Being self-aware is key to making choices. Morrie says that he's able to make choices about the way that he's going to feel, and that once he looks honestly at himself and accepts what he's going through, he's able to judge which decision will be the best for him.

Morrie and Mitch are willing to entertain the idea of reincarnation. The idea of being born again as a different creature comes from the Hindu faith. This idea doesn't come up a lot and they aren't even saying that they definitely think it's a true idea, but Morrie is willing to think of it as an option.

Morrie isn't suggesting that we detach ourselves from everything, including who we are. Instead, he's saying that in order to have the most amount of consciousness—to be aware of how it feels to exist one hundred percent—we should remove all the unnecessary cares and attachments from our lives so we can kind of throw ourselves into existing.

Here are some of Morrie's most famous words. He's been able to live a meaningful life with his illness, precisely because he knows that his days are numbered. It's like we said: The theme of living and existing is completely tied up with the theme of dying.

Here, Morrie is teaching by example again, being that human textbook. The lesson of detachment, he says, is as important to him as it is to Mitch. He's asking Mitch to look at him, use him as a learning tool to understand the importance of what he's teaching.