Hallo, my name is Bin Song. I am a Ru scholar, therapist, and college professor in the disciplines of philosophy, religion, and theology. This audio is written and recorded by me to help make sense of the cause of this pandemic in light of the spiritual practice of Ru (Confucian) meditation.

Before you start to listen to my words, I recommend you to do a short breathing practice to calm our heart and illuminate our mind. So, please position yourself well, sit, incline, or simply lie down. Using your belly muscles, be aware of the minor movements of your body, and then, focus upon your breath. Breathe in, deeply, slowly, and comfortably. Breathe out, feel the release, and feel the relax. And a short pause. Again, breathe in, breathe out. remember, no matter how bad the pandemic is, how frustrated you feel about your situation, there is always air and oxygen flowing around. The fact that you can breathe in to reenergize and re-tranquilize yourself should be deeply appreciated. So, breathe in, breathe out. Release the anxiety, worry, and all feelings of uncertainty. We need to focus upon things that we can control and improve, not things that are out of our control; so all anxieties, worries, and the feeling of uncertainty caused by the uncontrollable facts of life should all be released. Take care of yourself, be kind to your family, do your duties of your work; these are what we can control, and what we can do well if we breathe and meditate in the place here and in the time now. After you breathe out, let’s feel the short pause before next breathe in. Yes, when you stay home because of the pandemic, this is just a short pause of your entire life. For everybody, this is a good moment to reflect, to slow down, and to learn and plan for a better future.

While I am speaking, please continue to enjoy your breathing. Breathe in, breathe out, and a short pause.

From a Ruist perspective, the pandemic is neither an ineluctable natural disaster such as hurricanes or earthquake, nor the punishment by a supreme deity to humans’ violation of preestablished divine laws. It is not a sign of an apocalyptic event predetermined by some divine plan either. Instead, regardless of the origin of the fatal virus which the best scientific minds in the world are still trying to figure out, the development of the original outbreak to the current pandemic is a completely human disaster. It is caused by the non-transparency, dishonesty, injustice, malfunction, and inhumaneness of human governance and social management in face of this unprecedented event of global health crisis.

Let’s use one of the canonical texts of Ruism, Zhong Yong, to explain why theism is not a model for Ruism to make sense of the pandemic. The title of the text can be translated as “centrality and normality” or “keeping centered in the everyday world”, and it is said to be written by the grandson of Confucius, Zi Si, who lived around the 5 century B.C.E.

According to this text, what creates this world is not a supreme personal deity, but an all-encompassing, constantly generating cosmic power, which is called Tian. It says Tian “has no goal other than creating, and its power of constant creativity is beyond fathom.” (為物不貳，生物不測). So, what is Tian? Tian is the breathed air when you meditate; Tian is the beautiful sunshine in a nice and warm spring afternoon; Tian is also the colorful flowers, your cute puppet, and everything you love and cherish to your heart. However, Tian is also your bad moods when you are hungry, and your feelings of envy and jealousy when your peers get promoted. Tian is also all the frequently arrived natural disasters on the earth: hurricane, earthquake, famine, drought, flooding. And Tian is also the birth, explosion, and even disappearance of a remote star in a galaxy we humans can never imagine to reach. Seen from this perspective, the greatest virtue of Tian, which Ruism calls 德, is to have each and everything in the universe exist, become and change together in the eternal temporal scale of all possible past, present and future moments. In other words, Tian is beyond which nothing greater can be imagined, and this is the reason why the Chinese character of Tian 天adds a small stroke upon a lower character read as “great”, and indicates that Tian is the greatest being that humans can ever imagine when referring to the evolving world and its origin.

While we ponder the unfathomable and all-encompassing creative power of the universe of Tian as such, a feeling of wonder and awe towards it will naturally arise in our heart. Also, we will feel released by the fact that although Tian’s awesome creative power reaches anything and everything in the universe, it is not centered and calibrated to human needs. So, even if it would be possible for human civilization to be completely wiped out from the universe one day perhaps because of some natural disaster, pandemic or other devastating events, Tian is still Tian. It is still changing, becoming and creating; perhaps generating another civilization in another planets, or perhaps not.

This brings at least two central points of Ru spirituality: one, if we understand the co-existence of each and everything in the universe of Tian as the broadest case of “harmony” humans can ever imagine, the humans’ efforts of building a human civilization so as to satisfy the human interests of existing, surviving, and thriving together with a non-human nature should take the unfathomable creativity power of Tian as an ideal. This means we shall try to love and nurture as many living and natural beings as possible; but second, whether humans can harmonize all interests of human beings and furthermore, harmonize and co-flourish both human civilization and the non-human nature, will entirely depend upon our own efforts. Translated in terms accessible to Ru meditation, I will say, Tian provides abundant energy flowing around for human individuals to breathe in and utilize, but whether human individuals can breathe in and utilize them in the most effective way entirely depend upon our discipline and practice.

But how humans can rely upon our own efforts to harmonize and co-flourish all involved beings in a civilization to try our best to manifest the all-encompassing creative and loving power of Tian in the human world? Here, the text of Zhong Yong gives us a crucial verse for guidance, and it is also highly helpful for us to make sense of the cause of the pandemic: the verse reads, “不誠無物”, which can be literally translated as “if humans are not honest, nothing exists in the human world.” Yes, that’s it! Let me read the verse again: “if humans are not honest, nothing exists in the human world.” Look at the world now: schools closed, restaurants shut down, cinemas cannot be walked into. Even when humans meet each other, we cannot see our faces, or we can only greet each other from a far distance. How sad this is! How bad this is! But who causes this? It is those dishonest people rightly in the epi-centers of this pandemic!

There are three meanings of the Chinese character Cheng in this verse, each meaning is deeper than its prior one, and it also includes but is not limited by the prior meaning.

Firstly, Cheng means simply honesty. Human words and deeds must be in line with each other. And this is the bottom-line principles of human interaction. If parents are not honest to children, husband is not honest to wife, a government is not honest to its citizens, nothing remains to sustain these human relationships.

Secondly, Cheng means sincerity. The correspondence between words and deeds may not endure if an individual is not sincerely believing the value of what they are pursuing. In this case, the apparent correspondence may derive from blind thought habit, or just pretend to be so to fulfill some strategic, utilitarian needs. On the other hand, extreme situations may require humans to temporarily break their promise of words to accommodate emergency needs, and in these unusual situations, it is still the indicated sincere good intention of those individuals to account for why they need break their promises and hence, induce some dishonesty in their deeds. In other words, a deeper meaning of Cheng refers to the devotional dimension of inner sincerity of human heart when we are saying words and doing deeds.

Thirdly, Cheng means authenticity. If one’s devotion to a certain cause of life does not line up with principles about how individuals thrive themselves in an all-interconnected human society, their devotion may be sincere, but not authentic. So, according to the text of Zhong Yong, what is the most important for each individual to manifest the all-encompassing creativity of Tian in the human world is to remain authentic to their enduring, irreplaceable and genuine self, and thus, harmonize the needs of their self with other human and natural beings, so as to realize harmonies in its varying forms and in evolving life situations. If we humans can achieve this, we will “assistant the transformation and nurturing of heaven and earth”, and thus become one of the triadic, divine powers: heaven, earth and human beings, within the universe of Tian.

So, in light of this crucial verse of Zhong Yong, how can we make sense of the cause of the pandemic? I think we just need to ask these questions to all those involved human fellows who are responsible to monitor, plan, and execute policies of public health: are they honest in their words and deeds? Are they sincerely devoted to what their responsibilities require to? And are their personalities or the institutions where they work in authentic to principles of the sustainability of human civilization and the co-thriving harmonization of all involved living beings? If not, then, the result has already been mandated by the text: “ if not Cheng, nothing exists in the human world.” Yes, “if not Cheng, nothing exists in the human world.”

Then, since we can make sense of it, the last question we need to ask is that, in order for things in the human world to exist and flourish again, how can we make our human life continually honest, sincere and authentic? In the context of Ru meditation, a disciplined practice of re-centering ourselves in evolving moments of our everyday life is definitely a starting point for each individual. As Mencius said, if each of us can have a good sleep, practice meditative breathing in a daily basis, and thus, nurture the oceanic Qi within our bodies, we will be more ready to feel the interconnection of all living beings in the universe, and thus, be more honest, sincere and authentic to do what is right, to live out what is meaningful and valuable. So, let’s continue to breathe in, breathe out, and enjoy the incoming peaceful and temporary rest.