Given the world situation now, I’d like to consider this topic of the subjective perspective vs. the objective perspective that I raised in the last post, as it applies at this moment.
Objectively speaking,
what medical professionals know about Coronavirus (COVID-19) today is:
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain that was discovered in 2019 and has not been previously identified in humans.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigations found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.
Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, an infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death.
Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing. -World Health Organization.
I will be paying close attention to whatever further scientific and medical developments become known about the virus. What will I do with what I know from this perspective? I will wash my hands and do my best to distance myself from people. If I get sick, I will seek medical treatment. The situation is what it is, and we have the information we have, and we pay attention and apply that information as best we can.
I may ask myself, what is the meaning of all this? Apart from the facts above, that is not a question to be answered from the objective perspective. On the other hand, there is the subjective perspective.
From the subjective perspective,
there are many levels of my experience. My understanding at those different levels gives meaning to all of this for me.
This virus is, first of all, a stark reminder to me about what is essential. It is a challenge to stretch in compassion, to let go, and it is a teacher pointing to what is beyond death.
It is a time for me to feel what it’s like to have the very human experience of being vulnerable to a pandemic, just like countless generations of people before me. May I be reminded of how vulnerable so many of us always are, even at the best of times.
It’s a time that I pray: “Thy will be done.”
It’s a time to be quietly in the presence of my Master and all the Divine beings surrounding me and to commune wordlessly.
It’s a time to nurture the body/mind and rest in silence.
It’s a time to meditate and visualize healing light pouring from my heart to all the people everywhere who are affected in any way by this virus.
It’s a time to comfort friends and family and anyone else I can.
This time is an opportunity for me to practice trust and to notice whatever fear arises within me. It’s a time to train myself in taking irrational thoughts as defiance to peace; it’s a time to question what use they have and to gently and quickly let them go.
It’s a time to face and honor the Great Teacher Yama, the god of death.
If I get the virus or not, it is destiny, or my karma, or God’s will. Take your pick. The point here is that it is really beyond my control and is (from the subjective perspective) precisely as it should be. Why is it precisely as it should be? Because it is what is.
It is also a time to “look through” the virus. To see beyond it, and to see beyond all the drama that it is.
In the ultimate sense, whether “I” get the virus or not is not essential. The idea of a virus being able to affect me in any way is pure illusion. I cannot get the virus, only the body/mind can get the virus, and I am beyond the body/mind. The body and the mind are appearing in the Space that I am.
In the ultimate sense, there is nothing for “me” to do, and I never “do” anything.
“The real does not die, the unreal never lived. Once you know that death happens to the body and not to you, you just watch your body falling off like a discarded garment. The real you is timeless and beyond birth and death. The body will survive as long as it is needed. It is not important that it should live long.” – Nisargadatta Maharaj
There is a way in which I am beyond everything. There is also a way in which I am everything. The appearance of many beings, including the presence of this “me,” arises inseparably from Consciousness itself.
Whether or not “I” (the body/mind) gets the virus, there is a way in which I am all and every sentient being that is suffering.
I breathe into the field of feeling that connects us all, reaching out from my heart in compassion.
“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves.” – Nisargadatta Maharaj
All of this is a blessed opportunity for deeper surrender and compassion.
May you stay safe. Be kind to yourself and others as we go through this together.