Living In Harmony With Others

relau

Living In Harmony With Others

" Living harmony with others means living in harmony with nature. And nature itself protect you."

An important factor for a happy life is ability to live in harmony with others. To achieve this, we must recognise that there are many paths people can take to reach the same goal. Therefore, we should not be unduly upset if other people practice their own custom or have opinions which are different form ours.

Manners and Customs

The standard of good manners differ among people belonging to different societies. In some countries guests at dinner are expected to eat as noisily as possible. It is also not considered impolite if the guests belch at the end of the meal since this would indicate to the host that they had really enjoy the meal. Eating rice and curries by using the fingers is looked down upon by some people. To some others eating rice and curries a fork and spoon is like carrying on a romantic relationship through an interpreter. Such table manners would be considered rude, ill mannered in other societies.

We discover the peculiarities of the manners and customs prevailing in other societies most noticeably when traveling.

We are living in an ever changing world. We should not clings blindly to the traditions, customs, manners rites and rituals practiced by our forefathers or ancestors who adopted these practices according to their beliefs and understanding capacity prevailent at that time.

In the Kalamazoo Sutta, the Buddha has given this advice about customs, tradition, belief and practice: 'When you know for yourself that certain things are unwholesome and wrong, and bad for you and others, then give them up...And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesale and good for you and others, then accept them and follow them."

Allowing Others the Right To Differ

If a person loves all by herself, then he will not have any problem with differing opinions. But if we have chosen to live in society, we must learnt to respect and deal with views and opinions of others even though they do not conform with ours.

U Thant, the former Secretary General of the United Nations has said that when he was in his office he took great care not to punish his personal beliefs and traditional practice on those he worked with either by example or speech. When he was at home however, he followed his Burmese tradition concerning language, food and religious fully. This shows how at least one great man never used his personal influence to force others to accept his own belief and way of life.