Online Lecture: Pathompong Bodhiprasiddhinand – Buddhism and Covid-19: How Can Buddhist Ethics Offer to Improve Health during the Covid-19 Pandemic?

5. Mai 2023, 14:00 Uhr, von AAI Webmaster

Foto: © Pathompong Bodhiprasiddhinand, cropped

We kindly invite you to this online lecture on Friday, May 05, 2023, at 14:00 h (CEST/MESZ).

Lecture topic: Buddhism and Covid-19: How Can Buddhist Ethics Offer to Improve Health during the Covid-19 Pandemic?

Speaker: Asst. Prof. Pathompong Bodhiprasiddhinand (PhD)
Affiliation: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University

Date/Time: May 05^th (Friday) at 14:00–16:00 h (CEST/MESZ).
Language: This online lecture will be held in English.

Zoom Link: https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/64563521222?pwd=OEdSbENCOUV2Ynl5ZUdnNG5mM1pwQT09
Zoom Meeting-ID: 645 6352 1222
Zoom Passcode: hgtlecture

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic back in 2019, people around the globe have suffered stress and depression. Many people in Thailand started to think whether the Teachings of the Buddha can be used to improve one’s health during the pandemic. Buddhist texts say that during his lifetime the Buddha used his ethics to stop an epidemic at Vesali. A similar story is also mentioned in Buddhist manuscripts in Southeast Asia. Since the two stories are recorded in religious texts, it is hard to conclude that the Buddha’s teachings can improve the health of practitioners during the epidemics effectively.

However, based on recent research of modern scholarship, Dr Bodhiprasiddhinand argues that the practice of Buddhist ethics is actually a fount of healing, and that there is ample evidence proving that the practice of mindfulness meditation, the development of concentration and insight as taught by the Buddha can not only wipe out stress and depression, but also lead to the improvement of the immune system. This can protect human beings from various pandemics such as Covid-19.

We are pleased to welcome Dr Pathompong Bodhiprasiddhinand for this talk. He finished the ninth grade of the Thai traditional Pali Studies while still a novice at Wat Bovornives Viharn, a BA (Hons) from Mahamakut Buddhist University, and MA degrees in Oriental Languages (Chulalongkorn University) and Oriental Studies (SOAS, University of London). He earned his DPhil in Oriental Studies (Sanskrit and Pali) with a Boden scholarship from the Oriental Institute, Oxford University. Currently, he is affiliated to the International PhD Programme in Buddhist Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, which he founded in 2005 and served as its first director for eight years.

We thank the Hamburg Society for Thai Studies for the cooperation. 

All this information can also be found on our flyer.