Tuesday 29 January 2008
But, perhaps, what is at play here is not the action of Something Beyond Mind but simply the action of the unaided human mind. Why? Because, as Ikentua Refe admitted to herself, she had no apprehension of any such state of being or entity as Something Beyond Mind. True, she was inspired by ideas about That, was compelled by a inalienable commitment to It, but Its existence remained conjectural to her, at best. All her years of contemplation on the Ultimate had not yielded a sense of That, as many schools of thought claimed it could. Why not approach It, then, as a strategy of thought, an imaginative conception which may or may not correspond in any or in all its particulars to reality? The absence of That, therefore, in spite of all efforts to approach it could then be transformed, not into failure but into an enlightenment as to the independence of the mind from notions of what is fundamentally different from what the mind knows itself to be. A kind of freedom, therefore. A freedom from dependence on the unknown and the Other to provide meaning while taking advantage of the inspiring potential of the Other as an expression of the human being’s aspiration to Something that is beyond the quotidian and the everyday.
The Twi proverb Nyame nwu na m’awu expresses the confidence that “If Nyame-That Which falls in the rain,flashes in lightning,upholds the earth,and is the Source of All-could die,I would die”.The proverb derives from a small,trailing plant that is impossible to completely wipe out.The character of the plant expresses both its biological constitution and the being of That which makes its existence possible,That which shares with the human person a flame that burns perpetually,a flame whose origin is in an Unknown Depth,where the Source of both the human person and the Ground of Being conjoin in a depth BeyondMind.That is Hye Anyha,the Unburnable,a flame from Whom is the centre around which the human being is formed.Onyankopon nkum wo na odasani kum woa,wunwu da “Unless you die of Onyankopon,let living man kill you, and you will not perish”.Onyankopon- the One who is Nameless,whose ancestry does not exist,the Unimaginable One,to whom there is no altar beceause can an altar be made to the ever mobile but invisble wind or to the Hole in the mind which the mind does not know?
Onyankopon,Which stretches from NonTime into NoTime.
NYAME NWU NA M’AWU
Meditation on Nyamenwunam’awu led Adinkrahen Ikentua Refe to identify with Adinkra as Nyame, as Nyakokpon. She argued that she saw Adinkra not as symbols of Ultimate Reality, but as Ultimate Reality Itself. When asked how that could be, she replied that the Ultimate is whatever we want it to be. It is Kaidara of the Fulani, ever near and ever distant, as distant as the farthest reaches of the cosmos, as the impossibility of a dimension that is unperceived, but as intimate as the most intimate self. Distant because formless. Subtle as air but not sensed by those who because they cannot see it think it is not there. Very near because there exists no obstacle or distance between others and Itself. It assumes any form It likes, causes veils to fall-revealing Itself - eliminating distances as It chooses[1].
So, she reasoned, it’s a matter of choice what we want It to be, since it is everything and Nothing. It is nothing in that it can not be exclusively identified with anything. It is Nothing in that its essential being is so beyond the grasp of human understanding that to that understanding, that being is a Nothing. It is Everything in that it is the ground of all, it constitutes the condition of possibility that makes everything possible.
THAT WHICH DOES NOT BURN
The Unburnable
HYE ANHYE -UNBURNABLE
Symbol of the IMPERISHABILITY OF THE SELF, PERMANENCE OF THE HUMAN SOUL and TOUGHNESS This represents the idea that GOD, the SPIRIT, never dies, or GOD lives forever.The Akan belief is that the human soul, an image of God, the Spirit, lives in perpetuity. Thus, there is life after the death of the physical part of the human being.
From the Akan Cultural Symbols Project at
http://www.marshall.edu/akanart/akancosmology.html
May be related to the Akan proverb Nyame Nwu Na M'Awu or Nyame Bewu Na M'Awu "Could God die,I woud die".
The name of a samll,inextirbable,trailing plant(Christaller).
The plant is Commelina Nudiflora or Benghalensis.
From
The Akan Doctrine of God by J B Danquah
and
may be related to the Adinkra symbol named
NYAME NNWU NA MAWU
"God never dies, therefore I cannot die"
symbol of God's omnipresence and the perpetual existence of man's spirit
This signifies the immortality of man's soul, believed to be a part of God. Because the soul rests with God after death, it cannot die.
From
Adinkra Symbols of West Africa at
http://www.welltempered.net/adinkra/htmls/adinkra/nyawu.htm
THAT WHICH DOES NOT BURN
Symbol of imperishability and endurance
This symbol gets its meaning from traditional priests that were able to walk on fire without burning their feet, an inspiration to others to endure and overcome difficulties.
FromAdinkra Symbols of West Africa at http://www.welltempered.net/adinkra/htmls/adinkra/hyew.htm
HYE-WO-NHYE
Unburnable
Symbol of TOUGHNESS, IMPERISHABILITY OF SELF OR OF CHIEF OF STATE & PERMANENCE.
From the house of powerful jewellry at
http://www.hlcjewelry.com/HLCstore/symbols/define/adinkraView.htm#adinkra72
Hye wo Nyhe
The One who Burns You be not Burned
Symbol of forgiveness. Turn the other cheek.
From the Ghana portal at
http://www.ghana.co.uk/history/fashion/adrinka_adinka_symblos.htm