Waking Up Is Not Enough Episode 22 - Awakening in the Context of Language, Culture, and Development: A Conversation with Anthropologist Bruce Knauft
How are awakening and adult development affected by widely different languages and cultures? Mike and Polly have a fascinating conversation with Bruce Knauft Ph.D, Professor of Anthropology at Emory University. He is a long-term friend of, and expert on, the Gebusi people of Papua, New Guinea, as well as a long-term practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism who has studied its roots in Mongolia and the Himalayas. Bruce was the first person to write down the language of Gebusi in the 1980s. Later, he began to practice Tibetan Buddhism and to become interested in enlightenment. In this conversation he looks back over his own experiences in understanding how language and narrative interact with awakening and development. Unique in delving into specifics on this topic, our conversation adds nuance and subtlety to the topic of context or environment as they influence human development, awakening and individual awareness.