Is There Life After Death? | Thich Nhat Hanh

Our question is, is there life after death? Two persons, one question. Life is always with death at the same time. Not before, not only before. And it cannot be separated with death. Where is life, there is death. And where is death, there is life. And this needs a little bit of meditation. In Buddhism we speak of interbeing. Interbeing. It means that you cannot be by yourself alone. You have to interbe with the other side. It's like the left and the right. If the right is not there, the left cannot be. If the left is not there, the right cannot be. It's not to take the left away from the right. It's not possible to take the right away from the left. Suppose I ask one of you to come and bring the left to the low hamlet. And one of you will bring the right to the new hamlet. It's impossible. The right and the left, they want to be together. Because without the other, you cannot be. It's very clear. Like the above and the below. The above cannot be there if there is no below. And that is what in Buddhism we call interbeing and death. They have to be there at the same time. So when God said, Let the light be. And the light said, Well, I have to wait. My God, I have to wait. What are you waiting for? You are waiting. I am waiting for darkness to manifest together. Because light and darkness, they inter-are. And God said, Darkness is already there. And light said, In that case, I am already there. So that is true with good and evil. Before and after. Here and there. You and I. I cannot be there without you. The flower cannot be there. The lotus flower cannot be there without the mud. Without the mud, there is no lotus possible. There is no happiness without suffering. There is no life without death. And when a biologist observes the body of a human being, they see that life and death happen at the same time in the body. In this very moment, thousands and thousands of cells are dying. When you scratch like this, many cells, many dry cells fall down. They have died. And many cells die every moment of our daily life. And because you are so busy, you don't notice that you are dying. If they die, you are dying. You think that you don't die yet. You have to wait 50 or 70 years later in order to die. That's not true. Death is not down on the road. Death is right here and right now. So lama, death is happening right here and right now, at each moment. And because of the dying of a number of cells, the birth of other cells is possible. So many cells are being born in the present moment. And we don't have the time to organize a happy birthday for them. So the fact is that, scientifically speaking, you can already see birth and death happening in the present moment. And because of the dying of cells, the birth of cells is possible. Because the birth of cells is possible, the dying of cells is possible. They lean on each other to be. So you are experiencing dying and being born in every moment. Don't think you were only born on that moment. That moment written in your birth certificate is just one moment. And that is not the first moment. Before that moment, there were moments you were already there. Before you were conceived in the womb of your mother, you had already been there in your father and your mother, in another form. So there is no birth, no really beginning. And there is no ending. So when we know that birth and death are together, always, you are no longer afraid of dying. Because at the moment of dying, there is birth also. La vie est avec la mort. They cannot be separated. This is a very deep meditation. And you should not meditate with your brain alone. You have to observe life during your daily life. And you see birth and death in everything. Trees, animals, weather, matter, energy. And scientists have already pronounced very clearly there is no birth and no death. Rien ne se crée, rien ne se perd. There is only transformation. So transformation is possible, is real. And birth and death are not real. What you call birth and death are only transformations. When you perform a chemical reaction, you bring a number of substances together. And when the substances meet each other, there is a transformation. And sometimes you think that a substance is no longer there. It has vanished. But in fact, looking deeply, the substance is still there under another form. When you look at the blue sky, you don't see your cloud anymore. You think your cloud has died. But in fact, your cloud continues always in the form of the rain and sun. So birth and death are seen only on the surface. If you go down, deep down, there is no birth and no death. There is only continuation. Continuation. And when you touch the continuation, the nature of no birth and no death, you are no longer afraid of dying. And not only the Buddhists speak of no birth and no death, but science also speaks of no birth and no death. They can exchange their findings. It's very interesting. This is an invitation for us to live our life more deeply so that we can touch our true nature of no birth and no death. And Thay's answer I know is only an invitation to practice. We have to live our life more mindfully, with concentration, so that we can be in touch deeply with what is happening. And then we have a chance to touch the true nature of reality, no birth and no death. And that is in Buddhism, we describe it in Buddhism with the term Nirvana. Nirvana is no birth and no death. And in Christianity, you may call it the ultimate God. God is our true nature of no birth and no death. And you don't have to go to find God. God is our true nature. It's like a wave. A wave believes that she is subjected to birth and death. And every time she comes up and begins to go down, she is afraid of dying. A wave is afraid of dying. But if the wave realizes that she is water, she is no longer afraid. Before going up, she is water. Going down, she is water. And after going down, she continues to be water. There is no death. So it's very important that the wave does some meditation and realizes that she is a wave, but she is at the same time water. And when she knows she is water, she is no longer afraid of dying. She feels wonderful going up, she feels wonderful going down. She is free from fear. And our cloud is also like that. They are not afraid of dying. They know that if they are not a cloud, they can be something else equally beautiful like the rain or the snow. So the wave does not go and look for water. She doesn't have to go and search for water because she is water in the here and the now. The same thing is true with God. We don't have to look for God. We are God. God is our true nature. You don't have to go and look for nirvana. Nirvana is our ground. That is the teaching of the Buddha. A number of us have been able to realize that. We enjoy the present moment. We know that it is impossible for us to die.