Africa Speaks Reasoning Forum

We hear talk about the ancient education given in ancient Egypt or Kemet and how the mystery temples had the phrase Know Yourself above the entrances. If that's a fact what were the ancient Africans guiding people towards in the self. Was it Jah, or were they also directing ones to individuality.

If this ancient African education was developing individuality in the self then Ancient African civilization had a humane selfless government which is hard to believe for a mind attuned to the ideologies of today's governments. That ancient education would have been generous and bold. It seems the education designed by modern governments and by their ideology is to teach conformity and obedience to authority in order to maintain order. Could Ancient human ancestors really be teaching individuality or was it only a guide to the truth that we all have Jah inside, something simple and non-threatening and non-freedom giving. And was this mystery education only for the elite classes who didn't pose a threat to the government. In any case a lack of conformity and more individuality is what we need on this planet. There's nothing more original and less boring than individuality.

Kebo

Love Kebo.

I always feel like adding to the "know yourself"...RECOGNIZE YOURSELF.

It's amazing the times people seem not to recognize themselves in certain situations.

Knowledge of self is the key to any other kind of knowledge.

And man now can go to the moon but seem unable to go some meters inside of oneself to the unique intimacy of each and every one.

Nowadays governments seems more interested in stimulating a culture where people can be easily manipulated for the lakc of information not to depend on the sugestions and indications of the stabilishment.

But what do we understand by knowlesge of self???

I see it as knowledge of mind/body/soul which is the trinity that makes us humans. What is going on inside of us? If we can check the inside we can see it's the complementary part of the outside, and the link between them is life.

More Love,

Mandingo.

Peace.

There is no seperation between knowing thyself and coming to a greater overstanding of the Most High. The two are not two at all. The seperation is a product of western categorization which tends to seperate the arts, sciences and religion into different compartments.

The Greeks of course received much of their philosophy from the Egyptians :: a quote to think about is this:

"My advice to you, whoever you may be,
Oh you who desire to explore the Mysteries of Nature;
if you do not discover within yourself that which you seek,
neither will you find it without.
If you ignore the excellence of your own house,
how can you aspire to find excellence elsewhere?
Within you is hidden the treasure of treasures.
Oh Man! Know thyself, and you will know the universe and the Gods.

- The Oracle of Delphi"

This is the same as the Rasta conception of I and I. Mighty God is a living man. Selassie I liveth in the hearts of all flesh.

(http://web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/Library/SLT/images/Microcosm.JPG)

Give thanks Iyah!!!

A mighty Jah is a living man.

The quote from the Oracle of Delphis is very similar to what I have read in "The Secret Teaching of Jesus".

About the Oracle of Delphis, I read once that archeologists found rests of cannabis that used to be burned in teh oracle to make it "speak" to one inner self. Just a curiosity.

Now, I guess the sentence would be better written like that:

A mighty Jah is a living HUMAN (man and woman together and in interaction - one completing the other perception).

Lao Tsu used to say that we could know all the universe without leaving our houses.

What we have inside is the reflection of the external.

Internally we have rivers, oceans, forests...and so is life outside INI temples.

So the inside and the outside live together and the KINGDOM is inside and outside simultaneously.

Love & Respect

Mandingo.

(http://www.kenaz.com/images/chakra.gif)

7 CHAKRAS, THE CROWN IS THE SEVENTH, . REMEMBER TO KEEP THE HIGHEST OF PLACES HOLY, ALL ELSE FOLLOWS. BUILDING THE TEMPLE OF MAN.

Exodus 20:8 - 11
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Revelation 5:1-5
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

Yes...

I think some of us are drawn to these topics because of our desire to proceed and advance our person, ablilities and knowledge of self.

I agree with the idea that in order to properly relate and help others we must first understand ourselves with respect to strengths, ideas and even limitations.  This is reasoning but it differs from progressing a topic of discussion for in this reality, the indivdual is progressing.

I thinks this quote fits in with this topic.

"Don't allow yourself be directed by an identity that calls itself your guide. Why? Because invoking infinity is much larger, much more satisfying, more valid for the experience of the soul than being directed by an entity."  
                                                        -Edgar Evans Cayce

Respect...

..Kingston..

Iyah,

Give thanks for the illustration of the position of the Chackras. Beautiful. So, yes, we must work to open the 6 chackras to make the energy keep it's natural flow to the one on the top of our heads. When we can't do so, the energies will tend to be blocked in some Chackra and this will manifest in some king of distortion or manias.

Very important topic.

About the Sabbah.

I beleive that we should have time and space for everything all days.

I mean, why wait for six days to offer one to the Most High?

I beleive that everyday we can work, feel, think, move, eat...is just a question of organization.

Sometimes we have to work on Sabbah with no choice not to do so when we need the money. But this doesn't make the Sabbah less holy in my view.

Blessings,

Mandingo.

Peace.

Ras Mandingo said:

"I beleive that we should have time and space for everything all days.
I mean, why wait for six days to offer one to the Most High?
I beleive that everyday we can work, feel, think, move, eat...is just a question of organization.
Sometimes we have to work on Sabbah with no choice not to do so when we need the money. But this doesn't make the Sabbah less holy in my view."

I used these passages to illustrate the fact that each of the seven days represent a phase in the building of a temple. This can be interpreted to be the building of the spiritual man. When their is righteousness in the highest of regions, the rest follows. In order to open this highest of points in the spiritual body, the levels below must be in working order with no blockages. It is like a circuit passing electricity. Rituals such as keeping the seventh day holy as the "Sabbath" are meaningless unless one comes to an overstanding as to what it refers to.

Many spiritual traditions emphasize the covering of the Ras(head). Many people who follow the Jewish faith cover the crown chakra with the yamuka as do some others. Bobo dreads keep the head in a turban or wrap, in essence they are symbolically keeping the highest place(the seventh seal) in a state of holiness. Who is worthy to open the 7 seals? The Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah from the ROOT of David. The first Chakra is the ROOT chakra, so here again is an esoteric reference to the spiritual body composed of the seven chakras.

The King wears the Crown(chakra).

Thanks to the brothers for sharing and keeping this reasoning going.

Thats some interesting information on the seven chakras. With the seventh chakra being the crown of the King, or the Queen. Inside every human must have the same make-up, same essential design and our goal is to make the design come alive.

Once an individual comes alive then the human has a unique thing to offer the world and that is their individuality. When I think of individuality I think of diversity, a one of a kind, and to witness it is to witness something unique. As a individual I can sense the individuality of others. I cannot sense my own individuality. Just like I can hear the accents in the speech of others but I cannot hear my own, to me I'm accentless.

To be able to experience the individuality in the self that others perceive in you is what I think is discovering the treasure, the kingdom. Because in REALIZING this unique individuality you get to realize your VALUE. In realizing your value you are no longer worthless but valuable and then have something to offer the world that no one else can offer. And individuality is beauty and sought after by the community and one will never have to question their place in the community, or feel like a nobody because that falsehood of the mind will be discredited in the light of their own individuality. Individuality is diversity. Let there be no seeking after a standard or ideal but instead a seeking after ourselves which is diverse and unique and individual and valuable and interesting and treasurable and irreplacable like an original creation is.

Kebo

interesting...i once read that melanin is critical in reaching one's fullest potential. how true is this assumptin and how can we use this to our benefit? any ideas....... ???

Peace.


I find the melanin argument intriguing, but I must say I do not know enough about it to answer the question.

"The Pineal Gland is about the size of a pea, and is in the center of the brain in a tiny cave behind and above the pituitary gland which lies a little behind the root of the nose. It is located directly behind the eyes, attached to the third ventricle.

The true function of this mysterious gland has long been contemplated by philosophers and Spiritual Adepts. Ancient Greeks believed the pineal gland to be our connection to the Realms of Thought. Descartes called it the Seat of the Soul.

This gland is activated by Light, and it controls the various biorhythms of the body. It works in harmony with the hypothalamus gland which directs the body's thirst, hunger, sexual desire and the biological clock that determines our aging process . . . While the physiological function of the pineal gland has been unknown until recent times, mystical traditions and esoteric schools have long known this area in the middle of the brain to be the connecting link between the physical and spiritual worlds. Considered the most powerful and highest source of ethereal energy available to humans, the pineal gland has always been important in initiating supernatural powers. Development of psychic talents has been closely associated with this organ of higher vision."
from: http://www.crystalinks.com/thirdeyepineal.html

Some have said that the pineal gland(3rd eye, 6th chakra) is calcified in certain people, due to adaptation and evolution to certain environments and lack of exposure to an adequate amount of sun for prolonged periods. We have all heard of S.A.D., seasonal affective disorder which is brought upon by improper function of the pineal gland which produces seratonin and melatonin which regulates many natural rythms of the body . ..  this can be triggered by the grey winter months, a direct correlation with the LACK of certain frequencies and light from the sun.

Fluoride, which is put in many major water supplies has been shown to accumulate in the pineal gland and thus calcify it:

"IFIN Bulletin #269: Fluoride and the pineal gland. Luke published.

Dear All,

The wheels of science grind very slowly. Finally, the first half of the work that was the subject of Jennifer Luke's Ph.D. thesis; presentation in Bellingham, Washington (ISFR conference) in 1998 and a videotaped interview I had with her (see www.fluoridealert.org/videos.htm), has been published in Caries Research (see abstract below).

In my view this work is of enormous importance and could be (or should be) the scientific straw that breaks the camel's back of fluoridation. Many of our subscribers are familiar with the details but let me repeat them here.

When Luke found out that the pineal gland - a little gland in the center of the brain, responsible for a very large range of regulating activities (it produces serotonin and melatonin) -was also a calcifying tissue, like the teeth and the bones, she hypothesized it would concentrate fluoride to very high levels. The gland is not protected by the blood brain barrier and has a very high perfusion rate of blood, second only to the kidney.

Luke had 11 cadavers analyzed in the UK. As she predicted she found astronomically high levels of fluoride in the calcium hydroxy apatite crystals produced by the gland. The average was 9000 ppm and went as high as 21,000 in one case. These levels are at, or higher, than fluoride levels in the bones of people suffering from skeletal fluorosis. It is these findings which have just been published.

It is the ramifications of these findings which have yet to be published. In the second half of her work she treated animals (Mongolian gerbils) with fluoride at a crack pineal gland research unit at the University of Surrey, UK (so there is no question about the quality of this work). She found that melatonin production (as measured by the concentration of a melatonin metabolite in the urine) was lower in the animals treated with high fluoride levels compared with those treated with low levels.

Luke hypothesizes that one of the four enzymes needed to convert the amino acid tryptophan (from the diet) into melatonin is being inhibited by fluoride. It could be one of the two enzymes which convert tryptophan to serotonin or one of the two which convert serotonin to melatonin.

Significance? Huge. Melatonin is reponsible for regulating all kinds of activities and there is a vast amount of work investigating its possible roles in aging, cancer and many other life processes. The one activity that Luke is particularly interested in is the onset of puberty. The highest levels of melatonin ( produced only at night) is generated in young children. It is thought that it is the fall of these melatonin levels which acts like a biological clock and triggers the onset of puberty. In her gerbil study she found that the high fluoride treated animals were reaching puberty earlier than the low fluoride ones.

We know from recent studies - and considerable press coverage - that young girls are reaching puberty earlier and earlier in the US. Luke is not saying that fluoride (or fluoridation) is the cause but her work waves a very worrying red flag. Fluoride's role in earlier puberty needs more thorough investigation. Of an interesting historical note, in the Newburgh versus Kingston fluoridation trial (1945-1955), it was found that the girls in fluoridated Newburgh were reaching menstruation, on average, five months earlier than the girls in unfluoridated Kingston, but the result was not thought to be significant at the time (Schlessinger et al, 1956).

When one considers the seriousness of a possible interference by fluoride on a growing child's pineal gland (and for that matter, elderly pineal glands) it underlines the recklessness of fluoridation. The precautionary principle would say, as would basic common sense, that you don't take these kind of risks with our children for a benefit which, at best, amounts to 0.6 tooth surfaces out of 128 tooth surfaces in a child's mouth (Brunelle and Carlos, 1990, Table 6)."

from: http://www.fluorideaction.org/ifin-269.htm

Iyah,

Give thanks for the reply.

You mentioned covering the head to keep it holy. This reminded me of the Nazarite idea of not cutting the hair. How do you see it?

Mandingo.

Ras Mandingo.

Metal wire which is tightly wound will conduct more electrical current than metal wire which is seperated into strands. The same could quite possible hold true for the hair as well.

Following this logic, locks are likely to be antennas which pick up more vibrations, energy and frequencies than hair which is not locked. This is merely speculation on my part. The fact that the hair is so close to two of the highest regions in the spiritual man (6th and 7th chakra) would tend to make me thing that antennas in this area could be conducive to picking up frequencies more readily. Again, mere speculation, but worth thinking about if one is wearing locks for spiritual reasons.

The Egyptians of high status sometimes wore wigs or grew their hair in locks to denote authority and power. i have heard some speculate that this tradition is carried on today by the judges within the English judicial system who wear wigs to denote this very same thing.  

The nazarite vow seems to be similar in that one is seperating oneself in obedience to a higher authority.

I need to make a correction. I said: "Metal wire which is tightly wound will conduct more electrical current than metal wire which is seperated into strands." I actually found out that coiled wire creates a greater magnetic field than a strand of wire, bunduct more electrical current. The principle I elaborated on is the same though.

Greetings all...

Following the ideas related to the chakras is this article which, I feel, nicely describes each of the seven bodies one will encounter on the path of self realization and absolute mindfulness.

Nice reasoning here.

Respect...

..Kingston..

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The Seven Bodies
"Your constant utilization of thought to give continuity to your separate self is 'you'.  There is nothing there inside you other than that."  U.G. Krishnamurti



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    All should be aware that an overly serious discussion of the seven bodies can lead to a form of pseudo-spiritual fascism.  Fixation with categorizing different levels of consciousness tarnished the image of the Theosophical movement in the early 20th century as it led to a foolish competition among members.  Many Theosophists arrogantly claimed to be on a higher level of consciousness than the rest of the group, as if jumping levels were the only criteria for gauging the value of a human being.

    Ultimately, human worth is subjective and rests, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder.  Who is to say that even a Buddha is better than your wife, son, or daughter?  Those you love most are of highest value to you, not the far away yogi or monk.  No real or imagined hierarchy of beings on higher levels of consciousness are of importance unless you make them important.  Full enlightenment and three dollars will buy you a cup of coffee and a doughnut at almost any diner in America.  

    The traditional Eastern description of the seven bodies is derived from subjective feeling, not from objective testing.  It is therefore advised that you take the descriptions of the seven bodies as subjective states of consciousness, not as proven physical science.  The dividing line between the grossly physical body and the subtle body is not clear.  The third and fourth bodies, for example, may in fact be stages of consciousness of the purely physical human brain.

    That which  travels with you from one life to the next has not been quantified in any reliable way.  For example, subjectively your dog may know your automobile very well.  Your dog may have ridden in your car, smelled it, felt it, and seen it as clearly as you, but does that mean that your dog knows what an automobile is objectively?  Even the words of enlightened teachers cannot be taken as fact on these issues, because history shows that the "enlightened ones" make as many mistakes as anyone else.  Unfortunately, the very real phenomena of enlightenment does not endow infallible wisdom.  It is with these warnings that we enter the intriguing world of the seven bodies.

1)  The first body is the physical body which medical science continues to map and explore.  Those who reside primarily in the first body are concerned with the simple basics of life; food, shelter, and family.  They may believe in organized religion or superstitions, but they lack deep involvement in anything beyond the mere physical.

2)  The second body has been called the etheric, energetic, or emotional body, which is closely communicative with the physical.  Acupuncture has some effect on the second energy body which is barely beyond our flesh and bone.  The second layer of being can be energized by deep breathing, yoga postures, jogging, and good health in general.  It is said that the second body loses energy after death and travels in a de-energized seed form from one lifetime to the next, but this belief has not been proven as fact.  The kundalini energy channel is in the second body so progress in kundalini is said to go with you even beyond your physical death to your next birth.

    The billions of human beings on earth who primarily reside in the second level of consciousness create the majority of our culture, art, politics, and organized religion.  The second stage is not meditative, but is richly and complexly emotional.  No human being could aspire to becoming an important actor with great "emotional range" unless they were at least a conscious resident of the second body.  The majority of humans world wide reside in the second stage of consciousness, but this ranking of stages implies no overall superiority of human worth.  A person in the first stage may be a good hearted and hard working individual, while a second stage person may become a decadent drug addict, thief, and murderer.  Imagine the earth viewed from the perspective of deep space, the thin layer of our "humanity" barely visible as a dulling of the earth's atmosphere due to the pollution we create.  Who can judge any human worth from the eternal cosmic perspective?          

3)  The third body, sometimes called the astral body, is the first body of meditation.  When you sit in meditation and start to feel bigger than the purely physical, that is the astral revealing itself.  It is colorful and pleasant and is rumored to contain memories of past lives.  The third and fourth bodies are closely associated with the functions of the brain, just as the second body is closely associated with the function of the total physical body, including functions of the peripheral nervous system and internal organs.

    When one says that a person is in the third stage of consciousness, that means that is where he or she resides most of the time.  Consciousness fluctuates up and down, burning brighter or becoming dimmer when one is tired or less attentive.  Those who primarily reside in the third body have frequent jaunts into the fourth stage but also fall back into the second body when their awareness is less activate.  Those students who primarily reside in the fourth body have frequent excursions into the fifth level of consciousness, which is called a 'satori.'  Even those in the third stage may, on rare occasion, jump up temporarily to the fifth stage for a glimpse of freedom.  These glimpses may be initiated by intense practice or, more usually, initiated by close proximity to a teacher who resides in the fifth, sixth, or seventh stage.  You can call this transference, transmission, or simply a "contact high."    

    The vast majority of people who practice meditation are in the second or third stage, but you would be surprised at the number of letters I receive from novice students who, upon reading this essay, automatically assume they are in the fifth stage or even higher.  Many are in a blind rush to become enlightened and naively think they can achieve the ultimate after a few short years of practice.  It is a common mistake to believe that intellectual knowledge about enlightenment is equivalent to enlightenment itself.  The Indian sage Ramana Maharshi once said that enlightenment was an "unlearning," not a learning.  Meditation is a knack, an energy phenomena of consciousness itself.  It is not an accumulation of borrowed wisdom dumped, like a landfill, into the thinking part of the mind.  One must become a connoisseur of eternity and develop tremendous patience in order to make real progress in meditation.  

4)  The fourth body has been called the mental body and subjectively feels larger than the third body.  Some enlightened teachers have claimed that the second, third, fourth, and fifth bodies are all the same size as the physical body, but that point is open to debate.  A newer and equally unproven theory states that only the second body is the same size as the physical body and that the third and fourth bodies are roughly the size of the human brain.  Regardless of actual size, subjectively the fourth body feels oceanic and is filled with more intense energy and light than the third body.  The fourth is highly projective and is the instrument of clarity, imagination, and vivid dreams.

    The greatest artists of earth history have been awakened to the fourth body and drew inspiration and energy from its depths.  Frank Lloyd Wright was an obvious example of a fourth body artist and architect.  His homes radiate the mysteries of higher consciousness and celebrate man's intimate connection with nature.  Americans love Frank Lloyd Wright's homes, but many cannot comprehend what is so unique about them, even though they admire them.   The answer lies in his depth of consciousness which he gracefully expressed in wood, stone, and art glass.

    Those who reach the fourth stage often imagine they are enlightened and become even more arrogant and selfish than they were before attaining it.  Most Indian and Tibetan gurus and contemporary Japanese "Zen masters" are in this fourth stage, and that is why most are not very helpful to their own students.  The potential for ego inflation is difficult to resist but can be fought off by remembering that the fourth stage is relatively easy to attain and there are many thousands of mid-level fourth body students in the world at any given time.  Anyone who tries to attain the fourth stage can do so by the simple use of methodology.  While there is nothing unusual about entering this expanded state of consciousness, it does take us one step closer to true wakefulness.

5)  Going beyond the fourth stage to the fifth level is the truly difficult task for students of meditation.  Those who attain the fifth body are said to have reached the first stage of self-realization (examples - see Swami Chidananda and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche).  To reach the fifth body one must journey upwards, not just outwards, and this higher plane facilitates a continuous state of superconsciousness.  The fourth body, also known as the mental body, can be described as an ocean of light that is highly projective.  The fifth body is an absolutely non-projective layer of energy that is just beyond that ocean of light, beyond the thought process, and beyond the human mind.  Subjectively, the fifth body feels like an infinity of warm and comfortable darkness that softly envelopes the mind ocean.  The fifth body is the last and final layer of our individual personal being.

    The Soul Awareness method described in Meditation Handbook is a means by which students of meditation who are in the fourth stage can gain reliable glimpses of the fifth stage.  A glimpse of the fifth body can be called a satori, a temporary peak at self-realization.  Many students confuse the blissfulness of the third and fourth bodies they experience during meditation sessions with satori, which is a much more rare phenomena.  Even to experience an authentic satori is relatively easy.  To live in satori, the fifth stage, is relatively impossible.  It is almost like the difference between visiting Hawaii and actually owning Hawaii.

    I envy those who have attained the fifth body permanently because the fifth stage is the first comfortable level of consciousness where one truly feels at home.  Until the fifth stage is attained we live as strangers to ourselves because we have not yet come home to our essential being.  Until the fifth we do not know our "original face" and thus we suffer greatly.  

    Words are tools of communication and as such I prefer to call the second, third, fourth, and fifth bodies the soul as one indivisible unit.  These four bodies cannot fly off in different directions at the same time and they are all layers of the same human being.  I believe it is dehumanizing to consider these bodies to be mere fragments of a living person.  Love and respect are important and there is no need to overly dissect the ones we love as if they were mere mechanical devices.  The basic dictionary definition of the word 'soul' is "the non-material aspect of a person" and the second, third, fourth, and fifth bodies all fit that description well.

    It is my personal theory that Siddhartha Gautama was born self-realized in the fifth body due to positive work he had done in previous lives.  He then went into the forest and used the method of denial of soul to achieve the sixth and then the seventh stage.  That is why a denial of soul became part of his message to humanity.  Siddhartha was denying attachment to the soul but not the actual fact of a human soul.  You cannot give away a house unless you first own a house and a denial of soul before reaching the fifth body may hinder rather than help.  First you have to realize your soul fully, live with it for awhile, and then voluntarily give it up to go beyond for even greater fullness.  

6)  The sixth stage, the cosmic body, is said to be discovered through a jump from all that is human into all that is above and beyond the mere human being.  The sixth body is described as the same size as the physical universe and its realization is well beyond the limits of mind and words.  This is the truly "uncharted" and "pathless" territory that Jiddu Krishnamurti spoke about so intensely (example - see the 17th Karmapa).

    Claims made by some gurus that the higher bodies are capable of time travel are false.  All seven bodies and all of life exists in the here and now.  Even a full Buddha is not capable of seeing into the future in any magical way beyond ordinary reasonable guesses.  Unfortunately, there is much self-promotion in the world of gurus which often leads to exaggeration.  Likewise, such often claimed powers as the ability to materialize matter and the attainment of an all-seeing and infallible wisdom are equally fictitious.

    The powers of astral projection, distant vision, and telepathic communication are attained by enlightened humans animals, but these abilities do not make the enlightened ones perfect or infallible.  Our basic humaneness, with all its fallibility, is locked into our DNA code.  Meditation, no matter how profound, cannot change that situation as long as you inhabit a human physical body.

7)  The seventh body is said to be beyond size and form and is the limitless void from which all is born.  The seventh stage is known as 'nirvana' and allows the ultimate liberation (example - see Ramana Maharshi).  Some teachers have stated that the seventh stage can only be fully realized after the physical body dies.  They suggest that there are really only six bodies.  The seventh stage is simply a designation for those who have attained the sixth body so completely that they have finally run out of all attachments, thus making it impossible for them to be reborn in physical form again.  A 'Bodhisattva' is one who intentionally remains attached in the sixth stage in order to return through reincarnation to help others.

Christopher Calder

Peace.

The foundational ideas of the European theosophists come from Africa.

"The Egyptian concept of the ka, meaning"double" has its counterpart throughout wide regions of Africa. Among the Tshi it is known as kra or kla meaning "soul" and as doshi among the Bantu which means literally "double" (as in the Egyptian). In both Egypt and the rest of Africa, the ka  differs from the Western idea of "soul."  The ancient Egyptians and modern Africans had the idea of at least three types of "souls" inhabiting each person. The ka is an immaterial double of the physical body that persists after death.  The ka though is distinct from the person, and is a type of guardian spirit.  The ka in both Africa and ancient Egypt must be cared for after a person dies or the ka itself will perish.  Egyptians and Africans made images in which the ka dwelt and to these were offered meals and worship.
The sahu or "spirit-body" arose in the "Other World" after one's death.  Among the Tshi, the "shadowy person" that comes to live in the "Other World" after death is known as Srahman.  Similar ideas were cited amongst the Yoruba, Uvengwa and Baluba. Like the ba, the sahu could perish in certain circumstances.
The Egyptians considered the shadow or khaibat as a type of "soul."  Similar beliefs among the Nsism, Wanyamwesi, Nandi, and Busuko and in various parts of the Lower Niger, Congo, Southern Guinea and Mashonaland were mentioned by Budge.
The khu was the imperishable spirit and had its counterpart in the "dual soul" concept of West Africa.  The belief in transmigration of the dual soul and shadow was common in Africa.  Reincarnation was widely found among the people of the Niger Delta who made a practice of identifying which people in a community were the souls of persons deceased in earlier times. Among the Pygmies, Banza and West Mubangi the spirit was reincarnated in animal form and this type of belief was held by some segments of the Egyptian population.

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/9845/budge.htm

"The Essential Egyptian View of The Self
The primary concepts of ancient Egyptian philosophy are expressed through a jargon of the soul. The terminology of these nine elements of the living human individual was known by every citizen of the ancient Nile culture, yet this knowledge survives in the modern world only in the form of the curious superstition of The Cat's Nine Lives. Sigmund Freud divided the human psyche into three parts -- id, ego, and superego -- and this awareness revolutionized our modern view of being human. Carl Jung divided psyche into four parts -- ego, shadow, self, and anim -- taking that revolution immeasurably further. In ancient Egypt psyche was divided into nine parts, or layers of being -- the akh, sekhem, ib, khat, shuit, ren, ba, ka, sahu. It was a revolution of thought by which they built an empire out of the mud, using pen and paper, string, rocks, and conversation. The goal of all these divisions of psyche -- three, four, or nine -- is self-awareness and natural self-control. The only significant difference between Egyptian psychological teaching and modern Western psychology is the place and function of the soul in the economy of the human psyche. The ancients did not question the existence of the divine soul; their entire civilization was built on belief in the soul's absolute reality and its absolute divinity. From ancient Egypt we learn that identity is the divinity of the soul.


1. AKH the divine substance of the human soul
2. SEKHEM the energy pattern of the divine spirit, the song of the soul
3. IB: the life-force, territory of the heart
4. KHAT: the soul's container, that which decays, "I stink therefore I am."
5. SHUIT: the living shadow, proof of reality
6. REN: the magic of your name, divine identity
7. BA: the you whom only you can know, the inside of the mask
8. KA: the you as others know you, the outside of the mask
9. SAHU: the natural boundary of the psychic self, horizon of the divine self


These terms for the nine parts of being represent the key elements of ancient Egyptian philosophy. They are the definition of self that every child in the nation learned at its mother's knee, the beliefs that guided their lives, and the primary vocabulary with which they talked about themselves. And it is clear from the remarkably vast body of their writings that has survived millennia of destruction that they talked endlessly together about themselves, their world, their lives and their beliefs. The experience of the immortal soul immersed in mortal existence is the central theme of all their stories, and the foundation of their civilization, and they created an exquisite language for its intricate, detailed, and poetic discussion.  

Akh: Divine Substance of The Human Soul
The Egyptians perceived the living soul, AKH, to be that most essential part of each person, the actual, transcendent substance at the center of being, a particle of the divine plane inserted by divine force into the reality of space/time through the doorway of birth. This divine soul is clothed in flesh by entry into life, and this garment is cast off again in death. (Their garment of flesh, khat, was to them a most beloved cloak, however mortal. See below.)


In the beliefs of the ancient world, the soul is that part of you that you can never lose nor abandon. Your soul is not just who you are. Your soul does not just belong to you -- your soul is you. Your will never lose your soul. The Devil cannot take it away from you, no matter what you sign. Your soul can forget all the names and experiences of your many-layered human life, but your soul will always be you, the sense within your flesh that feels like you.


It is in the stories of Osiris that the soul's substance is explored. The sacred nature of the act of love opens the soul door, giving entry to the divine substance of the living soul. In ancient Egypt, life was not seen as inherently sinful, and nowhere in their writings is the concept of "original sin." They wrote much about the sin involved in actions and intentions in life, but saw no sin in being born. There was no exile from the garden of paradise because reality is paradise.


The hieroglyph determinative for akh, the soul, is a crowned stork or crane. These birds wading in the marshlands of the Nile stand as tall as a man, and live at the interface of the worlds of land, water and air, symbolizing the soul's ability to span the planes of existence. This image survives today in the superstition of the stork as the carrier of newborn babies, because the entrance of the soul into its garment of flesh is the beginning of life.


In their own words:
"I am this:
I am a soul inside the light,
appareled in flesh, designed and created by divine forces."
(Author's translation.)


Akh is still mistakenly translated as "spirit," since there is a current tendency to see the ba as representative of the soul. This comes out of modern confusion over the two concepts, soul and spirit, and the difficulty with ba and ka. (See below.) Spirit is related to breath and the motion around a center, images related to the energy of the soul rather than its substance.


Akh is the root of many words, differing by the determinative symbol which indicates the specific nuance of soul substance implied.
It is at the root of the word akht, arable land, the bodily essence of Osiris that flooded the land with the black mud that was its life's blood.
The akht or Uraeus serpents are the King Cobras of the Pharaoh's headpiece and adornment of the tomb, gesture of the energy.
Akht is the Eye of God, the awakened soul oriented properly to both inner and outer reality.
Akht is flame, body of energy, substance of heat.
Akht is the horizon where the Sun rises and sets, that divine thresholds between dimensions of reality, and the phrase "images of the horizon" is an idiom for "sacred images."
Akhty is the Horizon Dweller, another name for the Divine.
Akhu is the substance of the Sun, the sunlight itself.
Akh-akh is the verb, "to grow green," the primary activity of Osiris, transforming the black river mud to green shoots of plant life.
Akh-akh are the stars in the sky, believed to be the purified being of past souls.
Akh-akh are the spars of a ship, that which hold the sail open on the mast to catch the breath of wind -- and of life.
Sakh is the constellation Orion, which was believed in ancient Egypt to be the body of Osiris.
Sakh is the verb form of akh, translated by Faulkner as "spiritualize," and is the root of SKHM, the spirit or energy of the soul.
Sakhu are the ritual recitations, the language of the soul.
Sak is "to pull together" and is used with the word "heart" to mean "self-possessed."
(Raymond O. Faulkner's A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Griffith Institute, 1986, pages 4-5, 210-211.)  

Ib: Life force, Territory of The Heart
IB is represented by a hieroglyph of the heart itself with the artery spouts attached. The symbol of the ib is not just the heart container, but also the actual pathway of the energy flowing through the heart. The energy which the soul draws from the spirit is translated through the darkness of flesh as life, biological, biochemical life.


Ib is the force by which the soul informs life.


Ib is the awareness of flesh of itself and its duty and needs. Ib is the energy of the soul's dance translated through the flesh itself, and experienced as the emotional, psychic world, the autonomic functioning of psyche that is outside conscious control; all those experiences of human life that we today still call "the territory of the heart," and to which we consign the mysteries of psychology, psychiatry, astrology, mythology, and so on. The heart was the seat of the passions in ancient Egypt, just as it is today. Ib is feeling, passion, courage, and joy of life. The ib-heart harbors the compassion which can save the world from itself.


The Haty-Heart: The ancients also distinguished finer shades of meaning in the functions of the ib, naming both ib and haty when referring to feelings. The haty-heart was represented by the foreparts of the lion, which was itself the symbol of Lady Sekhmet, goddess of fierce passion, linked with the ib-heart hieroglyph. The lion also represented that which is in the front, in the lead. The ib-heart is the entire life-process of emotional energy, indicating the greater existence of such energy. The haty-heart is the attitude, the mood of the moment, the emotion experienced at this time, the feelings that are in front, that lead life right now.


These dual identities of the ib-heart have energy and power that function as integral parts of the personality throughout life, but the haty-heart experiences a variety of feelings over time. Attitudes in childhood are different from those in later life. Love, hate, fear, apathy -- all can change the attitude of the heart completely. Attitudes change, but psychic energy, ib-heart energy, flows from birth to death.


"O my ib-heart which I had from my mother!
O my haty-heart of my different ages!"
(Author's translation, Spell 30b)


Ib is also the Egyptian determinative for "imagination," and "to imagine," for other words relating to the expression of life through non-rational experience. "Sailing to Heart's Centerpoint" was a metaphor for the transition of death, and the soul itself is referred to as "the great thing within the Heart's Centerpoint."


Khat: The Soul's Living Container of Flesh, That Which Decays: I stink, therefore, I am.
KHAT is translated as "that which decays," and is represented either by a mummy on its bier or by a stylized animal belly. Khat is the flesh we are born into, the flesh which clothes the divine soul. Khat is referred to as the garment of the soul, and the distinction between soul and flesh is made clearly.


Living flesh is the doorway between the spirit dimension of the soul's source and the physical dimension of reality. The reality of the Hidden Place, of the spiritual plane of the soul before birth and after death, was a powerful belief, and meditation on that belief was the science of those ages, accepted as logic and grounded in careful, empirical observations of nature, man, and life.


Those two utterly separate dimensions of reality are linked only by divine means, doorways, mystical passageways that communicate between the two dimensions. The immortal soul can pass through, but mortal flesh cannot.


The sacred nature of living flesh is in this paradox: that it can be both the absolute boundary between dimensions and also the only doorway capable of linking them. Flesh is both the key and the lock. The living body, activated by the male and produced by the female, is more than just the vessel of the soul. This divine power of the khat is represented in artwork and architecture by the "soul door," a false doorway carved or painted on the wall in both the birthing chamber and the tomb. The soul door marks out the sanctum where such divine doorways are opened.


The Egyptian appreciation of the magical vessel of the body is very unlike the modern, Western view of the flesh. The goal of Egyptian spiritual training was to identify yourself with your soul within, and to respect, keep and maintain the magical container which carries you through life as elegantly and carefully as humanly possible. Their medical technology was more involved with daily care and comfort than the wartime inspiration that has driven other research.


The respect given to the miraculous potential of the body to house a divine soul reaches a pinnacle in mummification and the wealth of tomb objects. The body, as a reward for its service, is rendered inedible, safe from attack by the wild beasts that haunt graveyards and eat dead flesh. It is provided with every need, and allowed to rest, safe and secure, with all its favorite and lovely "toys" at hand. The soul has moved on to the other side of reality, where flesh cannot be, animated and energized by the host of images and memories of life. The body, left behind on this side of reality, can at last rest. "He who dies with the most toys wins" is a remarkably Egyptian sentiment, however modern the words.


Shuit: The Living Shadow, Contact With Solid Reality
SHUIT, (also KHAIBIT), your shadow, (sometimes "shade") is proof that you are real; proof that you stand in the cold, white light of reality. The physical body, the khat, casts a shadow. Unreal things do not cast shadows. (For example, people and objects rarely cast shadows in dreams.) A shadow is proof of the solid reality of the thing which cast it, and shadow and object are intimately and uniquely related to each other.


Whatever the physical meaning of the shadow, it was self-evident to the ancients that every man, child, and cat had one. The shadow faithfully duplicates every move and gesture. The shadow is a unique possession. It cannot be lost or separated from you. It is a lifelong companion. Whatever a person might lose in life, your shadow is proof that you cannot lose yourself.


Shadows are the footprints of the Sun. Daily time in the experience of waking reality is measured by the shadow's slow and stately dance with the Sun, and even solid, inanimate objects have animated shadows. Indeed, the measure of the  great, round Earth was taken by a shadow. The shadow is the soul's marker in space and time, binding it to the Earth. It is as inescapable a metaphor in the inner world as is the Sun in the outer. The Egyptians did not limit their survey of the soul's dimension just to the soul itself, but were equally concerned with the place of the living soul together with other living souls in the world.


Ren: Divine Identity, The Magic of Your Name
Identity was a crucial concept in the ancient world and a major focal point of Egyptian philosophy. Identity is the divinity of the soul. Ren is the social name you are given but that name is related to your absolute identity just as the face is related to the soul. The name you are known by is different from the DNA name which defines you as you. Just as the substance of the soul is defined separately from its energy, the absoluteness of identity is defined separately from the name. The face is the visual name of the flesh, and is often addressed as an individual in the texts. "Oh, face and head of the heart!"


Names were important in ancient Egypt, and everywhere the soul is referred to as "the designer of his name and designer of the name of his flesh." Naming is everywhere in their writing and art. Names are metaphors of identity, metaphors of social place, landmarks of the soul's journey through life, and all the texts are about the soul's journey through life to eternity.

Ba: The You Whom Only You Can Know, The Inside of Your Soul's Mask
BA is represented by a crowned head atop the body of a Horus-falcon or sometimes a kite, bird of the protecting spirits of Isis and Nepthys. It is sometimes shown fluttering over the tomb, or with the mummy, and is present in many scenes of the tomb's art. The ba has been variously interpreted as the soul, or vital force, or as one of "multiple souls."


The ba is the private, inner experience of being within every person. Ba is the self, a composite entity created by a merger of archetype and individuation. The ba is the soul as it knows itself from within, from the inside of the mask. The ba is the symbol par excellence of the self, a complete, living, conscious being. The ba is also the ultimate privacy, for it is that experience of being from within, which can be communicated, imaged and evaluated, but not shared. No one can experience another's experience of being.


Ba is also the ultimate democracy and paradox, for although each of us experiences reality uniquely, because we are human, our unique experience is each unique in exactly the same, human way. I cannot know what you are feeling, but I can know that you feel to yourself as real as I feel to myself, and just as human.


The bird's body represents the universal biological standard. In the head, however, the soul is unique, crowned by its individual identity. The language of ancient Egypt does have generic terminology for such concepts as "humanity," "man," "woman," etc. However, when referring to the psychology of the soul's experience of life and death, the term for self is ba. This term implies a conscious, named entity; someone who could be known.


As a symbol of the self, the ba is the sum total of an individual merged into a single focus. The ba is not consciousness in and of itself, but it is the only vehicle which will support consciousness. The ba is the dark magic of the flesh out of which consciousness is born like the Sun rising out of the night at dawn. The ba is addressed often in tomb art because the belief was that you would still experience yourself as yourself even through the processes of the interface of realities. The focus of the rituals was to maintain the coherency of that self-experience despite the rending transition from time to eternity. Your flesh will be cut away, but you will still be you there within your soul. That coherency of experience is embodied in the ba.


There is a profoundly moving piece, "The Dialog of A Man And His Ba," in which a man talks himself out of suicide. That is a completely internal debate, a conversation with your own inner experience of your life, where no one else can stand.


The ba is shown with a human head and bird body because the inner self is always different from the outer self, freer and traveling on winged thought. No matter what attention and memory your ka is receiving from the living, you are the only one who will experience the transition to the next life entered through the tomb. Those haunting images of the ba fluttering alone over the coffin hint at the ultimate privacy of the experience.
It is too easy to attribute so much 'alienness' to their distant lives that their meanings become impossible, but they were the same kind of human beings that we are, and only the specifics of their environment and understanding differ from our own imagery.


The ba, however, represents only a portion of the ma'at of consciousness, since the religion of ancient Egypt was also concerned with the place of the living soul within the reality of the outside world.


Ka: The Public Self, The Outside of Your Soul's Mask
The symbol of the KA is a pair of outstretched arms offering embrace. The ka is the essence of the "relatedness" of living beings met out in reality, where shadows entwine. The ka is the mask of the self that is seen by others on the outside. The ka is the person whom others see, the person as seen by other ba.


Each of us sees other people from his or her own point of view, and no one can know the inner experience of someone else's soul. That is the ultimate privacy. The ka is the outside of the mask, and your soul can experience only the inside of your own mask.


The ka is a slippery concept for the modern mind to grasp. It is a concept we deal with in every moment of civilized life, yet we have been unable to describe it without using a confusing array of terms and conflicting ideas. Most Egyptologists dismiss the complexity of the ka in Egyptian writing and art by translating it simply as being one of "multiple souls," thus reducing this profoundly sophisticated religious philosophy to the level of pagan superstition.


It is no coincidence that ka is a pun on the  Egyptian language particle for "you" in verbs, as in "you are doing this." The ka is the outside of the self, the outer mask whom only other people can see. The ka is shown in their art as a duplicate of the individual -- there is you as you know yourself, and then there is the you whom others see, the outside of you.


The ka is depicted as being born with the child because everyone else knows you will be born long before you do. They know you before you know yourself. Your survivors will remember you as your ka after you yourself have gone. Other people see your ka in the ceremonies and important moments of your life -- but you cannot. You can only know yourself from the inside. You cannot know how others see you.


The truth is that each of us deals with the ka every day. It survives in modern words such as "character" and "charisma." The portrait, family photo album, the public reputation, the boss, the celebrity, the public image, superstar, teen idol, cult figure, and friend -- these are all forms of the ka.


The Egyptians describe the ka of each individual as being born before the child itself is born. This is because the parents and their friends know of the child's existence before its birth; others are aware of the reality of the soul clothed in infant flesh long before the soul is conscious of itself.


In their own words:
"You will see the face of everyone except the face of your own flesh,
while your father and your son guard the face of their faces."
(Author's translation)


The ka lives on after death through the memories of the dead that the living keep alive in their own inner worlds. This principle has been practiced continuously for thousands of years, right into the present day. Many famous movie actors are now dead, but each actor's ka on the screen "comes to life" whenever movies are watched by the living. The ghosts of the silver screen are, in a sense, the most distilled examples of the concept of the ka. The soul of Humphrey Bogart has passed on, but Bogart, as "King of the Silver Screen," is still alive (and still earning money!) That is the ka.


A person's ka can be shaped and its image changed. Your soul is yours and yours alone, but your ka can be stolen, ruined, humiliated, or changed, no matter how unchanged you are inside your mask. The ka can be deceitful and betray its owner. The ka can work for you or against you, even without your awareness of its working. The public image and the private self can diverge greatly, and much ancient and modern literature and art is based on the conflict and bond between the two.


The ka is the central figure of ancient Egyptian morality, for the realm of the ka encompasses all aspects of human social and personal interaction. The mask of the ka that you show to the world marks you as a civilized person or a barbarian, friend or foe, acceptable or unacceptable, yet your ba can never see its own ka except in reflection (or, in modern times, recorded on film or video, but even then, you cannot know how others perceive you).


There is an entire class of ancient literature, called "instructions," based on advice to the ka and how to behave in the presence of ka of higher rank. It is all good advice, even today. There are careful, mature suggestions for polite and civilized behavior in the presence of a ka of greater rank, and generous, caring behavior in the presence of those of lesser rank. These are all about public roles, and public behavior.


The mind-games one can play of "It's not me -- it's you," come naturally to every child learning any language, and are the birth of the awareness of the reality of other people and their unique perspective.


The image is also profoundly condensed in the determinative for the ka, which is a pair of human arms stretching out, the reach of the human embrace, measuring out the distance from me to you. Even the ambiguity of the gesture is deliberate -- are the arms reaching upward or outward? In the presence of ka of higher rank, the arms are stretched upward, in the gesture of bowing or prostrating before them, and in the presence of ka of equal or lesser rank, the arms are stretched outward, in embrace.


The nation along the Nile was humanity's first serious attempt at this kind of civilized cooperation on a multi-regional base, and the careful rules of human interaction and individuation were the bedrock on which they built their unity. The Nile muds might wash away physical boundaries, but the cooperation of everyone kept personal territories respected and aligned.


American culture is steeped in reverence for the ka of great individuals, we just don't have as succinct a word for the concept. Look at all the party events that were scheduled recently around the "celebration" for John Lennon on the anniversary of his death. It is his ka they revere. Even his closest friends and lovers have acknowledged -- publicly in People magazine -- that no one knew what Lennon was going through inside of the Beatles' image. We can imagine the experience of his ba, of being the person inside a living myth, but only he can ever really know how it was to be a Beatle.


Sahu: Natural Boundary of The Psychic Self, The Shape of Eternity
A lifetime on top of the Earth is spent adapting to reality, defining the boundaries of self and not-self. This sense of the shape and feel of the boundaries of being alive is the SAHU.
The sahu is often represented as a mummy lying on a bier, because the awareness of the body's individual shape and function provides the soul with a sense of shape and boundary in the transition between the dimensions of this world and the next. The sahu is the self-defined psychic boundary.


Modern studies of the human brain have also found the sahu: the cerebellum maintains a constant electromagnetic replica of the body-self, a glowing self-image that is the true experience of being alive. The sahu is described as a being of glowing light. The stars in the night sky were thought to be the glowing souls of great beings shining from heaven. The sahu does not decay or die. It is as immortal as the immortal soul which it defines.
This phantom body exists primarily to be activated in the next life as the identity of the soul in the spiritual dimension. The sahu is the immortal imprint of the mortal khat upon the soul. The process of evolving the unique identity of the soul has come full circle: the khat which is defined by the soul's energy defines the shape of the soul in the spiritual dimension to which it returns.


These nine parts are the shorthand terms for the fundamentals of this ancient philosophy stripped down to the dry, intellectual essentials of self. They represent the definition of self that every child in the nation learned at mother's knee. These are the beliefs that guided their lives and the primary vocabulary with which they talked about themselves.


It is in the personification of these ideas as the living Natur, however, that the richness of their religion developed. The experience of the soul's immortality immersed in mortal existence is the central story of all their stories and the foundation of their civilization. No other civilization has maintained its images and culture intact for as long as ancient Egypt did, and there is much value to be found in their timeless philosophy.


The Natur, or "gods" of ancient Egypt, developed as the Ennead, the "Greater and Lesser Pots of God," tell the stories of humanity, and the temples of their worship were dedicated to mankind's respect for itself."

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