Guan Yin In Pandemic

What does Buddhism have to offer in coping with Covid?

by Venerable Faxun

IMPACT OF COVID-19

With the challenges brought upon by the pandemic, many are affected and impacted in different ways. These changes can impact personal, social and work routines, and livelihoods too, causing much stress and emotional responses. Venerable highlighted some common examples of dis-satisfaction cited by the lay community when asked how has COVID-19 affected them, and common answers are typically related to restrictions to social life, entertainment, travel and other disruptions to one’s “normal way of life” and thus causing mental distress and unhappiness.

Looking at the responses, Venerable posed reflective questions, “Is the external environment (e.g. Circuit Breaker) really the factor causing distress?; What is the real happiness we want?; Is our happiness is derived from our material satisfaction?; Do we get upset and stressed when we don’t get what we want due to our mental attachment to material achievements?”. These are important questions to ask ourselves and for us to look deeper within us to understand our real needs.

Look at our mind – essentially most of what we do is to meet our mental satisfaction. Take for an example, when one wants to get his/her hair permed and dyed, but is unable to do so because of some reasons (e.g. the salon is closed), one may then feel unhappy.  But what is really causing the unhappiness – the fact that the external environment has changed or because one cannot get what one wants;  the mental satisfaction from the material good (hair treatment)? Thus, to cope with the unhappiness and stressors brought on by the pandemic, we need to recalibrate and better understand how we can develop the mind to manage our responses to changes in the external environment that is often internalised as the cause to our unhappiness – giving ourselves a mental vaccine.

KEEPING IN MIND THE BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY 

Developing the mind is important as it can help us gain clarity, be mentally more stable and more mindful of our thoughts and actions when responding to the external environment, determining whether the changes are stressors for us or can become opportunities to develop ourselves. Are we relating to the external environment with frustration and anger; or are we relating to the environment with love and patience?

Without knowledge and practice of mental training, many people succumb to frustration and other actions. And this is where we look at the Buddhist philosophy of cause-and-effect on karma; how one’s action (body, speech and mind), habit (worry, anger, frustration),  personality can bring about karma (well-being or un-happiness). If we check ourselves, much of our mental affliction comes from overthinking and worrying. When one worries, it is the same as focusing on the future with the mental projection of experiencing negative state(s) without considering practical solutions, in turn causing negative thoughts and feelings to spiral out of control. This is not to say, we do not plan, but when we do, we need to focus on what can be done. So, we ask, “How do we stop this worrying?", and Venerable explains that to do that, we must first stabilise the mind with mental training (止观) and mental practice (修行).

UNDERSTANDING THE MIND

Before delving deeper on how to develop the mind, we need to first understand the mind; the chief forerunner of all evil states.  Experiences are led by and produced chiefly by the mind. If one speaks or acts with a corrupted impure mind, suffering will follow just like the wheel of an ox-cart when the ox pulls.

However, stress or trauma can be caused by an emotional response that is immediate, overwhelming and out of measure. This emotional response can be triggered by significant emotional and physical threats such as abuse. This “fleeing from danger”, also known as the “amygdala hijack” can trigger physical responses by shutting down the higher function parts of the brain that form rational thinking, and there are ways to stabilise and help the mind better process these emotions.

STABILISING THE MIND

Mental training starts with bringing awareness to the present, and Venerable recommends this 2-step method:

First, stop (止) – Breathe, and be in touch with the breath, be in touch with yourself; 

Second, watch (观) – Watch and guard your thoughts with attention/awareness of how it affects you.

Remember, the past is gone, the future is yet to be, thus what is important is to focus on the present which stabilises the mind to bring about clarity. This is akin to stabilising the camera before taking a shot so that the photo will not turn out blurred or out of focus. It is with this understanding that one can start to practise developing the mind with mental habits of learning how to relate and react to the environment, which can be done through mediation (Bhavana) – a subjective process of arousing mental states. Meditation is not about sitting without thoughts, but rather a way to train us to understand our mind better when we learn to arouse focus and mental states.  With a stable mind, we will be able to think clearly, and not succumb to distractions or unwarranted worries.

EMBRACING GUAN YIN BODHISATTVA 

When it comes to coping with distress, one Bodhisattva in Buddhism will definitely come to mind – Guan Yin Bodhisattva – Avalokiteshvara, as many would turn to Guan Yin Bodhisattva when in duress because Guan Yin Bodhisattva is known as “Perceiver of the World’s Sounds" and always looking upon the world with compassion and deep listening.

In Guan Yin Pu Sa Universal Gate Chapter《观世音菩萨普门品》, we see the Buddha’s explanation of Guan Yin Bodhisattva’s noble and compassionate vow and the name, “Guan Yin”: ‘Thereupon arising from his seat with his right shoulder bared, Bodhisattva  Aksayamati faced the Buddha with his palms pressed together and spoke thus to him: “O Bhagavat! For what reason is Bodhisattva  Avalokiteshvara (Hearer of the Sounds of the World) called Avalokiteshvara?”

The Buddha answered Bodhisattva Aksayamati, saying: “O, son of a virtuous family! If innumerable hundreds of thousands of myriads of  kotis of sentient beings who experience suffering hear of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara and wholeheartedly chant his name, Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara will immediately perceive their voices and  free them from their suffering.’

Guan Yin Bodhisattva is always there for all sentient beings (救苦寻声) and ready to help in skilful ways such as manifesting help and blessings in ways help can be rendered and received (何身得度者，即现何身而为说法). And one should keep in mind Guan Yin  Bodhisattva’s powers and have faith, “Perfect in supernatural powers, widely practising the skilful means of wisdom, in all the lands of the ten directions, there is no place where he fails to manifest.”.

SEEDING LOVING-KINDNESS

While we use mental training to achieve stability of our mind, it is also important to also practise Metta Bhavana – Loving-Kindness  Meditation by arousing mental states with loving-kindness (metta) and to respond in positive ways with loving-kindness and compassion.  This starts with developing loving-kindness for self as it is important to be kind to ourselves, and we require no permission from others to extend love and compassion to ourselves because we need them. If you feel that you have any mental distress or is in despair, turn  to Guan Yin Bodhisattva, and intentionally say to yourself the loving-kindness phrases below (you may add on, if needed):

May I be well and happy

May I be free from all sufferings

May I be free from fear and worries

May I …

Observe how you feel; you will feel a sense of calmness, loving-kindness and compassion surrounding you and lifting your energy.

UNDERSTANDING SELF-RELIANCE AND BLESSINGS 

Some may ask, “How should we approach using self-reliance (自力) and seeking blessings (他力) from the Buddha and the  Bodhisattvas? Is it too far-fetched or inconceivable to ask for blessings? Shouldn’t Buddhists simply rely on ourselves?”

Venerable explains that it is a matter of understanding and developing the right attitude that while we practise self-reliance, there is nothing wrong with asking for blessings from the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas. This is especially when our human strength needs to be fortified – we are only human, and in times of difficulties, we do need the additional spiritual strength to lift us from a place of despair.

Praying for blessings not only gives us hope and strength but helps create a focus on gaining locus of control – switching the mind of fear to mind of hope and positivity. This peace and inner strength gained from one's faith (信仰)in turn generates confidence (信心) and this can, in fact, be explained by the psychology of praying.

EXPERIENCING THE BUDDHIST PRAYER AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYING 

Praying (meditation and visualisation of Guan Yin Bodhisattva) brings to the mind the thoughts of hope, love and safety. It is only when we feel safe, peaceful and composed, we are then able to gain inner strength to handle difficulties with faith and confidence leading to gaining internal locus of control to achieve stability – an antidote to anxiety.

Venerable reiterated that focusing one’s efforts on what is within one’s realm of control instead of dwelling in fear and worry is key. And with aspirations made through prayers, it can help one identify what one aspires to achieve, providing both an objective guide to help one take steps to achieve it and an empowering tool to face and handle challenges with clarity and hope. These are like blessings that can help one ride challenges – making one more resilient. With repetitions of this mental practise and training, one learns to be more stable in many aspects, especially in gaining emotional stability.

This stability allows one to gradually regulate the irrational brain to better respond to “fight, flight or freeze” modes when in distress; a  bottom-up approach in healthy regulation of stress through mental training.