Question and Answer Session: Is there a life after death?

Summary

This talk presents a wide-ranging Dharma question-and-answer session held at Plum Village’s Upper Hamlet on July 24, 2012, during the community’s summer opening and the 30th anniversary celebration of Plum Village. The speaker begins by inviting the Sangha to sit upright and beautifully, like a Buddha or a lotus flower, and frames the gathering as a collective practice of mindful breathing, bell listening, and calm presence. The session is structured so that children, teenagers, young adults, and adults may ask questions in turn, with the emphasis placed on questions that arise from real suffering, happiness, and practice. The speaker repeatedly stresses that a good question benefits many people and that the community’s shared mindfulness creates a healing and nourishing atmosphere. Several major teachings emerge from the questions. In response to a child asking how to make new friends after moving to a new school, the speaker advises not to worry and to trust that new friendships will arise naturally when one is relaxed and open. He compares entering a new school to going up a mountain where one cannot predict what will be encountered, but can expect beauty and discovery. He emphasizes that one’s own way of looking, smiling, and speaking can make another person more lovable, showing that relationships are shaped not only by others but also by one’s own mindfulness and attitude. A second major theme is nonviolence and the nature of death. In response to the question, “If there is no such thing as death, then why is it wrong to kill?” the speaker explains that the intention to kill arises from ignorance, wrong perception, anger, and violence. He uses the example of trying to kill a cloud to show that nothing truly disappears; a cloud only transforms into rain or snow. He extends this teaching to suicide and political assassination, naming Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Robert F. Kennedy, Jesus Christ, and the Buddha as figures whose lives continue in collective memory and spiritual presence. The speaker argues that modern science also supports the insight that nothing is truly born or dies; there is only transformation. Killing is therefore wrong because it is rooted in suffering and misunderstanding, and because it cannot achieve what it imagines. Another central topic is family suffering and the difficulty of changing loved ones. A young person asks whether one must continue trying to change a father who is harmful and exhausting to be around. The speaker responds that the first step is to look deeply into the relationship and recognize that the father is not only outside but also inside oneself, present in one’s body, habits, and continuation. He explains that children often vow not to become like their parents, yet later reproduce the same behaviors, which Buddhism calls samsara, or going around in cycles. The practice is to transform the father inside oneself first through breathing, walking, smiling, and daily mindfulness. Only then can the father outside be approached more skillfully. The speaker also says that acceptance is essential, and that one should not expect immediate change. Sangha support is crucial, because transformation is difficult to sustain alone. The talk then expands into a personal narrative about the speaker’s own path to monastic life. He recalls seeing a calm, smiling Buddha image on the cover of a Buddhist magazine as a child, which planted the seed of his aspiration to become peaceful and fresh like that image. He also recounts a formative school outing to a mountain temple, where he became thirsty, found a clear natural well, and experienced a profound sense of joy and fulfillment after drinking the water. That experience became his first spiritual realization, and it strengthened his wish to become a monk. He later entered monastic life as a teenager and has practiced for decades. He uses this story to invite young people to consider Plum Village’s five-year monastic training program, which combines practice, service, community life, and eventual Dharma teaching. A further question addresses intergenerational trauma and discrimination against women in Buddhism. The speaker acknowledges the deep suffering carried by Vietnamese families after the war and explains that many people from the younger generation inherit wounds from parents and ancestors. He says that helping such people requires a Sangha, because individual effort alone is not enough to transform the “garbage” of suffering into flowers of peace and healing. He also strongly rejects discrimination against women, noting that the Buddha welcomed people of all castes and allowed women to become bhikshunis. He says that many modern Buddhists have allowed social discrimination to enter their communities, and that Plum Village seeks to restore the original inclusive spirit of Buddhism. The talk concludes with a profound teaching on life and death as interbeing. The speaker explains that life and death cannot be separated, just as left and right, above and below, light and darkness, or mud and lotus cannot exist independently. He says that birth and death are only surface appearances; at a deeper level there is continuation, not annihilation. He uses the image of a wave and water to show that what appears to be birth and death is actually transformation of form. This insight leads to freedom from fear, because one realizes that one’s true nature is beyond birth and death. He identifies this as Nirvana in Buddhism and compares it to God in Christianity, saying that one does not need to search for God or Nirvana because they are one’s true nature. The talk ends by returning to the practice of walking meditation and the wish to walk on Earth with each step in touch with the motherly planet, for one’s own healing and the healing of the Earth.