What can the wisdom of indigenous communities teach us about overcoming our narratives, working with the ego, and dissolving the barriers between ourselves and others? Tyson Yunkaporta joins Raghu for a conversation around how adopting indigenous thinking might help us change ourselves and the world for the better.
Tyson Yunkaporta is an author, academic, educator, Indigenous thinker, maker (traditional wood carving), arts critic, researcher, poet. He is the author of the book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, which offers a template for living that moves beyond the historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability. Listen to an except from Sand Talk at harpercollins.com
When We Stop Listening to Our Stories
Looking at his own experiences, Tyson reflects on what happens when we stop listening to our internal narratives and move beyond our trauma.
“I found that when I stopped telling the story, and I stopped thinking about it, then I stopped retraumatizing myself. I got happier and I got a lot more productive.” – Tyson Yunkaporta
How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (24:10)
Raghu shares some ideas from Tyson’s recent book, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. This leads to an exploration of how the necessary complexity of the ancient wisdom traditions have been undermined by simplistic modern belief systems and cultural norms. Together they explore the necessary checks and balances that these ancient traditions place against the chaos of the ego.
It’s Dangerous To Go Alone (39:45)
If we are all in this together, how can we help each other with the challenge of lifting ourselves out of the darkness of our false identities? Tyson and Raghu talk about how we can overcome the ego’s traps with the help of one another. They look at the wisdom of indigenous cultures and what we can learn from their co-operative template for living.
“Containing the excesses of malignant narcissism is a team effort.” – Tyson Yunkaporta
