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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Purpose; our concept of Salvation

You are a busy professional, you have several projects due that require your immediate attention and you need to stay in a place in order to complete them and relax. You are running a tight schedule, you have many meetings and appointments, your agenda is full, but you are told you have to run an errand to the grocery store (market), there is a terrible storm coming your way so you want to get everything you need on this trip.
This is to avoid having to go out again, having the chance to stay at home and finish all this work you have. Then later rest comfortable knowing you have everything you need at hand and do not have to worry to go out for quite some time if you so choose.
You ask what is needed in the house for this relaxation and the items you are told to get are somewhat long, so you decide to write them down, on something so as not to waste time going all the way to the grocery store (the market) with your mind completely preoccupied with the other things that could easily distract you. You make a list and keep it in a safe place while you proceed. You make it to the grocery store, and then ……

you forget your list, you have three choices
i) you can go back home to collect it
ii) you can try to think & recollect what it was on your list and go from memory
iii) you can “call” home to ask someone to elucidate the list by reading what was written
you soon realize you can not make it back home for risk of not being able to return back to the market, it will not be possible and you will need to stay in either of the two places, the process of trying to recollect is too unnerving, so this leaves you one feasible option, you call home, if you chose this one you have chosen well and should congratulate yourself.

You collect the items on your list and while there encounter just as many other items you came across at the market that interest you.
You decide to take them as well and add to your basket, when you get to the register you encounter another problem, you do not have enough money to get the things you need from your list AND the things you want as desires, what do you do? you have three choices
i) you can remove the individual items you can not afford
ii) you can take all the items that meet your craves or immediate desires
iii) you get all the items on your list then add the other ‘wants’ where feasible

Again if you chose option number iii) you chose well, as it ensures you get the things you came for and only the other things you can stretch out of your budget.

Ifa teaches us that in “essence” alone this is what transpires when we are busy doing something at “HOME” and get summoned or requested to the “MARKETPLACE” Home is Heaven and the Marketplace is earth, we come here to complete our task, our assignment and fulfill our purpose for coming to the “market”
It is during conception and traveling the birthing channel, that we forget our “list” which is our destiny / purpose for coming, to reason for having Ifa divination is to reveal what was on our list in Heaven, for us to collect here on earth, the telephone call and information delivered is the particular Odu Ifa as the advice for redirection in our life to get on path for our destiny.
We come to do what we are sent to complete to make our existence complete, we have the things we must do (the list) and can also collect some other things not on our list but things we may see as wants or desires, but this must be taken in measure and not as more important then the “list” or we face the risk of having a failed mission and the need to come back again to complete the list, reincarnation.

I decided to write this blog, using terms we are familiar with to explain in plain terms the issue of purpose and destiny, also the central role Ifa divination plays in our lives and why it is crucial in finding our way and directing our ourselves.

I will discuss this in more detail during a future podcast on the matter of divintion and the methods of divination used within our system of Ifa worship, check it at
www.alawoye.com

Awoyinfa Ifaloju

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much Baba for making clear the distinction between heaven (home) and earth (the market place). As I have just recently received owo Ifa'kan your post has shed additional light to those things Ifa has put before me.

Cheers,
Negarra Akili

Unknown said...

thank you for making a distinction between home and the marketplace. I have not received any initiation. But i try to learn something regarding Ifa each day.
blessings peace and love
meritan spirit

Unknown said...

Thank you for your comments, my intent was to add some clarity to my earlier blog about Ori /Destiny, and how Destiny/Divination/Purpose are inter-connected, thank you once again.

Unknown said...

This is a great way of putting it, thanks so much. However there's something important I wanna ask about:

You mention that "...but this must be taken in measure and not as more important then the “list” or we face the risk of having a failed mission and the need to come back again to complete the list, reincarnation."

So I ask: If we are able to fully live out our destiny, does that mean we "accomplished the mission" and therefore do not have to reincarnate if we don't want to?

What if we don't want to "go back to the marketplace" after we've gone ibae? Does fulfilling our destiny save us from having to come back down again?

Buddhists call it enlightenment & Hindus call it nirvana, either way its the escape from the cycle earthly life and rebirth...but how do WE Ifa/Orisha worshippers go about attaining that goal?

Whatever information would be very appreciated thank you, Iboru Iboya Iboshishe