Many of them lived hand-to-mouth; only one crop failure or failed hunt away from starvation. They had little to no legal recourse if a neighbor stole their property, and people died regularly from disease outbreaks.
So, when Buddha taught the first noble truth, he wasn't giving a philosophical treatise. He was naming and validating the lived experience of the people he ministered too. More than that, he was positioning Buddhism as a practical, proven method for dealing with the trauma in their lives.
This is important to remember as we cope with our own suffering. We like to imagine ourselves as the model with washboard abs, meditating on a beautiful beach. We want to be the perfect person, with the perfect life, and the perfect practice. But that's not reality
The truth is we don't practice Buddhism because life is easy. We practice because life is hard. We practice because we're human, because we hurt, because there are things in the world that scare us. We practice Buddhism so we can cope with things like the Coronavirus.
Of course, we must do all of the things that the Center for Disease Control recommends. We must wash our hands, stop touching our face, and self-isolate as best we can. But these steps don't heal our mental and spiritual distress. For that, a Buddhist contemplation practice like the one listed below can be useful.
First, it helps if we acknowledge the first noble truth. A lot has changed since that teaching was given 2,600 years ago. But a lot has stayed the same. In spite of our medical advancements, we're still of a nature to grow old, get sick and die.
If we accept that on an intuitive level as opposed to just knowing it intellectually, a lot of fear is removed from lives. This understanding helps us see the Coronavirus less as a scary aberration and more as part of the natural unfolding of life. Of course, that doesn't make it a pleasant part of life, but it does make it manageable.
Second, we can recognize the many ways that we're not suffering. For example, we're in the middle of a pandemic, but the electricity still works, clean water still comes out of our faucets, and employees at stores and restaurants across the country are still making sure that we're fed.
The Lotus Sutra tells us that there is an infinite number of Buddhas in the universe, and it's easy to forget that many of them work in the healthcare, infrastructure, and service industries. These brave individuals work tirelessly stocking supermarket shelves, treating the sick, and ensuring that our utilities function so that each of us can have a pleasant life.
As we sit at home under self-imposed quarantine, it's helpful to reflect on how much we benefit from their work, and how much worse our lives would be without them.
And this leads us to the final phase of our contemplation; gratitude. In times like this, it's easy to forget how much we have to be grateful for, but it's a long list. We have the food, shelter, and medicine that's provided by the Buddhas we discussed earlier.
Then there are the multiple modes of entertainment (books, movies, board games, etc.) that we can enjoy while we wait for things to blow over. There are the pets that keep us company, the family and friends that check in on us each day, and so much more.
The gratitude portion of the contemplation can go on for a long time if we let it. And that's the point; to remind us that even when we sit in darkness, we're surrounded by light.
Namu Amida Butsu
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