An Interview with Maitreyi
A Buddhist perspective on the pandemic
Maitreyi has been a practising Buddhist for over forty years, meditating, studying, leading retreats at Tiratanaloka Buddhist retreat centre, and living in various communities. She currently lives with 11 other women in a London Buddhist Centre community in Bethnal Green.
I interviewed Maitreyi to ask her thoughts on the Covid-19 pandemic, and her perspective as a practicing Buddhist.
How has the pandemic affected you, Maitreyi?
Well, I was planning to take a year away from London in the summer of 2020, and I had various things set up. So all of that has gone by the wayside. I’ve had to work with letting go of ideas about what my life would be looking like this year. And also, to focus on being here in the community, living with my friends. So I suppose I just wanted to make the most of that, since I couldn’t go anywhere else. We range in age from 24 to 74, and some of us are in relationships with partners living elsewhere, others are not. So we’ve had some intensive discussions, about people’s needs, what was safe to do, and what wasn’t. It wasn’t a question of insisting on certain rules, it was about really trying to listen to each other, hear each other, try to arrive at a consensus we could agree to.
What was that like?
Intensive! There were quite strong emotions at times, and whole discussions about freedom of choice, freedom of will, whether or not it was a simple question of observing the government guidelines. Where our own ethical practice came into that; we take responsibility each of us for ourselves, we take responsibility for making skilful choices. Acting skilfully has beneficial consequences, and acting unskilfully has harmful consequences. So there was both the government guidelines, which seemed straightforward, if a bit erratic, and then there was our own ethical practice. So that was quite a big discussion.
And how did your own ethical practice come into it?
In some ways my situation is quite simple because I’m single, not in a relationship… I don’t have family responsibilities... What guides me is that as Buddhists we practice for the benefit of all beings. So it seems to me that although the government, I’m sure, has made mistakes at times, it is a complex situation, and they make certain decisions with the intention to bring down the infection rate. So it seems that to act in accordance with those guidelines is, on a simple level, for the benefit of all beings.
Some people have pointed out that the guidelines themselves are causing suffering, socially and economically. How do we accommodate that in our ethics?
I think it’s for each of us to do what we can, in terms of connection with our friends and family, and any other individuals we know are in difficult circumstances. That would be part of our ethical practice. With my brother and sister, we’ve been in far more regular contact than before lockdown, and it was my brother who actually initiated it… I think what the pandemic has really pointed to is the preciousness of our relationships with friends and family. The importance of our friends and families. Not that they’re not important anyway, but it has made it more conscious for people.
So while being conscious of the preciousness of loved ones, you’re also trying to take into account that all beings, everywhere, are precious. How do you approach this?
I keep up with documentaries, news and so on, personal stories as well as statistics… also, we do a practice in our order called the Bodhicitta practice on Sunday mornings. The Bodhicitta means ‘enlightened heart or mind’ and is a practice to bring to mind and heart the suffering in the world, and in response, to send out healing light. So it’s a practice where you’re trying consciously to be aware of suffering, not turn away from it, and you’re calling on the enlightened mind, you could say, of the Buddha, in order to send out healing light.
What effect does this practice have on you?
I think it works against anxiety, because one can be just as anxious about the state of the world, at this point, as about one’s own individual health or the health of loved ones. If you’re anxious about the state of the world, it’s a way of doing something in response. It’s working on a mind level, and by reducing anxiety, can enable you to function more creatively. The effect is a combination of calm, energy and creativity.
You are building a pathway in the mind that says ‘I can respond’?
Yes, an opening of heart and mind. You are more able to think, what is the most constructive or creative thing I can do at this point in time. And you have sufficient calmness of mind, clarity and energy to do that.
Has the experience of the pandemic changed anything for you?
It has helped me to a deeper understanding that we are not in control. That we can’t be in control of life. Our own, or anybody else’s. One can know that in theory, but I suppose it gives a very clear experience of that. That we’re just not in control, we can never make ourselves fully secure. That is a clear teaching of the dharma.
And where do we go with that, with a realisation like that?
Where it would tend to take me is, in a way, there is only now. There is this moment. And the next moment, and the next moment. And what matters is how one acts in each moment. It’s trusting in the fact that if one acts, day to day, moment to moment, week by week, as skilfully as one can, there will be beneficial consequences – in relation to oneself and in relation to other people. And they may not take the form that you might expect! But there’s a level on which we can trust that. And in a way, that trust gives freedom.