It was 1 afternoon a few days before the lockdown order. We went out together to buy a few essentials. Glancing at some neighboring buildings, from right to left in this picture…
A large beauty salon was “out” (closed down and returned the premises). Then an English center for children that had done quite well for years was also “out.” Co-op mart was still alive, OK, no surprise (it has now also closed because of an infection case). A shoe shop that normally bustled with customers coming and going was also “out.” A clothing shop I used to visit for convenience, partly because I pay little attention to the brands I wear and partly because I have dressed simply for the past few years, was also “out.” The telltale sign is a “premises for rent, contact the owner directly” notice. At many properties not shown in this picture, a dozen real estate agents have each posted “contact the owner directly” signs with different phone numbers. I really do not know when owners learned to split themselves into dozens of people…
Looking at just 5 neighboring houses, 4/5 had already stopped operating (not because of cases, but because they could no longer afford to operate).
Heartache… This lesson is so great… It belongs not to one person but to the whole collective.
It is no coincidence that Covid is called Sars-Cov 2. Humanity has faced epidemics many times before. In 1918, more than half a billion people on the planet contracted the Spanish flu, with around 50 million deaths worldwide. Most recently, before Covid, humanity faced Sars in 2002, which also spread worldwide and was also considered a global pandemic by WHO.
So what did humanity do then to overcome Sars?
The answer is that humanity never actually overcame Sars. It suddenly appeared, becoming a global concern and crisis, then suddenly vanished as though it had never appeared.
Why is that?
When a student engages in acts such as lying, gambling, fighting, violence, or bringing dangerous weapons to school to show off, isn't it true that before receiving severe “punishments” such as expulsion, there will have been initial acts showing a “tendency to violate rules” and prior warnings?
We are that student.
And Sars was a reminder, just a gentle “warning.” At the time, there were fewer than 10,000 cases and fewer than 1,000 deaths worldwide, yet it was already considered a global pandemic. Now, look at us: every day, Vietnam alone has 1,000+ cases.
“My child, there is 1 lesson (or a few) you have not yet learned. Learn it fully. Otherwise, you will create even worse consequences for yourself. You are the one who will determine your future and destiny.”
Sadly, we still have 1 set of lessons we have not graduated from. We co-created Covid through our excessive demands, our ego's desire to be stroked, and the satisfaction of our bottomless cravings (someone satisfied their desire by eating bat meat, or some laboratory satisfied a government's ambitions, etc.). When the material is out of balance with the spiritual, Covid is created. And the question is, What’s Next? What will come next?
The right question is not what the future will be like. It is what lessons we need to learn to make the future better and more worth living.
The right question is not when Covid will end (so we can wait and resume business). It is what mindset and behavior we need amid Covid to become agents contributing to its end.
Quality questions change the quality of life, the future, destiny, and outcomes.
Covid teaches us many lessons. Here we will discuss 2. One is equality. Have you noticed that rich and famous people, heads of state, artists, athletes worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and powerful entrepreneurs… all catch Covid like poor, suffering people with no power? In fact, many rich people caught it before poor people. Because we are all equal. Yet our egos want superiority, greater wealth in life, more influence on social media… All are merely illusions of the mind.
Second is the lesson that We Are One. Do you see how, when Saigon is ill, Hanoi and Da Nang cannot be at ease? When Bac Giang has trouble, the whole country hurts. If just 1 region in the country has a problem, we all have a problem. Even if only 1 region anywhere in the world still has Covid, the world cannot be completely healthy and peaceful; risks remain. India “collapses,” the UK has a variant. Will Vietnam collapse or have a variant too? Separation is another illusion of the mind. The truth is that we are One. At this moment, is there still North or South, still regional discrimination? Does it matter anymore? There is only One Vietnam, indeed One Humanity. My wife is from Hanoi in the North, and I am from Saigon in the South. Our union did not happen naturally; it involved a very serious process of purification and transformation. Healing this time must occur for the entire collective, for the whole world.
A cocoon can see only the end of the world, but an awakened person sees the beautiful butterfly wings within it. One positive aspect of these days is that they make us wear masks—“shut up your mouth” (talk less, stop directing yourself outward to compete with one another), and go within. Yes, we need to go within to receive and learn the lesson. Only then, when we go outward, can we give ourselves a chance at stable business, growing work, and a peaceful life. One for All and All for One.
These days, many of our friends are displaying ‘Stay Strong, Saigon’ avatars. Although I deeply love and respect them, and it is a beautiful, encouraging gesture, I still have to say: Can we stop asking Saigon, or ourselves, to ‘keep trying’ ?
If we keep saying “keep it up,” infection numbers will go “up.” Could we try to “bring it down” instead? Could we sit down, accept, be less “aggressive,” look at our minds, have some tea if we like, meditate if we wish, work with our minds, and let go a little instead of piling on and repressing more pressure to “keep it up”?
Actually, we are already suffering and exhausted inside—what more are we supposed to “push through”? This is not nitpicking over words; look at the energy behind our “keep going—keep… pushing.” When we “push through,” we follow the school of forcing ourselves to be stronger, more positive, more aggressive. We accumulate so much suppression within, and the truth is that we only have fake positivity on the outside, without any real inner peace. Do we know the consequences of this approach? It only works in the short term; these teachings are only necessary at the “introductory” stage when beginning a journey of growth. At some point, the deep wounds accumulated over decades will “surface” from our unconscious, and then we will see what state we are in. Because we keep saying “push through, be positive” without ever looking back at or processing that deep mass of suffering. Please stop putting on a brave face for others. Sit down at home and heal yourself first, can you?
Love and heal yourself, and Saigon, Vietnam, and the world will be healed.
And then Covid will say: “I no longer need to return to remind you…
Because you have finished learning.”
TMT.
