🔵 By Prince Jesus SantoBriganti. Photo by lauragrafie.
When you hear the word „Woke“, what comes to mind? Does it stir a distaste within you? Is it a word that invokes knowing of what’s going on in the world? Or are you indifferent to it? Whatever your position is on that word, in today’s times, there’s a lot of attention on it.
To many people in the USA who have a narrow palate, that believe they know what „woke“ means, it invokes a lot of distaste. On the flip side of that same token, to others, it’s an egocentric expression of someone who identifies a political or social problem, and believes that their perception of the problem (or the perception of someone else who panders to their leanings) is the only truth and only their opinion is the only solution to life itself.
The truth is, the word „Woke“ has been convoluted by those whose feelings got hurt by Donald Trump and by those who believe that there is some weird conspiracy to turn your kids black in public schools; by those who play identity politics/extreme politicization/sensationalism; by cancel culture crybabies; by those who vilify on the left and the right – that swear to God that their form of politics is going to save the world even though history has clearly shown that the reason why the world is in such a mess is because of the left and the right; by those who blame „men“ and the „white man“ for all their personal problems in life; and it’s become a word that delusionally means something of a threat to replace white men with some shadowy Jewish boogie man. I promise you, Jews are NOT on that! Though it might mean all that to certain people, this is NOT where the word „Woke“ originated nor do these above definitions hold any merit to those who hold its original meaning sacred. I can assure you, any definition, whether left or right, that is not of its spiritual origin, is straight up BULLSHIT!
Originally deriving from the Asiatic Sanskrit language, the word „Woke“ has two entry points into the English language. For multiple thousands of years in south Asia, the words „Buddha“ (He who has awakened/The woke one), „Buddhi/Boddhi“ (Awakened intellect), and „JIvanmukti/Viccharamukti“ (The Awakened One who is liberated while in the human form), has been in continuous usage in terms that mean Spiritual Enlightenment/Supreme Self Awareness (Atma Bodha), with synonymous words such as „Conscious/Consciousness“. They are sacred words that denote the ultimate goal of spirituality and religion, used by people that are „Asiatically conservative“, but yet weaponized ignorantly by American conservatives and arrogantly perverted by liberal left Americans.
During the British rule of India and China in the 17, 18 and 1900’s, numerous Indian and Chienese indentured servants migrated throughout the British empire – and in this case, particularly to British Jamaica, and amongst the migrants were certain „Woke“ Ones, bringing with them their WOKENESS, their dreadlocks, and their Ganjah (marijuana), which in turn influenced the mystically inclined people who would later become the Rastafarians. Big up to the Rastas! From Asia to the west Indies, „Awakened“ (Buddha/Jivanmukti) enters the English language.
Awakened, distilled down to very simplistic terms –
At the base of the spine there is an energy center called the Muladhara Chakra. In this Chakra there is a Spiritual Force laying dormant/asleep, coiled up like a cobra, by the name of Goddess Kundalini Shakti. By devotion to an Enlightened Master it becomes activated. The sleeping Spiritual Force becomes AWAKENED and rises up the channel called the Sushumna Nadi, piercing and purifying the Sushumna Nadi and point to Cosmic Oneness with the Divine which we’ll call here „WOKENESS“. So, with these Asiatic Woke Ones arriving in Jamaica, they in time influenced certain blessed ones and the word „Awakened“ becomes translated to the word „Woke“ in Caribbean English.
The second entry point into the English Language is in the 1960’s and 70’s from the hippies that traveled to Asia and got Awakened by Asiatic Woke Ones then came back to American big cities, particularly New York City where it later gets picked up by 5 percenters and hip hop heads that got dosed in my Jamaican Rastas and hippie yogis, which i turn became part of street talk/urban slang that describes someone who „knows what time it is“.
Woke has deep spiritual and consciousness expanded connotations. Untainted by left and right politicization, it truly does denote someone who has attained Spiritual Enlightenment and has become One with God after taking on a spiritual path by becoming a disciple of an Enlightened Master. Staying Woke and Wokeness implies remaining in Vigilance, meaning staying anchored in the „Present Moment“ while in the thought free state of Witnessing Awareness – thus allowing Supreme Reality to unfold itself unobstructed by any mind constructs – being fully „Present“ in the present moment of Self Knowledge.
Wokeness is not new to Mediterranean schools of thought. Pythagoras, Plato, Orthodox/Coptic Saints all employed „Sophia“ (Wisdom) and „Anointed“ (Christos/Messiah (to imply an Awareness that is psychically in tuned to God. In all real talk, though in today’s slang „Woke“ can be defined as knowing what’s going on in the world, but when it is devoid of Transcendental Wisdom, it is just plain egocentric arrogant ignorance being paraded as knowledge, but in truth, it is in fact „Trick-Knowledge“. The Trick-Knowledge is then weaponized by those who seek to exploit their constituency for money, power and influence. Unwittingly, ignorant ones on the left place on a silver platter the perfect safe boogie man for those on the right to capitalize on, thus complicating what would have been a simple progressive matter of finesse-game. It’s a basic case of „the left ain’t got no game and the right ain’t got no brain.“
In closing, though no one culture can claim any monopoly on Awareness/Wokeness, it should be highlighted and underlined that the word „Woke“ is spiritual in origin, nature, and in my opinion, should be reclaimed from those left and right extremists who have hijacked and framed the political debates, reclaimed from those who politically weaponize it, and reclaim it from those who licentiously promote their egos with it.