I'm recording this on March 17th, 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic becomes a reality

for most of the globe.

Many of us are at different stages in our understanding of what's happening.

Reports out of Italy are frankly terrifying, and the United States, as of 48 hours ago,

it seems has finally understood what's coming, and it's clear that that understanding

has come too late to respond in a way that really would have been optimal.

So I want to talk about meditation in the context of a growing emergency, because on the one

hand, it can seem like the most dispensable of things, who has time to meditate in an

emergency.

But I want to suggest you two things.

That's the wrong way to think about your resources in any emergency, but particularly in

this one, all the usual considerations are reversed.

This is a very strange emergency.

This is an emergency in which the most effective contribution you can make to your own well-being

and the well-being of others is to stay home, unless your presence out in the world is critical

for the survival of others.

If you can possibly afford to stay home, you should do that.

I won't rehearse the epidemiological arguments here.

You've heard a lot about them.

But that is absolutely clear.

So you are being forced into a kind of retreat.

You very likely have more time on your hands, and now you're left alone with your mind,

...