Harmony
To live our life in Harmony is to live in a consistent, orderly and pleasing way. This cannot come in by putting together various bits and pieces of our life which are pulling us in different directions and knitting them together. It is to live the life wholly, completely together.
In our life we separate ourselves into various roles which are in conflict with each other. Our career life is in conflict with family life, our role of parent in conflict with the role of spouse, the role of public life in conflict with private life. Can we live this life completely as a whole, without the fragmentation? Yes it is possible. For that we have to look at everything thing holistically and acting on every event holistically. The only way that is possible is not to have images and preconceived ideas. Images of a husband or wife, father or mother, etc.,. Let us see what J. Krishnamurti talks about Harmony,
“Order implies harmony in daily life. Harmony is not an idea. We are caught in the prison of ideas and there is no harmony in that. Harmony and clarity imply seeing things holistically, observing life as a total unitary movement - not, I am a business man at the office and a different person at home; not, I am an artist and can do the most absurd and eccentric things; not this breaking up, or fragmenting, of life into various categories, the elite and the non-elite, the worker and the non-worker, the intellectual and the romantic, which is the way we normally live. See how important it is to treat life as a total movement in which everything is included, in which there is no breaking down, as the good and the bad and heaven and hell. See holistically so that when you observe your friend, or your wife or your husband, you see holistically in that relationship………………So, harmony comes into being when you have insight into all this……..”
We will end this with a Zen story.
“There is the story of a young martial arts student who was under the tutelage of a famous master. One day, the master was watching a practice session in the courtyard. He realized that the presence of the other students was interfering with the young man’s attempts to perfect his technique. The master could sense the young man’s frustration. He went up to the young man and tapped him on his shoulder. “What’s the problem?” he inquired. “I don’t know”, said the youth, with a strained expression. “No matter how much I try, I am unable to execute the moves properly”. “Before you can master technique, you must understand harmony. Come with me, I will explain”, replied the master. The teacher and student left the building and walked some distance into the woods until they came upon a stream. The master stood silently on the bank for several moments. Then he spoke. “Look at the stream,” he said. “There are rocks in its way. Does it slam into them out of frustration? It simply flows over and around them and moves on! Be like the water and you will know what harmony is.” The young man took the master’s advice to heart. Soon, he was barely noticing the other students around him. Nothing could come in his way of executing the most perfect moves.”
Reference;
1. http://www.buddhagroove.com/
2. http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/