Morrie’s Life Lessons from a Perspective of Buddhist Philosophy

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how one can live a meaningful life above transcending life and death. Morrie meets Mitch every Tuesday to impart great life lessons until Morrie dies of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Many topics like love, work, family, aging, forgiveness, and death are covered to observe and prepare for death. This paper covers, in four parts, Morrie’s life philosophy in relation to Buddhist theories: the moment (now), obsession and concept, suffering, and emptiness. First, people forget the importance and preciousness of the current moment, so they live their lives wastefully. Morrie says that once one learns how to die, one learn how to live, meaning people should enjoy and focus on the “now” moment. Second, according to Buddhist theory, people suffer from birth to death because they are obsessed with four images: the obsession of self, the obsession of a person, the obsession of living being, and the obsession of a life span. The paper gives examples of how Morrie deals with them. Third, the four noble truths of Buddhism is introduced, analyzed, and referred to Morrie’s lessons. Lastly, the paper finishes with the theory of emptiness, which means nothing, in its foundation, can be fulfilled with the coming together of things. Morrie lives his life, transcending life and death, and shows that life and death is one and emptiness.