Speaker

Yuria Celidwen PhD

Yuria Celidwen PhD

United Nations / University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California, United States

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I am Indigenous Nahua and Maya from the highlands of ‎Chiapas, Mexico. I study self-transcendence in Indigenous contemplative traditions ‎and how it enhances prosocial behavior (ethics, compassion, ‎kindness, and a sense of awe, love, and sacredness).‎ My ‎approach intersects ‎Indigeneity, psychology, and contemplation for ‎epistemological equity, relational ‎well-being, and actions toward planetary flourishing. I co-chair the Indigenous Religions ‎Unit of the American Academy of ‎Religion, I'm on the Contemplative ‎Studies committee, and I'm contemplative ‎faculty and scholar at UC Berkeley.‎

Area of Expertise

  • Humanities & Social Sciences

Topics

  • Indigenous Contemplative Science
  • Contemplative Sciences
  • Cultural Psychology
  • Indigenous Studies

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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