No Birth and No Death by Thich Nhat Hanh

No Birth and No Death by Thich Nhat Hanh

Some people might ask you, "When is your birthday?" But you may ask yourself a more interesting question: "Before that day which was my birthday, where was I?"

Ask a cloud, "What is your date of birth? Before you were born, where were you?"

If you ask the cloud, "How old are you? Can you give me your date of birth?" you can listen deeply and you may hear a reply.

You can imagine the cloud being born. Before being born it was the water on the ocean's surface. Or was it in the river and then it became vapor. The wind is there too, helping the water to become a cloud. The cloud does not come from nothing, there has only been a change in form.

It is not a birth of something out of nothing.

Sooner or later the cloud will change into rain or snow or ice. If you look deeply into the rain, you can see the cloud. The cloud is not lost; it is transformed into rain, and the rain is transformed into grass and the grass into cows and then to milk and then into the ice cream you eat.

Today if you eat an ice cream, give yourself time to look at the ice cream and say: "Hello cloud! I recognize you." By doing that, you have insight and understanding into the real nature of the ice cream and the cloud.

You can also see the ocean, the river, the heat, the sun, the grass and the cow in the ice cream.

Looking deeply, you do not see a real date of birth and you do not see a real date of death for the cloud. All that happens is that the cloud transforms into rain or snow.

There is no real death because there is always a continuation.

A cloud continues the ocean, the river and the heat of the sun, and the rain continues the cloud.
Before it was born, the cloud was already there, so today, when you drink a glass of milk or a cup of tea or eat an ice cream, please follow your breathing.

Look into the tea or the ice cream and say hello to the cloud.