Since lockdown began in March, everyone’s been asking when
things will get back to normal. This is entirely understandable, as none of us
have ever experienced the effects of a pandemic in our lifetime. We’re living
through a phase in which some basic freedoms have been curtailed, such as our
freedom to associate with as many people as we like when we like, just to pop
out to the pub without booking, and to hang out in enclosed spaces without the
lurking fear of contagion. What used to be normal now seems like a memory from
another era, and there’s even the fear that Christmas will somehow be cancelled.
But, looking at it from a Buddhist point of view, I would
challenge the very idea that there is such thing as normal in this sense. The
idea of normal implies a kind of consistent and stable state to which things
will automatically default when everything gets sorted out. Once the pandemic
is over, life will return to exactly what it was. We can be forgiven for
holding this view because the post-war generations, at least in our part of the
world, have lived through a time of exceptional peace, prosperity and
stability, where every generation has consistently been better off than the
preceding one. There are many reasons for this, including stable international
institutions and scientific progress, but recent economic, health and
environmental shocks seem to me to be bringing that trend to an end.
Buddhism teaches that all things arise in dependence upon
conditions. Change or remove the conditions, and you change the outcome. This
applies to everything from solar systems to societies, empires to ecosystems -
and the mounting evidence of the seriousness of the global ecological crisis
we’re all in illustrates the point very well. For too long, our species has
assumed a degree of separateness from the natural world – that we can insulate
ourselves from the effects of our own polluting and destructive behaviour. But
it seems increasingly clear from global reports of extreme weather events
bringing fire and flood, not to mention the ravaging of biodiversity, that this
is not the case.
I think our response to this should be twofold. The first
response is a practical one: Firstly, we need to change our individual and
collective behaviours to stop wreaking havoc on our fragile planet. But we also
need something like a spiritual response, by which I mean we need to recognise
our dependence on the intricate web of conditions that is the natural world and
cultivate a response of both awe and humility: awe at the breath-taking beauty
of our world and humility as we recognise the precariousness of our position.
Instead of taking things for granted, which is what the idea of normal implies,
I think we need to cultivate gratitude in the light of the amazing natural
riches that have given and continue to give us so much.
So let’s stop taking things for granted. Take some time
today to reflect on everything the world has given you and be grateful. And
let’s do what we can to ensure that future generations will have the same
reasons for gratitude as we do.