![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/04\/17181346\/Image-for-article-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
An experience of going through coronavirus It has led many of us to come into contact with the core values of humanity, as kindness and care for all our fellow people on this earth and in our communities.\u00a0 A great generosity of spirit has come out in all corners of society, in our health workers and in everyday interactions.\u00a0 But the nature of humanity is that we also face our basic anger, greed and ignorance and if we don\u2019t take care their patterns will overwhelm the crucible we now find ourselves in.\u00a0 Which is why I felt the necessary approach was to see it all as retreat and to bring our practice to where we find ourselves now as strongly as ever we could.<\/span><\/p>\n It was interesting for me to notice, though, how our \u2018retreat\u2019 changed when we really felt the presence of Coronavirus amongst us.\u00a0 Before that, I felt happy and lucky to have health, a nice home to be in and time to dedicate to practice.\u00a0 Every aspect of our entertainment and distraction out in the wider world was being shut down, bringing us all to dwell more fully on the simple pricelessnesses of life: the unfolding daffodils and spring\u2019s green shimmering.\u00a0 I knew where all the birds were nesting and observed the daily unfolding of the chestnut tree leaves.<\/span><\/p>\n But then one weekend my husband started coming down with something after work. He is an \u2018urgent care\u2019 out-of-hours GP doctor in Oxfordshire, treating seriously unwell patients at home and in nursing homes.\u00a0 He\u2019d been using all the facemasks and hand gel and distancing protocol, he\u2019d washed his hands till they were raw, but it seems he still managed to contract the virus through treating patients with Covid symptoms.\u00a0 I think you know when you\u2019re under attack from a virus at close quarters \u2013 I started slathering the whole kitchen, door knobs and kettle handles and even the milk in the fridge, with sanitising gel.\u00a0 I tried to separate us in the house and distance from each other.\u00a0 But it only lasted a few hours because you cannot live like this.\u00a0 Fearing hugging your own husband.\u00a0 By the evening I just looked at him and thought, we\u2019re going to get it.\u00a0 And we sat down and had dinner together as usual and the next day I started with the symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\n As it happens, I experienced mild symptoms, as have our two daughters.\u00a0 At first, I thought I had a migraine and my daughter thought she had hay fever.\u00a0 Taken singly, I would not normally have thought anything more about each of our illnesses than I would about some bug or other we get and throw off after feeling a bit rubbish for a day or a few.\u00a0 It was because we all came down very quickly, within a day or even hours, of each other, with very similar, and some slightly strange, symptoms (like a \u2018smoky\u2019 feeling in the throat or a gravely feeling in the chest).<\/span><\/p>\n All I know is that fighting this virus in my body, finally, after all the hype and fear and panic circulating around the world, felt like a relief.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even know initially what I was fighting, whether I had \u2018coronavirus\u2019 or a migraine or whatever else, but just giving in and \u2018being ill\u2019 and letting the body get on with doing what it knows how to do, coming into contact with this true and immediate reality was a kind of salvation.\u00a0 Before we give anything a name or a diagnosis, the body is there dealing with it.\u00a0 In the end, this is our first, and our last, defence.\u00a0 It is our embodied reality.\u00a0 It felt real and like I could deal with it, in a way we cannot deal with unrelenting fear or limitless ideas.\u00a0 But we can deal with whatever is ultimately real, through experiencing it.\u00a0 And it was reassuring to watch over my children, if they have to have it, rather than fear them having it some time when I am not there to care for them.<\/span><\/p>\n So, the journey of being \u2018safe at home away from Coronavirus\u2019 to \u2018in danger in our very home, with it being brought right into our midst\u2019 to \u2018fighting it in the cells of the body\u2019 to \u2018cleansing it out\u2019 has actually felt like a tremendous release, in our case, and has brought a freedom.\u00a0 Now, people – and surfaces – all look safe again to me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to circle round anyone I meet out walking in the woods – Well, I do, for their peace of mind and because it is currently the law; but I don\u2019t feel afraid of being near someone or like I will henceforth have to banish myself away from people in order not to bring a threat to them.\u00a0 I feel safe again.<\/span><\/p>\n I think it\u2019s really important to realise this point will come, we will all be able to be close again once more.\u00a0 This virus will move on.\u00a0 It is the nature of things. \u00a0This does not diminish the loss in any death from this virus or otherwise, but it gives us a ground to stand on, to be able to face it all. \u00a0We have had models of diseases before, with high predictions of deaths, for Bird Flu and BSE and SARS and Swine Flu, none of which were borne out in the real world to the extent of the predictions.\u00a0 Viruses have their lifespan too, and life meets these viruses in ways that maybe cannot be predicted on mathematical models.\u00a0 Perhaps this is the place of prayer or intention or how we can influence things by how we act.\u00a0 Nature has her own checks and balances, not least the fact that as viruses mutate, they often become less severe.<\/span><\/p>\n At some stages in this journey I have also been filled with an intense tornado of fear, quite unmanageable and literally \u2018petrifying\u2019 (specifically thinking of my husband having to see patients with this \u2018terrible\u2019 disease).\u00a0 In fact, for a while, I noticed I was subtly (and not-so-subtly) angry – frustrated, irritable and a bit all over the place.\u00a0 Until one day, through practice and meditation and basically just coming into the body and accepting where I was really at for once, I woke up in enormous fear.\u00a0 And I realised I wasn\u2019t really, underneath it all, angry, half so much as I was afraid.\u00a0 Of course I was, you only have to watch the news for 20 minutes and you must be afraid (or not listening).\u00a0 This \u2018real\u2019 fear only lasted an hour or two and then was gone, but it had been bubbling under there this whole time.<\/span><\/p>\n And so I have relearned the value of coming into the body: of feeling the earth, of widening my awareness so I feel grounded and whole and broad and connected; so that nature is holding the whole of me and I cannot be afraid, I cannot be anywhere other than okay in myself, just breathing and resting on the earth.\u00a0 The practice of \u2018shammatha,\u2019 calm abiding, saves us, even in this moment, even when nothing else has changed.\u00a0 And then, I think, to have this enormous care and concern for our wide society, and especially the vulnerable, which is the good side of what is being brought out everywhere; then it is so much easier to bear and probably more help too.<\/p>\n We are all learning that we need to give ourselves space and time to stop inwardly and rest and calm (turning off all the news and information stream from that connection was important for me).\u00a0 \u00a0Whatever we are dealing with, there is no better way to prepare to face it than to look after ourselves and cultivate good health.<\/span><\/p>\n Meditation-wise, I found it invaluable to spend time taking awareness step by step through the body, easing out the mind and tensions found along the way, (actually I always find spending time on this helpful).\u00a0 Visualising refreshing and cleansing white light permeating through to all the parts of the body can potentise this and I found it calming and healing.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s important we bring our usual practices to this situation and not feel they are separate from it.<\/span><\/p>\n Lastly, the great value of nature as a healer and holder of anxiety.\u00a0 So many people have been commenting on this in their lives I think, whether it is the woods or countryside or just a flowering tree in a nearby garden.\u00a0 Even a nature programme on TV, I have found, can bring a relief like diving into a deep clear pool of refreshingly cool water, nourishing us.\u00a0 We can all feel the deep restorative power of nature and yes, it does fire up in me a desperate urge to protect whatever of it we can.<\/span><\/p>\n And, for whatever reason we may have been plunged into \u2018retreat\u2019 at home, truly stopping and reflecting on life can only be a good thing.\u00a0 And so, my next question, was how to use this time well, this very unusual opportunity it brings us all.<\/span><\/p>\n [\u00a0 Note: Perhaps I need to qualify my approach to turn off the news etc, by mentioning that the other half of our family-isolation here includes a pretty full-on effort on the part of my husband and his research team, collecting and interpreting evidence to understand Coronavirus, Covid 19 and the current health, social and NHS implications.\u00a0 It is his job as Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University, now located in a hut outside our back door, buzzing with phone calls and interviews from morning till night.\u00a0 Every family conversation includes mention of the latest updates and how they should be understood.\u00a0 I am not suggesting turning away from the suffering in any way, but taking care to understand things in context.\u00a0 There are many aspects of what is unfolding we need to stop and analyse more clearly before we really know what is going on.\u00a0 \u00a0See:\u00a0 cebm.net<\/span>.]<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Retreat in Spring – The Wood Element<\/strong> I am trained as an acupuncturist, and in particular a Five Element acupuncturist.\u00a0 This form of acupuncture takes as its model of health and well being, the theory of the Five Elements – five phases of emery that make up nature’s archetypal and fundamental ebbs and flows, that create and underlie all of life.\u00a0 So I turned to this theory for inspiration at this time.<\/p>\n An acupuncturist is interested in diagnosing and facilitating the balance of the five elements in a person, through the phases of their life and the challenges they may encounter.\u00a0 Thus any symptoms that arise are treated at their very foundation, through encouraging the balance and healthy interplay of all five elements in a person.<\/p>\n These elements also make up nature that is all around us, in just the same way; nature that we are made from and nature we are held by.\u00a0 One way we can get in touch with the different strength and expression of each of these elements is by observing the flow of nature through the year, each season embodying a fundamental \u2018flavour\u2019 or expression (at least in temperate climates with several seasons).\u00a0 So, wintertime expresses particularly nature coming back to her essence, the quiet hibernation that replenishes us and puts us back in touch with our deepest resources and essential nature.<\/p>\n Once this phase is completed, the next <\/span>phase naturally arises out of it, the beginning of the expression of that <\/span>fundamental hidden nature out into the world: springtime and the \u2018Wood Element.\u2019\u00a0 This will lead us on toward the blossoming of full maturation in summer, the nourishment of harvest in late summer and through to the natural letting go of autumn, so that we would once again return full cycle to the essence in wintertime. Or at least, these ebbs and flows give us a chan<\/span>ce to follow these natural cycles (although we do tend to over-ride them a bit, us silly old human beings, don\u2019t we?)<\/span><\/p>\n The ancient Taoists taught as a great fundamental of their approach to life that, if we can live in harmony with nature, and these flows of the elements of nature, we experience health and <\/span>well being, the elements naturally balancing within us.\u00a0 And of course, the cycles described by the elements don\u2019t just happen over a year; they are happening for all of us in myriad ways all the time.\u00a0 They happen over a lifetime, over a day, in relationship with others, over the course of a project or endeavour, anything that has a natural organic lifespan.\u00a0 So this is a way of looking at our lives and consciously bringing out the best, the harmony, the wholeness, inherent in life\u2019s potential.<\/span><\/p>\n So I put my thinking cap on, at the beginning of this strange time we find ourselves in, to see what the theory suggests would be good things to include in a way of life, or retreat, at this time of year.\u00a0 The Wood element is all about going forward in life: direction and planning, creative expression, guided by an over-reaching vision for our life. \u00a0As winter turns to spring it is a natural time for us to go forward and start being more active in the world again.\u00a0 So, all the more challenging that it is just at this moment we have all needed to turn back and go within, into our homes.<\/span><\/p>\n But that need not stifle the natural Wood movement.\u00a0 We just have to be a little more conscious and creative at finding ways to express this healthfulness.\u00a0 What nourishes and supports the Wood in us all is things like:<\/span><\/p>\n So it may be that devising a lifestyle in our new way of life involving these will help.<\/p>\n [\u00a0 Theoretical note: The Five Elements as I talk about them here are as they are taught in acupuncture theory and practice in the west in current times, taken primarily from ancient Taoist classical texts, but informed also by Japanese approaches, and brought through the ages in this way.\u00a0 Seeing the world in terms of Five Elements is a basic philosophy common to Eastern philosophies in general and has an important expression also in Tibetan Buddhism.\u00a0 I find the two systems totally compatible and, in some ways, fully informing of each other, but they are given slightly differently.\u00a0 The Chinese \/ Taoist system talks of Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal (corresponding to winter through to autumn, as given above).\u00a0 The Tibetan Buddhist teachings talk of Water, Air, Fire, Earth and Space.<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes the Taoist system is drawn with Earth in the centre of the other 4, as a pivot, and I think the teaching is somewhat more like the elements are presented as grounded in the medium of Earth.\u00a0 Sometimes the Tibetan or Buddhist system talks of the \u2018Four Elements in Space\u2019 (Space as the fifth element), i.e. they are presented more as grounded in Space as their medium.\u00a0 To my mind, they are different ways of looking at the same thing, but entirely compatible.\u00a0 However, I should make clear, the Tibetan Buddhist theory of Five Elements does not map them onto the seasons.\u00a0 They are given as the feminine consorts or counterparts of the male Buddhas which are the heads of the Five Buddha Families.<\/span><\/p>\n It would no doubt all be the same in the end (experientially), I think, but I find the way the elements are talked about in acupuncture theory more accessible to share with people, for us to use as a day-to-day understanding of the elements and how they shape our health and lives.\u00a0 Whereas, it seems to me, the Tibetan Buddhist five elements, especially as the consort Buddhas of the Five Buddha Families, is a very subtle and refined theory and requires quite a lot of prior understanding before we can even start to grasp its reality as a description and expression of life.<\/span><\/p>\n See, for example, \u2018Everyday Consciousness and Primordial Awareness\u2019 by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche<\/a> <\/span>for a definitive description of the Five Buddha Families and the corresponding Five expressions of Primordial Wisdom which manifest as the Five Elements and constitute thereby worldly appearances.]<\/span><\/p>\n Looking ahead, Transition and Integration<\/strong> How we integrate what this time brings us and how we move forward, whenever the time comes, I think we should be aware of this, contemplate it while we can and take care how we come out of this place, so we bring our hard-won treasures with us.\u00a0 I think it is just about staying aware, taking care, going gently but being present and open to what is always arriving.<\/span><\/p>\n These were just some thoughts I had at this time.\u00a0 Apologies for any mistakes and well-wishing to all.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), a Chilean poet, wrote this poem in the 1950\u2019s:<\/p>\n Keeping Quiet<\/strong><\/p>\n Now we will count to twelve<\/p>\n And we will all keep still.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For once on the face of the earth<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not speak in any language.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s stop for one second<\/p>\n And not move our arms so much.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It would be an exotic moment<\/p>\n Without rush, without engines,<\/p>\n We would all be together<\/p>\n In a sudden strangeness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fishermen in the cold sea<\/p>\n Would not harm whales<\/p>\n And the man gathering salt<\/p>\n Would look at his hurt hands.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Those who prepare green wars,<\/p>\n Wars with gas, wars with fire,<\/p>\n Victories with no survivors,<\/p>\n Would put on clean clothes<\/p>\n And walk about with their brothers<\/p>\n In the shade, doing nothing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What I want should not be confused<\/p>\n With total inactivity.<\/p>\n Life is what it\u2019s about;<\/p>\n I want no truck with death.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If we were not so single minded<\/p>\n About keeping our lives moving,<\/p>\n And for once could do nothing,<\/p>\n Perhaps a huge silence<\/p>\n Might interrupt this sadness<\/p>\n Of never understanding ourselves<\/p>\n And of threatening ourselves with death.<\/p>\n Perhaps the earth can teach us,<\/p>\n As when everything seems dead<\/p>\n And later proves to be alive.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now I\u2019ll count up to twelve<\/p>\n And you keep quiet and I will go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An experience of going through coronavirus I had originally been due to be away on retreat for most of March.\u00a0 It was cancelled as the first wave of international cancellations began.\u00a0 It was fortuitous, however, I found out, that I had been preparing for a significant retreat for many months.\u00a0 Because now we were indeed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2234,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[162,163],"tags":[514],"class_list":["post-6585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-features","tag-mary-heneghan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/strong>I had originally been due to be away on retreat for most of March.\u00a0 It was cancelled as the first wave of international cancellations began.\u00a0 It was fortuitous, however, I found out, that I had been preparing for a significant retreat for many months.\u00a0 Because now we were indeed plunged into retreat, not just a small group of people in a carefully planned retreat centre with an atmosphere of peace around, but pretty much one third of the whole world in the situation of gradually, but inexorably, being directed to retreat into the heart of our immediate lives, and told to stay there.\u00a0 And this amongst a fearful and confusing situation being variously reported and analysed by many different experts.\u00a0 An unprecedented and unparalleled set of circumstances: either a recipe for disaster, or a time of enormous potential for stopping, taking stock and reappraising our lives.<\/p>\n
\nHowever, we have come by this situation, it is in our hands to make as best we can of it.\u00a0 The more consciousness and light and clarity we can bring out now, as always, and maybe particularly now, the better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/04\/16095036\/Retreat-into-spring-225x300.jpg\")
\n
\n<\/span>Although no one is really in the space of working out how we are going to go forward from this strange world we find ourselves in now, a friend commented to me how it would likely be \u2018like a cork popping out of a bottle.\u2019\u00a0 I thought, \u2018No!\u2019 and realised this stage to come will be important too.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/04\/16092902\/Mary-Heneghan-photo-273x300.jpg\")
Mary Heneghan<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n\nMary Heneghan is an acupuncturist, writing here from atop a hill on the edge of Oxford city where she lives with her family, a city she continues to love since coming here as a student 30 years ago.\u00a0 She teaches meditation and\u00a0kum nye yoga<\/span><\/a><\/span> and has two daughters who are at university and just finishing school (or would be if they weren\u2019t at home painting, applying facemasks and heading out to stack shelves at supermarkets).\u00a0 She has followed Ringu Tulku\u2019s<\/a><\/span> teachings as a heart practice for many years and is one of the Directors of Bodhicharya Publications<\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
Oxford lies as if under a spell,<\/em><\/span>
deserted and quiet, with only sunshine to fill the streets.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h6>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/04\/16094213\/Oxford-1-300x225.jpg\")
\u00a0![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/04\/16094216\/Oxford-4-225x300.jpg\")
\u00a0<\/span>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/04\/16094218\/Oxford-5-300x225.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/04\/16094220\/Oxford2-300x225.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/04\/16094222\/Oxgord3-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>These photos taken at midday on a Thursday on my daily walk \u2026
\n<\/span><\/em><\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 It feels<\/span><\/em> as if a princess somewhere has pricked her finger on a spindle,
\n<\/span><\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0and all the world has fallen into a deep, deep sleep\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h6>\n