Jikoji Zen Center

Our "Last Sundays" Science & Buddhism discussion is again going online this month to discuss the Coronavirus and Covid-19 pandemic and its affect on our lives and our practice. The discussion will be led by Jikoji teacher Doug Jacobson.

Zoom Meeting (click to start Zoom)
Meeting ID: 847 3722 8264
Password: 326865

More below. Hope to see you Sunday!

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A lot has changed since we last met in March. See the New York Times free Corona Virus Coverage, which includes many articles daily discussing various aspects of the crisis.

Science and medicine are addressing Covid-19; Buddhism pays attention and cooperates in the investigation, particularly for sociological/psychological factors as well as our supportive practices.

A few key links:

Pandemic I - The First Modern Pandemic - Bill Gates

What 5 Coronavirus Models Say the Next Month Will Look Like - NYT

Worldometer Statistics on Virus
Infections and deaths are likely to be much greater than are known, particularly in undeveloped densely populated cities and countries.

See also the context of worldwide general statistics -- Covid-19 is still minor within that context, except for its government and economic impacts.

In terms of what to do, it's summarized as "the Hammer and the Dance”:

Tomas Pueyo - The Hammer and the Dance - Medium

• The Hammer of travel restrictions, social distancing and lockdowns reduces exponential transmission to sub-linear

• The Dance is next for the developed world, hopefully soon -- to release and re-apply restrictions depending on our needs and capacity to handle them.

We're mostly focused on the hammer now, but the dance could take a long time, and will be harder to manage, if we don't get effective treatments.

More from Tomas Pueyo at Medium:

Coronavirus: Learning How to Dance
Part 1: A Dancing Masterclass, or What We Can Learn from Countries Around the World - April 20.

Coronavirus: The Basic Dance Steps Everybody Can Follow
Part 2 of Coronavirus: Learning How to Dance - April 23.

From a recent article in the Guardian:
Yuval Noah Harari: 'Will coronavirus change our attitudes to death? Quite the opposite'

The present crisis might indeed make many individuals more aware of the impermanent nature of human life and human achievements. Nevertheless, our modern civilisation as a whole will most probably go in the opposite direction. Reminded of its fragility, it will react by building stronger defences. When the present crisis is over, I don’t expect we will see a significant increase in the budgets of philosophy departments. But I bet we will see a massive increase in the budgets of medical schools and healthcare systems.

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As always, our “Last Sundays” Science & Buddhism discussions are quite open and informal with all invited to participate.

All are welcome. No prior experience with science, Buddhism, or meditation is necessary. Hope to see you there!