And then if that insight of impermanence is there, you will not wait until tomorrow to do that. Because things are impermanent, if you don't do it today, tomorrow may be too late. If you can say something to make him happy today, say it right now. If you can do something to make her happy today, do it right now.

And if you say it today and you do it today to make him or her happy today, it means that you are acting on the ground of the insight of impermanence. That is why the insight of impermanence helps us not to do wrong things and to do the right thing for you not to regret later on. So impermanence in Buddhism is not a doctrine, but it is a practice: the practice of samādhi of impermanence.

[Thay writes on the board: Impermanence + no-self.]

And then the second Dharma seal is no-self. No-self means there is no permanent entity. It is the same thing with impermanence: no permanent, non-separate entity. Self is something permanent and it can exist independently from non-self elements. That is the definition of self. Self means something that is lasting, something that can be on its own, it does not depend on other things.

And you can agree with the Buddha that everything depends on every other thing. That there is no lasting, long-lasting entity. That there is no entity that is independent from other things. You accept the fact that everything is linked to everything else. And yet you still behave as a self. That is the trouble.

Intellectually, it is very easy to agree with the Buddha. But your way of looking at things, your way of living your daily life is in contrast with what you accept. You behave as if you are a separate self. Transcribed text: You don't see the Sangha as yourself. You see yourself as different. You see that there are things you do that make the Sangha unhappy, suffer, yet you still do it, because you think this is yourself.

You don't know how to use the insight of the Sangha. You don't know how to use the Sangha eyes. You don't consider the suffering and the happiness of the Sangha as your suffering and your happiness. You behave exactly in the opposite direction, the non-Buddhist direction. You believe that there is a self, and that self is permanent.

So no matter how long you study Buddhism—ten years, twenty years—you still behave like someone who does not know what is impermanence, what is non-self. You accept intellectually the notion of impermanence and of non-self, but your life does not prove it. Your life is an expression of the ignorance about impermanence and non-self.

The way you deal with your brother, the way you deal with your sister, proves that you don't have the insight of non-self. You don't have the insight of impermanence. And that is why non-self has to become a samadhi. That your daily practice is to look at things, to listen to things, to get in touch with things in such a way that the nature of non-self is revealed to you every minute.