Photo by Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer
Robert Chet Alexander gets animated as he speaks with The Gleaner.As he matures, Robert Chet Alexander grows increasingly grateful for his Jamaican upbringing. It has helped to create in him a pure heart. He now recognises that many coming after him have not benefited from similar socialising moral influences. It is for that reason that he has penned John Crow Speaks: Earth Teachings of the Jamaican Elders.
In it, Alexander records life-lessons learnt while growing up in Jamaica. " I took my experiences and used that in a way that Jamaican people will relate to. It is about keeping the heart of Jamaica pure. Everything that I wrote about has a basis in the teachings of the kabbalah," he told The Gleaner. Kabbalah is a brand of Jewish mysticism.
The heart, he continued, is the centre of the body. If something is wrong with the heart then it will affect the body, he said. "If you look at Jamaica, you can see that the body is getting weak. The Church has a role to play in repairing the heart. At the same time, there are a lot of forces that are dragging people into frustration and difficulties. So what I did was ask 'What are the ways the elders taught me to that can help the people come back to that goodheartedness'. That is what I did. I spent seven years figuring out how I learnt. I wrote it is as a story as a relationship between a young boy and an older man..."
This one-on-one relationship especially between an older with younger person, Mr. Alexander maintains is the best context for learning and character development. It is, he maintains, "the most important relationship and the most valuable."
An artist who resides in Miami, Mr. Alexander, 50, runs the Rainbow Belt School of Insight where he teaches Kabbalism.
book promotion
He was in the island earlier this week to do media promotion for his book. A Campion College past student, he went to the United Kingdom after leaving high school. There he became a social worker and counsellor working with a lot of Jamaicans in the Manchester area of England for 15 years. It was there in England as an 18 year old that he embraced kabbalism. Then he went to Miami where he now teaches art in a high school in addition to running a school offering courses on kabbalistic spirituality.
Mr. Alexander said he sought to explain in his book that:
Everything is part of 'a circle of life' that is, there is a potent inter-connectedness between human beings, nature and God. And that there is in nature a corresponding truth to that recorded in the Bible.
Everyone has a purpose and it is everyone's job to discover his or her purpose.
People cannot access the grace of the Almighty if their hearts are closed or impure.
There are many lessons to be learnt from nature concerning how one ought to organise and order one's life.
When one does not show due regard to nature, God will use it to punish mankind.
He explained the reason for the title of his book. The John Crow, he said, is a bird that most Jamaicans have little regard for but it serves an eminently useful purpose, as it cleans the earth. He thus makes the point that even persons and things that tend to be discounted serve an indispensable purpose. Hence, one ought not to be dismissive of such persons or things but to take a penetrating gaze to learn the divine truth that is waiting to be unveiled.
studying animals
Mr. Alexander is particular about observing how animals live for he says they are, in certain respects, closer to God than human beings especially so since animals are not subject to sin.
By studying animals it helps one to better acknowledge one's place in Creation and one thereby develops a healthy respect for God, Mr. Alexander stressed.
God is for him, the same Being prayed to by Muslims, Jews and Christians. He says, "There is one road to heaven that is through your heart ... A man can do 100 charitable things but his heart is not pure. He is doing it for reward. He is doing it for pride. A simple man keeps his heart pure then he receives a sure entrance to heaven. That takes a lot of work. That is why I wrote the book. There are a lot of exercises in there. Keeping your heart pure is not as simple as it sounds... The way you treat your fellow man is the exact reflection of the how you and God are going to relate."
Honouring God
He said he sought to highlight in his book that people have been given knowledge and gifts by God and these are to be used to honour the Almighty, to honour Jesus. In this way, he said, a person grows closer to God.
Jesus is for him, a kabbalist, as were many of the beloved characters written about in the Bible. He said that evidence for this resides in a number of sacred writings, including the Talmud, the body of Jewish civil and ceremonial laws. The Bible, he said, was written and cross-referenced to reflect kabbalistic thought-forms, beginning in the book of Genesis with reference to the Tree of Life. This, he argued, alludes to the 'Circle of Life' idea of kabbalah.
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