The heart, properly understood, is a reflector. When not tarnished, the heart can reflect the divine light so it appears to be shining within oneself. This picture reminds us of the one Source of all light, shown here by the sun, and uncountable millions of hearts that reflect that light, shown here by the waves.
How does this relate to a community? The reflections of the hearts of those involved work in two important ways.
First, in a spiritual community, there must be one or more people whose heart-mirrors are especially bright and so act like miniature suns, though they are nothing more than reflectors. Just like the joy of basking in sunlight, there is a great joy in receiving the strong light from their hearts. It also makes others feel the light and joy within themselves more easily.
Second, the heart of each person is reflected in the heart of every other, resulting in what the mystics have called "The Palace of Mirrors." This creates an atmosphere for very rapid heart development, stimulated by all the feedback you could ever want. Imagine having your heart energized by many other adults every day who recognize your greatness, and also reflect back to you what you can't or don't want to see in yourself.
People who haven't ever lived in community have no idea how effective it can be as an environment for personal development and social awareness.
I started a small commune in 1967 in Philadelphia which ran a coffeeehouse. That group evolved into a group of 12 that bought a house together, where my first two children were born. The group expanded as we studied meditation, and two more houses were bought, making three in a row on the same street, housing 20. As many more of our group lived nearby. We started a food co-op and a whole-wheat bakery as a community service. In 1975 about half of us moved to The Abode, an intentional spiritual community on 500 acres that I helped to find and start in upstate New York. There we were about 100 adults and 50 kids, and my third child was born there. Later I moved to Boston and helped create a meditation school and children's elementary school; the core of the group lived together communally in the meditation center, another commune and the school. My fourth child was born there. All together, I lived for 16 years in the various communities that I started or helped to start.
I feel the experience of living in community has taught me a few things -
(1) the value of community living is
high, but the community must preserve individual initiative and responsibility.
(2) The economic and social value of a community is not worth the effort unless there is a strong,
common, spiritual value.
(3) Even with a common ideal, a community can only survive as a real community of friends if there
is a commitment throughout the community to emphasise love and seek harmony between all hearts.
(4) The inward pull of the community must be countered by an emphasis on service to the larger community.
(5) A community can be enormously effective in achieving the ideals held in common by its members.
As those of you who know Heart Rhythm Meditation have the occasion to move into the same areas and live more closely together, the benefits of community will be increased.
In order to develop a heart-based culture for the world, we need to demonstrate such a culture among ourselves. We need to explore how our practice of the heart will change our sense of community. But in this Internet-age, the boundaries of our community are really global. On the one hand, I feel the challenge of keeping in close contact with people thousands of miles away that I don't see often. On the other hand, I feel more closely aligned with my friends who practice Heart Rhythm Meditation, wherever they are, than with people who are physically nearby but focused on their minds or transcendence beyond.
The challenge for community today has moved beyond the commune, but the new vision is undefined. What would a community of the heart feel like to you? What would it look like? What can you contribute to this community? What help would you like from our community?
Your heart is needed here, both as a reflector of the divine sun, to become a local source of light, and as a reflector of the hearts of others, to reveal in them what is not usually seen.