As a teenager, I asked the age-old philosophical questions of "Why am I here on earth?" and "What is my purpose in life?
In adult life the answer to both questions was: "to learn what love is and to spread love as best I can." When the 5000 B.C. concepts of Maat (pronounced "ma aut") entered into my awareness, they provided a practical approach to clarifying what love is, what love does, and how love can be spread throughout the world.
Ancient African sages said the source of love was God and the basis for doing loving things is living by the standard imposed by the divine nature within the individual. This standard is the same as that which is within the mystical "group spirit" of African people.
To follow this standard became the movement toward Maat -- the chief end toward which all goodness in human behavior was geared. But what is Maat? The Egyptian word "maa" means "the reality as a whole" -- the wholism concept. However, since many branches from the seed concept of Maat were contributed to by many other African societies, Maat took on a variety of additional meanings -- truth, justice, righteousness, reason, life, soul, mind, pure, total, levelness, straightness, and correctness.
Since these terms carry such different concepts but are roughly in the same "ballpark," let us use an analogy to explain the apparent "isfet" (i.e. chaos) that appears to be present in Maat. Ancient African sages thought of God's love for the universe as being like a white light. If we shine a white light through a prism, the result will be rays of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet colors.
Let us assume that all these colored rays, when gathered together, are called Maat. Each color would represent an African virtue. For example, the color red might represent truth; the color orange, justice; and so on until each African virtue is accounted for. These virtues are then grouped into branches related to different aspects of life. For example, one branch is about the promotion of world order through justice and peace. A second branch is selfless service to humanity and creating harmony.
A third branch is about personal development -- the spiritual awakening that leads to Maat-type thoughts, feelings, expressions, and behaviors. When these branches are applied to activities of daily living, that is love in action. Practically, Egyptians taught their youth to be respectful, quiet, not hasty, modest, gentle, restrained in eating and drinking, trustworthy, and not boastful or arrogant. Religiously, to "observe the feast of your God" and to "offer to your God" (New Kingdom "Instructions of Ani"), were stressed so as to maintain harmony between the human and the divine worlds.
Maat is the supreme principle that organized the African structure of civilization and culture; that crystallized the African tradition; that held African society together; and that was the foundation of African religious beliefs. The concept of Maat and the importance of living a just life were central to the beliefs about judgement after death. Collectively, the Maat rays of virtue constituted a person's guide for preparation between birth and the heaven "afterlife." A root or fundamental Maat principle for living a personal, community, and spiritual life of wholeness was to do all one can to benefit the well-being of others, of nature, and of oneself.
Its flip side was to do all one can not to harm the well-being of others, of nature, or of oneself. The Maat message persists to the present: contribute to well-being and not do it harm. This requires purity of heart and balance of mind in order to create integrity and then maintain it. Ancient Africans said there must be constant spiritual striving through prolonged contemplation (becoming one with universal truths) so as to attain true knowledge of God. Maat was designed by and became the frame for ancient African philosophy tradition.
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D
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