When we sit together with others in a Zendo, practicing together, especially in an extended period like a retreat (sesshin), do we seem to be more and more in harmony?
Maybe the following article can help us see a little bit how the Sangha treasure is expressed as harmony.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/05/17/184815141/the-little-metronome-that-wouldnt?ft=3&f=111787346&sc=nl&cc=es-20130526
"A man takes a bunch of metronomes, sets them ticking in different ways, then — and this is the crucial part — he lifts them collectively off the table, so their different motions now start to offset each other. And this happens:"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W1TMZASCR-I
So what is being in harmony as the universe? What is the harmonious life?
In the above article about harmonizing, the metronomes start off different and become the same, harmonized, in the process described - no longer maintaining their different rhythm.
In Zen practice, in our sitting and life practice, we discover, reveal and manifest the differences as sameness, the sameness as differences. (Sameness can also be stated as "emptiness", "spaciousness", "sunyata" or a number of other words. Each word has its own denotations and connotations, and therefore potential strengths and weaknesses, in English.)
In clarifying this, in deepening and actualizing this clarification, we see and manifest the harmony of differences as differences, harmony of sameness as sameness.
(c) 2013 Elihu Genmyo Smith
