Nothing Is Born, Nothing Dies

I've been enjoying a book by Elizabeth Lesser called Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow. The chapter "No Birth, No Death" has the following quote by Thich Nhat Hanh, known as Thay to his students:

In our minds, when we think of death, we think of suddenly becoming no-one. We cease to be. We cease to exist. That is our understanding. In the same way, we think of birth as our beginning. What does it mean to be born? We think that to be born means that we arrive here from nothing. That from nothing you suddenly become something. From no-one, you suddenly become someone. That is our definition of birth and death. Because of these notions, there is always fear deep within us. But the Buddha discovered something different, something called no-birth and no-death. The Buddha invites us to bring our fear up and look deeply into the object of our fear: fear of dying, fear of non-being. That is the cream of the Buddha's teaching. You cannot afford not to learn it because it is the best thing to learn in all of the teachings.

There are many non-Buddhists who have discovered the reality of no-birth and no-death. Let us talk about, for instance, the French scientist Lavoisier. He was called the father of modern chemistry. He looked deeply into the nature of things and he declared that nothing is born and nothing can die: "Rien ne se cree, rien ne se perd." I don't think that he had studied Buddhism.

Suppose we try to practice this idea of no-birth and no-death with a sheet of paper, because a sheet of paper is what we call a thing. Let us practice together now, by looking deeply into this sheet of paper. [Thay holds up a blank piece of paper.] You may think that this sheet of paper had a birthday - that one day it was produced from nothing, and it suddenly became something, a sheet of paper. Is it possible? Look closely at the sheet of paper in this very moment. Look into the true nature of the paper. What do you see? You see - in a very tangible, scientific way - that paper is made of nonpaper elements: When I touch the paper, I touch the tree, the forest, because I know that deep inside there is the existence of the tree, the forest. Right? I also touch the sunshine. Even at midnight touching the sheet of paper, I touch sunshine. Because sunshine is another element that has made up the paper. Another nonpaper element. Without sunshine, no tree can grow. So touching the paper, I touch the sunshine. I touch the cloud. There is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. You don't have to be a poet to see the cloud. Because without a cloud, there would be no rain and no forest could grow. So the cloud is in there. The trees are in there. The sunshine, the minerals from the earth, the earth itself, time, space, people, insects - everything in the cosmos seems to be existing in this sheet of paper. It is very important to see that a sheet of paper is made of - only of - nonpaper elements. Our body is like that also.

So is it possible to say that from nothing, something has come into existence? From nothing, can you have something? No. Because before we perceived it as a sheet of paper, it had been sunshine. It had been trees. It had been clouds. The paper hasn't come from nothing: "Rien ne se cree." Nothing has been born. The day you believe to be this paper's birthday is something you should really call a "continuation day." The next time you celebrate your birthday, instead of singing happy birthday, you can sing happy continuation day.

"Rien ne se cree, rien ne se perd." Nothing has been born, nothing can die. Our true nature is the nature of no-birth. Our birth certificate is misleading. It was certified that we were born on that day from such and such hospital or city. But you know very well that you had been there in the womb of your mother long before that. Even before the day of your conception, you had been there - in your mother, in your father, in your ancestors, and everywhere else, also. So if you try to go back, you cannot find a beginning of you.

Let us now try to eliminate this sheet of paper. Let us burn it to see whether we are capable of making it into nothing. [Thay strikes a match and sets the piece of paper on fire, holding it up as it burns in his hand.] Observe to see if it is possible to reduce something to nothing. Ash is what you can see now. You also see that some smoke has risen. The smoke is a continuation of the sheet of paper. Now the sheet of paper has become part of a cloud in the sky. You may meet it again tomorrow in the form of a raindrop on your forehead. But maybe you will not be mindful and you will not know that this is a meeting. You may think that the raindrop is foreign to you, but maybe it is the sheet of paper into which you have practiced looking deeply. So, can you say that the paper is now nothing? No, I don't think you can. Part of it has become the cloud. You can only say, "Goodbye, see you again one day in one form or another."

It is very difficult to follow the path of a sheet of paper. It is as difficult as it is to find God. Some heat of the burning paper has penetrated into my body. I almost burned my fingers. It has penetrated into your body, also. It has gone very far. If you had fine equipment you could measure the impact of the heat even from a distant star. Because the impact of a small thing on the whole cosmos can be measured. It has produced some change in my organism, in your organism, and in the cosmos, also. The sheet of paper continues to be there, present. It is difficult for our conceptual eyes to see and discern, but we know that it is always there and everywhere, also. And this little amount of ash may be returned to the earth later on. Maybe next year you will see it in the form of a new leaf on a tree. We don't know. But we do know that nothing died. So the true nature of the sheet of paper is no-death.

Looking deeply into our self - our body, our feelings, our perceptions - and looking into the mountains, the rivers, and another person, we can see the nature of no-birth and no-self. It is right there, but we are assailed by so many ideas about birth and death that we get scared. Because of that fear, true happiness is not possible. Deep looking helps us to remove the fear. In Buddhism, there is a word that upsets many people. That is nirvana. Nirvana means "extinction." Touching nirvana is the purpose of our practice. But a good question may be asked: Extinction of what? We have to learn what a word like nirvana really means. One of the best ways is to ask questions. "Dear Buddha, what do you mean? What do you mean by extinction? Extinction of what?

Extinction first means extinction of ideas - like ideas of birth and death, being and nonbeing. The idea of a self is an idea to be removed in order for you to touch reality. The self is made of nonself elements. The moment you realize that, you lose all your fear.

This body is not me. These eyes are not me. It is a mistake to identify yourself with this lifespan, to imagine that you are separated from anything else in space or time. You are everything at the same time.

If you are locked into the idea of a separate self, you have great fear. But if you look and you are capable of seeing "you" everywhere, you lose that fear. I have practiced as a monk. I have practiced looking deeply every day. I see me in my students. I see me in my ancestors. I see my continuation everywhere in this moment. I have not been able to go back to my country in the past thirty years. I left Vietnam in order to call for peace, to stop the killing, and I was not allowed to go home by many succeeding governments. Yet I feel that I am there, very real. I don't have that kind of painful feeling of a person being in exile because friends of mine go to Vietnam, and new monks and nuns are there. I see myself in them. I don't think that I am not present in Vietnam right now, just as I do not think that I will cease to be someday.

This teaching of the Buddha about no-birth and no-death is the cream of the whole body of the teaching. You have come to this retreat in order to learn this, and therefore to transform some of your sufferings. Yes, that is good, but don't miss the real opportunity. I am inviting you to go deeper, to learn, and to practice so that you become someone who has a great capacity for being solid, calm, and without fear, because our society needs people like you who have these qualities. And your children, our children, need people like you in order to go on, in order to become solid, and calm, and without fear.

I love how he interconnects everything in the universe using such a simple example, and without invoking any metaphysical concepts - even an entrenched materialist might be able to grok what he is saying in that quote. I find it inspiring and moving, but I still want to believe something of me will exist as me after I die. However, I'm much more accepting of death than I ever have been in my life, and the trend has been towards greater acceptance over time. Thinking about how the whole universe is contained in my body, or in a sheet of paper, is helpful. Thank you, Thay!