyatā (emptiness)
  2. Animitta (signlessness)
  3. Apranihita (aimlessness)

Three kinds of gifts:

  1. Material: food, shelter, money
  2. Dharma: teaching to relieve suffering
  3. Non-fear: the most precious gift, offered by Avalokiteśvara

Three things to take home:

  1. The inspiration of mindfulness (breathing in—breathing out)
  2. Mindful walking
  3. The Sangha in the heart
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