Each morning I set out for alms round through Suan Mokkh’s broad confines, along the narrow path through thickets next to the big pond. In the middle of that path I have ‘wasted time’ waiting for a young buck otter that has come out to roll and frolic in the sandy soil. Then after finishing its business, it gets out of my way. While I wait, it from time to time raises itself up on two legs to gaze at me. It’s as if it were challenging me: ‘if you dare to hit me then come on.’

Mind must look to see in this way so it doesn't grasp physical matters as being mine or about me. Let physical saṅkhāras get sick or decay naturally, so that they aren't clung to as my pain, my illness, or my death. Mind won't be bound up with illness and death. Instead, mind is freed from pain, illness, and death.

Corona, the ‘crowned’ virus, isn't it a heavenly messenger with a bodhisattva crown? Doesn't it honestly and bluntly show us our impotence and all the suffering in Saṃsāra? Illness, death, fear and worry?

Saṅkhāras naturally get sick. If we cling to them as 'our saṅkhāras,' the pain and illness become ours, too. So we suffer, we're sad or disappointed.

Now, illness and fever have arrived to caution you, to demonstrate how life is. If you wish to be free of this sort of existence – namely, illness – you must prepare yourself for quenching without anything left over.

Let us examine the reason why this illness happens. We ought to consider in a beneficial direction, that is, to see that this illness occurs to warn us. Illness doesn't exist to make us suffer or be sad.

“Retreating to safe harbor” is a theme Ajahn Buddhadāsa employed to caution against mindless progress. Careening forward out of habit is never wise. There are many times when we must pause and take stock.

Illness ought to be seen as natural occurrences for all physical saṅkhāras (bodies), whether humans or other animals, because saṅkhāras undergo change.* Whenever there is change, it can be up or down. Upward change feels comfortable and healthy. Downward change creates illness.

Avoiding Covid-19 and flattening the curve are on our minds. As many of us will catch it, surviving it is also on the table. Those of us who will experience cold or perhaps flu-like symptoms have healthy choices to make. How do we get through that without taxing the underfunded, strained healthcare system and adding to the emotional chaos?