Ethics of Belonging of Indigenous Contemplative Tradition

Dr. Yuria Celidwen – Mindfulness and Anti-Racism Lecture Series 7th Speaker

The unquestionable conditions of the crises of climate, health, and loneliness demand that we ask how education may lead to solutions. Environmental destruction and its loss of life, the breakdown of communities, the economic systems of oppression, and the mental health epidemics and the struggles of substance abuse, anxiety, and depression are excruciating realities worldwide. I assert that Indigenous traditions hold critical and timely solutions to help meet our times’ most pressing social and environmental injustices through deep cultural roots of contemplative wisdom. These practices are grounded in Indigenous principles of embodiment and action-oriented practices toward equity, community, and ecological awareness. These contemplative traditions have been tested and refined for millennia for their physical, psychological, and environmental benefits, documented within an empirical tradition of Indigenous sciences. My research charts these rich traditions from diverse corners of the world to develop a synthetic theory about their core focus in what I have named the "ethics of belonging."

Presented by Mindfulness Science & Practice, a multiyear cluster of the Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures, and the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies.

RSVP