A New Awareness
We are truly living in an historic time that will be memorable for generations to come. Senior (in terms of age) doctors such as us - separated from service as a precaution of COVID-19 - have known, in our time cholera, malaria, yellow fever and guerrillas (such as the MRTA and Sendero - the Shining Path). But they were nothing compared to the challenge for this generation of Health Workers, and my young colleagues have a leading role to play. The real heroes are not celebrities from sports, Hollywood, politics, CEOs of pharmaceutical or bio-technology corporations, but the hard-working and dedicated health professionals, and those who serve in markets, farmers, bank employees, police and workers of municipal cleaning that are exposed every day so that the country still stands and the nation does not collapse. The virus is showing us how absurd it is to try to live with our backs to each other, without wanting to recognise that we are all, in everything, interdependent and co-responsible. The materialistic system based on receiving only for oneself, dehumanised us and made us depend on individualistic profit and consumption, without taking conscious responsibility for each other, and even less for the natural world of which we are part. We avoided our responsibility and passed it on to others. And now the natural world has shown us how vulnerable we all are. Pretending cordiality and affection when in reality we don't genuinely care about the other is not sufficient - pretence shows us that in this way we will never become part of the mutually dependent system for which we were created, and in which the law of mutual responsibility and guarantee governs. That is, we are all required to give the best of our abilities for the greatest well-being of all, so I do not have to worry about myself because I have everyone worried about me too. And so nobody lacks because nobody accumulates just for themselves. That law is as old as Creation: "Love your neighbour as yourself”. Hopefully this time we will not ignore it. "In fact this virus is a remedy for my ego and it comes to show me that I must rise above my ego and connect with others and in this I find the remedy, the correction for our situation. Let's try to realise that running away from my selfish "I" towards the common point between us, brings us to a higher level than mine, and there we will be directed towards the Creator and there find the eternal, spiritual life in the connection between us.” Rav, Dr. Michael Laitman) Apolos Landa, PRIME’s Latin America Associate in Peru.
