Communication
From the Book: “Kundalini Yoga: The Power is in You” by Prabhuji
Chapter: FIFTH CHAKRA: VIŚUDDHA-CAKRA OR “THROAT CHAKRA”
This center gives rise to the need to share our experiences and communicate our ideas and feelings with other people, in other words, our need for expression and perception. Hence this center is connected to all aspects of art. Both svādhiṣṭhāna and viśuddha are related to art: the former through its ties to sex and the latter through its influence on communication. Creativity and sexuality are the same energy. The same power capable of creating a child can create a painting, a poem, or a symphony. Physically, the fifth center is closely tied to the throat, thyroid and parathyroid, lymph system, vocal cords, ears, voice, shoulders, mouth, and in general, our faculty of speech.
Wherever an exchange or transmission between two or more entities occurs, the fifth chakra plays a central role. Every communication requires a sender (who transmits a message), a receiver (who receives the message), a message (the information conveyed), and a channel (the element that allows the message to be conveyed). If there is any interference, that is to say, if any of these components fail, communication is impossible.
To communicate properly, we must be both a sender and a receiver. We need to develop our capacity to be receptive and expressive and give equal importance to both. If we wish to cultivate receptivity, we need to awaken our sincere interest in others, because only then we will develop an authentic will to meet them and learn about them. Listening to other points of view contributes greatly to our enrichment because it allows us to appreciate life from a different perspective. It is said that we were given two ears and one mouth because we should listen twice as much as we speak. It is a fact that we learn more by listening than by speaking.
In most conversations, practically everyone is more concerned with speaking than listening. Many people prefer the role of senders, but only few accept the place of the receiver. Rather than listening, most people prefer to be listened to. They are more interested in what they are saying than in paying attention to others. What we generally call a conversation is more like a monologue. It is impossible to hear clearly if there is a lot of noise around us. Similarly, in order to perceive clearly what is said to us, inner silence is essential. Our mental noise, which is the product of a mind agitated by desires, does not allow us to listen to the message attentively. Meditation is not a technique or method, but pure receptivity.
People quarrel, argue, and feel offended, and this is often due to communication problems. We live our lives from the known. Our past filters our reactions and attitudes. It is impossible for us to understand each other and avoid misunderstandings if we communicate from our past. Someone mentions something, and immediately we connect it to our past. Before the other person has finished expressing his or her point of view, we have reached a conclusion and we are prepared to answer. We really do not understand what is being said to us, but we interpret it according to our past experiences.
In our efforts to communicate, there is interference from the mind and the past. The mind interprets and compares to what it has stored in the great storehouse of the known. It does not know how to listen, because in order to listen it must be transformed into silence. The quality of communication will improve to the extent that we identify less with the mind. Perfect communication, without the risk of misunderstandings, occurs only without the mind. It only occurs between people who do not act with the mind—those who move in the now, without interpretations or comparisons. A dialogue can even be established without words; a glance or silence can be tremendously communicative. Only the enlightened being, one who does not act through the instrument of the mind, can have a dialogue with the trees, flowers, stars, life, existence, or God. For this reason, communication finds its highest expression in meditation.
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