Peace
and Harmony
“There
are two aspects of individual harmony: the harmony between body and
soul, and the harmony between individuals. All the tragedy in the
world, in the individual and in the multitude, comes from lack of
harmony. And harmony is best given by producing harmony in one's own
life.”
Hazrat
Inayat Khan
In the spirituality group
on Wednesday night, we grappled with defining “joy.” Like
harmony, its definition varies from person to person. In my world
view, harmony is synonymous with balance—all things in moderation,
equal work and play, opportunity to exercise one's creative
expression, enough food but not too much, enough sleep, intellectual
challenges but not intractable problems, good friends, soul
connections and so on. Internal harmony, for me, comes from living in
balance. This is not to say that I always achieve it. I'm far better
at defining it than practicing it, which is true for most of us.
Joy, on the other hand,
creates a conundrum. The first thing that pops into my mind is an
excessive state of glee—the Hallmark version of joy! The
over-the-top, I'm madly in love sort of adrenaline rush one feels when
something wonderful happens. As great as that is, I don't think it's
the kind of joy that is called a “gift of the spirit.” The
spirituality group decided that the spiritual definition of joy is
peace. When one is at peace within, one feels joyful. I'm sure there
are people who simply are born peaceful—people whose very nature is
joy. I can honestly say that I don't know any of them. In my
experience, which is admittedly limited, one works to achieve inner
peace, and sometimes it takes a lifetime.
The work of peace-making,
based on personal experience, and from study over the decades, is a
product of learning to accept life on its own terms. Which, like
Reinhold Niebuhr's serenity prayer—“grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change...courage...wisdom...” sounds
easy, but is probably the greatest human challenge of all. To achieve
inner balance, peace, harmony, and thus joy, one must allow life to
unfold in its own way. Acceptance of self and others, exactly as we
are, and confronting the vicissitudes of life without being turned
upside-down and inside-out is the path to inner peace. That simple,
yet difficult, practice allows life-energy to continuously flow
through your body/mind and produce feelings of peace and harmony.
Sounds good, doesn't it? Let's practice that today.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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