September 21st marks the International Day of Peace and here at the Temple of the Jedi Order, we recognize it as the Day of Harmony. Let us remind ourselves what harmony is. Depending on your dictionary, it may say many different things about harmony. But the crucial underlying element of harmony is that it requires the interaction between two or more entities. Harmony, by inherent nature, cannot exist in isolation.
As someone who is musically inclined, it is difficult for me to not relate harmony into musical terms. A single note, by itself, is not harmonious. But as we add notes, or HARMONIES, in relation to that initial note, we may arrive at harmony. However, excess in notes or sound and what was before a pleasant harmony, is now infernal noise. (Keep in mind that even in disorder there is order. One person’s perceived infernal noise may actually be a jazz player’s chord.)
Therefore, harmony is not born from the absence of anger, but the balance of anger and happiness. It is not born from the absence of fear, but the balance of fear between confidence and indifference. That is why our harmony can be found in relation to another well-known entity: The Force.
This may be difficult to remember, in the midst of our daily lives, where chaos and disorder seemingly encroach at the edge of our lives, but it is on those frontiers that we can find our harmony. When an imbalance arises, so does the opportunity for harmony. Teaching 13 tells us:
“The Jedi cultivate empathy with others. Maintaining a keen sensitivity to when the feelings of fear, anger, hatred, and aggression move within us, we empathically and compassionately comprehend how these feelings also arise in others. Those whom we perceive as adversaries also share these limitations. With this understanding, we respond to imbalance so as to return harmony to the flow of interactions.”
Harmony, like most things, is typically right beside you, just waiting to be found. Let us continue to build empathy to the world at large around us, withholding judgment in an effort to understand first, before we are understood. As long as we maintain our curiosity to understand ourselves and our world at large, we will always find Harmony in the Force.
