In our talk today, I would like to invite you to redefine the words that we have so far misunderstood: Life and Death.

Before we learned Buddhism we had thought that living implied breathing, eating, drinking, flexing and extending muscles, moving, working - all that defined living. And death was when there was no more breathing, complete stiffness, no more twitching or moving - all that defined death.

But in Buddhist philosophy it is much different. In Dhammapada discourse, Buddha said that a living person who does not practice good dhamma is already dead. The sutta explains that only a dead corpse would not know how to consider, measure, examine and analyse carefully. A living person who leads a poor dhamma life, though he can move his limbs, he is just like a dead corpse in that he says whatever he wants without proper consideration, he does whatever he wants without proper analysis. Those who live without wisdom, patience, compassion, mindfulness, understanding ... are just dead corpses yet to be buried.

Living and Existing | | Hell Dukkha, and Contemplating Dukkha | | Serve My Teacher With Love Tiếng Việt