Buddhism and the Coronavirus : The Buddha's Teaching on Suffering.

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographies and index.

Cover -- The Sussex Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices -- Title page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1. The Buddha -- Life and death of the Buddha -- The Buddha's Dhamma -- 2. Viruses Friends and Enemies -- The virosphere -- The origins of viruses -- Bacteria -- Characteristics of viruses -- Symbiosis of virus and host -- Viral enemies and their causes -- Coronaviruses -- SARS -- MERS -- Covid-19: A new virus -- Characteristics of Covid -- The source and causes of Covid-19 -- The immune system -- Measures for protection and prevention

The new normal -- 3. The Noble Truth of Suffering -- The Four Noble Truths -- Desire and aversion -- Mind and body -- The Five Aggregates -- Change and transience -- 4. The Second Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering -- Craving, tanha -- Impermanence, anicca -- The three evils/poisons -- Greed -- Hatred -- Delusion/stupidity -- No-self, anatta -- 5. The Third Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering -- Nibbana -- Dependent Origination -- Kamma -- Death -- Rebirth -- 6. The Fourth Noble Truth The Noble Eightfold Path -- The Noble Eightfold Path -- Right view/understanding

Right thought/intention -- Moral and ethical conduct -- Right speech -- Right action -- Right livelihood -- Right effort -- 7. The Noble Eightfold Path Mindfulness and Concentration -- Mind and body -- Meditation/mindfulness -- The calm mind -- Concentration, samadhi -- Meditation: The medical evidence -- Insight meditation, vipassana -- 8. The Brahma-vihara Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, Equanimity -- Metta: Love, loving-kindness -- Karuna: Compassion -- Mudita: Sympathetic joy -- Upekkha: Equanimity -- Human folly -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Further Reading -- Index -- Back Cover

In the fifth century BCE, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, put forward Four Noble Truths for the benefit of humankind. His teaching, the Dhamma, has remained central to so much Buddhist practice, and is unique among religions in that it speaks primarily to the presence and nature of suffering in the world. That makes the Dhamma so relevant to the suffering caused by the present pandemic of coronavirus. In just a few months, coronavirus has changed the way of life for the world, for the East and the West, for young and old, for the previously healthy and for those with medical issues. We are all affected--if not from succumbing to the virus one's self, then to witnessing the distress of the wider world. The core Truths--The Truth of suffering, The Truth of the cause of suffering, The Truth of the cessation of suffering, The Truth of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering--have remained the same for millennia, and now have a deeply necessary role to play in the contemporary world. The author links the Four Noble Truths with the coronavirus experience, explains the way suffering is embedded in the notions of self and the characteristics of existence, and sets out the Brahma-vihara: the four virtues of universal love, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

COPYRIGHT NOT covered - Click this link to request copyright permission:

https://lib.ciu.edu/copyright-request-form