"It is clear and evident that all men shall, after their physical death, estimate the worth of their deeds, and realize all that their hands have wrought."~Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 169.
It was shared with me that in the Lakota tradition one must consider carefully the decisions that one makes because they will affect the world seven generations into the future. This ancient teaching has now been sanctioned through the theory of the dominant culture and we see that the concept of intergenerational trauma is being more widely understood and theories are emerging which enable us to explain the behaviour of certain groups and understand how historical oppression still affects our modern societies. This makes the practice of accountability so crucial to me as I wish to be a protagonist of lasting social change. I am striving to become more aware of how behaviours and attitudes that perpetuate division in the world are so very prevalent in my everyday interactions. It is so easy to judge someone when they speak negatively or disagree with something that I have said. These thoughts then influence when I next interact with them, if I do not take the time to replace the negative thought with a thought of love and kindness. It is catching the thought as it flits through my mind and supplanting it with a more peaceful and caring one. But thoughts fly through my mind quickly all day long, how am I to ensure that I address them all? This is the practice I believe, to ensure that what I do is worthy of offering it to the world as conducive to unity. There are times when I am irresistibly drawn into someone else's drama zone by something that is said or done. The difficulty then is in recognising that I do not have to engage and that they may sort out their own feelings and emotions for themselves. We all perceive the world differently and it is these perceptions that tangle and clash. We in our desire to have our view acknowledged may impose our own perceptions on others. Were we to instead realise that our perceptions are not universal but simply an expression of our own view of a thing or happening and that it is not the only way that that thing or happening may be viewed, we then create space for another perception to be considered. There are as many perceptions of reality as there are iterations of human beings... it is endless. When I remember that I can work alongside others, hearing their thoughts and views to co-create the way forward for everyone, then I realise that it is when I set myself lower, take a few notches out of ego, to receive inspiration from others. Perhaps taking my ego down a peg or two is the practice of having the humility to face my mistakes. For me I create the space for this to occur in those quiet moments when I am saying prayers and thinking about how others would have acted if faced with the same set of circumstances. It is an opportunity to dust the dross of mistakes from off of my heart and resolve to act with the gems I harvest from my mistakes. It refines and strengthens my character to add worthiness to my deeds.