January 21, 2021

Ciphering

(Rehearsing)

“Build a home, teach a class, start a revolution Free the mind, heal the body, talking evolution”

Jay Electronica

“Six youths gather on a corner in any given city in the world. They form a circle and engage in a few seconds of discourse concerning what is about to happen. One opens the top to a 22 ounce of beer, pours some on the ground for “those who ain’t here”, drinks some and passes it to his comrades. Members of the neighborhood glance in from the outside and wonder what is about to occur. A concerned citizen thinks that they should call the police before a crime is committed, thinking “there has been an increase in break- ins and thefts in the area lately, and someone has got to do something about these drug dealers.” All of a sudden one creates a rhythmic pattern using their mouth, hands, a foreign object, voice or all of the above. The others begin to move their heads in unison, and one opens his mouth and begins to speak, juxtaposing his words over the rhythm. The neighbors calm a bit and watch out of curiosity what they are witnessing; six youths moving in unison to one rhythm, each expressing different emotions and thoughts through different styles. There is no fighting, drug dealing, or crime committed. The event lasts for two hours and then the circle disperses, promising to meet up the next day and do it again. The neighbors watching catch on to what just happened. “Oh, they were just rapping,” says one. A youth watching smiles and says, “naw… they were having a cipher.””

A cipher is a Hiphop practice circle for authentic discourse between practitioners and listeners engaged in “freestyling”. As Justin Miles explains in his blog post “Freestyle: Gateway to the Beyond Within”, The cipher is a space for experimentation, self-awareness, self-respect, knowledge and skill, connection, alignment, and synthesis. “The cipher embodies the sacred principles and dynamics of relationship found in and between all things, even if the practitioner is not cognizant of the subtle events taking place. It is the elements (practitioners/listeners/facilitators) present that determine the outcome of the cypher.”

Justin F. Miles a.k.a. J-Who? Worldwise The Sun of Hiphop is a DJ, beatboxer, producer and emcee from Prince Georges County Maryland who has been involved in Hiphop Culture since 1985. But that’s only the beginning. Miles is long-time practitioner in the Vajrayana school of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage. As a licensed clinical professional counselor he provides mental health treatment to men and women of all ages. Integrating passion and purpose, he founded the Miles Center for Integral Living in Baltimore where he offers courses on Buddhism and meditation as well as preparedness including gardening, aquaponics, composting, wilderness survival, long term food storage and earth based technologies.

I became aware of Miles’ work when in response to the protests in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray his open letter “Meditation for Militants” was featured on Jeff Salzman’s Daily Evolver. Justin Miles is a multidimensional creative fusing spiritual practice and conscious embodiment for crisis times. In his work with youth and adults he develops frameworks that utilize the elements of hiphop (emceeing, djing, b-boying, graffiti, ciphering) to enhance self awareness. His diverse creative vision aims to diffuse the wisdom of hiphop into the wider world in a way that transcends entertainment, blending the unique, world centric cultural phenomenon of hiphop, with education and awakening.

The vitality and staying power of hiphop culture is testament to the fact that it’s much more than a youth phenom or a tribal marketplace. Radically open, Hip-hop excludes nothing.“What I was looking to do was to not only become an ardent spiritual practitioner, but also to find ways to use methods that didn’t involve me having to deny the existence of the divine in my everyday life. I wanted to find the sacred in the secular; not as an intellectual exploit but because it was my experience.” (Miles)

Miles’ vision is to realize the full potential of the cipher — the potential of hiphop as a healing force. “Hiphop has always been a very pure thing to me. No matter how sullied by wack emcees, biters, crabs, toys or the media it seemed to be, for me it has always been an unstoppable machine of creating joy, togetherness and fun. As a non-dual practice of “peace, love unity, and having fun” (Bambaataa) hiphop, like other tantric paths, can serve as a way to celebrate the divine in ordinary every day experience. ” Hiphop is freedom from conditions simply because it allows all conditions to exist. It does not fight, it does not reject, it embraces and incorporates. It becomes more whole through allowing whatever arises to arise. It freely samples the world and finds it beautiful.” (Miles)

As an emergent cultural phenomenon, hiphop is many things to many people. Miles uses his blogger platform to unpack the confluence of perspectives in the vast hiphop space. Miles asked himself what he and fellow Hiphoppers are seeking. “A calling to be more whole and to feel more like a part of the family of things. When we say Hiphop began in the Bronx as a culture birthed from poverty and marginalization what do you think the opposite of those things are? What were they seeking? What is the underlying motivation of someone who is impoverished or doesn’t feel like they have a voice? It is to be alive and to proclaim their aliveness to the world…It is to make a noise loud enough that reaches to the depths of self and the universe that says I am here and I am worthy to be here.” (Miles)

According to Hip-Hop Congress, love, like hiphop is not an emotion but rather a practice. Miles says,“…practitioners should be urged to utilize the elements as skillful means, to use them as artfully as possible so that in this lifetime there can be benefit to ones self and other beings. No one knows what happens when we die but we do know what happens when love dies in our lives, homes, streets and the world. We know that pain. We see it played out in the entertainment world daily. All of that ongoing suffering is unnecessary. Suffering is a part of the human experience but we do not have to continue to suffer as much. We do not have to live in ignorance of our selves, of our minds, of our neighbors. We can use the elements to awaken to more peaceful and interconnected existence where we support each other on our various paths. This is the way of the bboy bodhisattva, the way of the microphone warrior, the way of the Graf rebel, the way of the DJ dream weaver. This is Hiphop Alive.” (Miles)

Miles explains that Hiphop is a real-time fusion of knowing with not knowing; preparedness with spontaneity. “Ultimately Hiphop leads me to no longer being trapped by knowing. Being a practitioner is a search that helps to me to understand that what I’ve been taught doesn’t withstand the pressure of deep contemplation. Being a practitioner breaks down the barriers between things until I no longer know why I ever thought there were barriers in the first place. When I find no separation, when I find no barriers I find peace because I learn to accept that I am all the things that I have encountered.” (Miles)

Miles has also been in inquiry around the question of how hip-hop can be an injunction for personal growth and respect for different life paths. The hip-hop term “overstanding” illustrates the relationship between hip-hop and personal growth and development. According to the urban dictionary, overstanding, as opposed to understanding, is about the creative authority conferred by skillful means, virtuosity, and fluency.“If you can use something or do a job, you understand and memorize enough to act. In order to innovate or redesign, you must overstand. Understanding can Drive the car, but Overstanding Builds it, (or replaces it with something better).” (Urban Dictionary)

Designing, like free styling, can reveal individual and common ground. Every designed artifact or experience reveals a world of ideological, emotional, material and political realities. Designers ‘read’ and ‘write’ in theses codes of material culture - propositioning and versioning culture as they put creative or destructive agencies into play. As a pattern and process language, design is a cultural syntax that can conceal or reveal the patterns that connect us. Like language and speech acts, design acts weave living culture to shape and configure what we collectively believe to be possible. Reading and writing in the language of culture, designers break, morph and riff patterns. Design culture jamming rest on the ability to recognize a pattern in order to break or elaborate it. “Within the cipher, lyricists are constantly challenged from themselves and others to remain fresh, which facilitates new thought and behavior.” (Miles)  

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