HOW we Live our Life is more important than How LONG | Ajahn Dhammasiha

Ajahn Dhammasiha quotes Dhammapada Verse #110, where the Buddha makes it very clear that the length of our life is not the most important thing. Instead, the most important thing is the quality of our life.What truly gives quality to our life is spiritual practice: Not to harm either ourselves or others, and to develop a calm, unified mind, bright and free from defilements.Ajahn expresses his concern that in the current pandemic, our whole society is focussed exclusively on not getting infected/not dying from coronavirus. But the vast majority of those dying in the last 18 months still died of other conditions. Why focussing only on one cause of death out of so many?We have to find the right balance between reducing infections, and being able to live our life. There's more to life than just being alive. Human interaction, being able to bury our parents, to be close to dying loved ones, to celebrate weddings, to meet friends and elderly relatives and so on is part of being human, and so is the freedom to practise our religion. If we protect our life from infection, but at the same time lose our humanity, what do we protect then?Even if one were to live a hundred years, Unvirtuous, unethical, with scattered mind; It'a preferable to live a single day, But virtuous, with concentrated mind. Yo ca vassasataṃ jīve Dussīlo asamāhito; Ekāhaṃ jīvitaṃ seyyo, Sīlavantassa jhāyino. Dhammapada Verse No110www.dhammagiri.org.auwww.facebook.com/dhammagiri-forest-hermitagewww.youtube.com/channel/UCJINt0JJBfFm_x0FZcU9QJwwww.tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive.