Ep. 658 – Ubuntu: Connecting to our Common Humanity with John Lockley

Wild reversal when we look at the point of view from... from this side of the world, you know.

Oh, my God.

Ubuntu, which is, I think it's a word that many people know and have heard.

And how about going into that a little bit and, you know, just defining that.

We've done it before, but...

It bears repetition, Ubuntu.

Ubuntu,

Ubunzulu, which means the depth of humanity.

So these are the teachings that was popularized by Nelson Mandela in the 90s and 2000s and also by... by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

And both of them are Xhosa men.

Both of them were raised in the Xhosa system of the culture in South Africa.

And Ubuntu is an old Southern African philosophy that speaks about humanity.

But it speaks about a circle of man or a collective consciousness of humanity.

So it's actually very deep.

So Ubuntu means I am what I am because of who we all are.

So if someone is suffering, it says we are all suffering.

If there's prejudice in the community, then we are all experiencing that.

If people have an enlightenment experience, then we are all experiencing that.

So this whole idea of Ubuntu, I am what I am because of who we all are, also puts responsibility on the individuals in that circle to kind of shape up and wise up and do their practice in terms of connecting with their ancestors and their humanity.

So to feed that Ubuntu circle, to make that circle of humanity stronger, they say the impetus and the responsibility is on each person in that circle, whether you're rich or poor, whether you're famous or not.

Whether you're man, woman, or child, they say the responsibility is for each human being in that circle to connect to their roots, to connect to that essence of Kanya, the essence of the human spirit and soul.

And the way we do that in the culture is to remember.

We say Oko Kumbula.

to remember who you are and where you come from, to remember your ancestry, and to remember your ancestors with kindness, and to sing their names, to remember them.

And as you do that, your humanity and your consciousness gets stronger.