COVID-19 Decoded

Why the coronavirus is going to affect many and is a good thing

The outbreak of the severe respiratory disease associated with a novel infectious agent has alarmed the world. WHO (World Health Organization) has given the name “COVID-19” to the virus. As the virus spreads to become a global pandemic, WHO’s spokesman warns: “If the world doesn’t want to wake up and consider this enemy virus as Public Enemy Number 1, I don’t think we will learn from our lessons.”

What is it that the world needs to wake up to the advent of COVID-19?

The message below, which was channeled from higher intelligence beyond the human realm, attempts to answer this question.

The channeled message from higher intelligence as to why this is happening

Buddhism taught of the “beginner’s mind”, which refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions, just as a beginner would approach a study. Such is the case even when the person is adept at the subject matter. Before we instinctively condemn COVID-19, let us take on the beginner’s mind and consider from a fresh perspective the following channeled message as to why this is happening:

“It is about “sync, reset.”

Like mobile phones and computers, after a period of operation, they accumulate a lot of useless information, files, and viruses, which interfere with useful information. This also occupies memory and affects the operation speed and even hangs the machine, which needs to “reset/restart.”

Planet Earth operates according to its own “blueprint.” When creativity leads to excessive deviation from this blueprint and this in turn affects human and other physical and spiritual evolution, it becomes imperative to eliminate those that are unwanted, harmful and hindering this evolution process through synchronization. So in order to return the state of affairs closer to the original, neutral blueprint, it is then deemed necessary to reboot in order to continue with this evolutionary process.

On the personal side, after a long period of excursion/operation, deviation from the “blueprint” will undoubtedly occur. For example, the “blueprint” of the healthy self is always considered to be in a state of balance. Still, the so-called real life with its many compromises leads to deviation from this path and leads to sickness. When this happens, you need to synchronize with the blueprint of “self,” and then “restart” in order to return to the neutral status.

The year 2020 is when planet Earth hits the reset button. Inevitably, it will lead to chaos for a period of time, but individuals can take advantage of this opportunity to begin again and start to shift their focus from their outer/physical self and start looking within. Here they have the opportunity to set things right and continue to grow on a more balanced path.”

This channeled message was received on the 26th January 2020. Since then, further guidance has been received from higher intelligence. The following sheds light on the deeper meaning of the channeled message.

Planet Earth has by far diverged from its original blueprint, by which life was meant to be sustained

Young people have often been taught that we were born resembling a blank sheet of paper, meaning that all humans are born with the ability to literally become anything or anyone. As we mature and get wiser, we come to realize that this is not the case. Our differing innate character and responses to situations begin to surface over time. Siblings who were brought up in the same environment have vastly different personalities and reactions. Some are considered extroverts, while others are introverts. Some respond emotionally to stressful situations or events in their lives, whilst others are more rational and level headed. Most people tend to remain the same throughout their given lifetime on all levels of their being.

Some of us have even met with serendipitous encounters which took their lives in directions they could not have possibly planned. On occasion, people will meet and attract new people into their lives by chance, and that person turns out to be their soul mate. Others take on a part-time job which turns into a life-long career. In these moments, it would feel like things have just magically fallen into place, or, on the other side of the scale when things are not balanced, everything seems to fall apart. It is in these moments that we realize that life is not haphazard and random at all — that each of us came into this realm with a specific “blueprint,” with a particular trajectory along which our lives were meant to evolve.

Planet Earth is the vessel to all life forms as we know it, and just like all of us come to this life with a specific blueprint, Planet Earth has a particular collective blueprint as well — where it can be said that in the grand scheme of things, life on Earth was meant to be sustained and evolve along a specific evolutionary path. A slight change in these life-sustaining energies and conditions, like the chemical composition of oxygen or the orbital path of the planets, would have dire consequences that could end all life on our planet. It is not a chance occurrence that the conditions which make life possible came together, that there is a blueprint for the collective by which lives on Earth were meant to be sustained, a trajectory along which lives on Earth were meant to evolve.

The channeled message is saying that what humans have done to planet Earth has caused too much of a deviation from its original blueprint. This divergence has arisen from humanity’s misuse of creativity, such as inventing highly intensive mining methods to exploit planet Earth’s natural resources with adverse consequences, or farming methods that subjugate domesticated animals to a miserable existence in order for us to have a constant supply of meat.

When this happens, like the innate self-healing capacity of the human body, the inherent restorative propensities on planet Earth set off a series of events which would bring the status quo closer to the original neutral position. “In sync” means two processes becoming “in-step.” What humanity has done to our world has taken it “out-of-step” with the original blueprint. An adjustment is necessary for a reversal to the pace that the original blueprint intended.

Unsuspected by the rational mind, COVID-19 is the ambassador that the universe is sending planet Earth to get back on its corrective track. There is an analogous relationship between the outbreak of COVID-19 and the perilous outlook for planet Earth. We will come to that soon, but before then, let’s first take a look as to why this analogous relationship exists in the first place.

COVID-19’s symbolic meaning

As COVID-19 becomes a full-blown pandemic, the spreading virus has become a nightmare for the Chinese community and soon the rest of the world.

Alas, we have a nightmare only because we are dreaming.

The Buddhists say that “Life is but a dream,” which has a profound connotation. Religious meaning often lends itself to varying interpretations in a different context. A Buddhist saying like such has often-times been interpreted from the Western rational perspective as meaning that everything that appears to be so substantial in this world is a mere appearance and ultimately illusionary. Here we have a philosophical viewpoint that has little to do with our daily existence.

So, let us take a step back and try to see things from a perspective that everyone can relate to: everyone dreams during the night. Objects in dreams appear to actually exist out there rather than being created by the mind. Because of this, fear can arise if the objects in our dreams seem threatening. When we realize we are dreaming and glimpse the true illusionary nature of the objects in our dreams, the fear ceases. When we wake up, the same thing happens. We realize the mind created the nightmare, and through this realization our fear falls away.

In truth, objects in dreams are not real things that exist out there but symbols that reveal something about ourselves or carry a message. Seen in this context, what is it that we need to see through the COVID-19 nightmare to heed the real message that it brings?

Modern science suggests worldly phenomena, including life itself, are merely the results of chance occurrences that are entirely explicable in terms of probabilities and rational processes. Many people, however, at some turning point in life, have experienced startling coincidences where they find themselves compelled to reflect upon the possible meaning and question whether there is a hidden message underlying the seemingly random events that present themselves.

According to the ancient mystics’ alternative worldview, the world reflects the presence of a higher regulating intelligence that permeates and transcends material reality. All things partake in a grand design and order. As such, seemingly diverse phenomena are interwoven by a complex web of subtle correspondences and hidden connections that link them together through a deeper resonance of meaning. Consequently, there are fewer genuinely random events or coincidences than we had thought, and these so-called chance occurrences could divulge patterns of meaningfulness within the life of an individual or society.

In short, the symbolic perspective considers life to be a living book of symbols, which when decoded, reveal hidden patterns of world events that are overlooked in our contemporary preoccupation with literal meanings and surface interpretations. Mass-scale events affecting many could therefore have a meaningful significance which is not apparent on the surface. Such a symbolic worldview is in stark contrast with the worldly and literal perspective embraced by modern societies.

With this introduction, let us decode the symbolic messages that COVID-19 brings.

The analogous relationship behind the coronavirus outbreak

Message No.1 — We need to value and conserve planet Earth’s natural resources

“All our beds were occupied at the time,” a Wuhan epicenter medical staff member told the media. The shortage of hospital beds in individual Chinese provinces to accommodate the increasing number of patients is so severe that the Chinese authorities organized the erection of multiple new hospitals from the ground up in a matter of a few days, to meet the demands.

Medical professionals such as doctors and nurses in the Wuhan epicenter hospitals face dire shortages, as they use tape to patch up battered protective masks, repeatedly reuse goggles meant for a single use and continue to wrap their shoes in plastic bags for lack of specialized coverings.

Outside of the medical profession, the coronavirus outbreak has set off a run on protective masks, drugs and food across China and specific cities. The New York Times reported medical suppliers around the globe scrambling to find alternative sources to cope with the demand. Popular mask sellers on Amazon are sold out, and even the smallest producers are caught in the surge.

Hong Kong and other Chinese cities in close vicinity to the epicenter have seen intensified competition for resources to defend against the coronavirus outbreak. In order to equip themselves with sanitary face masks, people queue up for hours in front of pharmacies and health supply stores, only to be turned away when the pharmacies run out. Counterfeit face masks, and even used masks repackaged as new, run amok in the market as demand soars amid coronavirus fears. Likewise, antiseptic hand wash and even tissues are swept away from department stores.

A media headline reads, “Coronavirus Panic: Some store shelves emptied in the UK, Australia, Czech. Republic & South Korea,” as other countries follow and people scramble for groceries and food reserves to hoard, in anticipation of a protracted period of store closure during the imminent community outbreak of the deadly virus.

The parallel analogy

These “supply shortages” and the “frenzy seizure” (of hospital beds, protective masks, drugs, food, essential goods, etc.) are a mirror reflection — in an antipode fashion — of humanity’s relentless exploitation of natural resources as if there will be no end to Nature’s supply.

In the sci-fi movie “The Matrix,” the villain spoke disparagingly of the human species in this way:

“Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply until every natural resource is consumed, and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.”

Ironically, the universe does give us a new, highly infectious virus to show us the analogy that humans are to this planet like an illness is to an organism.

Viruses can’t do much by themselves but need a host, another living organism to prevail and allow them multiply. They get inside the host’s cells, take it over, and use the host’s cells’ materials to replicate itself, to such a degree that the cell then bursts and infects other cells around it, making the organism sick or even bringing on death.

COVID-19 is a parallel analogy in the sense that planet Earth is the host of all humanity. Yet, we are behaving like a virus as we plunder all of planet Earth’s natural resources to fulfill our incessant needs and even fads like the latest cell phone models and fashion trends. Like a virus copying itself, industrialization and mass production reign to pour out copies of more of this and that, leaving planet Earth ravaged.

The over-exploitation of natural resources has resulted in momentous consequences like the disappearance of habitats essential for flora and fauna and, therefore, the extinction of species. The degradation and erosion of fertile soil affects the Earth’s agricultural yield. The burning of fossil fuels contributes to air and water pollution and global warming.

COVID-19 foreshadows the fast approaching point-of-no-return, meaning the culmination of irreversible devastation to planet Earth caused by human activities when suffering and destruction will escalate exponentially. The paralysis of commercial activities resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak is representative of the call for a halt to the continuous exploitation of natural resources, so that planet Earth will have a chance of reprieve and to recuperate.

How did we come to this?

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” — Mahatma Gandhi

In the late 18th century, Adam Smith authored “The Wealth of Nations,” which is the first account of what builds a nation’s wealth and laid the foundation for the birth of capitalism and free-market economics in many countries. Smith’s radical insight was that a nation’s wealth is the stream of goods and services that it creates, and he argued that the way to maximize this was not to restrict a nation’s productive capacity but to set it free. People’s self-interest would then promote a greater prosperity rather than through stringent government regulations.

Around the same time, Thomas Jefferson enshrined the “pursuit of happiness” as a basic human right in the Declaration of Independence. In modern materialistic societies, the pursuit of happiness became the euphemism for the pursuit of wealth, which provides the means to the much-popularized “good life” or “quality of life”. This humanistic vision has been widely accepted in modern times as a worthwhile aspiration of life, and over time has blended with other idealistic concepts like the “American Dream,” which advocates the freedom to pursue prosperity, success and upward social mobility with few barriers. The “American Dream” has been looked upon and idolized as a landmark of advancement for every nation.

Fair enough, but then Smith conceived his economic model at a time when the global population was only a fraction of what the world’s is today. Smith’s model is inadequate for the modern world in that the world’s natural resources are not inexhaustible but limited. Non-renewable resources in nature are limited because their regeneration involves the passage of many years. Natural resources are essential for the survival of all species, but if resources are consumed at a faster rate than their natural regeneration, they can and will be exhausted.

There are also complications that these great minds of Smith and Jefferson couldn’t have foreseen. Market forces are ultimately driven by the invisible hand behind collective human activities, and when capitalism sets them free, humanity’s proclivity to look after self-interests goes towards excess — always at the cost of the greater good. The “American Dream” became associated with consumerism, which encourages the acquisition of products and services in ever-increasing amounts. As people buy more and consume more, mass producers profit handsomely from the insatiable pursuit of self-gratification. Reported earnings grow, share prices soar, and the economy flourishes. Everybody wants to keep it coming.

But this materialistic “rags to riches” version of the good life was never Jefferson’s vision of happiness, himself being a man who rejects over-indulgence and advocated peace of mind through moderation. Likewise, the American Dream encompasses such a humanistic view of the individual’s entitlement to success through sacrifice, risk-taking and hard work, regardless of the social class into which he is born. All these became submerged by advocacy for the much-popularized “good life” in modern societies.

And we vouched for the governments that keep the status quo going. Like the book title “Why We Get the Wrong Politicians,” we vote for politicians who appeal to our instant gratification by promising lower taxes, more amenities, more comfortable living, etc. To such a degree that the world’s most pressing issues of environmental conservation and climate change are given only lip service, if not altogether absent from the government’s agenda. But we won’t have the much-popularized “good life” or “quality of life” when the conditions in Nature which make life possible in the first place vanish.

Making way for futuristic societies

Have you seen a black swan before? In the old times, people assumed all swans were white because that is what they came across. To the disbelief of the masses, one day, a swan with black feathers came along and changed everything. In the modern day, “black swan” became the metaphor to describe those events which lie outside the realm of any regular expectations but tend to have a severe impact. The term “black swan” points to the fragility of the system of humanity’s thought as a whole, where it wrongly describes the notion of the improbable. The mistake was made because nothing in the past can convincingly point to the possibility of otherwise.

In recent decades, we have seen increasing incidents of the financial crisis, economic bubble, and political upheaval, which have put the human social systems that people rely upon under a huge amount of pressure. Lehman Brothers, the global investment banking giant with 25,000 employees went bankrupt overnight when everyone thought it couldn’t. In other words, we have seen more black swans with failures of the human systems which people have taken for granted as proven — thus highlighting that we are skating on thin ice by relying on systems that are becoming worn out.

COVID-19 is yet another black swan in the sense that when advancement in medical science appears to have everything under control, we are caught by a new global virus that is far more infectious than the plague centuries ago. Also, in typical black swan manner, COVID-19’s disruption to global commerce, travel, livelihood, social interaction, etc., highlights the fragility of humanity’s existing systems and, thereby, call for betterment.

Humanity’s existing system of resource allocation is one of those fragile systems that are built upon short-sightedness. Over-fishing has resulted in the decline of the Menhaden fish population, which is a vital link in the maritime food chain, to less than 10% of historical levels. Just like we need to work on sustainable fishing practice rather than stock-piling them as canned food on supermarket shelves, the system needs to be revamped to prioritize the sustainable harvesting and deployment of natural resources to halt our virus-like constant depletion of such.

The year 2020 sync/reset time for planet Earth will set the stage for the evolution of human society from the prevailing capitalist structure to more of an egalitarian distribution of goods and sharing of resources.

Humanity’s current economic system requires most of us to work at a job to have an income source, which enables us to have material possessions and afford sustenance resources like meals and accommodation. In turn, the sustenance resources keep us alive and well, so that we can do our jobs. Many people are finding this merry-go-round to be unsatisfactory. In the wake to rid themselves of life’s excesses in favor of focusing on what really matters, they have started to embrace minimalism, which advocates intentionally living with only the means that support one’s purpose.

Likewise, humanity’s consciousness will evolve into a new dimension to prepare for the advent of a new age. The emerging ascendency in collective consciousness advocates the departure from the capitalistic income-sustenance cycle to free up humanity for conscious evolution. In place of the existing capitalist way of life, the new world order will have humanity putting their creativity to work at improving technologies and make the world a better place. All the while, the individual gets a proportion of the sustenance resources he needs, for contributing to the greater good.

The overriding capitalistic dominance of money as the deciding factor for an individual’s entitlement to sharing in society’s resources will lose much of its grip in futuristic societies, alongside humanity’s misuse of creativity to pursue self-interests at the cost of the greater good and the devastation of planet Earth.

Hence, COVID-19’s disruption is most evident in systems involving big monies, like the stock market, global commerce, travel, entertainment, education and medicine. It may not be apparent how monies are included in education. Still, the so-called pursuit of knowledge in contemporary societies has mostly become the buying of academic qualifications to advance oneself in the business world. As for medical care, businesses and pharmaceutical companies alike benefit from overflowing the market with food products and supplies that involve health hazards and produced by processes that pollute the living environment.

The arrival of the futuristic society depends on the collective ascension of the human consciousness. Most likely, this society won’t be fully formed in this generation or the next. However, one of the forces pushing us towards the futuristic society becoming a reality will begin to take shape in a few years: Barter, which refers to the reciprocal exchange where participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services without using money as the medium of exchange. For example, if I have salt and you have metal, and each of us wants some of the other’s commodities, then I can trade in some of my salt for your metal.

Barter is not new but has been replaced in recent centuries by the use of money, which has the advantage of objectivity in the measurement of value and efficiency in the transaction. Barter has many disadvantages, and for barter to occur, both parties must happen to have what the other wants. Often it is not easy for parties to come together on a consensus of value, which makes barter inefficient.

The Internet changes this and enables the revival of barter by providing high visibility, easy setup, seller protection, broad exposure, and multiple participants. Also, e-commerce via mobile devices has become the norm, and some barter-like trades have already appeared in global e-commerce like eBay and Carousell. Development is still fermenting but technologies will enable barter to take on a novel resurrection. The new barter will become the launching platform enabling the futuristic society to become a reality.

As such, COVID-19 is amongst the forerunners to highlight the fragility of humanity’s existing systems and, therefore, set the stage for making the necessary changes. People looking back in time will see that this was the turning point in history where the seed of the futuristic society was planted. Meanwhile, before the arrival of the futuristic society, some existing elements of humanity’s social systems will be phased out, for the current system is already in enough trouble and will eventually crumble by itself. The bigger the system, and the longer it has been around, the more disastrous the consequences that will ensue as it downfalls. COVID-19, by hastening the onset of the breakdown; therefore, will conversely reduce the extent of the disaster.

Message No.2 — We need to reflect on our values in relating to fellow humans

“Building relationships is not about transactions. It’s about connections.” — Michelle Tillis Lederman

COVID-19 is highly infectious and governments in different countries have enacted various isolation protocols to contain the spread of the virus.

The Chinese government moved to create mass quarantine camps around the Wuhan epicenter. Lockdown of the whole city followed to halt the spread of the virus. “Without a special reason, city residents should not leave Wuhan,” declared the authorities, as they send surveillance drones to usher citizens back home to stay inside. Others were reported to have been taken away by force to detention camps in a draconian crackdown.

In various countries outside of China, governments have advised people to isolate themselves and reduce exposure by refraining from attending social gatherings. Social distancing measures have been enacted, such as the temporary closing of non-essential public buildings, museums, schools, and universities. In the crowded city of Hong Kong, businesses have requested their employees to stay at home and work from there. Italy and some regions of the United States have closed all schools over the virus outbreak.

Control over visitors from other countries followed as governments enforced closed borders or imposed mandatory quarantine for all travelers entering from other countries. Home quarantine was advised for returning travelers. Tourists found themselves stranded at airports or on cruise ships, or detained in foreign countries.

Israel became the first country to urge its citizens to refrain from international travel altogether. At the same time, Italy locked down more than a quarter of its population in order to halt the spread of the coronavirus across Europe. In an unprecedented move, Spain has locked down the whole country for 15 days and only allowed people to leave their homes to buy food and medicine, to go to work, and to care for the elderly, etc.

On a personal level, the spreading epidemic has led to the isolation of the individual. On the macro level, it has led to the erection of walls between countries.

The parallel analogy

All these measures of social distancing, closed borders, quarantine, lockdown of cities and even of a whole country are different forms of “isolation”. The sweeping isolation to contain COVID-19 is a mirrored reflection of the elusive sense of separation in modern societies, as, little by little, contemporary societies have erected invisible barriers to humans’ making meaningful connections.

Human interaction in modern societies has become increasingly detached as we resort to technologies like cell phones, emails, and instantaneous chat rooms for communication. We are losing the physical presence of the other person and the personal touch that marks humanity. The internet and mobile technologies have undermined the meaningfulness of the interactions we have with others, disconnecting us from the world around us, and leading to a sense of isolation.

Yet, to connect with another person is more than responding to disembodied text over a WhatsApp photo, but to see and interact with the other person as a real person. Technologies are ill equipped at best to convey personal qualities of unique personal signatures, mannerisms, sentiments, vulnerabilities, etc. Studies have observed that the mere presence of mobile phones in a socio-physical milieu has the potential to divide consciousness between those proximate in a live setting. When couples conversed without a phone present, their conversations resulted in greater empathy.

But there is a profound sense that we do not see the other as a real person: we have lost our moral compass in dealing with the other person. Excessive individualism, while encouraging pride in oneself and standing up for what one believes in, undermines the value of the other person and, alongside this, the proper treatment of the other person. There is an unspoken acquiescence in modern societies that one can handle the other person in any way that suits oneself, so long as one does not violate the law — or one can even dodge the law without being caught.

In other words, the emerging social norm is that the fair treatment of the other person is out of necessity, rather than guided by our inner conscience regarding honest and empathic treatment of the other. Discordant words and behavior abound, from business lies to outright deceit, while the media makes up sensational stories from half-truths. Many look upon such pretense as some kind of wit that advances oneself in modern society.

What follows is that relationships in modern societies tend to become superficial and when people do come together, the shallow way of relating to one another could not shift gear instantaneously. Thus, there is a prevalence of social interactions consisting of chit-chat, flirting, trifling and empty talk in clamorous streets and bars. The commotion in these typical social settings is a distraction from the emptiness of the exchange. Yet, as someone once said, you will not see the real person until time and effort will slowly uncover him. It is when the veil of superficial encounters that has been pulled over your eyes has been lifted that you perceive the true nature of a person.

The Chinese reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak is a caricature of the invisible barrier in the interactions of contemporary societies. To begin with, the Chinese did not have the most glorious reputation as regards empathy. One UK expatriate living in China described it in this way to the media: “In China, when there is an accident, or somebody falls off a bike, people look blankly on and wonder more about how it happened and if there is money involved, rather than whether or not the person got hurt.”

As the coronavirus spread, the Chinese people expelled fellow citizens coming from the Wuhan epicenter as suspected potential virus carriers. Even those without symptoms were ostracized, such that the outcast Wuhan people were forced to stick together. “They don’t care at all if Wuhan people infect each other,” the people told the media. The New York Times reported that “China, desperate to stop the Coronavirus, turned neighbor against neighbor,” as people compete for sustenance resources and went on to set up surveillance systems to report on one another.

The Chinese’ turning against one another is a parody of the secret harboring of animosity in modern societies, which stems from the belief that the advancement of self-interests often comes at the expense of the other person. The Chinese people entangled in the COVID-19 scenario are, in a strange sense, desolate and all alone even when they are surrounded by their neighbors everywhere. It echoes the nebulous feeling that one sometimes experiences of being alone in a modern world where everybody minds and tends to his own business.

The media reported that authorities turned to familiar authoritarian techniques to hunt down people from Wuhan, like setting up dragnets and asking neighbors to inform on one another. An American political commentator said: “The forced detention and arrest, they are happening every day in China. The life of a person doesn’t matter. As Ivan Drago said: If he dies, he dies”. Likewise, in modern societies, people care less about whether the other person lives or dies.

Healing the modern world’s separation in solitude

“To be left alone is the most precious thing one can ask of the modern world.” ― Anthony Burgess

COVID-19 induced isolation also works in another way: isolation is a time when we are confined and have lost touch with the outside world. There is another form of enforced confinement widely practiced in modern societies — imprisonment. Whether it is by force or voluntary, the COVID-19 induced isolation of the individual is a form of imprisonment.

A prison is where the prisoner spends time in his own world, facing only himself and what he has done. One of the original purposes of incarceration is to give the inmate a chance to contemplate his crime and repent. Likewise, the COVID-19 induced isolation is an invitation for humanity to spend more time with oneself and shift from the outer/physical representation to one of inner/self-examination.

The outward quest for power, prestige, and possession has become dominant in our world. Humanity’s narrow focus on the conquest of the external world translates into an over-reliance on external artifices of money, possession, identities, others’ endorsement, etc., to bolster the sense of personal worth and security. We are thus ignoring the importance of discovering the individual’s intrinsic self-worth and collective value — that one belongs to a group, and there is value beyond personal aggrandizement.

Buddhism teaches that all of life — including things that we desire like success, fame, and wealth — is transitory and will ultimately fall away. If we depend on what is reflected in the outer circumstances to have peace and fulfillment, we will always be like a cat chasing its tail. While we can still work on the external conditions to improve our lives — getting a promotion, going to the gym, losing weight — all are good, but the more meaningful changes often come from the inner reckoning, realizing one’s self worth and remembering how it is to love unconditionally again.

In other words, true fulfillment is a by-product of finding oneself; anything else that relies on external artifices is self-deception. The COVID-19 induced isolation is calling for a balance to the prevalent one-sided outward quest. It is an invitation to a time of solitude to reflect upon our inner values, how we have been leading our lives, and how we relate to each other. A solitary time of isolation helps the inner consciousness to rediscover the true essence of inner fulfillment and the quest of value fulfillment through self-actualization.

Some people use this time of solitary confinement to rediscover their interests, like completing unfinished paintings at home, reading books they have been putting off, and spending time with children. They are experiencing the simple joys that bring satisfaction to life and affirming themselves in the process. The derivation of intrinsic satisfaction and achievement through value fulfillment is an essential attribute of the evolved consciousness, and this solitary time is helping people come to that.

A time of solitude is also when one’s self turns inwards to listen to one’s own thoughts, having peace of mind, and to nurture oneself. The turning inwards is about the personal growth, self-ascension, and consciousness evolution that is necessary to prepare for the dawn of the new age and humanity’s new dimension in conscious evolution.

In isolation, we are given a chance to turn our backs on the superficial human encounters in modern societies and begin to gain clarity. As COVID-19 spreads its influence, people can’t visit their friends and relatives anymore for fear of infections. Ironically, as people withdraw into solitude, they begin to see the intrinsic value of the other person and the deeper connections between them. They hold out for the day of reunion. The diamond has been separated from the ruff, and genuine concern for the other person grows on a personal level.

The new age of consciousness recognizes that the advancement of oneself need not come at the expense of another. It is through the individual’s ascension in consciousness that it culminates in the collective progress of the human race. As COVID-19 spreads to every corner of the world, people of different cultures, languages, and beliefs need to communicate and work together to resolve the pandemic. As such, it is calling for dropping some of those barriers that one nation has erected against another.

For these reasons, COVID-19 begins healing modern society’s separation on both personal and collective levels.

Message No.3 — We need to co-exist with other species in a benign manner

As scientists raced to identify the source of COVID-19, various possibilities were covered, ranging from where wild animals could have passed on the virus to it being an engineered biological weapon. One thing that stands out, though, is that wild animals — specifically bats — play a significant role. For once, therefore, another species has become the crucible to wreaking havoc for modern society.

Be that as it may, it is nothing compared to what humanity has done to other species.

For countless generations, bears, wolves, and other beasts have been frightening predators for smaller carnivores, like European badgers, because they are prey for those larger carnivores. Yet, studies a few years ago demonstrate that smaller carnivores have learned to perceive humans as far more frightening than these. The fear the beasts inspire in these smaller carnivores pales in comparison to that caused by humans so that merely hearing the sound of people in conversation induced in the smaller carnivores such fearful reactions as entirely withdrawing from feeding.

We are talking about far-reaching, species-wide reckoning — how do wild animals learn to become so fearful of humans, when many of them have never had a close encounter with humans before?

To answer this question, we draw on another Buddhist teaching: “All sentient beings are equal,” which advocates refraining from harming other beings by recognizing that all sentient life shares the same fundamental consciousness. This Buddhist saying does not sound right to the rational mind, though, as evidently, all sentient beings are not equal, much like you won’t think you and your neighbor’s dog are equals.

Before we dismiss this Buddhist saying as just another philosophical posit, let us consider this: the physiology of all sentient beings is made up of cells. It is through cellular chemistry that life is sustained. Leading-edge scientific research suggests that deeply structured quantum fields carry the biological information of the cell, and deep quantum chemistry gives the cell all the qualities and abilities related to consciousness.

Then the above Buddhist saying begins to make sense: at the deep quantum level, we share the same cell consciousness as all other sentient beings. All sentient beings ultimately spring from the deep ocean of unconsciousness, and at this deep level, we are all connected.

In the 1950s, scientists conducted an experiment on monkeys on a Japanese Island. The scientists found that when the number of monkeys learning a new behavior had reached a critical level, all other monkeys on the same island would spontaneously learn to exhibit the same response. Not only monkeys from the same island but the monkeys on nearby islands also spontaneously behaved the same, even though they were not near one another. The scientists, therefore, deduced that there is some sort of underlying “bio-field” at a deep level that connects all living creatures.

Thus, the species-wide reckoning of humans as the most fearful adversary in the animal world becomes a possibility: the immense pain and suffering that humans have inflicted upon other species has left a mark on the bio-field, and, as all members of the same species partake in the underlying bio-field of its own species on the deep unconsciousness level, they have come to aware of what humans have done to fellow members of the same species and become so fearful of them.

The retort from Nature / the bio-field

In recent years, there was a surge in both the number and scale of animal-related epidemics like bird flu, swine fever, mad cow disease, and viruses from bats and other wildlife. SARS is known to have originated in animals. MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) has a lot to do with animals as well. COVID-19 has joined the list as the most infectious animal-related virus.

The surge in animal-related epidemics is a retort from Nature/the bio-field, as a result of humanity’s excessive tampering with Nature and the massive pain and suffering we have inflicted upon other animal species.

Planet Earth is the vessel not only for humans but also for all other species. Mother Nature is uniquely beautiful in that she provides nurture for all life forms. There is an inherent blueprint that life on Earth was meant to be sustained for other animal species, like breathing fresh air, roaming in pastures, basking under the sun, rooting around in the soil, building nests, and breeding in the natural environment. Carnivores prey on other animals, herbivores prey on vegetation, and balance is thereby maintained in the ecological system. This is how animals were meant to interact with nature and lead their lives.

Modernity’s domesticated animals’ existence, however, is one of total dejection and pain. Predations in Nature do not involve humanity’s creative use of cold-blooded artifice in the name of productivity and efficiency, like stuffing domesticated animals into tight metal crates and dismembering them with machinery while still conscious. By estimates, globally, there are 82 billion land-based livestock raised for food. At no other time in history have so many animals died or suffered so much throughout their lives.

These mass-scale suffering is not confined to domesticated animals. Global wildlife species are disappearing at an alarming rate due to unsustainable human activities, causing habitat loss and degradation, pollution, and climate change. Thus, humanity has become the tyranny that causes not only immense suffering by subjugating animals to a torturous existence but also by bringing about the extinction of species.

The subjugating of billions of animals every year to an excruciating existence for the sake of humanity’s system of controlling food supplies and prices violates Nature’s inherent blueprint for the animals. This is the same for where humanity has tampered with animals like genetic engineering; mass-scale artificial reproduction; and cross-breeding for bringing to the market more quantities and varieties of meat products, pets, and fur. In all these cases, the animals suffer unnecessarily behind the scene, bogus numbers and varieties above Nature’s allowance become inundate, and the ecological balance is affected.

Animals have a much lower level of intelligence than humans, but just like humans, they are conscious beings and have sentience. Because all sentience arises from the same underlying ocean of unconsciousness at the deep quantum level, all sentient beings are equal on the inner/subconscious level. Thus, we see that shortly after its outbreak, COVID-19 has infected various persons of privileged position and fame like royal family members, celebrities, NBA players, EU officials and government heads. It is showing us that all sentient beings are equal and there is no bias, regardless of one’s status.

Humanity’s overwhelming injustice towards other species is therefore like a rift in the underlying unified substratum that demands to redress the balance. Because humanity’s abuse of creativity has caused an excessive aberration with the inherent blueprint by which life on Earth for other species was meant to be sustained, Nature/the bio-field retorted in the form of bird flu, swine fever, viruses from bats and wildlife, etc., as a warning that things have gone much too far.

Action and reaction — the pendulum swung too far to one side always comes back to the other side. The retort from Nature/the bio-field in the form of an animal-related epidemic is calling for humanity’s return to Nature’s way and benign co-existence with other species.

Modernity’s massive cruelties inflicted upon other species

Modern societies run on greed, while animals cannot speak for themselves and are fertile ground for manipulation. Animals suffer behind the scene when they are used for their milk or eggs, killed for their skin, subjected to painful cosmetics and household-product tests, or forced to entertain humans. Amongst all of modern society’s abuses of animals, its intensive method of domesticating animals to control meat supplies and prices — commonly referred to as factory farming — is the most significant cause of animal suffering on a massive scale.

Animal husbandry in the past was harnessed primarily in a natural environment, in the setting of the farm. As the human population exploded and profitability took over, factory farming became dominant. Unfortunately, it is through keeping animals in deplorable conditions that practitioners maximize production, keep the cost down, and squeeze out more profit.

Cattle, pigs, etc. are crammed by the thousands into filthy, windowless sheds and stuffed into wire cages, metal crates, and other torturous devices. The enclosures are so tight that they make it impossible for the animals to turn around, forcing them to stand with painful swollen joints or lie down on hard floors swamped by their urine and manure. Corpses of fellow animals engulfed in maggots are left to rot amongst the living ones.

These unfortunate souls are tortured from birth to death by being left to starve, are beaten, burned alive, or dismembered while conscious. They live miserable existences deprived of sun, fresh air, and natural stimuli — what Nature intends for them — only to end in slow, painful deaths where they have withered away because of malnutrition, wounds, and diseases.

Many others face the violent death of being slaughtered, as improperly stunned cattle are shackled and hoisted onto an overhead rail, hung upside down, kicking and thrashing as workers cut open their heads or skinned them alive. Pigs are strangled with forklifts. Many of them remain conscious while being plunged into the scalding hot water of de-feathering tanks, or while their bodies are skinned or hacked apart.

No living being deserves to suffer like this. The prevailing torturous existence of animals is entirely at odds with what Nature intended for them. The shocking truth is that the appalling and heinous cruelties inflicted on defenseless animals are going on every day.

Playing with fire through genetic engineering

Genetic engineering has become wide-spread. By estimates, genetically modified crops of soybeans, corn, cotton, etc., are presently grown on lands larger than several EU countries. Genetic engineering with animals is also becoming increasingly common.

Unfortunately, genetic engineering is another of humanity’s abuse of creativity imposed upon Nature/ the bio-field. The scientific term “genetics” stems from the ancient Greek word “Genetikos”, which in turn derives from “Genesis” — the biblical account of the almighty God created the heavens and Earth. And here lies the clue for the real motivation behind genetic engineering — it stems from humanity’s ego to wield quasi-godlike powers by controlling Nature and changing its course to our arbitrary measure. Otherwise, there is no reason for causing abnormal aberrations to what Nature has bestowed upon humanity.

Nature has its inherent rhythm and intricate interconnectedness that sustains and continually regenerates itself. At the same moment, some plants will be growing, while others will be dying and beginning to decay. Insects will eat some of those. The rest will be broken down into organic matter, decomposing back into the soil, thereby releasing nutrients into the environment. The same process happens to animals. They are born, they grow, age, and they die and decay, while others become the prey of predators.

Through death and decomposition, Nature is constantly recycling natural waste and maintaining balance in the ecosystem. In other words, the lives of many living things depend upon the death of others. If some of the animals and plants did not die, there would not be enough space or food for new plants and animals to grow. Death, therefore, is a necessary part of Nature’s equation, and it is through death that growth and new life thrive.

Humanity, however, often actively resists death. Today’s humanity is already living longer and longer because of advances in modern medical science. Yet, genetic engineering aspires to drastically lengthen a human’s life span by reversing the body’s natural decline on a cellular level. And it is not only death that humanity tries to control, but also to tame Nature and twist it into our arbitrary measure, making it comfortable, predictable and profitable for us.

We thought we could control Nature through genetic engineering, but we are tampering with something more delicate than the molecular granule that science is only beginning to understand. Even without the tampering of genetic engineering, science has witnessed spontaneous genetic mutation in organisms. These are mistakes in a cell’s DNA. Rather than being inherited from the parents, they arise from replication errors at the cell level, environmental factors, or even entirely random for no specific reason. It is not merely that we can manipulate the end results by containing the artificial modifications in one or two genes.

All known organisms’ genetic information is stored in the DNA, which is the code for the development of the organism’s infrastructure. Tampering with changes on the DNA level could set off a series of unforeseeable aberrations to the constitution of an entire physiology, or even wipe out the whole species further down the line. Ultimately, we do all of these things at our own peril.

Crops like soybeans, rice, potatoes, and tomatoes are currently going through the genetic engineering process to increase yields. Yet, while we develop products that grow big and fast for rushing to the market, it takes more food to create the same nutritional response. Because the genetically modified plants and animals form parts of the food chain eventually consumed by humans, we expose ourselves to inadvertently affecting our genes by consuming that food, leading to an unimaginable individual expression and long-term effects that could take decades to reveal themselves. By estimates, 80% of the soy produced worldwide — an important raw material for animal feed — is genetically modified.

The so-called advantages of genetic engineering always come at the expense of upsetting the balance in Nature and ecology. Artificially extending humanity’s time on Earth — which has already become overpopulated — can cause even more problems than we can predict further down the line, both on a societal level and the cosmic level, by affecting the grand schemata of the number and timing of souls entering and leaving this physical plane — the cycle of reincarnation referred to by religions. The issue at stake extends far beyond what our narrow minds can perceive.

If there is anything we can learn from history, it is humanity’s propensity to go to excess. The preceding discussion on capitalism is an example. Rather than knowing about or even being willing to draw the line, genetic engineering could very likely end up going too far and being used for abusive purposes. Hence the retort from Nature/the bio-field is also about humanity going too far with something that we don’t honestly understand and cannot harness.

Vegetarianism making a comeback

Against the predominant meat industry, vegetarianism will make a comeback. Vegetarianism is imminent not only because how we have been treating animals is very wrong but also because animal husbandry is the single most significant cause of global warming and environmental devastation, for its effect on climate change, ocean acidification, fresh-water use, and land-system change.

A couple of years ago, the United Nations issued a report by leading scientists which warned of just a dozen years left to keep global warming under control, beyond which even half a degree rise will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, and extreme heat. Following that, the research team at the University of Oxford conducted comprehensive studies on an agriculture’s environmental impact and found that meat consumption has to drastically reduce if we’re going to halt climate change.

Animal husbandry is a significant source of global warming, because animal’s methane gas emissions are more substantial amount than all transportation combined. Methane warms the planet at more than 70 times the rate of CO2, before itself decaying into CO2 over a decade or two. Animal husbandry also uses about 70% of agricultural land for cattle grazing, feed crop production, etc. That land was made available through deforestation and led to biodiversity loss and water pollution. All things considered, animal farming is a highly inefficient use of the Earth’s resources:

For every 100 calories of grain fed to farmed animals, humans receive only:

🐔 12 calories of chicken, or
🐖 10 calories of pork, or
🐄 3 calories of beef
 
 

Plant-based farming has the capacity to:

• Grow 512% more food by weight than the entire animal agriculture industry
• Use just 69% of the land that animal-based agriculture uses

 
 

Besides aiding the relief of global warming and environmental devastation, the possibilities of increasing vegetarianism for human societies are many-fold:

• Would we have more healthy lives and better performances by shifting to a vegetarian diet that accords better with the human physiology?
• Would we lessen our survival pressure — and even afford feeding of the starving third world countries — by having a much more efficient food-production system?
• By releasing farmlands to become natural habitats of forest, park, etc., would we better balance modern society’s hectic lifestyle by getting back in touch with Nature?
• Would we grow spiritually by consuming a cruelty-free diet that cultivates compassion towards other beings?
• Would we create a more caring society — in which we co-operate rather than compete to increase our own wellbeing — through the collective shift in people’s attitude, compassion, and awareness through embracing a humanitarian diet?

On the personal level, the human physiology is not designed primarily to be a predator of other species. We are not born with carnassial to shear the meat off bones, nor the short intestines commonly found in carnivores. It is well known that meat consumption is associated with various health conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.

But then there is another reason for vegetarianism making a comeback in the new age: it provides the physiological basis for the new age’s rise in spirituality. Because the eating of meat does not best accord with human physiology, it weights it down and, through the mind-body connection, a sub-par physiological state is also reflected in the consciousness. Physiology to the mind is like a vessel to water. Just as water can be clean only to the extent of the cleanliness of the container, a sub-par physiological state is not best suited to the development of a higher consciousness in the new age.

To be specific, most animal species are grounded in survival and reproduction, and the capacity for higher thinking is generally absent. Thus, through the principle of correspondence, the eating of a corpse correlates to lower instinct and base qualities. The conscious evolution of the new age requires higher transcendental qualities to aid the sense of spiritual connection to the divine. For this, the consumption of meat does not provide the ideal basis for humanity’s development of higher consciousness.

Likewise, the ancient Greeks practiced vegetarianism out of both altruistic vision and the consideration of the consumption of meat to be unfavorable to the development of the mind and spirit. The prominent ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras forbade his followers a diet of meat and fish, as he believed that the killing and eating of animals sullied the soul and prevented union with a higher form of reality.

The new age consciousness acknowledges that we don’t need to harm other species to survive and thrive. The harming of other beings blemishes one’s spirituality, while benign co-existence with other species helps us to realize our humanity and further humanity’s progress in spirituality. For this, we need to move away from the prevailing tyranny over other species to a more humane farming method and cruelty-free alternatives like cultured meat, which is created in laboratory settings by painlessly harvesting muscle cells from a living organism to grow muscle tissue — the main component of the meat we eat.

The new age consciousness regards animals as fellow species that walk planet Earth. In recognition of this, cross-species communications with animals shall come forth. There are already many among us who can communicate with animals through visual and auditory signals, or tactile cues. With the accession in consciousness, there is one form of communication that shall become prominent. In essence, telepathy, which means tuning in to the inner world of the animal and connecting with them energetically so we can hear their thoughts, feel their emotional feelings and converse with them mentally, without using words or other physical signals.

Final words — We are in this together

As COVID-19 is becoming a full-blown pandemic, it goes without saying that all of us are in this together. But there is another implication: COVID-19 is the cosmic ambassador that carries the message of what’s wrong, and thereby, is paving the way for making changes. Yet, it is only through our collective ascension in consciousness that change becomes possible.

Does it seem too daunting a task if all of us are involved? Recall the earlier mentioned experiment with monkeys on a Japanese island: when the number of monkeys learning a new behavior reached a critical level, all the monkeys on the nearby islands spontaneously learned to do the same. Just like that, when there are enough of us to understand what’s going on, many others would reckon with the same on an unconscious level and, thereby, gather enough momentum for making the changes.

For one last time, let us draw on another Buddhist teaching to illuminate this. A prominent Buddhist scholar, Alan Watts, describes the Buddhist conception of the true underlying nature of the universe as follows: “Imagine a multidimensional spider’s web in the early morning covered with dewdrops. And every dewdrop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dewdrop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so, ad infinitum.”

As mentioned before, all of consciousness/sentience ultimately springs from the deep ocean of unconsciousness, and we are all connected at the deep quantum level. Borrowing Alan Watts’ spider’s web metaphor, each of us is like a node in the enormous cosmic network of all-embracing connectedness. Humans created the Internet as a miniature of this vast network. Some of us have tapped into this underlying network in the dream state when we feel like surfing or flying over a vast space. The gigantic cosmic network extends to other dimensions, so dreams can become bizarre if you find yourself tapped into those.

It is a net’s characteristic that when vibes appear from the outside, and if there is a sufficient number of nodes on the net receiving the vibes, the pulse will spread across the entire network. Likewise, when there is an adequate number of people who understand what’s going on, many more will come to have a clue and awaken on a subconscious level. Changes then become possible.

Not only that, but other species are also connected to this vast cosmic network on a deep quantum level. Each conscious/sentient being’s life experience is registered in the underlying network and continue to add to it. Through this, all beings co-evolve with the universe through the gaining of life experience.

Einstein was essentially saying the same thing when he referred to a human being as part of the whole, called by us, the universe, but we experience ourselves, our thoughts, and feelings as something separate from the rest — a kind of delusion that is a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few people nearest to us. Hence, for Einstein, humanity’s task was to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of Nature in its beauty.

Many people have heard of scientist James Lovelock’s “Gaia principle,” which refers that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating whole that perpetuates the conditions for life on the planet. Distinct components that repel one another cannot come together. They can only become whole when they synchronized with one another. Therefore, at the underlying level, the interaction between planet Earth and the living organisms on it takes the form of the synchronization of their respective frequencies.

“Frequency” in physics refers to the number of cycles or vibrations a physical object undergoes in a definite period — a material object with a higher frequency rate moves faster. We are, however, not referring to physical objects but frequencies on the spiritual plane. Spirituality has more to do with the mind than the body. And just like our mind can run through ideas much faster than our physical bodies can move in the physical plane, a higher level of consciousness corresponds to higher frequencies on the spiritual plane.

Presently, planet Earth is in a state of accelerating its evolutionary frequency, in the sense that the consciousness level on planet Earth will be raised on a collective level. The collective ascendency in consciousness is because we are reaching a turning point in planet Earth’s inherent blueprint for its evolution.

The corollary is that because all beings “sync” with planet Earth’s frequency, those of us who are not ready for making the shift into higher consciousness will stand a bigger chance of being dispensed with in the new world. It is no coincidence that the outbreak should begin from a community with a generally lower consciousness level — the slate is wiped clean to make way for a better future.

COVID-19 is, at the same time, an alarm call. An alarm won’t go off until we wake up and turn it off. In the same manner, more disasters will come if we don’t heed the message. Therefore, please share this message. And if you feel like it, translate it into your own language, so that more people will come to understand what’s happening.

Above all, wake up. The alarm is ringing loud.