Buddhist Perspectives on COVID-19 Vaccination

Promoting nonviolence.

The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi, a Buddhist monk and the president of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT, reflected on the many ways that Buddhist teachings encourage vaccination. He said, “The guidance is always to put the health of the community first. The first precept of Buddhism is the principle of nonviolence, and the extension of that is non-harming. Whenever you are making decisions or designing a policy, you always have to ask yourself, ‘if I don’t partake in the process, am I creating tendencies of harm?’ That’s something that drives our day-to-day decision-making. So any scientific advancement that promotes health and wellbeing is something that the Buddhists seriously encourage.”

Photograph of a young woman smiling at the camera with a family blurred in the background behind her. Above, text reads "I got it" over blue border. Below, the text reads: "The COVID-19 vaccine is how we got back together. Now is the time to learn about the COVID-19 vaccine and decide what's right for you and why. We all have different reasons. The good news is that it's safe, it's effective and it's free. Find out more about the vaccine and where to get it at MOStopsCovid.com or by calling 1-877-435-8411.
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