Culture and Consciousness
A philosophy of nature, connectedness, and spirit
Our experience as individuals, with subjective perspectives on the world, has given rise to an illusion that we are separate from the universe. Because we assume that we are separate from the universe, our fear surrounding the limitations of mortality influences our tendency towards competition, mindless consumption, and colonization. The desire to rise above the rest has removed us from our social and historical contexts, and has caused boredom, which is the opposite of creativity paired with a lack of meaning in life.
It is important to remember that our mere existence is a function of the universe, and the direct result of decisions made throughout history. We are all part of a context. We define ourselves based on our understanding of the world, which is influenced by the worldview of our culture, across space, throughout time. Honoring our heritage and learning the mythology of our culture gives us an insight into the secret wisdom of our own mind, which is rooted in ancestral memory.
Folklore and the Psyche
The metaphors of folklore are how we understand cultural consciousness, and so by learning their meanings, we also learn the psychic language of our ancestors. We must understand that the priest, shaman, and psychologist approach the same mystical phenomena using different languages. Therefore, as the magical saying goes: “As Above, So Below.” Whether we use the metaphors of spirituality or the sterile, clinical terms of psychiatry, we are observing the same functions of human consciousness—or, if you prefer: the soul.
The spirits around us—duwedes, engkantos, and so on—may exist as psychic realities. They may be a manifestations of our inner world, which is shaped by culture. Interacting with spirits is like navigating the vast oceans of our collective unconscious. Knowing their functions gives us an insight into the mysteries of consciousness. We can say that our individual consciousness is projected onto the world as spirits. By diving deep into our own mind and searching the origins of these metaphors, we can create a map of the inner landscape.
The Inner Garden
The inner self, our loob, what is inside us, is a sacred space, a vessel containing our moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities. It reaches out to kapwa, to other people. We can only know ourselves through our interaction with other people. Kagandahang-loob, a beautiful inner self, is both a charitable act and a way to describe a person. So, when we knock on the door of the spirit, we say, “Tao po!” We announce that we are human, looking for the humanity within another person.
Our inner self is a house in a garden. We take care of the flowers that bloom, and we enjoy the fruits of our labor.1 So we sing: Bahay kubo, kahit munti, ang halaman doon, ay sari sari… Seeing the inner self as a garden, and seeing community as a shared ecosystem, connects us to the earth, and reminds us that we grow from the divine ground. All the streams of identity collect into a pool of community, of kapwa. When we act on kapwa, we participate in shared humanity.
Going Beyond
The inner self reaches out to other people, and becomes one with community. We call this pakikiisa, which literally means sharing in oneness. It is the highest level of pakikipagkapwa. We might seem separate from one another, with different subjective experiences of the world, but we can participate in the depth of shared humanity. We are, all of us, islands in an archipelago–each island is unique, but if you go deep into the waters, you will find that we are all connected.2
We are all part of something greater and we share in collective humanity. The spiritual metaphors of our culture can give us tremendous insight into our individual psychology. Though we must be careful with interacting with spirits, we must understand that these projections of our consciousness are keys to our inner world. The belief that the soul of individuals becomes one with our environment implies a spiritual connection to space and time, nature and history.
So, wherever you are around the world, we will meet each other eventually, when spirit returns to nature.
A beautiful book that talks about this is Maria Lourdes Llaneza-Ramos’ Inner Blossoming. Dr. Ramos was one of my professors. She merged the logic and action of psychology with the warmth of a welcoming spirituality.
This is a metaphor I’m borrowing from anthropologist and poet Fr. Albert Alejo. He used it in a brief talk he gave in 2018. What a lyrical man. I remember he started his talk by whistling, and then by singing. His command of the Tagalog language really makes use of its inherent melody. I’ve always seen Tagalog as an extremely attractive, romantic language.