“As a doctor I tell people all the time, don’t smoke, don’t eat cheeseburgers and so on. But if we really want one, we will do it because we deem the risk-reward proposition as good enough for us.”
Said Dr. Sanja Gupta, internationally renowned neurosurgeon, author and medical correspondent yesterday.
This is an important observation in these times of Corona. Each time we leave home the risk-reward principle will be at work somewhere in the back of our minds because we encounter so many new situations where we have to take unprecedented decisions. As a private person but even more so as a (complementary) medical practitioner or teacher of any kind. Indeed this is true for any professional. For example: Roche, not exactly known for its altruistic motivation, developed an automated Corona test and promised to make it available at no profit. Their reward will be a long-term reputation gain. I can live with that as long as short term the right thing is being done.
The setting of the interview with Dr. Gupta at Stephen Colbert’s Late Show seems casual at first but it touches on some stunning observations and gives insight in some gruelling decisions doctors are forced to take in hospitals. But another observation was particularly impressive and touched me. A profound spiritual wisdom underlying all our lives emerged in this mainstream context. Best I quote Dr. Gupta:
“Everything is a Risk-Reward proposition. Being in close contact with somebody, especially somebody you don’t know … it’s a different time right now … and what I’m really struck by … is that never before – and I have been doing this for a long time – have I found a situation where how I behave so dramatically impacts your health, and how you behave so dramatically impacts my health and the health of all the people around me.”
We are co-dependent on each other in a way I’ve never seen before.
“I see these concentric circles around us. That has to be important to me. I have an obligation now, not just for my health, my family’s health, but for your health and your family’s health. We are co-dependent on each other in a way I’ve never seen before. There is an obligation now.”
“It really is fascinating in a way, if not for me – if I don’t engage in these good behaviours for me personally, then I should do it for you. I should do it for the people around me, and I think, hopefully, that’s motivating for people to do this.”
With ‘good behaviour’ Gupta means social distancing, hygiene and conscious risk-reward decision making.
For those of us who have access to a practice that strengthens our own immune-system – be that Yoga, meditation, singing, etc. and, of course, the Reiki self-treatment – Dr Gupta’s exclamation is a reminder of our privilege. And duty.
To those of us who have the privilege of initiation may this article be a reminder. Maybe the current situation with Corona is not so dissimilar to Usui’s situation in the 1923 earthquake and fire disaster when he realized that people needed to support their self-healing. Indeed, the gravity and acuteness of the current emergency may exactly be such that absentee initiation finds an exceptional justification.
Love.
René
PS As much as I applaud efforts to gather support for collective Reiki-projects in context with Corona, and as much as I see their conciliatory potential particularly if they are orchestrated across the division-lines of Reiki styles and –traditions, the empowerment of the individual is of priority now.