42nd Sakya Trizin Rinpoche on COVID-19. Photo: Screengrab
Dharamshala: As part of TibetTV’s online session on Buddhist teaching to cope up with the stress and anxiety related to COVID-19 pandemic, 42nd Sakya Trizin Rinpoche took the opportunity to explain the significance of oneness of humanity in the time of COVID-19 crisis.
Just as His Holiness the Dalai Lama always emphasises the oneness of 7 billion human beings, Rinpoche asked viewers to focus on the oneness of humanity rather than secondary differences. Doing so, he said, will enable individual to take better care of others well being.
Rinpoche further urged to diligently follow the advice of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Rinpoches in cultivating positive thoughts in order to pacify the crisis while not panicking and spreading fear.
“Whatever activities we do in our daily lives, in order to achieve success we need to put that much effort. Similarly, the crisis we are facing at the moment calls for a global effort” said Trizin Rinpoche.
He emphasised that the time to practise love, compassion, and bodhicitta are, perhaps now more than ever. If practised whole-heartedly, he affirmed that it becomes a blessing in disguise. He noted that Buddha himself has mentioned the benefits of practising them in the sutra.
Rinpoche elucidated on the mechanisms to deal with mental afflictions caused by the outbreak through Buddhist perception.
He defined that dharma practise is a training of the mind focusing only on positive thoughts. And now with the ongoing global pandemic in the name of a virus, he urged not to be discouraged and face the challenge with great encouragement.
“From the Buddhist point of view, when we see Buddha, we should perceive Buddha as a doctor, his teachings as medicines, and ourselves as patients”, Rinpoche said. He explained that all the negative afflictions such as anger and fear are nothing but sickness and gaining realisation on overcoming the negative thoughts equates to following a doctor’s advice.
With such perception, he advised practising of Buddha dharma as eminent. He noted that the Buddha dharma should be practised by all the followers of Buddha in order to overcome the sickness of negativities that consumes our lives.
As the Wuhan originated COVID-19 is spreading like a wildfire and the number of the patients besides the death toll is rising every day, Rinpoche appealed everyone to sincerely pray for the complete recovery of the patients without any exceptions.
Rinpoche also emphasised on strictly following the advice of the medical experts and nurses including the guidelines and rules set out by the administration.
“I highly admire the noble contributions of healthcare workers around the world tackling the COVID-19 and pray for their wellbeing and may we all overcome the crisis with great success”.
