Rastafari: a guide that teaches us how to live!

There are always many questions, through questions we move and evolve. There are no definitive answers, we never stop at the goal, everything is always in eternal movement, as they say: “enjoy the destination, because it is the journey”. The real mission is to recognize the processes and understand secular militancy. The “Wisdom of King Solomon” is the mysticism of Rasta, which is not a mere acquisition of information and knowledge, but something united and practiced with action, surrender and devotion to purify, free and transmute the being, literally transforming stone into gold. This is how we approach this alchemy, our goal is redemption, raising our spirit of light in life.

WE ARE ALL DIVINE BEINGS

Mysticism essentially refers to the mastery of the “mysteries” of communication with JAH, intimacy with JAH, with the key of gratitude. In this primordial interest of man with his “true self”, with his spiritual and material essence. In a world of complication and domination, in which man or woman can easily become confused with their desires, their manifestations, their worldliness, completely forgetting what they are made of, that they are something sacred, that they are a divine being. So, this whole culture is a guide to cleanse ourselves of the vanity of this world, to cleanse the man or woman of the secondary envelope in which they are, and for the light of gratitude to shine again in their being, the vital force, the love for existence and the love for oneself.

O KINGDOM OF CHILDREN

Just as for the first Christians, the kingdom of JAH was made for his children. Not children in the sense of immaturity, but in the way Christ taught: "he who does not become like a child will not enter the Kingdom of my Father", that is, the person who does not strip himself of arrogance, arrogance, megalomania, the desire to be powerful, the intention of stepping on others, he who does not give up on this, will not be able to be happy, be sane and have peace in life. When a person says they are going to prove you, they are going to show you something, mainly out of personal revenge, doing things they didn't do alongside you, things they criticized alongside you, just to show that they are also capable, we know that this person is in competition with themselves, fighting with their ego and wanting to prove something to themselves. And everything that is based on the ego generates suffering, a journey of suffering, a journey without honor, a dishonored, disloyal journey.That's why many people are in pain, because they want things by going over others, slandering, lying, cheating, stealing, and when they get where they want, the only thing they can find is a huge void alongside false and empty people like themselves. The Rastaman walks the paths of truth, loyalty and life.

WHAT IS RASTAFARI?

Just hearing the word Rasta or Rastafari, or Rastafari culture, a series of prejudices come to people's heads, at least controversial and generally negative. They think we are intolerant, sexist, fanatics, sluts or that we have created a culture to only smoke marijuana. Others believe it is just the name of a hairstyle. Without a doubt, these are topics that are very poorly understood and rarely discussed. Rastafari is not a religion, but a way of life based on ancient and naturalistic principles, always based on the preservation of all natures, a universalist and inclusive culture. We have few spaces to share the teachings we care about, we are like pure water in a dry, scarce and arid land. The foundations of this “capitalist” system in which we live teaches us to compete, defend and depend. Rastafari is the salt of the earth! Rastafari brings the view that “culture” is a family, community, tribal movement, based on cooperation, charity and independence. This is the Rasta lifestyle. This Bio-Intelligence could be used in schools as fundamental sciences, in the common means of subsistence of the species, in family farming, in environmental preservation, bodily, mental and spiritual preservation. Governmentally, then, Rasta questions these two social sectors perpetuated by the system (Babylon), such as education and health. What do you really need to learn? How should we feed ourselves? Why do we only learn the false stories of colonizers in schools? Why do they poison food so much to sell us medicine? We profess, like the ancient Jews, a monotheistic worldview, often rigorous, simple, high and profound. Never as a monopoly, as domination, with partiality, but as a totality, with the law of cause and effect, with the peace of understanding that we are one people, one heart, one love, one humanity in diversity.

A HUMILITY IS THE KEY TO NOBILITYA

Our cornerstone is Respect. Rastafari is a guide that teaches you how to live, family and socially. Without love there is no respect, something that encompasses all humanity's connection because it is the principle that creates means, present at the foundation of everything, from spirit to matter, from the forest to the city, from the beginning to the present moment and beyond, giving a mystical meaning to all our actions, with a simple way of living. “Humility is the key to nobility”. Rastafari does not oblige itself, nor obliges anyone, to incorporate any solely worldly or human law. Rastafari continues to exotericize, legalize, legitimize, update, activate and contemplate. Both in direction, in devotion, and in knowledge, Rastafari is alive and functional, it is not dogmatic or doctrinal. The Rastafari movement extends to a small number of people, but incorporates its principles into the most diverse races and spiritualities. This is because Rastas form the basis of the congregation and are included among other religious groups: Jews, Essenes, Indians, Spiritists, Muslims, Christians and post-Christians, indigenous people, Oasqueros, but, mainly, or centrally, within the African and Pan-African movements for liberation, repatriation, reparation and equality. Rastafari continues to spiritualize and vivify all areas, in this recovery of ancestry, in all professional sectors. Awakening humanity to our roots, our human genesis in Africa, we believe that everything that happens in the global world today happens because spiritually we are not taking care of our roots, our origins.

BACK TO AFRIKA!

Any plant without roots dies, and Rastafari rescues this African ancestry, this essential pulse, nyahbinghi activates and heals this essential connection with the land, with the spirit and with this feeling of belonging, of motherhood provided by our mother earth, we have to turn to Africa. If this panoramic view wasn't enough, we also address the many divisions between the segments, between the mansions, but mainly because there are “more orthodox” people who delegitimize everything that is not their dogmatic vision, and the “less orthodox” who say that we are all Rastas, that to be a Rasta you mainly need Love.I believe that deep down everyone is Rastas, but there must always be a positive balance. Rastafari is life, on several levels, permeating different realities, mentalities to sustain and maintain your faith in QHS Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I and Empress Menen, in their peacemaking and ancestral works throughout the world.

O KING OF KINGS

Haile Selassie is certainly the common and central point of the Rastafari faith. In short, our movement begins in 1930 with its crowning Alpha and Omega, revealing the “New Name”: Rastafari I! His Imperial Majesty was a mystic, in the full sense. A leader of many diplomatic meetings, he built bridges with the world, uniting nations and beliefs, a man of spiritual retreats, of continuous prayers, recognized as Ras in his youth and King of Kings (Negusa Nagast) in his adulthood, visionary, the liberator of our era, a man of tremendous spiritual presence, courted by Kings and Queens for his wise advice. According to the small book of guidance from the Elders, called “Rastafari Code of Conduct”:Rastafarians must focus on things in common [...] putting aside differences for collective goals.”.Or even:Rastafarians must take into account that they are the current caretakers of ancient indigenous and ancestral cultures, the protectors of all human faith, as stated by the Elders; Patriarchs and Matriarchs.”.Jah Bless everyone!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RasKadhu is chairman of R.U.F Brasil (Rastafari United Front) and has visited over the last twenty years around planet Earth some of the main communities and mansions of Rastafari Universality in Shashamane (Ethiopia), Marcus Garvey Camp (South Africa), Templo del Sur (Chile) and RUF Headquarters (Brazil), meeting and living with some of the main Elders and Mamas organizers of our culture, continuing his pioneering work of rapprochement and decoding from Rastafari culture to the Portuguese language.