Seven Stages of Life The Good life

Question: Describe about the Seven Stages of Life for The Good life. Answer: According to the Four Directions Teaching, the seven stages of life incorporate The Good life, The Wandering life, The Fast Life, the stages of Truth, Planning, Doing, and The Elder Life. These seven stages are found in the Medicine Wheel. As stated by Marsden (2013), the stages start from the north of the Wheel and move towards the west of the Wheel. According to the Teaching, every stage of these seven stages takes seven years to completely accomplish. Sweat lodge is a type of hut, which is dome-shaped and used for the purpose of purification of the souls. The main purpose of the Sweat lodges is to offer praying to the spirits. The indigenous people of America and the Native Americans mainly use the Sweat lodges. They play drums and pray together, feed the ancestors. The common people use this as the medium to reach their ancestors and make them happy by feeding their hungry souls. Waynaboozho sent many animals to find mud when the whole world was under water and all of them failed. As a little coot, Aajigade, approached voluntarily, everyone on the boat underestimated him, including Waynaboozho. In the end Aajigade did what others could not, he brought the mud. This made everyone realize that no matter what the size is, the will power of the soul and determination is what matters to finish a task. Since then Waynaboozho learnt the lesson of not underestimating any soul no matter how insignificant it seems, which Anishinabe people follow. The Seven Spiritual Beings clarified how the Clan System works to the Anishinabe people. It is a form of governance for the indigenous people. According to Manitowabi and Shawande (2012), the seven clans that the Seven Spiritual Beings taught the Anishinabe people are the Crane Clan, the Loon Clan, Bear Clan, Deer Clan, Bird Clan, Marten Clan, and Fish Clan. The Seven Spiritual Beings taught the Anishinabe people how to maintain the balance between the seven clans otherwise an imbalance will bring destruction upon the human beings. The Seven Grandfather Teachings are: honesty, courage, wisdom, humility, generosity, respect, and love. The behaviours for each of these teachings which can be treated as an example for University student are as follows: Honesty: Sincerity towards other people. Courage: Self-controlling from the bad forces. Wisdom: Having a better perspective for everything. Humility: Submitting ones self to the truth. Generosity: Giving back to the mother earth. Respect: Admiring others differences. Love: Sacrificing for others. References: Manitowabi, D., Shawande, M. (2012). THE MEANING OF ANISHINABE HEALING AND WELLBEING ON MANITOULIN ISLAND1. Pimatisiwin: A Journal of Aboriginal Indigenous Community Health, 9(2). Marsden, R. (2013). Anishinaabe Research Bimaadiziwin, or the Good Life (Doctoral dissertation, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver).