POSSIBILITY AND COVID 19?
Part 1
We are in the midst of an unprecedented global crisis. As each day passes, the losses mount.
Yet, nothing on this Earth is one-dimensional – the consequences of the virus, like everything in this world, are multi-faceted.
As such, will this specific crisis, I wonder, present us with an opportunity? A new dawning?
In posing this question, I’m very mindful that some of you may be offended by me even thinking in this way. Please understand that I wish no offence to anyone. I want that people didn’t have to suffer and grieve as we are now.
Yet, it is upon us. We are forced to step outside our daily lives. We are all struggling in different ways, beset by uncertainty, anxiety, confusion, fear. We are in a new reality – it must be faced, whether we like it or not.
The question I want to ask is: could this possibly be a chance for humanity to make a fresh start, correct imbalances, heal gaping social wounds?
For a moment, let’s consider how the world might look once again – if after this crisis has passed – we all pick up exactly where we left off.
Here are a few ongoing examples of how things are right now from across the spectrum of human affairs – environmental, societal, economic:
- Climate change: It’s at or beyond the tipping point, yet we are feeding it by continuing to mine and burn more and more fossil fuels, contributing to the growing blanket of greenhouse gases encasing Earth and overheating it.
- Debt: Individual, family, business, corporate, local, state, national and transnational debt – both the interest and repayments – is at a level beyond comprehension and unsustainable. The world appears to be drowning in debt.
- Consumption: The extreme consumption levels in Western societies, which have created this debt, and the waste materials our consumer societies are generating, from within all facets of our communities – rich to poor – is equally unsustainable, economically and environmentally.
- Materialism: The collective madness of materialism leads many of us to buy houses that are too big for us, that we can’t afford, and that we fill with furniture we don’t need, often don’t use and too often we can’t afford. Unworn clothes hang in our wardrobes till we dump them at the op-shop. We buy food, don’t eat it, then throw it out. We buy toys for all ages and of all descriptions, get bored with them and cast them aside.
- Packaging: The massive amounts of packaging all this stuff comes in and must be disposed of is only one of many environmental elephants in the room.
- Environmental carnage: The destruction and loss of forests, flora and fauna is, in many cases, seemingly irreversible. The same devastation of the oceans, rivers and lakes and the life and habitats that they provide is, in some cases, also seemingly irreversible – dead or dying from all manner of human-induced pollution.
- Geo-Politics: Many nations are effectively in a state of civil war. The turmoil in the relationships between numerous countries is also at breaking point.
- Society: Family breakdown is occurring worldwide on an unprecedented scale. The growing numbers of the homeless, unemployed, under-employed, working poor, the squeezing of the middle-income earners and the burgeoning wealth of the mega-rich exist in brutal contrast. This inequality, in a world of abundance, is seen by the fair-minded as inhumane, indecent and plain wrong.
- Goodwill: Society appears to be becoming more divisive along political, religious and ideological spectrums, with many condemning ‘the other’ and showing decreasing kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense.
- State of mind: The above speaks to a loss of perspective by humanity on what matters in our lives and what is needed to sustain ourselves, our families, our communities and the planet.
I could go on: the problems seem almost endless. And now, you can add Covid 19, a mega-pandemic, potentially on a scale yet to be experienced.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Time in self-isolation provides the opportunity to reflect, to re-connect with our hearts and experience our true nature – our innate kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense.
We might also consider the common good; not just think about ‘me’ and ‘mine’.
Self-isolation and the act of social distancing give us the opportunity to reflect on:
- What we – not others – are contributing to or against the common good
- How we – not others – are living our lives, for or against the common good
- How we – not others – might be helping to destroy our planet
- How we – you and I – might be contributing to excessive materialism and consumption
- How we may over-eat, drink to excess, entertain ourselves to the point of numbness
- How we may criticise, judge and condemn our fellow humans for how they look, speak, live, play or worship.
What if, in our current relative isolation, beset by the fear of death and disruption of ourselves and our loved ones, we could see into the Realm of Possibility?
In doing so, we may recognise how we have been treating each other, our fellow sentient beings and the natural world on which we are dependent for our life.
What if we discover that we are as one (not separate, as we imagine) with what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell; and, as such, that we are the world we are creating and experiencing?
What if we woke up to the fact that we, humans, have an unconscious habit of pointing the finger – at the other, them, those, that or it, as being the cause of any and every problem. We consciously or unconsciously think: it’s not me, it’s them, that or it.
But it’s not them, that or it. It’s not our government, or China, or the US, or the Muslims or the Christians. It’s not who the conspiracy theorists hold responsible for the problem – and it’s not who we hold accountable for the solutions, either.
As we self-isolate and reflect, maybe we can see that we, you and I – not them – have innocently contributed our 100-per cent to the problem. And if we can see that, might we become the solution?
To put it bluntly: each of us is the problem. We always have been and always will be.
And each of us is the solution. We always have been and always will be.
And we’re innocent in not knowing this, because it looks like the world happens ‘out there’, not within our own mind.
So, what stops us seeing things clearly? Simple: it’s the way we think as humans. What we believe is the reality we create and in which we live. We don’t see that we are creating our ‘personal’ reality in each moment via Thought – for better or worse.
Our own Thought is the only reality we can experience until we see another, and our Thought works for or against us, for or against the common good.
WE CREATE THE REALITY WE EXPERIENCE AND LIVE FROM – IT DOESN’T EXIST ‘OUT THERE’
‘The world has gone crazy!’ Every time we hear this, it connotes a negative. But there’s ‘crazy good’ as well as ‘crazy bad’.
What might ‘crazy good’ look like?
When we see into the realm of Possibility, we immediately understand that we live by and through ‘Thought’ and that there is nothing but ‘Thought’.
See Possibility, and we become the solution. We see what needs doing, and we try our best to do it. Our contribution is of value to us and the common good.
We don’t grumble, judge, criticise, blame, condemn, hold others responsible. We see the cause – ourselves – and, in that seeing, we become the solution. We understand and take 100-per cent responsibility for our contribution, for better or worse.
If you understand what’s written here, your world will transform – which means the world will change. We can become people who express humanity’s innate being. We can become creatures of kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense. As we do so, the world begins to also change: it begins to align with our transformation.
I’ll send out Part 2 of this essay to you shortly. It will outline a reality you may not have considered.
Warmly… John
The Realm of Possibility Foundation
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