One of the many things I’ve studied in my search for spiritual understanding is Native American philosophy. One of the discussions I had yesterday remained in my mind today as I was watching a news report about the referendum on whether the UK should leave the European Union. My questions about the referendum issues collided in my mind with a long held principle of the Native American peoples. This is the idea than any decisions are considered to affect the community not only today but for seven generations. Ideas, plans and changes are discussed with a view to the impact they will have in about 175 years time. I wonder how many times we think that far ahead when we are making changes to our lives? I’m sure that most of the world governments have a much shorter timescale. And the political parties around the world seem only to focus on policies and decisions affecting their time in government.

I’m not writing about politics though. When I really started to travel my spiritual path it often left me feeling frustrated and irritated that change seemed to take such a long time. I really wanted to have a world that was so much better in many ways. That frustration sharpened quite a lot when my daughter was born. There is a genuine question to ask about bringing a baby on to the planet as it is now. What will that child, teenager, adult experience in their life? How will their world look to them? More especially, what could I do to manifest a better world if I did have a child?  There is always the option to remain childless but if we all do that eventually the human race dies out. So when do we start thinking beyond the next generation (if we ever actually do) and get ourselves into the mindset of seven generations?

There is also another issue alongside the 175 year perspective. We tend to look only at our own backyard. If nothing bad is happening to us or the people we care about we rarely look over the fence to see what is happening for others. We work very hard to keep the outside world from affecting our own backyard. This is another ‘short term view’ pitfall. We can’t keep the world out of our lives forever. At some point we have to interact with other members of our community whatever we feel or think about them. And we are rapidly becoming one big global community.

We live in a beautiful planet where there is an abundance of everything we need. Short term decisions, a lack of appreciation of the seven generations and an inability to arrive at consensus had split humanity into warring groups. It’s time to reconsider what indigenous peoples have known all along. When you send out you wish list for your cosmic orders, when you use the energy of manifesting, perhaps it’s time to start asking for the ideas, options and opportunities that will ensure the children seven generations forward can wake every morning to abundance, peace and joy. You are the one who can make it so. You are the guardian of their inheritance. The children of the future (our great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren) deserve the best we can imagine for them.

Day 158 of my blogging challenge.

For a clear & well written article about the Seven Generations philosophy please see this article by Glenn Morris.