Shambhavi answers a question about existential dread and the pandemic. A podcast from Satsang with Shambhavi
Podcast First Words
Student: I’m kind of going back and forth right now realizing my capacity dealing with COVID. There’s feelings of being in the state of my practice. And then vacillating to like—Oh my god! The world is ending! And then going back to just a soft place.
Shambhavi: The world is ending. (laughter)
Everything is changing all the time by different means. So what we’re experiencing is something that other people live with all the time—existential threats. It’s just that a certain ilk of person here in the United States has some sort of conceptual, material cushion against feeling existential threat. That’s all it is.
And understand that if we’re being practitioners, we’re just taking practical steps—without hysteria—recognizing that everything that’s happening is fine. It’s all just nature accomplishing itself. Even the humans that have done things that might have exacerbated this are still aspects of nature, aspects of god, of wisdom.
This is the attitude we should try to feel in our bodies, energy, and mind. It is possible to be totally relaxed while this is happening. That is a possibility.
It might not be a possibility for any particular individual person. I’m not saying you should feel this, and you shouldn’t feel that. I’m just saying that as practitioners we can know that it’s a possibility that we feel totally relaxed in this circumstance, without drama, with openheartedness and practicality. Have that be your beacon. It is possible.
So we should try to use our practice to feel that as much as we can. To feel living presence, recognizing that everything’s fine. Everything literally is fine. There’s nothing wrong. Even if the whole planet winked out of existence tomorrow, that would be nothing wrong.
