Coronavirus: Former monk says Covid-19 is 'warning from nature'

A 79-year-old former Buddhist monk has said coronavirus is a "grave warning from nature to mankind".

Buddha Maitreya, who lives in North Clifton, Nottinghamshire, said: "We have to change the way we live now on this planet."

The former monk is self-isolating on his property, which includes a two-acre Japanese garden.

The garden usually sees 8,000 visitors a year, but it is closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Maitreya, who was born Koji Takeuchi, is originally from Handa, near Nagoya, in Japan. He became a meditation master and previously lived the life of a Zen monk.

But he left the monastic life, and after travelling the world he moved to Nottinghamshire, where he cultivated his Japanese garden over 44 years.

He said: "Hundreds of people come at this time of year because it is at its most beautiful. But now there's nobody.

"It's sad people cannot share the peace and the beauty but I'm happy to be here. It's heaven."

Maitreya said he believed the coronavirus outbreak was a lesson on how humans have dealt with nature.

"The human race has created a materialistic civilisation that has brought massive prosperity and wealth to the world," he said.

"But it is with a huge price - catastrophic exploitation, devastation of the environment, destruction of nature."

He said he believed nature has turned "against us" and is "locking down the world through the pandemic".

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