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Harmony does not mean without any hurdles. Harmony simply means consciousness of time and direction.
Destination belongs to the ego; direction belongs to life, to being:
THE DISTINCTIOIN IS VERY SUBTLE, but it is the same distinction as there is between the mind and the heart, as there is between logic and love, or even more appropriate, as there is between prose and and poetry.
A destination is a very clear-cut thing; direction is very intuitive. A destination is something outside you, more like a thing. A direction is an inner feeling; not an object, but your very subjectivity. You can feel direction, you cannot know it. You can know the destination, you cannot feel it. Destination is in the future. Once decided, you start manipulating your life towards it, steering your life towards it.
How can you decide the future? Who are you to decide the unknown? How is it possible to fix the future? Future is that which is not known yet. Future is open possibility. By fixing a destination your future is no more a future, because it is no more open. Now you have chosen one alternative out of many, because when all the alternatives were open it was future. Now all alternatives have been dropped; only one alternative has been chosen. It is no longer future, it is your past.
The past decides when you decide a destination. Your experience of the past, your knowledge of the past decides. You kill future. Then you go on repeating your own past — maybe a little modified, a little changed here and there according to your comfort, convenience; repainted, renovated — but still it comes out of the past. This is the way one loses track of future: by deciding a destination one loses track of future. One becomes dead. One starts functioning like a mechanism.
Direction is something alive, in the moment. It knows nothing of the future, it knows nothing of the past, but it throbs, pulsates here and now. And out of this pulsating moment, the next moment is created. Not by any decision on your part — but just because you live this moment and you live it so totally, and you love this moment so wholly, out of this wholeness the next moment is born. It is going to have a direction. That direction is not given by you, it is not imposed by you; it is spontaneous. That’s what the Bauls call SAHAJA MANUSH, the spontaneous man.
Let Jaishree share her experience of direction:
Dynamic activity and stillness of the mind go together – this I have experienced when I had decided to quit my regular and routine job as a Principal and wanted to start something new.
I could decide and take up this new role and in course of time I found new things opening up.
These were moments of “flow” that occur spontaneously.
Ideally speaking, flow occurred and my mind is in the present. My commitment to be in the moment, which means that, the most important thing is what I am doing now. The most important thing you can do for the future is now.
My mere presence brought harmony to a situation. The first step is to believe that it is possible; the second is the willingness not to take sides but to act solely as a peaceful influence, silently if you can but speaking up in a conscious way if that becomes necessary.
The bottom line: conflicts aren’t about right and wrong. They are about incoherence, the chaotic emotions and thoughts that result from chaotic energy and fragmented awareness. Right and wrong come into the picture as reflections of turmoil; by screaming that I am right, I don’t have to admit that I am hurt, confused, and torn apart. Instead of adding to the turmoil, I could bring in peace, not just because it sounds moral and good to do that, but because without an influence of peace, no productive change can occur.
