Photo: Emanuel Sjögren
“Wars are an outdated way to try to solve conflicts,
which is unacceptable in the 21st century.”
– Swami Dhyan Giten
Swami Dhyan Giten: Light on the Path
Swami Dhyan Giten answers your questions on meditation and spiritual growth.
Light on the Path is an invitation, which can bring light on your path to inner awakening. It is an invitation, which can help you to discover the inner being, the meditative quality within, the inner silence and emptiness, the boundless and unlimited source of creativity, both in relation to ourselves, in relation to other people, in relation to creativity and in relation to Existence.
Your question will be published in Giten’s Newsletter, The Giten Blog and Giten’s spiritual blog on The Times of India. Your questions will be answered on these pages depending on when when Existence is ready to respond and the amount of questions.
The third question is presented below.
Question 3.
The world seems to be going under. What can we do to save the world?
Peter
THE SILENT REVOLUTION OF THE HEART
– The Challenge for the 21 st Century
– From fear to love, from darkness to light and from
separation to wholeness
Right now it seems like the world is crumbling, and there is chaos all over the world. But the change from the old world order, from the old level of consciousness of ego, power and control is happening, and it creates the silent revolution of the heart, it creates the change to the new level of consciousness of the heart.
Right now, the dark and destructive people of the world, who tries to hold on the old world order of ego, power and control, are trying to start another war in Syria. By lying, they try to manipulate the world into supporting another war – like they did in Iraq. The truth is that they have themselves created the conflict in Syria, and the so-called “rebels” in Syria is CIA-agents – and now they try to use this situation to create another war.
The challenge for the 21st century is The Silent Revolution of the Heart. It is not a revolution within an organization or a land in the traditional sense with violence, madness and blood shed. It is a revolution in human consciousness.
The Silent Revolution of the Heart is an inner revolution from fear to love, from darkness to light and from separation to wholeness.
In society today there exists a deep split between the inner and outer world, between intellect and intuition, between male and female qualities, between rest and activity and between outer knowledge and inner wisdom. There is a rapid technological development in the society, but we seem to forget the most important factor: our self.
Humanity as a whole is in-between power and the heart in its psychological and spiritual development process towards spiritual maturity. The next step for humanity as a whole is to realize that real power is love and compassion.
The power chakra is the centre of the ego, the separated sense of “I”. The power chakra is about control, power and dominance over other people. A person who is on the development level of the power chakra wants to change other people, but he does not want to change himself.
Ordinary relationships are often power relationships, which is a fight and struggle between the partners needs and mine. Often the partner in a power relationship has the same strength to develop the power chakra.
The society is created out of the ego, and the need of the ego to create a hierarchy with power, status, respect, position, norms, roles and conformity. Many people in the West live in the power chakra, and are occupied with competing with others, to prove that they are somebody important, and finding their place in the hierarchy.
During the 20th Century has the psychological development level of humanity been on the awareness level of the power chakra? The focus of humanity has been on power, dominance, position, money and control over energy resources. We are technologically developed and this technology governs the development of the society, but this technology is at the same time destroying the earth. Energy resources are also a distinguishing theme in the power balance between countries.
Acting aggressively has its roots in fear, judgments and insecurity. Violence and aggressiveness is about control and dominance over another person. To judge and to be loving is two sides of the same coin. Judgments about another person are really about yourself. When we stop judging others and ourselves, our hearts opens. The heart is a healer that transforms fear to love, judgments to acceptance and separation to wholeness. The heart heals.
The 21st century means an inner awakening. It means a time to grow up. Many people talk about spirituality, meditation and inner development but it does not seem to change their lives. Our spiritual development depends on our commitment to our own development. We can use our free will to take on the challenge of life to grow or we can choose not to grow. This is the freedom that life gives us and it our own responsibility, but it seems that it is few people that accept life’s challenge to grow.
The 21st century represents a choice between the separation of ego and the vision of the heart. The silent revolution of the heart is a shift in human consciousness from the short-sighted perspective of the ego of “me” and “mine” to the focus of the heart on love and the needs of the other. It is a shift in consciousness from the short-sighted separation of the ego to the vision of the heart.
When we follow the way of the ego, the path of endless desires, it leads to struggle, conflict, exhaustion and separation from the Whole. The way of the heart is about learning to listen to our heart, to our inner source of love, joy, truth and wisdom. It is to be in a deep harmony with Existence.
When our heart is closed it creates an isolated and lonely feeling together with the attitude: “Nobody loves me”, “nobody cares about me” and “life is a struggle”, which makes us not see the love that is all around us.
A silent revolution of the heart happens when we start to care about another person, and it is a joy to put the needs of the other person before our own needs. It is on the awareness level of the heart that we begin to develop the sensitivity and awareness that makes us care about another person. The heart operates from the premises: I am responsible and only love works.
Love is to eat pizza with our beloved partner even though we hate pizza.
Our heart is the door to unconditional love both for ourselves and others. Our heart is really always open, but our judgments about ourselves and others keep it closed. When we stop judging ourselves and others, our heart begins to open. The way to healing is to learn to love and accept ourselves unconditionally. It means to embrace both our positive and negative sides with love and understanding. It means to learn to love everything that we find within ourselves.
We have been taught to love others, but not to love ourselves. But how can we love others without loving ourselves? The ABC of love is that we first need to learn to love ourselves before we can love anybody else.
Trust is a prerequisite for love. Without trust, love is without depth. It is like a plastic flower, instead of an alive, fresh and fragrant rose. Even if some people will let us down and make us sad and disappointed, it is no reason to let it undermine our basic trust in life. It is better to allow some people to let us down than not allow our basic trust in life to develop. Many people are so sleeping and unconscious that they really do not know what they are doing. They make us disappointed even if they do not really mean to. Even if we feel hurt, disillusioned and disappointed with people, see if you can give them love and understanding. A criterion for spiritual growth is that we begin to give love, rather than needing love.
Exactly as the rhythm of in-breathes and out-breathes of the physical body, the heart has also two poles: to give love and to receive love. Certain people are easier to give love to and other people are easier to be open to receive love. But to allow our love to become whole, we need to learn both to give love and to receive love.
Animals are great teachers in friendship and unconditional love. One of my course participants commented in a course, “I prefer animals before people, because animals cannot hurt me in the same way that people can. I myself still find it difficult to really trust that I am loved as I am. Even if I am aware about this, there is still a small part of myself that wants to contract, and which does not really trust that I am loved as I am and that life takes care of me. I find it easier to be present for others than to allow others to be present for me.”
Love and fear are two sides of the same coin. In the absence of love fear arises. In the light of love fear disappears, like when you turn the light on in a dark room. Fear is a contraction of our life energy together with an attitude of loneliness and isolation. Love creates an expansion of our life energy together with a feeling of love, joy and belongingness.
Love is the strongest power there is. There is no stronger force than love. Love is pure magic. Love transforms people without really doing anything. The sheer presence of love transforms people. There is nothing more holy than love, since love makes people whole.
Love accepts a person as he is. Love creates the freedom, which allows a person to be himself. Love creates the relaxation, which allows a person to relax into his inner being, into his authentic self. Love allows us to appreciate the beautiful being that we already are. Love allows a person to discover his true individuality.
Love is not an exclusive relationship with another person; love is a quality of our inner being. It is to discover the source of love deep within ourselves, which is our true nature.
In the depth of our heart, we already know that we are perfect as we are. In the depth of our inner being, we already know that life is perfect as it is.
It is on the awareness level of the heart that we begin to understand that we are not separate from life. We begin to understand that we are not small separate islands in a large ocean, but that life is one and that we are all small parts of the same whole. It is on the awareness level of the heart that we begin to understand what is important and meaningful in life. We begin to understand that life is about sharing, rather than hoarding, that life is about giving, rather than taking.
It is when we open our heart that we discover a sense of unity in love with other people, with the trees, with nature, with the sea and with the blue sky.
This is the silent revolution of the heart.
The human heart is the solution to the problems of the world.
The human heart contains all the answers.
The human heart has the capacity to expand and embrace the whole earth.
– Swami Dhyan Giten
The Giten Blog 