The Matrix

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Imagine my chagrin when I started to suspect that there truly was indeed something below the surface of things. Being a well read so called black man and I do mean well read, I was unsatisfied with the walls I was hitting. I have always deduced problems pretty well. I had no issue with admitting I was up against something I could not penetrate. “I must be missing something” was my constant thought. A sharp as I imagined I was I just could not find that pony in the room full of shit! 

I had just finished reading two series of books by two extremely serious authors, Daniel Quinn and Derrick Jensen. My world had been turned upside down. Nothing else I read came close to comparing to the surges my body and brain experienced while reading the 6 books in their collection.

When I would try to engage people in conversation on what I was learning about this culture and this world they mostly just stared at me with blank looks on their faces. The few who ventured to put aside their fears and bias would often give right back  in to them and retreat back into “Ought to be world”. So in early August 2003 when my good friend Thurman Northcross offered to pick me up, I could not drive due to broken ribs, a broken scapula and collar bone after flipping my SUV 5 times, and take me of all places to dictionary class, I was excited to no end. Not because it was a dictionary class, just how exciting can a damn class on a dictionary be? Little did I know. I was excited because of who Thurman told me was teaching the class, Cliff Black.

This was August 2003 and I had met Cliff in way back in May of 1994 and his work so impressed me I started my quest into knowing more about the origins of words then. The problem was I ran into some snags that I just could not overcome on my own. I had seen Mr. Black around time a few times, but for some reason he didn’t appear to want to engage me and I was full of questions.

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Anyway the classes were at Java, Juice & Jazz Cultural Center on Elvis Presley Blvd. in the heart of South Memphis. Mr. Black would just start class seemingly from nowhere he’d pick a concept or a word and before you know it we were all over the place. It was kind of hard to follow him at first, but then I quickly realized there were so many words I thought I knew the meaning of and didn’t. So right away I made it a point to look up the etymology of every word I knew that I didn’t know the meaning of and let me tell you that was most and I had been doing it I thought already since 1994. Little words like I, we, me, the, began to take on new life when I would follow Mr. Black and I was starting to see that each word not only had a meaning, but also a history when told by a master, a most marvelous history at that.

We had our share of interruptions especially by the black nationalists and Afro Centrics.
However, what they were promoting just didn’t add up under the scrutiny or critical thought and analysis. The one thing I had learned was when in the presence of someone with more information and knowledge than me it is foolish to try to argue. I would only end up making a fool of myself and I truly enjoy learning. So I just shut up and watched him make mental mincemeat of those who insisted on something they believed in,but had no proof that is was real.
My world as I knew it was slowly disappearing because at one time in my life I shared some of those same beliefs. Things like “when we unite” and everything has to relate to Africa. Now using my own thought process I saw where this thinking could not be correct because it had never yielded any results. It was just theory and a person cannot eat theory.

Finally after several weeks and after starting to eat lunch at Java daily I had audience with the man. You see by then I was awe of this fellow and still am though I do know him a little better. He had impeccable commitment to his cause, had integrity and was a man of his word. he just didn’t talk it he demonstrated it. That was odd for most people outside of my circle. It was not odd for me being that I was a founding member of Inward Journey and the AAFANTE Tribe where integrity is a hallmark and a principle we take very seriously.

This particular day he invited me to sit at his booth and have lunch with him. i was delighted because by now there was so many things I wanted to ask him and some not in a public forum such as class. I didn’t know if he were approachable or not as he can appear to be very distant and stand offish with people. The verdict is still out on that, but for anyone that is truly serious I have never seen him deny them time. he is just allergic to bullshit at least I think.

Anyway I told him about how I had reached this mental threshold and I so wanted to penetrate it. He asked if I were serious and I told him I was. He then said something really odd. He said, “Well homeboy your life will never be the same and there is no turning back if you really want to do this.” He also said it will be both a curse and a blessing, but that he was glad someone had come along to relieve him of the curse. I didn’t quite know how to take that and quite frankly I still don’t understand why he said that, but I do know now that at that moment I was whisked out of the matrix, though I didn’t know it then.

I would come to see and experience the world in a completely different manner that I never in my wildest imagination and it is wild, thought or dreamed possible. I experience an indescribable freedom today that I cannot explain, but I always try to point out to those I am relative to what to do to get it. There are no short cuts, but the matrix is indeed real and once you climb out there is no blue pill. More to come.

[Clifford Black]

choosing from a million it is difficult (and sometimes bon chance) to find the rite one.

[Clifford Black]

On a wonderful day (out of the few that actually exist), there erupted a million Nuns. They sprang forth from a standing pole and like salmon (the fish) they start on the journey north moving contrary to the current. ALL of the Nuns were immediately drawn into conflict. This process is the first lesson that must be learned in order to survive. Only the fastest, strongest and the smartest will survive, so as to BE-COME the conception that is to be conceived by the matrix. The fact of the matter, IS, an immaculate moment, (a big bang) takes place. Be and it is. What is it? It is the ONE in a million!!!!!
c-B

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Mr. D. as I have been guided and advised and please hear me on this one. On this particular path you will discover many fascinating things and they will turn out to be seductive topics and issues. The danger is getting so seduced you will tread down that tributary thinking it is the one true way when in fact regardless of how it gleams it was but a distraction. Race is one of those tributaries, religion is another.

Man, you can get so caught up in not being caught up that you step off the path and not even know it. Here is a caution. Many people do research to buttress what they already believe or think they know. So if anything is uncovered that is inconsistent with what they want it to be they tend to minimize or even ignore what they find altogether. Some will go as far as create a lie to support their misconceptions. They will use modern day context to explain events of the past and because that is what they want to believe they will then promote that lie to their children and anyone else that they can influence.

Here is an example. Some so called Afro Centric people see the world exclusively through the lens of an Afro Centric view whatever that is, however they define it or however it has been defined for most of them.. They are so intent on not living in the white man's world that create a world of opposites regardless if their world is based on what is real or not. To sanction their notions they start taking a lot things way out of context. You start to hear things like a reference to African people of antiquity as black or people of color in the Americas in the 18 century as African Americans. All of a sudden we become the descendants of the Kings and Queens of the Nile Valley. Complete and utter bullshit.

I have one friend, whom I love dearly, who after a few years of studying with us was turned on to a particular esoteric vein of Christianity. Rather than learn something about it and evolve he went down that tributary and all of a sudden everything he talked about was filtered through and tinged with the theories of that particular world view. Hear me you are going to be tempted time after time to do that. I have seen it happen over and over I was just lucky that I had Mr. Black to help point me back to the path of what's real. Notice I didn't say reality. They are entirely two different things.

[Clifford Black]

seems to me like some of the genometric questions are being addressed. Some times the address needs to be given before a body can arrive upon the destination. That is a curiouser and curiouser thing about destiny, according to the cat in the tree.
Mr. Black

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

I remember distinctly when I first came across this notion of the construct we lived in being a matrix of sorts. Little did I know how much and how deep in the matrix I dwelled. It is nothing one can understand by osmosis or without serious and committed investigation. It throws out a lot of chaff, a mimic of truth, to fool one's internal radar. Right when you think you got it all figured out you find the thread you were following leads to a much bigger ball of yarn. Another yarn is spun and you have to thread your way through what has been woven for you and guess what you eventually start to get? That's the great thing about learning how to learn. When one learns the art of weaving you start to see things a lot differently.

I can attest that one will be tricked time and time again into thinking this is a new story, but the fact is there is nothing new about the story. It is as old as history itself.

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Ernest, think about it this way. The matrix is simply a story that people at different levels in the culture are enacting. The story comes to us in the womb and by the time we get here it's already being told and played out before our very eyes.

It's like walking into the middle of a play, in this case your life and being given a script that you didn't audition for, but nevertheless you are expected to play the assigned role. You are then not only playing a role you didn't want, you don't even know the name of the pay you are acting in! That was why I was prompting people to do some research on Facebook, but I saw where that was going so I abated.

That's where most people I am relative find themselves. Some just play their assigned roles and rarely question who the playwright is or falsely assume it's God because another faction of the play sends powerful suggestions that your particular role is "God's will". Some accept their roles because of powerful social pressures fueled by fear, ignorance and SHAME!

Some see where they can exploit the matrix and live well, if you call being a sheep dog living, and join forces with the construct and become its watch dogs, captains, managers and overseers., (Agent Smiths).

Some like myself rebelled, but didn't understand that even the opposition was planned and exploited and I was simply a pawn to an ancient chess game. I don't know if there are some super thinkers, so called illuminati, who concoct all these deviant schemes, let's just say they just may have inherited some old knowledge that has been memorialized, guarded and passed down on a privileged to know basis. In that end that select group of people as just playing a role they were born into or found their way into somehow. Now that doesn't mean you cannot know what they know because if it is knowable it can be known. However conventional thinking, if that is thinking, cannot get you there.

Yes there is a lot of resistance to keep one from finding their way into the inner chamber, but that chamber is not outside of oneself. The problem arises when one discovers the path and then announces it to everyone that will hear where the path is and how to get there. The overseers look out for that behavior and I think it is known that upon discovery of this knowledge it is extremely hard to contain it. So you tell on yourself, Jesus, Martin, Malcolm, Ghandi, Mohammed, or people you thought loved you did the telling for you.

I am no Guru or sage, yet I have spent an inordinate amount of time researching this particular issue and I have had great guidance. I cannot apologize for that. I also realize I get impertinent and inpatient at times, but these are dangerous times and I don't have a whole lot of time for mental masturbation.

[Adisa]

"It's like walking into the middle of a play, in this case your life and being given a script that you didn't audition for, but nevertheless you are expected to play the assigned role." 

I really appreciated this analogy.  Since I have been looking in the direction of the pointed finger, I comprehend why reading Jonathan is vital.  I look around everyday and what I see, makes me ask myself...Do they even care to know? Can they not see?  Have they given up?  I get all kinds of feelings about these thoughts but then have to remind myself in the words of Tupac, I was given this world, I didn't make it. 

[Clifford Black]

sounds as if Jedi Warriors are at the round table!!!!!!
B.

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

indeed.

[Clifford Black]

Why was the table of Arthur round? When the Jedi warriors (monks-knights) would have a meeting. they sat in a circle: Why?

[Michael Taylor]

In answer to the question, "Why was the table round" it has been recognized that a round table symbolized that no one person was viewed as "higher than" another within the circle. No matter what position or title a person held, within the circle everyone was equal. This allows for each member of the circle to see into the eyes of each member and provided a sense of oneness within the group. There was no "head" of the group, just a collective group of individuals with the same intention of contributing their knowledge and wisdom to assist the group in moving forward and fulfilling the intention of the collective. In a circle there is no "I" just we. All connected and committed to the same ideals.