At 5:10 PM Chris from SOW reviewed a Five Minutes of Wisdom segment by reading Zarathushtra’s verse 1.3. The group then discussed our insights regarding this reading.
At 5:25 PM John was to present The Theory of Evolution, but computer difficulties with a new computer left him unable to make his presentation. He will present this presentation next week instead.
The group then continued discussions regarding Zarathushra concept of Good Mind and the recently discovered fact that the Iroquois Confederacy holds the concept of Good Mind as a foundational philosophy, describing it as a daily discipline of aligning your thoughts, intentions, and actions to promote peace, love, and community. The concept is a core pillar of the Great Law of Peace, their system of governance, noting that In leadership and daily life, using a "good mind" requires making decisions based on reason, equality, and compassion while keeping the well-being of future generations in mind.
Practicing the Good Mind means intentionally choosing thoughts that bring peace and unity. It focuses upon core daily practices such as:
- Acknowledge the Creator
- Open each day with words of gratitude for that which has given life to you. The vibrational sound of words carry a certain amount of force. Words of gratitude have force.
- Extend words of gratitude for life that supports life – the earth, the water, the plants, and the animals for supporting life.
- Remember to ACT, not react
- Take a moment when angered to clear away negative emotions and preconceived notions. Use your rational mind rather than your emotional mind. Prevent harsh words from disrupting community harmony.
- Prioritize the collective
- Put the emotional and physical well-being of family and the community surrounding you ahead of personal desires.
- Consider future generations
- Assess how your actions today will impact people living seven generations from now, i.e. your great, great, great, great, great, great, Grandchildren
- Practice active listening
- Listen to others closely and with an open heart.
- Strive to understand their perspective before sharing your own.
- Seek peaceful consensus
- Resolve conflictsby looking for objectively fair (i.e., equitable) solutions that honor everyone involved.
And when faced with a tough decision, ask yourself these three framing questions:
- Does this action bring peace to those around me?
- Peace is a state of harmony, tranquility, and absence of conflict.
- Peace is foundational for human flourishing. It enables creativity, relationships, innovation, and long-term progress. Yet it’s rare because humans are wired for competition, resources are finite, and fear often overrides empathy.
- True peace requires active effort: empathy, communication, compromise, and sometimes forgiveness.
- Is this choice fair and equal for everyone involved?
- Equality is providing equal resources, the "sameness of resources".
- Equity is adjusting the "sameness of resources" to achieve outcomes that are similar. Equity requirescompromise, e.g., giving the sick or infirm person an larger share of water in a water rationing situation.
- Equity requires wisdom.
- Am I acting with compassion and structural strength?
- Compassion requires empathy (feeling/comprehending the circumstance of another)
- Compassion requires caring action to achieve equitable restults (the desire to see a more just result)
- Structural strength is the ability to withstand life’s stresses, pressures, and disruptions without collapsing, losing core integrity, or descending into chaotic or chronic dysfunction.
Below is a brief overview of the Great Law of peace as used to establish the Iroquois confederation c. 1120 A.D.
The Great Law of Peace that guides confederation members is a story whose full rendition takes several days to fully tell aloud. It reveals the ways in which the Peacemaker’s teachings emphasized the power of Reason to assure the three principles of the Great Law: Righteousness, Justice and Health. This method of reasoning instructs them to on how to treat others, directs them on how to maintain a democratic society and expresses how Reason must prevail in order to preserve peace.
An extremely short summary of the story is that the independent nations of the confederacy were at war with each other, as siblings are wont to do. A man called the Peacemaker wanted to spread peace and unity and came to the house of a leader commonly known at Hiawatha. This leader wanted the peoples to live in a united way, but another leader called Tadadaho hated peace, had killed Hiawatha’s wife and daughters previously and who was feared by all. It was said that he was so evil that his hair was comprised of writhing snakes. The Peacemaker helped Hiawatha mourn his loss and ease his pain. Hiawatha then traveled with the Peacemaker to help unite the peoples of the five nations.
He used arrows to demonstrate the strength of unity, first breaking a single arrow and then demonstrating that a bundle of five arrows could not be easily broken. The Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Onondaga accepted the message of peace and joined together. Peacemaker and Hiawatha then sought out Tadadaho, how naturally resisted their invitation to peace. The Peacemaker promised Tadadaho that if he accepted the message of peace Onondaga would be the capital of the Great Council. Tadadaho finally accepted the message of peace and tradition holds that the messengers of peace then combed the snakes from his hair. Hiawatha’s name, Hay’we:tha, means “he who combs” indicating his role in convincing Tadadaho to accept the Great Law of Peace.
These five nations became known as the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. The people, in peace, gathered together to celebrate and uprooted a white pine tree and threw their weapons into the hole. They then replanted the tree on top of the weapons and named it the Tree of Peace, which symbolizes the Great Law of Peace. The four main roots of the Tree of Peace represents the four directions and the paths of peace that lead to the heart of the territory where all who want to follow the Great Law of Peace are welcome. At the top of the Tree of Peace is an eagle, the guardian of the Haudenosaunee and messenger to the Creator.
Each nation selected men to be their leaders who form the Grand Council made of fifty men. All decisions made or laws passed requires unanimous consensus on the issue. The Haudenosaunee communities continue to live by the principles of the Great Law of Peace, one of the earliest examples of a formal democratic governance structure. It is the oldest governmental institution still maintaining its original form in North America.
I find it interesting that it is reported that elder women of the communities select male leaders, and that the elder women can impeach a male leader under prescribed circumstances.
At 6:01 PM we reviewed the colleges for updates, and began closing activities. We concluded with the song Little White Dove.
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