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Vietnamese Retreat: Manifestation and Hidden Nature
Excerpt from the Dharma Talk on May 4, 2002, by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh at New Hamlet, Plum Village
Nothing goes from being to non-being. Everything continues in one form or another. The cloud transforms into rain, and the rain transforms into tea. When drinking tea mindfully, I see that I am drinking clouds. You don’t need to be a poet to see that you are drinking clouds; you just need to be a meditator. When looking at the tea, you see that it is rain, it is a cloud, and you are drinking clouds. The tea is the continuation of the rain, the rain is the continuation of the cloud, and the cloud is the continuation of the sun’s heat and the water from ponds, lakes, rivers, and seas. There is always such a continuation, which is called samsara.
We should not seek the form; we should not be attached to the form. If we are attached to the form, we cannot recognize the continuation. Looking at the rain, we must see the cloud; that is seeing with the eyes of non-form. If you hear that Thay Nhat Hanh is no longer here, do not cry, because you can see Thay in the young monks, nuns, and lay practitioners who continue Thay. You see the way they walk, the way they stand, the way they sit, the way they help life, and that is Thay. Thay continues. Thay does not die. There is no need to cry, no need to be sad. Nothing dies. Everything continues. Only through meditation and contemplation can we see this. We will overcome loneliness and despair.
(Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh)