Harmony page nears 3 years

The Harmony page marks the nearing of completing three years since it was initiated in the Weekend FT newspaper in July 2019 to provide a different perspective to mass media by integrating holistic aspects such as spirituality and mother earth/indigenous and traditional knowledge related material. 

We continue to encourage the broadening of humane understanding and changing the perspectives of what we think to be ‘education’ in a general global context where it is linked with rote learning and blind following of modern science. Instead we promote education as something connected to the heart more than the mind and interspersed with all aspects of the universe, including ancient sciences that remain unexplainable through the lens of Western science. 

Through articles on the concepts of ‘God’ from diverse spiritual/cultural view points and philosophies, including the ancient nature focused beliefs, we have encouraged spiritual, intellectual as well as secular interpretations so that the general malady of nations and the world fighting over the ‘one and only’ righteous path’ would stop and instead nurture a reality where humanity would see wisdom and its inter-connected nature between culture, interpretation and ‘religion.’ 

Thus instead of wrangling over the different names for ‘God’ as decreed by different cultures and linguistics, we have encouraged a spiritual dissection and in-depth wisdom of narrative. We have given pride of place to the teachings of Lord Buddha and his messages for peace and are currently contributing to a local as well as global peace model based strongly on Buddhistic principles while embracing all dimensions of comparative spirituality. By upholding the whole of humanity in this wondrous universe we occupy, the Harmony page initiative has attempted to contribute to a Sri Lankan peacebuilding model that is rooted in mother earth and encompassing all the knowledge of this ancient Sinhala civilisation. 

Alongside this, the FT Harmony page is part of an attempt to parallely introduce to the world a peacebuilding model rooted in the indigenous and traditional, the missing piece in the theoretics of modern peacebuilding which is at times as meaningless as the rest of modern education in the way it is taught in universities. 

In this edition of Harmony page, we publish the first segment of an article based on the economic advice given to Lankan policymakers by a farmer in a remote location in the Central Province of Sri Lanka who focuses on indigenous farming. He advises leaders of this nation that educating the masses on traditional farming could solve much of Sri Lanka’s current financial woes.