Buddhism teaches the middle path, which means that there is no absolute yes or no. Any time a person or group of people proclaims that something is "bad", they make a demon out of it, and even go so far as to wage a war against it. Many writers are positioning the corona virus as an "enemy" that all people need to band together to defeat. Few have offered the perspective that viruses, like humans and animals, are creatures simply trying to survive and thrive. There is nothing out of this world or supernatural about this; if creatures have a strategy that will propagate their species, then they will certainly do so. Why wouldn't they? But because history is written by human beings, any creature or sentient life (or even non-sentient life) that threatens human life is branded as a threat. There is even a sense that viruses have conscious "purposes" in much the same way that humans have purposes. In fact, we can't verify if this is correct or not, and often these purposes are only based on our own will to survive.
It's tempting to turn things, even things one knows little about, into enemies, monsters, or looming threats. These threats are projections of our own fears. For example, when I was living in an apartment on the west side of Toronto, I would hear mice scurrying under the floorboards of my kitchen. Although the mice turned out to be very small (and sometimes quite adorable in appearance), my mind would imagine them to have cat's eyes and razor sharp teeth. This is because I didn't want them invading my personal space, so I imagined them to be more fearful and dangerous than they actually were. I was really projecting my own anger, panic and hatred onto an image that had nothing to do with the mice.
When people say something is "bad", they might just, out of curiosity, pose the question, "bad for whom?" And they might then see that any judgment of good or bad involves a self or a self-attachment. A story I have heard about in Buddhist lore is that of a bodhisattva who is willing to give their body to a starving tiger. Although this story is not meant to be read literally, it suggests that a bodhisattva is less attached to their own body. While bodhisattvas may not be able to sacrifice in this way, the attitude is that their own body and others' bodies are equal: one does not have more of a "right" to live than another, and nor does one body have more privileges and rights to live than another. If I am happening to cherish this body over others, I have identified myself as this body, and might even think I will cease to continue without this body. And it's this kind of attachment that can lead to all kinds of distorted thinking, such as jealousy for titles, struggles for security and safety, and even fights over toilet paper. What if I am not this body, but rather that mind could embrace every experience as its own? This is a question to ponder.
People will continue to make meanings around this pandemic. But I think it's helpful to explore these things more as narratives than as concrete facts. In fact, all views are views based on a particular way of being in the world that is conditioned and therefore limited. There is never a final resting place to say "this is it", because "this" is relative. Knowing how one is conditioned by one's own sense of having a separate body one is able to see that there isn't a final story on corona virus, or on anything for that matter. And knowing that these narratives shift and change as new information arises can give us more space to breathe and not to be stifled in fear.
No comments:
Post a Comment