An era of significant changes in values

 An era of significant changes in values

From a spiritual perspective, we are now entering an era of profound transformation in values — a time when the way we see and live life is undergoing a great shift.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, activities such as company drinking parties and employee trips have declined. Even if the pandemic fully subsides, it is unlikely that life will return to the old values and customs of the past.

Throughout history, the world has moved forward by repeating cycles of change and stability. For example, the Sengoku (Warring States) period was a time of intense change, followed by the Edo period, which brought a long era of stability. From the late Edo period through the early Shōwa era, change was again rapid, while from the Shōwa to the Heisei period, society experienced a relatively stable age.

No era in history has ever truly returned to the past, and this current period of rapid change marks the beginning of a new age in which values will transform on a grand scale.

In spirituality, there is the view that the overall energetic quality of the Earth is shifting — from a predominantly masculine energy to a predominantly feminine one.

This is not a sudden switch, like turning black to white, but rather a gradual shift, like the changing relationship between the sun and the moon. It is a force that will affect the entire planet, influencing both men and women alike.

The predominance of feminine energy is still only in its prologue. In its early stages, this youthful feminine mental energy often manifests in contrasting emotions such as joy, anger, sorrow, and delight, which can easily appear in society as polarization, contradictions, sudden reversals of policy, and wave-like fluctuations.

Men tend to suppress and control their emotional energy, which can make both their minds and bodies more rigid. Women, on the other hand, tend to release and control their emotional energy outwardly, which can make both their minds and bodies more flexible.

When it comes to change, softness adapts more easily than hardness. Therefore, the rise of feminine energy marks the beginning of an era of rapid transformation.

Masculine-dominant energy tends to place value on visible, material things, whereas feminine-dominant energy tends to place value on the invisible — the heart and inner feelings.

During the economic bubble of the Shōwa era, people often placed high value on luxury watches, upscale houses, designer handbags, and expensive cars — visible symbols of material wealth.

While not true for everyone, there is a noticeable trend today in which fewer people long for such material possessions.

One might see it this way:
The spread of the internet has shifted people’s sense of presence from the physical, material world into the online world. This digital space has become a place where hearts and minds can connect, potentially increasing awareness of the inner self and the hearts of others.

I have spoken many times in this blog about the growth of the soul. Just as intellectual growth is made up of individual awakenings of knowledge, the growth of the heart — spiritual maturity — is made up of individual awakenings that come from the heart.

When one’s spiritual maturity (reikaku) rises, one’s presence in the spiritual sense grows, as does the creative ability to fulfill the hearts of others. The more awakenings of the heart one experiences, the broader one’s perspective becomes. This is not a difficult concept — it is simply the process of becoming an adult in the spiritual sense.

Conversely, when spiritual maturity is low, one’s presence is weak, and the desire to have one’s own heart fulfilled tends to outweigh the desire to fulfill others. With fewer awakenings of the heart, one’s perspective narrows. This too is not a difficult idea — it is essentially the state of being a child in the spiritual sense.

One characteristic of high spiritual maturity is that it often brings a “graduation” from previous interests, appearing as a natural loss of attachment or boredom with what once held value.

In this sense, feminine-dominant energy — while not affecting everyone — often works as a force that leads people to new awakenings of the heart. As spiritual maturity rises, it becomes easier for society to experience major changes in values compared to the past.

Another characteristic of spiritual maturity is that those with higher maturity tend to see the behavior of those with lower maturity as emotionally childish. As a result, people who are still bound to the masculine-dominant value system may be perceived as spiritually immature.