The Coffin

Coffins - One life, all have died

There is a famous morality monk named Vuong thu Trung, the abbot of the temple in Suzhou. He exhibited a small coffin on the reading table.
This coffin lid opened and closed again, about 3 inches long.
The questions asked by his brethren: - What does this coffin mean?

The monk explained:

- People have lived and all of them have died or will die. After we die, we will lie in coffins like this one. I am surprised to see why people spend a  lifetime worrying and strenuously chasing after  wealth, fame, tastes, and talent, but no one tries to know what death is. When things are not like what I want, I immediately look at the coffins. Immediately, my mind is calm, and all anxiety and sorrow quickly vanish.
This coffin provides a valuable lesson about morality.

- When you are suffering from a lack of money, and experience business losses, try to imitate the monk, Viên Thủ Trung, looking at the coffin. The Word of God from 2,000 years ago still echoes somewhere: "Source Oh! If I this night catch your soul, shall the wealth piled up there, whom you'll leave it for?" (Lk. 12, 20-21).

- Whenever you feel bored and disappointed because of the treacherous coast, the coffin reminds us that people will be in there and no one will again be lovelorn or abandoned. 

- When you are intoxicated with the power of winning, or vice versa, or upset by the loss of power or the loss of function, the coffin will remind you that all the kings and governors on the earth must surrender and lie quietly just like the poorest people in the society.
- Whenever you see  unfair, hateful, jealous, or injustice in circles your life imagine yourself becoming a person who lies in the coffin, where there are no longer trumpets, nor scrambling and humiliating one another. These excellent lessons of the casket are for the rich, the poor, and the suffering in the world,  as well as for those who cannot and do not. Death is a symbol of equality and a sign of peace. Look down at the ground in the cemetery. Everyone there, regardless of wealth or civil division, is located in a straight line path, evenly and quietly, so that the body penetrates and dissolves the dirt.

MS Truong Van Sang.
Go to Coi Nguon to read the Vietnamese version