old-path-white-clouds-thich-nhat-hanh

e bound by the body and the feelings, even pleasant ones.
“If he needs all his strength to bear the pain, he should only observe, ‘This is a kind of pain that needs all my strength to bear. This pain is
not me. I am not this pain. I am not caught by this pain. The body and the feelings are, at this moment, like a lamp whose oil and wick are
running out. It is by conditions that the light manifests or ceases to manifest. I am not bound by conditions.’ If a monk practices in this way,
calmness and release will come.”
When the first rains began to relieve the summer heat, he returned to Jetavana for the retreat season. He taught the bhikkhus and
bhikkhunis more about the law of dependent co-arising. One bhikkhu stood up and asked, “Lord, you have taught that consciousness is the
basis of name and form. Does it then follow that the existence of all dharmas arises from consciousness?”
The Buddha answered, “That is correct. Form is an object of consciousness. The subject and the object of consciousness are two faces
of one reality. There can be no consciousness without the object of consciousness. Consciousness and the object of consciousness cannot
exist independently of each other. Because the subject and object of consciousness cannot be separated, they are both said to arise from
mind.”
“Lord, if form arises from consciousness, consciousness can be said to be the source of the universe. Is it possible to know how
consciousness or mind came to be? When did mind begin? Can one speak of the beginning of mind?”
“Bhikkhus, the concepts of beginning and end are only mental constructs created by the mind. In truth, there is no beginning or end. We
only think about beginnings and endings when we are trapped in ignorance. It is because of ignorance that people are caught in an endless
round of birth and death.”
“If the round of birth and death has no beginning and no end, how can one escape it?”
“Birth and death are only concepts created out of ignorance. To transcend the thoughts of birth-and-death and beginning-and-end is to
transcend the endless round. Bhikkhus, that is all I wish to say today. Practice looking deeply into all things. We will speak again about this
subject another day.”