Remy Danton
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Baba Mawalimu Baruti lectures on the importance of building strong African Male Female Relationships and how to do this from an African cultural perspective.
Mwalimu K Baruti - Black Couples & Building Strong African Male/Female Relationships
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Remy Danton
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have a couple of this brothers work. I need to come back to this.
have a couple of thoughts
have a couple of thoughts
I need to get around to posting in this section cause im starting to see alot of errors from folks.
As it pertains to this thread i'll start backwards with my assessment. Iin terms of relationships the following three conditions are to see if you two have what it takes to build a life-long relationship from this point forward. Other criteria could be added to this list, but this is the foundation, which helps the potential couple to bypass the illusions created by emotion get down to the nitty-gritty. With that said, here are 3 criteria that must be satisifed in order to have a life-long and meaningful relationship
1. You must have at least five interests and values in common.
2. You must determine if you two have similar life paths, and........
3. You must determine if you two are compatible with each other , i.e. get along and respect each other.
I'll delve a little deeper into each criterion below.
Before we get into the heart of this criterion, I must explain why i chose five interests and values as the minimum number for the first condition. I believe in the notion that mathematics is the language of the universe. Our ancestors created entire social systems on the understanding of numbers and the energy they carry. In the Yoruba culture, for example, they have personified the concepts of "love, sensuality, beauty,music, dance, and wealth" into a singular goddess by the name Osun. The name Osun is actually a N-E word for "love" and "peace" (CF. PIE (Proto-Indo European) *ken "love") and can be seen in the following Afro-Asiatic reconstructions from the TOB database:
Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *sunV?
meaning: peace, love
Semitic: *sV?Vn- ~ *sVnV?- 'be at peace with somebody, agree'
Omotic: *sun- 'love'
[Omotic]
Proto-Omotic: *sun-
Afroasiatic etymology:
Meaning: 'love'
Janjero (Yamma, Yemsa): sun-'
Kafa (Kaficho): sun-
Mocha: sunn-
Anfillo (southern mao): sun-
Bworo (Shinasha) sun-
Gimirra (Benesho, She): sun-
Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *sa?-/*saw-
Meaning: wish, like
Semitic: *sVya?- 'wish'
South Cushytic: *sa?- 'like'
Dahalo (Sanye): hlaw- 'love, like'
If we are going to start a new relationship, it has to be grounded in the spirit of "peace" and "love". these Osunian qualities must be present from jump street. The "sensuality" of Osun is what attracted you two in the first place ("She fine as hell"). But (harmonic) "wealth" is what you're trying to achieve; that is to say, wealth in all areas of life: 1. Financial, 2.) Relational, 3.) Mental, 4.) Physical, and 5.) Spiritual. This is why we've come together. Notice we are back at this number 5. The number 5 is the number associated with the goddess Osun in the Yoruba tradition. In many African traditions, numbers are assigned gender. Even numbers are feminine and odd numbers are masculine (Source: Umeh 1997, M. Some 1998, Griaule & Dieterlen 1986, Kamalu 1998). The number 5 is the combination of the feminine number two plus the masculine number three. therefore, the number 5 represents masculine and feminine energy coming together to become one (therefore the number of man/muntu; the five senses, etc.) But that is neither here nor there. Five is just the minimum number of shared interests and values needed to move forward under the criteria. therefore, 5 is the number of "love" for us here.
It is natural for us to be attracted to people we share common interest with. This is why we call a relationship such because we relate on some level. What we want to discover at this stage is if we share common values. What often beaks couples up is ultimately having two conflicting sets of important values. Our behavior are shaped by our values which in turn depends on our level of consciousness. So if we understand aperson's values, we can, in a sense predict their behavior. If one person likes to argue and debate all of the time and the other person values peace, this has potential for some major conflicts down the road.
more to this soon.............
As it pertains to this thread i'll start backwards with my assessment. Iin terms of relationships the following three conditions are to see if you two have what it takes to build a life-long relationship from this point forward. Other criteria could be added to this list, but this is the foundation, which helps the potential couple to bypass the illusions created by emotion get down to the nitty-gritty. With that said, here are 3 criteria that must be satisifed in order to have a life-long and meaningful relationship
1. You must have at least five interests and values in common.
2. You must determine if you two have similar life paths, and........
3. You must determine if you two are compatible with each other , i.e. get along and respect each other.
I'll delve a little deeper into each criterion below.
Before we get into the heart of this criterion, I must explain why i chose five interests and values as the minimum number for the first condition. I believe in the notion that mathematics is the language of the universe. Our ancestors created entire social systems on the understanding of numbers and the energy they carry. In the Yoruba culture, for example, they have personified the concepts of "love, sensuality, beauty,music, dance, and wealth" into a singular goddess by the name Osun. The name Osun is actually a N-E word for "love" and "peace" (CF. PIE (Proto-Indo European) *ken "love") and can be seen in the following Afro-Asiatic reconstructions from the TOB database:
Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *sunV?
meaning: peace, love
Semitic: *sV?Vn- ~ *sVnV?- 'be at peace with somebody, agree'
Omotic: *sun- 'love'
[Omotic]
Proto-Omotic: *sun-
Afroasiatic etymology:
Meaning: 'love'
Janjero (Yamma, Yemsa): sun-'
Kafa (Kaficho): sun-
Mocha: sunn-
Anfillo (southern mao): sun-
Bworo (Shinasha) sun-
Gimirra (Benesho, She): sun-
Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *sa?-/*saw-
Meaning: wish, like
Semitic: *sVya?- 'wish'
South Cushytic: *sa?- 'like'
Dahalo (Sanye): hlaw- 'love, like'
If we are going to start a new relationship, it has to be grounded in the spirit of "peace" and "love". these Osunian qualities must be present from jump street. The "sensuality" of Osun is what attracted you two in the first place ("She fine as hell"). But (harmonic) "wealth" is what you're trying to achieve; that is to say, wealth in all areas of life: 1. Financial, 2.) Relational, 3.) Mental, 4.) Physical, and 5.) Spiritual. This is why we've come together. Notice we are back at this number 5. The number 5 is the number associated with the goddess Osun in the Yoruba tradition. In many African traditions, numbers are assigned gender. Even numbers are feminine and odd numbers are masculine (Source: Umeh 1997, M. Some 1998, Griaule & Dieterlen 1986, Kamalu 1998). The number 5 is the combination of the feminine number two plus the masculine number three. therefore, the number 5 represents masculine and feminine energy coming together to become one (therefore the number of man/muntu; the five senses, etc.) But that is neither here nor there. Five is just the minimum number of shared interests and values needed to move forward under the criteria. therefore, 5 is the number of "love" for us here.
It is natural for us to be attracted to people we share common interest with. This is why we call a relationship such because we relate on some level. What we want to discover at this stage is if we share common values. What often beaks couples up is ultimately having two conflicting sets of important values. Our behavior are shaped by our values which in turn depends on our level of consciousness. So if we understand aperson's values, we can, in a sense predict their behavior. If one person likes to argue and debate all of the time and the other person values peace, this has potential for some major conflicts down the road.
more to this soon.............
I know his daughter, she became a muslim. .. just like the kids of many of these people.
Which imo is only right cuz black muslims , like malcolm and elijah, inspired the movements of many of these people.
Which imo is only right cuz black muslims , like malcolm and elijah, inspired the movements of many of these people.
A jewish blogger by the name of Elad Nehorai recently wrote an article titled, "I didn't love my wife when we got married (currently located @ I Didn't Love My Wife When We Got Married. This essay is essentially about how the author thought love was an emotion, but later came to understand that it wasnt an emotion at all, but action. I found this article to be very valuable in relation to the question of "what is love?" nehorai begins his story at the time he met his soon to be wife and the emotions that he was feeling at the time.
"Im a ridiculous, emotional, over-sentimental sap. i guess that why i told my wife I loved her on our second date. i had tried really hard up to that point to hold it back, honestly. i wanted to tell her on the first date, but i knew that i would probably be weird. I still remember her reaction. She kind of gave me this half-shy half-amused smile. The she nodded and looked off into the sky. I wasn't heartbroken by the response. I think part of me recognized that she knew something i didn't. Like most Hasidic Jews (we both became religious later in life), our dating period lasted a very short time. After two months of dating, we were engaged. three months after that, we were married. And that whole time I was swooning. The fire was burning in me, a fire that burned just likethe second date: I was in love. But then we got married, and everything changed. Marriage quicker than i was ready for, did this thing: it started sucking away that emotion. I tried so hard to keep that fire going, to keep that emotion alight, but it got harder and harder. I mean, how you can feel that burning love when you're sitting at the table discussing how to use the last twenty dollars in bank account? How can you feel it when you act into an argument? How can you feel it when you think it make perfect sense to put your socks on the floor after you're done with them and she has this crazy idea that they need to go in the laundry basket? there was no way I could keep that dating fire bumping as practicality invaded our lives. And at first, it drove me nuts. That emotion meant love. That excitement was how i knew i cared for her! But suddenly, life was this grind. Even when I was with her. Especially when I was with her. And even worse, it seemed that the harder I tried to be sentimental and lovey-dovey, the less it was reciprocated.
As we can see, Nehorai thought that love was this "burning fire" or emotion he felt at the beginning of their courtship. He came to realize later on that this emotion was ultimately unsustainable and the lack of such a feeling began to take a toll on his relationship. However, when ne changed his actions, the emotions he was looking for began to manifest in his relationship. This change in perception came about when he had:
After the experience, he came to realize that he really didnt love his wife at the beginning. As Nehorai further stated, he didn't love his wife,"Because love isn't a emotion. that fire i felt, it was simply that: emotional fire. From the excitement of dating a woman I felt like I could marry. But it wasn't love." By Indo-Europeans standards, he was in "love" as love, in this language family, is simply "lust, covetousness, desire, wish, praise, etc." We can see how his initial interpretation of love guided his actions and evoked a certain type of emotional response that was misleading. Only when he began to "do" love, did he realize what love was. By his own words, .."love, isn't an emotion or even a noun. It's a verb. better define as giving. as putting someone else's needs above your own."
Earlier in this thread, i noted that in African languages the *l-b/*b-r roots also had dialectial variants where the /b/ sound is realized as /m/. In the ancient Egyptian language: the word for "love, desire, wish, etc.", is represented by the m-r consonant root the kweke branch of n-e. the following table:
mrj- to love, to like {verb]
mrwt - love, will, desire [noun]
mrj - love, want wish, desire, prefer, covet, cherish (verb)
mrwty - the well beloved [noun]
mrwt- love, will, desire [noun]
h3ty - heart, sense [noun -bod.]
Thus, love in the Egyptian context (will, desire, covet, prefer, cherish, to like") is associated with the same concepts as noted in Proto Indo European *leubh- "love, wish, desire, to care for." If love in the African languages is the same as love in I-E, how then are the two general attestations different? To get at heart of difference, we have to take a look at a variant of the word mrj in Egyptian: i.e., m3'.t.
The word m3'.t in the Egyptological dictionaries has the following meanings: "truth, justice, righteousness, propriety, order, law, right doing, correct, vindicated, real, genuine, orderly management, and reciprocity." Modern historians pronounce this word something like ma'at. Profressor Theophile Obenga provides the following series of correspondences in modern African languages, but I am not convinced of this proposed set:
Immanence Of Maat in African Cultures (Theophile Obenga: Egypt: Ancient History Of African Philosophy", pg 48)
Ancient Egyptian - :maat, truth; maa, "true"
Coptic (Egypt) -:me, mee, mee, mie, mei, mei, meei, "truth", "justice", and also "truthful", "righteous"
Caffino (Cushytic, Ethiopia) -:moyo, "motive", "reason" (truth and reason are inseparable)
Kongo (congo) - :moyo, "life", "soul", "mind" (same semantic field)
Ngbaka (Central African Republic) -:ma, magic medicine (in order to know the truth)
Fang (Equatorial Guinea, South Cameroon, Gabon) -:mye, mie, "pure" (tabe mye, "to be physically and morally pure")
Mpongwe (Gabon) -:mya, "to know" the truth (mya re insome, "the self-knowledge" , which the Delphic oracle also enjoined: gnothi seauton)
Yoruba (Nigeria) - :mo, "to know" the truth (knowledge)
Hausa (Nigeria) - :ma, "in fact" "indeed" (affirmative truth: ni ma na ji, "i in fact heard it")
Mada (North Cameroon) - :mat, "genie," "goblin" (semantic specialization)
Nuer (Nilotic, Sudan) - :mat, "total," "sum up"; "forces" (ro mat, "to join forces with". Maat is indeed the total of all virtues, all forces as ideals to guide man in his personal and spiritual life).
Imo the correspondences proposed by Alain Anselin, in his article: "Les mots de geno - Fulbe, Couchites, Nilotes et Egyptiens anciens, is more convincing:
Gabor Takacs (Takacs, 1999: 350) Eastern Cushytic: *ma' "good, sweet"; Northern Omotic: *ma'aa; Kingdom of Jenjero (Cushytic) me'e, meqe, "be good, be right" (RJHayward, 1994:167); Proto-Boni *ma aa "sweet, gentle"; Bireeri ma'aa (B.Heine, 1982: 131); Fulfulde demonstrates the palatalization of glottal stop /'/, Cushytic and Omotic > y] Adamawa Fulfulde: mo'' -, moyy- "be good, be filled, thanks/mercy/blessings" (C.Sydou 1998, 451), Pulaar: moyy- "be well, kind, caring, generous" (C.seydou, 1998, 463); moyyere pl. moyye "blessing, grace, happiness", moyyango "be charitable towards someone" (D.Noyce 1989,251); mo're, pl mo'e, "benefit", moyyugo, mo'ugo, "goodness", Wolof may "give, offer," may gi (with /g/ velar certifying that the agreement class was with a glottal), "grace, aptitude" (A.Fal et al., 1990,128).
However , these forms are due to much sound change. The most archaic forms can be found in Bantu languages (of the bere branch of Negro-Egyptian). We must first note that the /3/ sound in Egyptian was historically vocalized as a nasalized uvular trill /r/ (Mboli, 2010:504),. The sound correspondence 3=l/r is demonstrated by Alain Anselin in his article "Some Notes about an Early African Pool of Cultures from which Emerged The Egyptian Civilisation" (Exell, 2011:49).
b3 < *b-l, 'soul' (Old Kingdom; WB 1, 411; on the identification of /3/ as /l/, see above and Anselin 2007a): West Chadic (Nigeria): Angas-sura: bel, "reason, sense, to be wise, intelligence, understanding' (Takacs 2004,31); Central Chadic: Matakham (Cameroon): *bl, 'genius, spirit, mboko', belbele-hay, 'genius'; Niger-Congo:Fulfulde (Cameroon): nbeelu(ngu), 'principe vital de l'homme - menace d'etre devore par les mangeurs d'ame' (Noye 1989, 40; see also, Anselin 2007b, 92); Semitic: *bal, spirit, mind'; Aramaic: bl, 'spirit, intelligence'; Northern Syriac: bala, reason, attention'; Arabic: bal, 'attention, consciousness, mind' (Takacs 2001, 6).
si3 <*s-r, 'to understand, know > god of the knowledge' (Old Kingdom; WB IV 30, 1-21), written with the hieroglyph of the cloth (Gardiner S32); si3.t (Pyramid Texts; Coffin Texts variant, sr3.t, identifying /i/ as a reflex of /r/): Central Chadic: Mofu-gudur: s3; 'to know' (Barreteau 1988, 198); Mercy: s3r, 'to know' (Gravina et al.2003); Udlam: -s3r, 'to know' (Kinnaird and Oumate 2003); Muyang: s3r, 'to get to know' (Smith 2003).
m33 < *mVl, 'to see, look, examine' (Old Kingdom; WB II 7, 1-10,7), phonetically written with the hieroglyph of the sickle (Gardiner UI), the phonetic complement of the vulture (Gardiner G1) or the determinative of the eye (Gardiner D4) (Kahl 2004, 166-7): Cushytic: Agaw; Bilin: mili?y-, 'to look,examine'; Kemant: mel-, 'to examine, observe'; Eastern Cushytic: Oromo: mal- 'to think'; Sidamo: mal, 'to perceive, advise': Somali: mala, 'thought'; Burji: mala, 'plan' (Anselin 2001). Omotic: Wolamo: mi, 'to believe'; Kafa: mallet, 'to observe' (Dolgopolsky 1973, 180).
You can compare a few terms in Egyptian with modern-day CiLuba-bantu to reinforce this fact. in Middle-Egyptian, for example, we have m3' "truth,real,right" with its shorter variant in ciLuba as munda "true" (where -nd <l) [see also-a/-a milowo(u) "agreeable, true, sincere, good; Kalenjiin man "true"]. The thirs phoneme ['] in the word m3' is a suffix and corresponds to sounds in Bantu /ng/, /k/, and /h/. For ' = k/ng, we can observe the following correspondences:
Cikam
'rk "to complete
'rk "tie, bind,"
'nh "captive, oath"
'rk "corner, angle, edge,"
'nh "beetle"
'3y "to grow up, mature, senior, excess (over), difference (in mathematics)"
i'n "baboon"
n' "compassion, benevolence
Kikongo kalunga "complete"
Kikongo kalunga "tie, bind";
Kikongo kanga "to tie up"
Kikongo konko "angle"; ciLuba ditengu/diTungi "corner"
ciLuba cijangala ~~~cijangalala "beetle, scarab." ; kikongo kinkakala, ekoka;
ciLuba -kola "grow, increase, aging."
ciLuba nkima "monkey" (=ncima)
ciLuba nanga > bunangi "love, charity"
Given the data above, we argue that m3' "true, real, right" (> m3'.t "truth, order, balance, etc.") was probably pronounced something like what we find in Basaa language: maeliga "truth." In ciluba-Bantu we have the variant Bulelela "actuality, truth" (malelela, malela). You can also say in Ciluba Cyama/Cama or CyaMalelela; Meyi-malelela or meeyi (tetela-bantu mete). The root of bulelela is lelela "actual, real, authentic, true, genuine, veritable," which in Egyptian is rrj "really, truly"; Yoruba ododo "truth, fact, justice, equality, right, righteousness." Thus, the root of m3'.t "truth" is in fact -3-; with m- being a fossilized prefix of abstraction and -' being a fossilized suffix. The following table brings a deeper understanding to our analysis
M-E rri "really,truly"
Ciluba -lelela (-lelele(a)) "truth, authentic, veritable"
Setswana ruri "truly"
Yoruba ododo, otito "truth, fact, equality, right, righteousness
M-E m3't "truth, justice, harmony, balance"
Ciluba ma-lelela "reality, truth";
bu-lelela "reality,truth";
cye-leke(a) "reality,reality";
bi-lengele "well,correctly, distinctly,carefully, right,rightly
Basaa maeliga "truth"
netuuk "truth (n-t-k>m-l-g ?)
Zande reng) "truth"
Somali run "truth"
Kikongo nlungu "justification (the state of being just), justice, righteousness, blamelessness, completeness"
lunga "be accurate,right, be exact, perfect,etc.,"
IsiZulu lunga "become right, good"
utu-lunga "accuracy"
This is important to note in relation to m3'.t meaning "order". This -3- root is cognate with ciLuba eela "introduce, put/set/make, push"; "dispose,arrange,lay, apply, put out, place"; "to express, to make, to exit from self ("sound, word, object, idea, etc.") This root has come to be associated with the concepts of distance, generations, and also deals with that which causes the perpetuation of something (to exit from self). We see this reflected in the following terms in ciLuba:
Lela "birth,give birth, produce"; "cause, source, generate"; "a family,a home"; "adopt, educate, raise"; subject, submit." baledi "parents" : buledi " to engender, maternity, paternity" : bulela "relationship"; relationship characterizing those who cannot marry one another"; "charity, kindness, generosity" : ciledi "cause, origin, source" :cileledi "matrix": cilelelu "Time of birth, date of birth" : cilelelu "placenta" (Syn.: ndanga, nkishyabende): dilediibwa "birth, Christmas (birth Of Jesus) ": dilela "birth,childbirth, labor, complicated thing, to be tricky": lelela [n + I> n, l + i> di] ---> - Badila > lelesha - "facilitate childbirth, attend a woman in childbirth": Lelulula " be born again, to revive" lulelu "childbirth, fertility, generation": Mulelu > muledi "parent, mother, father" mulela "member of the extended family, parent" mulelu "human fertility, fertility": ndedi "cause (syn.: ciLedi): ndela "profilic person, with many children" : ndelanganyi "offspring, descedants, generations" ndelelu "descendants, generation"; ndelelu Mulenga "family planning": ndelu "generations, offspring, progeny": Tunda "bring into the world, give birth, born/rise. App.- Lela -> a-Teeta: lela- "be abundant, abound, overflow" [Syn.: Tengeka ->Akan, akanangan [n + I> n, l +i> di] -->sela]: Tengeka ~~~ Tenka- "be abundant, abound": Lelakana- ~~~ -lelakanangana "be found in large quantities, abound on all sides"
This is how the l-b variant in Indo-European came to mean "make love" (have sex). It is this sense of progeny, causation and relatedness that inform us of the other variant of the word m3'.t spoken of earlier mrj. The term mrj is defined as "love, want, wish, desire, prefer, covet, cherish".
"Im a ridiculous, emotional, over-sentimental sap. i guess that why i told my wife I loved her on our second date. i had tried really hard up to that point to hold it back, honestly. i wanted to tell her on the first date, but i knew that i would probably be weird. I still remember her reaction. She kind of gave me this half-shy half-amused smile. The she nodded and looked off into the sky. I wasn't heartbroken by the response. I think part of me recognized that she knew something i didn't. Like most Hasidic Jews (we both became religious later in life), our dating period lasted a very short time. After two months of dating, we were engaged. three months after that, we were married. And that whole time I was swooning. The fire was burning in me, a fire that burned just likethe second date: I was in love. But then we got married, and everything changed. Marriage quicker than i was ready for, did this thing: it started sucking away that emotion. I tried so hard to keep that fire going, to keep that emotion alight, but it got harder and harder. I mean, how you can feel that burning love when you're sitting at the table discussing how to use the last twenty dollars in bank account? How can you feel it when you act into an argument? How can you feel it when you think it make perfect sense to put your socks on the floor after you're done with them and she has this crazy idea that they need to go in the laundry basket? there was no way I could keep that dating fire bumping as practicality invaded our lives. And at first, it drove me nuts. That emotion meant love. That excitement was how i knew i cared for her! But suddenly, life was this grind. Even when I was with her. Especially when I was with her. And even worse, it seemed that the harder I tried to be sentimental and lovey-dovey, the less it was reciprocated.
As we can see, Nehorai thought that love was this "burning fire" or emotion he felt at the beginning of their courtship. He came to realize later on that this emotion was ultimately unsustainable and the lack of such a feeling began to take a toll on his relationship. However, when ne changed his actions, the emotions he was looking for began to manifest in his relationship. This change in perception came about when he had:
After the experience, he came to realize that he really didnt love his wife at the beginning. As Nehorai further stated, he didn't love his wife,"Because love isn't a emotion. that fire i felt, it was simply that: emotional fire. From the excitement of dating a woman I felt like I could marry. But it wasn't love." By Indo-Europeans standards, he was in "love" as love, in this language family, is simply "lust, covetousness, desire, wish, praise, etc." We can see how his initial interpretation of love guided his actions and evoked a certain type of emotional response that was misleading. Only when he began to "do" love, did he realize what love was. By his own words, .."love, isn't an emotion or even a noun. It's a verb. better define as giving. as putting someone else's needs above your own."
Earlier in this thread, i noted that in African languages the *l-b/*b-r roots also had dialectial variants where the /b/ sound is realized as /m/. In the ancient Egyptian language: the word for "love, desire, wish, etc.", is represented by the m-r consonant root the kweke branch of n-e. the following table:
mrj- to love, to like {verb]
mrwt - love, will, desire [noun]
mrj - love, want wish, desire, prefer, covet, cherish (verb)
mrwty - the well beloved [noun]
mrwt- love, will, desire [noun]
h3ty - heart, sense [noun -bod.]
Thus, love in the Egyptian context (will, desire, covet, prefer, cherish, to like") is associated with the same concepts as noted in Proto Indo European *leubh- "love, wish, desire, to care for." If love in the African languages is the same as love in I-E, how then are the two general attestations different? To get at heart of difference, we have to take a look at a variant of the word mrj in Egyptian: i.e., m3'.t.
The word m3'.t in the Egyptological dictionaries has the following meanings: "truth, justice, righteousness, propriety, order, law, right doing, correct, vindicated, real, genuine, orderly management, and reciprocity." Modern historians pronounce this word something like ma'at. Profressor Theophile Obenga provides the following series of correspondences in modern African languages, but I am not convinced of this proposed set:
Immanence Of Maat in African Cultures (Theophile Obenga: Egypt: Ancient History Of African Philosophy", pg 48)
Ancient Egyptian - :maat, truth; maa, "true"
Coptic (Egypt) -:me, mee, mee, mie, mei, mei, meei, "truth", "justice", and also "truthful", "righteous"
Caffino (Cushytic, Ethiopia) -:moyo, "motive", "reason" (truth and reason are inseparable)
Kongo (congo) - :moyo, "life", "soul", "mind" (same semantic field)
Ngbaka (Central African Republic) -:ma, magic medicine (in order to know the truth)
Fang (Equatorial Guinea, South Cameroon, Gabon) -:mye, mie, "pure" (tabe mye, "to be physically and morally pure")
Mpongwe (Gabon) -:mya, "to know" the truth (mya re insome, "the self-knowledge" , which the Delphic oracle also enjoined: gnothi seauton)
Yoruba (Nigeria) - :mo, "to know" the truth (knowledge)
Hausa (Nigeria) - :ma, "in fact" "indeed" (affirmative truth: ni ma na ji, "i in fact heard it")
Mada (North Cameroon) - :mat, "genie," "goblin" (semantic specialization)
Nuer (Nilotic, Sudan) - :mat, "total," "sum up"; "forces" (ro mat, "to join forces with". Maat is indeed the total of all virtues, all forces as ideals to guide man in his personal and spiritual life).
Imo the correspondences proposed by Alain Anselin, in his article: "Les mots de geno - Fulbe, Couchites, Nilotes et Egyptiens anciens, is more convincing:
Gabor Takacs (Takacs, 1999: 350) Eastern Cushytic: *ma' "good, sweet"; Northern Omotic: *ma'aa; Kingdom of Jenjero (Cushytic) me'e, meqe, "be good, be right" (RJHayward, 1994:167); Proto-Boni *ma aa "sweet, gentle"; Bireeri ma'aa (B.Heine, 1982: 131); Fulfulde demonstrates the palatalization of glottal stop /'/, Cushytic and Omotic > y] Adamawa Fulfulde: mo'' -, moyy- "be good, be filled, thanks/mercy/blessings" (C.Sydou 1998, 451), Pulaar: moyy- "be well, kind, caring, generous" (C.seydou, 1998, 463); moyyere pl. moyye "blessing, grace, happiness", moyyango "be charitable towards someone" (D.Noyce 1989,251); mo're, pl mo'e, "benefit", moyyugo, mo'ugo, "goodness", Wolof may "give, offer," may gi (with /g/ velar certifying that the agreement class was with a glottal), "grace, aptitude" (A.Fal et al., 1990,128).
However , these forms are due to much sound change. The most archaic forms can be found in Bantu languages (of the bere branch of Negro-Egyptian). We must first note that the /3/ sound in Egyptian was historically vocalized as a nasalized uvular trill /r/ (Mboli, 2010:504),. The sound correspondence 3=l/r is demonstrated by Alain Anselin in his article "Some Notes about an Early African Pool of Cultures from which Emerged The Egyptian Civilisation" (Exell, 2011:49).
b3 < *b-l, 'soul' (Old Kingdom; WB 1, 411; on the identification of /3/ as /l/, see above and Anselin 2007a): West Chadic (Nigeria): Angas-sura: bel, "reason, sense, to be wise, intelligence, understanding' (Takacs 2004,31); Central Chadic: Matakham (Cameroon): *bl, 'genius, spirit, mboko', belbele-hay, 'genius'; Niger-Congo:Fulfulde (Cameroon): nbeelu(ngu), 'principe vital de l'homme - menace d'etre devore par les mangeurs d'ame' (Noye 1989, 40; see also, Anselin 2007b, 92); Semitic: *bal, spirit, mind'; Aramaic: bl, 'spirit, intelligence'; Northern Syriac: bala, reason, attention'; Arabic: bal, 'attention, consciousness, mind' (Takacs 2001, 6).
si3 <*s-r, 'to understand, know > god of the knowledge' (Old Kingdom; WB IV 30, 1-21), written with the hieroglyph of the cloth (Gardiner S32); si3.t (Pyramid Texts; Coffin Texts variant, sr3.t, identifying /i/ as a reflex of /r/): Central Chadic: Mofu-gudur: s3; 'to know' (Barreteau 1988, 198); Mercy: s3r, 'to know' (Gravina et al.2003); Udlam: -s3r, 'to know' (Kinnaird and Oumate 2003); Muyang: s3r, 'to get to know' (Smith 2003).
m33 < *mVl, 'to see, look, examine' (Old Kingdom; WB II 7, 1-10,7), phonetically written with the hieroglyph of the sickle (Gardiner UI), the phonetic complement of the vulture (Gardiner G1) or the determinative of the eye (Gardiner D4) (Kahl 2004, 166-7): Cushytic: Agaw; Bilin: mili?y-, 'to look,examine'; Kemant: mel-, 'to examine, observe'; Eastern Cushytic: Oromo: mal- 'to think'; Sidamo: mal, 'to perceive, advise': Somali: mala, 'thought'; Burji: mala, 'plan' (Anselin 2001). Omotic: Wolamo: mi, 'to believe'; Kafa: mallet, 'to observe' (Dolgopolsky 1973, 180).
You can compare a few terms in Egyptian with modern-day CiLuba-bantu to reinforce this fact. in Middle-Egyptian, for example, we have m3' "truth,real,right" with its shorter variant in ciLuba as munda "true" (where -nd <l) [see also-a/-a milowo(u) "agreeable, true, sincere, good; Kalenjiin man "true"]. The thirs phoneme ['] in the word m3' is a suffix and corresponds to sounds in Bantu /ng/, /k/, and /h/. For ' = k/ng, we can observe the following correspondences:
Cikam
'rk "to complete
'rk "tie, bind,"
'nh "captive, oath"
'rk "corner, angle, edge,"
'nh "beetle"
'3y "to grow up, mature, senior, excess (over), difference (in mathematics)"
i'n "baboon"
n' "compassion, benevolence
Kikongo kalunga "complete"
Kikongo kalunga "tie, bind";
Kikongo kanga "to tie up"
Kikongo konko "angle"; ciLuba ditengu/diTungi "corner"
ciLuba cijangala ~~~cijangalala "beetle, scarab." ; kikongo kinkakala, ekoka;
ciLuba -kola "grow, increase, aging."
ciLuba nkima "monkey" (=ncima)
ciLuba nanga > bunangi "love, charity"
Given the data above, we argue that m3' "true, real, right" (> m3'.t "truth, order, balance, etc.") was probably pronounced something like what we find in Basaa language: maeliga "truth." In ciluba-Bantu we have the variant Bulelela "actuality, truth" (malelela, malela). You can also say in Ciluba Cyama/Cama or CyaMalelela; Meyi-malelela or meeyi (tetela-bantu mete). The root of bulelela is lelela "actual, real, authentic, true, genuine, veritable," which in Egyptian is rrj "really, truly"; Yoruba ododo "truth, fact, justice, equality, right, righteousness." Thus, the root of m3'.t "truth" is in fact -3-; with m- being a fossilized prefix of abstraction and -' being a fossilized suffix. The following table brings a deeper understanding to our analysis
M-E rri "really,truly"
Ciluba -lelela (-lelele(a)) "truth, authentic, veritable"
Setswana ruri "truly"
Yoruba ododo, otito "truth, fact, equality, right, righteousness
M-E m3't "truth, justice, harmony, balance"
Ciluba ma-lelela "reality, truth";
bu-lelela "reality,truth";
cye-leke(a) "reality,reality";
bi-lengele "well,correctly, distinctly,carefully, right,rightly
Basaa maeliga "truth"
netuuk "truth (n-t-k>m-l-g ?)
Zande reng) "truth"
Somali run "truth"
Kikongo nlungu "justification (the state of being just), justice, righteousness, blamelessness, completeness"
lunga "be accurate,right, be exact, perfect,etc.,"
IsiZulu lunga "become right, good"
utu-lunga "accuracy"
This is important to note in relation to m3'.t meaning "order". This -3- root is cognate with ciLuba eela "introduce, put/set/make, push"; "dispose,arrange,lay, apply, put out, place"; "to express, to make, to exit from self ("sound, word, object, idea, etc.") This root has come to be associated with the concepts of distance, generations, and also deals with that which causes the perpetuation of something (to exit from self). We see this reflected in the following terms in ciLuba:
Lela "birth,give birth, produce"; "cause, source, generate"; "a family,a home"; "adopt, educate, raise"; subject, submit." baledi "parents" : buledi " to engender, maternity, paternity" : bulela "relationship"; relationship characterizing those who cannot marry one another"; "charity, kindness, generosity" : ciledi "cause, origin, source" :cileledi "matrix": cilelelu "Time of birth, date of birth" : cilelelu "placenta" (Syn.: ndanga, nkishyabende): dilediibwa "birth, Christmas (birth Of Jesus) ": dilela "birth,childbirth, labor, complicated thing, to be tricky": lelela [n + I> n, l + i> di] ---> - Badila > lelesha - "facilitate childbirth, attend a woman in childbirth": Lelulula " be born again, to revive" lulelu "childbirth, fertility, generation": Mulelu > muledi "parent, mother, father" mulela "member of the extended family, parent" mulelu "human fertility, fertility": ndedi "cause (syn.: ciLedi): ndela "profilic person, with many children" : ndelanganyi "offspring, descedants, generations" ndelelu "descendants, generation"; ndelelu Mulenga "family planning": ndelu "generations, offspring, progeny": Tunda "bring into the world, give birth, born/rise. App.- Lela -> a-Teeta: lela- "be abundant, abound, overflow" [Syn.: Tengeka ->Akan, akanangan [n + I> n, l +i> di] -->sela]: Tengeka ~~~ Tenka- "be abundant, abound": Lelakana- ~~~ -lelakanangana "be found in large quantities, abound on all sides"
This is how the l-b variant in Indo-European came to mean "make love" (have sex). It is this sense of progeny, causation and relatedness that inform us of the other variant of the word m3'.t spoken of earlier mrj. The term mrj is defined as "love, want, wish, desire, prefer, covet, cherish".
i'll try to get more in depth with this after the weekend but
-Many people believe that emotions are the entity unto itself, separate from the mind. The literature is replete with authors telling their readers to "go with your heart, not with your mind." Another phrase one hears often is to "trust your gut". As we've seen in the African Languages, the "gut" and "heart" are the same words for "mind,intellect, thoughts." J.J. Maquet, in his article "The Kingdom of Ruanda," reaffirms this lack of dichotomy within the African ontological world.
These uncertainties regarding the nature of man indicate that Banyarwanda do not make any clear-cut distinction between the concepts of body and mind. Although they recognize parts in man, they prefer to consider the unit rather than its components [Forde, 1954:174]
As we can see here, we in the West often make distinctions where the African often does not. There was no dichotomy between the two and as modern science affirms, your feelings/emotions are a manifestation of your thoughts. In other words, your feelings/emotions are your thoughts: they are a maniestation of one's consciousness.
Your behavior is also a direct reflection of your thoughts. We organize these thoughts, into sounds, words and pictures. The renowned psychologists Dr. Amos Wilson has noted, in his work Blueprint for Black Power (c.1998), that words are vehicles of consciousness and consciousness is a pyschophysiological control mechanism. "It is a instrument of behavioral control. Through is states and levels, humans control their mental, physical and emotional behavior" (Wilson, 1998:89). How the conscious being actually behaves, for what express reasons, and to what end, reflect its state of consciousness.
Consciousness refer to a state of mind which includes varying degrees of awareness and which, depending on its particular organization and condition, both facilitates and sets limits on the ability of the individual to engage in various types of mental and behavioral activities. As Wilson further notes:
Wakeful consciousness is an active, goal-oriented, all-inclusive psychophysiological state of being. It includes the operational influence of conscious and unconscious processes as well as the behavioral repertoire and possibilities which can influence the mental and physical behavior of the consciousness individual. It encompasses and is largely characterized by fairly consistent ways the individuals tends to perceive, interpret, respond to, and behave toward stimuli based on past and current experience, prior conditioning, perceived knowledge, values, and intentions. These factors interact and coalesce to organize consciousness as an attitude, i.e. as a general and ongoing predisposition to behave in certain ways based on operationally available information, experience, abilities, skills, needs, values, and expectations; on a charaacteristic world-view and perception of the self (Wilson, 1998:86)
The bolded words above are meant to highlight the cognitive aspects o behavior. The types of behaviors we engage in correspond positively to our level of consciousness. Also, how we feel directly correlates to how we think: i.e., our level of consciousness. As noted earlier, to "think" is to "feel". Wilson reaffirms this as he notes:
To possess consciousness is to be possessed by consciousness. For consciousness "taes over" and represents itself in the body as feeling, emotions, tastes, values, intelligence and behavior. When relatively stable or consistent, habitual dispositions and tendencies which dynamically structure and are reciprocally structured by consciousness, incline the individual or group to act or react in certain fairly predictable ways. (1998:96)
Dr. Wilson reaffirms what the ancient Africans discovered early in human history: that is, that your emotions are reflections of your mind/consciousness. Therefore, there is no dichotomy between intellect and emotions. This is why jb (Egyptian), moyo (Kikongo), and mwoyo (ciLuba) means "heart-mind-intelligence-understanding". What types of emotional responses we have to stimuli is predicated on how we interpret the phenomena. The heart vs mind dichotomy is a myth imo because you can't have emotion without the mind. The "heart" works for the mind: it is the mind's message carrier and mouth piece.
Bernstein, et al. in their book Psychology (1991), supports the observations made in Wilson (1998). In their chapter on Emotion, they have the following to say:
The passionate nature of emotions does not mean that you have no control over them, however, because of their fourth feature: emotions arise in part from a cognitive appraisal of situation. Seeing a lion elicits different emotions depending on whether you thin the animal is a tame pet or a wild, hungry beast; your interpretation of the situation can alter your emotional reaction to it. Emotions depend not just on situations but on what you think about those situations, such as how you interpret their potential for threat or pleasure (Bernstein, et al., 1991:471).
This is important to note in relation to our larger discussion. Those who feel that love is simply a "feeling" are ignoring the cognitive origins of those feelings. A feeling/emotion is an experience that one has after and interaction with a stimulant. If your emotions (your feelings) are determined by interpretations ----how you think of the situation ----then this has great implications for the kinds of emotions we have in intimate relationships based on certain actions that have or have not been taken.
There is an order of operations that must be respected in this process. James Arthur Ray, in his book Harmonic Wealth (2006:200-201), gives a simple logical sequence of what's going on
* Thought (You had an idea)
*Emotion (You created an energetic response and label to what you thought: energy in motion)
*Feeling (The marriage of your thoughts and emotions create a visceral vibration in body)
*Action (You did something about your thoughtd, emotion and feelings)
*Result (Voila: "Your wish is my command")
This text, in part, is about changing the way you think about wealth: i.e., what it is, how to obtain it, how to maintain it and grow it. Reviewing other literature on the subject, Ray also has come to the conclusion that emotions/feelings are the direct result of one's thoughts. His focus, however, is in changing the logic of one's thoughts so that one's actions (for obtaining wealth) coincide with one's new thought process. People get certain results because they habitually think a certain way.
So, if you want different results, you must interrupt your habitual way of thinking and create new habitual thought. You must think your way to new results. (Ray, 2006:201)
Jerry Waxler, in his article "How thoughts affect feelings" (2003), has the following to say:
Our thoughts have a profound affect on our emotions, and by learning how to think in our own best interest, we improve our emotional condition. We may not realize our thoughts affect our feelings. Most of us assume it's the other way around; that our feelings come first and our thoughts naturally follow. But a we watch the relationship between thoughts and feelings we begin to recognize that the influence works both ways. For example, our thoughts may habitually emphasize first and foremost the discouraging side of every situation, or compulsively predict a catastrophe at the end of every pleasant moment. Such gloomy thinking drags our feelings into the dumps.
Waxler further informs us as to how we can trick ourselves into thinking that it is others who are making us feel a certain way, when in fact it is our belief systems. In the passage to follow he supports the commentary from Ray (2006) on the effects of certain negative habitual thinking.
Elaborate trap of habitual thinking patterns: As we learn more aabout our thinking patterns, we realize our thoughts can trap us into strong negative emotions. For example, it is common to blame another person's behavior for our own feelings. We might say to ourselves that the other person "makes us depressed" or "upsets us". Cognitive theraphy helps us reframe our thoughts to realize that the other person doesn't magically control our feelings. We make ourselves depressed through our own beliefs.
When we look more closely at our beliefs about other people we realize that we often expect them to place us at the center of their world. We learned to think in these magical terms when, as children we believed we were the center of the universe, and we expected our parents to now our needs and give us what we wanted. These, and other childish beliefs, persist unchallenged into our adult life, continuing to disturb us, until we take the time to root them out and correct them.
For example, we may have formed the notion that another person is supposed to know what we want, and then is supposed to behave accordingly. This belief sets us up to become upset and troubled when the other person doesn't behave in the way we expected. By saying the other person upset us, we give all the power to the other person. Upon closer consideration we realize that we were upset by our own belief about the other person's behavior, rather than the behavior itself. When we look at it this way, we can find ways to reclaim control over our feelings.
Barrett, et al. (2007), in their article "Language as context for the perception of emotion", the authors suggest that language functions as a context in emotion perception. This is why it is important to understand, linguistically, what love is because our understanding of language and language concepts directly affects what types of emotional responses we will have to certain stimuli. Lets say if you were locked in a room with all of the lights out, but you could hear a voice feeding you information from a loud speaker, and that voice told you that a house fly was in the room, one would probably not react emotionally to such information. But had the announcer said that there is a grizzly bear in the room, then one might feel the emotions of fear, anxiety and/or distress upon hearing such news. This is because one understands a bear to be an animal that can cause harm, whereas a fly, although annoying, doesn't elicit fear, if any other emotion at all.
How you "feel" in a given society correlates to your core beliefs and values.
More on this after the weekend. #Gamebred
-Many people believe that emotions are the entity unto itself, separate from the mind. The literature is replete with authors telling their readers to "go with your heart, not with your mind." Another phrase one hears often is to "trust your gut". As we've seen in the African Languages, the "gut" and "heart" are the same words for "mind,intellect, thoughts." J.J. Maquet, in his article "The Kingdom of Ruanda," reaffirms this lack of dichotomy within the African ontological world.
These uncertainties regarding the nature of man indicate that Banyarwanda do not make any clear-cut distinction between the concepts of body and mind. Although they recognize parts in man, they prefer to consider the unit rather than its components [Forde, 1954:174]
As we can see here, we in the West often make distinctions where the African often does not. There was no dichotomy between the two and as modern science affirms, your feelings/emotions are a manifestation of your thoughts. In other words, your feelings/emotions are your thoughts: they are a maniestation of one's consciousness.
Your behavior is also a direct reflection of your thoughts. We organize these thoughts, into sounds, words and pictures. The renowned psychologists Dr. Amos Wilson has noted, in his work Blueprint for Black Power (c.1998), that words are vehicles of consciousness and consciousness is a pyschophysiological control mechanism. "It is a instrument of behavioral control. Through is states and levels, humans control their mental, physical and emotional behavior" (Wilson, 1998:89). How the conscious being actually behaves, for what express reasons, and to what end, reflect its state of consciousness.
Consciousness refer to a state of mind which includes varying degrees of awareness and which, depending on its particular organization and condition, both facilitates and sets limits on the ability of the individual to engage in various types of mental and behavioral activities. As Wilson further notes:
Wakeful consciousness is an active, goal-oriented, all-inclusive psychophysiological state of being. It includes the operational influence of conscious and unconscious processes as well as the behavioral repertoire and possibilities which can influence the mental and physical behavior of the consciousness individual. It encompasses and is largely characterized by fairly consistent ways the individuals tends to perceive, interpret, respond to, and behave toward stimuli based on past and current experience, prior conditioning, perceived knowledge, values, and intentions. These factors interact and coalesce to organize consciousness as an attitude, i.e. as a general and ongoing predisposition to behave in certain ways based on operationally available information, experience, abilities, skills, needs, values, and expectations; on a charaacteristic world-view and perception of the self (Wilson, 1998:86)
The bolded words above are meant to highlight the cognitive aspects o behavior. The types of behaviors we engage in correspond positively to our level of consciousness. Also, how we feel directly correlates to how we think: i.e., our level of consciousness. As noted earlier, to "think" is to "feel". Wilson reaffirms this as he notes:
To possess consciousness is to be possessed by consciousness. For consciousness "taes over" and represents itself in the body as feeling, emotions, tastes, values, intelligence and behavior. When relatively stable or consistent, habitual dispositions and tendencies which dynamically structure and are reciprocally structured by consciousness, incline the individual or group to act or react in certain fairly predictable ways. (1998:96)
Dr. Wilson reaffirms what the ancient Africans discovered early in human history: that is, that your emotions are reflections of your mind/consciousness. Therefore, there is no dichotomy between intellect and emotions. This is why jb (Egyptian), moyo (Kikongo), and mwoyo (ciLuba) means "heart-mind-intelligence-understanding". What types of emotional responses we have to stimuli is predicated on how we interpret the phenomena. The heart vs mind dichotomy is a myth imo because you can't have emotion without the mind. The "heart" works for the mind: it is the mind's message carrier and mouth piece.
Bernstein, et al. in their book Psychology (1991), supports the observations made in Wilson (1998). In their chapter on Emotion, they have the following to say:
The passionate nature of emotions does not mean that you have no control over them, however, because of their fourth feature: emotions arise in part from a cognitive appraisal of situation. Seeing a lion elicits different emotions depending on whether you thin the animal is a tame pet or a wild, hungry beast; your interpretation of the situation can alter your emotional reaction to it. Emotions depend not just on situations but on what you think about those situations, such as how you interpret their potential for threat or pleasure (Bernstein, et al., 1991:471).
This is important to note in relation to our larger discussion. Those who feel that love is simply a "feeling" are ignoring the cognitive origins of those feelings. A feeling/emotion is an experience that one has after and interaction with a stimulant. If your emotions (your feelings) are determined by interpretations ----how you think of the situation ----then this has great implications for the kinds of emotions we have in intimate relationships based on certain actions that have or have not been taken.
There is an order of operations that must be respected in this process. James Arthur Ray, in his book Harmonic Wealth (2006:200-201), gives a simple logical sequence of what's going on
* Thought (You had an idea)
*Emotion (You created an energetic response and label to what you thought: energy in motion)
*Feeling (The marriage of your thoughts and emotions create a visceral vibration in body)
*Action (You did something about your thoughtd, emotion and feelings)
*Result (Voila: "Your wish is my command")
This text, in part, is about changing the way you think about wealth: i.e., what it is, how to obtain it, how to maintain it and grow it. Reviewing other literature on the subject, Ray also has come to the conclusion that emotions/feelings are the direct result of one's thoughts. His focus, however, is in changing the logic of one's thoughts so that one's actions (for obtaining wealth) coincide with one's new thought process. People get certain results because they habitually think a certain way.
So, if you want different results, you must interrupt your habitual way of thinking and create new habitual thought. You must think your way to new results. (Ray, 2006:201)
Jerry Waxler, in his article "How thoughts affect feelings" (2003), has the following to say:
Our thoughts have a profound affect on our emotions, and by learning how to think in our own best interest, we improve our emotional condition. We may not realize our thoughts affect our feelings. Most of us assume it's the other way around; that our feelings come first and our thoughts naturally follow. But a we watch the relationship between thoughts and feelings we begin to recognize that the influence works both ways. For example, our thoughts may habitually emphasize first and foremost the discouraging side of every situation, or compulsively predict a catastrophe at the end of every pleasant moment. Such gloomy thinking drags our feelings into the dumps.
Waxler further informs us as to how we can trick ourselves into thinking that it is others who are making us feel a certain way, when in fact it is our belief systems. In the passage to follow he supports the commentary from Ray (2006) on the effects of certain negative habitual thinking.
Elaborate trap of habitual thinking patterns: As we learn more aabout our thinking patterns, we realize our thoughts can trap us into strong negative emotions. For example, it is common to blame another person's behavior for our own feelings. We might say to ourselves that the other person "makes us depressed" or "upsets us". Cognitive theraphy helps us reframe our thoughts to realize that the other person doesn't magically control our feelings. We make ourselves depressed through our own beliefs.
When we look more closely at our beliefs about other people we realize that we often expect them to place us at the center of their world. We learned to think in these magical terms when, as children we believed we were the center of the universe, and we expected our parents to now our needs and give us what we wanted. These, and other childish beliefs, persist unchallenged into our adult life, continuing to disturb us, until we take the time to root them out and correct them.
For example, we may have formed the notion that another person is supposed to know what we want, and then is supposed to behave accordingly. This belief sets us up to become upset and troubled when the other person doesn't behave in the way we expected. By saying the other person upset us, we give all the power to the other person. Upon closer consideration we realize that we were upset by our own belief about the other person's behavior, rather than the behavior itself. When we look at it this way, we can find ways to reclaim control over our feelings.
Barrett, et al. (2007), in their article "Language as context for the perception of emotion", the authors suggest that language functions as a context in emotion perception. This is why it is important to understand, linguistically, what love is because our understanding of language and language concepts directly affects what types of emotional responses we will have to certain stimuli. Lets say if you were locked in a room with all of the lights out, but you could hear a voice feeding you information from a loud speaker, and that voice told you that a house fly was in the room, one would probably not react emotionally to such information. But had the announcer said that there is a grizzly bear in the room, then one might feel the emotions of fear, anxiety and/or distress upon hearing such news. This is because one understands a bear to be an animal that can cause harm, whereas a fly, although annoying, doesn't elicit fear, if any other emotion at all.
How you "feel" in a given society correlates to your core beliefs and values.
More on this after the weekend. #Gamebred
How you "feel" in a given society correlates to your core beliefs and values. Wilson articulates this phenomenon, in relation to consciousness (which we know manifests as emotions), in this way:
"The states of consciousness which typify a given individual, his ranges of awareness and organizational character, are structured, defined, energized and purposively directed bysets of values, needs, desires, modes ofcognition, self-perceptions of others, knowledge, skills, beliefs, emotional tendencies, past experiences, interests, ignorances and expectations that the individual habitually uses to guides his behavior. States of consciousness, particularly wakeful consciousness, are generally organized under the influence of the individual's predominant intentionality or sense of purpose ."
In other words, how you emotionally react to things corresponds to your beliefs and expectations. One's ignorances of certain knowledge can also elicit certain types of emotions and behavioral responses. These expectations are primarily shaped by society at large. That is, consciousness --- the modes of intelligence it characteristically develops and utilizes ---- is influenced to a marked degree by the types of social relations to which the individual has been exposed to during his most impressionable developmental periods. This is reaffirmed by Dr. Karen Lawson in her article "What are Thoughts & Emotions?" (found here: What Are Thoughts & Emotions? | Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing) She notes that emotions can be influenced by a number of factors. These include:
Cultural traditions and beliefs can affect the way a group or an individual expresses emotions. There are some cultures in which it is deemed "bad manners" to express emotions in a way that may that may be considered healthy and appropriate in other cultures.
Genetics (or, more specifically, brain and personality structure, including self-control) can affect the emotional expression of an individual or family. (While a person's genetic makeup cannot be altered, the brain is another story, according to neuroscientist Richard Davidson. He has identified 6 distinct "emotional styles" that are based upon the structure of our brains but can be re-shaped w/ practice.)
Physical conditions: Brain tumors, strokes, Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and thyroid disorders, can cause a person's emotional responses to change dramatically.
If the society at large argues that love is one thing, and you come across an act or defintion contrary to what the society says it is, then you may feel a certain way (at first) because the mind has been programmed by society to recognize a certain type of behavioral pattern as love. If a statement or action doesn't reflect the values and insights that one has come into harmony with over time (the patterns the mind has accepted up to this point as logical), the subconscious mind sends a signal to the (the emotion) to get the attention of the conscious mind and informs it that something is not right. This is based on logic. Logic deals with order and if something is not in order it is rendered illogical: i.e., the patterns do not fit correctly.
Many so-called "spiritualists" will also try to place a wedge between intellect and emotions by suggesting that we should "trust our intuition". I do not see anything wrong with this. However, this is often said the idea that intuition is somehow superior to intellect and therefore should always be trusted over the rational mind. The people who say this do not know what it means to intuit. The OED traces this word's etymology as so:
intuit (v.): 1776, "to tutor", From Latin intuit-, past participle stem of intueri. Meaning "to perceive directly without reasoning" is from 1840, in this sense perhaps a back-formation from intuition
intuition (n): mid-15c, from Late Latin intuitionem (nominative intuitio) "a looking at, consideration," noun of action from past participle stem of Latin intueri "look at, consider", from in- "at, on" (see in- (2)) + tueri "to look at, watch over"
The root means "to look at, consider"; in other words, to "examine" (study; logos, -logy) which itself is a rational/logical process. The meaning of "to perceive directly without reasoning" is only speaking in contrast to one's "waking consciousness." This doesn't mean reason is not involved. Rather, it is referring to the deep-seated knowledge one has in one's subconscious , which itself is nothing more than the accumulated experiences and patterns that one has gathered since birth. It is in the subconciousness where all of one's values, logical patterns, experiences, etc . are stored. From this layer of consciousness derives one's emotions. When the senses send the signals to the brain to be interpreted, the value of the stimuli is weighed against the information that is stored in the sub/unconscious where one's values, experiences and patterns of life are stored. This aspect of the mind is what is responsible for sending signals to the ANS to send to the appropriate organs responsible for expressing the different types of emotions.Emotions are the body's social temperature gauge that sends feedback to the conscious mind to ensure that is aware of the current state that the body is in at a given moment. It is a survival mechanism to ensure the preservation of the person. The self is primarily concerned with 3 things: reserving its life, preserving its identity and regenerating itself into the distance future (procreation).
"The states of consciousness which typify a given individual, his ranges of awareness and organizational character, are structured, defined, energized and purposively directed bysets of values, needs, desires, modes ofcognition, self-perceptions of others, knowledge, skills, beliefs, emotional tendencies, past experiences, interests, ignorances and expectations that the individual habitually uses to guides his behavior. States of consciousness, particularly wakeful consciousness, are generally organized under the influence of the individual's predominant intentionality or sense of purpose ."
In other words, how you emotionally react to things corresponds to your beliefs and expectations. One's ignorances of certain knowledge can also elicit certain types of emotions and behavioral responses. These expectations are primarily shaped by society at large. That is, consciousness --- the modes of intelligence it characteristically develops and utilizes ---- is influenced to a marked degree by the types of social relations to which the individual has been exposed to during his most impressionable developmental periods. This is reaffirmed by Dr. Karen Lawson in her article "What are Thoughts & Emotions?" (found here: What Are Thoughts & Emotions? | Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing) She notes that emotions can be influenced by a number of factors. These include:
Cultural traditions and beliefs can affect the way a group or an individual expresses emotions. There are some cultures in which it is deemed "bad manners" to express emotions in a way that may that may be considered healthy and appropriate in other cultures.
Genetics (or, more specifically, brain and personality structure, including self-control) can affect the emotional expression of an individual or family. (While a person's genetic makeup cannot be altered, the brain is another story, according to neuroscientist Richard Davidson. He has identified 6 distinct "emotional styles" that are based upon the structure of our brains but can be re-shaped w/ practice.)
Physical conditions: Brain tumors, strokes, Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and thyroid disorders, can cause a person's emotional responses to change dramatically.
If the society at large argues that love is one thing, and you come across an act or defintion contrary to what the society says it is, then you may feel a certain way (at first) because the mind has been programmed by society to recognize a certain type of behavioral pattern as love. If a statement or action doesn't reflect the values and insights that one has come into harmony with over time (the patterns the mind has accepted up to this point as logical), the subconscious mind sends a signal to the (the emotion) to get the attention of the conscious mind and informs it that something is not right. This is based on logic. Logic deals with order and if something is not in order it is rendered illogical: i.e., the patterns do not fit correctly.
Many so-called "spiritualists" will also try to place a wedge between intellect and emotions by suggesting that we should "trust our intuition". I do not see anything wrong with this. However, this is often said the idea that intuition is somehow superior to intellect and therefore should always be trusted over the rational mind. The people who say this do not know what it means to intuit. The OED traces this word's etymology as so:
intuit (v.): 1776, "to tutor", From Latin intuit-, past participle stem of intueri. Meaning "to perceive directly without reasoning" is from 1840, in this sense perhaps a back-formation from intuition
intuition (n): mid-15c, from Late Latin intuitionem (nominative intuitio) "a looking at, consideration," noun of action from past participle stem of Latin intueri "look at, consider", from in- "at, on" (see in- (2)) + tueri "to look at, watch over"
The root means "to look at, consider"; in other words, to "examine" (study; logos, -logy) which itself is a rational/logical process. The meaning of "to perceive directly without reasoning" is only speaking in contrast to one's "waking consciousness." This doesn't mean reason is not involved. Rather, it is referring to the deep-seated knowledge one has in one's subconscious , which itself is nothing more than the accumulated experiences and patterns that one has gathered since birth. It is in the subconciousness where all of one's values, logical patterns, experiences, etc . are stored. From this layer of consciousness derives one's emotions. When the senses send the signals to the brain to be interpreted, the value of the stimuli is weighed against the information that is stored in the sub/unconscious where one's values, experiences and patterns of life are stored. This aspect of the mind is what is responsible for sending signals to the ANS to send to the appropriate organs responsible for expressing the different types of emotions.Emotions are the body's social temperature gauge that sends feedback to the conscious mind to ensure that is aware of the current state that the body is in at a given moment. It is a survival mechanism to ensure the preservation of the person. The self is primarily concerned with 3 things: reserving its life, preserving its identity and regenerating itself into the distance future (procreation).
How you "feel" in a given society correlates to your core beliefs and values. Wilson articulates this phenomenon, in relation to consciousness (which we know manifests as emotions), in this way:
"The states of consciousness which typify a given individual, his ranges of awareness and organizational character, are structured, defined, energized and purposively directed bysets of values, needs, desires, modes ofcognition, self-perceptions of others, knowledge, skills, beliefs, emotional tendencies, past experiences, interests, ignorances and expectations that the individual habitually uses to guides his behavior. States of consciousness, particularly wakeful consciousness, are generally organized under the influence of the individual's predominant intentionality or sense of purpose ."
In other words, how you emotionally react to things corresponds to your beliefs and expectations. One's ignorances of certain knowledge can also elicit certain types of emotions and behavioral responses. These expectations are primarily shaped by society at large. That is, consciousness --- the modes of intelligence it characteristically develops and utilizes ---- is influenced to a marked degree by the types of social relations to which the individual has been exposed to during his most impressionable developmental periods. This is reaffirmed by Dr. Karen Lawson in her article "What are Thoughts & Emotions?" (found here: What Are Thoughts & Emotions? | Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing) She notes that emotions can be influenced by a number of factors. These include:
Cultural traditions and beliefs can affect the way a group or an individual expresses emotions. There are some cultures in which it is deemed "bad manners" to express emotions in a way that may that may be considered healthy and appropriate in other cultures.
Genetics (or, more specifically, brain and personality structure, including self-control) can affect the emotional expression of an individual or family. (While a person's genetic makeup cannot be altered, the brain is another story, according to neuroscientist Richard Davidson. He has identified 6 distinct "emotional styles" that are based upon the structure of our brains but can be re-shaped w/ practice.)
Physical conditions: Brain tumors, strokes, Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and thyroid disorders, can cause a person's emotional responses to change dramatically.
If the society at large argues that love is one thing, and you come across an act or defintion contrary to what the society says it is, then you may feel a certain way (at first) because the mind has been programmed by society to recognize a certain type of behavioral pattern as love. If a statement or action doesn't reflect the values and insights that one has come into harmony with over time (the patterns the mind has accepted up to this point as logical), the subconscious mind sends a signal to the (the emotion) to get the attention of the conscious mind and informs it that something is not right. This is based on logic. Logic deals with order and if something is not in order it is rendered illogical: i.e., the patterns do not fit correctly.
Many so-called "spiritualists" will also try to place a wedge between intellect and emotions by suggesting that we should "trust our intuition". I do not see anything wrong with this. However, this is often said the idea that intuition is somehow superior to intellect and therefore should always be trusted over the rational mind. The people who say this do not know what it means to intuit. The OED traces this word's etymology as so:
intuit (v.): 1776, "to tutor", From Latin intuit-, past participle stem of intueri. Meaning "to perceive directly without reasoning" is from 1840, in this sense perhaps a back-formation from intuition
intuition (n): mid-15c, from Late Latin intuitionem (nominative intuitio) "a looking at, consideration," noun of action from past participle stem of Latin intueri "look at, consider", from in- "at, on" (see in- (2)) + tueri "to look at, watch over"
The root means "to look at, consider"; in other words, to "examine" (study; logos, -logy) which itself is a rational/logical process. The meaning of "to perceive directly without reasoning" is only speaking in contrast to one's "waking consciousness." This doesn't mean reason is not involved. Rather, it is referring to the deep-seated knowledge one has in one's subconscious , which itself is nothing more than the accumulated experiences and patterns that one has gathered since birth. It is in the subconciousness where all of one's values, logical patterns, experiences, etc . are stored. From this layer of consciousness derives one's emotions. When the senses send the signals to the brain to be interpreted, the value of the stimuli is weighed against the information that is stored in the sub/unconscious where one's values, experiences and patterns of life are stored. This aspect of the mind is what is responsible for sending signals to the ANS to send to the appropriate organs responsible for expressing the different types of emotions.Emotions are the body's social temperature gauge that sends feedback to the conscious mind to ensure that is aware of the current state that the body is in at a given moment. It is a survival mechanism to ensure the preservation of the person. The self is primarily concerned with 3 things: reserving its life, preserving its identity and regenerating itself into the distance future (procreation).
"The states of consciousness which typify a given individual, his ranges of awareness and organizational character, are structured, defined, energized and purposively directed bysets of values, needs, desires, modes ofcognition, self-perceptions of others, knowledge, skills, beliefs, emotional tendencies, past experiences, interests, ignorances and expectations that the individual habitually uses to guides his behavior. States of consciousness, particularly wakeful consciousness, are generally organized under the influence of the individual's predominant intentionality or sense of purpose ."
In other words, how you emotionally react to things corresponds to your beliefs and expectations. One's ignorances of certain knowledge can also elicit certain types of emotions and behavioral responses. These expectations are primarily shaped by society at large. That is, consciousness --- the modes of intelligence it characteristically develops and utilizes ---- is influenced to a marked degree by the types of social relations to which the individual has been exposed to during his most impressionable developmental periods. This is reaffirmed by Dr. Karen Lawson in her article "What are Thoughts & Emotions?" (found here: What Are Thoughts & Emotions? | Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing) She notes that emotions can be influenced by a number of factors. These include:
Cultural traditions and beliefs can affect the way a group or an individual expresses emotions. There are some cultures in which it is deemed "bad manners" to express emotions in a way that may that may be considered healthy and appropriate in other cultures.
Genetics (or, more specifically, brain and personality structure, including self-control) can affect the emotional expression of an individual or family. (While a person's genetic makeup cannot be altered, the brain is another story, according to neuroscientist Richard Davidson. He has identified 6 distinct "emotional styles" that are based upon the structure of our brains but can be re-shaped w/ practice.)
Physical conditions: Brain tumors, strokes, Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and thyroid disorders, can cause a person's emotional responses to change dramatically.
If the society at large argues that love is one thing, and you come across an act or defintion contrary to what the society says it is, then you may feel a certain way (at first) because the mind has been programmed by society to recognize a certain type of behavioral pattern as love. If a statement or action doesn't reflect the values and insights that one has come into harmony with over time (the patterns the mind has accepted up to this point as logical), the subconscious mind sends a signal to the (the emotion) to get the attention of the conscious mind and informs it that something is not right. This is based on logic. Logic deals with order and if something is not in order it is rendered illogical: i.e., the patterns do not fit correctly.
Many so-called "spiritualists" will also try to place a wedge between intellect and emotions by suggesting that we should "trust our intuition". I do not see anything wrong with this. However, this is often said the idea that intuition is somehow superior to intellect and therefore should always be trusted over the rational mind. The people who say this do not know what it means to intuit. The OED traces this word's etymology as so:
intuit (v.): 1776, "to tutor", From Latin intuit-, past participle stem of intueri. Meaning "to perceive directly without reasoning" is from 1840, in this sense perhaps a back-formation from intuition
intuition (n): mid-15c, from Late Latin intuitionem (nominative intuitio) "a looking at, consideration," noun of action from past participle stem of Latin intueri "look at, consider", from in- "at, on" (see in- (2)) + tueri "to look at, watch over"
The root means "to look at, consider"; in other words, to "examine" (study; logos, -logy) which itself is a rational/logical process. The meaning of "to perceive directly without reasoning" is only speaking in contrast to one's "waking consciousness." This doesn't mean reason is not involved. Rather, it is referring to the deep-seated knowledge one has in one's subconscious , which itself is nothing more than the accumulated experiences and patterns that one has gathered since birth. It is in the subconciousness where all of one's values, logical patterns, experiences, etc . are stored. From this layer of consciousness derives one's emotions. When the senses send the signals to the brain to be interpreted, the value of the stimuli is weighed against the information that is stored in the sub/unconscious where one's values, experiences and patterns of life are stored. This aspect of the mind is what is responsible for sending signals to the ANS to send to the appropriate organs responsible for expressing the different types of emotions.Emotions are the body's social temperature gauge that sends feedback to the conscious mind to ensure that is aware of the current state that the body is in at a given moment. It is a survival mechanism to ensure the preservation of the person. The self is primarily concerned with 3 things: reserving its life, preserving its identity and regenerating itself into the distance future (procreation).
Something I discovered recently going to comeback to this.
Due time.
Due time.
Emotions are the feedback from th heart [the mind] that is having a certin experience in the world at a given moment. How that feedback is expressed is dependent on the person's level of consciousness, values and experiences. This is why, Kajangu noted previously, the Africans sought to have a "well-designed" double, because only well-designed doubles (logically, carefully crafted, intelligent, wise minds) can stem the tides of life's challenges. The pursuit of perfection (nfr; love) involves, among other things, the attempt to build a double that will survive beyond death. In the Egyptian Book Of Amenomope, Amenomope says: "The heart/mind of man is a gift of God. Beware of neglecting it" [i.e., its cultivation] . As stated by the great Egyptian sage Ptahhotep: jn rh sm b3.f m smnt nfr.f jm.f tp-t3 "A wise one cares for his b3 by establishing goodness in it on earth". By becoming enlightened on Earth, the double (ena, b3, ori) seals its immortality and becomes an ancestrl spirit (3hw) that can be used by the living for enriching life on earth. In other words, one becomes an Osiris (Wsr, Asar, WaShil, Mujilu). Only foolishness [Egyptian isft "evil"; Isizulu uzibuthe "the spirit of conflict"] can distort the construction of the double
The double is what becomes the ancestor after death. The ancestor after death. the ancestor is a consciousness and the ancestral realm is the "collective consciousness" of all human beings according to African theology.
The above digram represents the sun's apparent movement around the earth. Sunrise is in the east (V2) and sunset is in the west (V4). The human-being is also a living sun (symbolized by the small circles) and our cycle of life goes in a similar trajectory as the apparent movement of the sun around the earth. The diagram is divided into 2 primary demarcations: the top-half representing life on earth [ku nseke < nza "world, earth"; also nza a mwini "world of sunshine/light" ] and the bottom representing the ancestral realm [ku mpemba < mpemba "white clay/ chalk"); white is the color of the ancestors). The bottom portion of the diagram is also known as ndoki, which is the knower of man's principles and systems of n'kingu ye bimpa higher levels. the kindoki or science of higher knowledge'. The manipulation of these n'kingu and bimpa principles and systems permitted, say the Kongo, to assist the ndoki to become a winged person, a flier. The kikongo dictionary has the meaning for ndoki as "witch, sorcerer" . We can see here this association with "knowledge"[sacred/magical] and "flight" and our Egyptian word b3. I interpret this mean an active and powerful "imagination" as well a deep knowledge of the universe and the ability to bend matter. A witch [ndoki] is simply someone who can imagine something and translate their inspirations into experiences because they know the laws [higher sciences] that will allow for them to do so.
Fu-Kiau expands on this as he notes:
"In the spiritual world the kundu, kindoki, is the central and most important element in this unfathomable world. This element is made up by the experience based on bibulu (b) including [the] human being, the simbi (s), i.e,. ancestral experience, and on mpeve (m) , i.e., soul-mind experience. In this case kundu or kindoki is the lived and accumulated knowledge."
Fu-Kiau is confirming that the ancestral world consists of the collective human and ancestral experiences, which is therefore the mpeve "soul-mind" experience" [the collective b3l unconscious realm). The musoni stage of development [V1] is the formation process stage of all life. This aspect of the cosmogram relates to both the physicl birthing process [the womb] and ideological development [the mind].The "ancestral realm" is in reality the "cosmic collective mind" and it is from this pool of inspiration that we draw from to find solution to the problems we are currently facing. whene discover new solutions, these experiences are then added to the collective pool of wisdom, which is accessible through the mind [i.e., the spirit > b3 > ori). It is considered a dark realm , and as Fu-Kiau notes regarding the concept of the "V" as depicted in the diagram above :
The "Vee" is not only a human experience , it is found everywhere in nature as well as in the universe. It is the most primitive form that emerged from the depth of the first matter, "the dark matter" [ndobe/piu], which is the "printing room" of all realities, not only visible and invisible, but material and immaterial as well. A "printing room" for realities that were and realities to come. It is the printing room inside where all great ideas, images and forms emerge to be impregnated in our minds. Thereafter, we create them as realities.
The "V" is what I call "context", whose left and right edges represent the extremities of a concept [i.e. positive & negative forces]. One can also consider the extremes the edges of a perspective. The more narrow the "V", the narrower the perspective. The wider the "V", the wider the perspective [the more knowledge one has, the more one can see.] The merging point at the base of "V" is what Fu-Kiau calls the " the dark matter" or "printing room," which is none other than the cosmic mind [the mind of God, the law (s) of th Universe]. Remember the hermetic teaching, " The All is Mind; The Universe is Mental ". Our individual mind is but a spark of the greater inferno of the cosmic mind.
The Kikongo word ndobe is a variant of ndombe [, andombe] "blackness". This word has a variant ndombo "papyrus mat" [when used to sleep on] . The ndobe/ndombe is the "blackness" we are surrounded by when we look into the right sky and when we go to "sleep". By going to sleep we go into the ancestral realm nightly. The ancestral realm nightly. The ancestral realm is not "out ther" but "inside" of us: i.e., the heart, the core, the mind > jb , b3, PAA *lab- , ndobe [Kikongo ntima, moyo, mbundu "heart".)
Similar attitudes cn be seen among the Dagara people of Burkina Faso as it regards the underlying consciousness that undergirds the visible world. As told to us by Malidoma Some in his work The healing wisdom of africa : finding Life Purpose Through Nature, Ritual and Community:
"Indigenous people see the physical world as a reflection of a more complex, subtler, and more lasting yet invisible entity called energy. It is as if we are the shadows of a vibrant and endlessly resourceful intelligence dynamically involved in a process of continuous self-creation. Nothing happens here that did not begin in that unseen world. If something in the physical world is experiencing instability.....Therefore, people go to that unseen energetic place to try and repair whatever damage or disturbances are being done there, knowing that if things are healed there, things will be healed here.
The people of the Kongo have a saying as it regards travelling to the land of spirit.
Kani ka bwe, kana ku lumoso-ku lubakala-ku n'twala-ku nima-mu zulu evo mu nsi ukwenda, vutukisa va didi I yand . ""No matter what, you may walk leftwards, rightwards, forwards, backwards, upwards or downwards, you must come back to the [didi] core/center" Kongo Proverb.
According to Bantu tradition, we are "Vertical- Horizontal" beings; we stand "upright", we think, reason and ponder before moving "horizontally" on the earth to meet the challenges of the instinctive world. The horizontal world is the main ground to all learning. Moving horizontally serves one purpose and that is to learn from one's environment. We are not born with knowledge. According to the Bantu, we explore and collect data from our experiences in the world. We shelve this information in our consciousness, like living computers, for future use at will. The muntu [person] has two planes of motion in this universe. On the horizontal plane he can move forwards, backwards, leftwards and rightwards. But for true self-knowing, he walks inwards [didi- inner world]. This is the location of his true self, the essence of his being, his connection to source and ancestors. The Bantu believe that muntu is nothing unless he discovers how to walk towards this 7 direction. The journey towards the didi makes us "thinking-acting-beings," doers, masters [nganga] to ourselves.
The double is what becomes the ancestor after death. The ancestor after death. the ancestor is a consciousness and the ancestral realm is the "collective consciousness" of all human beings according to African theology.
The above digram represents the sun's apparent movement around the earth. Sunrise is in the east (V2) and sunset is in the west (V4). The human-being is also a living sun (symbolized by the small circles) and our cycle of life goes in a similar trajectory as the apparent movement of the sun around the earth. The diagram is divided into 2 primary demarcations: the top-half representing life on earth [ku nseke < nza "world, earth"; also nza a mwini "world of sunshine/light" ] and the bottom representing the ancestral realm [ku mpemba < mpemba "white clay/ chalk"); white is the color of the ancestors). The bottom portion of the diagram is also known as ndoki, which is the knower of man's principles and systems of n'kingu ye bimpa higher levels. the kindoki or science of higher knowledge'. The manipulation of these n'kingu and bimpa principles and systems permitted, say the Kongo, to assist the ndoki to become a winged person, a flier. The kikongo dictionary has the meaning for ndoki as "witch, sorcerer" . We can see here this association with "knowledge"[sacred/magical] and "flight" and our Egyptian word b3. I interpret this mean an active and powerful "imagination" as well a deep knowledge of the universe and the ability to bend matter. A witch [ndoki] is simply someone who can imagine something and translate their inspirations into experiences because they know the laws [higher sciences] that will allow for them to do so.
Fu-Kiau expands on this as he notes:
"In the spiritual world the kundu, kindoki, is the central and most important element in this unfathomable world. This element is made up by the experience based on bibulu (b) including [the] human being, the simbi (s), i.e,. ancestral experience, and on mpeve (m) , i.e., soul-mind experience. In this case kundu or kindoki is the lived and accumulated knowledge."
Fu-Kiau is confirming that the ancestral world consists of the collective human and ancestral experiences, which is therefore the mpeve "soul-mind" experience" [the collective b3l unconscious realm). The musoni stage of development [V1] is the formation process stage of all life. This aspect of the cosmogram relates to both the physicl birthing process [the womb] and ideological development [the mind].The "ancestral realm" is in reality the "cosmic collective mind" and it is from this pool of inspiration that we draw from to find solution to the problems we are currently facing. whene discover new solutions, these experiences are then added to the collective pool of wisdom, which is accessible through the mind [i.e., the spirit > b3 > ori). It is considered a dark realm , and as Fu-Kiau notes regarding the concept of the "V" as depicted in the diagram above :
The "Vee" is not only a human experience , it is found everywhere in nature as well as in the universe. It is the most primitive form that emerged from the depth of the first matter, "the dark matter" [ndobe/piu], which is the "printing room" of all realities, not only visible and invisible, but material and immaterial as well. A "printing room" for realities that were and realities to come. It is the printing room inside where all great ideas, images and forms emerge to be impregnated in our minds. Thereafter, we create them as realities.
The "V" is what I call "context", whose left and right edges represent the extremities of a concept [i.e. positive & negative forces]. One can also consider the extremes the edges of a perspective. The more narrow the "V", the narrower the perspective. The wider the "V", the wider the perspective [the more knowledge one has, the more one can see.] The merging point at the base of "V" is what Fu-Kiau calls the " the dark matter" or "printing room," which is none other than the cosmic mind [the mind of God, the law (s) of th Universe]. Remember the hermetic teaching, " The All is Mind; The Universe is Mental ". Our individual mind is but a spark of the greater inferno of the cosmic mind.
The Kikongo word ndobe is a variant of ndombe [, andombe] "blackness". This word has a variant ndombo "papyrus mat" [when used to sleep on] . The ndobe/ndombe is the "blackness" we are surrounded by when we look into the right sky and when we go to "sleep". By going to sleep we go into the ancestral realm nightly. The ancestral realm nightly. The ancestral realm is not "out ther" but "inside" of us: i.e., the heart, the core, the mind > jb , b3, PAA *lab- , ndobe [Kikongo ntima, moyo, mbundu "heart".)
Similar attitudes cn be seen among the Dagara people of Burkina Faso as it regards the underlying consciousness that undergirds the visible world. As told to us by Malidoma Some in his work The healing wisdom of africa : finding Life Purpose Through Nature, Ritual and Community:
"Indigenous people see the physical world as a reflection of a more complex, subtler, and more lasting yet invisible entity called energy. It is as if we are the shadows of a vibrant and endlessly resourceful intelligence dynamically involved in a process of continuous self-creation. Nothing happens here that did not begin in that unseen world. If something in the physical world is experiencing instability.....Therefore, people go to that unseen energetic place to try and repair whatever damage or disturbances are being done there, knowing that if things are healed there, things will be healed here.
The people of the Kongo have a saying as it regards travelling to the land of spirit.
Kani ka bwe, kana ku lumoso-ku lubakala-ku n'twala-ku nima-mu zulu evo mu nsi ukwenda, vutukisa va didi I yand . ""No matter what, you may walk leftwards, rightwards, forwards, backwards, upwards or downwards, you must come back to the [didi] core/center" Kongo Proverb.
According to Bantu tradition, we are "Vertical- Horizontal" beings; we stand "upright", we think, reason and ponder before moving "horizontally" on the earth to meet the challenges of the instinctive world. The horizontal world is the main ground to all learning. Moving horizontally serves one purpose and that is to learn from one's environment. We are not born with knowledge. According to the Bantu, we explore and collect data from our experiences in the world. We shelve this information in our consciousness, like living computers, for future use at will. The muntu [person] has two planes of motion in this universe. On the horizontal plane he can move forwards, backwards, leftwards and rightwards. But for true self-knowing, he walks inwards [didi- inner world]. This is the location of his true self, the essence of his being, his connection to source and ancestors. The Bantu believe that muntu is nothing unless he discovers how to walk towards this 7 direction. The journey towards the didi makes us "thinking-acting-beings," doers, masters [nganga] to ourselves.
there also a correlation to the term Maat & Di'kenga
For one, mAa.t is not "maat.." That is Egyptology speak. The term mAa.t consists of 4 consonants:/ m-r-k-t/ or/ m-r-h-t/. The m- is a fossilized prefix and the -t is an active suffix in ancient ciKam. Thus, the historical root is/ r-k/ or /r-h/. The historical consonant structure is actually /k-k/ in which the initial k- has gone through several mutations (given certain vowel environments) giving us the following dialect forms:
k-k
k-ng
t-ng
d-ng
l-ng
The word dingo-dingo takes on the d-ng form. While di.Kenga, without the di- prefix, takes on the k-ng form.
The word "maat" in Kalenjiin is actually a word for "fire." They have totally separate words for "order, truth, justice, etc." Their word cognate with mAa.t is actually /rach/ "Gather together. Make tidy. Put in order. Arrange properly." They have a word /māā/ or /mat/ meaning "not" and "don't" that applies to the "do's and don'ts" of the culture. In other words, it refers to their taboos or code of conduct. However, the word mAa.t has to do with a "path, road"(< "foot") and in Egyptian the direct root form is given as /mA.t/ "way, path" (Budge 276b) and the Kalenjiin say /maat/ to mean "road, path" and is used in reference to "lineage". Egyptian /h/, /H/, /a/, /A/, /X/ are lost in Kalenjiin. Thus, the missing -A- in /mA.t/ forces the pronunciation of the long /a/ in Kalenjiin /maat/ "road, path" > "lineage, family." From Egyptian /mA.t/ "path, way" we get /mAa.t/ "truth, justice, etc." The -a is a suffix in /mAa.t/.
Another way to depict mAa.t in the Kongo is an ever expanding spiral whose process is called dingo-dingo.
k-k
k-ng
t-ng
d-ng
l-ng
The word dingo-dingo takes on the d-ng form. While di.Kenga, without the di- prefix, takes on the k-ng form.
The word "maat" in Kalenjiin is actually a word for "fire." They have totally separate words for "order, truth, justice, etc." Their word cognate with mAa.t is actually /rach/ "Gather together. Make tidy. Put in order. Arrange properly." They have a word /māā/ or /mat/ meaning "not" and "don't" that applies to the "do's and don'ts" of the culture. In other words, it refers to their taboos or code of conduct. However, the word mAa.t has to do with a "path, road"(< "foot") and in Egyptian the direct root form is given as /mA.t/ "way, path" (Budge 276b) and the Kalenjiin say /maat/ to mean "road, path" and is used in reference to "lineage". Egyptian /h/, /H/, /a/, /A/, /X/ are lost in Kalenjiin. Thus, the missing -A- in /mA.t/ forces the pronunciation of the long /a/ in Kalenjiin /maat/ "road, path" > "lineage, family." From Egyptian /mA.t/ "path, way" we get /mAa.t/ "truth, justice, etc." The -a is a suffix in /mAa.t/.
Another way to depict mAa.t in the Kongo is an ever expanding spiral whose process is called dingo-dingo.