Read Part 8n - Past Facts & Ancestors Causes Us To Not Let Go And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 8n)
The past is alive whether we remember it or not and believe it or not. Time is part of the interconnectedness of all things. Future time, present time and past time depend on each other. Continuity of life is not possible without continuity of time.
Continuity makes life possible because continuity makes motion possible. For individuals, families, communities and societies to have continuity, their motions must incorporate all time and all history plus all of their human and Divine genealogy. In order to know who we are and where we came from, this is so.
Continuity is the flow. It is an ongoing process for all time. We must learnderstand this flow and become a flow-er in order to flower. In fact, flowers flower because of the flow within them and the flow around them near and far plus the flow of interconnections. It takes no less for us.
It's up to us to go with this universal flow.
It's us to us to connect with the continuity of past knowledge that flowed into the rest of the world from Alkebu-lan.
Sankofa [sahn-KO-fah] is a symbol and principle that serves to remind us that the past is a “resource” and not merely a “reference.” One interpretation, among several, is “Go back to the past and recover it.” Yet another one is “Return to the source.”
Sankofa may be interpreted as an injunction to “learn from the past” and finally as an order to “never forget the past and path you made when moving ahead.”[Anyone who says, “that was in the past” or “forget the past” or “that was a long time ago” is leading us towards amnesia of knowledge of self and thus, a life of motion without continuity.]
There are at least five meanings associated with Sankofa. First, it suggests the value of reflecting on the past. Second, it also suggests a person who self-consciously reflects before moving forward with a decision. Third, it represents self-definition, identity, and vision. Fourth, it represents an understanding of personal destiny and collective vocation. Finally, fifth, Sankofa is said to represent the repossession of something forgotten, misplaced, or lost. [Sankofa] suggests that the path we have made holds the potential to understanding the present and the promise of the future. It describes an ongoing process, principle, and value of historical and cultural recovery.
Although valuing the past is part of the general African tradition and heritage, going back to the Nile Valley, as part of a process of historical recovery, has particular relevance for Africans today, especially having undergone the holocaust and its subsequent mutations into other forms of oppression. Many writers, leaders, and intellectuals see cultural and historical recovery as essential to forward development based on the cultural integrity of Africans as a people.
In an age when African descendents are told that their pasts are at best irrelevant to the present and at worst nonexistent, unworthy of discussion, or having no bearing on the present, [Sankofa] serves the useful purpose of reminding African descendents of their moral obligation to remember and recognize the sacrifices of the past [and the much longer history of successes, before, during and after physical enslavement and even during the ongoing mental enslavement that has shackled the spiritual].
Sankofa as a process and principle of recovering history functions as a reminder that the past is not merely a referential source of origins and artifacts, but a source of paradigms, that is, exemplary models of thought, reason, morality, and practice. The past, then, offers us a model of excellence, whereas history provides us with many lessons that inform our current self-conception and social identity.
Sankofa Pronunciation & Discussion Of Importance By Sister Marimba AniPeer into the past, see yourself, now walk beside your future.
Only the ignorant ignore time.
I met a third grader, who taught me the meaning of the word “schema” - basically a tool used to help you learnderstand something else.
She used the schema of phonics to help her pronounce the title of the book, “Eloquence.” Then she asked how many pages the book contained. She turned to the last page. “97 pages,” she said in a way which indicated that was way too many pages for one book.
“Would you rather have $1 or $97,” I asked.
”$97 dollars,” she quickly responded.
Each page is like money I told her using the schema of analogy. I stopped short of saying more, to give this 9-year-old time to reflect.
Reading, learning and understanding are some of the greatest gifts we have. These abilities are worth far more than money. We can use them over and over. Each time we read, learn and understand we gain more abilities for reading, learning and understanding. We also gain greater awareness of how to use other capabilities and resources.
This is the value of using the schema of reading as a tool for learnderstanding. Reading allows us to build enormous amounts of valuable knowledge that is immediately beneficial. Reading and learnderstanding never lose value because they both increase in value the more we use them. Reading, Eating, Stream Of Consciousness. Food Fight #40
Part 8f reminds us learnderstanding is affected by all information we encounter. If we live amongst worldviews and values that conflict with ours AND our family's values have lost their cohesive and corrective nature, the only possible result is what's happening now - the foolish notion that each individual can pick and choose their own set of values and still achieve family Umoja, Ubuntu and Harmony. This is an impossible task, just as it is impossible for each person, community, county and state to choose their own set of values/laws and a nation remain united. Things must fall apart and be chaotic along the way simply because there is no harmonizing set of values.
Without communal family values that come from the same worldview, Creator-given potentials and possibilities of individuals and families will be influenced towards altered paths and outcomes. Greatness will be based on human limitation. For individuals and families without a central identity of unifying values, things will fall apart and be chaotic.
Views on spirituality, creation and religion are significant factors in relationships. Since the powerful influence religion has on decisions and learnderstanding is well known, religion has been and still is being used as servant/tool/weapon.
”The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” - - From Things Fall Apart (1)
This is why, “we all can't just get along,” not even in our families. Individuals have their own set of values that have been pieced together from several worldviews. For most individuals who take the scattered path and piece together their worldview from a menu, their list of values usually contains contradictory items. We pick our own poison. Under this scenario, since no two people have the same set of values, the genetic zipper that brings two people together, and allows them to work together for the greater good of themselves and all else, gets stuck and snagged in several places.
To solve this frustrating problem, that same ol' knife of separation offers itself again to cut, once and for all, the ties that bond us communally. The knife wielder's sharpness and swiftness of action slices away the principle thing which is awareness of the sensible thing - the necessity to repair the problem with unifying values, especially the welding iron of wisdom. (The reason this knife works so well to separate people is because it has already weakened the connection within individuals that unifies the four aspects of mind, spirit, body and emotion.) This has been accomplished by interfering with nutritional factors. It has nothing to do with cleverness and everything to do with deceptiveness due to spiritual weakness which then weakens the other three aspects of self.
Falling apart can be traced to a lack of many things such as intuition, wisdom, female elders, male elders, remembrance of ancestors, connection to our natural world family, historical context, nutrition, awareness of truth, self-study, good habits and other basics that contribute to knowledge of self. Finding lost values is as easy as replacing what we lack on this list. Finding lost values is as hard as lacking the will to go through the processes.
If our communal family is not self-determined/governed, we will encounter tons of information from different worldviews that is likely to go against communal values. This information will come from legally required school curricula, churches, media, entertainment, government, social customs, practices, traditions and from anyone who swallows along. We will be forced to cooperate with unhealthy values and abandon healthy values or else be subject to penalties for not drinking the juice that corrodes the insides of communal bodies.
In summary, whatever is not based on our communal values or does not blend harmoniously with them will work against us and work to separate us from our values, our family and ME. This is the mis-education Ancestor Dr. Carter Goodwin Woodson warned us about.
It is unwise to expect unity, yet agree to disagree on core values.
Follow no one's advice unless you also follow their values. Fully consider the advice of anyone who shows love for you by their repeated actions and treats you as family.
Illusion expects things to get better without applying resources towards the process to get better.
Read Part 8k - Definition | Mis-Education Discombobulation And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 8k) Notes: (1) Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart, (Alfred A Knopf, Inc., New York, Toronto 1992), Seventh Printing, p. 152.
It is time that we become conscious. If we become conscious we will make rapid advance. - - Ancestor Brother Kwame Ture, minute 24:55 (1991)
Consciousness is awareness. Awareness increases through learnderstanding. This is of no surprise since the ongoing process of awareness is the same as the ongoing process of knowledge of self, both of which are the same as the ongoing process of learnderstanding.(See, “African Consciousness Called Me A Stupid Nigga And Thankfully So” and UC#282, “Consciousness, Conscience, Ego, Morality, Immorality Definitions”)
A communal family shares the same worldview and lives in close proximity to each other in order to operate completely or overwhelmingly as a self-contained, self-supported, self-determined and self-governed group. Values are shared. Other resources are also shared. No resources are wasted, especially due to unnecessary duplication.
This is optimal because it is making the most of what everyone has. Making the most of what one has is an individual/group and group/individual thing. Though this is no longer true for many families, moving in this direction must become priority.
The communal family consists of parents, caregivers, siblings, relatives, friends, elders, ancestors, the rest of the natural world and the Divine. It also includes those outside recognized blood lines but considered as family for any reason and those who purposefully contribute to our knowledge of self, thus, showing ME love, even if not recognized as family.
Necessity is the mother of invention that solves problems only if there is awareness of the necessity. It's easy to see how being unaware of necessity feeds problems.
What contributes to awareness does not diminish awareness. In other words, what is good is not simultaneously bad. It has no negative side effects.
What improves our lives does not involve tradeoffs, side effects or create different problems.
It takes shared values to raise a child.
Read Part 8g - Learnderstanding Like A Baby's First Breath Is Exhilarating And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 8g)
Pineal Gland
Expecting understanding from information before taking in the information is like trying to get nutrition before eating. Expecting understanding without allowing time for digestion is the same as expecting to immediately get the full benefit of food as soon as it is swallowed.
Digestion begins the moment food enters my mouth yet I cannot hold food in my mouth and expect complete digestion. Understanding begins the moment information enters my mind yet I cannot hold information in my temporary memory and expect complete understanding.
Food must enter my stomach and intestines, get broken down further, get absorbed into my bloodstream and then reach my cells. Information must reach other parts of my mind, get broken down further, get absorbed into my stream of consciousness and then reach my subconsciousness.
Once food reaches my cells, some of it needs to be broken down even further. It takes time for complete digestion.
Once information reaches the longer-term parts of my mind, some of it needs to be broken down even further. This happens with intuition and wisdom. It takes time for complete understanding.
As food passes through my digestive system, my body automatically releases enzymes to assist with digestion. Understanding also requires catalysts to help in the process of breaking down information.
Additional learning is a catalyst to help understand what has already been learned. See the expanding definition of understanding.
Melatonin from my pineal gland helps quiet my basic mind so the spiritual mind can get full access to the information. Melatonin helps the basic mind disengage and rest while the body is also resting, especially during sleep. This is why it is a natural inclination to say, “Let me sleep on it.” I am actually saying, “Let me take my basic mind off of it and allow my spiritual mind to also digest it and then inform my basic mind.” My spiritual mind should also be engaged and working simultaneously with my basic mind during waking hours. Since I am out of practice allowing this to happen, I must spend waking time in silence and stillness and communing in order to retrain myself to listen to my spirit. It often takes many many days of additional living for some decisions to become clear and information to be understood. During that time I must continue to learn.
It would be inconsistent for a human to be created as a spirit being but not have any ability for spiritual reasoning and the ability to use the spiritual as a way of knowing. It is consistent for a human to be expected to be a human being spirit and also have the ability to always get understanding from spirit in order to always exist in a state of being.in accordance with Manifest Essence.
Unlike opportunity that opens windows and knocks on doors, understanding beckons from inside out into the universal.
The only thing that prevents understanding is already knowing.
[It is intended for readers to insert themselves as the “I” in this article.]
I am now aware learning is always taking place. I will no longer wait for information to be pushed at me by others. I will not wait to encounter information randomly. I will continue seeking the information I need. I will continue seeking more information on the information I already have.
Learnderstanding, like breathing, is a constant necessity. Learnderstanding and breathing are both, two-part cycles. Both parts of the cycle must continue existing in order to sustain ME (Manifest Essence). The two parts of learnderstanding are learning and understanding. The two parts of breathing are inhaling and exhaling.
Learnderstanding does not mean what I learn now is what I understand now. Most of the time what I learn, I will understand later but only if I continue learning. Understanding is most often a delayed reaction to learning.
I must not concern myself with understanding. If I continue to learn, understanding will come. I must not try to understand something before learning it or considering learning it. Understanding comes after learning. I must continue learning to understand what I learned many moments ago, sometimes even many years ago.
When I do not understand something it means I have not yet learned enough about it and/or I need to continue learning overall in many areas of life. All pieces of learning from various areas are useful in bringing forth understanding in any single area.
I am genetically designed for learnderstanding. I get excited when I finally understand something. I cry out with joy, even though it is mostly silent and usually a YES!
Even so, the process of learnderstanding, just like breathing, is exhilarating. The child becomes immediately aware the act of inhaling is activating and enlivening all other processes and bringing new awareness. Awareness informs the child of additional capabilities of lungs and breathing. The child tries it out and releases the primal cry of the birth of understanding. From that moment forward, the child craves the inhaling/learning and relishes the exhaling/understanding. The child lives to do both every moment. The child is aware of this. This is the near constant joy evident in the child. It is not clueless innocence or having no cares. It is the basic desire to never lose newfound exhilaration.Every moment is our first breath—it is that vital, that important—the right here, right now.
[It is intended for readers to insert themselves as the “I” in this article.]
Learning is absorbing information, then adjusting, adapting or reinforcing behavior.
Information includes experiences and comes from primary creation, secondary creation, self and others.
There must be a change to a choice and behavior as evidence of learning OR there must be reinforcement of a choice and behavior.
Changing or reinforcing is always taking place. There is no such thing as useless information. All information is influencing. Sometimes the change or reinforcement is deciding to listen to, not listen to, believe or disbelieve the information source, its subject matter or its subject. Most of the time, changing or reinforcing is occurring on the subconscious level below awareness.
Learning requires acquiring information and taking action but learning does not require awareness I am learning or awareness I am taking action. Sometimes the action is a choice to change (do something) and sometimes the action is a choice to stay the same (do nothing).
I have the genetic ability for learning. I am learning a lot of what I am putting my mind to.
I am learning everything I am putting my mind and spiritual mind to.
Understanding is an initial or confirming awareness of the nature of something or someone.
This is achieved by recognizing differences and similarities compared to other information. It also involves recognizing positives and negatives compared to ME (Manifest Essence); therefore, I must have self-awareness. Understanding comes from weighing these differences and using what naturally rises above the other.
Understanding requires evaluating new information and reevaluating previous information. Sometimes this analysis leads to new awareness and sometimes it strengthens previous awareness.
Understanding always includes age-appropriate intuition and wisdom. Understanding always includes utilizing the intuition and wisdom of others in the communal family (parents, caregivers, siblings, relatives, friends, elders, ancestors, the rest of the natural world and the Divine Beings).
Learning and understanding do not happen at once, nor are they ever complete. It is only possible to learn and understand in the moment for the moment. The very next moment I must resume learning and understanding.
For example, I am breathing right now but I can't breathe in advance to cover moments from now or the rest of my life. I must breathe moment by moment. The same is true for learning and understanding.
Also, I can learn without understanding but I cannot understand without learning. This means there is always only one of two things happening: learning by itself OR learning and understanding together (learnderstanding).
I must use cues from the natural world.
The genius of combining form and function is not a recent discovery. I am a human in form but only a human being when I am functioning as intended - as spirit.
My wants are rejoining the stream of necessary primary things, in keeping with being chosen. No longer is cash the king, popularity the queen, misleading education the key to living, or a search for progress being made in places it has never been seen.
Learnderstanding is a process taking place during living. Living is a process taking place during time. Time is a process. Since process is also motion, learnderstanding is really motion within motion within motion.
I am breathing, using my first and last. I am breathing, connecting the two. Living is this way, bunches of motions.
The meaning of life & existence is expanding, simplifying, matching ME - motion within motion within motion within motion within motion within motion within motion within...breathing is essential...motion within...learnderstanding is increasing...motion within...living is never-ending...
Life is about making associations, adjusting, staying in motion and becoming eternal expansion - infinite possibilities.
Read Part 8g - Learnderstanding Like A Baby's First Breath Is Exhilarating And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 8g)