One of my medical school classmates asked the instructor why so many questions were repeated on the final examination year after year. His response: "In medicine, the questions don't change but the answers do."
The same can be said about philosophy. The English word "philosophy" originated in Kamit (Egypt) as "seba" (wisdom) and millennia later was translated into Greek as "Sophia," loving wisdom (Asante, African Intellectual Heritage p. 259).
For Africans, Wisdom is the ability to intuit the will of God and then make what is thought, felt, expressed, and done to be in harmony with God's will (Amen, Metu, Neter p. 86). Otherwise, philosophy deals with life-shaping values concerning profound things that underlie human and supernatural life. For this reason, philosophy is called "the mother of the sciences."
The world's original philosophers came from three waves of Africans. Primitive Africans inquired into and devised explanations for the profound events occurring in their lives -- things like natural disasters, crops, birth, death. The second wave were those Africans, perhaps 60,000 years ago, who were concerned about reaching the "Heaven Afterlife."
The later arriving third wave of Africans brought in different types of philosophies that had God at its core and Order as its structure. Both were well formed by ?5500 BC, perhaps by the Black Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus.
Originally called Tehuti and later Thoth (pronounced T-ho-t, with three syllables), he crystallized African philosophy by saying that God is a "Big Mind" who creates all and maintains the cosmos in beautiful order. His basic philosophy is that each individual ought to undergo "rebirth" by the actual transformation of human consciousness into divine consciousness. To reach this state of spiritual enlightenment involves the pursuit of what lies beyond one's physical mortal existence.
This pursuing of answers to the transcendental (stepping from human consciousness into divine consciousness) questions of life is the way to "know thyself." The "know thyself" search is called Mystical Philosophy. To "know self" is to have insight into one's own divine nature and that insight provides one with a new way to look at life.
The process for "knowing thyself" -- i.e. first known in the world as Egyptian Yoga -- is the highest of all philosophical systems. Incidentally, Yoga was developed first in Egypt (Kamit) (Ashby, African Origins p. 88, 54, 211, 585). Mystical (Ritual) philosophy literature includes the Egyptian Book of Coming Forth By Day (c 10,000-5,000 BCE), the Coffin Texts (c 2040-1786 BCE), and the Papyrus Texts (c 1580 BCE).
The Memphite Theology, a unique form of the Kamitan (Egyptian) religion, is highly philosophical. By emphasizing those forms of intellectual development that lead towards intuitional realization of the nature of self (Ashby p. 217, 540), it says the world is composed of neteru -- divine energy (cosmic forces) -- that constitute all physical phenomenon. One of these neterus, the god Ptah, emerged from a primeval ocean and created order in the universe by his will and the power of thought (mind).
The gods and goddesses (who are Ptah's thoughts) go on to form the elements of nature and the cosmic forces that maintain nature (Ashby p. 217, 540).
These effects are the result of Ptah's thoughts being transformed into "word" (i.e. vibrations). Such harmonious fashioning of the physical around the spiritual is analogous to a grand symphony in which every melody has been exquisitely combined to compose one magnificent order of harmony. From this Memphite myth came the African concept of Wholism.
A third foundational philosophy is MAAT (love in action). Its theme is that the Supreme Spirit is in all God's creations and therefore, regardless of what one thinks, feels, says, or does, one is interacting with God. Maat is the path to promoting human order (i.e. displaying the right relations with and behaviors toward all human beings).
With the appearance of human beings in need, Maat is displayed when one takes advantage of the opportunity to grow through selfless service -- and without developing resentment or taking attacks personally. Maat is the way to develop purity of heart (Ashby p. 204, 201, 558).
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D
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