In the fifth century BCE, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, put forward Four Noble Truths for the benefit of humankind. His teaching, the Dhamma, has remained central to so much Buddhist practice, and is unique among religions in that it speaks primarily to the presence and nature of suffering in the world. That makes the Dhamma so relevant to the suffering caused by the present pandemic of coronavirus. In just a few months, coronavirus has changed the way of life for the world, for the East and the West, for young and old, for the previously healthy and for those with medical issues. We are all affected--if not from succumbing to the virus one's self, then to witnessing the distress of the wider world. The core Truths--The Truth of suffering, The Truth of the cause of suffering, The Truth of the cessation of suffering, The Truth of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering--have remained the same for millennia, and now have a deeply necessary role to play in the contemporary world. The author links the Four Noble Truths with the coronavirus experience, explains the way suffering is embedded in the notions of self and the characteristics of existence, and sets out the Brahma-vihara: the four virtues of universal love, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

Buddhism and the Coronavirus: The Buddha's Teaching on Suffering, Jeaneane Fowler, Sussex Academic Press, Paperback, 264 pp, $34.95

Jeaneane Fowler was formerly Head of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Wales, Newport, and later an Honorary Research fellow. Her publications include Hinduism: Beliefs and Practices (Choice Outstanding Title, 1997; revised and enlarged to two volumes in 2019), and in the same series, Humanism, Chinese Religions, T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism in Wales; and books on the Philosophy of Hinduism, the Philosophy of Taosim, The Bhagavad Gita, and Causality.

CONTENTS: Buddhism and the Coronavirus
Preface and Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1
1 The Buddha	6
Life and death of the Buddha	6
The Buddha's Dhamma	12
2 Viruses: Friends and Enemies	15
The virosphere	15
The origins of viruses	18
Bacteria	25
Characteristics of viruses	26
Symbiosis of virus and host	35
Viral enemies and their causes	38
Coronaviruses	51
SARS	51
MERS	53
Covid-19: a new virus	54
Characteristics of Covid	55
The source and causes of Covid-19	57
The immune system	59
Measures for protection and prevention	64
The new normal	65
3 The Noble Truth of Suffering	67
The Four Noble Truths	67
Desire and aversion	77
Mind and body	80
The Five Aggregates	82
Change and transience	85
4 The Second Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering	87
Craving, tanha	87
Impermanence, annica	94
The three evils/poisons	98
Greed	98
Hatred	100
Delusion/stupidity	101
No-self, anatta	105
5 The Third Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering	112
Nibbana	112
Dependent Origination	114
Kamma	124
Death	129
Rebirth	132
6 The Fourth Noble Truth: The Noble Eightfold Path	140
The Noble Eightfold Path	141
Right view/understanding	144
Right thought/intention	146
Moral and ethical conduct	149
Right speech	150
Right action	154
Right livelihood	161
Right effort	163
7 The Noble Eightfold Path: Mindfulness and Concentration	166
Mind and body	166
Meditation/mindfulness	169
The calm mind	172
Concentration, samadhi	179
Meditation: The medical evidence	183
Insight meditation, vipassana	187
8 The Brahma-vihara: Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, Equanimity	191
Metta: Love, loving-kindness	193
Karuna: Compassion	198
Mudita: Sympathetic joy	202
Upekkha: Equanimity	203
Human folly	205
Epilogue	210
Notes * Further Reading * Index	221