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Meet the ER doctor who’s advocating meditation in the coronavirus era

by Rod Meade Sperry| April 9, 2020

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Dr. James Maskalyk. Photo via Facebook.

By way of The Globe and Mail comes a profile of Dr. James Maskalyk, an emergency room physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto who’s well known for his Facebook Live advice — and is more watched than ever now thanks to his presentations on Covid-19.

As The Globe and Mail reports, he is a “meditation devotee” and advocate:

Dr. Maskalyk describes meditation as a powerful weapon against the despair COVID-19 has wrought. “When you’re faced with this invisible, intractable, unstoppable thing, people’s fear goes way up,” he said. “But when you’re actually sitting there [meditating], it’s suddenly not so bad.”

He sees this moment as a kind of bardo, the Tibetan Buddhist idea of an in-between state sandwiched between life and rebirth. It’s a transition place, where the mistakes of the past can be edited from the future. “This is the biggest time for insight,” he said. “Business as usual led to this thing in the first place. After this, there can only be health for all.”

Read the full profile here.

 

 

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Rod Meade Sperry

About Rod Meade Sperry

Rod Meade Sperry is digital editorial director for Lion's Roar. He is, with Miguel Chen, co-author of I Wanna Be Well: How a Punk Found Peace and You Can Too and The Death of You: A Book for Anyone Who Might Not Live Forever. Rod also edited the Lion's Roar book, A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation: Practical Advice and Inspiration from Contemporary Buddhist Teachers.

Topics: COVID-19

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Welcome to LionsRoar.com

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We’re glad to have you here. But first: who are “we”? You may very well know us as the publishers of two Buddhist magazines, the Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma. Then again, you may not know us at all. Either way, please allow us to re-introduce ourselves: We’re the Shambhala Sun Foundation. We [...]

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