Harmony According To The Teachings Of My People

Harmonyäccobding To The Teachings Of My People Harmony Is The Most D

Harmonyäccobding To The Teachings Of My People Harmony Is The Most D Harmony à„CCOBDING to the teachings of my people, harmony is the most difficult thing to achieve in life. The Old Ones say that the pursuit of harmony is a lifelong endeavour. Because of the intense struggle along the way, the journey is a spiritual one. There are not many who choose to make it, and it’s easy to see why. To seek harmony is to seek truth, and truth seekers have always had a rough go of it in this world.

Those who see life as something to be solved, put in order and contained are constantly bending truth to their own demands. But my people knew there was one thing that would never change. They knew there was an energy that brought all things together and held them there in balance. A Great Spirit. A great mystery.

They honoured that mystery not by trying to explain it but simply by recognizing and celebrating it. In the Aboriginal way of seeing the world, everything is alive. Everything exists in a never-ending state of relationship. If there is order to be found, it lies in the all-encompassing faith in this belief.

When the dog and I discovered deer carcasses strewn alongside the timber road where we walked, I was deeply distressed. Hunters had shot the deer and left their bodies behind. One pair, humped together under a sheet of plastic, had been beheaded. Creatures had been visiting the carcasses: coyotes, ravens, eagles, magpies, probably bobcats. Over the week that followed, Molly and I came across half a dozen dead deer all left in the same condition. Their legs had been cut off and thrown into the trees. Near the creek, a head had been tossed in the grass minus its antlers.

Up the road one morning, near a carcass, we saw a juvenile cougar slink off through the trees. The squawking of ravens told me of other bodies nearby. The first emotion I felt was anger, bitter and churning. This senseless display- exhibited disrespect at every level: for the animals, for the land, for the other people who used that road and for the planet itself. Empty coffee containers, beer, cans, cigarette packages and bloody rope were strewn everywhere.

The behaviour of these hunters had been careless, thoughtless and crude. I stomped off down the hill to warn my neighbours about the proximity of the young cougar. The next emotion I experienced was shame. It’s hard to be male when others of your gender mistake manliness for a can of Coors and a rifle. It’s tough to be male when people shrug off such disrespectful behaviour as simply “boys being boys.” It’s shameful being a man when, far for some men, wasting and discarding has replaced sharing.

What these men had done offended my sense of propriety, dignity and rightness in every way. Strangely enough, I also felt lonely. I go to the land for the experience of reconnection. I stand there and I feel I belong in a way I don’t wholly comprehend. Once you have been fulfilled in this way, you see everything around you as valuable, necessary and irreplaceable.

When a life is severed, the loss of that life force affects everything else. I didn’t miss the deer; I missed the idea of them. I missed their spirit. In the end, I mostly felt sad. I thought of the multitude of woes that confront us all around, the world these days, the planet reeling from the effects of our indifference. Displays like the one I encountered with the deer are at the root of it all. This is why the earth suffers—because the majority of us have forgotten the idea of harmony or never learned it in the first place. We’ve forgotten that our responsibility is to take care of our home, and we’ve allowed dishonour to replace respect. Every bit of trash strewn in pristine places is proof of that.

It saddened me that people can’t recognize the larger impact of their actions, or often the effect of their inaction, either. We are all energy, cause and effect at the same time. Those hunters found it too inconvenient to haul those deer out and deal with them respectfully. They found it too inconvenient to care. This apathy may be at the heart of the challenge we face as a species today.

It is sometimes terribly inconvenient to act in an honourable way. So the earth suffers. Our home becomes sullied, and harmony is fractured at every turn. We are one spirit, one song, and our world will be harmonious only when we make the time to care. For ourselves. For each other. For our home. You don’t need to be a Native person to understand that—just human.

Paper For Above instruction

In understanding the teachings of indigenous cultures, especially those emphasizing harmony with nature and spiritual balance, it becomes clear that achieving true harmony in life is profoundly challenging yet essential. The narrative from the indigenous perspective underscores that harmony is a lifelong pursuit rooted in recognizing the interconnectedness of all life forms and honoring the Great Spirit, a universal energy that sustains balance in the universe. This perspective challenges the conventional Western pursuit of order through control, instead advocating for a relationship-based view where everything is alive and in relation.

This worldview emphasizes that true harmony cannot be achieved by dominance over nature but by deep respect and acknowledgment of its sacredness. The story of discovering the deer carcasses, left discarded and disrespected, acts as a stark metaphor for the larger environmental crisis rooted in human apathy. When humans discard life and refuse to take responsibility for their actions, they break the sacred balance, leading to chaos and suffering, not only for the land but for all living beings connected to it. This is echoed in the feelings of anger, shame, and loneliness experienced by the narrator, illustrating the emotional and moral consequences of such disconnection from nature.

The narrative emphasizes the importance of reverence, respect, and personal responsibility, which are core principles in indigenous teachings. These principles are directly applicable to contemporary environmental issues, such as pollution, habitat destruction, and species extinction. The act of leaving carcasses behind symbolizes a broader neglect of the sacredness of life and the environment, manifestation of a cultural loss of harmony. In contrast, indigenous philosophies teach that maintaining harmony requires ongoing effort, mindfulness, and a sense of collective stewardship.

The author's reflection on the larger societal failure resonates with global ecological crises, highlighting that the root cause of environmental degradation is rooted in moral dissonance and ignorance of our interconnectedness. Cultivating a spirit of reverence and mindfulness, inspired by indigenous teachings, can help foster sustainable relations between humans and nature. Moving towards harmony requires us to re-evaluate our values, prioritize care over convenience, and recognize that our actions have ripple effects across the ecological web.

In conclusion, the journey towards harmony calls for a fundamental shift in perception—from an anthropocentric worldview of domination to one of reverence and collective responsibility. Indigenous teachings provide profound insights into cultivating this relationship, reminding us that true harmony is achieved not through control but through caring, respect, and acknowledgment of the sacredness in all life. The challenge lies in translating these teachings into everyday actions, fostering a cultural ethic that values sustainability, respect, and interconnectedness for a healthier planet and future generations.

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