Highlights

Strengthen our physical, mental and virtue with inconvenience and discomfort now - then when there is a crisis we can survive.

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Sufferings make us stronger, do not be afraid of sufferings.

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When there is a prolong shortage of food, people will be fighting for groceries (and toilet paper too). Those who are richer will leave the country. Those who can’t and couldn’t get sufficient food will be driven to desperation to steal, rob or even kill for food. The whole country will be in Chaos if the governance and people’s virtues are weak to be unable to endure suffering. If the governance and people’s virtues are strong, things will be a bit better and there can be community gardens, food rationing, citizen group patrols to keep order. To prepare for the worse scenario, these are what we can do.

1. Physical Preparation

- Start training our body to overcome laziness. Physical community service and volunteer work, exercise daily light or moderate, walking to buy groceries and cooking for the family, gardening and growing edibles – anything that stops us from sitting in a corner like humpty dumpty looking at the handphone. During a crisis we have to farm and cook our own food, queue and walk long distances fetching our own water, food rations, chop fire wood etc. We have to get used to labour and standing for long periods of time.
- Get enough sunlight – sunlight gives us energy, we will feel energize after getting the sun. and also get Vitamin D which strengthens our immune system – this is very important when there is lack of food (and nutrients) which will weaken our immune system against covid and other illnesses etc.
- Intermittent fasting and food reduction – this will help train us to function in the same capacity with less food. Now we eat too much food and work too little physically, this compromises our body efficiency and we can’t work more with less food. Reducing food requirement allows more resources for everyone to survive.
- Eat minimally processed food and avoid junk food – this reduces the amount of bad stuff going into our bodies and compromising our health overtime, making us physically weaker to handle any crisis, illness etc.
- Reduce meat consumption greatly – during food shortage, we won’t even have enough plants to eat, so there will be no meat or it will be very little and very expensive frozen ones, because meat production is more resources intensive than plants. We must prepare our bodies by eating vegetarian or vegan regularly now, so our body can adjust and we won’t feel weak or tired when forced to eat this way suddenly during an actual crisis.
- Minimise hygiene requirements to basic – use less soap, take less showers, reduce use of instant wipes. These may not be regularly available during a crisis.
- Live simply – there are no luxuries, convenience and comfort during a food shortage, a lot of things will not be available simply because are unable to work and produce these items for us. We have to learn to reduce, reuse, recycle and make do with what we have to support a simple life.

2. Virtue & Mind Preparation – Emotional, Mental and Spiritual

- Developing a virtuous mind now - helps us make the wise decisions in time of crisis. Instead of looting, robbing or killing others for food to survive, we try to find non-violent and ethical solutions to our own situation instead. We will also find ways to help others rather than just think about ourselves and our families even when we are in lack. This will keep chaos minimal if everyone is able to keep their virtue. Virtue has to be develop now – through giving, through gratitude, kindness, compassion etc.
- Starting and keeping to spiritual practices such as prayer and meditation is important during such crisis. There will be no jobs as people have no energy to work. Meditation helps keeps us calm and conserve our energy. Prayer gives us strength and helps to turn the physical situation around from the spiritual plane. Our mental thinking wastes more energy than our physical body, that’s why advance yogis can go for many days without food. This helps conserve food resources for everyone.
- Preparing our minds to face death now – We are going to die, and this can happen anytime, crisis or not. To be ready and not struggle emotionally when the time comes, we have to prepare our minds now.
- Learning useful skills now to build resilence – community gardening and growing our own food, repair things, handyman, how to start a fire, how to collect water, DIY water filters, off-grid electricity such as solar panels, solar cookers, caring for old, sick, young, meditation, yoga, prayer, emotional management, self-reflection on our own virtue etc – and start to actualise these in our lives now. When crisis happens, they can come in to be useful immediately. Rather than attending a course, then forget about it.

All of the above do not make us money, they only bring us discomfort, inconvenience, sufferings. When we become used to discomfort, inconvenience and sufferings in normal life without complaining, we become stronger and will be able to fare much better in any crisis – because a crisis has all of these – amplified.

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SilentContemplation