"No-self" doesn't mean that you don't exist.
No-self means you are made\h only of non-you elements.
There is a very well known sutra, holy scripture
that's studied in zen\hmonasteries, called the Diamond Sutra.
In the Diamond Sutra, we are urged to remove Four\hNotions.
In fact, there are many notions to be removed,
but the Diamond Sutra only focuses on\h four notions.
The first notion is the notion of "self."
We believe that we can be by ourselves alone,
that the flower can be by herself alone, but that is not true.
Looking deeply, we see that a\hflower is made only of non-flower elements.
That is why the flower should remove\h the notion that she can exist all by herself.
She inter-is with the cosmos.
I inter-am with\hall of you. I inter-am with the whole cosmos.
I think "interbeing" is a very important word.
And that should be put into\h the dictionary very soon.
It's closer to the truth than the word "to be."
So if we can remove the notion\h of self as an independent entity,
we are free from many, many afflictions.
If we\hbelieve there is a separate self,
we have the tendency to compare that self with other selves.
From there is born the complex of superiority that makes you suffer.
From there is\hborn the complex of inferiority that makes you suffer.\h\h
And even the complex of equality makes\h you suffer because...
that is the outcome of\hcomparison.
If you don't see a separate self, there is no comparison anymore,
and you are free!
not only from the inferiority complex, the\hsuperiority complex,
but also from the equality complex, because many of us try to be equal.
But you are in him and he is in you.
The second notion is\hthe notion of man, purusha...
human beings.
According to\hthe teaching, man is made only of non-man elements,
namely minerals, vegetables, and animals.
Man is a\hvery young species on earth.
And yet we think...
that we are the boss.
We have done a lot of damage to the Kingdom of God
because we do not know who we are.
We have human\hancestors, but we have also animal ancestors,
we have also vegetable ancestors,
and we have\halso mineral ancestors.
They are still in us.
And with every step, we carry\h within us all our ancestors...
mineral, vegetable, animal, and human ancestors.
No\hmatter where we go, we bring our ancestors along.
If we are happy, our ancestors in us are\hhappy.
If we suffer, our ancestors in us too suffer.
So the Diamond Sutra...
teaches that man is only made of non-man\helements.
In order to protect men, you have to protect the environment.
You have to protect\hthe minerals, the animals, and the vegetables.
That is why the Diamond Sutra seems to be\h the oldest text on the teaching of deep ecology.
And the third notion to be\hremoved is "living beings."
And this word "living being"\hhere means a non-Buddha being.
A Buddha is an enlightened person.
They call...
"Bodhi" means enlightenment.
"Sattva"...
"sattva" means a being
A Buddha is an enlightened being, a bodhisattva.
The Buddha is a great being, "mahāsattva."
And as...
as a human we may have some complex
that we\hare not a Buddha, that we are not a great being.
So the notion of a living being,
as different from an enlightened being, a\h great being,
that notion, that feeling of inferiority should be removed.
In fact, if you want to find a bodhisattva, if\hyou want to see mahasattva,
you have to look into\hyourself.
That is the safest to find a Buddha.
Not in the sky! Not in the direction of the west,
not in the Buddha Hall.
The Buddha is in your heart
because you have the seed of enlightenment in you.
You have the seed of understanding and compassion in you.
That is Buddhahood, Buddha nature.
So\hthe safest place, the surest place to find a Buddha is in the human being
and\hnot in a god, outside, or above.
There is a teaching in the Rinzai school (Linji school)...
生佛不二
It means that living beings (生) and Buddhas (佛)...
they are not two different things (不二).
When you look into the\hBuddha, you see a human being.
If you have not seen a living\hbeing in the Buddha, you have not seen the Buddha.
A living being is someone who has\hsuffered,
who has lived in delusion.
And the Buddha is someone that has suffered,
that\hhas had afflictions, that has practiced to transform.
So when you look at the Buddha, you\hhave to see non-Buddha elements
like suffering, the practice, and so on.
And\hif you do not see the suffering in the Buddha that has been transformed,
you have\hnot seen the Buddha.
[Not if] you think the Buddha...
is made of only non-suffering elements.
When you look into the flower of\hlotus, you have to see the mud in it
because you need the mud in order to make a\hlotus flower.
You cannot plant the lotus on marble.
When you look at the lotus\hflower and if you don't see the\hmud in it,
you have not seen the lotus.
When you look at the Buddha,
if you don't see the suffering as one element that helped\hmake a Buddha,
you have not seen the Buddha.
So don't discriminate between Buddhas and non-Buddhas.
And when you look at a human being suffer,
you have to see the Buddhahood in him\hor her.
You should see the capacity to become awake, to become enlightened,
to become\hcompassionate and understanding in him or her.
That is called Buddha Nature in every one of us.
If\hyou look into a human being,
no matter how much he or she suffers,
you have to see the Buddha\hin him. Otherwise you have not seen him or her.
When I was ordained as a novice monk\hat the age of 16,
my teacher gave me a verse to memorize before I bow to the Buddha.
Before bowing into the Buddha\h you have to prepare yourself.
Otherwise the bow to the Buddha will have no effect.
That is a kind of meditation. It begins like\hthis:
The one who bows and the one who is bowed to...
the nature of both is equally empty.
A Buddha is made only of non-Buddha elements.
And I am made only of non-me elements.
So it is equivalent to saying, "Dear Buddha,
I am going to\hbow to you,
but I know that you are empty of a self.
You are made of only non-Buddha\helements.
And I can see me in you."
By this time, you have already seen\hthe Buddha.
"And I, who is bowing to you,
am made of non-me elements.
And\hthe element of enlightenment is in me too.
You are in me."
So you got the insight that\hyou are in the Buddha, and the Buddha is in you,
and that's when you can bow.
And a\hbow like that connects the two, and creates two communions.
Otherwise, if you\hthink the Buddha is a separate entity,
there's no connection, no communication, no communion possible.
I think the same thing must be true
when you bow to Jesus or to God.
You have to see you in God, and God in you
in order for true communion to be possible.
We learned that Jesus is the son of God.
But we\halso learned that he is the son of man.
It's very significant he's both the son of God and the son\hof man.
It means God is in man and man is in God.
That is why connection is possible, communion\his possible.
To me, Jesus is made of non-Jesus elements, also.
Suppose you remove God\hthe Father from Him, He can no longer be Jesus.
Suppose you remove the Holy\hSpirit from Him, He is no longer Jesus.
So the teaching of the Trinity applies to this.
There is the same wisdom, the same insight in both traditions.
If you imagine that God and Jesus\hare an entity wholly outside,
there will be no real communication, no real connection, no real\hcommunion.
That is why the insight of Interbeing\his very crucial;
the insight of no-self is very\hcrucial;
the insight that Buddhas and living beings are not two separate entities is very important.
I think many christians... mystics have realized this.
That is why bowing to the Buddha\h is not really worshipping.
It's a meditation.
Because, before you bow, you have to get the insight
that the Buddha is empty, you are\hempty;
you are in the Buddha, and the Buddha is in you, before you bow.
And your bow will\hhave an effect of transformation and healing.
We have, among us, an American monk
who had been a catholic priest\h before he became a Buddhist monk.
He was a theologian.
He still loves Jesus and Christianity.
But he found\hthat in Buddhism he has the tools, the instruments
in order to practice the teaching of christianity.
So learning about Buddhism can help you\h to be a better christian and vice versa.
So the notion of a living being as completely\hseparated from Buddhas,
from bodhisattvas, from Jesus, from God,
that notion should be removed
because it\hcan create division, discrimination, and suffering.
And the fourth notion that the Diamond Sutra\hadvises us to remove
is the notion of "lifespan."
Remember the line representing\htime.
We believe that we begin\hat the point B (birth),
and will end at point D (death)...
and that from B to D represents the realm of Being,
and\hD onwards represents the realm of Non-Being.
The notion that we only exist from point\hB and will stop to exist from point D,\h
that notion of lifespan should be removed.
You are free from time.
You are\hliberated from the notion of time.
Your true nature is the nature of no-birth no-death, no-being no-nonbeing.
To be caught in the idea that I will\hdie someday, I will become nothing someday,
that should be removed.
If a cloud cannot die, how\hcan we die?
We continue always in different forms
more or less beautiful depending on our practice!