Consciousness in Indigenous Traditions

Indigenous traditions around the world reflect the early attempts of humans to understand and codify the universe (or multiverse) that they saw with awe and reverence in their surroundings. The night sky with all its myriad bright stars – undistorted nor eclipsed by city lights – must have provided a panorama that can only be observed today from a satellite! While each tradition has its own story to tell with regard to how they happened to be a part of creation, there seems to be a thread of similar ideas regarding the creator of this manifold creation! Further, the natives thought of consciousness as an integral part of the world which connects all living in the material and spiritual worlds. All that we see around us are interrelated and connected; thus, harm to one brings harm to all, including oneself. This interdependence has been an underlying ethos and philosophy in most native traditions. In short, it is the principle of live and let live. From the many tribes of North America, this editorial briefly presents two of them and their rich story of creation. First, the creation is envisaged by the Hopi of Southwest part of the USA since their story and ideas are well documented in many books and media. Hopi means peace. They say, in the beginning, there was only the creator, named Taiowa, along with endless space. “There was no beginning and no end, no time, no shape, no life. Just an immeasurable void that had its beginning and end, time, shape, and life in the mind of Taiowa the Creator. Then, he, the infinite, conceived the finite” (Frank, 1977, p. 8). This creator then creates another being to carry out his plan for harmonious universes that interact with one another in an orderly fashion. The fascinating recounting of the creation story continues; the striking parallel to the Indian concept of six chakras is also narrated; these are thought to be vibratory centers along the spinal cord starting from the crown center to the one at the solar plexus. The uncanny parallel with Yoga and Tantra physiology is indeed unmistakable! The second example is from the reports on Diné or the First People, also known as Navaho. Their nation or reservation stretches across the vast, arid regions of South western states of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. Their creation story is somewhat similar to Hopi one, with some differences. They postulate consciousness as an eternal principle, interconnecting all sentient and nonsentient members of this vast and varied family. Although the word consciousness is not used as such in the translations of the creation story, it is introduced as Hózhǫ́; it is the “fundamental principle of the universe, imbuing it with spiritual significance and power” (The People of One Fire, 2024). With its practice, balance, harmony, and health are restored at important times of one’s life such as at birth, marriage, and during sickness. The above brief presentation makes us wonder at the commonality of ideas in relation to consciousness and the theme of a creator that runs in the thinking of the original people. It is obvious from this introduction to the ideas of two Native American groups that consciousness brings a holistic view into focus along with interconnectedness and a profound spiritual insight. Consciousness is the web of life connecting all matter and sentient beings. The land, the sowing and reaping, hunting and gathering all become spiritual and ritualistic, giving meaning to the simplest of activities. Even health is within the ebb and flow of consciousness. When a person gets sick, the medicine man asks when the person moved away from nature, when he stopped singing and dancing and thanking the creator! In this issue of the journal, there is also a detailed presentation of consciousness as expressed in the classical texts of China regarding Tao and its interaction with the world. In the paper titled “The Flowing Harmony: Exploring Taoist Consciousness,” the author says “Taoism proposed a unique view of consciousness, which is not limited to individual minds but is the manifestation of the Tao, flowing through all things and giving rise to life, awareness, and action.” The concepts arising from Tao and the methods of aligning oneself to this constant flow of Tao for transcending the limited to reach the absolute are in consonance with both Indian philosophy and the Native American wisdom we saw briefly above. How such geographically diverse areas could postulate similar ideas is a wonder in itself. In India, both Sri Aurobindo and Sri Ramana Maharshi have eloquently talked about consciousness in the recent past. Sri Ramana’s observation can be summarized regarding consciousness and its play in the metaphor of a screen and the scene. He says we are engrossed and lost in the scene all the time and derive short-lived pleasures without being aware of the screen on which all the scenes are portrayed. The unmoving screen is the reality and all else are simply karma-dependent scenes whose manifestation and swift movement capture our attention. Then, he goes on to correct this view by letting us focus on the unchanging Brahman shifting our gaze from the momentary pleasures of entangling in the myriad activities which are based on Maya and gunas (Srinivasan, 1993). In the above brief examples, it is seen that consciousness is not necessarily a state to be achieved after intense austerity and self-mortification; it is simply being in the presence of the ineffable and being aware of the gifts we continue to receive from nature.