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.

We suffer because others suffer… 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.

We suffer as well because even the happiness we enjoy is impermanent. The health and prosperity we enjoy at one moment can be taken away from us at the next.  Our lives themselves are impermanent, and can end prematurely.  This impermanence is unavoidable, and is brought into sharp relief by the pandemic.

And we suffer because we are not in control of our own lives and destinies; we cannot, as we imagine we might, “stand on our own two feet.”  We live our lives subject to countless causes and conditions, and changes in those causes and conditions can transform or end our lives at any moment.  Most of those are out of our control. The pandemic makes this lack of control evident.

All of these dimensions of suffering are present throughout each of our lives.  Some of us are fortunate enough that this pervasive suffering is not salient.  That good fortune is a blessing and a curse. We feel ourselves to be happy, but only at the cost of losing touch with the very nature of our existence and with those we think we hold dear. The pandemic forces us to confront that difficult reality.  We would be wise to hold onto that insight after it passes.