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Available for over a year

Something remarkable happened with the onset of Covid-19. With half the world in lockdown, perhaps for the first time in history the whole of humanity was in roughly the same situation: facing the same threats and feeling the same fears. It reminded me of the impact of the first images of the earth from space which let us see the planet as a whole and sense how much we have in common. For understandable reasons, the focus of most media coverage has been what’s happening in Britain. Even people like me who are relatively unaffected have been adjusting to home-working and extra childcare; while many others are suffering in their health, livelihoods or mental wellbeing. All the same, I worry that we’re losing the global perspective. As a member of an international Buddhist community, I hear from friends in India who are helping the millions forced by the lockdown to leave the cities. Day labourers buy food today with the money they earned yesterday, so when the work stopped they started walking back to their villages through blistering heat. Many are Dalits, on the bottom rung of society, and I’ve heard about shortages, violence and discrimination at every step. There are similar reports from across the developing world. The differences in money and resources mean that, in some ways, we were never really in it together. That’s true here, and even more globally. But how can we manage our own lives and also reach out to our communities? How can we take in the international crisis without feeling overwhelmed? There are no simple answers to these questions, but my Buddhist practice challenges me to face them squarely. The great medieval Buddhist teacher Shantideva asks us to reflect as follows: “Others want to avoid suffering, just like me, and share my desire for happiness. So why should their needs be less important than my own? If my foot is hurting, the hand doesn’t hesitate to sooth it.”