3. Covid-19
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At the boundary
of personal and social
There the virus lurks
We live in an interconnected universe. This teaching of Buddhism has been brought home with spectacular force by the current pandemic. It is as if we had all forgotten something very basic and important, and Wham! Like being hit with the kyosaku stick when we didn’t ask for it, we have all felt the shock of a brutally rude wake-up call.
When I say “we” I am referring to human beings, primarily, but such events affect not just human beings, which points out another dimension of Buddhism’s perspective of all life as intertwined. Whether technically qualifying as living or non-living, the coronavirus is definitely a being, one that we ignore at risk of our own life. It is a boundary-being, one that is clearly organic, but that thrives in a twilight zone that is even smaller, and more elemental, than single-celled organisms such as bacteria.
The boundaries between apparent entities are similar to those between the apparent realms of our existence. In the model illustrated, I parse the zones of existence into four major distinctions: the Personal; the Social; the Natural and the Universal. While they are all part and parcel of one single interconnected reality, they can usefully be considered separately. Focusing on the boundaries can be especially illuminating.
Ironically, at a time when implications of social media on the psychological dimensions of existence, and social maladies that afflict us, are growing in importance on a daily basis, the virus has forced us to confront that interconnectedness along with our enforced isolation. It is as if the forces of nature and society are conspiring to shine a laser light on the differences. At one and the same time we turn to our isolating screens to enhance our sense of community. As a fan of science fiction, it is easier to look at this from a global perspective than to bemoan the loss of the personal and familiar. In fact, by sheltering in place we are more clearly and cleanly thrust into a navel-gazing introspection.
However, the social distancing we are practicing is typical of Zen training. Retreats, retiring to a monastery for an intensive period of training, or for the rest of our life, and most specifically, going on a hermitage, are all traditional examples. We yearn for social interaction and yet we long for solitude as well. The truth is that we are never “alone” on an absolute level and that we are always alone, even in a group. No one has your world.
Zen practice recommends exploring the social, natural and universal spheres from the perspective and focus of the personal. This premise is behind the admonition to not go looking for what you are seeking in foreign lands or exotic places. It suggests that we look inward for any transformative insight into reality. Yet when we look “inward,” we see that there is no such place, that the inner world is intricately interconnected to the outer. As we penetrate to deeper levels of stillness — physical, emotional, and mental — we engage the natural realm of biology, and the universal dimension of birth and death as a sentient being. Our place in society may be profoundly altered by changes in our personal grasp of THIS. Zen points at this reality. Please examine this thoroughly in practice.
Zenkai Taiun Michael Elliston
Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”
UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.
Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell
