The coronavirus pandemic we are all experiencing has challenged our health, work, family, and more. It’s also a great disruptor of our peace of mind and forcing us to question many things in our existence.
While great efforts are being made to find medical solutions, ideas from a Buddhist perspective can provide some understanding and relief. From The Buddhas perspective we should simply focus on the existential facts, embracing understanding first then practicing what we learn from there.
Buddhism teaches us the coronavirus is causing us to experience heightened forms of the three marks of our existence. These are impermanence, suffering and non-self.
The pandemic’s presence on our society reminds us of our impermanence. It illuminates the inevitable nature of our own time frames and the associated suffering we live in and will leave behind, leading us to do some inner searching. This is where a simple practice of meditation can shine a light on many aspects of what we see, feel and think.
Meditation can help both the individual and the world the rest of the world because thoughtfulness a byproduct of the practice. Our meditation practice can help us evaluate the impermanence, decay and inevitable passing of our existence, against our forgetfulness of our limited time here. Meditation can shine a light on our experience as an individual and our realities as a shared community. This can make us reevaluate what we see as our misfortunes.
The Buddha was an insightful thinker and teacher. He proposed a natural outlook, providing solutions that do not require any supernatural powers, deities or systems. It’s all within you.
Meditations psychological solutions and health benefits can be a framework for contemplation on many subjects and situations for finding paths thru and away from our current crisis. S take 5 minutes a day to sit with your mind, your heart and strive to find some quiet. You may truly be surprised how that five minutes can shape not just your days, but your life.
Peace and Love, Jim
