Lessons From Lockdown

What are the lessons we can learn from the lockdown? In this series, I hope to present some thought-provoking ideas about our lives up to this point, and what we can do to live a ‘better’ life – provided we learn the necessary lessons.

I mention an article from the New Zealand Herald which stated; “Optimists throughout this lockdown have hoped that coming out of the pandemic, we'll have learned a few lessons along the way ... that we'll enjoy a gentler, more meaningful existence..."

Transcript

So,

We're going to start a new series,

But still connected with the current crisis and situation.

And I'm going to title it,

Lessons from Lockdown.

And of course that can mean a lot of things to,

Or at least different things to different people.

And I've got a few notes that I will use here.

When I say lessons from lockdown,

I don't necessarily expect that everybody is going to all of a sudden become very insightful and suddenly come up with all of the answers in terms of how one could or should be living and how we should be operating as a society.

But what I'd like to,

Or what I am referencing,

Is that being put into these kind of situations,

These rather extreme and difficult situations,

We have the opportunity to reflect and draw on past experience and things that we may have learned in the past and to try and reach some conclusions.

But in this process,

There is a great need for some form of guidance.

And we'll get into that shortly.

I think everybody's very aware,

Or they've read by now,

Some of the dramatic things that happened when the world first started going into lockdown,

Where you had in China these just amazing plummeting levels of air pollution.

And of course,

This was happening all over the planet.

You had the story about how the canals in Venice,

Italy became so clean that people could actually see into the water in the bottom of the canal.

And just generally,

The clearer skies the world over.

I saw one thing that came out in the news and it sort of like hit me because of the amount of time I have spent in India in the past.

It was pictures taken from a city up in Punjab,

In Jalandhar.

I have a number of friends from up there.

As with a lot of the developing world and of course China and I mean just so many places,

The sky is normally quite grayish.

And there's this pervasive haze everywhere that really limits how far you can see.

And there was like this huge eruption of joy,

I guess,

When all of a sudden the Himalayas became visible from Jalandhar.

Jalandhar is only about 125 kilometers from the foothills of the Himalayas.

And for 30 years,

No one had seen the Himalayas from Jalandhar.

You couldn't see anything.

And now you could see these majestic mountains with snow-capped peaks along the top of the range and looked quite incredible and everybody was quite stunned.

And so what will you see with this return of people have been noticing a lot more wildlife and birds.

I mean there's been these stories of mountain goats taking over or roaming the streets and towns and wild animals and things.

And it was like everybody's become quite gleeful at seeing all these wonderful natural occurrences again.

And in this regard,

I'm just going to read something.

It was written in New Zealand Herald just when they were preparing or when they had the first day of lifting their level four lockdown,

Going down to level three when people could go out.

So they had written,

Optimists throughout this lockdown have hoped that coming out of the pandemic,

We will have learned a few lessons along the way that will enjoy a gentler,

More meaningful existence as a result of slowing down and connecting with what really matters.

Looking at the cues outside the drive-throughs,

It looks like we're heading straight back to the lives that we left behind.

So I mean that's a rather sad observation and a sad reality.

And what we're seeing now is the longer lockdown goes on,

The amount of both social and more particularly economic disruption that's been caused.

I know the unfortunate reality is we're probably going to be stuck with this reoccurring waves of infection probably for the next 18 months to two years or potentially even for longer.

And of course that's going to cause enormous amounts of strife.

It's going to affect people in ways that we ourselves can't really comprehend,

Not having really gone through anything like this in the past.

When historians speak about the last great or the time of the Great Depression and the way in which it affected generations,

I mean older and younger people alike,

And how it permanently changed people's habits and how people lived and the way in which they approached and thought about life.

And I very much think that something similar will happen if the economic crisis becomes even or we begin to feel the impact.

I mean right now people have been able to sort of ride things through to some degree because many governments,

Not of course only in the most developed parts of the world,

Are subsidizing people to some degree,

Even to a limited degree.

But things are going to sort of like escalate.

And you'll see closures of businesses and all kinds of things that will be rather unpleasant and bring about new realities for people.

And so you've got this kind of like this competition between those who now want to focus on trying to restore the economic life of the world and those that are more concerned about the safety issues and the health issues and trying to find where that balance is.

And I don't think anybody has completely got it yet.

And even when a balance is going to be found,

It is going to have – things are not going to be what they were before.

They're not going to go back to what they were.

And so this is actually a great time or an opportunity for people to start thinking a little bit more – I was going to say philosophically,

But I don't really like to use that word because people think of philosophy as just sitting around thinking about something and something that's sort of detached from life.

The reality is that we all have a philosophy of life whether we accept that reality or not.

It is true.

We have a value system.

We have those things that we find to be important.

We have like a hierarchy of priorities and things of relevance to us.

One of the problems is that we've – as a society,

We've been very much lulled into this situation where over some decades now,

The creation of this consumerism,

This consumer economic system,

The consumer per se has been created.

And tools have been relied upon in the creating of an ideal consumer.

An ideal consumer is fundamentally a greedy little monster who has no thoughts about the future in terms of being frugal or trying to save money.

You should be maxing out your credit card as long as you can keep up with the payment and the pressure that you're feeling means that perhaps you get a second job or you look to improve your employment situation so you earn more money,

All with the idea that the more money I'm spending,

The more opportunities for stimulating my senses by delivering pleasure bursts to my senses that somehow or other this is going to make my life worthwhile.

It's going to make it valuable.

It's going to make it important.

And so these kind of becomes my priority and this is what's driving me.

And anybody that's a little bit thoughtful about – I mean with the huge rise now on unemployment all over the world.

I mean I just read that in India there's like 122 million people out of jobs and most of these people that are out of jobs are from the much lower strata of society where they have little opportunity at all.

And what's going to happen?

How are people going to function?

And in big parts of the world people are going to be now looking at almost like subsistence living.

And so this raises all these questions.

So what is this life all for?

What it's about?

Where should my focus actually be if I got lulled into this somewhat intoxicated state of just perpetual stimulation by consuming things,

Anything and everything around me or all the new stuff that's constantly being brought to my attention that this will give my life meaning.

I'm sorry.

No,

It doesn't because the instant that you are taken away from that,

The instant that you are taken off that drip feed then people feel depressed.

They feel lonely.

They feel isolated.

They go through all these sort of like negative sort of things.

So in this time we are seeing how people are reacting differently.

It's kind of interesting.

Some people have reached out.

I'm running a couple of different classes or courses in the United States and Europe.

And in some societies people are saying that others have become more friendly and caring.

And the reality is yes,

That may be true but a crisis can bring out the best in people but it can also bring out the worst.

And all we have to do is look to these famous fights that were taking place in supermarkets and these outlets in Australia where people were fighting over toilet paper.

I mean like full on fist fighting and swearing at each other and everything like that's going to be something of radical significance that somehow coronavirus is going to cause unimaginable bouts of diarrhea and you're going to need volumes of toilet paper or something.

It's just like what are you thinking?

Why is that becoming a priority?

But we do see people price gouging people that can get their hands on medical supplies,

Something that previously cost a dollar or less than a dollar,

Half a dollar.

Now people are selling for like $20 or $25.

So in these crisis kind of situations you do see both of these possibilities,

Both the worst and also the best in people.

And we will talk about that subject as one of the things that we deal in in this series The Lessons From Lockdown.

But I think the main point I just wanted to establish and just laying the groundwork for this series and where we're going to go with it,

There is a need for some form of a guiding light in your life.

It is really necessary.

One cannot think that oh somehow or other that I'm just going to figure it all out and I'm going to make it so that everything is,

I'm going to find all the answers and everything.

That's not necessarily the case.

If one has had the right kind of training and the right kind of exposure then what we will find is that we go back to that kind of foundation and look and consider things so that we can sort of find our way through stuff and begin to establish or develop and new hierarchy of importance,

Of things that I need to take into my life as some sort of guiding principle.

So I just wanted to let you know in advance,

I think each week we will refer to older wisdom,

Both wisdom as it was known in the Western world and the Greek world.

And I mentioned,

I think it was last week,

Marcus Aurelius and his meditations on life.

What we will definitely be using as a foundation,

Different yogic texts,

Spiritual texts which really were so important for people in previous ages that they served as really beacons of light and beacons of hope that made it so that people could develop benchmarks by which their own thinking,

Their own values,

Their own life could be measured as it were and we can see where we need to make some sort of improvement.

Now many of these things that we are going to be talking about have also been sometimes referred to in different cultures.

The Greeks did it.

The Romans did it and we see it with Christianity.

This term virtues,

Things that were considered virtues,

Things that were highly valuable that we should and not only could but should embrace because they result in a happier and more fulfilling life.

And so I think the message that I would just like to impart tonight is that there is a need for us to be thoughtful about this and to seek some clear steps to begin to actually chart a course.

Where is my life going to go from here?

What do I consider to be the ultimate purpose of my life?

What is my life for?

And how am I going to live in such a way that I can become more peaceful?

I can embrace and accept more beauty and harmony into my life that I can see with some clarity where it is all going and then experience the,

Reap the harvest of making very conscious decisions,

Conscious choices about how I am going to live and what are the types of things that I am going to adopt.

So in this title Lessons from Lockdown,

I would really like,

You know,

I'm encouraging us all to utilize this time and now this,

Even as things begin to open up,

The way in which what we are going to be confronted with,

You know,

To be really accepting of the reality that things are not going to just go back to normal.

They can't,

They can't,

You can't put the genie back in the bottle as it were.

You know,

It's going to take a considerable amount of time.

I mean the airline industry is looking that if you were able to lift all the lockdowns,

That they're going to,

It's going to take them over 10 years to get back to where they were at the very beginning of this year in terms of,

You know,

Their operations and how they're going to manage things.

So I think,

You know,

We need to be prepared for great change.

If our goal is to get everything back to what it was,

That's not really much of a goal because I mean where was it all going anyway?

We're stuck in this horrible situation where people are looking,

Oh my God,

Lockdown and look what's happening to the world.

The air is so good and things are fantastic all over the place and everything's quieter and more peaceful and I'm learning to live a little bit more simply,

You know,

And people are enjoying some of these aspects of it.

But the instant that you flip the switch,

It's all going back and where it was,

You know,

Is heading in a really bad direction that we are going to pay for.

You cannot,

There is no free lunch.

There's no free ride.

You pay for everything.

And we are living in this very artificial world of this,

You know,

Just mindless and endless consumption that's not really serving any actual end.

It's not making people more peaceful and more happy and experiencing that which is more beautiful or anything.

You know,

It's having quite the opposite effect where we're seeing,

You know,

These,

We're going to bring great and gradual but great catastrophe upon human life.

I mean this has happened since time immemorial.

You see people establish civilizations that grow and,

You know,

And huge cities that develop out of them.

And then all of a sudden they just disappear.

And I can remember in some people at an archaeological dig in,

I think it was Iraq,

Where they found like five cities,

One on top of the other,

That,

You know,

After they survived for a long period of time and prospered and then they were just utterly devastated and became covered over and covered with earth.

And then another civilization built another city on top of that and then that was wiped out.

Then another one on,

I mean five in a row.

So we have this long history of being careless,

Living for the day,

Being intoxicated and very prideful and thinking,

Oh,

We're so fantastic,

We're so advanced,

We're getting so far down the road with things,

We are indestructible.

And then having to face the natural consequences of creating such an artificial imposition upon natural world and the tremendous consequences that come from doing that,

You know,

Things will always tend to move into balance.

And that move into balance can have a very destructive and devastating effect upon humanity.

But it's like we don't learn.

We don't learn from our history.

We just,

You know,

Devil may care attitude where it's all about eat,

Drink and be merry,

You know,

Because we can.

Not because we should,

But because we can.

And we have become very driven by this idea.

Just because we can do something doesn't mean that we should.

We need something far more important to be driving us,

Something that's guiding us with a lot more clarity.

So we will deal with some of these issues over the next couple of weeks.

And hopefully it will be beneficial for us.

But there is this need for us to be more thoughtful and to live a more spiritually directed life.

And it's not all doom and gloom.

As I said,

You know,

Crisis sometimes produces,

What do you call it?

You see the best in people coming up,

But you can also see the worst in people.

But it is very nice when you do see the best in people manifesting.

So I think one of the things I would really encourage you to read.

There's a famous poem that was written,

I think it was in 1927,

Desiderata.

And it's a really amazing poem because it contains some really important principles.

And I'll just leave you with one little part of it where they're talking about.

He says,

Exercise caution in your business affairs,

For the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to want virtue.

I'm sorry,

I'll read that again.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is.

Many persons strive for high ideals,

And everywhere life is full of heroism.

That's a very nice observation that,

You know,

The reality is and you see it.

You know,

I've had an extraordinary life.

I've lived in different parts of the world.

I've been in places where there were revolutions,

Overthrowing governments.

I've seen massive volcanic eruptions,

The biggest one,

The one that affected the world more than anything else in the last century.

Massive earthquakes and witnessed the destructions,

Great typhoons and floods and epidemics in my life.

I've seen many things.

And something that's always so encouraging and wonderful is how there are many people that actually really rise to the occasion and become much.

They exhibit actually heroic qualities,

Self-sacrificing qualities.

And in doing that,

When you see whole communities pulling together and making tremendous sacrifice,

There is the sense of joyfulness and having some purpose and a value and just wonderful experiences that begin to manifest.

So you know,

We should not dwell on the negative or the unfortunate ways in which we can all act.

We have a higher and a lower nature.

We can allow that lower nature to overcome us and to drive us.

Or we can seek to cultivate our actual spiritual or higher nature where we can really find value and meaning in things.

So we will deal with that in the coming next few talks at least.

And I hopefully will bring some very nice quotations to the table from yogic texts,

From texts,

Scriptures that hopefully people will find very inspiring and really help them in their life in terms of being a torchlight and guiding us.

Thank you so very much.

And of course,

You know,

As we always state that the thing that's going to really make that difference,

The thing that's going to make it so that we can really cultivate these higher qualities,

That we can become more centered on that which is,

You know,

Very valuable.

It's going to be this process of meditation upon these spiritual sounds that are utterly transformational.

That if you make a daily habit,

You slow down,

You take time to breathe and to engage in this meditative process,

Then it really begins to awaken this inner and wonderful spiritual nature that we all possess.

And it makes it so that we become stronger and more able to live a spiritually directed life and of course,

Reap the wonderful benefits from that.

So I'm going to be chanting the mantra Hari Bol Nithai Gor.

So please join me.

Hari Bol Nithai Gor Nithai Gor Hari Vol Hari Vol Nithai Gor,

Hari Vol Hari Vol Hari Vol Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Hari Po Nithai Po,

Nithai Po,

Hari Po Thank you for watching!

Reviews

Extremely thoughtful and healing.