Wreaking Harmony
The reflection this month is one of my favorites: “Chaos, yet harmony.” Most of the time it's in the Code -- and why anyone would leave it out in favor of a four-line Code is beyond me.
It's one of my favorite reflections because I associate harmony with the quality of peace, and I identify strongly with the first line of our Creed that exhorts each of us to be “an instrument of peace.”
One of our Maxims defines “harmony” as “To be connected to the Force.”
A Jedi seeks to live in harmony with the Force, for that is the reason to be a Jedi. To better understand its ways, to better know one's place within it.
What does that look like, living in harmony with the Force?
When I was very new to the Jedi Path, and struggling to define what the Force meant to me, I was introduced to the Taoist concept of wu wei. A literal translation would be “non-action.” But what it signifies is natural action, moving perfectly with the current of the universe, without struggle or effort.
In the broadest strokes, this is what I envision when I contemplate living in harmony with the Force.
But it would be a mistake to confuse wu wei, non-action, with passivity. The full name is wei wu wei, “action non-action.” Action is built right into the concept from the first stroke of the brush.
I am no scholar of the Tao, but I have always been inspired by this passage from Chapter 45:
“The Master allows things to happen.
She shapes events as they come.
She steps out of the way,
and lets the Tao speak for itself.”
This image of the Master, allowing things to happen yet shaping events as they come . . . Does she seem passive to you? Or do you see her moving fluidly and purposefully through the storm? Effortlessly sweeping aside enemies and obstacles.
Lightsaber in hand.
Do you see? If wu wei is analogous to harmony, and wu wei is ultimately about action, then so should be harmony. Or to put it another way: You can swim against the current, or you can swim with the current. Either way, you're swimming. You're not floating.
I chose the title of this sermon for a purpose. The dictionary says that to wreak means to cause. To bring about. To inflict. To perpetrate. But we almost always see it in a negative or destructive connotation.
Wreaking havoc.
Wreaking vengeance.
Wreaking damage.
And let's be honest: That's what we do sometimes, isn't it? We yearn for harmony, but what we create is chaos. Whether we want to or not. Sometimes even without realizing we're doing it.
But let's flip the paradigm. Instead of wreaking havoc -- causing chaos -- let's do something constructive instead. Now what would that look like?
My Master gave me a couple of lessons this month that -- in one of those wonderful coincidences that characterize my relationship with the Force -- helped me examine this question.
The first was about “letting go.” Just that. “Letting go.”
When I contemplated this idea, I saw that “letting go” can apply to tangible objects. Stuff. Some objects I will never let go of (willingly, anyway). My wedding ring. My favorite books. They mean something to me, and I like having them. They bring me joy. But I have way more stuff than that. Books I'll never read again, overflowing the shelves. Clothes I never wear, taking up the space in my dresser -- and on the dresser, and in boxes in the closet, and and and. Even the water glass I emptied an hour ago and left next to my computer screen.
Stuff. It doesn't bring me joy, but I don't let it go. And because I don't let it go, it piles up. It stresses me out, infinitesimally.
Clutter.
Disharmony.
Chaos.
But “letting go” can also refer to emotional states. Bad memories. Trauma. Resentments. The word “resentment” means something that when you think about it, you feel the emotion associated with it again. It is, by definition, something painful that you don't let go.
Emotional clutter.
Disharmony.
Chaos.
So by not “letting go” -- of stuff, of feelings, of memories, of pain -- I create chaos. By not doing the action, I create chaos. Through the passivity, I create chaos. It is the action of letting go, clearing the clutter, that leads to the harmony.
The other assignment my Master gave me that informed this line of thinking was on the big broad concept of “patience.” We think of patience in a couple of different ways. There's the patience that has to do with the passage of time, looking forward to something impending. Children counting the days until Christmas.
But then there is patience with people. Whatever it is that pushes your buttons at any given time. Long lines with slow-moving checkers at the grocery store. The Buick in front of you going five under the speed limit in the fast lane. That person on the Internet who just won't grasp how wrong s/he is about ____.
I equate patience with harmony. Conversely, I equate the loss of patience with wreaking havoc, creating chaos.
On the surface, patience looks passive, doesn't it? Not reacting to stressors. Not watching the clock and counting the minutes until school's out. Sitting quietly while people push your buttons and life throws you knuckleballs.
Except I am a Jedi, not a doormat.
So I went to the doctrine for guidance, and what I found opened my eyes:
8. Jedi are patient. We work on training ourselves not to precipitate events around us. . . . Jedi train to act with a conscientious state of calmness.
Oh man. Calm as a “doing” word, rather than a “being” word.
My life and my job are full of stress. I know so many techniques to reduce stress, and sometimes I even remember to practice them. But never had it ever occurred to me to walk through the world consciously projecting a state of calm.
Again, the passivity is easy (in theory): Don't react. Don't blow up. Don't shut down. But the action is what works.
Consciously projecting a state of calm. I have to tell you, once I put that into practice, I had the most amazing week. A friend asked me about three days in how I was doing, and the first word that popped into my head was, “Unstoppable.” Quickly followed by the recognition of how connected I felt to the Force. How wu wei I felt.
How Jedi.
Maybe in your own life, it's not patience you struggle with but something else. How can you change that paradigm, turn the quality you are trying to attain into an action word?
All too often, chaos is the result of passivity, while harmony requires action. And maybe the action required is rooting out the source of the chaos in our lives. Because we all do it. We create chaos in our lives, or allow chaos through inaction. And all too often we create chaos in our lives without even realizing we do it, much less why we do it.
Let me give you a few examples from my own life:
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Sometimes I allow chaos into my life because I make the desirable decision rather than the right decision.
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Sometimes I allow chaos because I am afraid of the consequences of making the right decision.
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Sometimes I unconsciously create chaos, or allow chaos through inaction, so that I have something to fix.
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Sometimes I create chaos because I choose to personalize something that might not even be aimed at me.
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Sometimes I experience chaos because I am focused on the negative things that are happening, in my life or in the world, instead of focusing on the positive. (At the risk of sounding like an outtake from The Secret, you really do get what you put out into the world.)
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Sometimes I experience chaos because I choose to believe that my life is out of my control, rather than controlling what I can (me) and letting go of the rest.
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Man, sometimes I can even create chaos because somewhere deep down in my lizard brain, I think I deserve it.
But noticing the chaos is just the first step. Figuring out how and why isn't much more. As I am learning, you have to actively seek out the hows and whys and whats and then banish them. Find the chaos, whatever dank hole it's hiding in, and Force-push that crap out of your life.
If this is sounding like a call to action, that is deliberate. It's time to Jedi up. Life doesn't happen to you -- you happen to life. Act affirmatively to improve your connection to the Force. Identify that value or virtue that you want to work on, and make that virtue a “doing” word instead of a “being” word.
Inflict kindness.
Perpetrate empathy.
Wreak harmony.
May the light of the Force be with you all.
