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Hiphop and the Three Perspectives
Much of my work is informed and influenced by the teachings of Ken Wilber who I have studied for some time, but to say that I've achieved any level of mastery of his dense and profound theories would be a gross overstatement. So forgive me if my writing is basic and without any real depth of understanding. Writing for me is like untangling knots; the more I work with it, the more a greater reality is revealed. This is just practice writing.
One of the things that assists me with my writing process (in particular when writing rhymes) is looking at an idea/concept/action/thought/feeling in as many ways as I can. This way I am sure to have a thorough grounding in the reality of that which I am currently witnessing (or are planning on being) engaged in. Just as much as a diamond can only be described after looking at all of its facets, I can only describe an object (including mental objects) or subject in full when I look at it from all sides. As my awareness inhabits more perspectives, I increase my direct experience (and as a result increased knowledge and understanding) of the ob/sub and can better express the totality of the experience hopefully without the taint of shortsightedness and prejudice.
To understand Hiphop fully and reap the most benefit from utilizing the elements, one must be willing to view and create from as many perspectives as possible. Why?
Well in general because looking at any situation, idea, etc from multiple perspectives frees us from myopia, or viewing things from a singular view. It provides a wider, more inclusive and more importantly, more real view of a situation. Hiphop is not one thing, nor are the elements or the ideas that the elements can capture. Taking on multiple perspectives makes us more intelligent, not because of what we now know but because of our increased capacity to know. It widens our mental lens, our awareness and tolerance of other viewpoints. If you're an entertainer it may even widen your audience. When we create, the more perspectives we take the more we can know about the subject, the more we can relay to others and the more we can connect to others through our element.
But from a larger perspective, as Hiphoppers we are often out of touch with who we are. Taking on multiple perspectives (of self and other) helps us to know ourselves better and live more authentically by short circuiting the tendency towards self/other deception by taking something at mere appearance or face value. Taking on more perspectives we attempt to "directly know" a phenomena, meaning we no longer base our knowledge on strictly guessing, belief, hope etc. We know because we experienced the perspective as much as we could. Viewing things from multiple perspectives also provides options for how to interact, treat or better assist a situation. Consider the ramifications it has when trying to truly be creative (instead of adopting old patterns of manifesting), solve difficult inter/intra personal decisions, be truly empathetic or resolve conflict between parties who can't see out side or beyond their own viewpoint.
For those interested in healing, connecting, helping, growing etc. I can sum it up like this.
The more perspectives you take the more you know about yourself and others.
The more you know about self and others the closer you grow to understanding and empathizing.
The more you empathize and understand the more you begin to see how big your heart really is (and always was).
The larger your realize your heart is the more space you have for other beings and your behavior and life naturally become skillfully helpful.
When there are masses of open hearted, compassionate beings, our families, our communities and our world will experience less suffering and more interconnectedness.
When individuals and families begin to see their interconnectedness to each other they will begin to see natures perspective and our connection to it.
When we see from the perspective of the divine calling us to call us its name, we will have peace because no thing is threatened by the fear of feeling other.
When you are everything there is nothing that you are outside and nothing that is outside you.
Then you can relax among the chaos of the world knowing that to resist would pull you from that integral perspective and peace that reality offers.
Three Perspectives
Wilber postulates that there are three primary perspectives, 1st, 2nd and 3rd person, by which all things may be viewed and the possibility of 4th, 5th, 6th and maybe even more perspectives yet to be discovered. These three perspectives are found in all human language and represent the ways we've developed to view the world.
If we look at how we describe experience, we find that we use 1st, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns. "The 1st person refers to the person who is speaking which includes pronouns like I, me, and mine (in the singular) and we, us, ours in the plural. It is what's going on within us. "It's the person speaking". Our 2nd person experience refers to who is being spoken to and includes pronouns like you and yours. The 3rd person perspective refers to the thing being spoken about such as he, him, she, her, they, them, it and its." (18, IS, Wilber)
So if I am talking to you about the new album by MF DOOM, "I" am the 1st person, "you" are the 2nd person and MF DOOM's album is the 3rd person (or the "it" being spoken about. When "we" communicate your 2nd person and my 1st person are engaged in dialog about MF DOOM.
1st, 2nd and 3rd person perspectives are part of your being, right now and are available to you in any moment. It is by adopting these perspectives that we see deeper into all experience. 3rd person perspectives refer to objective truth (science, nature), 2nd person perspectives refer to how we treat each other and 1st person perspectives deal with how i express myself. These three perspectives put can be stated more simply as truth, good and beauty or nature, culture and self. By visiting these perspectives we become more whole and begin to see the reality of ourselves, others and all things. Utilizing these perspectives when engaging with Hiphop can lead to a fuller and deeper experience of reality as well and can unlock the true power of the elements.
For instance, when Organized Konfusion wrote Stray Bullet in 1992 they did so from a 3rd person perspective; what it's like seeing through the eyes and mind of a bullet and gun. Why was that significant? Because in becoming the stray bullet one can more clearly relay the terror and trauma of those effected by it from a previously unseen perspective. Pharoahe Monch's verse was especially visceral:
"Aww fuck it", next target's Margaret's face *bang*
And I struck it
Now it's a flood of blood in circumference to her face
And an abundance of brains all over the street
Shame how we had to meet *bang*
Dashin, buckin, greet by fuckin family
They follow behind me in a orderly fashion
Bashin through flesh I'm wild
Crashin through the doors of projects hallways
To deflect off of the tile
I'm coming for you little girl
Once inside I shatter your world
Swirl, no more dreams no hopes when I spray.
If we take into account all of the perspectives involved in Pharoahe writing his verse we see that his depiction of the chaos of a stray bullet involved multiple viewpoints: a bullet (3p object), the 1st person view of the bullet (1p which are the lyrics), all coming from Pharoahe Monch's 1st person perspective (1-p).
But let's say we switch that around a bit: Pharoahe could've written from the little girls perspective as well. Had he have, he would've been writing from her 1st person view (1p) of a 3rd person (3p) from his 1st person (1-p). Had he chosen he could've written a dialog between the two of them as they discussed the horrors of gun violence. If he did he would've been giving a 1st person view (1p) while taking on a 2nd person perspective (2p) from his 1st person (1-p). He could've not written anything and instead did some introspection: that would be him taking a 1st person view (1p) of his 1st person awareness (1p) of his 1st person (1-p). What if he wrote about the proliferation of guns by large corporations? 3rd person view of a 3rd person institution from his 1st person. The corporation also has an internal view which could've focused on as well. That would've been Pharoahe writing from their 1st person about a 3rd person from his 1st person.
This attempt at looking at the exterior and interior perspectives of a phenomena is what Wilber calls Integral Methodological Pluralism, which is a really nerdy way of saying that we can view (and better study) the internal and external experience of individuals and groups from both inside and outside those experiences. Better yet.
Upper Left, Zone 1/Zone 2: The movement of my intelligence
The upper left (UL) of the chart refers to the individual, I, and also includes my self concept, identity, symbols, sensations, concepts, rules, structures of consciousness, feelings, thoughts, memories and experiences. Me. Zone 1 is the internal experience of the individual. Only the individual can see inside the individual. Wilber associates this Zone with the study of phenomenology, the study of mental arisings. Zone 1 is where we come in contact with the healthiness or unhealthiness of our thoughts and emotions, where we do the psychospiritual work of removing mental barriers to love such as greed, pride, anger, jealousy etc., cultivate healthy emotions such as generosity and gratitude and where prayer, meditation and contemplation take place. Zone 1 is also where we deceive ourselves by casting out thoughts and emotions that we find it hard to identify as ours. Wilber calls this our shadow. I often question emcees when I hear their lyrics. Is what they just said who and how they really are or a learned maladaptive response to unresolved trauma or pain? Zone 1 is where we can begin to witness our tendencies to distance ourselves from certain thoughts as well as begin to see how imbedded or fused our identities have become with material that we are completely unaware of.
Using the elements from a Zone 1 perspective
Emceeing, DJing, Bboying, Graf Writing, Producing: Resting AS Hiphop (peace, love, unity) in formless awareness as the Witness consciousness that sees the arising of your perceived emcee identity. Practicing stillness and conscious breathing to be aware of the present moment and to calm thoughts and feelings. Awareness can then be brought to thoughts and feelings to determine quality, motivation and intention. Thoughts can be assessed for healthiness or lack thereof. Questions such as, "what's keeping me from feeling my best", "are my thoughts pre/rational, post rational", "who am I", "where is the I that I think that I am", "what have I learned that can help me with this subject", "which aspect (level of self development) of my self do I wish to create from", "what am I trying to not feel", "is my identity in alignment with my intention", "how can what I'm about to create help or hurt me/others", "what may be the result of my creation", may be asked.
Zone 2
Zone 2 however is what Zone 1 looks like from the outside. It is the attempt to look at the arisings (thoughts, feelings, perceptions) of a first person perspective by someone other than the individual. Examples of this include studying the effects of meditation on an individuals perception. From a Hiphop standpoint, Zone 2 is where we attempt to explore and understand the experience of other practitioners 1st person perspective through contemplation, research, interview or other form of inquiry. Theres no way to conduct the research from the inside of someone else's head, but we can ask them to report their experience to us so we can try to understand it better. Attempting to describe the experience of a practitioner is useful because although ones 1st person perspective is not legitimate by itself, if you and I discuss our experience and come to a consensus about the means and fruition of that experience we can begin to discover HOW to repeat that experience. Meditation is a good example. Meditation can only be experienced by the meditator. No one can see inside of their experience. However if we both meditate, follow the same instructions and get similar results, it gives credence to our method and fruition as valid. People have meditated for thousands of years using the same instructions and getting the same results. Faith in the practice is based upon the experience of others, our experience while meditating and cross checking our experience with the lineage of meditators. What did they say would happen if I meditated? Did the same thing happen for me? If not, is meditation flawed, was my teacher flawed or did I not follow the instructions correctly? My experience has been that its usually my fault. I either didn't practice at all/enough, or I thought that I could replace practice with thinking, as if the thought was the same as experience.
No one can see inside the 1st person experience of a bboy, however if two bboys both uprock and then share their experience with each other, and agree on the experience, it gives validity to the experience. It then is not just my experience, it is ours. Lets say a group of 1000 bboys do the same thing. Then we can be more sure that our experience is valid and repeatable. Knowing the means (the 4 elements) that produce favorable developmental outcomes and sharing our results with each other will validate Hiphop as a tool for growth.
Hiphop is already a lineage based on study, practice and discussion of the results as validity for future study and practice but I don't think it's very recognized. For now i think that Zone 2 is largely used by those interested in entertainment. My hope is that Hiphop will utilize this same scientific method to explore the benefit of the elements on our psychospiritual, cultural, social and physical development. Researching and validating reports of heightened states of consciousness, increased self awareness, interconnectedness, compassion, wisdom etc. through skillful use of the elements helps Hiphop transcend its current egocentric and ethnocentric associations.
Justin F. Miles is the founder of Hiphop Alive and pioneering practitioner, theorist and educator at the intersection of Hiphop culture, mindfulness and contemplative studies. He is the leading voice championing the use of Hiphop infused contemplative modalities to foster resilience, emotional intelligence, and community empowerment.