- this virus is no more of a threat than the flu, that the death rate is grossly exaggerated, and that the entire world is overreacting thanks to the media and politicians, who thrive on fear-mongering, and won't miss a paycheck because their employer shut down.
- Reality check. The flu kills 30-60k Americans every year and Hospital Acquired Infections kill 75k Americans every year. The elderly, people with serious health problems, and chemo patients always have been and always will be especially vulnerable to viral and bacterial infections.
- The 3.4% death rate of COVID-19, which everyone is freaking out about, is 3.4% of the worst cases, who were so bad they actually went to the hospital. It is not 3.4% of all cases.
Most cases are mild and people are getting over it without seeing a doctor or being officially diagnosed. Rational estimates put the COVID-19 death rate at less than 1% or maybe even less than 0.05%, which is lower than the flu. - Practically speaking, Vitamin D may be the most important annual protective measure against colds, flu, and viruses, including COVID-19.
I've resisted writing or commenting on this "pandemic" wishing to avoid generating more negative energy. However, I read material from Chris Wark, a health researcher and journalist. He says that the "real pandemic is fear". I agree! Here's what he points out:
The heart has to be fed with feelings of contentment, gratefulness, faith, calmness, tolerance, easiness, magnanimity, happiness, gentleness and understanding. - Hsing Yun
The world is what it is; we have to face what is happening around us, our relationships, or just whatever goes on in our own mind. We cannot expect it all to go away. We have to be practical otherwise, we just create further suffering for ourselves. - Dzigar Kongtrul
When dealing with a crisis, behave
in ways that ensure you pass these six tests: 1. The test of reason. 2. The test of compassion. 3. The test of humility. 4. The test of patience. 5. The test of generosity. 6. The test of fairness. - Victor M. Parachin Many of us go through life as bad guests, minimizing the good others have done for us.
- Rabbi Joseph Telushkin More than two-and-a-half millennia ago, Mahapajapati Gotami, the Buddha’s aunt, set a precedent for women’s rights. After men were ordained into the new "religion" which came to be called Buddhism, Mahapajapati approached her nephew, the Buddha, directly asking and arguing that women could and should also be ordained as monastics. It was a bold move on her part since her gender were not permitted to be fully ordained monastics and , generally, women were not in the equal position as men.
Hearing her out, the Buddha concluded she was right and she received ordination directly from the Buddha becoming the first female bhikkhuni. Shortly after her ordination, the Buddha ordained another 500 women creating the world's first order of female monastics. Famed Russian writer Leo Tolstoy was instrumental in bringing vegetarianism to Russia. In 1880 he established the Vegetarian Society of St. Petersburg sponsoring dinners and offering public lectures. Because of his influence, other vegetarian societies were established in Russian cities.
In one famous incident, one of Tolstoy's relatives who was visiting his home demanded meat for dinner, Tolstoy responded by acquiring a live chicken which he tied to her table and offered her a knife to slaughter it. "How can one hope that peace and prosperity will be established in the world if our bodies are living graves where killed animals are buried?" asked the great writer. Tolstoy died in 1910 and his vegetarian societies continued to grow until the Russian revolution of 1917 after which the societies were persecuted and banned. There is a saying in Tibetan: ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength’. No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster. - Dalai Lama
When we are talking about meditation, people often talk about one-pointed meditation which is good, but the second type of meditation is even more critical. One-pointed meditation is really important because it is like a laser beam—if the rays of the laser beam are scattered, it does not have power, but if the rays are concentrated and focused it has the power to cut through steel. Similarly, when your mental capacity is scattered, you can’t do anything. When your mind is concentrated, then you can achieve anything. But what is even more important is analytical meditation, in which you don’t have to sit down to meditate. This is actually something that we do all the time when making decisions about everyday life, for instance what to eat for lunch. We need to invigorate and strengthen this analytical habit we already have to analyze the nature of reality so that we can find solutions for all the problems we face. So analytical meditation is really like a lamp, and through analytical meditation practices, you develop wisdom, and through that wisdom, you do away with ignorance, which is the root of all suffering. - Geshe Lhador
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Victor M. Parachin ...is aVedic educator, yoga instructor, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of a dozen books. Buy his books at amazon or your local bookstore. Archives
May 2024
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