My Enemy, My Brother

The Rasta had just finished rolling up a bundle full of spliffs when he heard the sound of horses approaching. It was surely the drug-enforcement agents he had sold his last load of ganja to. They had probably discovered that the sacks the ganja was sorted in had sprung leaks, and all the ganja had fallen out. Many brethren along the way scooped up the herb as it poured out of the defective bags, and the agents were now stuck with no evidence and no money. The Rasta did not run, but confronted them with dignity.

As they rode up, the Rasta started doing some serious smoking and, by the time they stood menacingly around the Rasta, he was in a very cosmic state. As a matter of fact, every time the four men tried to question him, the Rasta simply started laughing very hard. The men realized that they weren't going to get any answers from the Rasta and, after about half an hour of this, the man decided to tie the Rasta up and make camp right there. They bound the Rasta with the strongest hemp rope they possessed.

The agents built a large fire and started talking among themselves. The Rasta asked them if they would at least light one of the spliffs and place it in his mouth. After deciding to try a few spliffs themselves, the agents stuck a huge, lit spliff in the Rasta's mouth. They then started smoking and talking. After smoking about half the spliff, the Rasta let it fall to his lap, where he moved the rope binding his hands. In less than a minute, the ganja had burned right through the hemp, and the Rasta was free.

Free Man

The agents were very stoned and didn't notice at all when the Rasta tread past them. The Rasta then took a seat behind a bush that afforded a clear view of the campsite. The men had each smoked many spliffs and were dancing around and singing loud, vulgar songs. Suddenly, one of the men screamed—he had fallen over the side of the hill and was hanging on the end of a broken limb of a tree, looking down at a 300' drop. The other men simply froze.

The Rasta quickly jumped out from behind the bush and threw a rope over the edge. He instructed the man to tie it around his waist and hold on tight. The Rasta man pulled up the man very quickly and started shouting praises to Jah when the man was safely on the ground. The other men snapped out of their shock and, upon perceiving their friend no longer in danger, started crying with joy and shame.

The Rasta lit a spliff and passed it around. He started singing a chant and then spoke softly: "Don't freak out on yourselves. No man can 'act.' All things just happen. It is very likely that if you men had done anything else other than freezing up, you would have gotten in my way and made the rescue attempt fail. This whole saga was motivated by Jah's wish for all of you to understand your relationship with ganja in a truer perspective. We first met when you attempted to use ganja to entrap me. Jah beautifully balanced your actions by causing you to lose the ganja before you could misuse it. You then came here and tried to tie me up with a hemp rope. Hemp is ganja, and ganja can never be anything but beneficial and useful to a Rasta, and I not only used ganja to free myself, but also to save my brother."

"You men had been smoking ganja without any intention other than stupefication, and you achieved this to such a degree that one of you managed to fall off a mountain, and the other three could do nothing but get in the way. Your whole lives are spent in negative actions against the holy herb. My brothers, smoke with and and praise Jah; Learn to use the herb to know and experience the truth."

The Rasta pulled a bag out of the sack he had tied to his belt. In it was the goldest ganja the men had ever seen. After rolling and passing out the gigantic spliffs, the Rasta lit a match and said a prayer to Jah as he lit each man's spliff. The Rasta started singing and dancing to an ancient-sounding song.

Sing a Little Song

To each man, the song had different movements.

To one man, the Rasta's body seemed tense in the exact places that he was tense. When the Rasta would shrug his shoulders, the man's attention would go toward his own shoulders, and he would feel the tension in them melt away. He soon melted away so much tension that he floated out of. They spent several hours floating around his body.

To the next man, the Rasta's body seemed to be a whirlwind that was blowing the thoughts in his mind away. He then became highly aware of the words the Rasta was singing. The words transported the man right out of his physical body. The man was so engrossed in his experience that the Rasta and his song and dance all seemed to merge into one feeling.

The third man realized that the song and dance were producing a rhythm that perfectly matched his heartbeat. The more he looked and listened outwardly, the more he brought its essence inwardly and connected it to his heart's life energy. This so enlightened the man that he leaped right out of his body.

The last man was the one the Rasta had saved. To him, the Rasta's dance was a ballet of Jah praise, and the words and beat of the song carried him away—away from all attachment to the physical universe.

The Rasta stopped singing and dancing, sat down and lit another round of spliffs. They spent several hours floating around and receiving instructions from the Rasta on how to use their new-found but truly ancient bodies. To someone looking at them, it would seem to be five men sitting silently and motionlessly. To each man, it seemed to be the ultimate experience of movement and activity. To serve his glory, Jah allowed the men to experience his loving essence in every impression they perceived. Unified in Jah love, the Rasta brought his brethren gently back to their familiar consciousness. He then spoke to them: “You now know man's real cause for sorrow—to ever have to live unconnected from Jah.”

After meditating throughout the night, the men took the vows of the Rastafari and spent the rest of their lives growing top quality ganja, to make up for the tons of ganja they had removed from the community. Each man grew inwardly and daily learned the infinite extent of love that Jah felt for them. The Rasta continued to set drug-enforcement agents up for ripoffs and Jah revelations, and they all lived happily ever after.