Why the name INDIGENEXUS?

Indigenous derives from the Latin word indigena (meaning “sprung from the land; native”), which was formed by combining Old Latin indu (meaning "in" or "within") with the verb gignere (meaning "to beget").

Nexus is a Latin word for “connection” - usually where multiple elements meet.

Together, these words form a new term that reflects the generative and connective nature of the work we aim to achieve through INDIGENEXUS. ⋆˚࿔

INDIGENEXUS refers to the space we enter when we inter-be, which comprises the network of innate connections within and beyond us that contribute to our existence and “interbeing.”

Intuitively, INDIGENEXUS encourages us to recognize our multi-dimensionality and capacity to inter-be through creativity and spirituality.

Through creative interbeing, we can navigate, integrate, and innovate knowledge from the imagined and realized borderlands of the landscapes shaping our lives to create more reciprocity and alignment for all.

These landscapes include the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, cultural, political, industrial, social, generational, ancestral, astral, and cosmical.

At INDIGENEXUS, we acknowledge and honor everything intertwined with and interwoven into our being and relations, both sensed and unsensed.

However, we understand that unraveling and remembering our roots, ancestral teachings, and sacred life approaches can be difficult.

Our approach leans on our capacity to courageously explore, compassionately reconcile, and reverently relate to the traumas and treasures we inherit.

As such, we uplift the ongoing process of (un)learning and (dis)embodying the shared (in)humanity that can be found across our unique communities and lineages.

As we initiate this platform for INDIGENEXUS, we want to acknowledge and honor all that sustains us and the work that informs our approach.

Many individuals across cultures and forms of being have raised our awareness and consciousness. These interactions have awakened an inner remembering and deeper understanding of the many connections underpinning our existence.

With newfound insights, we humbly offer a new term and space to develop an inner-standing of what it means to inter-be.

Through our business, we will explore our inherent connectivity while honoring the individuality and sovereignty we all possess as creative beings.

Discover what interbeing means to Thich Nhat Hanhby reading the following quote from ‘Peace is Every Step’ below. Follow this link to get to the full book on Goodreads.

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper.

The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.

If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine.

And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat.

We know the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.

Looking even more deeply, we can see we are in it too. This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, the sheet of paper is part of our perception. Your mind is in here and mine is also.

So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. You cannot point out one thing that is not here-time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper.

That is why I think the word inter-be should be in the dictionary. “To be” is to inter-be. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.

Suppose we try to return one of the elements to its source. Suppose we return the sunshine to the sun. Do you think that this sheet of paper will be possible? No, without sunshine nothing can be.

And if we return the logger to his mother, then we have no sheet of paper either. The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up only of “non-paper elements.” And if we return these non-paper elements to their sources, then there can be no paper at all.

Without “non-paper elements,” like mind, logger, sunshine and so on, there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it.

    ― Thich Nhat Hanh

What came up within you as you read Thich Nhat Hanh’s insights on interbeing?

At INDIGENEXUS, our central insight and point of inquiry from Thich Nat Hanh’s musings on interbeing is how to become caring containers or vessels for our work.

As we continue exploring ways to do this together on this platform, we aspire to embody values in our actions that are aligned with supporting the universe, ourselves, and all our relations.

Contribute to INDIGENEXUS by connecting with others in the comments below or sharing this post!

Thanks for reading INDIGENEXUS! ⋆｡𖦹°⭒˚｡⋆

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