Abstract
Natural Inclusionality is a new biologically grounded paradigm that challenges several beliefs that underpin Western thought, which are perceived to cause strife, imbalance, and conflict across all scales of Ecological, Biological, and Social organization. We have entered an era, the Anthropocene, where the behavior of one animal species (Homo sapiens) is vastly and adversely impacting all life, making the need to illuminate our complex landscape in a way that inspires awe, co-creativity, and compassion, increasingly vital. This manuscript explores Natural Inclusionality as a philosophical framework that can broaden academic and public understanding of indigenous wisdom, cosmology, and spirituality. Without direct experience, it is difficult, if not impossible to appreciate the vital importance of preserving and learning from these wisdom traditions. Woven throughout Natural Inclusionality and these traditions is a call for a return to a sense of self-immersion in nature; the limited, if not miasmic way we experience the boundary between self and nature in the industrialized world is inherently harmful and false. For example, key tenets of Natural Inclusionality are shown here to reflect foundational concepts of Andean Cosmology, Spirituality, and ritual practice (which I will heretofore call Andean Nature Mysticism) while overcoming critical deficiencies in the holistic Western re-presentations of indigenous wisdom. Specifically, this manuscript explores how the following principles of Natural Inclusionality align with Andean Nature Mysticism: that (1) space is a receptive and continuous omnipresence/all that exists is a mutual inclusion of receptive space and informative flux, (2) there exists no separation of the tangible from the intangible, (3) self-identity and consciousness are a natural inclusion of neighborhood, (4) competitive opposition stalls evolution—and—life and the cosmos evolve through the receptive natural inclusion of what is possible in changing circumstances. Finally, various aspects of Vedic and Buddhist and other wisdom traditions are also evoked where useful.
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Notes
In this manuscript, the philosophical term “Materialism” is synonymous with “Physicalism” and opposite of “Idealism” positing that all that exists is physical and that consciousness is an epiphenomenon of physical processes. For a comprehensive analysis of Materialism, see Novack (1979).
The terms Subjective and Objective are defined here in the Philosophical Sense (for definitions, see Audi 1999).
Spiritual traditions of the East (Veda, Vedanta, Jainism, and various embodiments of Buddhism) as well as the West (Native North American spiritual traditions, Andean Nature Mysticism as discussed in this manuscript) emphasize wholeness over fragmentation. That said, when referring to the relationship between an individual self-identity and nature, NI considers the concept of “wholeness” to be an artifact, because, whether or not it is recognized, we are always in flux, as the individual self-identity is not independent but rather a local receptive and responsive center of circulation within larger circulations (Rayner 2017).
Dr. Leyroy Little Bear
In general, Andean culture encompasses the following peoples: Atacameño, Aymara, Muisca, Quechua, and Uros. In this manuscript, we exclude the Atacameño (Chile, Argentina, Bolivia) and Muisca (Columbia) peoples.
Also referred to as Apu Yaya (APU ye-yah)
Jenkins, Personal communication.
The Q’ero nation is located in the Paucartambo District of Peru, little more than 60 miles from Cusco.
Here, the term communion refers to a deep sense of connection, where one senses on all levels the interchange and restorative power of connection with the living field of energy (kawsaypacha).
The Term Shamanism has become problematic in its widespread and inconsistent use. Originally surfaced as a term used in the Evenki language of North Asia by Janhunen (1986) in his Ethnographic study of indigenous Siberian village elder/healers.
For a description of Taoist Inner Alchemy, see Olson (2016). At the time of the submission of this manuscript, the author was unaware of any published study comparing Andean Nature Mysticism and Taoist Inner Alchemy.
A concept common to Sramanic religions, Veda/Veanta (Hinduism), Buddhism, and Jainism.
With the exception of intentional projection into the future.
Beyond the scope of this manuscript, the body is surrounded by a luminous energy bubble called the Poq’po (POCK-poe), and this structure is compromised when one mentally projects into the future or past.
The concept of individuated existence as being a flow-form: a natural inclusion of neighborhood, dynamical inclusion of all; according to Rayner (2017): This shift from regarding space and boundaries as sources of discontinuity between material bodies to understand them naturally as sources of continuity and energetic distinction, opens up our understanding of self-identity. A ‘living I’ cannot be a hermetically sealed, autonomous unit isolated from its neighborhood, because the space within its distinctive but not definitive bodily boundaries is continuous with the space beyond these boundaries. It finds identity not in its inner self, alone, but in its variably receptive, reflective and responsive energetic relationship with its limitless and changeable surroundings. It is a natural inclusional ‘I’, not an abstract ‘I’.
Personal communication, S. Jenkins.
Interestingly, one can interpret his arguments about form/proportion as an equivalent to ayni practice in Andean Nature Mysticism. Further, the Greek tragedies can be interpreted, in part, as parables of what happens when anyi is transgressed.
For review see, Gray (2016).
Rayner, personal communication.
For a summary discussion of Panpsychism, Pantheism, and Panantheism, see Hutchins (2014).
Across many indigenous cultures, the accumulation of more than one needs is understood as an illness.
A term coined by Ashok Ganagadean
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Acknowledgements
Thank you Alan Rayner for your long-standing friendship, your courage, and for 25 years of inspiration. Dating back to my graduate school days and our Bio*Art collaboration, you have held a sacred mirror that has encouraged those who have been brave enough (and perhaps crazy enough) to look.
I wish to extend a heartfelt thanks to Elizabeth Jenkins for sharing her extraordinary understanding of Andean Nature Mysticism and for her contributions to the section on the influence of Christianity on the Andean peoples.
Sincere appreciation is also extended to Lama Karma Justin Wall for sharing his insights about Buddhist philosophy and its relation to Andean Nature Mysticism.
A heartfelt thank-you to Ellen Kittredge for her unwavering friendship, collaboration, and support in all things Andean.
Finally, I in acknowledgment of her profound impact on my life as a mentor and spiritual guide, I dedicate this paper Dr. Beatrice Bruteau. You are dearly missed.
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Schmitt, J.F. Natural Inclusionality, Indigenous Wisdom, and the Reality of Nature. Hu Arenas 1, 37–55 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-018-0008-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-018-0008-8