COVID-19 As A Wisdom Teacher

There is no question that the enforced isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a nightmare for many people. Think of the abused women and children who have been trapped in their homes with their abusers and have no possibility of escape. Or of those separated from loved ones who are in hospitals and other care facilities that are closed to all visitors. 

But for many others, COVID-19 has been a time of awakening. 

Like any pandemic, COVID-19 came as an enemy that did not distinguish between political, racial, religious, national or gender groups. In its path we are all equal. It ignored barriers between “us” and “them.” Consequently, it has helped many of us see the world as a single interdependent community that is only as strong as its weakest link. And for those with eyes to see these realities, it has given birth to a new sense of solidarity with all members of the human tribe - for some, solidarity with all creatures who share our planetary home. 

This reminds me of the experience of the first humans to see earth from outer space. They went into space to see the stars but were most deeply impacted by seeing the earth from a new perspective. No matter how hard they looked they were unable to see geographical, national, ethnic, racial, socio-economic, or religious boundaries. All they could see was a single undivided earth. They returned to earth profoundly changed because they were seeing through new eyes. This change in perception is the fruit of an awakening that, in turn, becomes the soil out of which transformed consciousness and new ways of living emerge. 

Awakenings break us out of the somnambulistic fog within which we tend to go through life like automatons. They are never simply the result of experience. But anything that catches our attention and pulls us into the present moment has the possibility of being the occasion of an awakening. And, for most of us, COVID-19 has certainly done and been that!

Wisdom and the Knowing of Oneness

While knowledge comes from learning, wisdom comes from living. No one becomes wise merely by either the accumulation of information or the passage of time. Information leads to knowledge, but knowledge does not automatically translate into wisdom. Wisdom comes from living that is guided by seeing through eyes of an awakened heart and mind, and a transformed consciousness. 

In Buddhism this is called enlightenment. In Christianity it is usually described as acquiring the mind of Christ or Christ consciousness. However, regardless of the language we use to describe it the important thing at this point to note is that it involves a quantum shift in our inner world. It involves nothing less than a fundamentally new way of seeing and relating to everything in existence. And one of the best ways to recognize this inner shift of seeing through new eyes is the recognition of oneness. 

Fundamentally, we are one. We have always been one. And we will always be one. Our sense of separateness is an illusion. But the mystics and indigenous people of the world see through this illusion. They live with a profound, ongoing awareness of the fact that while each of us is unique, we are not separate. 

The grace of this knowing of oneness enables us to fulfil the Great Commandment to love our neighbour as our self (Mark 12:31). But notice that we are not told to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. Much more powerfully, it tells us to love our neighbour as ourselves. This can only happen when we first see our neighbour as our self – this arising only out of the knowing of our fundamental oneness. 

The truth is that, although I am not you, I am not fundamentally separate from or other than you. And although you are not me, you are not fundamentally separate from or other than me. Our sense of separateness is the lie that forms the core of our dysfunction as individuals, communities, civilizations and humanity.

Wisdom comes from knowing oneness and allowing this knowing to flow into our living. Let me give just one example of the difference this makes.

Living Wisdom

COVID-19 has reminded us that as a global community, our fates are inextricably linked. Cities, states or provinces, and countries that fail to take this pandemic seriously become the weak link that endangers all of us. Similarly, those who refuse to stay home or practice physical distancing imperil us all—regardless of whether they do so out of arrogance or because our schools have failed to teach the importance of science or critical thinking. 

But, knowing our fundamental oneness has implications that go far beyond this present pandemic. The cheap piece of clothing we purchase from a company that denies paid sick leave and fails to provide a fair living income to its employees imperils all of us. The festering consequences of the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots of the world is a ticking time bomb that cannot be ignored, except in folly. 

I am struck by how often I am hearing media commentators tell us that the world will never be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic. I suspect they are right. Actually, I hope they are right. 

I understand why many people long for a return to the lives they lived before these recent dark days. But I hope for more than a return to the past. 

I hope this pandemic will awaken us to the reality of our fundamental oneness with everyone and everything that exists. We are like leaves on a tree that is connected to all other trees in the forest by a shared root system, and to everything else in the cosmos by a deep web of interdependence. Each leaf, each branch and each tree is unique. But none is separate. The deepest truth of our existence is that we are one. All that is missing is our awareness and response to the reality of this truth. 

I pray that we will learn from the Covid-19 pandemic - not just things that will protect us from future pathogens but how to see and live in the light of this awareness. I pray that we will learn to see everything and everyone as a “Thou” and nothing and no one as an “it.” This is the essence of the wisdom that flows from knowing oneness.

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2020 © Dr. David G. Benner

• What awakenings have begun to emerge within me during the COVID-19 pandemic?

• What invitations accompany them and how do I choose to respond to those invitations?