Coronaviruses are zoonotic diseases, meaning they spread to people from animals. Because wet markets put people and live and dead animals — dogs, chickens, pigs, civets, and more — in close contact, it can be easy for a virus to make an interspecies jump . The reason that there is a need for close contact is because humans are treating these animals as food.
In Buddhism, the philosophy of compensation is key to the Dharma teaching. Arising from this, there is the prohibition of killing. In practice, this philosophy translates into vegetarianism. If the human kind stop eating animals as food, then the chance of corona viruses making interspecies jump will be mitigated. Hence, we might not see SARS, MERS and Covid-19.
Another Buddhism philosophy of refraining from misuse of the senses or sexual misconduct is extremely useful in halting the spread of pandemic. Arising from this philosophy, Buddhists have derived a method greeting each other to avoid physical contact– i.e. put both palms. Hence, avoiding hand shaking that is now discourage during to the pandemic.
Can you think of other Buddhism philosophy that can help the world to be a better place?
Posted by – Ngung Chia Siew
