Closing Summer Opening 2013 – You Are, Therefore I Am

Summary

The talk is a Dharma teaching delivered in English at the Full Moon Meditation Hall in New Hamlet, Plum Village, on August 2, 2013, during the final Dharma talk of the summer opening. The speaker introduces the session as a simple explanation of profound Buddhist insights that even children can understand, focusing on pairs of opposites: no sameness and no otherness, no coming and no going, no birth and no death, and no being and no non-being. The first major theme is the investigation of identity and continuity. Using a childhood photograph of himself as a novice and comparing it with his present appearance, the speaker asks whether the younger and older versions are the same person or different persons. He extends this reflection to the listener’s own baby photo and to the relationship between parent and child. The conclusion is that reality cannot be accurately described as either identical or entirely separate. A river is used as an example: the river seen today is not exactly the same as yesterday because the water has changed, yet it is not a completely different river either. A flame is also used to illustrate continuity without sameness. This insight is presented as the Middle Way, which avoids the extremes of sameness and otherness. The second major theme is no coming and no going. The flame is asked where it came from and where it goes, and the answer is that it comes from nowhere and goes nowhere in the ordinary sense. It only manifests when conditions are sufficient and ceases manifesting when conditions are no longer sufficient. This is extended to all phenomena: nothing truly comes from nothing or disappears into nothing. The speaker emphasizes that this is not merely poetic language but a deep truth accessible through mindfulness and concentration. The talk then broadens into the larger Buddhist framework of the four pairs of opposites: coming and going, sameness and otherness, birth and death, being and non-being. The speaker explains that ordinary thinking assumes birth is a transition from non-being to being and death is a transition from being to non-being. This assumption creates fear, despair, anxiety, and attachment. Through deep meditation, however, one can see that these notions do not apply to reality as it is. The speaker connects this teaching with the first law of thermodynamics, noting that matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed but transformed. A cloud is a central example: it does not die but becomes rain, snow, or ice; it does not come from nothing but from water vapor and conditions. This shows that what appears as birth and death is actually transformation and continuation. The teaching of interbeing is used to explain emptiness and non-self. A flower is shown to be made of non-flower elements such as cloud, rain, sunshine, earth, time, space, and the gardener. Likewise, a person is made of ancestors, parents, and the entire cosmos. The body is not a separate self but a continuation of many conditions. Emptiness is therefore not nihilism; it means empty of a separate, permanent self. The speaker stresses that one cannot exist independently and that everything inter-is with everything else. This insight also applies to political, familial, and cosmic relationships: the left depends on the right, the son depends on the father, and the future depends on the present. The talk then connects right view to the Noble Eightfold Path. Right view leads to right thinking, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Right thinking is free from discrimination and produces understanding and compassion rather than fear and anger. Right speech, especially loving speech and deep listening, can restore communication and reconcile families, as illustrated by a retreat in Nuremberg where participants called their fathers and reconciled over the telephone. Right action and right livelihood are described as ways of living that protect life, support the environment, and avoid harm. The speaker also links these teachings to ecology and to the ethical responsibility to care for one’s body, ancestors, and descendants. The final section discusses the Three Doors of Liberation: emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness. Emptiness means being empty of a separate self. Signlessness means not being trapped by appearances and forms, so that one can recognize continuation in new manifestations, such as a cloud in rain. Aimlessness means not running after an imagined future goal, because nirvana and the kingdom of God are already present in the here and now. The wave and water metaphor is used to show that one already is what one seeks. The talk concludes by inviting listeners to continue the practice, to learn the Dharma deeply, and to build a Sangha at home so that these insights can be lived collectively in daily life.