Our Effort Is All We Can Do

I am finding expansive thoughts, across media platforms about what we as individuals, dyads, groups, geographic-area inhabitants, nations, and the world community need to do after we get through COVID-19. For most this is an awareness of the scale of suffering. Yet, we are suffering at different rates and various degrees, not all the same, nor all the time. Concerns and fear manifest at different rates and degrees. In our Zen practice, we work with the moment. It is a recognition of interrelatedness, not so much about getting through it. Getting through something is when, while doing (proceeding) there is a new moment that simply lacks the variables and conditions of the previous moments. One of the steps on the Noble eight Fold-Path is Right Effort. Right Effort, is the application of the right about of "qi" or energy-not too much and not too little. When we are exercising Right Effort, it seems effortless. We are not distracted by, are we doing it right, or that we are too this, or not enough of that, we are just adjusting to the conditions almost automatically. This is similar to what we do when driving a car, our mind, and hands are in sync. Right now we live as we always have by being aware of suffering and our part in it. We are just making decisions in awareness of a larger scale. This means if I can keep spatial distance it may reduce my suffering and that of others. This is what we can do and should do by applying the right effort to enhance the probability of not doing harm... May you be safe and well, Sangaku