Kōan Fragments of a Distorted World #5 (with a nod to Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s book "Pictures of the Gone World")

“A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying”

- Pink Floyd, from “Comfortably Numb”

COCOCOCOCOCOCACACRCOVI-1492
Continuing to call the microscopic virus COVID-19 is not fully accurate and risks perpetuating the fixation, the fear, the enemy. The nomenclature is derived from COrona-VIrus-Disease-2019. First of all, in and of itself it is not a “disease” because it has to feed off of something/someone so as to enact its un-ease; takes two to tango. Secondly, in the USEmpire, as example, many deaths and much trauma could have been avoided with better planning, cuts in the military-industrial-complex budget and dismantling a capitalist system that allows for corporations/billionaires to be profiting while the centerpiece of many people’s day is getting a meal or soap&water.

So it’s not just a COronaVIrus rather a COnquest, COlonization, COnversion, COmmodity, COrporate, COnsumer, CApitalist, CAnnibal VIrus, some of which began with the likes of CRistóbal COlón. Shall we dub it: COCOCOCOCOCOCACACRCOVI-1492? At least that would make people slow down and think more about what is actually happening and why. And besides, I might watch MainStreamMedia (MSM) news just to hear the talking heads try to pronounce COCOCOCOCOCOCACACRCOVI-1492.

Of course, take heed, be careful, yet also be aware that the mantras of “Coronavirus” and “COVID-19” have become sound-bites like “Global War On Terror” (actually Of instead of On) and “War On Drugs” (also actually Of), and “Stop and Frisk,” “frisk” meaning “dance, frolic,” whereas the NYPD have been infamously known to slam (mostly Black and Latinx) people up against the wall rather than being true to their word by turning up the boombox volume and partying with them; now THAT would be breaking news!

Terra Firma or Terror Infirma
Maybe you’ve noticed recently, the MSM/corporate-media’s propaganda bashing of, particularly, China and Russia. This is stemming from the innocuously named Great Power Competition (GPC). The slick changing of the guard to GPC was as subtle as its predecessor was glaring, what with the anti-Islamic GWOT having been MSM-bullhorned 24-7 for about fifteen years. Yet, fear not, despite the fact that the terror has morphed ― after the color-coded brand of terror faded into the background, enter COVID-19 aka COCOCOCOCOCOCACACRCOVI-1492.

But wait a second, terror and colonization are no strangers to world history. And that begs the questions: What is the world/would the world be like without terror and physical distancing? Without food&water&shelter distancing (many people have trouble accessing one or all three)?

How can people bridge the widening emotional gaps due to lack of interaction, and, to paraphrase Orwell, due to the boot on the masked face?

In the letter I got from the White House about the $1200 check, what stood out linguistically was, “As we wage total war on this invisible enemy...” Invisible? Have they not heard of the microscope? (Ok, ok, I know what they meant but “invisible enemy” is, in this case, code for “fear/terror,” whereas an essential invisible is Wind/Air.) And if this is a “war,” thus far it's about as competent as being in Afghanistan, USE's longest war to date, which seems less of a war than strategic maneuverings for resources, for examples, “Afghanistan possesses rare minerals crucial for industrial manufacturing, including copper, gold, uranium and fossil fuels... the country’s mineral wealth is estimated at $3 trillion, more than enough to compensate for the war’s cost. ”[1] Also, poppies for heroin.[2] As Gore Vidal's 2002 book title highlighted, quoting historian Charles A. Beard: “Perpetual war for perpetual peace.”

Living with Mother Earth and Her solid ground, terra firma, is the simplest-complex answer for dealing with the terror infirmity. Recently I watched a fascinating documentary “Intelligent Trees” which shows how trees communicate with and feed each other via an underground network called mycelium (another 'invisible'); as the film shows, survival of the fittest is a community effort.

Geo-political kōan: How is it possible?
The Waorani of Ecuador's Amazon ask and answer what could be asked and answered by Original Peoples almost anywhere and by millions of other human beings from various countries, for examples, Venezuela and Iran (also seemingly on the GPC list), and by essential slave-labor workers, nursing home elders, trash-bag wearing nurses and doctors:

“'How is it possible that during a global pandemic that threatens people's lives, the government continues to extract oil from indigenous territories, thus exposing us to the coronavirus? It is clear that they care more about money than our lives,' President of the Coordinating Council of the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador-Pastaza (CONCONAWEP) Nemonte Nenquimo said at the briefing.”

&

"'The government has abandoned us and is not actively coordinating with our indigenous leaders. The virus is already invading our territory, it is an emergency that requires immediate action, but instead, the government's attention is turned towards the big cities. They have left indigenous communities in the forest to fend for themselves in this pandemic,' Nenquimo said.”[3]

To learn more or make a donation: go to Amazon Front Lines

One more thing
In the Zen tradition the kōan is a kind of riddle intended to shift one's consciousness and way of being. The process of pondering and living with the kōan as one goes about one's day-to-day busy-ness is as important as the answer, if there even is one answer... which reminds of a Zen kōan:

"All things return to the One. What does the One return to?"

Deep inside each being is a living-memory of origin. Touching into that timeless 'place' can serve to remind anyone that the place to return to starts with where you are standing. Or as T.S. Eliot wrote in “Four Quartets”:

“And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

Perhaps the most significant kōan nowadays has to do with survival: How to deal with those who have forgotten that such a place even exists? Because they are the ones prompting: “How is it possible that...?”

NOTES:
[1] “At stake in US military efforts to stabilize Afghanistan: At least $3 trillion in natural resources”

[2] “The Forever War // Part I - From The Killing Fields”

[3] “Ecuador’s Amazon: Waorani People File Lawsuit Against the State”

Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer and small press publisher, he travels a holistic mystic pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. See his new book of nonfiction with a poetic touch, “photo albums of the heart-mind”.

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