If there is no death, there is no life

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August 10, 2011. 52-minute dharma talk with Thich Nhat Hanh from War Memorial Gym at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. The sangha is on the North American Tour and this talk is the second dharma talk.

Thay speaks about the nature of life and death. “We think that now is life, and death will be later. But in fact, left and right manifest together, above and below manifest at the same time… Death is happening right here in every moment. Why are we afraid of dying?” He goes on to talk about the nature of happiness: “If a father does not understand the suffering of his son, then it is impossible for that father to love and make his son happy. So understanding is very crucial to happiness. To love means to understand.

Right view is non-discriminative thinking. “In Buddhism, thinking is already action: by your thinking you can destroy the world, by your thinking you can save the world.” Thay goes on to share about the relationship between the Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths.

The talk is available below. There is a video version available too.

By Chan Niem Hy

Dharma Teacher.

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