By Venerable Thich Thien Tam From Hoa Nghiem Buddhist Temple (chùa Hoa Nghiêm)
The widespread Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on human’s safety worldwide as well as led to severe hardship in human history.
The continuous recurrence of the outbreak can bring chaos and humanitarian crises all over the world.
These potential threats can be the results coming right from human behaviours due to rapid globalization, exhausting natural resources, utilitarianism, nationalism, etc.
These matters have severe impacts on the natural environment, ecological imbalance, resulting in natural disasters, wildfire, droughts, floods and global pandemics which are threatening lives on Earth.
During these harshly environmental conditions and social crises, if we, humans, do not understand the causes and effects, we will face extreme chaos and what will happen will be unacceptable.
As humans, we must acknowledge that we are not only responsible for ourselves but also for the present and future of humankind.
We can change ourselves as well as the social circumstances we have created in order to fulfil our wise will.
Our intentions leading to our own actions (Karma) create our current life conditions from what happened in the past to what is happening and what will happen.
Everything in the universe depends on each other to arise, exist and disappear.
This means it is the nature of things to always change as it is the nature of all life cycles on Earth.
Each birth bears its own future death through continuous cycles of transformation.
Whether our environment changes positively or not fully depends on us, humans.
Above all, the transformation of our present and future depends on our capacity to think and act collectively for the common good within our environment.
The Covid-19 outbreak, in Australia in general and Victoria in particular, has been effectively managed thanks to the unity between our Governments and their people.
We understood the risks of health and economical damage as well as mortality that this pandemic can cause.
Everyone has made enormous emotional, physical and financial sacrifices as well as concession to individual freedom to support the Covid-19 control campaign to preserve our clean fresh air today.
I hope that everybody continues to protect our environment, keep social distance, wear masks and always be aware that we are in the middle of the pandemic.
I hope that we will soon receive the vaccine, so that, our earth can be peaceful again and we can travel freely again.
