with a Buddhist philosophy that every day, one must ask the bird on his shoulder if that day is the day he will die.
How can you ever be prepared to die? “Do what the Buddhists do. Every day, have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, ‘Is today the day? Am I
ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?’” 81
The bird itself is symbolic of Morries consciousness that his death is fast- approaching, and his readiness to accept it when it does arrive. He hopes that
Mitch will realize that this bird is on everyones shoulder at every moment of their lives, despite how young or old they may be. “Everyone knows they’re going to
die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently 81.” When he tells Mitch that one must know how to die before one can know how to live, he
means that one must accept the possibility of ones own death before he can truly appreciate what he has on earth, as the sobering awareness that one day, it will all
be out of reach, the urge to appreciate and value what one can have only for a limited period of time, and to use every moment of that time doing something that
one will not regret when the bird sings its last note.
4.2.1 Analysis on Morrie’s view of life based on Buddhist’s Four Noble Truth
Morrie sees many people, mostly are craving for material things, a substitute for love that they actually needing. In the end they couldn’t get enough
of material to covers the need of love and suffered by living an unsatisfying life. It is reflected in the first Buddhist’s four noble truth that life is or leads to
sufferinguneasiness dukkha in one way or another. According to second Buddhist’s four noble truths, Samudya is the origin
of dukkha Suffering, is caused by craving tanha or attachments to worldly pleasures of all kinds. This is just what Morrie believes and follow.
Wherever I went in my life, I met people wanting to gobble up something new. Gobble up a new car. Gobble up a new piece of property. Gobble up
the latest toy. And then they wanted to tell you about it. Guess what I got? Guess what I got?
You know how I always interpreted that? These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing
material things and expecting sort of a hug back. But it never works. You cant substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness
or for a sense of comradeship 125 One day Morrie as he was recovering from a violent coughing spell, he
began to explain to Mitch the ability to detach yourself from your emotions. He believed that experiencing life and the emotions that go along with each situation
were very important. “Yes. Detaching myself. And this is important—not just for someone like
me, who is dying, but for someone like you, who is perfectly healthy. Learn to detach.” He opened his eyes. He exhaled. “You know what the
Buddhists say? Don’t cling to things, because everything is impermanent 103.”
The third Buddhist’s four noble truths, Nirodha is the cessation of Dukkha, suffering ends when craving ends, when one is freed from desire. This
is achieved by eliminating all delusion, thereby reaching a liberated state of Enlightenment bodhi.
Morrie explained to Mitch that it was necessary to experience and feel your emotions fully rather than ignore them or pretend that they dont exist as so
many of us do. Morrie’s approach was exactly the opposite. Turn on the faucet. Wash
yourself with the emotion. It won’t hurt you. It will only help. If you let the fear inside, if you pull it on like a familiar shirt, then you can say to
yourself, “All right, it’s just fear, I don’t have to let it control me. I see it for what it is 105.”
When Morrie detaches himself from his emotions, he is not simply ignoring and blocking them, but experiencing them fully as well as separating himself from
them so that they will not control him. Same for loneliness: you let go, let the tears flow, feel it completely—but
eventually be able to say, “All right, that was my moment with loneliness. I’m not afraid of feeling lonely, but now I’m going to put that loneliness
aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and I’m going to experience them as well 105.”
In this sense at least he can slightly escape the fear of his emotions
without fully ignoring them. “Even I don’t know what ’spiritual development’ really means. But I do know we’re deficient in some way. We are too involved in
materialistic things, and they don’t satisfy us. The loving relationship we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted 84.” Morrie did not want to
leave the world through a violent coughing spell, instead he wanted to understand what was happening to him, find acceptance in it, and be able to let go in a
peaceful manner. Morrie’s acceptance through detachment is a way in reaching spiritual development. This is achieved by eliminating all delusion, thereby
reaching a liberated state of enlightenment. It is reflected in the fourth Buddhist’s four noble truth that Magga is the way leading to cessation of Dukkha and
Reaching liberated state. In reaching liberated state, according to the Buddhist philosophy one must
follow The Noble Eightfold path which are, right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right awareness, right
concentration. It is a practical guideline to ethical and mental development with
the goal of release the individual from attachments and fantasies; and it finally leads to understanding the truth about all things.
4.2.1 Analysis on Morrie’s view of life based on Buddhist’s Noble Eightfold Path
