Remembering what you said about trees, I think of this:
http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww134.html
I'm just back home from Kungsträdgården where the organiser Rabbi
Chaim Greisman of the Chabad, for the tenth year in succession, this
time lit the sixth candle on a giant Chanukia. It was a well attended
event, the blessings were said, a guest from Israel made a speech, a
young Jewish MP too, Rabbi Isak Nachman said some powerful words, the
people were happy, the coffee was warm the buns delightful, and there
was music, dancing and rejoicing here in Stockholm.
Something's happened, I don't know what, but after I send this ama
going back to the Baal Shem Tov's commentary on Pirkey Avoth,
chapter one – and his commentary on the section talking about Moshe
Rabeinu being " More Humble than the most inferior."
That was a sign - from you - and this is going to be one of my last
postings to this or any other forum for quite some time to come.
We're talking about ages ago – to tell you the truth, real education
began some time after all that. I've seen pictures of Professor Toyin
Falola laughing, but Professor Kwabena Nketia is the only person that
I've known so far, who used to lecture about African music, with a
smile on his face, and sometimes, caressing an instrument. My good
friend John Collins (an Irishman) eventually succeeded him to the
chair of African Music at the University of Ghana. John's father was
professor of Philosophy there, and we (my old lady and I) were
frequent visitors to their home. His dad was a master of amponsah on
the classical guitar – something close to Koo Nimo. His brother Pat is
married to a Sierra Leonean... and among our music brothers of that
time we have Kwatei Jones- Quartey, who later did his Doctorate in
music theory on Dizzy Gillespie and Melodic Improvisation… he
sometimes plays with Olu Dara
You could check out what Jack Goody says about the African civil
service meritocracy system and what he says about retirement ages and
the necessities of giving opportunities to the ever younger
generation…….
It's not just about reading about these matters. As you are, or will
soon be a teacher, you will of course be needing words to communicate
with your future disciples.
In Buddhism, Hinduism and Sufism, much of the communication that I
have received has not been through the written or spoken word - it has
sometimes been determined by proximity, but not always. Communication
can take place where no words have entered. Distance and time
stretching back to the past does not necessarily have to be a problem
You are in Britain and although I am not wise enough or in a position
to give you or anyone else advice, I dare say that should you be
fortunate to meet someone like Alireza Nurbakhsh, who I believe has
succeeded his father as Pir of the Nimatullahi. He would probably
resonate with you, not necessarily in the realm of words, although he
has a doctorate in Philosophy – and of course, he is much, much more
than that.
The last time I saw him he gave me some classical Iranian music, as a
present.
I am wishing you success in your journeying.
Sincerely,
Your Brother
Cornelius
On 6 Dec, 19:16, toyin adepoju <toyin.adep...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> *There is nothing like a good teacher*
>
> *Nothing *
>
> Absence
> Unavailability
> Zero
> None
> Erasure
> Empty
> Silence
>
> *Like*
>
> Resemble
> Alignment
> Correlation
> Link
> Relate
> Correspond
> Similarity
>
> *Good*
>
> Positive
> Pleasant
> Nice
> Agreeable
> Wholesome
> Fine
>
> *Teacher*
> *
> *
> Instructor
> Guide
> Guru
> Leader
> Director
> Supervisor
> Facilitator
>
> Having surveyed some of the verbal possibilities of that humble but
> sweet,rich sentence penned by Toyin Adepoju,I declare the following:
> *
> *
>
> The Buddha once asked his students to summarise what he had taught them.They
> responded with profound statements of understanding,expressed in the
> sophisticated language of what would later come to be called Buddhism.
>
> To each response he would state,in acknowledgement of the accuracy of the
> student's response, something like
> "To you I give my clothes", "To you I give my sandals" or "To you I give my
> bones".
>
> Finally,Vimalakirti bowed,and remained "thunderously silent".
>
> The Buddha responded
>
> "To you, I give my marrow".
>
> Vimalakirti,thunderously silent,has since become a staple of centuries of
> Buddhist art.
>
> When Rabbi Akiva was being flayed alive by the Romans,so the story goes,he
> cried out one sentence,drawn out to the last of his dying breath:
>
> "The Lord our God,the Lord is One!"
>
> The Holy One,blessed be he,when encountered by Moses on Mount Sinai (?) and
> Moses asked "what is your name? " replied
>
> "I am that I am"
>
> At least in English translation
>
> The Hindus would go further and state that the cosmos is brought into being
> and sustained by one word of two letters: OM
>
> Who are we not to emulate the Holy One and the adepts such
> as Vimalakirti,Akiva or even the wisdom of OM?
>
> I congratulate you on studying with those almost legendary figures like Jack
> Goody and Kwabena Nketia.
>
> You must be a real bukuru man,as we would say in Nigerian pidgin.
>
> Thanks
> Toyin
>
> On 6 December 2010 13:03, Cornelius Hamelberg
> <corneliushamelb...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > Toyin,
>
> > Having mentioned some teachers of my youth and still going back to
> > more than forty years ago, I am feeling quite remorseful about all the
> > other good and great ones that I didn't give place of honour – such as
> > Professor Jack B. Moore, Jack Goody, Victor Le Vine , Michael Crowder,
> > Kwabena Nketia, Jawa Apronti, John R. Cartwright, Miss Dolphin ( Greek
> > and Roman Culture), Glanville, Graham, Carter, Evans, Rev. Ferguson
> > who looked like W. H. Auden, but taught essential Bishop Berkeley.
>
> > I hope that others do, but I don't quite follow your latest, here
> > ( about Dennis Brutus etc)
>
> > Amanda Ripley's article was straightforward enough
>
> > Like a straightforward English man proceeding straightforwardly, what
> > I meant by a simply stated opinion "does not have to be taken as
> > poetry, or as a poetic statement", is that with reference to your
> > flippant or initially ambiguous one-liner that ignited so many
> > learned interventions, it is not every simple, straightforward
> > statement that has to be subject to literary criticism and
> > philosophical analysis. Should we subject very politician's oratory
> > (Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Winston Churchill, or nutty Sarah Palin)
> > to that sort of analysis, it would be a very tedious project indeed
> > and that would leave us with precious little time to get to the heart
> > of any matter.
>
> > In other words we are to accept the import in what is said (even YOUR
> > intention) at the superficial / surface level of everyday speech -
> > - but we may ( are free to ) psychologize your motives, honestly – or
> > for fun – or even with good/ evil intent, to suit our own agenda.....
>
> > Still in the political public realm, we have this sort of statement
> > which has to be disembowelled and which I address here: It's the
> > facticity and not the poeticism that has to be addressed . According
> > to Wikileaks, said of our able foreign minister Carl Bildt, " "A
> > Medium Sized Dog with Big Dog Attitude":
>
> >http://www.thelocal.se/blogs/corneliushamelberg/2010/12/06/tentativel...
>
> > Consider:
>
> > "While preachers preach of evil fates
> > Teachers teach that knowledge waits
> > Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
> > Goodness hides behind its gates
> > But even the president of the United States
> > Sometimes must have to stand naked " ( Bob Dylan)
>
> > "Well, the Book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy
> > The law of the jungle and the sea are your only teachers
> > In the smoke of the twilight on a milk-white steed
> > Michelangelo indeed could've carved out your features
> > Resting in the fields, far from the turbulent space
> > Half asleep near the stars with a small dog licking your face " ( Bob
> > Dylan)
>
> > On 5 Dec, 18:07, toyin adepoju <toyin.adep...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > > Cornelius,
>
> > > I am pleased we are on a similar page on good and possibly great
> > > teachers,including Abiola Irele,whom we have in common.
>
> > > Thanks for telling us about your excursions through schools of thought
> > that
> > > enlighten our world.It must have been wonderful.
>
> > > You state that your reference to goodness on this subject does "not have
> > to
> > > be poetry, or a simple poetic statement".
>
> > > I wonder if we are together on that point.
>
> > > Into my mind comes Virginia Ola,responding to Dennis Brutus's
>
> > > "The clammy cement sucks our naked feet
>
> > > the still,frosty glitter of the stars
> > > the Southern Cross
> > > flowering low"
>
> > > exclaiming 'even in the profound discomfort of the prison his spirit
> > > refuses to be crushed!'
>
> > > I can still recollect the emotional imprint of her response on that
> > day,when
> > > the poem moved her,even though it was many years ago on the first year of
> > my
> > > BA at the University of Benin.
>
> > > To some people,the experience might have been a molehill. But to a
> > person
> > > who will always remember the experience,it is a mountain that he
> > continues
> > > to climb....
>
> > > *There is nothing like a good teacher.*
>
> > > That sense of nothingness,is that not the fecundative emptiness at the
> > > centre of the opon ifa,the spatio-temporal configuration at which the
> > past
> > > meets the present within the armbit of eternity,as
> > > Orunmila,Setilu,Gbongan,Adeforose,Iyapupa,Anjantala and others from the
> > > unrecorded beginning of the tradition,moving across the ages, make
> > > themselves present,unseen but concrete,embodied in akara ogun, the sphere
> > of
> > > power, as they are called upon by the desire of the student?
>
> > > On self transformation,the snake that reinvents itself and yet remains
> > the
> > > same,the calabash that displays the distinctiveness of its various sides
> > > even as they run into one, it could be helpful to study the great Muslim
> > > polymaths,who, well before the European Renaissance,actualized
> > > the Renaissance ideal of the uomo universali,the universal man,in terms
> > of a
> > > scope ,that,as far as I know,was not realized in Europe:Ibn
> > > Sina<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna>
> > > , Omar Khayam <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyám<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m>
> > >,Ibn
> > > Khaldun<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Khaldun>
> > > , Al-Ghazzali <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazali>.....
>
> > > Salutations brother
>
> > > Toyin
>
> > > On 5 December 2010 12:38, Cornelius Hamelberg
> > > <corneliushamelb...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > > > Please permit me to be personal:
>
> > > > Wonderful Toyin,
> > > > Slayer of demons,
> > > > Champion elucidator of comparative esoterics
> > > > Restorer of chimps to the jungles to which they belong.
>
> > > > I had wanted to add, "slayer of dragons", but then again the dragon is
> > > > one thing in Chinaman's lore and something else to St. George…..
>
> > > > Indeed, Toyin, you are not toying when you say, "There is nothing like
> > > > a good teacher." In the sense in which you speak, a good teacher never
> > > > dies.
>
> > > > (During the month of June, 1981 I lived in Ahoada in Nigeria and would
> > > > be woken up at 5.30 every morning by someone going past my little
> > > > bungalow (a madman I thought) who would be shouting at the top of his
> > > > voice, "I am the light of the world." Sometimes he'd wake me up with
> > > > "I Am the Alpha and the Omega". It's only once when I got up and went
> > > > outside to behold the fellow that I realised that I couldn't tell him
> > > > to shut up; he was doing his rounds, what he called "Morning Call" and
> > > > was not making any personal statements "I am the everlasting etc" but
> > > > only quoting from the Gospel, and calling on Nigerians to repent and
> > > > follow Christ….)
>
> > > > Speaking of contemporary secular times, I count Mr. Bankole Thompson,
> > > > Mr. T. C. Deigh, Major Von Bradshaw, Michael Brunson, Professor Eldred
> > > > Durosimi Jones, Eustace Palmer, Derek Elders, Chief Abiola Irele,
> > > > Gerald Moore, Hugh Kenner, Miss Robertson, among the many good
> > > > teachers who taught me live and direct, once upon a time.
>
> > > > Thanks for wonderful examples from two traditions that are familiar –
> > > > the Faith of Israel and with reference to everybody's Milarepa also
> > > > embraced by the Vajrayana Order (the Diamond Path) of great Karma
> > > > Kagyu teachers with whom I spent some years of instruction – and
> > > > practice.
>
> > > >http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/9208/jewish/Rashi.htm
>
> > > > Of course there is no Torah portion that I study that is not
> > > > accompanied by among others, Rashi's commentary - in fact side by
> > > > side with the Stone Edition Chumash which contains some of Rashi's
> > > > commentaries, I also read the Chumash with Rashi's commentary -
> > > > exclusively Rashi, ( edited by Rabbi A.M. Silbermann).
> > > > In the Chabad website the Torah portion is accompanied by Rashi's
> > > > commentary which is a most essential commentary, since it was not
> > > > addressed only to the learned, but to everybody, what in Christian
> > > > parlance includes "the
>
> ...
>
> läs mer »
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment