The Way of Harmony. First let me define what we are talking about. There are different things we speak of when we speak of harmony; harmony within our family, harmony within our community, harmony at work, living in harmony with the earth (eco-harmony), harmony in our country and harmony among nations (peaceful and cooperative co-existence), even harmony within ourselves – not being in a constant turmoil of emotions.

At its base harmony is living in comfortable relationship with self or someone else or some group of people. For example, when we live in harmony with our spouse our lives are smoother and more enjoyable.

So for a working definition of harmony let us say that harmony is experiencing our lives as a flow of joy, happiness, and bliss, uninterrupted by conflict or turmoil. Perhaps you have seen a movie where the writers and directors give us a character of an “ancient wise one”. I can’t help thinking of the movie Shangri-La. These characters are presented as people who always seem at peace: secure in their thoughts and undisturbed by the day to day trials that so get under our skins.

The quest for harmony, for achieving this state of what some traditions call “impassability” is an Ancient and Universal quest. Plato wrote about a utopia. Lao-Tzu founded Taoism, an ancient Chinese philosophy or religion that seeks harmony and balance as its highest goal. Confucius codified a set of social and governmental rules to try to create a harmonious society.
Indeed if we accept the idea that Confucianism, attempting to develop rules governing how individual members of society relate to one another, as a means of creating harmony then all societies are seeking harmony. Medieval Europe, the society of the Dakota Sioux, the Zulu Empire, modern Islam, all set up rules for the right ordering of our relations. A system of creating harmony.

Indeed part of the culture wars currently engulfing our society is because large elements of our country have very different ideas of how to achieve a harmonious life and society.
It would seem that all societies at all times gave thought to achieving harmony.

In fact there is one group which had and has a very different idea of achieving harmony. The Buddha taught that indifference to want and desire could bring a person back into the original harmony of the universe.

But by our definition harmony is not indifference. Harmony is living in a way that our words and actions do not disrupt the people or world around us – and in interacting with people and the world in such a way as their actions etc. do not disrupt our “flow of happiness”.

So Harmony is not a question of indifference but a question of right living.
So the desire for harmony seems to be inherent to human nature. That is to say that there is something deep within humans that enjoys harmony and seeks to maximize harmony and to achieve “Harmony”. We can see how different civilizations around the world have sought to talk about and sought after harmony. How well they achieved this elusive concept can be seen by history.