Session

Self-transcendence in Indigenous Concepts of Kin-Relationality and Ecological Belonging

Contemplative science and practice recognize humans as naturally prosocial. In the past 25 years, ‎Western conceptions, theories, and empirical studies shifted from earlier perspectives of humans as self-‎interested to humans as capable of cultivating behaviors that promote the well-being of others. The 21st-‎century contemplative neuroscientific study of compassion and kindness has focused on identifying the ‎determinants that promote behaviors in humans as social beings. However, contextual factors of cultural ‎conditioning impact these natural tendencies. Much less is known about how cultural narratives influence ‎self-transcendence, as evidenced in today's sheer social and environmental challenges. Exceptional ‎opportunities to advance the cultural motivators of flourishing can be generated from the perspectives of ‎Indigenous cultures, who have refined prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors over millennia to benefit ‎humans and other-than-human beings and the Earth. I synthesize Indigenous and Western scientific ‎perspectives on pathways of self-transcendent, focusing on integrating these traditions' insights on ‎Indigenous self-transcendent collective states I call kin-relationality and ecological belonging. ‎

Yuria Celidwen PhD

United Nations / University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California, United States

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