The Corona Kongan
Dear friends, some thoughts I want to share concerning the corona virus crises. I call it the corona-kongan:
The corona virus is already in our minds, there is something more we can try:
Independent of the COVID-19 virus and the reactions to it globally or in our society, there is some more we can do with this specific situation as practitioners and perceive that our everyday life is our true kongan.
Interconnection
The appearance and spread of the virus shows us strongly our interdependence with the global world. We know we are interconnected but often we don’t act accordingly as if others are far away or our actions don't matter so much.
Now even such a little "thing" like a virus can spread extremely fast across the globe in ways you cannot control. In fact there is so much more of exchange/interconnection going on all the time than we are aware of. The climate change as a big "thing" is just another fact of interconnection every moment. It simply does not work to only take care of “yourself”.
Due to our interconnection anything matters. If you take hygienic measures or not, if you wash your hands or not, if you sneeze in the elbow or not, if you shake hands or not - such little actions can make a big difference to someone else, maybe even someone somewhere you even do not know. In the worst case it can cost a live. Look into the fact you are never separate from the total "thing" the universe.
Fear and compassion
Everyday more people are infected and the peak of the virus has not yet come. More people will be infected. As a result to get prepared people are stocking food and disinfectants, spending a lot of money for overpriced breathing masks (that other people miss that really need them like those undergoing cancer treatments with a low immune system), cancel journeys and events.
In the same time thousands of people are suffering from hunger, war, diseases - living under much more terrible conditions than what the virus has just began to show us. Most of these terrible conditions are created by human beings and not by a virus.
Live is so precious, but any live! It happens easily to only look at oneself when we feel threaten and almost forget the rest of the world. I think we need to see that - and then use it to get a wider perspective.
Then this extraordinary situation has some good too. Let's not miss that part of the corona-Kongan: our lives are precious and so are the lives of all beings. What is our answer to the situation? This virus is empty like anything, so it is up to us how we use that. It can be our "panic" virus, our "I-my-me" virus, but also our "wake-up" virus (as Zen Master Seung Sahn always said: life is not waiting for you; nothing is guaranteed), we can use it to become our "love-and-compassion-virus". What ever you want.
You cannot control the corona virus, but how you respond to it is fully up to you.
I hope you and your beloved ones will not be affected seriously by it and you have skillful means to work with any situation that will appear.
love
Arne Schaefer