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<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">I Am Not in Here</div>
<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">By Thich Nhat Hanh</div>
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<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">I have a disciple
in Vietnam who wants to build a stupa for my ashes when I die.
He and others want to put a plaque with the words, “Here lies my
beloved teacher.” I told them not to waste the temple land.</div>
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<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">“Do not put me in
a small pot and put me in there” I said. “I don’t want to
continue like that. It would be better to scatter the ashes
outside to help the trees to grow.”</div>
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<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">I suggested that,
if they still insist on building a stupa, they have the plaque
say, “I am not in here.” But in case people don’t get it, they
could add a second plaque, “I am not out there either.” If still
people don’t understand, then you can write on the third and
last plaque, “I may be found in your way of breathing and
walking.”</div>
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<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">This body of mine
will disintegrate, but my actions will continue me. In my daily
life I always practice to see my continuation all around me. We
don’t need to wait until the total dissolution of this body to
continue—we continue in every moment. </div>
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<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">If you think that
I am only this body, then you have not truly seen me. When you
look at my friends, you see my continuation. When you see
someone walking with compassion, you know he is my
continuation. </div>
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<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">I don’t see why we
have to say “I will die,” because I can already see myself in
you, in other people, and in future generations.</div>
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<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">Even when the
cloud is not there, it continues as snow or rain. It is
impossible for a cloud to die. It can become rain or ice, but it
cannot become nothing. The cloud does not need to have a soul in
order to continue. There’s no beginning and no end. I will never
die. There will be a dissolution of this body, but that does not
mean my death. </div>
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<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">I will continue,
always.</div>
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<div dir="auto" style="border-color:rgb(0,0,0)">Excerpted from
Thich Nhat Hanh “At Home in the World: Stories & Essential
Teachings from a Monk’s Life” (2015)</div>
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