Social distancing?

Scientists have already found out that the spread of the virus among human beings is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or exhales, (which obviously including talking,) where people can be infected by breathing in the virus if they are within close proximity of someone who has the virus, or by touching a contaminated surface and then their eyes, nose or mouth. 

If people have high awareness and self-control, and know how to maintain certain length of physical distance from other people, even if they are family and friends but who are not from the same household, on top of wearing face mask properly, frequent hand-washing and without touching their eyes, nose and mouth unwittingly, then it would effectively help to minimize the spread of the virus among human beings. But, very few people in the world will have such high awareness and self-control, and constantly observing such practices wittingly. And hence, the pandemic is still growing and worsening in many countries in the world.

Many people, including some yoga practitioners and teachers might understand the importance of it, but they couldn’t observe the practice of social distancing during the pandemic, which is the most important way to stop the spread of the virus from human to human.

Not limited to, but there are some reasons why people can’t practice social distancing or reluctant to be refraining from any kinds of physical social meet up, gathering, mingling and interaction for a prolonged period of time such as:-

1.) The sense of loneliness, meaninglessness and boredom, as well as anxiety building up towards the pandemic and the long term side-effects of it, whether wittingly or unwittingly, which is natural for most people. 

People who have not enough understanding towards the function and state of the mind would be over-whelmed by the sense of loneliness, meaninglessness and boredom and/or anxiety, and losing their patience, balance and sanity, and behave irrationally after a prolonged period of time being restricted from many familiar physical and social activity and interaction. There's nothing wrong with human beings are sociable, interactive and talkative in nature. Those who have developed certain degrees of self-control and mind discipline, and have adequate understanding towards the function and state of the mind, would have no problem being without any physical and social activity and interaction with other human beings for a prolonged period of time.

2.) People think that social distancing means only limited to maintaining certain length of physical distance from other people, but doesn't need to restrict or limit physical and verbal activity and communication, especially verbal interaction and talking face to face with other people, even if people are wearing a face mask, as most people couldn't help touching their face mask from time to time with their fingers and then touching everywhere, unwittingly.

3.) Many people just can’t live without physically engaging in social/cultural/religious practices, celebrations, ceremonies and events in a group that involves more than one participant. People like to share and be merry or be in grief with other people. There's nothing wrong with that, especially if in a world without the pandemic. People have the freedom for how they want to live their life, with or without the pandemic going on. Although there are new laws being implemented to limit people's action and inaction for the sake of curbing the pandemic.

People can’t live without physically meeting, mingling, interacting, communicating and talking face to face with some other human beings from time to time, especially with their family and friends who live physically apart from one another. People can’t live without hugging and touching or ‘kiss kiss’, especially with their family and friends, to show love and affection. Even some yoga enthusiasts and mental health professionals would actually believe that people will be sick and die if without physical hugging and touching with other human beings for a long time. People can’t just be by themselves or with those within the same household after a certain period of time, but they need to go out and physically mingling with their neighbours, relatives and friends, and family members who are not already living under the same household. There's nothing wrong with all these behaviors. It's very common for most people.

Social distancing isn’t just about maintaining at least two metres distance of physical distancing, on top of frequent hand-washing and wearing face mask like what most people would prefer it to be as simplest as that, because people need to go out to work to maintain livelihood and get daily needs even without engaging in any physical social activity or gathering, but it’s the restriction towards all kinds of physical social/cultural/religious activity, gathering, meet up, interaction, communication, celebration, ceremony and event that gather two or more people to be in a particular space, which cannot avoid some kind of verbal interaction or talking among people, that serves an upmost important role to minimize the spread of the highly contagious virus. Because most people just forget about maintaining physical distance and can't avoid verbal/physical communication/interaction when there are two people or more being together in the same space.

There’s nothing wrong with people being sociable and talkative and carrying out their all-time social/cultural/religious practices even in the midst of pandemic. Life has to go on. For the sake of maintaining certain degrees of sanity, many people need to live life with all kinds of social/cultural/religious activities the way that they are familiar with. Just that this pandemic won’t end anytime soon, but will keep growing under the people's ongoing physical social meet up, gathering, mingling, interaction and talking face to face, even if wearing a face mask during such activities.

Those who don't take any consideration towards the scientific research being accurate, or not, but just blindly deny any scientific research, and those who think that the pandemic doesn't exist, won't help in tackling the pandemic either.

Not just that people's physical and mental health is being threatened by the prolonged pandemic, but people’s lives, movements and livelihoods that depend on the global economy will continue to be restricted and affected, unless the respective vaccine is found and accessible/affordable to everyone.

Go beyond worldly social thinking and beliefs

Most minds are not interested in the teaching of yoga about going beyond worldly social thinking and beliefs. For them, "Why do people want to do that? It's strange and crazy for anyone to have such idea or practice." and "Social relationships, activities, mingling and interactions are very good and positive for improving friendship, bonding, understanding and harmony among each other in the society."

Just like many passionate minds would think and believe that "Being sociable is similar to friendliness and being non-sociable is similar to unfriendliness."

In yoga, "Being sociable and non-sociable is irrelevant to friendliness and unfriendliness. One can be friendly and kind towards all without selfish intention or discrimination of likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, good people and bad people, friends and not friends, while at the same time being non-sociable or disinterested towards social relationships, activities, mingling and interactions. On the other hand, being actively sociable doesn't mean that the mind is being friendly and kind towards all without any selfish intention or discrimination of likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, good people and bad people, or friends and not friends."

In the path of yoga to eliminate ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness from the mind, one needs to learn how to go beyond all the worldly social thinking and beliefs by renouncing social relationships, activities, mingling and interactions, as all these social relationships and activities will only empower or feed the ignorance and egoism of attachment, identification, desires of craving and aversion, judgment, expectation, restlessness and impurities, unless the mind is already being free from ignorance and egoism, then one can mix freely into the society without being influenced by the society, without being disturbed by what is happening in the world, and without being entangled in the worldly ideas, thinking, beliefs, values, practices, relationships and activities.

It's not that the social thinking and beliefs, relationships, activities, mingling and interactions are something 'bad' or 'wrong', but for the yoga enthusiasts who are sincerely seeking liberation from suffering, or more precisely, to be free from the cause of suffering - Ignorance, the minds need to go beyond all kinds of worldly ideas of social thinking, beliefs, values and practices by renouncing social relationships, activities, mingling and interactions, as all these social activities are feeding/empowering ignorance, egoism, passions and restlessness, which hinders the mind to see the truth of names and forms, to be free from ignorance and the product of ignorance - Suffering. If the mind is not free from ignorance, egoism, impurities, restlessness and suffering, the mind is not free, even after many years of practicing 'yoga' or teaching 'yoga' to others.

Some of the common social thinking and beliefs such as,

"Everyone needs to have family, relatives, friends and community, to enjoy life, to be happy and feel meaningful. It's hard, pitiful, unfortunate, lonely, joyless and meaningless to be by oneself without family, relatives, friends and community."
*In yoga, one is not determined by having or not having family, relatives, friends and community, to enjoy life, to be happy, or to feel meaningful, or not, in order to be free from ignorance and suffering, or not. The mind that is free from ignorance and egoism doesn't need to enjoy life, or to be happy, or to feel meaningful. One is peaceful as one is, when the mind is free from ignorance and egoism and its by-products of boredom, loneliness, fear, clinging, expectation, dissatisfaction, disappointment, hurts, anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, animosity, pride, hostility, painful sorrow, unhappiness, emptiness, incompleteness and meaninglessness.

"One needs to be 'educated' and 'knowledgeable' to be confident to achieve success in everything, to enjoy a higher quality good life with loving and supportive family and relationships, in order to achieve happiness and meaningfulness."
*In yoga, being educated and knowledgeable doesn't guarantee that the mind is free from ignorance, egoism, impurities, restlessness, disturbs and suffering. Wisdom of being free from ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, is nothing to do with 'worldly education' and 'worldly knowledge'. Wisdom, or knowing the truth of names and forms, allows the mind to have peace, being free from disturbs and suffering, regardless of whether the mind is 'educated' and 'knowledgeable', or not; whether life is good and comfortable, or not; whether there's loving and supportive family and relationships, or not. The liberated mind doesn't need to be confident to achieve success in everything to have a higher quality good life. Neither by having or not having a higher quality good life is related to having loving and supportive family and relationships, or not. Neither by having or not having loving and supportive family and relationships is related to the attainment of the sense of happiness and meaningfulness. Neither by attaining or not attaining the sense of happiness and meaningfulness is related to whether the mind is free from ignorance and egoism, or not. The mind that is free from ignorance and egoism, doesn't need to attain the sense of happiness and meaningfulness. One is happy and peaceful as one is, being free from ignorance and egoism, being unconditioned and undetermined by the quality of names and forms.

"One needs to aspire and be inspired to be somebody endowed with certain qualities of names and forms that make oneself and others be proud of, to attain love, acceptance, respect, support and acknowledgement from oneself and others."
*In yoga, the mind that is free from ignorance and egoism doesn't need to aspire or be inspired to be 'somebody' that would make oneself and others be proud of. Neither does one need to attain love, acceptance, respect, support or acknowledgement from oneself or others.

"One needs to keep setting higher and higher expectation/goal towards oneself in order to keep pushing oneself beyond one's limitation to achieve higher success and better result."
*In yoga, the mind that is free from ignorance and egoism doesn't need to have any expectation/goal towards oneself, anyone or anything, or to push oneself beyond the physical/mental limitation that is impermanent and selfless, but still perform countless actions of what is possible in the present that would benefit oneself and others, or to keep improving, intentionlessly, while allowing the fruit of the actions to be what it is.

"One should help others so that one will receive help from others in return."
*In yoga, one helps others unconditionally regardless of whether others will be grateful and show appreciation, or will give help to oneself in return, or not.

"Be kind to others and others will be kind to you in return."
*In yoga, one be kind to others unconditionally without selfish intention/expectation to be receiving kindness or friendship in return. Be kind to all without discrimination even when others are being unkind to oneself, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

"Everyone needs continuous/on going inspirations, positive encouragements, love, supports and acknowledgements from others to be doing something good for oneself and others, or to refrain from doing something bad to oneself and others."
*In yoga, the selfless/egoless mind doesn't need any (continuous/on going) inspirations, positive encouragements, love, supports and acknowledgements from anyone to be doing something good for oneself and others, or to refrain from doing something bad or hurtful to oneself or others. It's the prideful egoistic impure idea of 'I' or the ego that needs continuous inspirations, positive encouragements, love, supports and acknowledgements from others to motivate oneself to be good and do good, or to refrain from be bad and do bad. If the egoistic minds don't get such 'motivations', they are reluctant to be good and do good, or refrain from be bad and do bad. That's not freedom at all.

"Everyone needs love and affection. Give love and affection to others, and others will have love to love themselves and love others. Giving love to others will make oneself feels good and meaningful."
*In yoga, when the mind is free from ignorance and egoism, one doesn't need to receive love and affection from anyone to feel loved, or to have love. Everyone just need to realize unconditional love in oneself, where there's no lack of love/craving for love/aversion towards loveless and there's no separateness of 'I' and 'others'. There's no 'I' am 'giving love' to 'others', or 'others' are 'receiving love' from 'I', but out of compassion, teach and allow everyone to be free from ignorance and egoism to realize unconditional love in oneself, where everyone doesn't need to receive love from others to feel loved or to have love, and everyone doesn't need to feel good and meaningful from the action of 'giving' and 'loving'.

"Everything is possible. Nothing is impossible."
*In yoga, everything is possible, including both possibility and impossibility. Possibility is possible. Impossibility is also possible. It's okay sometimes things are not possible, such like one couldn't stop the physical body from impermanent changes of aging, decaying and death/decompose, or one couldn't undo the past, and whether it's possibility or impossibility, all are impermanent.

Worldly minds, including many yoga enthusiasts, are functioning under the influence of the social thinking and beliefs perceiving everyone and everything as 'good or bad', 'right or wrong', 'positive or negative', 'normality or abnormality', 'meaningfulness or meaninglessness', 'appropriateness or inappropriateness', 'friendliness or unfriendliness' and 'nice or not nice'.

"This is a good/bad person."
"This is so positive/negative."
"This is so meaningful/meaningless."
"This is a friendly/unfriendly person."
"This is a nice/not nice person."
"Yoga teachers/practitioners need to 'be positive' and say only 'positive words' to influence/encourage others also to be positive."
And so on.

In yoga or Buddhism, it's not necessarily so. Upon knowing what is going on in the mind and seeing the truth of impermanence and selflessness in all the names and forms, naturally, one stops judging and labeling everyone and everything into 'this' and 'that', upon perceiving/experiencing all kind of different experiences, thinking, beliefs, actions, reactions and behaviors.

"You are being nice to me, but it doesn't mean that 'you are a nice person or your are not a not nice person'."
"You might not behave in a good way, but it doesn't mean that 'you are a bad person or you are not a good person'."
"You are feeling happy or unhappy in this moment, but it doesn't mean that 'you are a happy person or you are an unhappy person'."
"Yoga teachers don't need to 'be positive' or say only 'positive words', they just need to teach yoga as it is, and the teachings are neither positive nor negative, although many impure minds might not like or agree with the teachings, and perceiving and judging everything as 'positive' and 'negative' according to the worldly thinking and beliefs, while passionate minds might be disturbed by the teachings that they dislike and disagree with, that is not necessarily something that they think it should be."

The minds that are free from ignorance and egoism are not 'passionate' or 'interested' towards the attainment and accumulation of worldly objects of names and forms, the cultivation and achievement of worldly passionate desires/ambitions and the engagement in all kinds of human social relationships, activities, interactions, excitement, enjoyment and entertainment because these minds are void of the by-products of ignorance and egoism, where the minds are free from the sense of low self-esteem, low confidence, negativeness, unhappiness and meaninglessness.

These selfless/egoless minds don't need to develop or empower the sense of high self-esteem, self-worth, confidence, positiveness, happiness and meaningfulness through the attainment and accumulation of worldly objects of names and forms, or the cultivation and achievement of desires/ambitions, or the engagement in social relationships, activities, interactions, excitement, enjoyment and entertainment, in order to chase away the sense of low self-esteem, low self-worth, low confidence, negativeness, unhappiness and meaninglessness. It doesn't mean that these minds don't perform any actions to improve or be successful in whatever they venture, but all actions are free from attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation.

These quiet peaceful liberated minds might be perceived by the other majority of the society, including passionate sociable 'yoga practitioners/teachers' and health professionals as a form of 'unhealthiness', 'selfishness', 'abnormality', or even, 'insanity', as these minds don't think and behave, act and react, and are not interested towards engaging in the worldly passionate sociable family/community way of life like all the other majority in the society. They are peaceful as they are, being free from ignorance, egoism, passions, discrimination, dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, hatred, jealousy, animosity, violence, fear, boredom, loneliness, longing, hurts, meaninglessness, incompleteness and restlessness, being immerse in silence, seclusion and solitude, allowing the world and everyone to be what they are, as they are, and all are impermanent and selfless, which the worldly passionate sociable minds perceive as a form of 'unhealthiness', 'selfishness', 'abnormality' and 'insanity'.

It's everyone's freedom for how they perceive, think, feel, act and react, and what they want to do with their life, body and mind.

Retreat?

A retreat centre is a place for Sadhana, to retreat the mind from worldly habits of social interactions and activities to silent the restless mind. Live alone, sit alone, walk alone, eat alone, meditate alone. It's not an open house for community social recreation activities making social connections hanging out together busy chatting and gossiping, plotting and planning to chase away boredom and loneliness and empowering worldly attachments and identifications. Even in everyday life, one observes silence as much as possible renouncing worldly social interactions and activities, immerse in solitude and seclusion to be determined to annihilate the modification of the mind. Very few people indeed have this understanding and determination.