Lessons of Hope E-Book

Gabrielle von Bernstorff-Nahat

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 31

Beschreibung

This world-wide pandemic has effected the world and billions of human beings world wide and has caused much pain and grief. Amidst the suffering there are signs and lessons of hope to be learned, which are the subject of this book. May we pay heed. Gabrielle von Bernstorff-Nahat is a poet, artist and architect living in Switzerland. Cover Art: by the artist: Lapis Lazuli from the Series: Mary

Leseprobe

This book is dedicated to the memory of Michael Sorkin, beautiful, relentless and progressive Architect, Urban-Planner and Artist in New York, who unfortunately passed in the first days of April 2020 due to complications with Covid 19 at age 71. We miss you and all those passed.

Table of Contents

Preamble

Prayers

Solidarity

Healthcare

Self-Criticism

Environment

Global Cooperation – WHO

Social Democracy

Simplicity

Essential Workers

The Very Poor

Personal Meditation and Reflection

Leadership and Good Government

Economy

Housing

Gratitude

Preamble

The Corona Pandemic has caused inexorable suffering world-wide and unfortunately continuous to so as I write. Families have been torn apart, have lost loved ones around the world, individuals who have thankfully recovered have suffered. Millions of people have tragically lost their jobs. The poor have sadly gotten poorer and no one has been spared. This pandemic knows no borders. Everybody has been touched by this pandemic in some form or other. The world will not be the same again.

Suffering is not just individual. The Corona Pandemic shows this, there is such a thing as suffering together as well, next to individual suffering. Perhaps this pandemic has shown us more than anything else, that individual suffering only truly is individual when shared.

One of the four noble truths of Buddhism is that suffering exists. In Mahayana Buddhism the aim is not so much to transcend suffering, as it is to transform it. As many of its wise teachers say, suffering calls us forth, as an individual and as a group to embrace our existence together in all its realness and hereness, to live life truthfully. Sufferings are seen as messengers, calling us forth in specific ways to heal the world from suffering. The call is to treat our pain with love so it becomes wisdom.

As I as of yet belong to the fortunate ones who are not infected and who have a home to stay in, I am taking this time to reflect. What are the lessons which can be learned from this experience, which has endless arrays of faces. The essays in this book range from personal contemplation, to the plight of the poorest of the poor. From reflections on politics and public discourse to the climate crisis and from one to one help to large scale efforts to be learned from.

I hope that many human beings take this time as an invitation to reflect on their personal lives as well as the world as a whole. For this pandemic is next to the suffering, anxiety and hardship a curious wake-up call to us all. The world should not be the same again after what we have gone through, being hopeful, it should be better than before spiritually and materially for all.

The essays are short, sometimes no longer than the flash of a firefly. But they are nourishment for thought, reflection and meditation. May we truly pay heed to this wake-up call, may the world become a better place. There are lessons of hope to be learned from the suffering of this pandemic. Suffering can make us better and stronger when shared.

Prayers

Since our dear friend Michael Sorkin passed in New York during the early days of the pandemic I pray for him and all human beings who have passed due to and during the pandemic of Covid 19 every morning. I also pray for those afflicted and for the wellbeing of all healthcare and other workers struggling on the frontlines.

I would like to begin this book with two prayers then.