Nahua Philosophy

William C Boyd

3/5/05

World Philosophies

Nauha Philosophy

It has been the goal of any society to try and begin to understand the nature of existence and the connection with an ultimate that humans feel. This searching is often human nature and leads different cultures around the world to describe the human problematic in many different ways. For the Nauha, a native Mexican tribe, the surface of the earth (tlalticpac) is slippery and narrow like a jagged path following mountain peeks. With a world view as such people having to walk along this dangerous path the look for ways to keep their balance and maintain their lives. The balance for the Nauha is discovered and maintained using their knowledge of Teotl: a single, dynamic, vivifying, self-generating and regenerating, self-transforming and reforming sacred energy force. Teotl is the trees and the wind and the river. It exists in both an independent state and an interconnected state simultaneously, thus making it complete reality for the Nauha.

The nature of Teotl served as a model for Nauha sages to conceive their metaphysics, axiology, epistemology, praxis, and aesthetics. The sacred force gave them the wisdom to make choices that help them maintain the proper path. The world is filled with pain, sorrow, and suffering, but wisdom can teach you how to maintain equilibrium and reduce misfortune. This was not wisdom in the modern sense, but rather it was wisdom in making choices that kept you along the right path while walking the slippery slope of the world. The Nauha conception of balance carries also into their understanding of knowledge or epistemology. Neltiliztli is quickly translated into truth, but its definition would not be complete without well-grounded stability, and well rootedness. The Nauha believed that a person cognizes truly is and only if she/he cognizes well rooted. Teotl gives us insight into the truth, but it also is able to deceive us as well. The deception is not as a result of Teotl trying to hide from us, but rather it is our inability to see the true nature of Teotl that causes our misperception. With the Nauha concept of wisdom comes the ability to see Teotl in its true form and as a result knowledge is formed. This is very different from most conceptions of knowledge that center the true or false based on external contingencies rather than internal perception. However, with the nature of all things being Teotl then truth is all that exists.

Teotl created as well as continually recreates, permeates, encompasses, and shapes the cosmos. This creation however did not come out of nothing, but rather is an artistic creation of Teotl itself. This means that metaphysically Teotl is possible to misperceive, but in reality it is all that exists and so people cannot perceive anything other then Teotl. Experiencing Teotl for people is a connection between the heart and direct knowledge of the ultimate that is mystical in nature. The Nauha metaphysics maintains that there