Reset

by Hoa Newens

These days most of us are home-bound with spare time to ponder on the fate of the world. More importantly, we have a great opportunity to reflect on the purpose of our life and on the way that we live.

A couple of years back, I had explained how improper use of the mind is harmful to our lives and our world and leads to severe damages to our environment (Mind and Mutiny, July 2018, reposted in October 2019 blog).

In another blog post (The Era of Extremes, June 2019) I had warned that our inclination toward extreme states, such as the biggest, the fastest, the top of everything, was taking us rapidly away from the calming effect of a strong center, and hence, our lives were becoming more imbalanced and vulnerable to destabilizing factors.

Well, our human destiny is unfolding at a swifter rate than I had envisioned at the time. We are now globally off balance and struggling in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the lives of millions of human beings are being disrupted. However, in the same blog post last June, I had pointed out a comforting fact:

“It may appear that the Gods are not watching, and humans are on a path of self-annihilation. One may feel that the current state of the world is deplorable and depressing. Not so fast. Do we really think that tiny humans can truly make a mark in the multi-universe (zillions of worlds) ruled by the Gods? The Gods have designed a built-in control that preserves balance in our universe. Such balancing mechanism reinforces the center of the universe by providing that an extreme state is only a transition to the opposite state. This wonderful balancing system is illustrated by the Yin Yang symbol, also known as Tai Chi symbol.”

Our world has reached an extreme state; with the dizzying “progress” of technology and sciences which are based on over-extension of the mind, the resulting destructive effect to the planet and the universe is now irrefutable: pollution in the ocean that feeds us, in the air that we breathe, in the surface water that we use and drink daily, in the skies that we fly, in the media that inform us, in our bodies and in our minds. These ecosystems are being severely disturbed, and their self-balancing mechanisms are in disarray.

What’s in the forefront today is the spread of a new disease that has surfaced due to a breach in the natural microbiome and is wreaking havoc in the world due to the inability of the weakened immune system to protect our bodies. To resolve this problem, we are jumping to the immediate short-term solution of killing the culprit virus by ingesting more drugs into our already polluted bodies with weakened immune system. Should a new virus appear in time, we will probably concoct another drug to deal with it. Does this sound like a plausible long-term solution?

​​Humankind is clearly heading toward an extraordinary fate and is now at a major crossroad. Fortunately, as suggested earlier, in darkness exists the seed of rebirth: within this dire state, we can catch glimpse of our salvation. The stoppage of our insane pace of life is giving us more time to return to the essentials of life: time to ponder on our purpose in life; increased interaction with our loved ones; renewed focus on health and hygiene; appreciation of human contact; appreciation of a clean environment; appreciation of the simple pleasures of life; necessity of human kindness and love.
 
The forced return to simple life represents an interlude of human excesses that is also giving the environment a needed break: industrialized cities are seeing blue sky and breathable air again; the slowdown of worldwide traffic is also slowing down our insane consumption of energy, and at the same time giving our air and water and oceans the chance to purge toxic materials and refresh themselves.
 
Most significantly, our body and mind are experiencing a salutary downtime. In the beginning of the crisis, many people fret about the stifling of their mental and physical activities. With time, a new understanding takes place: the worldwide stoppage acts like a speed bump which reminds humankind that it was operating at excessive and unsustainable pace heretofore, and that now is time to hit the brakes, or the reset button.
 
Should humankind be so unconscious as to not heed this warning, it can expect a more severe penalty from the divine authority. The prerogative of being human is that each of us possesses the ability to make conscious choices. The choice at hand is the answer to this question: does the current state of affairs in our world represent an extreme that must be reversed? If the answer is yes, then we must follow through with corrective action.  If the answer is no, then the self-balancing mechanism of Tai Chi will continue its operation, that is, the universe will go deeper into an extreme state until there is sufficient momentum to pull it back toward the opposite extreme. If a light skin burn is not enough to keep us off the sun rays, then skin cancer will hopefully wake us up and make us retreat into the shade. In other words, if humans do not claim their rights to make conscious choices, they automatically defer to the universe. Are we sufficiently human? And conscious?
 
So, what are we to do now? Some of you may have made a decision to return to a balanced life already. Otherwise, here is a suggestion.
 
Find stillness; let mundane concerns and worldly worries drop off; create space inside you and allow the consciousness in you to emerge and listen to what it wants to say; keep listening to the inner voice until it inspires you toward a decision; then, re-orient your life in the new-found direction.
 
This is our opportunity to reset our life and choose a new direction. Let’s wake up.
 
Hoa Newens
April 2, 2020