AM I A RASTA?

DO YOU FEEL DIFFERENT TO OTHER PEOPLE?

Do you sometimes feel as though there is something different about you? Do you feel as though the world and the people around you do not understand you and seem to think and feel differently than you do? Do you feel as though there is something not quite right with this world and the way people treat one another and the earth? Do you feel as though there is something more to life than you are being taught at school?

Do not fret dear Youth the good news is there is nothing wrong with YOU! You are not ‘autistic’ you are not ‘bipolar’ or any of the other labels that they give to kids simply because they do not understand you.

You are extremely precious and very special and the reason you are different is because you carry with you, what we call ‘JAH light (God’s light)’ and the people who do not carry this light, which is a lot of people, are the ones who will not understand you and therefore they also behave and think differently. So this ‘something’ which you can feel deep inside you, this thing is Rasta!

WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS (con-shis-ness)?

You could say that this different feeling you have inside your heart is like an evolved state of consciousness, ii know that these are big words in a big world but to make it easier to understand you can use the word ‘AWARENESS’ because CONSCIOUSNESS is the awareness of being aware and if you are already reading this then you can be sure that you have reached a certain level of consciousness which the people around you may not yet have reached and this is exactly why you feel different.

It is right here dear children where ii wish ii could say that it is as simple as that but as ii am sure you have started to figure out that nothing in this life is simple but ii can tell you that there are perfectly logical explanations for everything except that these things are not really taught at school so you must seek the information and then you will get the truth you are looking for and this truth that we are all looking for is the actual CONSCIOUSNESS!

ii do hope this makes sense? You can also call it “TRUTH CONSCIOUSNESS” because there really are a lot of different types of consciousness so this means that not everyone is on the same level of thinking and feeling.

From a very young age ii also began to realize that there is something in my heart which was very different from the people in my family and my community. But ii was blessed to receive the teachings of Rastafari from a young age which was very difficult because ii grew up in the racist apartheid times which you have probably heard about by now and ii would like to share some of these lessons with you.

WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION AND SPIRITUAL HOMEWORK?

In order to be part of the power of knowledge this power (information) has to be filtered in your own brain which basically means that you have to put in the work which is research which is fun and arrange the information so that it makes sense to you and is something that you can completely understand and actually feel in your heart then you will know that this is the truth. So it’s kind of like ‘spiritual homework’!

What ii am trying to say is that you must never ever just accept what someone else tells you or what you can read up on the net because it is actually only their own truth or rather their version of the truth. You must do your own research and make sure that it makes sense to YOU!

WHO IS BOB MARLEY AND WHAT IS REGGAE MUSIC?

You will see that ii refer to Bob Marley a lot and the reason for this is that it is his music which directly influenced me to study Rastafari and this is how ii came to start studying the Bible, so for me personally he is definitely the prophet who brought God into my life. Actually to be very honest when ii was much younger than you are now, ii truly believed that Bob Marley (born Robert Nesta Marley 6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was the reincarnation of Jesus himself and ii can remember making lists of the things these two Holy Men had in common. It was only after being blessed with the teachings of my elders that ii came to know about His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I Emperor of Ethiopia but more about this a bit later on.

If you do your spiritual homework you will also learn about all of the children of Bob Marley and what they are doing today in the music industry to spread the message of Rastafari. So if you were to listen very carefully to reggae music you will realize that it is actually gospel music!

So 35 years after his death his music is still going strong proving that he was really a prophet and that his prophecy has come true and continues to be true.

Bob Marley adored children and spent much of time teaching the youth during his short lifetime. You can see this clearly if you watch his “One Love” music vid.

The next quote is probably my most favorite Bob Marley quote and ii do use it very often and ii think that it really helps to make sure that everyone who is discussing a certain topic eventually understands what the message or lesson is.

“Explain it to me like I am a baby so that I know that you understand what you are saying to me” ~ Bob Marley

WHAT IS RASTA LIVITY?

In Rastafari we have a diet called Ital (eye-tell) which is actually a very strict vegan diet. This style of eating is taken from the Old Testament of the Bible.

Personally ii was a vegan for the first 40 years of my life and for many reasons which need to be explained in a separate lesson it turned out to not be such a healthy lifestyle choice mainly because ii was not actually growing my own vegetables most of the time. Now ii eat anything ii please and still there are many things ii have never eaten yet and ii made this decision based on my Bible studies and if you look at the following scriptures you will see that Jesus says that anything is to be blessed and accepted in His name.

Romans 14 vs 3

“The person who will eat anything is not to despise the one who doesn’t; while the one who eats only herbs is not to pass judgment on the one who will eat anything; for God has accepted him.”

Romans 14 vs 17

“For God’s Kingdom is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy which the Holy Spirit gives.”

Mark 7 vs 18 - 19

“Don’t you understand? Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can really make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart but into his stomach, and then goes on out of the body. In saying this Jesus declared that all foods are fit to be eaten”

It is also true that when Bob Marley’s Rastafari teacher Ras Mortimer Planno (remember Ras means King) and some other elders went to visit HIM Haile Selassie I at His palace in Ethiopia, they not only actually saw the 26 lions live themselves they witnessed His Majesty instruct them to eat and drink as they were used to doing, so again we can take the lesson that each one of us must feel free to eat and drink what we feel our bodies need because at the end of the day the Kingdom of God is definitely not about eating and drinking, it is only about what is in your heart. This is the real truth but as you can see there are many distractions in this life to shift peoples focus from their hearts and this is one of the reasons the world is in the state it is…but this is a topic for another lesson!

So in Rastafari we strive to live a life which ensures that we are self -sufficient and can produce our own food and medicine, build our own homes, educate our children and so on to create as natural a lifestyle as is possible.

Rastafari is much more than a religion or a movement, it is a way of thinking, perceiving and conducting oneself. History has proven that this form of enlightenment is the very reason you won’t ever see a Rasta man picking up a gun and killing in the name of JAH. Give thanks!

WHAT DOES ‘ONE LOVE’ MEAN?

Some Rasta’s will greet you with either an open hand or closed fist over their heart and say “One Love” and this expression has its origins in the Bible as well.

As you can see from Romans 12 verse 4 to 5, the message in the Bible is clearly of having ‘One Love’ because we are all one, and we are all connected to each other and it is ultimately a hope for global Inity (eye-net-tea) which is Rastafari for unity.

In Rastafari we have a spiritual idea which is a bit of a complex idea to understand at first, but let’s go for it!

It is referred to as the “I and I”, which refers to the ‘Oneness’ of JAH (GOD) and every single human being. So the ‘Oneness’ is actually the ‘oneness’ of two persons, you and your God because God is within all of us as we can see in the above verse.

This is what we mean when we speak about “One Love”, because we are all one and the same and when you hurt one person you are for real hurting another especially yourself!

So “I and I” is an expression to totalize the concept of oneness, and is often used to replace the words “I” “You” or “we”, implying that both persons are united under the love of JAH. For example “Greetings Brother Judah, how is the ‘I’ doing today?”

It is similar to the tattoo ii have on my right forearm ‘Namaste’ which is a Sanskrit greeting which means ‘the God in me recognizes the God in you’. Isn’t that a beautiful way to greet one another?

WHY DO RASTA’S SPEAK SO FUNNY?

You might have noticed that followers of Rastafari speak in a different way and tend to change words, always preferring to use an “I” which symbolizes our Higher Self, as we just learnt about in the above question.

So for example instead of saying ‘forever’ we will say ‘forIver’ and instead of saying ‘creation’ we will say ‘crIation’ (cry-a-tion). Also we prefer to say ‘overstand’ instead of ‘understand’ because of the negative suggestion of ‘under’ which symbolizes being downtrodden by slavery. If you listen closely you will hear that we speak in a biblical dialect often quoting bible scriptures as truths for this is what they are.

Another Rastafari phrase is “IRIE” (eye-ree) which stands for ‘I Respect I Eternally’ and again embraces the overall idea that God is Within, and the Oneness of mankind and womankind with God.

“Are you feeling Irie today?” means the same as “Are you all right today?”

On a spiritual level it also indicates positive and powerful vibrations indicating that we are at total peace with our current state of being.

“I’m not Irie today” would mean that there is problem, pain or illness that is causing a negative vibration.

RASTAFARI AND THE BIBLE

“The only place you can read about Rastafari is in the Bible because the Bible is the only truth of Rasta. Some men write about Rasta, but it's distorted”

~ Bob Marley

Rastafari is a fairly new movement and although it is recognized as a ‘religion’ with over a million followers just in South Africa, we do prefer to be seen as a ‘spiritual movement’ as history has already shown us that ‘religion’ is really just another form of ‘crowd control’. So Rastafari was born out of the slavery movement in the late 1920’s when millions of Africans were uprooted and relocated to places all over the world to work as slaves and many millions landed up in Jamaica.

It was through the spiritual prophet Marcus Garvey (the Rastafari camp in Cape Town is named after him) that followers were brought closer to the Bible when he prophesized that the people should look towards Africa for the crowning of a Black King.

This prophecy was fulfilled 0n 2 November 1930 when His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I who was born Ras Tafari (Ras means ‘King’ and Tafari means ‘to be respected’) was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.

It is also very interesting to note that Ethiopia is the only African country to this day that has never been colonized and the following verses in the Bible are a reference of this prophecy.

Revelation 17 vs 14

“They will fight against the Lamb; but the Lamb, together with his called chosen, and faithful followers, will defeat them, because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings”.

Psalms 48 vs 4 – 6

“The kings gathered together and came to attack Mount Zion. But when they saw it, they were amazed; they were afraid and ran away. There they were seized with fear and anguish.”

“King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Rightful Ruler of Earth, Elect of God and Light of the World, Honory Citizen of the Earth, Chief Commander of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia, Grand Cordon of the Order of Solomon, Grand Chief of the Order of the Golden Lion, Order of The Elephant, Knight Grand Cross of Royal Victorian, The Order of Bath, The Most Holy Annunciation, Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau, Order of the White Lion, Order of Independence, Chain of Honor, Order of Pius IX, Order of Muhommed, Grand Order of the Hashemites, Order of the Redeemer, Order of Leopold, National Order of Chile, Chad, Benin, Mali, Madagascar, Mauritiana, Guinea, Poland, Upper Volta, Yugoslavia, Belgrade, Hungary and Togo, Order of the Leopard, Order of the Lion”

All of these kings and monarchs had to bow before HIM (His Imperial Majesty). All of them and therefore the whole world recognized His heritage of having a direct lineage to King Solomon’s father King David, and therefore to Jesus as well, and gave Him His due respect and all of them bowed before His Majesty Haile Selassie I as he was crowned with the above titles as Emperor of Ethiopia. This is what the Bible has to say:

Psalm 72 verse 11

“All kings will bow down before him; all nations will serve him.”

Revelation 19 vs 16

“On his robe and on his thigh was written the name: ‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

Revelation 17 vs 14

“They will fight against the Lamb; but the Lamb, together with his called, chosen, and faithful followers, will defeat them, because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.”

Revelation 5 vs 5

“Don’t cry! Look! The Lion from Judah’s tribe, the great descendant of David, has won the victory, and he can break the seven seals and open the scroll.”

Psalm 89 vs 3-4

“I have promised my servant David, a descendant of yours will always be king; I will preserve your dynasty forever.”

Ezekiel 37 v 25

“A king like my servant David will rule over them forever.”

It is very important to realize that His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I never officially practiced Rastafari nor did he ever claim to be divine or have any special powers, but most of us who follow Rastafari simply believe that he was Christ-like in the way in which He lived His life and through His teachings but especially because of His direct lineage to King David and therefore to Jesus! It was an extremely festive gathering when His Majesty visited Jamaica in April1966 and He could not believe how many Rastafari followers had chosen Him to be their Messiah as it was written in the biblical prophecies.

So followers of Rastafari study the same Bible as Christians do and it is a historical fact that Ethiopia received both the Old and New Testaments earlier than most of the countries in the world around AD330. So Christianity has been the official religion of Ethiopia since AD330.

And so it was the exact same for His Majesty because from a very young age (younger than 12) Haile Selassie I (born Ras Tafari) already knew the scriptures of books that were previously removed from the Bible, and many priests used to visit him as a young boy and question his knowledge and he would whisper the answers in their ears and they would run away fearing the things that he could tell them.

This is how His Majesty was able to manifest the Amharic Bible, which is also known as the Book of the Seven Seals, the oldest version of the Bible. This was another fulfillment of biblical prophecies involving the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, which you can read more about in the book of Revelation in your bible.

Haile Selassie I’s teachings are the same teachings as Jesus and are manifested in His Majesty’s own ‘Amharic Bible’. The Amharic Bible includes books that are no longer in our Bible and the main lesson is that GOOD (LOVE) will eventually always gain victory over bad (FEAR), and that TRUTH will eventually drive away falsehood and fraud from our society and world.

Like Jesus, His Majesty’s Laws and Lessons are concerned with social order and the manner in which we conduct ourselves in society (our behavior). It is also to learn the worth or value of manhood and womanhood. His laws demand absolute Love, Purity, Honesty and Truthfulness.

It is a well- known fact that a lot of the Bible is distorted or inaccurate; it still is one of the most awesome books to sit and spend time studying.

The Bible is actually all one story which is the story of planet earth, her origin and her destiny. It is the story of rebellion and awful loss but it is also a story of our beloved God who sacrificed His only son, so that all sinners, which, is all of us, collectively may have hope for REDEMPTION which is also another lesson for another time.

The Bible is over 25 percent prophecy and all these prophecies are connected together to tell the same story. So the Bible is not just any history book, it tells the past, present and future equally clearly. For example if you read the book of Daniel (yes Daniel in the den of lions) you will see that a lot of the dreams Daniel had can explain some of the prophecies revealed in the book of Revelation.

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE YOU A RASTA?

First of all if you are still reading this paper then ii believe you already know the answer to this question J

Romans 14 vs 5

“Each one should firmly make up his own mind.”

Remember that ii told you in the beginning that you should never ever just accept what you read and hear and that you should always do your homework to find the truth.

This is why ii recommend that if you are looking for spiritual truth it is going to be best to find a worthy Rastafari Master or Teacher to guide you in your studies. The biggest difference between a master and a beginner is that the master has failed more times than the beginner has attempted and this is exactly what makes the master worthy to teach.

This is a picture of my Master Brother Judah and my late niece Jami Lee (RIP) who was also a Rasta, on the Mtata River near the House of Judah in the rural Eastern Cape.

Also remember at the beginning ii spoke about the JAH light inside of you? God has made you different for a reason and because you and ii are different God has given us a light to carry inside of our hearts and this is how we will recognize each other.

You may not believe me right now but ii promise you that as you grow older and eventually finish school and go out into the big world, you will notice that more and more people will start telling you in a positive way that you are very different and special. Whenever you hear this please remember that this is your JAH light and you should smile and give thanks to GOD for blessing you because believe me ii can tell you from experience that this is truth.

When a candle is lit in a dark room it lights up the whole room but the same cannot be said of the opposite, for you cannot take darkness into a room full of light, and have any effect on the light. This picture below proves this point because light does not have a shadow!

So sons and daughters of Zion (another lesson) don’t worry too much about the problems of the world right now, and rather focus on your own life at home where you dwell and on your education at school and your personal higher education as well as your actions and meditations (Thoughts) which again is another lesson for there are many more lessons which we need to learn. It has taken me personally 35 years to gain the knowledge ii have and ii am still learning new stuff everyday so it also very true that you are never too old to learn something new!

Proverbs 4 vs 23

“Be very careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.”

Focus on love instead of hatred and negativity, do what you love and not what you hate, grow your own food, grow your own medicine, reason with one another, harvest rain water, educate yourself and your friends and family and especially take the time to read the Bible, avoid television and other negativity.

Never mind all the bad things which are going on around you right now, stay positive because mankind is going to make it, womankind is going to make it; we are all going to make it, just stay positive and always look on the brighter side of life!

Ok ii catch you now!!! So, just as you thought you are finished with your first lesson ii almost forgot to give you your homework, so if you are really interested in finding out more about Rastafari ii would like it if you could do the following two things to make you more prepared. Most of you are blessed to already have the technology of a tablet but if you do not you can ask your parents to help you or ii can also put this onto a USB stick for you to use.

Download and watch the movie called Bob Marley The Man – 2012 release

Download the song and lyrics for “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley and try to learn these lyrics.

When you watch the Bob Marley movie you will see exactly how funny some Rasta’s can speak so it is a good idea to use the sub titles until you are familiar with the speech. Just one more thing, ii have written this paper in such a way that ii know there will be a lot of questions you will need answered so part of your homework will be to write your questions down so ii can answer them for you as best as ii can.