In Portuguese, when we honor someone with a toast, we usually say: “Saúde!” (like in French: “Santé!”), wishing his/her life to be long. Also, when someone sneezes, that’s the expression we use hoping they stay in good health.
In times of seclusion, thinking about lengthening the curve of the coronavirus so that the world health system can prepare to better face it, we should follow health recommendations. After all, quarantining, observing proper hand hygiene and wearing masks are basic rules to collaborate with the non-spread of the disease. Here we list some recommendations, making a parallel with our spiritual experience. And of course: at this crucial moment, to radiate love is the most important!
Protect yourself and everyone!
It is certain that many will contract this virus with lighter symptoms and others will even be asymptomatic. The most vulnerable, the sick and the elderly, will suffer more. But nobody is free from it. Who should we protect? Everyone!
Thinking on a spiritual level, we should all go deeper into self-knowledge. In addition to defending ourselves from the virus, we must protect ourselves from our own thoughts, feelings and reactions that make our soul sick. And, of course, from external agents and vectors: thoughts, feelings and reactions that come to us from the environment.
Stay inside your home and know thyself
We can help prevent the virus from spreading too quickly. How? By staying inside our homes. At the same time, we can take the opportunity to get to know our own small world better, that microcosm whose breathing field is full of uncertainties, conflicting opinions, selfishness and other viruses, and which needs time to be sanitized. It’s time to clean up! Our contact with our fellow human beings is limited to family members (those who have the same conditions as us, and who help us do both types of cleaning!) and in virtual communication – that is, in physical distance and spiritual support for the most vulnerable. Virtual hugs have the virtue of spreading love!
How to avoid discouragement, lack of spirit?
Quarantine is a great opportunity to get out. Yes! To get out of our egocentricity and go into the depths of our being. That’s where we’ll drink from the fountain that gushes abundantly in our Secret Garden.
Does the news shake us? It’s time to feed our heads and hearts with confidence and balance! Fear only takes hold of us if we let it invade us. Taking care of the house, the food, the clothes, gathering the family around the table or on the notebook screen – all this takes us away from boredom and fear.
And what is discouragement but a lack of spirit, of soul? A reading, soft music, images that remind us of tranquility, living with nature and other practices can remind us of our essence and unify us with the Whole.
Avoid agglomerations and enter the temple of your heart
This is definitely not the time for parties, cultural gatherings in cinemas and theatres, much less for shopping trips. It’s not even the right time to go to temples.
The human being on its way to true spirituality has only one Temple: its heart. It is in this Temple that we meet with our community of souls to follow the unique goal: to renew ourselves every minute.
In the 21st century we have the privilege of being able to participate in meetings of more than 1,000 people without any physical proximity: the Internet allows us to do this, with various applications.
Respect the sick and elderly and love them
Human experiences are diverse. Whoever is sick is going through an important experience! The elderly, who have lived through thousands of situations, must be the object of physical care, but they can also be an excellent source of moral and spiritual learning. We should, therefore, come into virtual contact with them, whenever possible, to encourage them and bring to them our solidarity and, above all, our radiant love, be they our family, friends or neighbors.
Wash your hands, without guilt, to purify your acts
Washing your hands is much more than a hygienic habit of capital importance for disinfection. Since time immemorial, priests have practiced libation. By pouring water and washing their hands, they offered this ritual to the gods as a purification of their acts. Besides the priests, people offered the libation of wine, milk and honey to their dead relatives so that they could feed themselves in the afterlife.
Water is always a symbol of purification and is the most essential food for the human being. So that the new life can feed us (the life of the Spirit), we essentially need the Living Water. But it is important to emphasize: let us wash our hands without guilt! Let us not do like the character Pilate, who used this ritual to exempt himself. Let us wash our hands to purify our actions and not to contaminate ourselves with external reactions.
Review your values and renew your attitude
Thinking about our attitude towards this situation, we need to review our values and behaviors. It is certain that each one of us has a pattern of values inherited from our family, our country, and our own experience. It is time to get out of crystallization and make our experience more fluid. And our attitude, always renewed, will be: to dissolve the bonds that bind us!
What’s your interest? Save the economy or save lives? Of course, these are two fundamental aspects – and it is not a matter of debating points of view. But what is more important: building a planet full of riches or showing love for all forms of life?
At this crucial moment for humanity, we can say: Life is being renewed every minute!
And we, who follow a spiritual path, would add: only real love can bring humanity back to true Life!
Is the world ending? Is humanity dying? What will the future be?
The word “apocalypse” does not mean “the end of the world”. It means “revelation”. And what is this phase revealing to us? A complete transformation! The world as we were living a month ago is no longer the same. Our beliefs, values, habits and certainties are transforming, renewing themselves every moment.
Nobody knows what the future will be like. But that doesn’t matter, because we are seeing with our own eyes that the initiatives to build the future are up to us. At each step we are taking small inner, family, social resolutions. Slowly, we understand ourselves in a new way of thinking, feeling, acting and reacting. Together we are experiencing a moment that requires harmony, good sense, empathy, and a welcome exchange of experiences.
The simplest and most direct human relationships are building a new world of respect for other beings of nature and new humans. Yes: new humans, because we are renewing ourselves.
May this transformation strengthen our inner observation, without judgement. Thus, we will understand that renewal is a loving and daily process that we carry out together, in the simplest day-to-day relationships. We are part of a great organism: we are each one and we are One with the Whole!
