"Spirituality to me is water. Religions are like Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, wine, beer, or whatever. But spirituality is what's really going to save you in the battle, man. Champagne is not going to do much for you in battle. And so that's how I look at things. To me, it's very clear. And I think the more we get people this information, spiritual information, they will be able to choose, to realize the power of choice because, again, that's the most empowering thing you can give people. And I'm really happy to say that I'm not the only one waking up to this new dimension." -Carlos Santana
I'm both very suspicious of, and very sympathetic to, the "New Age" movement. On the one hand, under the banner of the New Age movement there is probably alot of ill-informed, self-indulgent undisciplined navel-gazing going on. But on the other hand, more traditional organized religions have certainly shown the potential to stagnate and fossilize into a dry oppressive unspiritual practice. Ultimately, the believers vote with their feet, and if the mainstream religious institutions aren't feeding the hearts of their congregations, their members are going to feel a sincere need to look elsewhere.
So in spite of the fact that I don't share all Santana's beliefs, I think there is something appealing in his willingness to step out on a limb and do his own thing. He not only stepped outside the Catholic Church, but out of a mainstream Christian paradigm altogether.
For a while now I've wanted to do an entry on Carlos Santana. Like John Coltrane, Santana is an amazing musician with a very unique and personal spiritual sensibility. In 1970 he released the album Abraxas (a Gnostic term for god) . For 9 years from 1972-1981 was a follower of Sri Chimnoy and went by the name Devadip. (see Carlos Santana and Sri Chinmoy ) He was later disillusioned with his guru and left, but continued explore spirituality on his own. in the wake of his Grammy-winning album Supernatural he credits his succes to his regular communication with the angel Metatron.
"Metatron ignited in me the concept of being patient, gracious and grateful," Santana muses, fingering a gold and silver pendant which, he says, is a representation of the angel. "He made me feel like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, and he still visits me in dreams. Some people don't believe in him, but that's okay. Like I said to Rolling Stone, I'd rather live with my craziness than your sane reality. In my craziness, I get to hang out with some seriously cool people."
(See also Metatron: Angel of the Presence)
Other articles/interviews with Santana:
Carlos Santana: Ready to reincarnate
The Eagle Flies Again: Interview with Carlos Santana
The Supernatural Rebirth of Carlos Santana by Zannah
The Uncompromising Spiritual Passion and Positivity of Carlos Santana by Craig Hamilton and Jessica Roemischer
And from Grenada's past:
the guru principle
2 comments:
I personally believe no spiritual practice is haraam, per se, if it does not conflict with Islamic principles, i.e., that Allah (swt) is One and Muhammed (pbuh) is the seal of the prophets. I do certain Taoist and Buddhist meditations and when I do du'a, and I often say the lords prayer (with 'our lord' instead of 'our father'). These are things that have a lot of power for me because of where I come from. I'm also aware of Jewish reverts who still wear Jewish sacred garments and do some traditional hebrew prayers in addition to their wajib salaah. During the prophet's (pbuh) life, he was known to welcome non-Arab reverts, particularly from black Africa to practice the din within their own culture insofar as that was Islamically sound. This also goes with the earlier comments about Muslims practicing Kwanzaa...Unless it involves some element of shirk or haraam that I'm not aware of (I'm no expert on Kwanzaa), I would say it's a perfectly valid for Africanic Muslims to take part in it, provided he/she was fullfilling his/her Islamic duties.
Da, I'm actually curious, what do you have in mind when you say that the prophet made certain allowances for black africans? Are you talking about cultural practices or religious ones?
None of this should be taken as a "fatwa" but in terms of other religious practices into Islam, to be honest I would have alot of misgivings about that, and in general Muslims should be cautious.
For example, even in terms of Kwanzaa, all I'm doing is thinking about the principles and writing about them, I'm not lighting any candles or performing rituals.
Meditation seems to me like sitting, thinking (or non-thinking) and relaxing so I doubt there would be a problem. But some forms of meditation might involve concentrating on a non-Muslim religious figure which I would think is a problem.
The prophet said, Seek wisdom, even unto China. So I think it can definitely be good to benefit from knowlede and wisdom which comes from Asia and elsewhere, whether you are talking about yoga or tai chi etc. or different meditation techniques. or macrobiotics.
But Muslims are also not supposed to immitate people of other religions so I would be cautious when it comes to rituals which are really distinctive to other religions.
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