As we continue to find our social lives limited by restrictions on movement and the numbers whom we can meet, how can we continue to feel ‘normal’?

The current restrictions are unwelcome but undeniably necessary, and their effect can be lessened by using apps for virtual meet-ups, but it is still all quite a change to normal life. Change can be a greater or lesser challenge for us all, and even when we steel ourselves and ‘hang in there’ or find some way of coping, what happens to us when it happens again and again, going on for so long?

It is worth remembering that some people seek solace in order to find peace of mind and understanding of themselves and their place in the universe, and they can stay away from mainstream society for years. Staying in a monastery for long-term meditation can lead to true enlightenment, which is finding answers to any and all questions about – as they say – ‘life, the universe, and everything’!

Those who act upon such a calling are unlikely to read an online blog such as this, so hopefully it can be of help to those who live comparatively regular lives and enjoy the internet; but it is worth remembering that during these socially-constrained tomes when many of us are using the internet more than ever before, the answers to our questions cannot always come from outside ourselves – some can only come from within.

Like so many who have direct experience of its benefits, the man behind Kendo Nagasaki’s mask is an advocate of meditation. The outside world can throw challenges beyond imagination at us, yet with meditation it always remains within our power to escape from the immediate negative experience of those challenges, as well as neutralise the worry which can blind us to the most powerful resource that can help us overcome reversals – our own intuitive wisdom. Once we’ve found that place of Zen peace, we will be completely at peace, and our intuitive selves will wordlessly guide us towards maintaining that peace, even when we return to the challenging ‘real world’. As Kendo points out, meditation is liberating, enlightening, and healing.

So, when you’ve streamed everything that’s looked interesting to you (and even some stuff that wasn’t!), when you’ve looked everywhere for answers but still find yourself questioning, it’s time to look within yourself. As Kendo has remarked many times before, the western world is incredibly rich in distractions and entertainments and ‘time-fillers’ which can keep the conscious mind occupied, but the time inevitably comes when we find ourselves looking for something with more meaning – something deeper. It’s been known by philosophers for centuries that the mind is a limited thing, and that true wisdom springs from more than mere ‘thought’, and once you accept this you open the door to the wealth of wisdom which lies beyond your stilled mind – this is the Buddha within.

Just as feelings cannot be ‘reasoned’ either into existence or away, enlightenment or wisdom cannot be created with the mind. Switching it off for a while allows the deeper levels of ourselves to flow naturally, giving us understanding and tolerance and resilience towards any hardship. You might have noticed that the way our lives are currently restricted upsets the conscious mind – be reassured that there is more to life than the distractions which it craves, and there is more to you, too. If the mind’s distress is upsetting you, switch it off and escape from that stress, and in the process, heal yourself on a deeper level and open yourself to the enlightenment of your own intuitive self.

Kendo might suggest that our current social restrictions are an invitation to take advantage of the solace from which the deep contemplations of those in monasteries give them so much; as the saying goes, currently, we have lemons, so let’s make lemonade! Use this time to find the true, wise depths of your own intuitive self, and you’ll have turned what at first appeared to be a negative into a life-long positive.