Culture of the Self

As we are discovering more and more the amazing complexity of the living world, we also start to ask ourselves questions about the higher functioning of some of our mammal relatives. The sense of self of primates, elephants and dolphins / whales, the empathy in some of them, the complexity of some of their communication are challenging our previous views of the world and our place in it. Themes of cultural processes and social learning, previously associated only with humans, are emerging at the forefront of research and some talk about “animal culture” as a reality.

But what is culture ? Every definition that we can find - and there are dozens and dozens - is human-centric. The 4 aspects or spheres that are usually invoked are the subjective, the objective, the system of behaviours and, lastly, the meanings. The systems of behaviours and meanings are self explanatory. The objective is made of artefacts and institutions. The subjective aspect is our “mental software” through which we cooperate and integrate with others in a given time and place. While the objective sphere is very diverse and influenced by many external factors, it is rather obvious that our mental software is extremely similar at the deeper level. Greeting someone may look very different around the world, but the general “software instruction” that greeting as a positive happening between humans is important transcends the exact behaviour.

Otherwise said, it is not difficult to discern a culture of the humanity itself. Everywhere in the world people will almost instantly agree about the same ideal behaviour. We all automatically feel good, or the opposite, about the same essential things. Because we are all built the same way on the inside. With diverse layers of conditionings on our mind and varying degrees of inflation of our ego, the awareness of our Self may be clouded and for some time we may accept doubtful or frankly damaging versions of superficial culture. But the world around us is showing that inevitably we are steered back towards the universal human culture by the consequences of our individual or collective actions.

The values of that human culture come directly from the pure Self and have been beautifully exemplified and imparted by the great people who lived in every corner of the world. After Self-Realization we start to spontaneously express that universal culture and that allows us to connect easily and deeply with people from anywhere. When male humpback whales sing exactly the same song thousands of kilometres apart after picking it up from each other it may or not be “whale culture”, but certainly the beautiful society that manifests when our awareness evolves will be filled with the universal human culture of the Self.