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No Death No Life
This title has been reviewed for accuracy.
Thay explains to the children, about how to be truly present for our parents, and how to ask our parents to be truly present for us, using the four mantras. The first one: “I am here for you.” “In order for the mantra to work, you have to be there. ‘I am here’ is not a declaration; it is a practice.” Sometimes your body is there, but your mind is not there: you are not really there. “You may like to pat your father on the shoulder and ask, ‘Is anybody home?’” The second mantra: “I know you are there, and I am happy.” The third mantra: “Darling, I know you suffer. That is why I am here for you.”
Thay speaks about the nature of life and death. “We think that now is life, and death will be later. But in fact, left and right manifest together, above and below manifest at the same time. Death is happening right here in every moment. Why are we afraid of dying?” He goes on to talk about the nature of happiness: “If a father does not understand the suffering of his son, then it is impossible for that father to love and make his son happy. So understanding is very crucial to happiness. To love means to understand.”
Right view is non-discriminative thinking. “In Buddhism, thinking is already action: by your thinking you can destroy the world, by your thinking you can save the world.” Thay goes on to share about the relationship between the Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths.
This is the third talk in a series of five given during the Awakening the Heart retreat in the year 2011. Thay offered this talk at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.