Meditation during the time of Coronavirus
Hearing Zaw Win Htet talk about the fears he had when the coronavirus hit Myanmar was very powerful. Lesser speakers might have put on a brave face, but I expected nothing less from Zaw than absolute honesty, and his words are vulnerable while also powerful. What I also so enjoyed from this talk was his creativity and playfulness in how he molded his meditation practice to fit the circumstances. As Zach later commented to me, this ability speaks to the breadth and depth of practice and understanding that many Burmese Buddhists have, in which they are not just following a prescribed practice within a single tradition, but able to draw upon so much diverse and dynamic wisdom. Well, I encourage you to hear the full talk, but if you only have a few minutes, here is just one excerpt below:
“The immediate benefit of chanting of Buddhists suttas is that for the very first time, I could calm down my worries!”
“Nowadays, all the beings and all the nations of the humankind are suffering from a deadly disease. So please, as the Lord Buddha's appeal to you, please make your compassion and loving kindness to the people. In the meantime, the Buddhist monks, the great monks, the venerable monks are also getting tired, guarding and taking care of the people and also to send the loving kindness.
Due to COVID-19, while I was staying at home, at first there is nothing to make me calm down because I was reading a lot of posts on Facebook. I decided to get off using Facebook!
My usual practice is that I meditate in regular times by Buddhanusati Bhavana: Recalling the qualities of Buddha. So, I usually make that Bhavana practice combined with the Anapananusati. It is contemplating on our breathe-in and breathe-out. The immediate benefit of chanting Buddhists suttas is that for the very first time since the outbreak, I could calm down my worries!
So, every breathe-in, I recall one quality of Buddha araham, and when I breathe-out, I recall one quality of Buddha, Bhagava, something like that. So, I usually try to calm down my mind, to calm down my worries by practicing that day by day.
So, it was also very hard for me to calm down my worries.”