Thanks, brother OAA.
This subject needs expansion beyond your perspective, though.
The problem of your stance and some others is that you are too eager to see me as an aspiring scholar who should be measured against well known academic scholars.
That wont work.
That talk of setting up one person agst another, do I look as if I have time for such thoughts?
Cant you see the volume of original work I produce on a weekly basis?
Do you think that would be possible without elevated concentration, devoid of petty interests?
Who is Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju?
I am a very accomplished scholar.
An Independent Scholar who works best outside conventional academic contexts.
I dont need the accreditation of Falola, Wariboko or anyone else for my accomplishments to stand.
The factuality of this is so glaring it goes beyond subjectivity and is empirically assessable.
I am a pioneer in various fields of knowledge.
I wrote the first book on the artist Victor Ekpuk, well before Falola brought out his own edited book on Ekpuk, to which I contributed.
I remain the only person with a sole written book on Ekpuk, a text covering his major works in the context of an incisive and broad ranging analyses of the esoteric culture of Ekpe Nsibidi symbolism that inspires his work.
I am the most extensive writer on Ogboni, along with exploring aspects of Ogboni art and thought previously undiscussed.
If there exists anyone who has covered a greater range of Ifa than myself, across its visual and verbal arts, philosophy and spirituality, I would like to read that person.
I am the first in the perhaps 1,000 year history of Ogboni to develop a school of Ogboni that does not spring from membership of traditional Ogboni.
This achievement is consolidated by a large body of elucidatory and initiatory texts, all written by me and more forthcoming.
I am the first developer of a self initiatory school of Ifa and the first creator of new ese ifa, Ifa literature, outside the traditional context.
My work on Olokun, Adinkra and Fulani Kaidara are unprecedented in the ancient to present histories of those systems.
And yet, this is a part of my work across 80 blogs and 1,600 Facebook essays and in other platforms, print and digital.
A person who makes social media and other forms of self publishing his primary publishing platforms cant be seeking academic recognition because academics get recognition for publishing only in academic channels.
So, in not seeking an academic job. I'm not seeking to be absorbed into any academic context.
I don't seek help belonging to any academic training program because I'm doing very well on my own.
A person may argue about the publication platforms I am using but the work is there for the world to see. Its claims of priority in effort and scope of publication are unquestionable.
If anyone wishes, I can provide the necessary links, which I have not done bcs I am doing this on break from something else.
The problem of your stance and some others is that you are too eager to see me as an aspiring scholar who should be measured against well known academic scholars.
That wont work.
That talk of setting up one person agst another, do I look as if I have time for such thoughts?
Cant you see the volume of original work I produce on a weekly basis?
Do you think that would be possible without elevated concentration, devoid of petty interests?
Who is Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju?
I am a very accomplished scholar.
An Independent Scholar who works best outside conventional academic contexts.
I dont need the accreditation of Falola, Wariboko or anyone else for my accomplishments to stand.
The factuality of this is so glaring it goes beyond subjectivity and is empirically assessable.
I am a pioneer in various fields of knowledge.
I wrote the first book on the artist Victor Ekpuk, well before Falola brought out his own edited book on Ekpuk, to which I contributed.
I remain the only person with a sole written book on Ekpuk, a text covering his major works in the context of an incisive and broad ranging analyses of the esoteric culture of Ekpe Nsibidi symbolism that inspires his work.
I am the most extensive writer on Ogboni, along with exploring aspects of Ogboni art and thought previously undiscussed.
If there exists anyone who has covered a greater range of Ifa than myself, across its visual and verbal arts, philosophy and spirituality, I would like to read that person.
I am the first in the perhaps 1,000 year history of Ogboni to develop a school of Ogboni that does not spring from membership of traditional Ogboni.
This achievement is consolidated by a large body of elucidatory and initiatory texts, all written by me and more forthcoming.
I am the first developer of a self initiatory school of Ifa and the first creator of new ese ifa, Ifa literature, outside the traditional context.
My work on Olokun, Adinkra and Fulani Kaidara are unprecedented in the ancient to present histories of those systems.
And yet, this is a part of my work across 80 blogs and 1,600 Facebook essays and in other platforms, print and digital.
A person who makes social media and other forms of self publishing his primary publishing platforms cant be seeking academic recognition because academics get recognition for publishing only in academic channels.
So, in not seeking an academic job. I'm not seeking to be absorbed into any academic context.
I don't seek help belonging to any academic training program because I'm doing very well on my own.
A person may argue about the publication platforms I am using but the work is there for the world to see. Its claims of priority in effort and scope of publication are unquestionable.
If anyone wishes, I can provide the necessary links, which I have not done bcs I am doing this on break from something else.
On Celebrating People as a Strategy in the Development of Knowledge
A central part of the productivity of your esteemed Toyin Falola, and one of his most enduring bodies of work, is in celebrating people. I wonder why you are not making similar observations about him.
He organized a powerful global conference around the work of Wariboko.
He produced the first print book, a massive text, on the artist Victor Ekpuk.
He is the writer of In Praise of Greatness, a big book centred on nothing but praising people and philosophizing on that praise.
The building of bodies of knowledge around individuals is core to scholarship, as a demonstration of the individuality that is vital for navigating and shaping bodies of knowledge.
Thus we have specialized studies-biographies, learning systems etc and associations dedicated to individuals.
Celebrating People as a Spiritual Culture
Beyond these purely scholarly orientations, my piece you refer to is also a spiritual text.
Within the kind of spirituality I practice, one may draw inspiration from anyone and anything, living or departed, human or non-human.
I dont need to wait for Wariboko to transition before I draw inspiration from him.
What is being called upon is the unique convocation of creative power embodied by a person as their own individualization of the creative force that sustains the cosmos, adapting the Yoruba understanding of ase as depicted by Drewal et al in their Yoruba : Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, of ike as defined by Chinua Achebe in "The Igbo World and its Art" and of the Hindu Shakti.
This style of spirituality is consonant with that demonstrated by the other spiritual master I call upon in that prayer, the 13t century Tibetan Buddhist hermit Jetsun Milarepa, who often called upon the teachers of his lineage to '' vouchsafe your grace waves, o gurus,'' these gurus including his living teacher, Marpa, and the constellation of masters, incarnate and departed, up to the celestial authority behind the school.
Such invocation of Wariboko's personal charism, using the Catholic concept of the individualized expression of spiritual identity or power, does not prevent me from disagreeing with Wariboko, even in public, as demonstrated by my rejoinder to his style of response to the controversial post praising me by Falola.
This culture of calling upon the embodied and the non-embodied human, as members of one's spiritual family, one's community of inspiration, also evident in Wariboko's work as he calls even upon those who are not yet born, is something I also do in the ninth part of the initiation I developed into the Universal Ogboni Philosophy and Spirituality, invoking the inspiration of women from across the world, some I have met, most I have never met, some I have corresponded with while I have neither met nor corresponded with the others, all living women I admire and whose creative configurations I call upon through the ritual, complementing part 1 of that initiation, in which I call upon all Ogboni members who share particularly uplifting values about Ogboni.
My development of a body of philosophical and spiritual ideas around individuals is also demonstrated by my writing about the scholar and social media personality Adeyinka Bello, as evident on my Facebook group on her, my work on the scholar Abiola Irele, as evident in my blog on him, and my work on the erotic artist Tiara Kristine, as evident at my Facebook page on her, among other such groups and pages.
Other works on more general aesthetic values of the feminine are represented by my writings on the beauty of the politician Gbemi Saraki, as shown by my website on her, on a Facebook friend Oyeyinka Oluwa, as evident in my Facebook group on her and at my blog the Feminine Principle.
I have spoken only once with Saraki and not interacted with her after that. I have never met Oluwa and wrote about Bello years before I met her.
Hence I describe myself as a scholar and writer on the feminine in its aesthetic, erotic and spiritual dimensions.
Beyond the focus on individuals, I am also able to develop new orientations to ancient schools of knowledge, Ogboni, Ifa, Benin Olokun, Igbo uli, Cross River Ekpe Nsibidi, Fulani Kaidara, Hindu Sri Vidya, among others.
Knowledge emerges through the intersection of the individual and the general, the personalized and the community, the palpitations of the self and the larger life beyond the self.
Other works on more general aesthetic values of the feminine are represented by my writings on the beauty of the politician Gbemi Saraki, as shown by my website on her, on a Facebook friend Oyeyinka Oluwa, as evident in my Facebook group on her and at my blog the Feminine Principle.
I have spoken only once with Saraki and not interacted with her after that. I have never met Oluwa and wrote about Bello years before I met her.
Hence I describe myself as a scholar and writer on the feminine in its aesthetic, erotic and spiritual dimensions.
Beyond the focus on individuals, I am also able to develop new orientations to ancient schools of knowledge, Ogboni, Ifa, Benin Olokun, Igbo uli, Cross River Ekpe Nsibidi, Fulani Kaidara, Hindu Sri Vidya, among others.
Knowledge emerges through the intersection of the individual and the general, the personalized and the community, the palpitations of the self and the larger life beyond the self.
Human beings are salt of the earth.
We are a concentration of the creative capacity of the cosmos.
We should celebrate each other.
thanks
toyin
On Thu, 24 Dec 2020 at 18:16, OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:
--
I still think Toyin Adepoju's interests are better serve in the long run by issue based rather than person based scholarship if he aspires to be a respected scholar. ( he is the first to always talk of mutual respect: well, it starts from self- respect.
I can understand we all have egos to massage and this is why the Yorùbá civilization is always on its guard with the aphorism 'Ìgbá abá kú làá dèré' (we are elevated to godhead by sculptures only when we die.) There is no harm in occasional praises dont get me wrong but when you say you want to be organising seminars about a present moderator's scholarship, or a reworking another fellow intellectual in the forum to help massage their egos, the purpose is obvious. Especially when a lower endowed academic intends to play off one accomplished academic against the other. Such academics should not fall for the ploy. It is simply immodest.
I know this is not specifically un- American. When I first entered graduate school in America I was warned off such antics when my mentor stated that most of his colleagues were looking for ' followers.' I had been an enduring Derrida scholar before going into the American academy, and to show off my speciality I was sounding off a la Derrida when another mentor commented ' Derridance.' I got the message. These were highly skilled Derrida contemporaries who were apprised of all the major critiques of Derrida's work and they could not see why you would leave those who would determine your fate and be singing the praises of an outsider scholar.
Adepoju is better off developing along his own line with his own steam like say Akin Ogundiran who knew the Moderator long before Adepoju could think anything serious about academics. But I am yet to read on the forum where Ogundiran is organising such seminars. He is self-respecting of his own abilities. So others take him seriously. To Adepoju: This forum is not an American graduate school!
Falola and Wariboko should be allowed to exit the stage before they are turned into Gods. And that does not mean that they are not respectable scholars.
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>Date: 24/12/2020 03:35 (GMT+00:00)To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, Naija Observer <naijaobserver@googlegroups.com>Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Stanzas of Thanksgiving Inspired byWariboko, Milarepa and Abhinavagupta : An Adaptation of Nimi Wariboko : TheAdepoju System of Initiation into World Spiritualities and Philosophies
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--Stanzas of Thanksgiving Inspired by Wariboko, Milarepa and Abhinavagupta
An Adaptation of Nimi Wariboko
The Adepoju System of Initiation into World Philosophies and Spiritualities
Oluwatoyin Vincent AdepojuComparative Cognitive Processes and Systems"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Abstract
A prayer of thanksgiving composed of quotations from the work of Christian Pentecostal and Kalabari philosopher, theologian and economist Nimi Wariboko, slightly adapted and integrated within which is a quotation from Hindu Tantric Trika theologian and poet Abhinavagupta in stanzas eleven and twelve and an invocation of Tibetan Buddhist poet Jetsun Milarepa in relation to Wariboko in stanzas six and seven.
The Stanzas of Thanksgiving
Inspired by Wariboko, Milarepa and Abhinavagupta
I call upon the infinite circle of the Spirit of God
that grounds all circles.
I call upon those who assist me in writing the book of my life.
Circles upon circles!
Center of my life am I
a gift
of God, human beings, and nature.
I call upon the living, the dead and the unborn
I call upon the distant sounds of the footsteps of coming generations
the not-yet born
I call upon all my teachers, past, present and future
I call upon the entanglements of knowledge, debts of insight and well-wishes
from past, present and future generations
the river whose streams make glad the labor of living
inspiring the lonely habitation of existence.
I call upon
the birds of spring and summer
of rainy and dry seasons
delighting me in their singing, chirping, and acrobatic displays
I call upon the trees, their flowers, and their dancing in the wind
adding splendid color, fragrance, and fillip to my imagination and sight
the unity of nature, thinking, and divine ecstasy
in voluptuous embrace.
I call upon the sons of fire
the master in his Tibetan cave and the brother in his Boston home
distant in space and time yet present in spirit
remote in space yet close in mind
human yet one with the more than human
human yet reaching to the Ultimate
unified with the holder of the thunderbolt sceptre
piercing through clouds of ignorance to glorious truth
mighty Vajra-Dhara, sublime Dorje-Chang
one with the wielder of the bell
summoning all to the quest to know that at the root of existence
in the unity of that love beyond all yet within all
infinite knowledge beyond understanding
yet filtering into mind.
Brother
naked in the cold free of warmth
but within which you are aflame with passion
unclothed before sight of Essence
may I be thus naked facing Reality
aflame in the fire that burns away all that is not Real
my Lord Jetsun,
one with the Abonnema master Nimiwari
in wishing well being on all with such force
that one's mental processes transcend thought.
I call upon you all
constructors of symphonies of ideas, actions and sounds
ekstatic patterns
expressive architectures of Unconditional music
form and energy of the original multiple Oneness
in rhythm with the symphony of the universe.
I invoke you
where many roads meet
past, present, future
the finite and the infinite
the known, the knowable and the unknowable
contact zone of possibilities
the fragile, fleeting, and slippery site
of new, refreshing insights and lights
the uncanny non-place
birthing the underivably new in history.
May my soul find deep peace at this frontier
the edge of knowledge
that is always approaching and withdrawing approach.
May my heart
the core of my being
which is the core of all beings
the innermost awareness
that animates all manifestation
shine forth
the product of the exuberance of emotion
due to the mating of my father and mother
embodying the bliss of the ultimate
one with the state of absolute potential
made manifest in the fusion of these two
my father as Shiva
the foundation of being complete in himself
whose zest in creativity is manifest in her
my mother, as Shakti
the universal Divine Energy
which expresses its stamina in ever fresh creativity
radiant in ever new genesis
my mother
whose greatest joy was in my birth
and my father
when both were all embracing in their union.
May my heart
which is the emission of vibrance from the couple
and therefore full of the supreme nectar
shine
expand
as the totality of the bliss of the Absolute.
The working
the unworking
and the reworking.
Bringing to completion
creating incompletion
reaching for infinite truth beyond tradition.
Notes
What you feed your mind with is perhaps more important than what you feed your body on, although fulfillment for both in balance is vital.
Everyday is a challenge of opportunity, for creativity or destruction, for fulfillment or unfulfillment, for hope or despair.
How may one prepare oneself for the day by lifting the mind to levels of sensitivity to one's highest potential?
A potential related in Buddhism to alaya-vijnana, the ''store'' that harbours all one's possibilities.
The room within the self that embraces the cosmos, as depicted in the Indian Upanishads.
The space that opens out into the intersection between the self made up of our biological and social existence and the self described as embodying our ultimate potential beyond space and time, the rhythm between ori lasan,the biological head and ori inu, the inward head, as understood in Yoruba origin Orisa cosmology.
The oscillation between So, the totality of possibilities, and so, the expression of this totality in our lives, as understood in Kalabari thought.
I do this by beginning my day through looking inward in silence, acknowledging the miracle of my existence and the fact that I am aware of that existence.
I give thanks for that miracle and ask for guidance to make the most of it.
At critical times, I return to that inward space, and dialogue with my deepest self about how to see and respond to situations.
I then proceed, at the beginning of the day, to do something inspiring, often composing a piece of writing.
Recently, I have followed the meditation by reading the prayer of thanksgiving below before doing anything else.
The prayer is a poem composed by myself from the work of the contemporary Nigerian-American Christian Pentecostal and Kalabari philosopher, theologian and economist Nimi Wariboko, complemented by a quotation from 10th century Kashmiri Hindu Tantric and Trika theologian and poet Abhinavagupta and an invocation of 12th century Tibetan Buddhist Kargyutpa theologian and poet Jetsun Milarepa.
These three masters of the spiritual life are adepts in the art of thanksgiving, superb expressers of their visions, wizards of poetic language as a medium for the unity of abstract, ultimate beauty and the daily engagements of human life.
Wariboko, through the acknowledgements pages of his books, from which most of the poem is quoted or adapted, Milarepa in his poetry and Abhinavagupta in the opening lines of his books on the thought of the Trika school of Hindu Tantrism to which he belongs, such as Tantraloka, Light on the Tantras and Paratrisika-Vivarana, translated by Jaideva Singh as The Secret of Tantric Mysticism.
The prayer lifts my mind to a lofty level, above clouds and mountain peaks, evoking ultimate ascents of aspiration, from which the lines that form the poem were written, enabling me share in the world of masters of the spiritual and philosophical life, in rhythm with the most sublime aspirations ever conceived, empowering my sense of the value of existence, and of my own purpose in existing, stoking the blaze of aspiration burning within me.
I shall follow up this piece with a publication, with his permission, of the selections from Wariboko's acknowledgements pages that inspired this work as well as with a detailed interpretation of the poem.
All stanzas, except stanzas 6,7, 12 and 13 are quotations from Wariboko, at times slightly adapted, with a few interjections by myself.
Stanzas 6 and 7 are completely my own constructs while stanzas 12 and 13 are Abhinavagupta's lines, presented through integrating various translations, such as Jaideva Singh's of Abhinavagupta's Paratrisika, Mark Dyzkowski, Christopher Wallis, Roger-Orphé Jeanty of his Tantraloka, Bettina Baumer's discussion of the sequence of passages in various books in Abhinavagupta's Hermeneutics of the Absolute and Alexis Sanderson's comprehensive analysis of the meaning of those lines within the religious tradition to which Abhinavagupta belongs in ''A Commentary on the Opening Lines of the Tantrasara of Abhinvavagupta.''
This essay is part of a series on Wariboko's acknowledgements pages, itself part of my ongoing work on Wariboko. The Wariboko project itself is part of a complex of engagements with various bodies of knowledge across disciplines and cultures which I am integrating as the ''Adepoju System of Initiation into African, Asian and Western Philosophies and Spiritualities,'' which I have introduced in the linked poem of that title and which is explained in detail in a later publication as a small book.
The first essay on Wariboko's acknowledgements pages, "The Poetics of Philosophy :Part 1: Nimi Wariboko's Circles of Being and Becoming," and my Wariboko work in general are at the blog Exploring Nimi Wariboko and linked at the Facebook page of the same title.
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