Holistic Worldview

Description of a Holistic Worldview

Contains a discrete collection of precepts drawn from Indigenous, ancient, traditional, and modern integrative-medical and holistic worldviews and wisdom traditions. The sources are set in parentheses at the end of the sentence.

Holistic Worldview Precepts according to the Swiss Holistic Institute:

1. All parts of planet Earth are viewed as egalitarian within the relative world (planet, nature, rivers, mountains, animals, plants, microorganisms, humans, etc.). The longer one of these entities has existed, the more important and worthy of respect it is viewed as a teacher for humanity (1/3).
2. The main goal within the relative world and in our life as humans is to develop and express relative, everyday wisdom with a focus on “Global Flourishing” (1/7).
3. The spiritual, Absolute, or God level or world is fully recognized, integrated into human cultures, and characterized by the merging of all polarities in Unity and Absolute or Heart Wisdom — which all humans, from the very beginning, can experience under given circumstances and when guided by awakened Elders (1/7).
4. As humans, reestablishing a consciously lived and deeply experienced kinship, interconnectedness with, and honoring of nature and all parts of planet Earth is essential (1/2/3).
5. An important elaboration of a holistic, contemporary understanding of healthy ecosystems (plants, animals, humans themselves or as parts of bigger systems or even the planet earth itself) lies within the vivid and dynamic interdependence with their microbiota (symbiotic living microorganisms) inside or around them, which are at the same time understood as specific parts of the various, local, Indigenous biocommunities (7/8/9).
6. Practicing a holistic worldview is connected with the balance and interactivity of the human brain hemispheres — decreasing the left hemisphere’s activity, dominant in the West, which acts, for example, in a detail-oriented, mechanical, and self-interested way, and fostering the right hemisphere, which, for example, perceives the big picture, flexibility, and generosity (8).
7. Since humanity originally stems from Africa and shares a common Indigenous history as hunter-gatherers who migrated from there into the whole world, kinship is strong, fundamental, and original, while differentiations into specific nationalities, races, and into Indigenous and non-Indigenous people are secondary (1/2/3/8/10).
8. Human life at the relative level of existence honors, equally and consciously, development in both the first half of life — until approximately age 40 (childhood and adolescence) — and the second half of life (Elderhood until death), each with its own specific meanings and purposes to be fulfilled (5/8).
9. Elderhood — embodied and lived out by some ripened Elders in the second half of their lives, of both sexes and fluid gender identities, with special personal training and potential for leadership through wisdom — is specifically valued as a crucial cultural pillar of wisdom for any human society (5/8).
10. The holistic worldview precepts seek to represent Indigenous, traditional, and also modern holistic aspects from all over the world — no specific cultural part, or “cultural biotope view,” of the world represents all others (the Americas, Asia, Africa, Oceania, Europe). Since planet Earth is our biotope, the common goal of all precepts is an altruistic “Global Flourishing” (1/5/7/8).
11. Since human common sense and reasonableness have been seriously damaged by the dominant Western worldview in the Anthropocene, they need to be reestablished and regrounded in a holistic worldview, in the truth and wisdom of an unfolded Elderhood, and in deeply experienced spirituality (1/5/7/8).
12. Within a holistic worldview, human societies exist completely free from colonialism, post-colonialism, and neo-colonial behaviors (racism, sexism, imperialism, etc.), as well as from other destructive approaches brought about and finalized in the Anthropocene (1/2/3/8/10).
13. Human intentions in communication — whether in thought, verbal speech, or written text — are truthful, open, honest, humorous, and sincere (“sacred” in the Indigenous sense) and refrain from manipulative qualities and deceitfulness (1/6).
14. The fundamental polarity within the relative world, expressed by holistic and spiritual traditions around the world — such as the Navajo legend of “Mother Earth and Father Heaven,” the ritual items of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, “Vajra & Bell,” and the world-known Taoist symbol “Yin & Yang” — represents the necessity of a vital balance between male and female qualities (4/7/9/10).
15. According to the research and reflections of the Swiss Holistic Institute, it is necessary and reasonable to leave behind the controversial, Eurocentric, and irresolvable discussion around “patriarchy” and the feminist-informed concept of “matriarchy” — both understood as having grown within the totalitarian bubble of a dominant Western worldview — and named together as the “patriarchy narrative” (represented in the well-known one-sided assumption that “men are evil and always the offenders, whereas women are good and always the victims”). Within their actual meanings, both constructs are seen as results and expressions of an advanced, degenerated development of Western civilizations ending in a largely destructive Anthropocene (10).
16. A holistic worldview therefore defines a healthy and contemporary relational coexistence of the human sexes and main gender identities — expressed through the fundamental polarity mentioned above — as fully egalitarian, free from any mutual subtle or obvious sexism toward women and men, lived in respect, on equal footing, and viewed as a collective or personal unity in diversity (8/9).
17. All forms of individual or collective violence, suppression, or exploitation among humans, human ethnic groups, races, or sexes/genders — men, women, teenagers, children, elderly people — and by humans toward “other-than-humans” — plants, trees, mountains, animals, natural resources, etc. — are not accepted. Protection of one’s own life, family members, or other community members, on the other hand, is allowed when necessary (1/3/6/7/8/9/10).
18. Both main sexes are carefully trained and step by step initiated — mainly by Elders of their own sex — into their specific roles in society, within local cultural biocommunities, on planet Earth, and in the universe (1/8/10).
19. The basis of humanity is the typical Indigenous lifestyle of Global Flourishing described in Indigenous Sustainable Wisdom and Kindred Worldview, represented in the movement around Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez as current inhabitants of Turtle Island (North America and Mexico), as well as any other equal, comparable, or complementary lifestyle from other Indigenous cultures of the Americas (including Central and South America), Africa, Asia, Australia, Oceania, and Europe (1/2/3/10).
20. Applied to contemporary Western societies, nestedness includes the unique, grounded, caring, and nurturing quality of motherhood and the specific nurturing and protective qualities of a sensed, developed, and reflected fatherhood for children and teenagers, living in communities accompanied by the wisdom of developed, wise Elders (2/8/9/10).

——————

 Sources: 

1. Book Sustainable Indigenous Wisdom; Darcia Narvaez et al.; ISNB-13: 978-1433163647
2. Website Kindred Worldview - https://kindredmedia.org/topics/worldview/ 
3. Website Worldview Literacy Project - https://worldviewliteracy.org/ 
4. Navajo Legend Father Sky and Mother Earth - https://www.uen.org/americanindian/tribes/Navajo/books/NavajoFaSkyMoEarth-scrolling.pdf 
5. Book From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Revolutionary Approach to Growing Older; Schachter-Shalomi, Zalman; Miller, Ronald S.; ISBN 978-0-446-55373-5
6. Article Courageous, sincere speech; Mattias Desmet -  https://words.mattiasdesmet.org/p/propaganda-sincere-speech-and-the?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web 
7. Book Three Steps into Oneness; Thomas Rüedi; ISNB-13: 978-3347927636
8. Book Elderhood - Neue, faszinierende Perspektiven für das Alt&Weise-Werden; Thomas Rüedi: ISNB-13: 978-3384305657
9. Book Ganz und Gar Mann Sein - Eine elementare Reise in die E-Mann-zipation - auch für hochsensible Männer; Thomas Rüedi; ISNB-13: 978-3347010062
10. Research conducted as part of a new book project by Thomas Rüedi on the general development and specific Western degeneration of humanity, with new outlooks.