A systematic survey of consciousness has revealed a first-person experiential pattern of descriptions consistent with ancient wisdom teachings—that awareness, interconnection, and love appear to be three interwoven threads forming a tapestry of the deep fabric of life. These scientific observations have emerged with a practice in which the knowing of consciousness is differentiated and then linked with the knowns, utilizing the visual metaphor of a “wheel of awareness” in which the hub is the experience of being aware, the rim that which we can be aware of. With both biological and physics perspectives suggesting that the human perspective of a “separate self”, reinforced with the messages of modern culture, may be only one part of a much larger view of the deeply interconnected nature of reality and the reality of nature, we can propose that part of the journey forward for humanity on this precious planet is to expand our consciousness and integrate our identity—with practices like mindfulness— to embrace a wider view of who we truly are. In many ways, we are more like interconnected verb-like events rather than only noun-like separate entities. The symbolic term MWe integrates the inner aspect of a “me” with the interconnected facet of our lives as a “we.” With this more integrated sense of our identity, MWe can move forward to cultivate personal, interpersonal, and even planetary health and flourishing.

This talk is hosted by Victoria Santos.

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