Sunday, July 28, 2013

Hiphop and the Three Perspectives Pt. 1


Hiphop and the Three Perspectives


Much of my work is informed and influenced by the teachings of Ken Wilber who I have studied for some time, but to say that I've achieved any level of mastery of his dense and profound theories would be a gross overstatement. So forgive me if my writing is basic and without any real depth of understanding. Writing for me is like untangling knots; the more I work with it, the more a greater reality is revealed. This is just practice writing.

One of the things that assists me with my writing process (in particular when writing rhymes) is looking at an idea/concept/action/thought/feeling in as many ways as I can. This way I am sure to have a thorough grounding in the reality of that which I am currently witnessing (or are planning on being) engaged in. Just as much as a diamond can only be described after looking at all of its facets, I can only describe an object (including mental objects) or subject in full when I look at it from all sides. As my awareness inhabits more perspectives, I increase my direct experience (and as a result increased knowledge and understanding) of the ob/sub and can better express the totality of the experience hopefully without the taint of shortsightedness and prejudice.

To understand Hiphop fully and reap the most benefit from utilizing the elements, one must be willing to view and create from as many perspectives as possible. Why?
Well in general because looking at any situation, idea, etc from multiple perspectives frees us from myopia, or viewing things from a singular view. It provides a wider, more inclusive and more importantly, more real view of a situation. Hiphop is not one thing, nor are the elements or the ideas that the elements can capture. Taking on multiple perspectives makes us more intelligent, not because of what we now know but because of our increased capacity to know. It widens our mental lens, our awareness and tolerance of other viewpoints. If you're an entertainer it may even widen your audience. When we create, the more perspectives we take the more we can know about the subject, the more we can relay to others and the more we can connect to others through our element.

But from a larger perspective, as Hiphoppers we are often out of touch with who we are. Taking on multiple perspectives (of self and other) helps us to know ourselves better and live more authentically by short circuiting the tendency towards self/other deception by taking something at mere appearance or face value. Taking on more perspectives we attempt to "directly know" a phenomena, meaning we no longer base our knowledge on strictly guessing, belief, hope etc. We know because we experienced the perspective as much as we could. Viewing things from multiple perspectives also provides options for how to interact, treat or better assist a situation. Consider the ramifications it has when trying to truly be creative (instead of adopting old patterns of manifesting), solve difficult inter/intra personal decisions, be truly empathetic or resolve conflict between parties who can't see out side or beyond their own viewpoint.

For those interested in healing, connecting, helping, growing etc. I can sum it up like this.

The more perspectives you take the more you know about yourself and others.
The more you know about self and others the closer you grow to understanding and empathizing.
The more you empathize and understand the more you begin to see how big your heart really is (and always was).
The larger your realize your heart is the more space you have for other beings and your behavior and life naturally become skillfully helpful.
When there are masses of open hearted, compassionate beings, our families, our communities and our world will experience less suffering and more interconnectedness.
When individuals and families begin to see their interconnectedness to each other they will begin to see natures perspective and our connection to it.
When we see from the perspective of the divine calling us to call us its name, we will have peace because no thing is threatened by the fear of feeling other.
When you are everything there is nothing that you are outside and nothing that is outside you.
Then you can relax among the chaos of the world knowing that to resist would pull you from that integral perspective and peace that reality offers.


Three Perspectives


Wilber postulates that there are three primary perspectives, 1st, 2nd and 3rd person, by which all things may be viewed and the possibility of 4th, 5th, 6th and maybe even more perspectives yet to be discovered. These three perspectives are found in all human language and represent the ways we've developed to view the world.

If we look at how we describe experience, we find that we use 1st, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns. "The 1st person refers to the person who is speaking which includes pronouns like I, me, and mine (in the singular) and we, us, ours in the plural. It is what's going on within us. "It's the person speaking". Our 2nd person experience refers to who is being spoken to and includes pronouns like you and yours. The 3rd person perspective refers to the thing being spoken about such as he, him, she, her, they, them, it and its." (18, IS, Wilber)

So if I am talking to you about the new album by MF DOOM, "I" am the 1st person, "you" are the 2nd person and MF DOOM's album is the 3rd person (or the "it" being spoken about. When "we" communicate your 2nd person and my 1st person are engaged in dialog about MF DOOM.

1st, 2nd and 3rd person perspectives are part of your being, right now and are available to you in any moment. It is by adopting these perspectives that we see deeper into all experience. 3rd person perspectives refer to objective truth (science, nature), 2nd person perspectives refer to how we treat each other and 1st person perspectives deal with how i express myself. These three perspectives put can be stated more simply as truth, good and beauty or nature, culture and self. By visiting these perspectives we become more whole and begin to see the reality of ourselves, others and all things. Utilizing these perspectives when engaging with Hiphop can lead to a fuller and deeper experience of reality as well and can unlock the true power of the elements.

For instance, when Organized Konfusion wrote Stray Bullet in 1992 they did so from a 3rd person perspective; what it's like seeing through the eyes and mind of a bullet and gun. Why was that significant? Because in becoming the stray bullet one can more clearly relay the terror and trauma of those effected by it from a previously unseen perspective. Pharoahe Monch's verse was especially visceral:

"Aww fuck it", next target's Margaret's face *bang*
And I struck it
Now it's a flood of blood in circumference to her face
And an abundance of brains all over the street
Shame how we had to meet *bang*
Dashin, buckin, greet by fuckin family
They follow behind me in a orderly fashion
Bashin through flesh I'm wild
Crashin through the doors of projects hallways
To deflect off of the tile
I'm coming for you little girl
Once inside I shatter your world
Swirl, no more dreams no hopes when I spray.

If we take into account all of the perspectives involved in Pharoahe writing his verse we see that his depiction of the chaos of a stray bullet involved multiple viewpoints: a bullet (3p object), the 1st person view of the bullet (1p which are the lyrics), all coming from Pharoahe Monch's 1st person perspective (1-p).

But let's say we switch that around a bit: Pharoahe could've written from the little girls perspective as well. Had he have, he would've been writing from her 1st person view (1p) of a 3rd person (3p) from his 1st person (1-p). Had he chosen he could've written a dialog between the two of them as they discussed the horrors of gun violence. If he did he would've been giving a 1st person view (1p) while taking on a 2nd person perspective (2p) from his 1st person (1-p). He could've not written anything and instead did some introspection: that would be him taking a 1st person view (1p) of his 1st person awareness (1p) of his 1st person (1-p). What if he wrote about the proliferation of guns by large corporations? 3rd person view of a 3rd person institution from his 1st person. The corporation also has an internal view which could've focused on as well. That would've been Pharoahe writing from their 1st person about a 3rd person from his 1st person.


This attempt at looking at the exterior and interior perspectives of a phenomena is what Wilber calls Integral Methodological Pluralism, which is a really nerdy way of saying that we can view (and better study) the internal and external experience of individuals and groups from both inside and outside those experiences. Better yet. Here's a chart. (Fig. 1)



(Fig. 1)


Upper Left, Zone 1/Zone 2: The movement of my intelligence

The upper left (UL) of the chart refers to the individual, I, and also includes my self concept, identity, symbols, sensations, concepts, rules, structures of consciousness, feelings, thoughts, memories and experiences. Me. Zone 1 is the internal experience of the individual. Only the individual can see inside the individual. Wilber associates this Zone with the study of phenomenology, the study of mental arisings. Zone 1 is where we come in contact with the healthiness or unhealthiness of our thoughts and emotions, where we do the psychospiritual work of removing mental barriers to love such as greed, pride, anger, jealousy etc., cultivate healthy emotions such as generosity and gratitude and where prayer, meditation and contemplation take place. Zone 1 is also where we deceive ourselves by casting out thoughts and emotions that we find it hard to identify as ours. Wilber calls this our shadow. I often question emcees when I hear their lyrics. Is what they just said who and how they really are or a learned maladaptive response to unresolved trauma or pain? Zone 1 is where we can begin to witness our tendencies to distance ourselves from certain thoughts as well as begin to see how imbedded or fused our identities have become with material that we are completely unaware of.

Using the elements from a Zone 1 perspective

Emceeing, DJing, Bboying, Graf Writing, Producing: Resting AS Hiphop (peace, love, unity) in formless awareness as the Witness consciousness that sees the arising of your perceived emcee identity. Practicing stillness and conscious breathing to be aware of the present moment and to calm thoughts and feelings. Awareness can then be brought to thoughts and feelings to determine quality, motivation and intention. Thoughts can be assessed for healthiness or lack thereof. Questions such as, "what's keeping me from feeling my best", "are my thoughts pre/rational, post rational", "who am I", "where is the I that I think that I am", "what have I learned that can help me with this subject", "which aspect (level of self development) of my self do I wish to create from", "what am I trying to not feel", "is my identity in alignment with my intention", "how can what I'm about to create help or hurt me/others", "what may be the result of my creation", may be asked.


Zone 2

Zone 2 however is what Zone 1 looks like from the outside. It is the attempt to look at the arisings (thoughts, feelings, perceptions) of a first person perspective by someone other than the individual. Examples of this include studying the effects of meditation on an individuals perception. From a Hiphop standpoint, Zone 2 is where we attempt to explore and understand the experience of other practitioners 1st person perspective through contemplation, research, interview or other form of inquiry. Theres no way to conduct the research from the inside of someone else's head, but we can ask them to report their experience to us so we can try to understand it better. Attempting to describe the experience of a practitioner is useful because although ones 1st person perspective is not legitimate by itself, if you and I discuss our experience and come to a consensus about the means and fruition of that experience we can begin to discover HOW to repeat that experience. Meditation is a good example. Meditation can only be experienced by the meditator. No one can see inside of their experience. However if we both meditate, follow the same instructions and get similar results, it gives credence to our method and fruition as valid. People have meditated for thousands of years using the same instructions and getting the same results. Faith in the practice is based upon the experience of others, our experience while meditating and cross checking our experience with the lineage of meditators. What did they say would happen if I meditated? Did the same thing happen for me? If not, is meditation flawed, was my teacher flawed or did I not follow the instructions correctly? My experience has been that its usually my fault. I either didn't practice at all/enough, or I thought that I could replace practice with thinking, as if the thought was the same as experience.

No one can see inside the 1st person experience of a bboy, however if two bboys both uprock and then share their experience with each other, and agree on the experience, it gives validity to the experience. It then is not just my experience, it is ours. Lets say a group of 1000 bboys do the same thing. Then we can be more sure that our experience is valid and repeatable. Knowing the means (the 4 elements) that produce favorable developmental outcomes and sharing our results with each other will validate Hiphop as a tool for growth.

Hiphop is already a lineage based on study, practice and discussion of the results as validity for future study and practice but I don't think it's very recognized. For now i think that Zone 2 is largely used by those interested in entertainment. My hope is that Hiphop will utilize this same scientific method to explore the benefit of the elements on our psychospiritual, cultural, social and physical development. Researching and validating reports of heightened states of consciousness, increased self awareness, interconnectedness, compassion, wisdom etc. through skillful use of the elements helps Hiphop transcend its current egocentric and ethnocentric associations.



Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Emcee Nature Mechanics


Hiphop Alive: Emcee Nature Mechanics

View

The misunderstanding of and identification with the self-centered ego is the source of all wackness. When identified with, one becomes wack in that they separate themselves from reality and attach themselves to a conceptual self that is always changing. How can one exist definitely if one’s existence is always moving? What is real is that the “I” that “I” think “I am” is an illusion. All that I am is manufactured, my style comes from another’s style, my dress comes from another, my accent, vocabulary and mannerisms all are not of my own doing, but “I” think of myself as real, existing independently and definitely. And I seek to reinforce that self. “I” even give myself other names, aliases, illusions on top of illusions to reinforce my feelings of this other self. This “I” likes certain clothes, people, rhyme styles etc.
This “I” also battles others who threaten that sense of self in order to maintain legitimacy. Both are false and only serve to reinforce the false emcee. Even though this may bring one fame and accolades, it is hardly the joy that comes from joining with one’s true nature. Why is this? The false emcee suffers at his/her own hands because there is no end to their quest to satisfy the false emcee self, which does not exist.
The false self is never satisfied, all pleasure soon fades and needs reinforcement because all things with beginnings have no lasting existence; they are subject to laws of birth and death. They depreciate as soon as you appropriate. No matter the brand of clothes, type of liquor consumed, media praise, women defiled, fancy wordplay, beat selection, stage show, or number of fans, none of those will bring the false emcee happiness.
Until the emcee’s egocentric desires are cut through they will suffer even to the point of death in the never-ending search for illusory happiness. True happiness is found in that which does not change, which does not go away, which does not need to be born, which is the nature of the emcee itself.
Real emcees fight the inner battle and only battle against worthy enemies or like minds when trying to establish what Hiphop is and is not. Those that are not worthy enemies had no desire to be emcees in the first place and have no care for what is or is not the essence of Hiphop. Battling with them is useless. Worthy enemies are those who would benefit from their egos cut through in order to wake them up to the nature.
True emcees do not battle up (those at higher stages of development). Those that battle up do not realize their nature, are confused and seek to expand their egos. The true emcee does not rhyme for himself as this only closes himself off more from the masses. The true emcee has no desire to build their ego.
Because the true emcee has no desire to build his/her ego, he attempts, through challenging himself, at conquering self-centered intent and scope, in order to expand his awareness into as many conceptual realms as possible, until the realms become homes, but even these homes must be abandoned and burnt down.
The true emcee knows that Hiphop is not something you do, nor is it something you live, nor is it something, nor is it nothing. It is nor and not nor…if a true emcee does create from the ego, it is done out of exploration of what the ego seems to be, not out of establishment of permanence nor out of attachment. She shares her experiences only as a way to wake others up, not as a way to expand her ego.
The true emcee is a citizen of nowhere and realizes that because Hiphop fundamentally does not exist anywhere or as anything, Hiphop is wherever you are not. You are not. The true emcee is not the name behind the mic. He is the one behind the one on the mic. There he abides in Hiphop and in larger view abides in Hiphop everywhere.
One may ask, “How does this writer know with such confidence about the existence of Hiphop?” It is because I have no knowledge about the existence of Hiphop, nor of existence anywhere, nor of fixed ideas, nor of fixed material existence, nor of death, nor of birth. I have no evidence which verifies permanence at all.
It is only when I sat still that I understood that all of Hiphop’s manifestations arise out of the same vastness that all manifestation did. In that, there is nothing that can be said about Hiphop without reference to what was before Hiphop or before what existed before that. I could trace this line of existence back to the original nature itself and I would find that Hiphop exists as the great cypher, the great code, the great circle out of which all things arise and fall. Hiphop cannot be validated by its form no more than anything else.
Path
Understanding the nature of an emcee does not happen on accident. This discovery must be brought about by diligent practice.
As an exercise, focus your mind on your microphone and leave it there, every time your attention wanders bring it back to the mic. Rest in this way until your mind calms. Then ask yourself, Where does this object come from? What is it made of? Who made it? Who made them? What food did they eat? Where did the food that fed the animals come from? Who is looking at the mic?
Try to locate this emcee. Is the emcee your name, your body, is it a concept, is it your profession, where does this emcee exist, if you cannot find this emcee what does that mean? Who created this emcee? Who created them? No thing that truly exists relies upon anything else for its existence or it cannot be said to truly exist on its own. Therefore how can you be the emcee you think yourself to be if your existence is based on all other existence? What is the danger of believing in solidity?
One cannot find a true origin for anything if one is honest and looks deep enough.
Hiphop manifests to allow its practitioners to experience their nature. All of existence is a path to enlightenment in this way. Hiphoppers can reach their natures through diligent practice. Becoming a true emcee is possible, not through egocentered exploits such as wittiness, hyperconceptuality, material appeal, cadence, or anything that comes and goes, but through practicing resting their minds in the nature of Hiphop through meditation on the emcee and abandoning all illusions about how I exist. This steers their minds from their egos, reveals natural openness and relaxation, and brings about the motivation and wisdom to create rhymes with the intent of all listeners experiencing their own nature.
Frution
Practicing in this way, one’s awareness will grow away from herself or himself and towards the nature of all things. This expansion reveals happiness, openness and discovery of the “zone”. One will gain a respect for those in their communities and in foreign lands, find post-conventional culture, art and poetry appealing, respect the environment and see spiritual paths as unified and worthy. Such a person will be without aggression, will see others’ views within their own, will see others in themselves and learn patience. They will be moved to be generous even to their own detriment and will practice cultivating the wisdom of Hiphop in everything they do.
This is not philosophy, this is nature mechanics.
–Ascience Gnown

Hiphop and Non Duality


Hiphop and Non Duality

Hiphop doesn't exist. Show it to me. And please don't point to an album, your iTunes library, a microphone, a website etc. because we don't call that Hiphop. We have names for those things. But what can be named can be identified, it has color, shape, and place in space in reference to another object. So where is the thing that we call Hiphop. Or is it a thing at all? Is it a feeling? An experience? If so what is the experience? What drives us to label things Hiphop or not Hiphop? What is the difference between the two? Afrika Bambaataa says Hiphop is peace, love, unity, and understanding. Well where are those things? Do those qualities exist as tangible objects or are they something more subtle and tacit? All things have a beginning and an end. They have an origin, at least relatively, but did peace, love, unity and understanding have a beginning or have they existed before there was a mind to perceive them? If we entertain the latter then we have to look at what we call Hiphop as something free of coming and going, something that is free of origins and endings, free from conditions, in fact I postulate that Hiphop is freedom from conditions simply because it allows all conditions to exist. It does not fight, it does not reject, it embraces and incorporates. It becomes more whole through allowing whatever arises to arise. It freely samples the world and finds it beautiful. In this way Hiphop is whole.

Out of peace, love, unity and understanding came the elements of Hiphop. The elements are the children of Hiphop. No less Hiphop themselves and not completely Hiphop by themselves they were birthed to teach us about Hiphop and the possibilities of finding peace, love, unity and understanding within, between and as all things. This relationship as nature and manifestation are what give Hiphop the status as nondual. It is the ground out of which the elements arise and it is the end goal for all those that practice it and it is everything in-between no matter how you practice it. Nothing is separate from it no matter how foreign to peace, love, unity and understanding it seems.  When Chief Keef and Mos Def create a song they do with the same underlying intention whether they know it or not; to manifest peace, love, unity and understanding. All seeking is seeking the nature of things. The only difference is a matter of knowing, of experiencing Hiphop. When one has experienced Hiphop (and knows it as ones self) then one begins to create with the intention of manifesting the qualities of Hiphop. When one doesn't know it they create with other intentions; money, fame, power, fear, anger. The only difference is in knowing. All spiritual paths know this to be the end goal of all seeking; that they are what they seek and what they fundamentally are is peace, love etc. Hiphop as it manifests as the elements is part/parts.

Hiphop is then both whole and part, unified and diverse, one and many. This is what is meant by Hiphop being nondual, or not one and not two. It is both the space and the forms that arise out of it.

So then why do most people associate Hiphop with music and entertainment? Well aside from conditioning, most people don't seek the source of Hiphop when interacting with the elements. They only go deep enough to validate what their ego seeks; to be bigger, to be separate, to be the greatest among all. Some go deeper and utilize the elements to bring about sociopolitical awareness and change. When ones intention becomes focused on these things then the source is missed when the source is the award itself. This is the reason for Hiphop Alive; To begin to see the sacredness of what we call Hiphop and all of its elements so that they can teach us about how we and how all things truly exist. Many believe this line of thinking to be unnecessary, too much, over the top without once questioning their relationship with Hiphop and how deep it could possibly go. You're likely to see comments about this line of thinking that say this is bullshit, that Hiphop began in 1973 with a name. But I urge all that are serious about Hiphop to question the elements and when they began. What were the precursors to the music, art, dance, fashion etc.? These things didn't arise on their own or out of nowhere. They had ancestors and other forms that came before that had the same intention; To awaken self and others to a greater existence that has no origin. They attempted to explain and manifest the unexplainable because it was a nagging sensation. A calling to be more whole and to feel more like a part of the family of things. When we say Hiphop began in the Bronx as a culture birthed from poverty and marginalization what do you think the opposite of those things are? What were they seeking? What is the underlying motivation of someone who is impoverished or doesn't feel like they have a voice? It is to be alive and to proclaim their aliveness to the world. It is to not be silenced. It is to make a noise loud enough that reaches to the depths of self and the universe that says I am here and I am worthy to be here. It is the voice of spirit saying I will not be silenced. I will grow even in the worst of conditions and I will adapt to whatever situation you place me in. The evolution of all things can't be stopped. Spirit cannot be denied because it knows no boundaries. It's sole intention is to know itself through form and to report its findings to the formless in order to find a way to next time manifest even more fully! This is how I experience Hiphop. Every record I dig for is another way of experiencing my own fragmented experience of humanity. Every rhyme I write is another way of working out the kinks of my cognition in order to see more clearly how I and all things exist. Every Graf piece I create is to be free from the lies of conformity to form. Every move of a bboy is to experience space in as many forms as possible. Every element has the goal of freedom through form and is a teacher of the highest of spiritual principles. Ultimately Hiphop leads me to no longer being trapped by knowing. Being a practitioner is a search that helps to me to understand that what I've been taught doesn't withstand the pressure of deep contemplation. Being a practitioner breaks down the barriers between things until I no longer know why I ever thought there were barriers in the first place. When I find no separation, when I find no barriers I find peace because I learn to accept that I am all the things that I have encountered. When I contact Hiphop I contact myself, my truest self. I find that there is no fear because there is nothing threatening my existence. It is too big to be threatened. Hiphop is too big for anything that it encounters to threaten its existence. It eats, digests and metabolizes all experience. There is nothing that can hurt or kill it. I experience this fullness as myself and all things, free from the fear of being eradicated by some outside force that will come and go. When KRS-ONE said "we will be here forever" he was correct. There is nothing that can stop Hiphop because it has always been and will always be here forever. No matter how far from the source those that practice it seems to be Hiphop has remained intact and have never hurt it. They in fact are a part of its evolution, of its self knowing. Without them it would be deceiving itself, lying to prevent knowing that it too evolves and goes through the peaks and valleys of self deception and enlightenment. If it were already fully evolved then there would be no need for growth. Hiphop needs all of the shades of the spectrum of consciousness in order to display all of its facets. To display only those that are close to the source would be to forget that at on point they too were confused about the existence of Hiphop. At some point in time all of us have been confused about what brings us well being, which is fine.  We come to know only through trial and error. When we accept that the error is a part of the process and not really an error at all we can begin to appreciate the entire journey and others on it. When we arrogantly dismiss those who are in their process of understanding Hiphop deeply we create self deception and suffering within and between us. This is the fundamental error; not seeing clearly based on assumption and a lack of experience. Not seeing clearly we elevate the under developed to the level of developed and reduce the developed to the underdeveloped. The main practice is to use the elements to see as deeply as possible into how things are, how we truly exist, how others truly exist, how form truly exists, how formless space truly exists, the depth of our values and our interconnectedness. When we utilize the elements in this way there is the hope of manifesting peace, love, unity and understanding. When we use the elements in a neurotic way there is still the hope of manifesting peace, love etc. but the time that it will take, the time that none of us has or is promised is longer. With that way there is only the promise of longer periods of personal, community and global suffering. So practitioners should be urged to utilize the elements as skillful means, to use them as artfully as possible so that in this lifetime there can be benefit to ones self and other beings. No one knows what happens when we die but we do know what happens when love dies in our lives, homes, streets and the world. We know that pain. We see it played out in the entertainment world daily. All of that ongoing suffering is unnecessary. Suffering is a part of the human experience but we do not have to continue to suffer as much. We do not have to live in ignorance of our selves, of our minds, of our neighbors. We can use the elements to awaken to more peaceful and interconnected existence where we support each other on our various paths. This is the way of the bboy bodhisattva, the way of the microphone warrior, the way of the Graf rebel, the way of the DJ dream weaver. This is Hiphop Alive.

- Ascience Gnown

Hiphop Alive: Institute of Consciousness, Education and Integral Art is dedicated to the research and utilization of the elements of Hiphop to foster physical, mental, emotional and spiritual internal and external growth of individuals and the collective. It's underlying mission is for peace, love, unity and understanding to manifest freely among all beings. For more information please contact Ascience Gnown hiphopaliveandwell@gmail.com