Culture

The concept of culture has been hard to grasp. As a kid, I was yearning for more 'culture' and wondered why other countries seemed to have ancient cultures while we didn't have something similar.

Why did Japan have martial art, Zen meditation, flower arrangements, and sushi while I was left with poutine and beer? I was jealous, and it created the nagging feeling that there was more to life than what was presented.

Now I don't want to go into too much detail about my personal exploration. I want to point out that this weekend while on a meditation circle with a first nation elder from the Black Feet tribe, it was obvious that the Black Feet kept an oral culture. This culture and these teaching have been passed on, transformed and adapted for centuries. I realized that I had never had the chance to connect to such a wealth of information. The teachings of the Black Feet, and I assume of most indigenous people, aren't a religion or principle of how to live your life or how to find a purpose in life, but it's a mix of all of that.

They have rites of passage, ceremonies, ways to communicate with God or consciousness, and pragmatic teaching about trust, letting go, relationship, communication etc.

Now my question is: how can I put myself back into that cycle, that culture of oral teachings. Most importantly, how I can help future generations to be connected to an ancestral lineage. How can I change our culture?