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We Are Our Actions: Interbeing and Continuation Beyond Birth and Death

Thich Nhat Hanh · March 24, 2010 · Italy · Audio Only
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Looking into a glass of tea reveals its journey from the river, the rain, and the clouds. A cloud does not die; it transforms into rain, snow, or ice, but it never becomes nothing. Similarly, a person contains their parents and all ancestors within them; removing these elements leaves no self behind. A river is made of non-river elements, just as a flower is made of non-flower elements like soil, rain, and sunshine. Meditation involves looking deeply to see these sources and recognizing that ancestors are present in every cell, sharing in happiness and suffering.

To answer where we go when we die, we must first know where we are going in the present moment. We continue through our actions, known in Sanskrit as Karma. There are three aspects of action:

  1. Thinking - Right Thinking brings health and helps the world.
  2. Speech - Right Speech brings healing, forgiveness, and compassion.
  3. Bodily action - the physical acts committed by the body.

Jean-Paul Sartre noted that “man is the sum of all his action.” These actions bring about retribution, which has two aspects: the main retribution consisting of the five skandhas (body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness), and the environment (Y báo). We are not only our body but also our environment.

Action is categorized as individual action (biệt nghiệp) and collective action (cộng nghiệp). These are inseparable, much like the left and right sides of a marker; the individual relies on the collective to be, and vice versa. Past wrong actions can be transformed in the present moment, as the nature of thought is non-local; a thought of compassion today can neutralize a past thought of anger. Ultimately, reality is of the nature of no birth and no death. Birth is not coming from nothing into something, but a moment of continuation. Like an orange tree producing blossoms and fruit, human beings continue through their thinking, speaking, and acting. Living according to the Five Mindfulness Trainings ensures a beautiful continuation.

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