I'm okay, if I don't look a little closer
I'm okay if I don't see beyond the shore

The Indigo Girls, Perfect World

Buddhist philosophy tells us nothing about virology, public health, or how to treat respiratory illness. But it may have something to teach us about what we can learn from a pandemic, how we might best contribute to the lives of others in the context of a pandemic, and how we might develop an insight and moral sensitivity by reflecting on the pandemic and on our place in the world in which it unfolds.

The first of the four noble truths, the one that constitutes the foundation of all Buddhist thought and practice is that of the ubiquity of suffering. Many people, when they first hear this, regard Buddhism as at best pessimistic, and at worst, a denial of the reality that the world is full of goodness and beauty.  This is because we often think of suffering simply in terms of our own present pain or distress,  as that suffering of which we are immediately aware.  This is a narrow view of what it is to suffer, and reflection on the pandemic directs our attention to the deeper dimensions of the suffering that enframes our lives.

We suffer because others suffer.  And we do so either because we recognize their suffering and are distressed by it or because we become aware that we fail to recognize and to be moved by it—that we intentionally or unintentionally look the other way—and therefore suffer from being less than we would like to be.  Attention to the massive suffering caused by the pandemic can inspire us to hold this insight in our hearts now and after the pandemic has passed.