The Transpersonal Will of Nelson

The Transpersonal Will
of
Nelson

The Transpersonal Will of Nelson

Nelson dos Santos was born on March 12, 1929, in the state of Alagoas, Brazil. He is a much loved, respected and accomplished folk musician in his native state, where he is known as Nelson da Rabeca, or the Rebec Player Nelson.

Rebec?

Rebec is a bowed string musical instrument that was popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. It is an ancestor of the violin: it has a narrow boat-shaped body and 1-5 strings and is played on the arm or under the chin, like a violin. Many types and no standard characterize the Brazilian 'rabecas', that reflect their makers' style. Each rebec is unique.

Nelson's background

Since he was a little boy to his late 50's, Nelson worked as a sugar cane cutter, following his family's pattern.

He never went to school, was illiterate and had no musical training. He was once beaten up for playing accordion, because his father considered he was wasting time.

Nelson married a workmate, they had 10 kids. The family didn't have a house of their own and working together in the plantations, they couldn't even meet their basic needs.

Nelson's Call

One day, while watching television, Nelson had a vision that would change his life. He listened to a call from above. Everybody laughed at him and did not believe when he said he would play this thing at the time, he didn't even know this thing was called a violin.

I was 54 years old when God gave me this life. I saw a guy playing violin on someone else's television, as at that time I had no TV. I went into the woods, I cut a tree and I set my mind on making an instrument. Then I started to play it at the beach for tourists and locals. Back then, I only played someone else's music. Then I started to play my own, and I have already recorded three CDs [...] To play throughout Brazil is very good. Oh boy, it is very good indeed. Thank God I have nothing missing in my life. (July 2005, at 78)

At the beginning, friends and family thought Nelson was fooling himself. But following his intuition, he made his first instrument, created its unique tuning and learnt how to play it on his own. To begin with, he used to work five days cutting sugar and dedicate his free time to mastering the rebec.

When he was confident with a few songs, he started to busk in public. From midday to 4pm he would earn more money than 15 days cutting sugar cane. When he realised this, he left his job and started to make more instruments. Nelson says he has made over 5,000 rebecs. Each instrument is unique and can take him from 5 days to 3 months, depending on the type of wood. Musicians from all over the world go to Alagoas to meet him, buy rebecs and try to understand how he learnt it all without having ever studied music.

Nelson's path as a musician has been a long one. Only in the last 15 years of his 30 years' career he has enjoyed some recognition outside Alagoas and relative national success, being invited to play throughout Brazil and even in Norway, in 2011.

He still maintains a modest life style and hasn't become rich or very famous, but that was never his aim: he is now a fulfilled, self realised and extremely content man. Still working and playing at age 83, Nelson has been teaching how to make and play rebecs to a new generation of musicians. His humble house in Marechal Deodoro has open doors to anybody who wishes to meet him no appointment is needed. Curiously, he still uses the same machete he used to work with to cut sugar cane!

"I heard that an old dog does not learn new tricks, but it does. I've learned many. I'm 80 years old and I keep creating, I keep making music" (July 2008)

The Transpersonal Will

Transpersonal
or Meta-needs

Most basic
needs

Psychological
needs

(Roberto Assagioli, The Act of Will The Transpersonal Will, p. 106)

Achieving the satisfaction of the first two groups of needs often engenders, paradoxically, a sense of boredom, ennui, emptiness, and meaninglessness. It leads to a more or less blind search for "something other," something more. This is seen in many who, having had great satisfactions and successes in the ordinary world, become increasingly restless, rebellious, or depressed.


To help understand the dissatisfaction with "normal" life, we can look again at the diagram of the psychological constitution of man, found on page 14. The basic and normal personal needs concern the levels of the lower and middle psychological life, both conscious and unconscious. However, there is also a third and higher level the area of the superconscious, which culminates in the Transpersonal Self. It is both the drama and glory of man that this higher level, most often latent, sooner or later demands satisfaction it demands to be taken into account and lived.

(Roberto Assagioli, The Act of Will The Transpersonal Will, p. 113-114)

[] there have been many instances of spontaneous, sudden, unexpected illumination, without any previous conscious striving or exertion. In these cases the initiative is taken by the Transpersonal Self, which exerts a "pull" from above. This fact can be understood by considering the psychological constitution of human beings. We have seen that the will is the function in closest relation to the self, the most direct expression of the self. This is true both for the personal self and for the Transpersonal Self. Just as there is a personal willthe one we have been considering up to nowso there is a Transpersonal Will, which is an expression of the Transpersonal Self and operates from the superconscious levels of the psyche. It is its action which is felt by the personal self, or "I," as a"pull" or "call."

Accounts of religious experiences often speak of a "call" from God, or a "pull" from some Higher Power this sometimes starts a "dialogue" between the man and this "Higher Source," in which each alternately invokes and evokes the other.

Transcendence


Limitations of "normal" consciousness and life do not manifest themselves only as a search and will to meaning, to enlightenment. There are other types of transcendence which are experienced by the corresponding types of human beings. Some of the chief ones are:

1. Transcendence through transpersonal love.2. Transcendence through transpersonal action.3. Transcendence through beauty.4. Transcendence through SELF'-realization.

These ways of transcendence can also be expressed in terms of will, the fundamental will to transcend personality limitations through union with someone or something greater and higher.

More exactly, in all of them we find the union of will and love.

Transcendence through Beauty


It is in the creation of beauty, however, that the will is I more manifest. It is often realized that the artist is driven by the urge to create, that his personality is impelled by this urge which is sometimes easy and joyous, but more often is difficult and even painful. Often the personality rebels or tries to evade the higher urge. Yet the artist is obliged to create he's given no peace until he has obeyed the urge to create that which has been prepared in the superconscious realm. Thus, there is a direct connection between will and beauty. This is a fact not often realized because in many cases, at the personality level, artists may have little developed will, and more highly developed feelings, emotions, and imagination. It is often their Transpersonal Self which exercises its Will and compels the personality to express beauty. Yet there have been and there are artists who have clearly demonstrated personal will as well.

Nelson and his with Benedita at their home, in Marechal Deodoro (Alagoas-Brazil). YouTube video published on May 1, 2012 by Matheus Piraj
Nelson's contact: [email protected]

Nelson and Benedita

Thank you!

Presentation by Paula Ges-Wright
The Psychosynthesis and Education Trust Foundation Year in Psychosynthesis (G49) September 2012

Dedicated to Nelson and Benedita

The Transpersonal Will of Nelson

Spiritual

Transcript of The Transpersonal Will of Nelson