The ego exists in the person who is devoid
of the intention of true healing. The
ego can only exist in an environment devoid of divine wisdom. Divine wisdom is
what teaches you love and all the manifestations of it. The ego is everpresent in Capoeira Angola as
there is the constant presence of competitiveness. I believe that this element
of ego is what limits a capoeirista from furthering their spiritual development
and healing. As one must know what they are fighting against in order to go to
the next level.
Ego going
unchecked can cause a capoeirista to lose the path they set out on. Capoeira Angola, or
N’golo as it was called in the continent, emphasized prudence, brotherhood ,
solidarity , chivalry, camaraderie, etc. All of these attributes were essential
for captured africans to maintain their identity and sense of honor. Secret socieities were constructed to
maintain these traditions. An outsider
couldn’t be invited into a ritual space unless that person had already been
through their own ritual space. This means that if you were a N’golo
practitioner at the time that every person you’d meet in the roda had already
done their own personal ritual and had spoken to their ancestors before
starting their day. This was common
amongst the captured Africans that held onto their customs. Captured Africans
had been displaced and needed these tools to empower themselves. N’golo was
their tool. However, nowadays the scars from slavery still haven’t been healed,
rather inherited from our forefathers.
There is an
acknowledgement of the suffering that captured africans suffered through
however Capoeira’s solutions to this is rather short sighted. What I mean by
saying this is…..Capoeira Angola is carrying the karma of our ancestrial trials
and tribulations. Individually and spiritually people are suffering. Capoeira
Angola is our respite from our daily stresses however it isn’t the end all
solution to our trials and tribulations.
It is a fantastic and amazing form of liberation, however. If everyone
isn’t doing their own individual healing ritual, when we come together in the
roda, Capoeira Angola will be our only outlet for healing. Ritual is when you
engage in an act that calls upon non-humans (spirits) to help you with
something that you aren’t able to do by yourself. All indigenous cultures have
some form of ritual. I would also define
ritual as doing an act that acknowledges spirit. There are different forms of ritual. Your
personal ritual, your family or group ritual. Then there’s the village ritual
and finally the community ritual. If anyone of these rituals are missed by the
participants involved in say a community ritual, the ritual will suffer as you
are only as strong as your weakest link. I believe Our Masters don’t teach us
these things overtly because "hiddenness" is effectiveness. Hiddenness is
power. Disclosure or exhibition is
threatening to the relationship between us and the spirits invoked within a ritual.
It becomes obvious there’s something more to capoeira than just the playing and
singing. The more you spend around the game and the roda, it’s clear that
there’s something else much larger than us present.
At some point or
another we come to some understanding of the spirit in Capoeira. We sing about
it then at some point we feel it. If you don’t have an awareness of ritual and
spirit and Capoeira Angola is your first experience with it. You will never get
enough of it!! Because Capoeira feeds the spirit. And as individuals in a society that goes
against what we believe in. We can become very hungry spirits! This is quite natural when the majority of
our experiences are based around making money and constantly running around to
fulfil materialistic responsibilities.
The question shouldn’t be what can Capoeira Angola do for me, but what can I do for Capoeira?!
We have to satisfy
our own ancestral suffering within ourselves in order to heal the community’s
collective suffering. You have to have the intent to heal when you go to the
Capoeira Angola roda. To play without ego, to play without fear and to play with
your love for the game and see it advance. Or else your game will not advance
spiritually. You can even become a master and will still carry the suffering of
your ancestors. So it is imperative that Angola now make a shift consciously
towards healing in totality. If you have
made the first step towards Capoeira Angola then take the next step towards working
to fully heal your ancestors. Which will heal yourself. Then you will not play
with ego and seek to be the best in the roda because you can only be the best
at being you.
Let us write
ladainhas of our victories over the system that has kept us captive. When anger, envy, fear or any manifestation
of the ego appears let us be able to recognize it and not follow it. Let us
acknowledge that we are indeed now free and only need to embody freedom through
our character. If we are positive,
understanding, patient and compassionate in our actions then we will be
truly free. Our interaction with our fellow angoleiros is important. To be
genuine in greeting one another is the first thing we can do when we see each
other. There is no more room for being
fake. There’s no more room for denial. We all feel incomplete and seek
wholeness or else we wouldn’t’ be attracted to Capoeira Angola. Our thoughts
are being manifested in the year of 2012 because the earth’s vibrational
frequency is speeding up. Thus we are in a time where our experiences are
becoming more spiritual and less materialistic. It is a shift we’re going
through and we must be extra perceptive and aware of our thoughts and actions.
The problem with
western culture is that it is a show-off culture that intimidates. If our goal
is to repair all the damage done by the powers of progress, it becomes
important to make sure that we focus on how to stay underground while
attempting to connect with true rituals and our true ancestors. The focus here
is not on just the ritual itself but on opening up something in our hearts and
spirits that has been locked away so long that individuals can barely remember
the source. Sometimes it is better not to partake in a roda at all than to do
so in the wrong environment. I am against the powers of progress because in my
opinion this is what has led to the demise of many African cultures. Because what is being called progress these
days is far from where Incan, Mayan and African technologies had reached before
colonization and the transatlantic slave trade took place. Can we call where we have advanced to as a
planet in the last 100 years progress? I think not. It is time things go full
circle.
“What is so good about being together with each other is that we can
be the starting point for the possibility of building a larger community.
Formation has to happen in a nurturing way if it is to work and prove itself to
the rest of the world. In other words it has to prove itself to be different,
attractive and nurturing without the ambition of competing with the current dysfunctional
communities supported by an army of policemen. And for this to happen ritual
must be the principal ingredient of its operating dynamics. Ritual must
constantly be involved in order for the weak to become strong and the strong to
get even stronger.”
- Malidoma Patrice
Some
I love this!!!Thank you!
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