Familiar Stranger

Familiar Stranger

Guess what my friend... Believe it or not, I think that we’ve met. Perhaps our meeting wasn’t face to face, but I am sure that I’ve dealt with you before. Better yet, let’s say that at the least I have dealt with an aspect of you, no matter how big or small. To understand how this is possible, first, you must look at what we are both made of. Simply put, we are the products of our exposure. 

At the beginning stages of the M’TAM initiation (the initiatic education brought to the western world by the late Prophet Neb Naba), initiates are taught that the human brain does not harness the ability to invent or manifest “new” information out of thin air. The fundamental function of our brain is to copy or imitate what is brought to our consciousness through our senses... so this makes you and I the result of what our brains have been exposed to. All the events that we’ve gone through in our lives have added to us, little by little, making us who we are in this present moment. 

To give you an example, even with this article... as you read it, on some level it is joining with you, changing you from the person you were before you picked up this magazine. Another example that may help is to equate a single snowflake to a single life experience. Can you see the similarity between what makes a snowman (the joining of countless snowflakes) and what makes a human being (the joining of countless experiences)? In other words, when you read this article, you are dealing with me, but who am I...? Dealing with me means that you are also dealing with all that has impacted my life. So, as you read these lines, you are being exposed to aspects of my mother, my father, my brother, teachers, friends, acquaintances, etc. And each of them are the product of the individuals that influenced their lives, and so on and so on. 

Now, there still remains the question of how we’ve met. Like I said at the beginning, perhaps our meeting wasn’t face to face, but I am sure that I’ve dealt with an aspect of you before. Let’s try an experiment. First, I want you to imagine a friend that you are close to. Let’s say that you spoke to that friend a couple days ago on the phone. Perhaps, in that conversation you shared a humorous joke, which left that friend with laughter and happiness. Now, imagine your friend getting off the phone with you, but still carrying that aspect of you with them into the day, meaning that happiness that they received from that joke. Imagine your friend going through their day, sharing that humorous story with anyone who would listen, affecting each of them on different levels, but all in positive ways. Imagine that at the end of your friend’s day, before going to bed, they end up having a phone conversation with their cousin. Before they end their conversation, your friend decides to tell your hilarious joke one last time. Both your friend and their cousin laugh until tears roll down their faces, and after they settle down, they say good night, hang up their phones and go to bed. 

Now, let’s imagine that the next morning, your friend’s cousin wakes up and goes about their day, all the while giggling to themselves about the joke that was shared with them the night before, still carrying the positive energy that was transferred to them. They have the ability to continue to pass that energy on to others, who will then pass it on to others, and so on and so on. That aspect of you has been transferred from one person, to another person, to another, etc. That happiness that you placed upon your friend has now affected all those who heard the joke, and all the people that they will in turn share it with. Now, let’s say days later I speak to a friend of mine, and they ask me, “Hey Marrwho, you wanna hear this joke I heard today?” As I’m entertained by your humorous story, it becomes a part of me, no matter how large or small the effects are, it now has played a part in my life. 

So with this experiment, can you see how we’ve potentially met? Can you see how I’ve potentially dealt with an aspect of you? If you can understand the point that I am making, then think about this... At the initial stage of this experiment, what if you would’ve transferred negative energy onto your friend instead of positive? What if after receiving that negativity, your friend then passed it on to others, who passed it on to others, etc. until it eventually reached me? The results most likely would be different. 

I say all this because we as humans in the modern world suffer immensely from individualism and tunnel vision. Amidst the rat race that we are a part of, we end up solely focusing on ourselves and what is in front of us. But we must find a way to begin expanding our awareness of how we impact ourselves and others around us with our actions, our speech, and even our thoughts. It is important that we understand that our daily behaviors affect others, not only in our households and workplaces, but in our neighborhoods, our cities, states, countries, and even the world. No longer can we afford to perform acts while remaining oblivious to their effects on our surroundings. 

My spiritual Master, the late Prophet Naba Lamoussa Morodenibig, once stated that every thought and action echoes out into the Universe. When I think of an echo, I think of an emission traveling outward on a journey and eventually returning back to be received by the same entity that originally produced that emission. But that entity that expressed itself is not the only thing that is affected by that echo. For instance, if I am with a group of friends hiking in the mountains, and I yell out, “HELLO!”, that echo from the mountains will be heard by me, but also by everyone in the group that I am hiking with, even people camping miles away can receive that greeting and I would never know. 

This example of an echo is really a life principle, perhaps this is what our parents meant when they told us the old cliche saying, “what goes around, comes around”. I must say that in the past whenever I heard people make this statement, I would always accept it, but I never truly understood what it meant. I couldn’t grasp the notion of how what leaves me, goes around, to eventually come back to me again. It’s like a package that has been sent out, only to arrive back at my doorstep with a stamp saying, “RETURN TO SENDER”. Only this time, at every step of the way, that package has been opened by people who have added something to it before returning it back to me. If I knew that every package that I sent out would always return to me, for me to open and have to deal with, I would always make sure that the contents of those packages were of quality. How about you? This example of a package returning reminds me of another old saying, a saying that I’m sure has become a part of you too... how does it go? “Treat others in the manner in which you wish to be treated”. As I gain more experience over the years, and as I continue growing within my M’TAM initiation, the understanding of the link between me and my surroundings is becoming more and more clear. 

When I look at the example of how Prophet Naba lived his life, I can see that he was just one man, yet he made such an impact on the lives of so many, and that impact is still expanding. Those who carry Prophet Naba in their hearts and minds transfer him and his teachings to others on a daily basis. The education that he transferred to us came from his exposure to a culture that is very old. The message and knowledge that he brought had been transferred from generation to generation for thousands of years, similar to the example of the joke being passed from person to person. This is why I hold a special place for him in my life based on the impact he had on me. 

Today, I am passing a piece of Prophet Naba to you, so that even if you had never met him, through me and this article, you have. You have now been exposed to an aspect of him, as well as all those that influenced his life. Keep this reality in mind as you go through your days. Remember that all that you send out will affect so many people before inevitably coming back to you. We must be aware of such an influence that we have because with it comes a big responsibility. Just as a brother must protect a brother, we must protect our planet, and even the Universe by placing care in what we enclose in the packages that we send out daily. Well my friend... until the day that we may actually meet face to face, remember that we can act as friends based on those that we touch who then share those experiences with others... may good things be placed on your path.