In indigenous life, close to nature and in harmony with Mother Earth, there is a human closeness that is warm and full of compassion. It is the natural state of the human being. When we share everything life brings us, when we live close to one another, when everyone’s contribution is needed to accomplish the daily tasks, there is a state of transparency and complicity that simplifies communication. When there is good communication and understanding of the other, there is a degree of acceptance and tolerance that for us in society is almost impossible to comprehend.
The simplest way to grasp what such a communal climate produces is to look at the relationships with children. Children are almost always at the heart of all activities. They play, yet they are close to and witnesses of all the daily work. Thus, there is no need to send children to be supervised by strangers in a setting separate from the family environment in order to prepare them to be adults. By adolescence, all the young people already have the skills and abilities needed to accomplish the work that is necessary for the life of the community. All witnesses of these communal situations among indigenous peoples observe that children cry very little, are almost never in crisis or emotional suffering, and integrate naturally into all situations, with a few exceptions, such as hunting and defense, which are the business of the warrior clan. Also, this closeness allows constant demonstrations of affection and love from parents, grandparents and friends. Children grow up with a confidence in who they are, through this intrinsic acceptance lived daily.
I leave you to make the comparison with what children experience today and the problems this gives rise to. The aim here is to determine the lessons we can draw from understanding what we have lost.
All the world’s spiritual traditions teach forgiveness and compassion. In fact, resentment harms only the one who feels it, not those who are the source of that emotion. Jealousy and resentment are a terrible poison, which can manifest as vengeance and other actions meant to harm another, with the karmic consequences these produce. This contaminates the lives of all who witness or are in relationship with the people who produce or endure these destructive thoughts, words and gestures. It reverberates in harmonic resonance through the places that keep an imprint of these deviations of human conduct.
Indigenous life is not perfect. We are all human. But the necessity of collaborating and of living a simple life in proximity to all the laws of nature (there is no deception in nature) means that circumstances lead more naturally to clemency and tolerance.
I could cite hundreds of examples of this acceptance and tolerance, observed as a natural attitude in indigenous communities. The key word here is community.
Our current way of life is based on a financial relationship and is called society. It is an extremely deviant, synthetic, artificial technology that creates divisions and separations between those who have few, moderate or abundant financial resources. This is illustrated on a gigantic and truly grotesque scale in the behavior of certain heads of state at present. The folly and hubris that affect and destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and women around the world, the arrogance of those who hold colossal financial means, calls for transformation.
The destruction of who we are as human beings is the result of this monetary technology, which has prevailed for about 5,000 years. That is little in the history of humanity. We must adapt. We must find the skills and attitudes in our human relationships that are conducive to clemency, tolerance, forgiveness and acceptance. All humans want to be happy. With this in common we can set goals that will lead us toward understanding of the other, toward acceptance of differences, toward a way of life that stimulates the joy, love, peace and light of our true being. We are manifestations of the Great Spirit with infinite potential. By collaborating together, by forming communities — virtual, territorial, urban, rural, organizational — we can recreate situations where these feelings and their evolutionary virtues will flourish for the greatest good of all our relations, in respect of all beings.
Have a good weekend, everyone. With love.
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