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\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A large beauty salon was \u201cout\u201d (closed down and returned the premises). Then an English center for children that had done quite well for years was also \u201cout.\u201d 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 \u201cout.\u201d 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 \u201cout.\u201d The telltale sign is a \u201cpremises for rent, contact the owner directly\u201d notice. At many properties not shown in this picture, a dozen real estate agents have each posted \u201ccontact the owner directly\u201d signs with different phone numbers. I really do not know when owners learned to split themselves into dozens of people\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heartache\u2026 This lesson is so great\u2026 It belongs not to one person but to the whole collective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what did humanity do then to overcome Sars?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why is that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cpunishments\u201d such as expulsion, there will have been initial acts showing a \u201ctendency to violate rules\u201d and prior warnings? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are that student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Sars was a reminder, just a gentle \u201cwarning.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s Next? What will come next? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quality questions change the quality of life, the future, destiny, and outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2026 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\u2026 All are merely illusions of the mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201ccollapses,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2014\u201cshut up your mouth\u201d (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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These days, many of our friends are displaying \u2018Stay Strong, Saigon\u2019 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 \u2018keep trying\u2019 ? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we keep saying \u201ckeep it up,\u201d infection numbers will go \u201cup.\u201d Could we try to \u201cbring it down\u201d instead? Could we sit down, accept, be less \u201caggressive,\u201d 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 \u201ckeep it up\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Actually, we are already suffering and exhausted inside\u2014what more are we supposed to \u201cpush through\u201d? This is not nitpicking over words; look at the energy behind our \u201ckeep going\u2014keep\u2026 pushing.\u201d When we \u201cpush through,\u201d 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 \u201cintroductory\u201d stage when beginning a journey of growth. At some point, the deep wounds accumulated over decades will \u201csurface\u201d from our unconscious, and then we will see what state we are in. Because we keep saying \u201cpush through, be positive\u201d 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? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love and heal yourself, and Saigon, Vietnam, and the world will be healed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then Covid will say: \u201cI no longer need to return to remind you\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because you have finished learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TMT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u0110\u00f3 l\u00e0 1 bu\u1ed5i chi\u1ec1u m\u1ea5y h\u00f4m tr\u01b0\u1edbc khi c\u00f3 l\u1ec7nh phong t\u1ecfa, ch\u00fang t\u00f4i d\u1eaft nhau \u0111i ra ngo\u00e0i mua v\u00e0i m\u00f3n c\u1ea7n thi\u1ebft. L\u01b0\u1edbt nh\u00ecn m\u1ed9t s\u1ed1 c\u0103n nh\u00e0 s\u00e1t b\u00ean, t\u1eeb ph\u1ea3i sang tr\u00e1i trong b\u1ee9c h\u00ecnh n\u00e0y… M\u1ed9t beauty salon l\u1edbn “out” (ng\u01b0ng ho\u1ea1t \u0111\u1ed9ng, tr\u1ea3 m\u1eb7t b\u1eb1ng). R\u1ed3i m\u1ed9t trung […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chia-se","category-hanh-trinh-chia-se"],"yoast_head":"\n