Transcending Birth and Death Through a Deep Understanding of Reality.

Thầy introduces the concept of the cosmic body (dharmadhātutākaya). Using the concepts of store (ālaya) and store consciousness, he explains that just as a wave has both a wave body and a water body, individuals have both a physical body and a cosmic body.

Thầy deepens key concepts: store and store consciousness, seeds (bījas), and the totality of seeds (sarvabījaka); the relationship between object and subject of cognition; interactions among senses, their objects, and resulting consciousness forming the eighteen realms of existence; and the impermanence and inter-being of all formations.

All formations lack a separate self, being composed of non-self elements, like a flower depending on sunshine and rain. This principle applies to all formations, including the body and consciousness. Mind consciousness creates separation through categorization, prevents us from experiencing the true nature of reality (svalakṣaṇa). Inter-being meditation dissolves this illusion, transforming suffering into compassion. Through deep meditation, one attains non-discriminative wisdom (nirvikalpajñāna), seeing all things as interconnected, eliminating suffering. Thầy concludes with the eight characteristics of seeds.

This the sixth talk in a series of twelve given during the What happens When We Die?, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2014. Thầy offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village. France.