The goal of the FiveBecomings (Pañchabhūmi) projects of the Śramani Institute is to restore the interconnected wellbeing of diverse humans and ecologies across all bioregions (ecosymbiotic wellbeing).^[1] Each FiveBecomings project serves a beneficiary community (Community) living in a cluster of villages surrounding a FiveBecomings Commons^[2]. Our method of achieving the desired outcomes encompasses:

• rehabilitating ecosymbiosis^[3] in ecological webs (ecowebs)^[4],
• preserving and promoting biodiversity and jīvadiversity (diversity in living)^[5],
• encouraging humans to understand and express their unique ecoselves^[6], and 
• re-establishing ecosymbiotic self-reliance of human Communities^[7].

Why Is It Important to Encourage Community Members to Understand and Express Their Ecoselves?

As the goal of a FiveBecomings project is to restore the interconnected wellbeing of humans and ecologies (i.e., not simply human wellbeing disconnected from the ecoweb the Community rely/used to rely on for survival), it is crucial for the Community — as a whole and members individually — to understand (and express, e.g., through action) how and why they are connected to each other and every component of their ecoweb, and, thus, why the Community’s wellbeing depends on their ecoweb’s wellbeing. Realizing — i.e., developing awareness and expressing it through action — the ecoself embodies this understanding and more.

As explained below and previously^[6], the ecoself is an Indigenous concept that has been reimagined and enhanced by the Śramani Institute as a conceptual and practical tool intended to enable humans to develop deep awareness of their context, both experiential and dimensional, so that they can tap into and fulfill their potential as interconnected members of a symbiotically creative ecoweb. Ultimately, for each member of a (beneficiary) Community, understanding and expressing individual ecoself and community-ecoself (see below), is a prerequisite for knowing and being able to take the actions necessary to achieve interconnected human-ecological wellbeing (ecosymbiotic wellbeing) for the Community. 

It should be noted that each of numerous Indigenous human communities living in symbiosis with their ancestral ecoweb for centuries or millennia (ecosymbiotic community), developed a unique and particular community ecoself — i.e., a physiology, system of ancient Indigenous Knowledge-Technologies-Practices (Ādi-Knowtep, see Box 1), and identity — specifically adapted to the Community’s ancestral ecoweb. Unfortunately, centuries of globally imposed extractivism by colonial, corporate, and other forces has destroyed, through jīvacide, not only the stupendous diversity of living (jīvadiversity), comprising the range of community-ecoselves across the world but also the very ecowebs these communities depended on for survival and wellbeing.^[8]

Simply restoring the biodiverse ecowebs of these communities is thus insufficient, because the Knowtep of how to regeneratively use the restored ecological resources and ecosymbiotically live within these ecowebs would still be missing.

Thus, the community-ecoself of each community — which includes their Ādi-Knowtep and identity — must also be revitalized and restored, so that they once more know and can undertake the activities necessary to ensure ecosymbiotic wellbeing for themselves and their (restored) biodiverse ecoweb.

What Is the Ecoself?

An individual’s ecoself is that person’s entire being in both an experiential context and a dimensional context.

Experiential Context

The experiential context of the ecoself encompasses the lived reality of who we are within our specific settings and relationships: our nature (proclivities), abilities, and experiences, our genetics, our community (encompassing Ādi-Knowtep), our ancestral and/or adopted ecoweb, and the entirety of existence. All aspects of our experiential context are interrelated.

Nature (proclivities), abilities, and experiences

Each of us is unique, in that each of us has a unique set of skills and interests that we are inclined to develop (proclivities and abilities). Our inclinations form due to the interrelated aspects of our experiential context, including our genetics, our community, and our ecoweb, and are deeply influenced by our own experiences. Understanding and fulfilling our full potential (so we can fulfill our unique purpose, which needs to be discerned) necessitates becoming aware of our nature. However, our natures are not engraved in stone, and one of the remarkable facts about our inclinations is that we can steer them in the direction we wish. 

Genetics

Each of us is a new combination of the genes of our ancestors. Thus, much of our physiologies are predetermined by who our ancestors were and what ecoweb they inhabited. For we humans, like all living beings, have evolved by adapting ourselves to the different ecowebs we have been a part of for hundreds or thousands of years, meaning our genes have become altered as a result of these adaptions. A few of us may be fast runners because of our genetic makeup, while others may be musically gifted. Understanding our genetics enables us to optimize our wellbeing. Our genetics, however, do not determine all aspects of who we are.

Community (encompassing community Ādi-Knowtep and identity)

Regardless of who we are, we are derived from a specific community of humans. Historically, a community comprised a band of families bound together through kinship and tied to the same ecoweb (for non-nomadic communities). Each community adapted themselves to their particular ecoweb, developing a community-ecoself rooted in that ecoweb, i.e., a physiology, system of Ādi-Knowtep, and an identity. In other words, what food that community ate, how they prepared the food, their language, their technologies, their social customs, their memories, their economic and governance system, their intergenerational knowledge transmission system, and their practices were all rooted in their ecoweb. Much of this community-ecoself is passed down to each of us, through our parents, our grandparents, our uncles and aunts, our siblings, and other members of our community. How we perceive ourselves, the world we are a part of, and our role within it are all deeply influenced by our community-ecoself, on conscious and subconscious levels. Understanding our community-ecoself enables us to contextualize and enrich our individual ecoself.

Ancestral and/or adopted ecoweb

Apart from our community-ecoself resulting from evolutionary adaptation to our community’s ancestral ecoweb, the ecoweb we inhabit in the present greatly affects us as individuals. We may still live in harmony with our ancestral biodiverse ecoweb, in which case our community-ecoself is relatively intact and enables/encourages us to optimize our individual ecoself and achieve our potential. Or we may be obliged to live in an adopted ecoweb that has been degraded by extractivist practices, severing us from biodiversity and our own community-ecoself. In this latter situation, the experiences we have may hamper our achieving wellbeing. Understanding the ecoweb we inhabit and what role we play (or could play) within it hopefully helps us chart a course for how to optimize interconnected wellbeing.

Entirety of existence

As is elucidated in the next article in this series, every human being lives in the dimensional context of the entirety of existence. In other words, whether we think about it or not, in reality, each of us is connected to everything that exists. Thus, how we think and act potentially affects other living beings and non-living entities anywhere and everywhere. Hopefully, as we become more aware of our presence in this entirety, we can begin to understand the multi-aspected repercussions of thoughts and actions and steer ourselves accordingly.

[1] K. Mitra, Restoring the Interconnected Wellbeing of Humans and Ecologies Through FiveBecomings, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh082025-010 (26 Aug., 2025).

[2] K. Mitra, Importance of the FiveBecomings Commons: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Joy, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-004 (2 Sep., 2025).

[3] K. Mitra, Ecosymbiosis: the Basis of Adaptive Resilience Involving Biodiversity (Ecosymbiotic Resilience), Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-007 (3 Sep., 2025).

[4] K. Mitra, Ecological Webs (Ecowebs): Collaborative Creativity Through Adaptation Feedback Loops, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-006 (3 Sep., 2025).

[5] K. Mitra, Beyond Biodiversity: Jīvadiversity — Diversity in Living, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh082025-003 (21 Aug., 2025).

[6] K. Mitra, FiveBecomings: A Reimagined Ancient Indigenous Framework for Ecoself-Rooted Wellbeing, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh122024-004 (15 Dec., 2024).

[7] S. Mukherjee & K. Mitra, Ecosymbiotic Self-Reliance: Fulfilling Basic Needs from Ecowebs, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-010 (11 Sep., 2025).

[8] K. Mitra, FiveBecomings: Countering Ecocide and Jīvacide Through a Non-Human-Centric Approach, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-001 (1 Sep., 2025).

[9] K. Mitra, Ādi-Knowtep and Their Importance in Ecosymbiotic Resilience of Human Communities, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-008 (4 Sep., 2025).