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Coronavirus Meditation
As we are engulfed in a full Coronavirus panic, it is time to use it as a theme for meditation. Here, it may be interesting to note that Zen people don’t talk about immortality or life after death. Rather, death itself is a famous Zen koan.
Meditation is not some technique to enter jhana or some blissful state. Meditation, in the Buddhist practice, always has the objective of cultivating and heightening awareness. Any event that comes into our experience always has a bright side and a dark side. It is important, as we enter into a phase of mass panic, not to be drowned by the tsunami of mindless hysteria. That would be counterproductive, even harmful to self and others.
Why are we so bothered by this new virus? Why are so many people in panic? This has to do with our fear of our own mortality. For many people, it is as if they didn’t know that everyone has to die at some point.
The Buddha taught the truth of impermanence. It is one of the Three Marks of Existence. As a Buddhist, I live each day, fully aware of the fact that it may be my last day. The truth of mortality should not be anything new. If you are spiritually aware, you should have made peace with it long ago. You know that, every day, you get closer and closer to your own death. Thus, you should treat each new day as “gravy,” as a gift from the universe. You should receive this gift with…
