Millennials. Generation Y or Z. Indigo children. Crystal children. There are a lot of different ways how the generation boron from the 1980’s on is referred to. Millennials is a term most of us have probably heard before. It refers to the entire generation born after 1980. Generation Y are the people born between 1981 and 1991, whereas the Generation Z is born between 1991-2001. Both can be called Millennials. Although there is no real consensus about the exact years of birth for those generational terms. But in the end it also doesn’t matter too much. The terms describe the current generation of people somewhere around the age of 18-35 years old. How they behave, how they see the world, how they act, and what influence on the world they might have. I’ve read a lot about those terms and their definitions, as I’m a Millennial myself and I was wondering. There are a lot of things I can absolutely agree to and others I can’t connect to at all. But isn’t that always the case when we try to categorize people or put them in boxes?
However there is ones thing that comes up again and again, and something I find in many people around the age of 18-35, we want change. Either we want to be the change, or we simply have the deep desire for change because we simply think and feel that the world how it is today, is not the world where we want to live in. We often feel like strangers in the places we grew up or on this planet in general.
This is where Indigo and crystal children come into play. This is a rather spiritual approach of describing the same generation. Although it doesn’t try to put all people born during this time into one box. It is said that during this time a large amount of people born, souls born, came here in order to change the world. Their soul’s purpose is to change the world as it is today, to a more harmonious and balanced togetherness here on earth. This is a topic in itself because there are different “children”, not only indigos or crystals but also rainbow, diamond, dolphin children and each group of children, or people, has their own special purpose on this earth. The interesting part is, that both, the ethnology realm (Millennials) and the spiritual realm (indigo children), refer to this growing up generation in very similar ways. The bottom line is, that we want to change something in the world, in a way the humankind has not experienced it yet. Peaceful. Fresh. Free. Open. Kind. Strong. Compassionate.
Can you relate? Or does this description remind you on?
The whole start-up movement is part of our generation. Breaking the rules of what we knew before. Airbnb, Uber, Facebook? They changed the world, entire industries who have been around for quite some time. Could you imagine to go to a stranger’s home, instead of a hotel some years ago? Or driving in the car of a stranger instead of a solid cab? Hell, no! Strangers are not trustworthy. You don’t know them, who know what happens! And there we are. Airbnb shares the leading position within the hotel industry with Marriott International and online with booking.com. Facebook as one of the first social media channels, changed the entire marketing and media industry. Kind is the new cool. Vegan and organic became common, instead of the weird passion of a few people. People don’t vote as much as they used to do. If you ask our generation, we either are very active in politics ourselves and try to change or at least influence it as much as possible or we can’t connect to any party or the system as a whole and rather ignore it. This is not the time to judge any of those two reactions. I simply want to demonstrate what is happening with this, my, our, generation. And then there is his holiness the Dalai Lama, making an appeal to exactly this generation in his latest book. He calls upon this generation to lead the biggest revolution seen in history. He says the upcoming decades will either change the way the world works completely, and we start over or it is going to be the end of the human kind. The end of human kind. Yes you saw right. Do you agree? How does it makes you feel? Do you resist the idea completely or agree? The fact is that the way we live here on this planet, the way we use the resources we have, the way we treat each other won’t hold up for much longer. We can measure it. We know it. People are just not aware of it but we know it. It is a fact. The resources earth provides are limited after all. So what do people do about it?
Some people think we should stop driving cars, don’t turn on the heating unless we really need to and so many things that are a nice idea, but if you ask me, not the problem. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) agriculture is responsible for 18% of the total release of greenhouse gases world-wide (this is more than the whole transportation sector) (Link to the full article). So should we completely stop eating meat then? Seriously, as much as I’d like to see those animals living a happy life instead of living in livestock farming, this not the solution either. All the ideas above are great and contributing to change. This is just like taking a pill for your daily headache. The question is what is the reason for your headache?
What is the root cause of the way we act as human kind? We need to find what is causing the human kind to act in all the way we do, that is causing to endanger not only our existence but the existence of most other species on this planet. I believe, I truly do, that we are here to enjoy life. We are supposed to drive fast cars if we want to and we think it is right, to eat meat and do the things that we enjoy. It is about balance.
Imagine your body. You won’t die from one or a few days without exercise and eating some sugar. If you keep doing this for months or even decades, you will harm your body immensely. This is what we do to the earth and all beings living on it. There is a way that people can still enjoy the things they like while treating all life on earth respectfully and ensuring the survival of our future generations.
The Dalai Lama’s approach is the revolution of compassion. We need to find back to real compassion for each other and everything around us. He believes that our generation is the generation, who is able to make this change happen and turn things around. He is over 80 years old now and in his latest book he clearly states that he is not writing this book as the Dalai Lama, as a Buddhist or anyone but as a human being. For him this not at all a religious matter.
He even says that in his opinion religions have failed. Instead of reuniting the human kind, they rather separating the people. This revolution needs to be led on the base of reasonable science, making compassion, amongst other things, more tangible. Quantum physics and psychology can prove what ancient wisdom like Buddhism (and others) are teaching since thousands of years.
We need compassion and love for survival. Instead we create ourselves the problem of loneliness, which causes more people’s death than the most common diseases. By now we know, that people who have psychological problems, became criminal, have problems with showing compassion or understanding, have had a lack of connection when they grew up. We need the love of our mother or at least reals love from any parent figure as little babies and children. If we don’t get it, it will unarguably have a negative impact on us. On the other hand, science shows how almost unbelievably strong the impact of compassion is, when we practice it amongst each other. The power of our thoughts, our words and our actions are bigger than many people believe, and science has the ability to show it to us.
As humans seem to have a hard time connecting to things that they cannot see or touch, the Dalai Lama is convinced that this change of the human kind will be based on science and supported by our young generation who is eager to change the world to something more harmonious.
We believe that change is not only necessary but possible. The generations before us had to fight for their lives, growing up during war or as kids of people who were deeply affected by the war. We are growing up in a much calmer world, at least for the most part. We have the time and energy to focus on our hearts. And when we really listen to our hearts, they want love, they want connection, they want peace and they want joy.
A few months ago I in an Uber on my way to the airport in Los Angeles. We were talking for a while about life and society, politics and war.
He then said something I have never heard someone saying before: “The human kind cannot exist without war. We need war for our existence.”.
I took some deep breaths, trying to process what he just said. I answered that, if anything, in my opinion war would rather hold us back from existing and endangering our existence. We should have learned from all the wars. It is only a few people, fighting over opinions and thousands of people losing their homes and lives, simply to settle a dispute. Why aren’t some people able to find common ground by simply talking to each other? We get imprisoned if we start to kill each other on the streets, when we fight, but countries are allowed to do that? I know, it’s for the country and its people. But really. What are we fighting over? Land? Power? Money?
My generation knows, that life is about much, much more than power, money, things, ego. We truly know that. There is more to life than what we can see with the bare eyes. And now, we are able to make it visible based on science’s studies. We make it possible to show everyone despite of their beliefs, religions or perspectives, something that until now might have just been a belief. We can now shoe that it is a fact. And with the phenomenal invention of the internet, we are able to share it everywhere.
Love, compassion are stronger than the urge to have power over something or someone. But this calls for a lot of awareness that needs to be created. We need to heal deep wounds of the past. We need to work on ourselves. Each and every person has a lot to do, to work on their personal development. If we as a singular person are in balance, we are able to share this balance and will act differently within a community, within society. We are able to support each other because we are whole. We don’t need to be scared of others and gain power over them, in order to feel safe. We rather know that when we support others, we support ourselves and the world. And again, this is nothing new. Ancient wisdom teaches this since a long, long time. But it was hard to grasp, as it seemed to be something that we rather believe in or not. But now we can make it tangible. We can prove the ancient wisdom people felt in their heart and intuition for so long. We can show it the world in a way, that explains it on a different level. We grow from belief into knowledge, we combine them.
Changing the world starts with bringing balance into our own lives. And then we need to share our experiences and perspectives with the world. The world never had the possibility to share information faster and broader than today with the internet.
We have all the tools it takes to bring balance into this world. We can heal the world and survive all, without deprivation. Because once we are aware of certain things, we change our behavior and we like to change certain things.
Life is beautiful and full of joy. Let’s spread more compassion and not force people to change but simply create awareness for what is and then let them choose. Live in a way that we feel whole and in balance. Living with purpose. Everyone will always have a choice. In fact with this revolution of compassion we give more people the ability to really choose their lives. This revolution has nothing to do with forcing anyone to do anything. We just want to create awareness, make people more aware of their choices and be compassionate with each other.
“We can reject everything else: religion, ideology, all received wisdom. But we cannot escape the necessity of love and compassion….
This, then, is my true religion, my simple faith. In this sense, there is no need
for temple or church, for mosque or synagogue, no need for complicated
philosophy, doctrine or dogma. Our own heart, our own mind, is the temple.
The doctrine is compassion. Love for others and respect for their rights and
dignity, no matter who or what they are: ultimately these are all we need.
So long as we practice these in our daily lives, then no matter if we are
learned or unlearned, whether we believe in Buddha or God, or follow some
other religion or none at all, as long as we have compassion for others and
conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is
no doubt we will be happy.”
― Dalai Lama XIV