From the Body to the Mind

The current wave is causing more confusion than ever. If previously, experts believed that mass vaccinations were necessary in order to curb the spread of the virus, now there are experts who believe we should let go of all the guards since the current strain will turn the pandemic into an endemic disease like the common cold. I really don’t know how it will end, if it will end at all. Either way, one thing is clear: Our woes will not end. A new menace will come, which will not affect our bodies but our minds.

Regrettably, we learn only through pain. Only blows open our eyes to see we have been going in the wrong direction. If we use our intellect to learn more quickly, we will spare much of the pain, but it depends on our willingness to learn. For now, unfortunately, I cannot say that we are in learning mode.

To begin with, the whole problem is in our minds. It is our minds that are sick, and they sicken our bodies and the rest of the world. For this reason, I believe that future woes will be more complex and more sophisticated, more subtle. They will not attack our bodies but our brains. As a result, we will begin to think differently and see things differently.

The sickness in our minds has to do with our attitude toward others. We are so abusive to others that we cannot stop even when we know we are harming ourselves in the process. There is an anecdote about a man whose jealousy of his neighbor overcame him. One day, the man found a lamp. When he rubbed it, a genie came out and promised to give him anything he wanted, but with a caveat: “Whatever I give you, I will give twofold to your neighbor.” The jealous man thought about it for a while and finally said to the genie: “Take out one of my eyes.”

This is what we are doing to ourselves. Our minds seek dominance, power, and wealth at the expense of others. In the process, we are destroying the very sources of abundance that make our world livable. We have become so absorbed in overpowering others that we cannot stop attempting to destroy them even when it eventually means destroying ourselves.

This attitude will be the target of the new bug that will infect us. I hope it happens sooner rather than later, but I cannot be certain. What I do know is that when it comes, we will begin to recognize the damage we have been causing our surroundings.

Regrettably, we learn only through pain. Only blows open our eyes to see we have been going in the wrong direction. If we use our intellect to learn more quickly, we will spare much of the pain, but it depends on our willingness to learn. For now, unfortunately, I cannot say that we are in learning mode.