The voice within

Last night on Mayo's blog a conversation ensued about the voice within and listening to ourselves. It was a conversation with the mysterious m.

It inspired me to share with you this text entitled "The dispute between a man and his ba".

The ba is one of the parts of your soul. The souls is made up of numerous parts. This is an ancient Egyptian text and one of my favourites. I hope you enjoy. As you can imagine with such an old text, parts are missing.

I opened my mouth to my ba, to answer what it had said:
This is too great for me today,
My ba will not converse with me!
It is too great for exaggeration.
It is like deserting me!
My ba shall not go,
It shall attend to me in this!

------- in my body with a net of cord.
It shall not be able to flee on the day of pain!
look, my ba misleads me - I do not listen to it -
Drags me toward death before I come to it,
Casts me on fire so as to burn me!

It shall be near me on the day of pain!
It shall stand on that side as does a .....
It is he who comes forth,
He has brought himself,
My ba, too ignorant to still pain in life,
Leads me toward death before I come to it!
Sweeten the West for me!
Is that difficult?
Life is a passage; trees fall.
Tread on the evil, put down my misery!
May Thoth judge me, he who appeases the gods!
May Khons defend me, he who writes truly!
May Re hear my speech, he who calms the sun-bark!
May Isdes defend me in the sacred hall!

For my suffering is too heavy a burden to be borne by me. May it please that the gods repel my body's secrets!

What my ba said to me: "Are you not a man? Are you not alive? What do you gain by complaining about life like a man of wealth?" I said: "I will not go as long as this is neglected. Surely, if you run away, you will not be cared for. Every criminal says: "I shall seize you. "Though you are dead, your name lives. Yonder is the place of rest, the heart's goal. The West is a dwelling place, a voyage ........
If my ba listens to me without malice, its heart in accord with me, it shall be happy. I shall make it reach the West like one who is in his tomb, whose burial a survivor tends. I shall make a shelter over your corpse, so that you will make envious another ba in weariness. I shall make a shelter - it shall not be freezing - so that you will make envious another ba which is hot. I shall drink water at the pond over which I made shade, so that you will make envious another ba that hungers.
But if you lead me toward death in this manner, you will not find a place on which to rest in the West. Be patient, my ba, my brother, until my heir comes, one who will make offerings, who will stand at the tomb on the day of burial, having prepared the bier of the graveyard.

My ba opened its mouth to me, to answer what I had said: If you think of burial, it is heartbreak. It is the gift of tears by aggrieving a man. It is taking a man from his house, casting him on high ground. You will not go up to see the sun. Those who built in granite, who erected halls in excellent tombs of excellent construction - when the builders have become gods, their offering-stones are desolate, as if they were the dead who died on the riverbank for lack of a survivor. The flood takes its toll, the sun also. The fishes at the water's edge talk to them. Listen to me! It is good for people to listen. Follow the feast day, forget worry!
A man plowed his plot. He loaded his harvest into a boat. He towed the freight. As his feast day approached, he saw rising the darkness of a north wind. Watching in the boat, as the sun went down, he came out with his wife and children and foundered on the lake infested at night with crocodiles. When at last he sat down, he broke out saying :"I do not weep for that mother, for whom there is no coming from the West for another being-on-earth. I grieve for her children broken in the egg, who have seen the face of the crocodile before they have lived."

A man asked for an early meal. His wife said: "It is for supper." He went outdoors to ..... a while. When he came back to the house he was like another person. His wife beseeches him and he does not listen to her. He ...... heedless of the household.
I opened my mouth to my ba, to answer what it had sid:

Lo, my name reeks
Lo, more than carrion smell
On summer days of burning sky.

Lo, my name reeks
Lo, more than a catch of fish
On fishing days of burning sky.

Lo, my name reeks
Lo, more than ducks smell,
More than reed-coverts full of waterfowl.

Lo, my name reeks
Lo, more than fishermen smell,
More than the marsh-pools where they fish.

Lo, my name reeks
Lo, more than crocodiles smell,
More than a shore-site full of crocodiles.

Lo, my name reeks
Lo, more than that of a wife
About whom lies are told to the husband.

Lo,my name reeks
Lo, more than that of a sturdy child
Who is said to belong to one who rejects him.

Lo, my name reeks
Lo, more than a king's town
That utters sedition behind his back.

To whom shall I speak today?
Brothers are mean,
The friends of today do not love.

To whom shall I speak today?
Hearts are greedy,
Everyone robs his comrade's goods.

To whom shall I speak today?
Kindness has perished.
Insolence assaults everyone.

To whom shall I speak today?
One is content with evil,
Goodness is cast to the ground everywhere.

To whom shall I speak today?
He who should enrage men by his crimes-
He makes everyone laugh at his evildoing.

To whom shall I speak today?
Men plunder,
Everyone robs his comrade.

To whom shall I speak today?
The criminal is one's intimate,
The brother with whom one dealt is a foe.

To whom shall I speak today?
The past is not remembered,
Now one does not help him who helped.

To whom shall I speak today?
Brothers are mean,
One goes to strangers for affection.

To whom shall I speak today?
Faces are blank,
Everyone turns his face from his brothers.

To whom shall I speak today?
Hearts are greedy,
No man's heart can be relied on.

To whom shall I speak today?
None are righteous,
The land is left to evildoers.

To whom shall I speak today?
One lacks an intimate,
One resorts to an unknown to complain.

To whom shall I speak today?
No one is cheerful,
He with whom one walked is no more.

To whom shall I speak today?
I am burdened with grief
For lack of an intimate.

To whom shall I speak today?
Wrong roams the earth,
And ends not.

Death is before me today
Like a sick man's recovery,
Like going outdoors after confinement.

Death is before me today
Like the fragrance of myrrh,
Like sitting under sail on a breeze day.

Death is before me today
Like the fragrance of lotus,
Like sitting on the shore of drunkenness.

Death is before me today
Like a well-trodden way,
Like a man's coming home from warfare.

Death is before me today
Like the clearing of the sky,
As when a man discovers what he ignored.

Death is before me today
Like a man's longing to see his home
When he has spent many years in captivity.

Truly, he who is yonder will be a living god,
Punishing the evildoer's crime.

Truly, he who is yonder will stand in the sun-bark,
Making its bounty flow to the temples.

Truly, he who is yonder will be a wise man,
Not barred from appealing to Re when he speaks.

What my ba said to me: "Now throw complaint on the wood-pile, you my comrade, my brother! Whether you offer on the brazier, whether you bear down on life, as you say, love me here when you have set aside the West! But when it is wished that you attain the West, that your body joins the earth, I shall alight after you have become weary, and then we shall dwell together!"