|
Stay safe. Protect yourself, protect others.
Please, stay home when sick. Wash your hands. Get Vaccinated. Namo Buddha-ya! Namo Buddha-ya! Namo Buddha-ya! Many mindfulness and meditation events in Atlanta are also online or hybrid |
|
COVID-19 - A Buddhist perspective: Mindfulness and Awareness in dealing with the Coronavirus Pandemic
Insight and how understanding interconnectedness, karma, and causality can help us be more calm in our response.
Insight and how understanding interconnectedness, karma, and causality can help us be more calm in our response.
|
The pandemic is a calamity we all face together. To prevent and protect ourselves from this calamity, we need to start from our minds. When we relate and treat each other with friendliness and compassion, an effective defensive system is developed within our mind. This is the best strategy to protect ourselves and to keep disease out.
“Contemplate the suffering of sentient beings; bring forth the bodhi mind.” When we see everyone in the world is in fear, it kindles in us a sense of unconditioned compassion and oneness toward all beings. We can dedicate the merits of our morning and evening service and our good deeds toward world peace, wishing all sentient beings be free from illness. When we all hold this same hope and wish, our minds will abide in right mindfulness, calmness, and compassion, free from distraction or distortion. And when our minds are free of disease, the external world will also be free of disease. When our minds are pure, the external world is also a pure land. As we all recognize this, our minds will no longer be in tune with a world of epidemic. Simply transform our thoughts, we will bring brightness and purity to this world. http://sunnyvale.ctzen.org/wiki/the-grand-masters-dharma-talk-on-sars-in-2003-2/ |
|
(Buddha Mind Monastery is part of Chung Tai Chan Monastery and sister branch of Atlanta's Dharma Jewel Monastery)
What can we do to help reduce disasters like wildfires and the coronavirus outbreak?
Take a Vow to Go Vegetarian
Buddhism is a scientific study of trying to understand reality, and completely based in cause and effect. How can vegetarianism be related to things like outbreaks?
How strange! How very strange indeed!
The grandson marries the grandmother.
The daughter is eating her mother's flesh,
And the son is beating on a drum stretched with his father's skin.
Pigs and sheep are sitting on the couch,
And the six kinds of relatives are cooking in the pots.
People have come to offer congratulations,
But I see that it is truly suffering!
At first glance, it can seem like the stuff of pseudo-science and myths and falsehoods spreading around the internet. But serious students of Buddhism will realize that reducing our animal consumption has real benefits, not just for physical health and the environment.
Compassion can never be considered a waste on any living being. We are all interconnected. Our actions - including what we eat and what we think - affect our future and that of those around us. We should reduce the fear, hate, and thoughts of revenge generated by the torturing and killing of animals. Eating meat may increase negative affinities and contribute to the never-ending cycle of karmic retribution.
Buddhism affirms the unity of all living beings, all equally posses the Buddha-nature, and all have the potential to become Buddhas, that is, to become fully and perfectly enlightened. Among the sentient, there are no second-class citizens. According to Buddhist teaching, human beings do not have a privileged, special place above and beyond that of the rest of life. The world is not a creation specifically for the benefit and pleasure of human beings. Furthermore, in some circumstances according with their karma, humans can be reborn as humans and animals can be reborn as humans. In Buddhism the most fundamental guideline for conduct is ahimsa-the prohibition against the bringing of harm and/or death to any living being. Why should one refrain from killing? It is because all beings have lives; they love their lives and do not wish to die. Even one of the smallest creatures, the mosquito, when it approaches to bite you, will fly away if you make the slightest motion. Why does it fly away? Because it fears death. It figures that if it drinks your blood, you will take its life. . . . We should nurture compassionate thought. Since we wish to live, we should not kill any other living being. Furthermore, the karma of killing is understood as the root of all suffering and the fundamental cause of sickness and war, and the forces of killing are explicitly identified with the demonic. The highest and most universal ideal of Buddhism is to work unceasingly for permanent end to the suffering of all living beings, not just humans.
More about Buddhism and going vegetarian:
http://www.cttbusa.org/vegetarianism/cttbveg2.asp
and
http://sunnyvale.ctzen.org/wiki/buddhism-and-vegetarianism-by-grand-master-weichueh/
Take a Vow to Go Vegetarian
Buddhism is a scientific study of trying to understand reality, and completely based in cause and effect. How can vegetarianism be related to things like outbreaks?
How strange! How very strange indeed!
The grandson marries the grandmother.
The daughter is eating her mother's flesh,
And the son is beating on a drum stretched with his father's skin.
Pigs and sheep are sitting on the couch,
And the six kinds of relatives are cooking in the pots.
People have come to offer congratulations,
But I see that it is truly suffering!
At first glance, it can seem like the stuff of pseudo-science and myths and falsehoods spreading around the internet. But serious students of Buddhism will realize that reducing our animal consumption has real benefits, not just for physical health and the environment.
Compassion can never be considered a waste on any living being. We are all interconnected. Our actions - including what we eat and what we think - affect our future and that of those around us. We should reduce the fear, hate, and thoughts of revenge generated by the torturing and killing of animals. Eating meat may increase negative affinities and contribute to the never-ending cycle of karmic retribution.
Buddhism affirms the unity of all living beings, all equally posses the Buddha-nature, and all have the potential to become Buddhas, that is, to become fully and perfectly enlightened. Among the sentient, there are no second-class citizens. According to Buddhist teaching, human beings do not have a privileged, special place above and beyond that of the rest of life. The world is not a creation specifically for the benefit and pleasure of human beings. Furthermore, in some circumstances according with their karma, humans can be reborn as humans and animals can be reborn as humans. In Buddhism the most fundamental guideline for conduct is ahimsa-the prohibition against the bringing of harm and/or death to any living being. Why should one refrain from killing? It is because all beings have lives; they love their lives and do not wish to die. Even one of the smallest creatures, the mosquito, when it approaches to bite you, will fly away if you make the slightest motion. Why does it fly away? Because it fears death. It figures that if it drinks your blood, you will take its life. . . . We should nurture compassionate thought. Since we wish to live, we should not kill any other living being. Furthermore, the karma of killing is understood as the root of all suffering and the fundamental cause of sickness and war, and the forces of killing are explicitly identified with the demonic. The highest and most universal ideal of Buddhism is to work unceasingly for permanent end to the suffering of all living beings, not just humans.
More about Buddhism and going vegetarian:
http://www.cttbusa.org/vegetarianism/cttbveg2.asp
and
http://sunnyvale.ctzen.org/wiki/buddhism-and-vegetarianism-by-grand-master-weichueh/
COVID-19 UPDATE:
Should I get vaccinated/boosted?
Yes! There is nothing in Buddhism that is against coronavirus vaccination - in fact, most Buddhist teachers encourage people to get the vaccine as a way not only to protect your own health, but that of people around you and the community at large. The available approved covid vaccines are safe and effective - any rare risks of side effects are by far much less likely than reactions and risks from covid infection.
We encourage everyone to wear masks while in public indoor spaces and continue to follow CDC public health guidelines for safety! You can now get booster vaccines too!
Should I get vaccinated/boosted?
Yes! There is nothing in Buddhism that is against coronavirus vaccination - in fact, most Buddhist teachers encourage people to get the vaccine as a way not only to protect your own health, but that of people around you and the community at large. The available approved covid vaccines are safe and effective - any rare risks of side effects are by far much less likely than reactions and risks from covid infection.
We encourage everyone to wear masks while in public indoor spaces and continue to follow CDC public health guidelines for safety! You can now get booster vaccines too!
Charities to help during the pandemic crisis - Donate to help those affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak:
|
Buddhist Global Relief
American Buddhist charity that seeks to end hunger and suffering in the US and across the world. www.buddhistglobalrelief.org |
Dharma Relief
Pan-Buddhist US and Canadian effort (started by Tallahassee Chan Center and Dharma Drum Mountain) to donate surgical masks to healthcare facilities www.dharmarelief.org |
Flatten the Curve with Tzu Chi Compassionate Relief Buddhist Foundation
Millions of masks, as well as food aid and other donations, given https://tzuchi.us/donate/cause/coronavirus/ |
Do YOU need aid because of job loss or financial difficulty?
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta; the Center for Pan Asian Community Services; and other Georgia nonprofits are offering free grocery boxes to the elderly, low-income, or those in need of assistance!
Please contact them for more details.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta; the Center for Pan Asian Community Services; and other Georgia nonprofits are offering free grocery boxes to the elderly, low-income, or those in need of assistance!
Please contact them for more details.