Dear Guru Adepoju
Re- This is a fine poetic line from you, the opening spiel that your tantric student would like to hear, paving the way to the absolutely clear ( as Jarreau sings - Susan's Song :
"But if you could just hold me,
Warm me, girl
The way you did today
And tenderly anoint my eyes
Then I may see the way" ….
And understand, just as Big Daddy, Shiva Lingam Guru Adepoju says to his intended Parvati,
"…that not only perceives the cosmos as an organic unity but understands this unity as expressed in the ability of the human being to direct cosmic creativity through the human body, one of these approaches being through sex." Indeed.
Tallies with these lines from Sweet Baby James' song, Gorilla :
"He comes from the heart of darkness a thousand miles from here
Now that's the land where they understand what a woman might like to hear
You know that he loves you, baby, for what you really are
His love is a-burning hot as a big old ten-cent cigar."
BTW, back then ( 1977) when I left the Shree Gurudeva Siddha Peetha in Ganeshpuri, after three monsoon months of Siddha meditation, chanting, vegetarianism, working in the garden and strictly observing Brahmacharya without even thinking about it, except maybe briefly, once, when Diana Ross turned up at the Ashram, the tourist guide first took me for a midnight tour of the Red Light District in Bombay. We drove in state on a horse and carriage, causing my curly hair to uncurl, stand up straight and tall, after which he wanted to know if I would like to relax for a while at Rajneesh's place at Poona. I politely declined.
BTW, I don't know what it's like for the Sir John Woodroffe scholars, but in my own personal experience back then, stage one of meditation consisted in shutting up and closing down that incessant, speculative monkey chatter coming from the brim-full of unhelpful philosophical clutter calming it down and stopping it altogether with the aid of Baba's Chaitanya mantra, activated through "shaktipat"
Our Alagba -in-Chief posted this some time ago…
--On Sun, 22 Mar 2020 at 23:50, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:thanks for that ride through your spiritual and intellectual journey, Cornelius.The Buddha's achievement in developing something so broadly adaptable, even to secular contexts, is a great one. Those who have taken this forward across the centuries have done a sublime job.Along similar lines, it might be possible to distinguish between Yoruba philosophy and Orisa spirituality, the former based on postulates centred on exploring the nature of the human being rather than on belief in deities, although one could describe the philosophy as including the spirituality, an orientation possibly adaptable to other African systems.Orisa spirituality is also increasingly developing an individualistic orientation, one of the strengths of Buddhism, though the latter, like Orisa, is grounded in a strong communal tradition, the Sangha, the community of Buddhist adherents.What are the chances of an enlightenment like that of the Buddha that continues to empower the various creative mutations- in the spirit of the current biological challenge-of Buddhism?Have you read Herman Hesses's Siddhartha, retelling of the life of the Buddha? Superb.the lamas do not necessarily practice sexual abstinence...such as the Hindu brahmacharyaA controversial aspect of Buddhism, sexually active monks, a practice alleged to be both justified by forms of Tibetan Buddhist theology and mired in misogyny, as argued by June Campbell's Traveller in Space: In Search of Female Identity in Tibetan Buddhism, later titled Traveller in Space: Gender, Identity and Tibetan Buddhism.With the influence of Campbell's pioneering work, though, I wonder if those aspects representing or are open to exploitation of others have been decisively addressed.Tibetan Buddhism seems to belong to what what may be known as the Tantric movement, an Asian origin philosophical and spiritual orientation, though with parallels in Western esotericisn, that not only perceives the cosmos as an organic unity but understands this unity as expressed in the ability of the human being to direct cosmic creativity through the human body, one of these approaches being through sex, one view on the complex body of what is understood as Tantra , a view related to that presented by David Gordon White in his edited Tantra in Practice and by Philip Rawson in The Art of Tantra.An ultimate achievement in this philosophy and spirituality is Hindu Tantra, in its varied elaborations of the relationship between the God Shiva and the Goddess Shakti, the orgasmic force from their conjoining generating the cosmos, as described in the introduction to the Shakti Sadhana group's translation of the awesome poetic ritual the Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram, in honour of one manifestation of Shakti, the Goddess Tripurasundari, with buttocks as hillocks, as depicted in the Tripurasundari Ashtakam, between whose jar like breasts snakes a strand of hair rising from her cavernous navel like the waters of the blue Yamuna, whose glance, falling on a decrepit old man, unskilled in the arts of love, so transforms him in the eyes of women they race after him, their clothes bursting asunder, as described in the Soundaryalahari, The Billowing Waves of the Ocean of Beauty, she holding a sugar cane bow with arrows of flowers signifying the delights of the senses, as portrayed in the Khadgamala, yet from a strand of whose skirts the cosmos was created, as portrayed in the Soundaryalahari, the dot in the centre of the triangle climaxing her geometric form, the Sri Yantra, depicting the point of cosmic origination where she frolics with Shiva, the erotic ascetic, as he is characterized by Wendy O'Flaherty in her book of that name.Seriously: Since the continent of Africa is still being perceived of as an area of darkness, you have to show that there is light, even spiritual light in AfricaAlready done by the pioneers. All subsequent efforts build on theirs.In your case too, don't forget, you've got that special calling. You've got a job to do. If you don't do it, who do you think will do it for you? For usMay it be so.Nimi Wariboko? You know that he's moving safely, surely and steadily along the straight and narrow path to the Judgment throne of Jesus,May we learn from fellow workers in the vineyard, such as he mentioned directly above, for whom Christianity and Kalabari thought, Continental philosophy and the journeys of thought and faith running from Galilee across the world, along with the mental peregrinations flowing from the Niger Delta, are varied but unified choruses of one song.Great thanks, journeyer between Legon and Stockholm, trekking through "the months and days....travellers of eternity [ as ] The years that come and go are also voyagers. [May we be ] stirred by the sight of a solitary cloud drifting with the wind to ceaseless thoughts of roaming" between being and becoming, between death dealing pandemics and the will to live, between the inevitable transmutation of the flame of life and the continual sustenance of the empowering fire, as we buy time through washing hands and social distancing, adapting Matsuo Bashō's The Narrow Road to the Deep North in the light of the current challenge from the Grim Reaper who seeks to send as many people as possible to the beyond before their time.Let us join Jetsun Milarepa, united to us beyond space and time, in his cave in 12th century Tibet, projecting compassion to all beings, wishing to all, freedom from suffering and enlightenment about the ultimate meaning of existence, until our efforts transcend thought, as he urges in Evans Wentz' edited Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa, in the spirit of 20th century US Christian monk Thomas Merton, writing in ''The Cell'' about the invisible but potent influence of the hermit on society, seeding the lives of people he will never know, as Merton puts it in The Seven Storey Mountain.--On Sun, 22 Mar 2020 at 19:05, Cornelius Hamelberg <hamelbergcornelius4@gmail.com> wrote:Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,
And now the most serious issue of all: The Coronavirus is upon us all.
I never did like this song.
It's not easy to be the president of any country right now. All kinds of people are saying that Brer Buhari is dragging his feet and keeping mum/ dumb about the matter even though just like me, age-wise we are in the same terrible danger zone and could get carried away unceremoniously, at any moment. (A sobering thought: it's not over till it's over: if, God forbid, the virus takes Biden away then Bernie will have to stand in for him as the Democrat who will challenge Trump.)
What does Don Kperogi want President Buhari to say to the nation? Mr. President can say, "Let us pray!" and that would sit well with Pastor Adeboye.
He could also make this type of reassuring announcement: "We are making preparations to deal drastically with any contingency that may arise, Ojare !" Which is what I believe he must be doing right now. Preparing. Making plans, consulting and coordinating with his Federal Governors of both the APC and the PDP, with the Sultan of Sokoto, with Bishop Kukah and with the new Emir of Kano., even with your friends and fellow countrymen in the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria.
Soon enough Mr. President will have to announce some draconian measures, such as the impossible and bound to be unpopular "Everybody has to stay home" – and that everybody would normally include the Fulani Herdsmen. No more Friday Jummah prayers at the Mosque. Stay at home and pray. God will hear you. Just face Mecca and pray. Otherwise, all he can say is that if we're not very careful the coronavirus devil is going to wipe us out. But of course, he can't say that and he shouldn't say that. He should give us all hope. Not false hope.
Here is Koffi Olomide's heartfelt message to the people
Oluwatoyin , you're not selfish. Everybody here knows that you care about other people and that's why you are always on the grind, grinding your axe against the Boko Haram and giving voice to the voiceless, forever expressing so much humane concern about the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, the Godfathers, patrons, sponsors, and protectors of the roving Fulani Herdsmen and the trails of mayhem, trials, and tribulation that they are said to leave behind them as they pass through other people's farms, churchyards and private property. What say the pastors? May the Lord have mercy on them?
We're constantly standing at the precipice of decision-making and it's always about The Road Not Taken. Maybe even the Herdsmen will have to change their route…
Seriously: Since the continent of Africa is still being perceived of as an area of darkness, you have to show that there is light, even spiritual light in Africa – just as Dr. Ben used to say…
In your case too, don't forget, you've got that special calling. You've got a job to do. If you don't do it, who do you think will do it for you? For us? Nimi Wariboko? You know that he's moving safely, surely and steadily along the straight and narrow path to the Judgment throne of Jesus…
Concerning me, re- "you've been around - retreats with the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa and Kalu Rinpoche - (of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism)?!"
Well, this all happened here in Stockholm, Sweden, when the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa and Kalu Rinpoche visited in 1975 during which time many things happened and the retreats at the Tibetan Centre - a villa in Mälarhöjden continued, short retreats on weekends. Sweden being such an atheistic sort of country, you know the joke, "I don't believe in God but one thing I know for sure is that the Blessed Virgin Mary is his mother!" Pantheism - nature - is the Swedes most popular religion, plus that the Swedes ( big, medium, small, all kinds of booty) are also naturally endowed with some of the particularly religious virtues such as mercy and compassion for e.g. refugees (when some of them - a tiny minority are not busy being anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic…
You'd be surprised that sometimes Henning Sjöström who was Sweden's top criminal lawyer at the time sat in meditation with us. So, you see, some lawyers, even criminal lawyers, develop and have developed a good conscience through Tibetan Buddhist meditation. Some Eritreans too. I didn't know that my Eritrean friend Emanuel Fessah was so serious that he became a Tibetan lama; but the last time I met him; I was surprised that he wasn't wearing the traditional robes – he was dressed like an African-American Jazz musician. I had better explain a little about the sexual mores in Tibetan culture – the lamas do not necessarily practice sexual abstinence ( that kind of fasting and starvation and a big no to big booty for Toyin) such as the Hindu brahmacharya / or the celibacy imposed on the pedophile Catholic priests, it was only later on that I discovered this through Trungpa Rinpoche – the man who really got to me, with his " Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism " indeed, while Cutting through Spiritual Materialism, he was b also busy spreading joy and planting seed which if you're coming from the traditional Judeo-Christian-Muslim cultural background, you're are apt to think is "haram", but that is not so in Tibet or with Tibetans. (As for Mother India and The people's Republic of China, such populations didn't arrive via any other way.)
On arriving in Sweden and somewhat disoriented I zapped through passivist mystic shit man Hermann Hesse's oeuvre – all of it minus Magister Ludi which I have tried to complete several times but, because I identify so strongly with Joseph Knecht, I always get stuck at a certain point in that novel and cannot continue. Perhaps that's why my South African name Themba Feza (Hope to complete) given to me by Johnny Dyani is so appropriate... – although he was thinking about the fight against Apartheid when he gave me that name.
One thing leads to another. It's a very short story: from Hesse to Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels etc. and from that to The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and a lot of other contemporary American poetry of that genre ( Beat etc) leading to the conclusion that in the United States, Buddhism was mostly a literary movement and a head movement with other electrons such as your good friend Alan watts. Lastly, just a few years ago, Matthieu Ricard
Ah, the tyrant of the school teachers!
This was also drilled into us
About digging where we are standing:
"A little learning is a dang'rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again."
The prognosis for the coronavirus is that at least 50% of the people in Europe are going to be infected. Maybe we are living in the last days after all and will soon be meeting our Creator, as you say, " where time meets the infinite."
Cheer up: : Love is Strong
--On Sun, 22 Mar 2020 at 03:54, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:Wow, Cornelius, you've been around.So you have attended retreats with the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa and Kalu Rinpoche - (of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism)?!My exposure to to Kagyu has been through Jetsun Milarepa as presented in Evans Wentz great edited autobiography of him and Garma Chang's translation of his songs.I take Milarepa as one of my gurus and practice meditation on him, imagining myself sitting with him in his cave in Tibet, as suggested by Bernard Bromage in Tibetan Yoga.I'm working on this-'dig deep where you're standing – just like a diamond digger, with sincerity as the main weapon. That's what happened with me and Judaism. Digging and digging, and after some time I could smell the bone, and then the dog started wagging its tail in anticipation, and continued digging and digging… still digging…others prefer the term "ascension" ascending…'At the same time, I find it vital to theorize, developing the philosophical implications of a spiritual practice, feeding intellect, imagination, emotion and spirit, exploring how the body of ideas and practices fits into the human quest for meaning, facilitating its appreciation beyond spiritual practice so it may speak to people in terms of different kinds of appreciation.I don't suppose that you have to be the Supreme Head of the Ogboni organisation or one of their most advanced practitioners in order to qualify as one of their agents. I also suppose that they don't necessarily want to popularise or commercialise the secrets of their path.ive got some support from two or three Ogboni members.but if you are brave and committed and truly motivated, that's where you come in as the catalyst of the spiritual return and regeneration and as the great explicator, the medicine man, the witch-doctor, the Juju High Priest, the Ogboni agent, the dispenser of Olodumare's grace.I really need that. There is so much to do. I am also convinced I can develop a theory and practice of witchcraft in terms of the Yoruba and Benin paradigms of iyami, aje and azen.I strongly believe (intuit) that when someone with your background and your passionate intensity is properly initiated into the deep Ogboni - you will do for the Ogboni what the Hindu proselytisers in the West did and are still doing for HinduismThat would be interesting but I have a problem with learning systems bcs I often prefer to learn in my own way and also, it seems Ogboni has no interest in proselytizing or sharing info, so one could find oneself shackled by such membership.I'm not sure that you wouldn't prefer a lucrative academic position; but I think that being as flexible as you strike me as being, I'm sure that you are more adventurous than that, and you probably value your freedom too. What most people are looking for (especially big booty, is security.)That has been my enduring challenge with academia. I admire the system but I have difficulty fitting in.In this very forum, and in the rest of the African Diaspora West, there are advocates such as dear Baba Kadiri who would feel much more comfortable and more completely at home with the home-grown religion than with foreign language/ foreign culture importations from the Middle East and Babylonia.
I am actually a Christian, baptised and confirmed in the Catholic church and Born Again in the Pentecostal sense. My Christian experience and exposure to Christian theology, literature and history are foundational to my spirituality and philosophy.Even as I question such ideas as God having a son or needing to sacrifice him, the religion has planted something deep in me, like other spiritualities also have.I see claims of exclusive truth from any religion as human fantasy. I am pleased the Catholic church after Vatican II, in line with a particular orientation in Christianity, thinks the same way.Some of the best works on classical African philosophies and religions are written by Christian priests- Placide Tempels' Bantu Philosophy, John Mbiti's African Religions and Philosophy, Bolaji Idowu's Olodumare : God in Yoruba Belief and Nimi Wariboko's (former pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God) comparative explorations of Kalabari thought in relation to European philosophy and Christian thought, from The Depth and Destiny of Work to possibly his entire philosophical and theological oeuvre.Thanks for your goodwill on the shared journey to the peaks of human possibility where time meets the infinite.toyin--On Sun, 22 Mar 2020 at 02:42, Cornelius Hamelberg <hamelbergcornelius4@gmail.com> wrote:Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,
They say that "Charity begins at home. "
In this very forum, and in the rest of the African Diaspora West, there are advocates such as dear Baba Kadiri who would feel much more comfortable and more completely at home with the home-grown religion than with foreign language/ foreign culture importations from the Middle East and Babylonia.
There's the avalanche of news that the African American Sistren currently living in Bible America are flocking to Indigenous African religions in droves.
The very first time in my life, that I became interested in religion was at the Institute of African Studies library where I read an article by Ulli Beier on Yoruba Sculpture - in connection with the Agemo phase ( in conjunction with dance, used by Soyinka as a theatrical flashback technique) - that - and a for me very inspirational, albeit a little heady and quite heavy M.A. thesis stored in that library, about Soyinka's use of cyclical time. Interestingly enough, if my memory serves me right Sweden's Stefan Jonsson (great guy) also wrote an impressive thesis on cyclical time - which I thought was old hat at the time, maybe because my attention was so unevenly divided because I was immersed in the poetry of Derek Walcott, when I read it.
I'm not sure that you wouldn't prefer a lucrative academic position; but I think that being as flexible as you strike me as being, I'm sure that you are more adventurous than that, and you probably value your freedom too. What most people are looking for (especially big booty, is security.) I strongly believe (intuit) that when someone with your background and your passionate intensity is properly initiated into the deep Ogboni - you will do for the Ogboni what the Hindu proselytisers in the West did and are still doing for Hinduism - although, unfortunately, some of it is and has been duly commercialised, to feed the materialistic Wild West's need to escape from its anxiety (it's is still "the age of anxiety"), to escape from the materialism and the ennui. The Hindu commercials and marketing strategy is simple: "Give me your money and I will give you peace of mind!"
When I returned to Sweden from Nigeria, I found that Emanuel Fessah , my friend from Eritrea, with whom I had attended some retreats with the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa and Kalu Rinpoche - (of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism) - had become a lama, one of the first African lamas in the Diamond Way of Tibetan Buddhism.
That's how it is and I daresay what's demanded of you – "to integrate the various African esoteric orders"? - perhaps the eclectic/syncretic stuff could come later, but first, to move away from the superficial trimmings, claptrap and butterfly decorations, pronunciations etc and to dig deep where you're standing – just like a diamond digger, with sincerity as the main weapon. That's what happened with me and Judaism. Digging and digging, and after some time I could smell the bone, and then the dog started wagging its tail in anticipation, and continued digging and digging… still digging…others prefer the term "ascension" ascending…
You muse, "could one do a Castaneda without claiming for fact what is imagination?"
Well, my understanding is that the imagination – especially the power of visualisation has to be trained. I suppose that if you can visualise something, then you can (almost) materialise it. About the imagination, do you remember Castaneda asking Don Juan, "Did I fly?" - was he actually flying – and Don Juan's answer, yes and no?
The African Diaspora West is homesick, nostalgic, longing back to the Garden of Eden. (As you know, I'm "a tribalist". If I had spent four years in Western of Nigeria – Yoruba home turf, instead of the East, or up North, I'm 101% sure that that's where I would have remained, through the sunshine and rain, through the thick and the thin, during Abacha and the reign of terror.
The African Diaspora – and that includes all of Africa-America, Afro-Europe, the Afro-Caribbean, the Africans in South America is homesick and thirsty – and that's where you come in as a redeemer. The Christian Missionaries won't like it, the Muslims will hate and deride it as "Shirk" - but if you are brave and committed and truly motivated, that's where you come in as the catalyst of the spiritual return and regeneration and as the great explicator, the medicine man, the witch-doctor, the Juju High Priest, the Ogboni agent, the dispenser of Olodumare's grace.
I'm an idiot when it comes to the Ogboni, but I don't suppose that you have to be the Supreme Head of the Ogboni organisation or one of their most advanced practitioners in order to qualify as one of their agents. I also suppose that they don't necessarily want to popularise or commercialise the secrets of their path.
In the future, when someone tells you something you don't like send him something like this--On Sat, 21 Mar 2020 at 23:09, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:deeply intriguing Cornelius.it would be wonderful to integrate the various African esoteric orders.could one do a Castaneda without claiming for fact what is imagination?im doing a series that began with a fictional account but continues with true life experiences, at least for the two being drafted.ever since i began to experience invisible presences when working on Ifa in an academic context i've begun to wonder if esoteric orders are not both spiritual as well as physical configurations enabling one gain inspiration from the spiritual identity even if one is not an initiate of the physical form.--On Sat, 21 Mar 2020 at 16:55, Cornelius Hamelberg <hamelbergcornelius4@gmail.com> wrote:Lord Connoisseur Olayianka Agbetuyi & Scholar Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,
I intuit our predicament. My own personal & sympathetic understanding of the situation transports me back in time to early February 1970 and to the Institute of African Studies, Legon, Ghana, to the genesis of my own dilemma, the dilemma that is generating my current sympathy and understanding. Apart from a short spell at the Excelsior Fraternity I had never in my life been a neophyte in anything remotely like a "Secret Society" or some cloak and dagger skulduggery. I was a total and complete novice to cultural anthropology, with a background in English studies with philosophy as a minor, preceded by studies in Greek and Roman Culture and a smattering of political systems.
On that fateful day, some date in February, Eric O. Ayisi was waiting for me to deliver on the assignment "The Rites of passage in the Poro Society among the Mende of Sierra Leone.". I thought that it was a cruel assignment that had been unnecessarily imposed on me and that my discomfiture about the matter was commensurate with my prior complete ignorance about the Mende or indeed about the Poro or the Wende Society, since I am not of Mende ethnicity and secondly, I had not belonged to either of them. I think that Ayisi's presumption was that I was of Mende ethnicity and that he was therefore going to be regaled about life in the bush, directly from the horse's mouth, the horse in question being yours truly. Fact is that nothing could have been further from the truth. To make matters worse and unbeknownst to me, just at that particular moment and sitting in the Seminar room to listen to what I had to say was his special guest, Kenneth Little , the numero uno expert on the Mende, the veritable author of "The Mende of Sierra Leone" – who had just arrived from Merry England and was visiting the Institute, for which reason ( the august presence of our famous guest) also present in the seminar room, considering the size of the room, there was a large crowd assembled there to listen to what I had to say and the inevitable questions and discussions to be initiated by Dr Little, and among the audience were the other Ogas of the Africana faculty, Abiola Irele , Jawa Apronti , the director Kwabena Nketia himself, Richard Greenfield the Secretary at the Institute, was the only major Oga that wasn't present to ( I presume) listen to some exciting first-hand account, some, uncensored witness testimony about the inner workings of Sierra Leone's Poro Secret Society. To my chagrin and my eternal sadness, they were all terribly disappointed. Had I been Mende and a Poro initiate and adept, I would have carried the day. In fact, my fame would have probably spread beyond the confines of our little institute.
Back in those days, there was no internet, no digital libraries, not even the sometimes-unreliable Wikipedia to begin with. And the library was not that well stocked either, because all that I could find about the Poro was what Professor Little had written in his "The Mede of Sierra Leone." It was not the day of the cell-phone either, in which case I would have phoned my senior friend Arthur Abraham for some brotherly succour. Since that terrible day, I have of course gone deep into the mystery - and what I know remains secret, dear Adepoju.
By the way how come you don't mention Ulli Beier and Susanne Wenger ?
Today, as an investigative journalist, researcher, initiate, practitioner, Oluwatoyin is in a much more advanced category in terms of consummate interest, commitment, first-hand experience, and - with a burning desire for ultimate fulfillment – all he has to do is to take the next step in - into the mystery - just as Van Morrison sings : The Mystery
"Let go into the mystery
Let yourself go
You've got to open up your heart
That's all I know"
So, somebody wants to attain to what the Sufis call Al-Insan al-Kamil ?
A certain Dr. Azmayesh himself an accomplished Sufi guided by our Qutb has written a few books about this.
However, reading about it, or writing a Ph.D. about Buddha enlightenment is not the same as having experienced it, is not the same as being it and knowing it.
There is the classic case of Carlos Castaneda, and perhaps Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju could pull off something like that if only he set his mind to it. To the glory of the Ogboni, Ifa, Ekpe ; Nigeria, Africa, etc
In the secret societies, cults, brotherhoods, that I know of, let's say that you are initiated at level 1 - not necessarily at level 1 , Allen Ginsberg for example, says that his heart chakra was already open ( alive) so he didn't start at the Muladhara chakra level - and I know that when the Muladhara opens, you will know that the Mulhadara has kick-started its journey simply because it's such a cataclysmic experience such as what I experienced in India in 1977 – there was no mistaking it, even if previously all kinds of light phenomena may have deluded you into thinking that you were already enlightened (like the Buddha)
Secondly, there are several levels of initiation, so if you haven't been initiated at level one (kindergarten) how do you expect to be initiated into level seven - or to even understand level 2?
I'm told that with some schools of Kabballah at level 2, the angel asks you for the password, to get to level 3, and so on until you get your Ph.D. in heaven at level eleven.
"Well, I don't know, but I've been told
The streets in heaven are lined with gold
I ask you how things could get much worse
If the Russians happen to get up there first…"
--On Sat, 21 Mar 2020 at 10:39, OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:--Toyin.
The tight secrecy is the age old patent/cooyright of organisations like Ogboni. Period! Without it people like you will wangle some kind of "magomago" self- initiation ( which you have tried several times on this forum) and sell intellectual property that does not belong to you for gains in the name of collective patrimony.
Thus their is knowkedge for initiates and as Oga Cornelius maintains there is another level of knowledge for outsiders. No matter how you trawl online you will never find such knowledge there unless you join and are initiated and partake the vow of silence on such knowledge. It is deliberate. They are not stupid.
A parallel exists in today's educational world. If you join a university online course ( as I did in graduate school and many are required to do now because of COVID19) you will not be given the password to access the course unless you pay your school fees and you will not be able to read the requisite materials and submit assignments online. Thats how the professor and the university make their livelihood. That ought to be obvious
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>Date: 20/03/2020 23:07 (GMT+00:00)To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, Yoruba Affairs <yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com>, Odua <OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com>, nigerianworldforum <NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>, Bring Your Baseball Bat <naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com>, Edo Global <Edo_Global@yahoogroups.com>Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African Esotericism and the Challenge ofCultural Capital : Ogboni and Ekpe/Mgbe
--
Edan ogboni,Ogboni sculptural evocation of men and women as children of Ile, Earth. The sculptures are also vessels for spirit invoked into the edan to act as guides and protection for Ogboni members to whom the edan are consecrated, as described by L.E. Roach in "Psychophysical Attributes of the Ogboni Edan", "African Arts, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1971, 48-53+80.
Such African esoteric fraternities as the Yoruba origin Ogboni and the Cross-River Ekpe/Mgbe pride themselves on their tight secrecy, keeping their systems of knowledge largely within their membership.
What is the ultimate value of this level of secrecy?
I think Ogboni and Ekpe/Mgbe, whom I deeply admire, are overdoing it, and thereby denying their originating civilizations, the country where those civilizations are located, Nigeria, people of African descent everywhere and the world at large the vital cultural capital represented by their achievements.
Cultural capital, in this context, refers to the significance of the achievements of an individual or group to humanity's efforts in adding value to the raw materials provided by nature.
The kind of value represented by Ogboni and Ekpe/Mgbe is ideational, artistic and performative.
These groups embody ideas about the meaning of existence and humanity's role within the cosmic scheme. They dramatize these ideas through powerful visual, verbal and vocal imaginative creations, creativity significantly demonstrated through ritual and other forms of symbolic action.
Ekpe/Mgbe has developed one of the world's richest and perhaps most complex multi-expressive symbol systems, covering visual and gestural art and object organization but no more than 1% of this knowledge is readily known to the world from the various general information and PhD theses as well as book articles I have read online about the group. Ekpe/Mgbe shares with the world its rich masquerade tradition, and its Nsibidi art and script are well known, but the meaning of much of its gestural symbolism is unknown and its corpus of ideas is largely kept carefully shielded from the public while I am yet to see any images of its art of organizing objects.
Ogboni is the Yoruba version of veneration of Earth, particularly strategic in an age of increasing ecological awareness. Their metal art often demonstrates an absolutely unique handling of the human form, achievements evident in the various scholarly essays I have read about them, but of their rituals and the individual perspectives of their members on the ideas and practices of the group, there is almost total silence, except for the particularly rich fragments from such an Ogboni initiate as Susan Wenger in her books and interview/s and the brief summations by Olori Abiyeola Olakisan and Oba Ogboni Abalaiye Agbaiye, among others visible online.
For Ogboni and Ekpe/Mgbe, I am yet to read any member's account of their journey as an initiate, no matter how carefully pruned such an account might be.
These extensive restrictions imply that most of the world is deprived of what these systems have to offer since everyone cant aspire to join these groups, even though the knowledge they have developed has significant value for everyone as demonstrations of humanity's development of the possibilities provided by nature.
Is it not more realistic to preserve a core of secrecy while exposing a good part of other knowledge and practices to the world?
Asian martial arts were significantly cultivated by monks but have now become part of global culture. The Indian discipline of Hatha Yoga, physical Yoga, is part of the larger spiritual discipline of Yoga, but has become integral to ideas about human well being. Alchemy was once an esoteric Western practice, but has deeply shaped science and imaginative literature.,
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