Harmony

Harmony comes from the Greek word harmodso, to join. There is harmony wherever there is equilibrium, proportion, conjunction of different elements, as it occurs in a proportionate building, well combined with itself and the environment. Or in music, a harmonic made of different but coordinated sounds.

Dawn, greeted by a concert of blackbirds, thrushes, robins, wrens… sunset, wrapped in ribbons of orange, purple, violet and dark blue colours… the seed sprouting quietly following the rhythm of life… Nature breathes and emanates harmony.

The universe –or multiverse, if it exists- is a prodigious equilibrium of energies, waves and orbits, with its countless galaxies and constellations, suns and planets, how many probably living planets, like this blue and green Earth… The entire cosmos is an astonishing symphony of eternal, permanent and creative evolution.

We, humans, like all beings, are also the children of the creative harmony of the universe, children of the Earth, of the evolution of life within. We were endowed with rational and emotional, technological and symbolic capabilities, much more superior to those of the rest of creatures born to date on this planet. Yet, it is as if Earth, by a fatal error of evolution, had deprived us of the supreme good: harmony with ourselves and with the others.

In fact, we suffer from a deep congenital disability that we do not see in any other known living being. No animal, to the best of our knowledge, is tortured, like we are, by envy and quarrel, past traumas and future worries, the fear to lose that which we love and the impulse to destroy that which we hate, the ambition to win and the anguish to lose… No species is as competitive, predatory and destructive. What is wrong with us?

Could it be, as the biblical myth tells us, that even though we were created in a purely harmonic paradise, we were cast out of it by a jealous and cruel divinity because of the sin of disobedience of our fore parents? No, it is not so. The Bible does not describe the past, but the distress we suffer, the paradise we seek and the destruction that we cause.

And we do not do it because of our wickedness, but because of ignorance and impotence. We do the evil that we do not want and not the good that we want, as Paul accurately said (Rm 7,14-23). And we do not behave so out of ill will, but because we do not truly know what we want or cannot realize what we want. Because we are endowed with an extraordinarily complex and powerful brain, uncapable to adequately manage its complexity and capabilities. Because of our being unfinished.

We are not guilty, but that does not exempt us from our personal and collective responsibility to pursue harmony. If science could remedy the genetic and neuronal misadjustments of our species; if the education system would focus on vital wisdom rather than on the mere acquisition of knowledge; if planetary politics would be free from the speculative and financial dictatorship of a few and would seek the maximum possible Common Good; if we would practice the vital wisdom taught by the different ways of spirituality, both ancient and recent, beyond rigid dogmas and frameworks, delving into our innermost, into nature and breathing in quietness, practicing silent attention, becoming neighbour for the wounded…. we could move forward towards realizing our true brotherly and happy being. We can move forward.

Today we face the biggest historical challenge for Homo sapiens: at the peak of our power, we either seal the failure of our species or carry out a profound spiritual and political revolution to irreversibly move towards that beautiful and fleeting harmony that attracts us irresistibly.

(Published in Respira tu ser. Meditations, Ediciones feadulta.com, Illescas, Toledo 2021, pp. 53-54)

Translated from Spanish by Mertxe de Renobales Scheifler