The wonderful example is this. This is a match. It is compared with the notion of impermanence. This is not the flame. But thanks to it, we are going to produce the flame. The notion of impermanence is not the insight of impermanence, but it can help you to practice and produce the insight of impermanence. And when the insight of impermanence is born, it will help remove the notion of impermanence.

Like this. [Thay strikes a match.] The flame is born and it consumes and destroys the match. So once you have got the flame, you are no longer caught by the match. Like the Buddha said: “My teaching is like the finger pointing to the moon. You should use my finger with intelligence in order to see the moon. But if you think of my finger is the moon, you are caught.” So whether that teaching is impermanence or emptiness, if you get caught in it, you lose the essential.

And that is why nirvana is, first of all, the absence of all notions like birth, death, being, non-being, coming, going. [Thay writes on the board: coming/going birth/death being/non being.] This morning we were learning about going, and Nāgārjuna was trying to help us to see that the notion of going does not exist.

So nirvana is, first of all, the absence of all notions, and at the same time, the absence of suffering born from these notions, from the above notions. [Thay writes on the board: sufferings born from the above notions.] We suffer because we have notions. The notion we have about reality is not reality. There are many notions in our head. And most, not to say all the suffering we undergo are born from these notions. Suffering comes from here, from your notions.

When you fall in love, you have a notion that without that person, happiness is not possible. That is your notion. You are so sure of that notion: “Without her, life has no meaning. Without her, it is better to die.” And then maybe after you marry that young man and live with him for five years, and then you change your notion: “Oh, so difficult to live with him. Without the divorce, life would not be possible. Joy would not be possible.” You have another notion.

So all are notions. And because we have notions, it is impossible for you to have a direct experience of reality. You fall in love with a notion, you marry a notion, and you divorce a notion. You have no capacity to touch reality as it is, because reality is free from all notions.

Suppose someone who has never tasted banana, and you try to say something in order for him to have a notion of bananas. Impossible. No matter what you say, the person cannot get a right notion of bananas. All notions are wrong. You say: “Banana does not taste like orange, it tastes a little bit like mango,” and you try to say... but all the kind of notions you give him cannot give him a direct experience of banana. The only way to help him to know what a banana is, is to offer him a banana. And if he got the real thing, he will abandon all the notions. All notions are useless. And nirvāṇa is that. Nirvāṇa is something you experience directly, not through the notions. And nirvāṇa is the ground of being. If you come from a Christian or Jewish background, you might call nirvāṇa God, or Godhead: the ground of no birth, no death. You see on the surface something that looks like birth, death, coming, and going, but deep down there is no birth, no death, no coming, no going. You can only see the waves; you cannot see water.