From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/4/20

The coronavirus isn’t just another outburst. All over the world, it is forcing us to rethink our way of life. Right now, we’re worried about our livelihood, understandably. But this is just another sign that the COVID-19 crisis isn’t just a health crisis; it is first and foremost a social crisis, exposing the ills in our society.

When the dust settles from the battle with the superbug, we’ll have to rethink everything: how we make a living and at whose expense, how we bring up our children and what values we teach them, how we treat each other and what merit we give to our lives by focusing solely on our own benefit.

With all the ills of American society, depression, desperation, and growing violence, and with the mounting international tensions between superpowers, and even with regional powers such as North Korea and Iran, the break from madness that the virus has imposed on us is likely to have saved humanity from a much worse cataclysm. But if we don’t seize the moment and change ourselves now then we’ll have wasted the lives of the victims and mayhem will ensue.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “Anti-Semitism: The Virus Break Is Over”

Before COVID-19 took over the world by storm, the newspapers were very often focused on the spreading global anti-Semitism. The coronavirus put people on survival mode, and when you’re busy saving your life and the lives of your loved ones, there is little energy to hate.

But now, it seems, the hiatus from anti-Semitism is almost over and Jew-hatred is returning. It was obvious from the get go that Jews shouldn’t pin their hopes on the superbug to spare them the wrath of the nations, but seeing the return of anti-Semitism even before the peak of the pandemic, is certainly cause for concern.

As pundits and environmentalists around the world have been asserting day and night, the outbreak is a product of our egoism. Our greed, profiteering, and exploitation of nature and each other have depleted Earth’s resources, driven animals from their natural habitats and into unhealthy proximity to humans, and pushed tens of millions of people below the income threshold that allows for maintaining proper health. This is a breeding ground for germs of all sorts, a biological bomb waiting to explode.

In simple terms, our ego has depleted the planet, pushed it off balance, and now the planet is taking back the helm and restoring balance, at our expense. It is not revenge, but an act of restoring balance.

Blame the CEO

If the coronavirus taught us anything, it is that we cannot keep dancing only to the tune of our egos; we have got to balance it. Yet, how do we do that?

I elaborated extensively on answering this question in my books Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour and in my latest publication, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord. Succinctly, anti-Semites blame us for all that’s wrong with the world since they feel that we control the world, so anything that’s wrong with it, it is because of us. In the same way you blame the CEO of a company when it does not perform well, anti-Semites blame the Jews when the world does not perform well. Today, according to the ADL and many other NGOs monitoring Jew-hatred, a great, and growing number of people in the world are anti-Semitic. Couple that with the fact that the world has thrown a pandemic on humanity and you have a perfect storm threatening to explode on the heads of the Jews worldwide.

The odd voices on the fringes of the Left and the Right shrieking that the Jews are to blame for everything are the droplets that come before the rain. But the clouds in the very near horizon are dark, heavy, and truly menacing.

Finding Shelter in Each Other

The Jews have not run out of time. The hiatus isn’t over yet. Their shelter, as always, is in their unity. This is, always has been, and always will be their canopy, their shelter from the storm. Every Jewish leader since the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has urged Jews to unite in order to avert affliction.

However, especially today, our unity cannot be for our own sake. We are not the only ones who need unity; the whole world needs it. We, Israel, are blamed for the destruction of the world by egoism; therefore, we are the ones who must show the way out of it by uniting above our own. If we unite and become a role model of unity, we will be the modern version of “a light unto nations,” the exemplar that the world needs today.

With the world’s enslavement to egoism, who better than us can lead the way to freedom in the days of Passover? If we unite in order to help each other rise above our egos, this is the only example that the world needs to see. This is why unity is so precious to us and why it is our only hope.
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My article in Newsmax: “Not End of World; Pointing to Human Advancement”

The global outbreak of one of the worst epidemics in history — the coronavirus, extreme weather phenomena, earthquakes in different parts of the world, are all events that have triggered doomsday predictions and alarm.

Convinced that we live in apocalyptic times, some are taking measures to cleanse their conscience or even get ready for a cataclysm. Fearing the end of days, an Israeli citizen recently returned to the authorities a 2,000-year-old stone he stole 15 years ago. Others in America are preparing themselves to live in Stone Age conditions fearing the world will completely run out of resources. The ultra-rich are also acquiring bunkers or purchasing remote properties fully equipped as hideaways to escape the ravages of prophetic times.

Are the current afflictions a sign of greater suffering that can be anticipated to the point of total annihilation? The answer is no. There is no end of the world. Matter does not become destroyed, it only becomes transformed to a better and more advanced state.

Corrective Measures From Nature

What we see as threats from nature are, in fact, serious actions to advance humanity, not to wipe it out. The coronavirus, which expands around the world and frightens humanity, is a signal from nature to stop our frenzied life for a period of time and to rethink our route. We have been abusing and damaging nature on the still, vegetative, animal and human levels, squeezing and draining the planet. By routinely wreaking havoc, the coronavirus shows us that 90% of everything we do is unnecessary and harmful to the world.

Like a father toward his children when they misbehave, who yells and puts pressure on them until their conduct is corrected, nature is telling us that we need to review our egoistic and destructive attitudes to each other and to the environment, attitudes that lead to the exploitation and manipulation of our surroundings and other people for personal gain.

The human ego develops like an illness that incubates silently until it explodes and weakens the entire body. In order to recover balance, the body needs to halt its daily routine, stay in bed, rest and recuperate and rethink its future steps in order to heal. In the same way, the planet, which acts as a single body, has activated its self-preservation system through COVID-19 in a purifying and healing process from the sickness of overblown human egoism.

The Message That the Virus Sends Us

The virus is sending us a clear message: We, as a human society, are sick as a result of selfish consumerism and harmful relations, overpowering and trying to control others in opposition to nature’s synchronized functioning where precise and harmonious coordination between all of its elements prevail. If we can learn this lesson and start correcting ourselves, we will activate nature’s positive force that restores balance.

Individually and collectively, we must scrutinize whether our thoughts are for the benefit of others and behave accordingly, and by this, we will reverse the current crisis through a change in our mindset and relations toward others.

Rich or poor, smart or simple, strong or weak, blue-blooded or a common citizen, the pandemic makes no differentiation between us. The purpose is to make us feel that we are all equal in the integral and circular system we live in. Acknowledging our equality is a major step toward organizing human society in a way that is more harmonious and balanced with nature.

If we refuse to make moves toward building positive human connections and instead return to the previous egoistic state that led to our current crisis, we could expect to head toward a significant man-made catastrophe such as a third world war, one that would bring about a whole new level of unfortunate suffering.

However, further suffering can be avoided if we see all unfolding events as an opportunity to connect in better ways with each other and start behaving accordingly.

Our destiny will be determined by either our negligence or our responsibility and positive actions. Therefore, at the present and vital stage of our battle against the coronavirus, we should clearly understand the reason for the situation. The crucial discovery and knowledge of the true illness — our destructive egoistic nature — will direct us toward the medicine: strengthening the sensation of social cohesion. Such awareness will lead to the end of the disruptive and unbalanced world we know, and will signal the beginning of a new harmonious world filled with a plethora of goodness.
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My article in Newsmax: “COVID-19 Buried Capitalism”

On March 20, historian Yuval Noah Harari wrote in the Financial Times that the nature of emergencies is to fast-forward historical processes. True, everything that we have known, our entire civilization, is rapidly falling apart. Most people still hope that once the virus is gone their lives will pick up where they left off. They will not. Coronavirus will have changed everything.

It is not merely a transformation of attitude, but a change of our entire paradigm of life. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown touched on it when he wrote that to fight the coronavirus, “instead of dog-eat-dog bidding wars that encourage profiteering, the G20 should back the World Health Organization and the Global Fund’s efforts to coordinate and increase production and procurement of medical supplies.”

Shedding the dog-eat-dog paradigm is imperative, but the virus isn’t likely to disappear in the near future. There are already no less than 40 known strains of the virus. Second, even if we do manage to miraculously abolish all aggressive variants, by the time we can resume normalcy, we will discover that we ourselves have changed dramatically, and the frantic consumerism will no longer seem appealing.

It has stopped tourism, transportation, sports, entertainment, COVID-19 isn’t only changing our economy or even our way of life; it is changing our very thinking about life.culture, industry, education, socializing and even our ability to congregate for prayer. When we restart civilization, we will be different. Or, rather, we had better be different if we don’t want a sequel for the Novel Coronavirus episode.

A Novel Economy

When a superbug imposes a quarantine on the entire world, its ramifications are unfathomable. Sooner rather than later, countries will have to see to their citizens most basic needs. Food, housing, healthcare and education will all have to be administered by governments since the majority of people will simply not have any income to purchase any of the above, not to mention luxuries or gadgets.

The quarantine, or “stay at home” policy, is not just an emergency measure; it is the end of capitalism. We may not realize it but along with the coffins of our loved ones, we buried the way of life and way of thinking about life we all grew up on. Capitalism is dead.

The new economy that will emerge from the ashes will have to be based on different values. Since jobs will be virtually obsolete, wealth and power will become irrelevant gauges of success. But since human nature always strives for prominence, new standards will take over where the old ones left a void.

Instead of power by control, leadership by example will take the fore. Those who contribute the most to lifting the spirit of society, guaranteeing people’s well-being, and increasing social solidarity will become the prominent people in society.

Until now, we competed like children playing King of the Hill. Gradually, the virus will teach us to value and pay tribute to those who exert to push everyone uphill, to lift society rather than themselves.

The new economy that will emerge from the ruins of the old one will not be a new form of socialism. It will be an economy of mutual responsibility. Mutual responsibility is not an economic paradigm, but a social one, entailing both economic and educational aspects. It does not require material equality, but mutual concern that guarantees that people a) have what they need, and b) want everyone else to have what they need.

In an economy based on mutual responsibility, personal attributes are cherished and nurtured as long as one uses one’s skills to improve everyone’s lives. This approach allows for endless ways for people to express themselves, and society will reward them for doing so. Respect, admiration, and love for the people who contribute will more than compensate for the pursuit of wealth and possessions.

For this reason, introduction of mutual responsibility should occur on the physical level as well as on the intellectual level. On the former, as said above, governments will have to tend to people’s basic needs. On the latter level, we must establish an online education system where scientists and other pundits introduce the notion of mutual responsibility and explain why today’s reality requires it.

The idea behind these educational programs is not merely to help humanity overcome the virus. The goal is to change the paradigm that governs our lives from focusing on the “me” to focusing on the “we,” thereby creating a flourishing and sustainable society. The dog-eat-dog paradigm that Brown talked about is why the coronavirus has arrested our civilization. If we want to win, we should now build one that relies on mutual responsibility, and any moment’s delay is one moment too late.
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The coronavirus will purify us and get us used to sitting at home.
For the first time in history, a tiny virus is making such great changes simultaneously around the whole planet, in the whole of humanity. Look at how it has handled all of us. In one instant, everyone gave up and accepted its conditions. Is there any other force in nature…
#COVID

The coronavirus put us all into one community, one system. It’s not just a virus, but a special spirit that infiltrates the mind and feelings, creating something common out of us. We understand each other, feel close to one another, and can easily imagine the state others are in.
From Twitter, 4/2/20

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Since the spiritual society strives to share common goods fairly, #socialism and later #communism are its systems of governance and distribution. The #virus showed that any system under threat, in the pursuit of self-preservation, leans toward #nationalization.

A #pandemic is a spiritual reset of humanity. It can alter our consciousness, our awareness of the purpose of existence. Basically this can happen in the joint struggle of people against #Coronavirus. Since the virus attacks everyone, without borders and limitations, it unites!

You can save yourself from Coronavirus only by hiding from it “between us” when we leave our self, egoism, and wish to remain in connection between us, in altruism, above us, pushing away our egoism (Aviut). Coming out of ourselves (Tzimtzum Aleph), we enter the Creator who is right between us.

The biggest problem in mastering the upper world is in its correct understanding that it lies in the connection between our egoisms, above them. It is felt to the degree that we oppose the egos, i.e., in the power of unity-bestowal, contrary to the power of rejection-receiving. Everything is only between us…!

I was struck by a letter saying:
– We fight, although every friend in the group is 100% committed to the goal, people very devoted to the path!
– Me: Aiming where? What are they devoted to? When unity is the goal, the feeling of unity is the feeling of the Creator!
From Twitter, 4/1/20

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are the benefits of the Coronavirus on a global scale?“

What could be the benefits of a virus that is making hundreds of thousands of people sick, and killing dozens of thousands more, around the world?

One benefit is that it is aiding the awakening of how small and weak we are in the presence of a much greater nature.

The coronavirus is a prime example of how nature doesn’t discriminate between rich and poor, famous and unknown, powerful and ordinary, educated or uneducated, and many other categories that we place upon ourselves.

Thus, while we have been placed in social distancing conditions around the world, we can indeed contemplate on how equal we all are in relation to nature.

We can see how the boundaries we set between each other and between nations become negated by a tiny minuscule virus that penetrates them all, and thus would do wisely to learn from such an example.

Nature is an integral system, and it wants us to rise in our awareness in order to relate to each other as integrally as it functions.

If we thus use this pandemic to reach such a conclusion—that nature is bigger than us, and if we related to each other more integrally, changing our previous paradigm of trying to benefit at others’ expense to one of trying to benefit the whole human society and nature that we are all parts of, then we would enter into balance with nature and experience its reactions positively.

Until the coronavirus hit us, we let our egoistic human nature, which wants to benefit itself at the expense of others, separate us more and more.

The human ego shatters the perception of the integral nature into small pieces.

As devastating as the effects of the coronavirus have been, it is likely that if the pandemic would not have entered our lives, then we would have caused ourselves a lot more suffering by letting our egoistic behavior lead us to such hatred and division the likes of which could have erupted in a world war.

Therefore, the main benefit of the coronavirus is if we use this period to consider how equal we all ultimately are in the face of nature, how our egoistic way of life leading up to the coronavirus was leading us to harm ourselves, and that we would be wise to learn how we can come out of this pandemic with more considerate, supportive, encouraging and giving attitudes to each other.

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Medium published my new article “The Secret to Overcome the Coronavirus Lockdown”

If you are like one out of three people in the world currently under stay-at-home orders, the question of how to make this situation meaningful becomes relevant.

The surge of the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing humanity to realize how much we depend on each other. It sent us home not only to stop the further spreading of the virus, but to also stop us further infecting the world with our troublesome and exploitative interactions, where we each sought to build ourselves on the ruin of others. Our imbalanced relations negatively impact the other levels of nature — still, vegetative and animal — and nature reacts to our harmful influence by striking us with certain blows in order to try and spur us into balance with it.

How to Find Inner Strength

Home, then, becomes the laboratory for fixing our imbalance with nature by first practicing harmonious relations with others. It is the place where we can start thinking about how to become more considerate to each other. But as time passes, we can easily become impatient. Maintaining a positive attitude becomes more complicated as the ego — the will to receive for self-benefit alone — increases, until we cannot get along with each other anymore. The broken ties between us create rifts and quarrels, arguments and confrontation.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, known also as the wisdom of connection, explains that such states are opportunities to rise above those conflicts and bring about cohesion and mutual understanding. As it is written, “Each one helps the other, and says to his brother, ‘Be strong!’” (Isaiah, 41:6.) In other words, by constructing appropriate relations among us, by helping, supporting and encouraging the other, we will acquire the required inner strength to do good in the world, beginning with those closest to us.

And the Kabbalists advise: Show affection and care. Do it with your utmost effort. Do it openly and even artificially until the habit becomes your second nature. How can we even hear such advice, never mind implement it, if it counters how the heart feels? We will become ready to submit when we realize that there is no other way and the alternative is to live our lives like prisoners in our own homes. Conversely, we can accept this lockdown as an opportunity to examine what we should correct in our attitudes to each other in order to live more fulfilling lives.

Kids Will Be Kids, Adults Should Not

We might wonder where children will find the strength to overcome their burning desire to act contrary to their natural desire. How, for example, can children become ready to make concessions in order to find common ground and understanding? It can be achieved when we raise them with our example. If adults demonstrate altruistic behavior, not acting like stubborn children themselves, but showing examples of love, care and giving to each other, then children will imitate such examples and grow up to behave similarly.

It is quite complicated but parents should ideally urge children to make such concessions. It is because, if they manage to do so, they will enter into a much calmer and happier state. We should thus explain to them (and also to ourselves): “Do you think that you will gain more if you are stubborn?” “Will it benefit anyone if you refuse to give in?” “Will you gain any lasting advantage if you try and force the other to yield?”

They will likely nod their heads in agreement after a second. The principle is relatively easy to comprehend, but difficult to execute. Human nature, the will to receive, resists it. What, then, can be done to help overcome our nature? The answer: Organize a supportive environment, create an atmosphere that will help the children (and ourselves) to overcome and exit the ego, and give in for a common benefit.

When both you and your children are tired of hearing about such compromises, then we should once again explain to ourselves: “When we combat our ego instead of someone else’s, the triumph will be sweeter and more pleasant.”

However, we cannot just hand them hollow instructions. We need to dig deeper by ordering our own selfish nature to renounce itself in exchange for mutual gain. By doing so, we develop a fresh approach to making compromises, building within ourselves this characteristic for a higher purpose. We become ready to concede to the whole world. Why? It is in order to calm it down and bring it the same power of compromise, the power to balance our struggles. Thus, as we teach our children, we also educate ourselves, and rise to a higher level of mutual consideration and responsibility by doing so.

Gradually, we will start seeing that all of our family members succeed in canceling their will vis-à-vis the other, giving in for the benefit of the whole family with a smile, calmly and pleasantly. When we acquire this power to make concessions, we will be able to spread this ability from a smaller unit through to society at large. Then, everyone will start thinking and acting for everyone’s benefit instead of trying to pull others to benefit each one individually. And by doing so, everyone will receive what is required for their life, just like in a family.
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The world seems to be on a narrow bridge, and the main thing now is not to be afraid of parting with the past. We have another concern: how to meet the future not by colliding with its back, but to competently face the inevitable tomorrow.

“If only everything does not collapse, then it will be restored,” they tell us. And they add, “Someday.” I say “It will not recover.” But collapse is not necessary at all. Each of us has the task of surviving the current period with minimal losses. To do this, we need to save nerves and resources, support others, be able to relax, but not “disconnect.” And most importantly, we need to understand what is happening so that the consequences of the crisis will not take us too much by surprise.

To start, let’s sit down and take a breath. The human being was not created to fuss. He was created in order to think and act. So let’s think: What have we actually lost? What motivated us in that life? What did we live for? What sensible and useful things have we done? What have we prepared for the future of our children?

Quite frankly, we just served each other for money. With zeal or without it, we fulfilled the principle, clearly formulated by our sages thousands of years ago: “Go and profit from each other.” It seemed to us that we were serving ourselves. But what kind of a disservice we rendered to ourselves by exhausting ourselves in a hamster wheel of consumerism, not thinking about anything else?

Imagine for a second if we flew from another developed planet and looked down on ourselves a few months ago, it would not have been a very pretty sight. No, not in the technological sense, but in the very essence of our commotion and bustle. The “benefit” from it, like smog above the Earth, is already starting to disperse. And so, the virus came. “Stop, people,” it tells us. “Look at what you did to the planet and to yourselves. Look beyond the brink of tomorrow.”

If we really look into it without brushing it off, we will see that we were moving not only toward ecological collapse, but before that we would have come to war. In fact, we drove ourselves into the arms of war, into a state of hopeless globalization, into a dead end of contradictions. This is human nature: When a slaughter is brewing, we force it out of our consciousness and at the same time put up with it, even invoke it.

We have not yet reached such an advanced stage, but an avalanche of unbridled consumerism has drawn humanity into the abyss. And, paradoxically, the virus is saving us from it. We are being saved from egoism in need of “absolution,” in resetting consumption markets.

So is it worth going back? What did we forget there? Is there life after the virus?

Now we are getting to know our family, our world, and ourselves again.

Previously, many of us just slept at home, now we live there. We used to browse the Internet for fun, now we connect with each other.

There are several ways. Of course, we want to go back to that hamster wheel with its array of constantly new and different pleasures to look forward to, and are even willing to endure its pains that prod us from behind. But one cannot help but remember the threat of a collapse with rampant crime, the suppression of unrest, interruptions in supply, and the search for the guilty. And finally, we can use this period for reflection.

Of course, not everything is smooth, not everyone can “sustain the blow,”  but the experience itself, the very change of pace, foreshortening, does not bring only a respite? In the cleared weekdays, in an unusual afternoon lull, we hear an echo of something new. We are seated at home, like children at their desks in order to learn something so that this “breaking” would not pass in vain.

In any case, we will be unable to exit the crisis as quickly as we entered it. And what is happening now is not a pause, not a vacation, not a lockdown, it is an awakening. The virus did not knock us out, but shook us well, returned us to reality, gives us an opportunity to carefully take the helm.

Today we are confronted with the need to redefine our values in the dawn of a new era, which requires a different attitude to each other and finding a meaning that we avoided. The wind of change swept away the illusions and is showing us the true picture. So are we really going to let the mind again be clouded by its mirages? Will we reconcile ourselves with the past, with eternal vanity, with external abundance, and with internal devastation?

The world seems to be on a narrow bridge, and the main thing now is not to be afraid of parting with the past. We have another concern: how to meet the future not by colliding with its back, but competently face the inevitable tomorrow.

We, ourselves, have created a rat race, and now we can get out of it without excessive external shocks. After all, the main thing is what is inside: our connections, our relations, our participation, reciprocity. It is enough to realize this, and all mechanisms—social, financial, commercial—will start to restructure according to the new paradigm.

Let’s think about it: Why are we living? How can we build our lives differently, on different principles? The way out of boundless egoism was opened, let’s use it while our egoism is shocked and muted.

Airplanes are on the ground, ships are in ports, we should be at school desks. There is nothing derogatory in this. On the contrary, we have the opportunity to really do something for ourselves.

All our life we were only engaged in running away from the question about it. Worried before death, justifying ourselves to the best of our ability. The virus, however, hints at something else. We cannot run away from death this way. To overcome its line, it is necessary to rise above the egoism that kills us. Our ego limits, gives a flawed and wretched sensation of the world through the demands of our body. Let us feel the world through our internal common structure, through the soul. Then we will see it completely differently, endless, eternal, and perfect.

This has nothing to do with religions. The science of Kabbalah does not advocate any beliefs. It simply develops the soul of a person, and that makes us happy. Now, when we all feel in a common boat, we must put our oars together and head for a world without borders between hearts. Then the remaining barriers that divide people will disappear. Tomorrow’s world is forming now.
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This article is written by my student Oleg Itzeksen

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It is as if we have become participants in a Hollywood storyline and are following the development of events from the inside. Will we be able to understand the essence of what is happening and anticipate the upshot?

It’s already clear, the coronavirus has become one of those rare, unpredictable events with far-reaching consequences that Nassim Taleb dubbed “black swans.” Later, in hindsight, everything will become clear and logical, but something is already happening now. We all have a few weeks or months of reflections ahead of us and it would be unwise to miss this opportunity. After all, there are no accidents in nature and since the necessary conditions have already developed, we must use them purposefully and not just wait for the end to come.

In front of us, apparently, are several months of a very unusual lifestyle. Even after it is over, we will not return to the previous routine. Our everyday life will be different. How, precisely? It depends upon whether we want to answer the cardinal questions that are being posed to us by the virus today.

“When it’s all over, we’ll wonder why we should go to work in the office, go to school to study or train, or go shopping at the store,” writes Dr. Einat Wilf. Perhaps, this will be the moment when we will leave the structures of the industrial revolution behind.

Analysts, scientists, and heads of companies are already discussing the new digital paradigm, changing the approach to production and its efficiency, and decision-making and safety. The pandemic has highlighted the fact that our inert thinking is not keeping pace with modern technology.

This, however, is only part of the picture. After all, it is not so much about technology. The point is the very concept of success. If we do not miss this opportunity, humanity will cast away a lot of what is superfluous and live simpler and more practical lives externally, and also live internally fuller and more multifaceted lives. Not just our way of life will change, but the way we think and feel.

At this point, we want only one thing: for it all to end but let’s pull ourselves together and look the facts in the eye. What is the current situation telling us? What other diseases of the world is the coronavirus revealing?

The Ministry of Health is not going to tell us about them. Its directives only disconnect and tear us away from the life imposed on us by society with its current values, leisure, and pastimes. Suddenly, mutual responsibility has ceased to be an empty phrase. Priorities are changing dramatically. Entertainment is shifting into virtual space.

It is a rather gloomy prelude but not tragic. We are trying to acclimatize and build a new framework. We are even helping others, strangers, which yesterday was nonsense for many. On one hand, we are limited. On the other hand, we are discovering new and unusual things. It is similar to a growing child being directed by caregivers, isn’t it?

Following the routes of the sick, we see cafés, restaurants, shops, shopping centers, supermarkets, and banquet rooms. Actually, this dotted line from one institution to another makes up almost our entire lives. We travel abroad and it is the same everywhere: endless repetition. Although no, it is a finite one.

Now, looking at it from aside, we are becoming a little more mature and a little wiser. Imperceptibly and implicitly, a new feeling is arising in us. We have a new attitude toward leisure and entertainment, as well as others and our own lives. The old ways have faded a little as if the blinders are falling from our eyes and are exposing new bright colors.

What seems like a prison today is, in fact, providing us with an opportunity to start treating ourselves and the world in a deeper and more serious way. We are asking ourselves questions that, until now, were diligently obscured by the previous paradigm.

In fact, we have an unprecedented chance to reflect. The virus is leading us toward purification and a kind of disinfection of the mind and feelings. It is raising us to a new level of thinking, understanding, desiring, and connecting. Without even knowing, we are already in touch with a need for a sense that we were previously deprived of.

Let’s fast forward; the virus will not only be a threat, it will also become a breakthrough. It undermines not only the body, but also outdated concepts and dogmas, opening the door to a new state of humanity.

Our first impulse is to close this door, to calm the draft, and to eliminate the obstacle in the usual way. But wait, do not close the doors of consciousness. In nature—in this single, integral system—there is nothing bad, nothing wrong. All of nature’s responses are true and useful even if they are destructive in some way.

You can’t just fight the virus by discounting the system in which we live. The system will not go anywhere and will continue to defend its balance. From whom, you may ask? From us. It is we who shake the general balance by rocking the boat. We are consumer-oriented toward the world and toward each other for the sake of silly bragging, out of the desire to place ourselves in a higher and better position in comparison to others. Our entire lives are subjugated to this task, hidden behind many solid-looking but flat decorations.

As a result, at the environmental level, we consciously destroy the Earth. Greta Thunberg is accurate on this point. Most importantly, we ruin the social ecology and we fail precisely at the task assigned to us by the system.

Our relations and all our “progress” act in opposition to nature. We bring imbalance and disharmony in everything we touch. We try to conquer the system that gave birth to us. We demand that nature obey us for the sake of our infantile and meaningless games.

Of course, nature is against this. It is no coincidence that the virus forces us to build healthier lives and more responsible relationships, to abandon unnecessary production, and to take care of each other.

Perhaps, once a vaccine is created or when the majority of people get over the sickness, we will depart from the isolation, being more mature and living differently and better. Perhaps we will give meaning to this pandemic, which so far seems like a “black swan,” an unfortunate and unforeseen obstacle in our dotted line.

Later, a logical explanation will be found for all the “black swans.” But what explanation will we give? What prevents us from doing this now?

For decades, we have wandered in consumer illusions, destroying the lives of future generations. We have turned ourselves into cogs in a global overproduction and indifference machine that produces garbage and burns human and natural resources for the sake of egoism. Why would we come back to this?

Even if we begin to consume just two or three times less, we, our children, and our grandchildren will have healthier, calmer lives full of much more creative, enduring, and universal joy. A common misfortune can be a springboard to a common success.

The virus, in fact, gives us a chance to survive. Nature, unlike humanity, does not ruin or destroy anything; it only develops, fixes, and corrects. Our perception has not yet reached this picture but we are already able to extrapolate from our knowledge, run a little ahead, and look beyond the horizon depicted.

Then, we will see how hostile we are toward nature. Like a Mongol-Tatar cohort, we trample nature’s fields and arrogantly try to make it submit to our selfish demands.

We will suddenly see that each of us faces nature and behind each of us is all of humanity. Everyone is personally responsible for the balance of the system. The individual and the collective are equal, say the Kabbalists.

The virus is the result of the imbalance caused by humans in the general system. The human is the leading part in that system. All of the system’s impulses are tied up and focused on us. Within it, we learn to answer for one another and also answer for the system itself.

Let’s not forget to observe the prescribed distance, sit in quarantine, take care of our families, and help others as much as possible. To ignore these things would be like burying our heads in the sand and looking back to yesterday when tomorrow is already on the way. Humanity differs from animals in that we are endowed with imagination and we know how to anticipate the future and look ahead. Our “black swan” is much more than it seems to us right now.
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This article is written by my student Oleg Itzeksen

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The Global Pandemic
What The Coronavirus Teaches Us

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