You have a physical body. As a student of the Buddha, you also have a dharma body. You have to take care of your physical body and dharma body. That dharma body not only serves you, it serves many people in society, so take care of your dharma body by the study and the practice of the dharma.
We have to feed the dharma body by our practice. We have to take good care of it so that it will be vigorous, solid, because when the dharma body is strong, we don't suffer. You suffer because your dharma body is too weak, and when you come to me, you learn ways in order to make your dharma body strong by the practice of the dharma every day, by the practice of walking mindfully, sitting peace-fully, eating happily, and so on. So the dharma is not just a dharma talk. The dharma should be the living dharma.
A book about the dharma is the dharma also, but it is not the living dharma. The living dharma is seen in our daily life. While you walk, you sit, you smile, you work, you speak, the dharma should help you to be more joyful, calmer, more compassionate, friendlier, and when others see that, they recognise it is the living dharma. It's not the dharma through words in a book or speech; it's the living dharma, so when you smile to the other person with compassion, and forgive him for the mistake he had committed, then you are expressing the living dharma.
You don't say anything, you just look at him and smile with compassion; you are expressing the living dharma. And that's more precious than the oral or written dharma. And by looking at other people with the eyes of compassion, or forgiveness, or helping people to suffer less, you are generating the living dharma.
The living dharma always makes you happy and makes other people around you happy. And that is why it is very nice to receive the living dharma from the Buddha, from your teacher, so that you may begin to cultivate that living dharma in you. The dharma body is like a tree, like a plant, you have to take care of, to cultivate every day so that it becomes a strong plant, a strong tree.
It will bring flowers and fruit that make you happy and make people around you happy. That is why taking care of the living dharma in you is very important. People can see your physical body, but they may not have seen your dharma body. When you speak, when you act, when you think, the dharma body may manifest, because the dharma body can manifest in compassion, understanding, forgiveness, and you can also help other people to cultivate their dharma body. This is a wonderful thing.
If all of us continue to consolidate our dharma body and help other people to nourish their dharma bodies, we are wonderful continuations of the Buddha. The Buddha is in us, and is recognisable. The Buddha can be recognised through his dharma body that all of us have in us. When your dharma body is clear, is powerful, you are a happy person. You can help many people to suffer less. Remember each of us has a physical body, but we also have our dharma body.