African wisdom is ancient and all people of African descent have rich histories. I use Histories, plural, because Africa is a continent containing many different peoples. There are many peoples, many tribes or clans, many different cultures and religions, even different physical features of the people of Africa. Belief systems and religions vary, traditions, norms, hierarchies all differ. We are a myriad people. Many people in the African diaspora, the African descendants, scattered around the world through various routes – a large portion of which includes the trans-Atlantic slave trade, may not find it easy to trace your roots to one country or tribe. But that does not take away from the ability to see the obvious, we are all family.
In this sense I want to share a story containing ancient African wisdom. It comes from a book called The Sayings of the Ancient One by P.G. Bowen (click here for a link to get the book from Amazon). This book is a translation of a small portion of ancient mystic writings in the Isinzu language, an archaic form of Bantu from which many modern African languages and dialects were derived… in other words, it’s old; thousands of years BCE before Socrates, Aristotle, or any of the European philosophies were born.
The story is translated to older sounding English with a lot of “thou” and “thy.” I’ll read the story, but I’m going to cut out the “thou” and “thy” for my own sanity’s sake and translate those parts into modern English. As such, I would certainly advise that you go out and read originals on your own… make your own interpretations.
The words of The Ancient One to the Neophytes, in the Hidden Temple of the Hidden Sun. Spoken in the Thirteenth Moon of the Seventh Circle of the Sun in Seventy and Seventh Generation of The Builders.
The Ancient One said:
There are three questions that the MANY ask, but only FEW can answer. They are:
Where do you come from?
What are you doing here?
Where are you going from here?
Life asks those questions, but only LIFE can answer them, for WISDOM and LIFE are two names for one thing. “What are you?” Man asks LIFE.
LIFE answers: “I am all you know. I am all that you have known, but think you have forgotten. I am all that you have yet to learn. Without me you do not exist because I am your SELF.”
Take heed to my story O Learners, for it is your own. I know its beginning, its middle, and its end; but you only know its middle, and that but dimly; therefore take heed and learn.
In youth I dwelt in a Garden with Brothers whose faces mirrored my own, sheltered by the love of a FATHER whose form we never saw; and we knew no strife, nor grief, nor pain, nor any Desire of Man. We walked and played by the shores of a Pool whose waters gleam like crystal, and are cold as the eternal snows that crown the Mighty Mountains. When weary we slept amidst groves of trees with feathery boughs, and soft, shining leaves, and golden fruit that the Pool reflects in beauty that makes Beauty dim.
But my Brothers and I did not perceive those glories, for we were the Garden and its Beauty. We saw not the trees, for we needed no shade. We saw no fruit, for we did not hunger. We saw not the Pool for we did not thirst. We knew not the Garden, for we craved no possessions. We were the Garden, and the Pool, and the fruit, and the trees; and they were ourselves.
But the VOICE of our unseen Father reached my ear one day, and said: “My son, you are the Garden and you are yourself, but you don’t know the one or the other. Before you can know yourself, you must make yourself Lord of the Garden; but before you become its Lord, you must make the Garden complete. There lies a Desert beyond our Home encircling it round about, that you must seize with your Strong Hand, and conquer and make your own. There lies a Pool in its burning sands, that you must seek with your Strong Heart; and when you have found, and conquered you will reign as Lord of this Kingdom.”
I went forth into the Desert, and wandered there a weary while; and learned hunger, and thirst, and pain, and forgot that peace which was once mine. The Land was an Evil Wilderness; and yet it was filled with men; and I knew them to be my Brothers, wandering Sons of the Garden. I looked on those Brothers with wonder, for they seemed blind to their sorrows: they strove not to quit that barren land, but bound themselves closely to it, piling up mighty works, building cities, and cutting roads, till all was one vast maze. Yet, of the roads they made, not one ran straight to any end, but turned and turned again, reaching no goal but Confusion.
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