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TOLTEC PHILOSOPHY (*)

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Philosophy is the basis of any civilization. The society fundamental structure is located in a complex explanation, which gives meaning and direction to life and the world. In the case of the Anahuac civilization, is the point with the most colonizer intolerance and blindness, from yesterday and today. There are few contemporary authors that raise the existence of a deep and complex system of ideas of the world and life, to fully explain the existence of human beings, the link with nature, the cosmos and its material creations, and fundamentally, the way to find the spiritual existence significance from consciousness.

Carlos Lenkersdorf is one of those few scholars who have gone humbly to learn from the anahuacas people, in this case from the tojolablaes:

 

"Language, therefore, takes the place of the speech or philosophical treatise. We must deepen in the language, just as we go deeper into a treaty. The explanation has to follow a narrow, winding, sometimes barely visible or at times broken paths to discover philosophize of a culture, of a non-western thought and actions. It is called PHILOSOPHIZE, because Greece was not the cradle of all kinds of philosophy, nor the source of universal culture.

The Greek philosophies, which in different ways has formed the Western philosophize, has to recognize that there are many ways to be a "friend of wisdom", that translates in tojolabal as "have a heart already" (´ayxa sk´ujol). It is a philosophy hunch, perhaps rather cordial, and not so intellectualized, without rejecting thought." (Lenkersdorf. 2005 p.28)

Nowadays, Dr. Carlos Lenkersdorf teaches Toltecáyotl to young people in the UNAM, the "tojolabal way" in the 21st century and like him, some other people are fighting against the intellectual colonization that denies the Anahuac civilization, on the possibility of having our own philosophy. However, the ―feel, see and hear the world style which developed during seven and half millennia in the Cem Anahuac has not, even remotely disappeared. It is still alive and manifests itself in many attitudes and feelings of the now so-called "Mexican" people. But there are these texts, preserving this millennial thinking, which is totally ours.

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"I feel out of sense,

I weep, I worry and think,

say and remember:

Oh, if I never died,

If I never disappeared...

I should go where there is no death,

where victory is achieved!

Oh, if I never died, if never disappeared...

(Ms. Mexican folk songs.)

 

A philosophy that explain and integrate into a consistent whole, human development of over seven and a half thousand years. A philosophical thought that interprets and links the material creation, (pyramids, stele, sculptures, codices, pottery, frescoes, etc.), with the rites, ceremonies, legends, myths, poetry, traditions and customs, as well as the Supreme aspiration of all conscious beings, that is in the upper vertex of their civilization. In other words, the spiritual transcendence of life.

 

"Where shall I go?

Where will I go?

The path to God is dual.

By fate, is your house the place of the emaciated?

Perhaps in the sky interior?

or only here on earth is the place of the emaciated?"

(Ms. Mexican folk songs.)

 

The Ontological problem of being.

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When a human being or a social group reaches a higher consciousness stage, it's responding to the ―being ontological (1)  approach. ―Who am I, where I come from and where I am going." Rummaging through mythical time to find a convincing answer, to affirm them in the present, and explain successfully its evolution. To define its responsibility, self and being at a given time, its relationship with

 

 

"We just came to sleep,

we only came to dream:

it is not true. It is not true

that we came to live on earth!

As grass every spring

We are turning:

Are re-greening, taking out sprouts

Our heart.

Some flowers produced by our body

and over there it withers."

(Ms. Mexican folk songs.)

 

This is how; humans create philosophy to answer these basic existence questions.

All peoples in the world, when they managed to satisfy their basic subsistence needs, immediately seek to find their existence meaning.

 

"Shall I go as the flowers that perished?

Nothing shall remain of my name?

Nothing of my reputation here on earth?

At least my flowers, at least my songs!

Here on earth is the region of the fleeting moment.

Is it also like this the place

where we somehow live?

Is there joy, friendship?

Or just here on earth

we have come to know our face?"

(Ms. Mexican folk songs.)

 

Once they have a "basic theoretical framework" of ideas, people are beginning to find their answers to their everyday world and create "culture", by giving meaning to their acts. Each culture is based on a 100 group of ideas, highly developed and complex or little developed and simple, but all satisfactorily respond to the ontological problem (2).

 

 

 

"Where will we go?"

Only came to be born.

Our home is over there:

Where is the place of the emaciated.

I suffer: joy never reached me, happiness

Have I come here only to act in vain?

Is this is not the region where things are done.

Certainly nothing turns green here:

Open its unhappiness flowers."

(Ms. Mexican folk songs.)

 

In the history of humanity, all peoples have developed a complex system of ideas, which are usually deeply linked to the family and community life. So we can commonly find philosophical responses of life, closely interwoven with their religion, their education, their traditions and customs. Only the European culture, which has biased knowledge, has made philosophy a "Science of thought", abstract and "pure", but that is always extremely difficult to apply by ordinary people in everyday life. This is why, in addition to being the dominant culture, by which European and American researchers deny the existence of an Anahuac philosophy. To date, they have been unable to find –and will not find- in the ancient history of the Anahuac, a European style philosophy.

 

"Perhaps over there are we real?

We live where there is only sadness?

Is it true, perhaps it is not true as they say?

Don‘t let our hearts grieve.

How much of what they say is really true

or not true there?

You show only inexorable, life giver.

Do not le tour hearts grieve."

(Ms. Mexican folk songs.)

 

The colonizing fallacy, of yesterday and today, in that the ancient grandparents did not have a philosophy, it is part of the disdain and demeaning valuation with which our mother civilization has been "studied" by foreign scholars and that up to date, the invaded civilization is truly unknown to them. The first fundamental step to recover –our own history- indisputably is to know the ancient philosophy, to understand the human development process of seven thousand five hundred years in the Anahuac. Understand how our culture is has "concealed itself" to self-protect and survive five centuries of destruction attempts.

 

"Is it true, life happens with roots on earth?

Not forever on Earth

just a little bit here.

Even if its gold it breaks,

even quetzal feathers

tear apart.

Not forever on Earth,

only a little here".

(Ms. Mexican folk songs.)

 

Philosophical Levels

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It is also important to visualize that the maximum philosophical development of ancient Mexico occurred during the Classical period (200 BCE to 850 CE). This implies that the Anahuac inhabitants had gone through almost seven centuries of decline at the time of the European invasion. So the Toltec philosophy is largely unknown. What little is known today is what remained in the culture and education during the Postclassical period. It is what survived the Aztec after their ideological, philosophical and religious reform, modified by Tlacaelel, and ultimately was what saved by the tlamatinimes from the relentless Spanish destruction. The incursion in the recovery of the ancient Mexico philosophy, is the pursuit of values and principles that are present and fractionated in almost all aspects of their way of understanding life and the world, it is an inescapable task to recognize our own face. For this we need to stop seeing ourselves through the 102 "eyes of the colonizer" and seek to recover the Tezcatlipoca "smoking mirror", to recognize our own face and our true heart.

 

One of the colonization pillars is, accepting without question that by decree, "all ancient is primitive". The western view of humanity evolution is linear. In that vision, they place themselves ahead and all ancient is primitive without any questioning. Humans have been "progressing" from less to more, and the first world countries, led ―the evolution and progress of mankind". However, this is very questionable and there is several modern scientific knowledge, which the west has recently "found" "in civilizations of the past".

 

The eternal return.

 

We seriously believe, without entering into fantastic speculation, that the knowledge of the old grandparents had on the perception of: energy of the universe as a system of energy fields, of the human being as a preceptor and generator of energy, as well as the phenomena arising from its vibration, are almost completely unknown to "official science" of the western culture. Hence, it is so difficult for archaeologists to explain the "western logical" use of the so-called "archeological sites", of the Classical period, and by their arrogance and colonizing ignorance have tried to turn them into "cities, palaces, fortresses and ceremonial centers". Very little is known of the Classical period and the minimum data obtained, is "interpreted" by foreign archaeologists and their Mexican assistants, into the western "evolution" conception.

 

They try to "force fit" a totally different civilization, which they have not understood at all in these 500 years, and they stubbornly continue comparing it according to the development processes of the European culture. In other words, the matter evolution (stone, bronze, iron, steel), the weapon technological development and the complexity degree of markets, trade relations and production.

 

But the philosophical thought of the Anahuac old grandparents, although different, is similar in its essence to those of India and China. The similarities that we observe today in peoples according to traditions, temperaments, festivals, uses, customs, food, clothing, constructions, confirm that the root of their philosophical conception of the world and life, has many similarities and in some cases, strikingly alike.

 

As in all ancient philosophical thought there were three knowledge levels. The purest and more sophisticated, used by men and women of knowledge, in what we know today as archaeological sites and which must have been research and study centers, where the levels of the "philosophy of knowledge" must have reached its maximum splendor, which up to today we still don't know. The Toltecs philosophical concept had to do, as previously noted, with the "perception" levels of energy.

 

The second level, which is represented in the wonderful material creations, from the pyramids to the codices. Where in an artistic fashion the philosophical thought is always present. As an example, we can mention the "quincunce" or the "Quetzalcoatl cross".

 

All the architectural layout, especially of the Classical period, are composed of a series of courtyards surrounded by four rooms on four sides, are always strictly oriented to the cardinal points, they hold proportional measures to celestial mechanics and all have a fifth point or unifying center in the center of the plazas with a small construction as pyramid base, Stele or sculpted monolith.

The dialectical concepts of the two snake profiles that form a human face, symbolically, humanize matter (snake).

 

Or the two Quetzal faces displayed in profile, producing a third face of human aspect. The quetzal symbolizes the sky or the spirit, and this symbol speaks of the need to "humanize the spiritual part" of the world and of life. The repeating image composed of a feline (jaguar, puma, ocelot), a reptile (Snake rattlesnake), and a bird (Eagle, Quetzal, Owl), forming a humanized face. The frets, colors and designs that are present, in codices, steles, monoliths, pottery, paintings, wood and metal. A universe of forms and designs that imply a philosophical language and of which little is known and has barely been decoded, but it is there, waiting for the revealing moment in which the children of the children have the capacity to understand or decode the message.

 

The third level of philosophical knowledge is explicit in religions. In the myths, rites, and the parables, always behind a double humanizing and philosophical background. The ancient mankind religions, contained at its center, a clear philosophical structure, which allowed common human beings, resolving the ontological problem of being, without entering philosophical complexities that required a much higher knowledge, specialization and abstraction level. Philosophy just as religion allows human beings, at different levels, meeting the challenge of transcendental existence.

 

To penetrate the Anahuac philosophical world one must consider the following: that the Toltec master, the creators of "the black and red ink", literally disappeared in the collapse of the late Classical period. That destroying stone by stone their majestic knowledge centers they concealed their knowledge. That the Mexicas or Aztecs, barely a hundred years before the arrival of the European invaders ordered the destruction of all the ancient codices preserved from the classical era, which registered the Toltec history and wisdom as well as the Toltecáyotl, and created their own story, where the Aztecs became the central figure, even though it was known that they had arrived in the Valley of Mexico in the 12th century, with a little culture, as they were nomad hunter-gathers. Finally, we must consider the philosophical-religious reforms made by the oldest Cihuacoátl of the Aztecs, Tlacaelel. These reforms fully contradicted the spiritual norms that remained from the Quetzalcoatl teachings and imposed upon the oppressed peoples the materialistic, warrior mystic ideology of their tribal God named Huitzilopochtli. (3)

 

 

"When we die.

We do not really die,

Because we, we resuscitate,

 

 

We live on, we wake up,

This makes us happy".

(Ms. Mexican folk song)

 

Flower & Song.

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The Anahuac philosophy, understood as a group of ideas that give life meaning. It can be found in two forms, in an implicit and in an explicit way. The first is found in the concept of "Flower and song", understood as ―wisdom and beauty.

 

"Is it not true that we live,

it is not true that we endure

on Earth.

 

I have to leave the beautiful flowers,

I have to go in search of the mysterious site!

But for a short time,

Let‘s make ours the beautiful chants."

(Ms. Mexican folk song)

 

In fact, the beauty of men inner and outer world was based in equilibrium. The search for balance, personal, social, with nature and the universe. It was the greatest aspiration and challenge from the ancient grandparents in life. What is beautiful to the spirit is beautiful to the world, and what is beautiful in the world, is beautiful to the spirit. The beauty metaphor was consecrated in the flowers. Ancient Mexicans worshiped the flowers as a symbol of the philosophical beauty they wished to reach.

 

"Therefore, in all the orders of Nahuatl culture, art is always present: it helps understand that if beauty was the divine; and this in turn true, and genuinely rooted, all Nahuatl philosophical thought revolved around an aesthetic conception of the universe and life. To know the truth was for the tlamatinime to express with flowers and songs the hidden sense of things, just as their own godlike heart allowed them to perceive. The Culture and philosophy metaphors, did not hope to completely unveil the mystery, but made men feel that perhaps beauty is the only real thing." (Miguel Leon Portilla. 1956).

 

Indeed, songs and flowers were the wisdom symbol and the beauty that the old grandparents aspired on their philosophical thought. We must remember that the Supreme divinity did not have a name and that it was called by various poetic metaphors. Similarly, when entering the philosophical world of abstract thinking, the metaphorical figures shall saturate reflection spaces of the mysteries of life. The flowers and songs had a relevant place in the Anahuac philosophy.

 

"Who am I?

I live flying, singer of flowers,

I compose songs,

Butterflies of songs:

sprout from my soul

savor my heart!"

(Ms. Mexican folk song)

 

Upon reading –fragmented translations- the manuscripts of the Mexican songs, there can be no doubt that old grandparents structured part of their philosophy (which is currently known) through poetic metaphors. The ontological problem of being is present in each of the poems.

 

―Flowers sprout, they are fresh, they thrive,

opens its corolla.

From their inside come out song flowers:

Thou, oh poet, spill them on others."

(Ms. Mexican folk song)

 

It is the conscious human being, before the universal existence dilemmas, of dying and transcending. The singer claims all the time the uncertain anguish of life reason and the transcendental existence as of death. Poetically philosophies about life validity of this life and wonders if in the place of the emaciated, lies the truth of life.

 

"Is it true that life is on Earth?

Not forever on earth: just a little bit here.

Even if it‘s jade it breaks,

Even if it‘s gold it breaks,

 

Even if quetzal feathers they tear apart,

not forever here on earth ".

(Ms. Mexican folk song)

 

Ancient Mexicans from archaic times, perhaps when they invented agriculture, the milpa and corn. They began creating the entire complex and deep system of thought. These were four and a half thousand years, since the invention of agriculture until the emergence of the Olmec culture between Veracruz, Tabasco and Oaxaca. Enough time to create and polish the basis of their philosophical thought.

 

The explicit Anahuac philosophy, at the time is hidden. Just as the philosophies of the "mother civilizations" that with the exception of India, in order to survive they had to stay in absolute and strict secrecy. But in addition, in the mythical Anahuac it ensures "the Quetzalcoatl return" and his wisdom. We must also remember that when Tlacaelel ordered the destruction of ancient codices, he ordered "the most important" to be kept in secret places, which is why it was not lost. So the Anahuac "explicit" philosophical thought is waiting for its ripe time to spread.

 

1 Ontology, part of metaphysics which deals with the “being” in general and its transcendental properties: the ontology term arose at the beginning of the 17th century. nature, the universe and the immeasurable. And like all peoples, to scrutinize thereality that exists beyond death. 2  Who am I, where do I come from and where am I going to? 3 In Aztec mythology, Huitzilopochtli', also spelled ' (Classical Nahuatl: Huitzilopōchtli [hwitsiloˈpoːtʃtɬi] "Hummingbird on the Left", or "Left-Handed Hummingbird", huitzilin being Nahuatl for hummingbird), was a god of war, a sun god, and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. He was also the national god of the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan. He was a god of tremendous power who commanded terrible fear that had to be assuaged by human sacrifice. Today, he is not believed to be actively worshiped. Huitzilopochtli was a tribal god and a legendary wizard of the Aztecs. Originally he was of little importance to the Nahuas, but after the rise of the Aztecs, Tlacaelel reformed their religion and put Huitzilopochtli at the same level as Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and Tezcatlipoca, making him a solar god. Through this, Huitzilopochtli replaced Nanahuatzin, the solar god from the Nahua legend.

 

(*)

 

True History of an unknown Mexico

Historia Verdadera del México Desconocido

Guillermo Marín

 

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