NAS and the meaning of "Level Seven"

[diggy]

The song and its references to Level 7 refer to Theosophy, which is a body of ideas dating back to ancient India and Greece that seeks to find the devine by combining truths from all major religions...

Theosophy says that all things are "monads" meaning they posess a spiritual energy with similiar qualities... these qualities can be defined via SEVEN LEVELS of consciousness...

NOTE: The dialogue between Nas and Nashawn is important... Nashawn is the student, Nas is the teacher... effectively the audience is meant to identify with Nashawn... it's a good format for the song, makes Nas' teachings more accessable...

LEVEL ONE

"Level one, what does it take to get a woman sprung" - NAS

Nas is refering to the first level of Theosophy... "Sthula-Sarira"... it's the lowest part of being, the physical... so bone structure, muscles, skin, hair... in nature... rocks, dirt... things that are apparent to the naked eye and to the human touch... the most basic level and the basis for physical attraction... ie "get a woman sprung"...

Nashawn replies "intelligence leave they mind dumb"... he's jumping ahead... Nas takes him back to level 1 with "but what about shopping, coppin expensive furs..." again refering to the basic level...

LEVEL TWO

"Level two is elementary state" - NAS

In Thesophy level two, "Linga-Sarira", is the non physical model that defines the physical... it's what guides the physical and helps it proceed... in other words DNA...

Nas goes on to reference white slave owners mistreament of blacks men and women as "chicken feed" etc... conditioning the blacks to deny their true genetic equality or Linga-Sarira (Level 2)...

LEVEL THREE

"Level three, answer me, God, is there any devil in me?" - Nas

The third level "prana" represents the "breath of life"... the force that differentiates the living from the dead... the force that propells DNA to create the physical... prana is in everything that is considered living... basically the life force... this segment of the song deals with life and death... "I'm willing to live and I'm willing to die"... Nas is awknowledging the existance of his own prana, and accepting its inevitable fluctuation...

LEVEL FOUR

"Never make a ho into a housewife"

Four is "kama", or desire... it is neutral and can be good or bad depending on how one chooses to control it. Positive control of it means understanding of and ascention to the next level... Nas cites the ultimate physical desire: sex, as an example... he implies one must control sexual urges and not give in to them... thus "never make a ho into a housewife"...

LEVEL FIVE

"I learned the ways of the streets when I was only nine..." Nas

Level five "manas" is the level of thought... to think, and by thinking define one's concept of self (which has three parts, the intuitive mind, the animal mind, and the passions of personality)... by learning the streets Nas defined his own concept of self... with that in place, he could accurately see his relation to his world "streets" and learn how to coexist...

LEVEL SIX

"we went from savage to humane" - Nas

Level six "bhuddi" is the channel through which streams divine inspiration from universe (universe = level 7, Atman) to the "menas" (Level 5), and therefore that faculty which enables a person to discern between good and evil -- spiritual conscience. To be human (to have "humane" qualities) is to be able to discern right from wrong... savages cannot do this... Nas awknowledges this quality of Level 6 with the aforementioned line...

Note: the word bhuddi is related to the word bhudda, a bhudda is a being that exists in Level 6 (bhuddi) meditating on this spritual conscious and periodically entering Level 7...

LEVEL SEVEN

"welcome to LEVEL SEVEN... we entered the life of true game..."

The seventh is called Atman. Self; pure consciousness, that cosmic self which is the same in every dweller on this globe and on every one of the planetary or stellar bodies in space. It is the feeling and knowledge of "I am," pure cognition, the abstract idea of self. It does not differ at all throughout the cosmos except in degree of self-recognition. It may also be considered as the basis of all logic in the human microcosm. During incarnation the lowest aspects of atman (Level 7) take on attributes, because it is linked with buddhi (Level 6), as the buddhi is linked with manas (Level 5), as the manas is linked with kama (Level 4)... what Nas calls "true game" is this pure cogntion... it is what Bhuddist try to reach when meditating... it is the Heaven described by Jeudeo-Christian and Muslim religions...

[diggy]

[DR. NICK RIVIERA]

wut, there is actually something smart behind this song?

Nice! thx!

[Giflord]

Interesting read, thanks for posting.

[food for thought]

good shit, diggy

[diggy]

Thanks

This "level seven" reminds me of the chakras which are seven in number. The lowest one is at the groin level (the base desires) and the highest is where the spine meets the skull.

Gotta do more research on that.

[dezmond]

Is this where "Stuck in 6" originates?

[diggy]

I do not know.

[Civilison]

the 7 chakras, the kemetic divisions of the spirit, the 7 gates of heaven or 7 heads of the dragon... it all relates dunn!

[WARPATH]

Originally Posted by Civilison

the 7 chakras, the kemetic divisions of the spirit, the 7 gates of heaven or 7 heads of the dragon... it all relates dunn!

Sounds christainized to me.

[Civilison]

^nah no christian thing in there except the fact its from the bible (the dragon thing). i said it all relates.... different cultures spoke of the same thing in a different language is what it is....

[Olive Oil Goombah]

^yup

[diggy]

Tru.

Things can be said in different ways, using different language, and different analogies, but the meaning stays the same.

[diggy]

yup

[Dirty Knowledge]

dopethread....song is too, def had me thinkin..will peep this sometime soon and respond