P A T H F I N D E R S ' C O M M U N E

New Home

2011-06-01T15:16:00.003+08:00

Thank you, everyone for following my blog here at Blogger. I also thank Blogger for hosting my blog. Now, I have moved to Pathfinders' Commune's new home at Wordpress, pathfinderscommune.com . I will still keep this blog as part of Pathfinders Commune humble beginnings. Now, I invite you to come to my new home. Thank you so much. Blessings of Love be with you!

Rem

Understanding

2011-02-03T09:53:00.011+08:00

Most people in this world feel the need to be Loved by seeking Love from other people who seem not Loving. In truth, Love is never found in people we thought can give us Love, but within ourselves who is the only source of Love.

This is why the Buddha instructs people to seek the Dhamma within, just as the same way Christ told us to find the kingdom of God within. Once we realized that we are the only reliable person from where Love comes, we will cease to find people who can Love us. As a consequence, Love becomes so natural that it binds people without effort. Love manifest in all relationships. Only by giving Lovingkindness to the world that you will gain all the Lovingkindness you can experience. By accepting people as they are, even if you find them ungrateful, you are beginning to Love. Here lies the paradox: The more you give Love, the more Love comes to you.

Love cannot exist without understanding. They are inextricable from each other. Love is understanding, expressed. Love is something vague and subject to misinterpretations. Understanding, on the other hand, is a specific expression of Love. It is not an interpretation or definition of Love. Understanding is the nature of Love as it sees differences and situations without any judging. It is the nature of Love sans all experiences that keeps us from Loving.

"Negative experiences and obstacles
may stop us from Loving,
but they always remind us to Love."

Those people who Love but do not understand can be seen and understood in two ways. First, they seem to interpret that their actions are expressions of Love. In principle, those actions are only interpretations of Love. Still, they have done things out of, ironically, not understanding Love. But deep beneath it comes the second one: That even they claim that their actions are coming from Love, with suffering as an outcome, still they are in their greatest opportunity to Love. The Buddha said this is akin to a lotus that grows from the mire, and once it blooms, the mire cannot anymore touch it again. The mire of suffering and misunderstanding is the fertile ground of Love. A friend who seemed not to know how to deal with a lot of misunderstanding told me her story. I simply advised her that all her negative experiences and obstacles may stop her from Loving, but they always remind her to Love.

You can read Thich Nhat Hahn's Being Peace, and there you will find that Nirvana or enlightenment is a state of Loving understanding. You cannot help but Love if you really understand. You can gauge your own awakening by the extent of your deep understanding. In the process, we will find that Love is something not sought from anyone else, but emanates from our inner consciousness. When we begin to understand, we begin to Love.

photo by coee

Reflection

2011-01-31T11:29:00.000+08:00

What is a reflection? Is it not the opposite of the one who looks? Is it not the same person, yet a different one? I can see myself in the mirror, but the mirror shows only the me that looks on it. There is this person on the other side, who moves the hand, blinks the eyes, smiles and frowns exactly as I do. This person seems to be far and separate from me. Yet it is me, nonetheless. I might find this person different from me, because he is only a reflection. But reflection do not exist as a separate truth. My reflection and I are one.

This is literal in a sense. It is a simple logic to think that my reflection is me. But what if that the whole humanity is my reflection? What if that each person I encounter is my exact reflection? Would that be an easy task to be conscious of? Or would that be a difficult confusion to solve?

We have believed, as far as our everyday lives are concerned, that we are no more the same from other people. They are there. We are here. This is the definition of territories and boundaries, ownerships and righteousness, contrast and separations. We cannot be the other person, for the other is different, and often opposing to our ways of being. Oftentimes, this sense of separateness compels us to destroy each other, both coming from a belief that we are the only deserve the happiness that all of us--including our enemies--desire.

Why it is so difficult to see Oneness? Because it is a vague concept for someone who have witnessed great rifts and strife. Because we still live in the illusion that our physical bodies are separated islands in the ocean of uncertainty. We will be used to this until we can get use to the vagueness of the essence of becoming One.

Reflection is an action and a powerful tool. Reflection goes beyond the notion of being alone and reading over a good passage, or trying to mull over a certain decision. Reflection, in contrast, is an essential experience: an experience of seeing. This is a radical seeing, for it needs more than the physical eye can do. Each of us sees with the eyes of our soul that can penetrate the depths of our hearts, threading ours to those we are allowed and about to see, people who have been trying to seeing ourselves. BY reflecting, we are experiencing through the experience of those we see. We reflect ourselves by becoming the person we see, and allowing us to feel and fulfill the experience of the soul.

If we reflect ourselves to those who suffer, we can see them with eyes of compassion. In essence, we have opened our hearts toward their suffering, and ease their burden with the purity of our reflection. If we reflect ourselves to those who rejoice, we can see them with the eyes of shared joys. We are happy because the other is happy. Happiness is the same reflection.

When we awaken to this reality, Love becomes clearly and sharply visible. Reflecting ourselves with the other frees us from all sense of separation. It saves us from that hellish experience that we are fated to do things and end up without anymore time to transform and deeply savor our true humanity.

A deeper way of seeing, reflection opens our sight to see ourselves from within through the presence of the other. Another word for this experience is called "insight". We see ourselves. And the world we see outside is the world we must see inside us. Each and everyone we meet is a reflection of our consciousness. Whatever circumstance, situation, both we like and dislike that seem to be apart or out of our personal bounds, once they entered our awareness, they all become a manifestation of what is within our minds and hearts. All this opens new ways of seeing reality and penetrating the truth. We take responsibility of knowing the source of truth: everything that we witness and experience is a key to touch the essence of Love within.

You are Love

2010-10-19T02:41:00.017+08:00

Wherever you are is the place where you can understand Love. Whatever you do is what you need to understand Love. It is about time to learn Love. You have been called. For years, you have disregarded the call. Now is the time. This moment is the most perfect moment to understand Love. You might ask “How can I understand Love?” or “How can I Love? I don’t deserve it. I just can’t Love.” These questions challenge you to pay attention to Love. You might have doubts to begin because you see and identify yourself with these words: sinful, impure, defiled, unworthy. You have doubts because you have done a lot of undesirable things in the past. You thought that you are ought to be punished than rewarded, let alone to be Loved. You think all these prove that you cannot understand Love.

Here’s the good news: all things you have done and felt guilty about are all PROOF that you are ready to understand Love. That is the truth. We will look into that truth. Don’t worry. You are ready. No matter how the world judges you, or no matter how you judge yourself, the only proof that you are ready is the face you see in the mirror. Yes, that proof is YOU. Nobody but you. Go on, take a look again in the mirror. See that face as it is. That face, your face, is the face of Love. You are made in the image and likeness of Love.

How do you see yourself? Have you ever always judgmental against that person you see in the mirror? Do you always feel guilty of all the things you have done in the past? Have you ever felt lacking of the things you need and want, and made you feel unworthy? Do you always want to prove yourself to others and please them as much as you could, so you can say that you are Loved? Take some time to answer these questions wholeheartedly. Allow your awareness to cut through those painful answers. Those answers are, truly, difficult to accept. Your have to begin to face them, to let yourself be conscious of these truths you often deny. All of these painful thoughts and feelings are darkness of your shadow you choose to see. This darkness will immediately disappear when you cast the light of your awareness.

"To understand Love is to be aware that you are Love."

The source of the light of Love doesn’t come from outside. It comes from inside. That Love is eternal and nourishing, like that of the sun. Wake up early in the morning, right before the sun rises in the east. Look at its gentle rays peeking from the clouds in the horizon. See that same sun rising in you, beaming with brightness. See that sun as the eternal symbol of the light of Love within you. Being aware of that light allows you to shine and be the guiding light for others who are seeking the same light within them.

To understand Love is to be aware that YOU ARE LOVE. Yes, you are Love. I know, you feel so undeserving, because you have done a lot of things that did not allow you to become Loving. You feel that no one has Loved you, that is why until now you are still searching for that Love. You have tried your best to find the right person and keep and own them, yet eventually they would leave you behind and alone. You have made your best on your career, and fattened your bank account so you can find great self-worth. You have tried to buy all new things: clothes, gadgets, or anything you can possess so you can command respect from people and earn their praises and trust. You have tried to give in to people’s demand, or maybe to be always in command, so you can wield more power over their wits. But after all the efforts, you wonder, why in the world you still feel empty? You have believed, as what others have told you that human beings can never be contented.

Ask yourself, “Can we humans become contented? If yes, how can we become?” It has been bugging you that after what you have accumulated and achieved, there is still this void in the depth of your being; something that bothers you, an itch that you cannot scratch because you cannot find where exactly it is. That troublesome itch is the truth drawing your attention. The truth that cannot be touched nor held nor seen. But you can feel it deeply. That truth is the truth of you being Love. You are Love. You must begin to journey back to that awareness.

Opposites

2010-10-04T22:44:00.022+08:00

To understand Love, we must understand the opposites.

Love is often an opposite of either fear, hatred and evil. But Love has no opposite. Fear is the opposite of courage, hatred is the opposite of forgiveness, and evil is often the opposite of good. Courage and forgiveness are both transcendent quality of Love, where they represent Love as a direct experience. Good and Evil are, on the other hand, not really opposites at all. This problem can be understood through the two kinds of opposites. In the truth of Love, we will see that there is a thin line that separates the the nature of opposites: either opposites are complementing or opposing.

Complementing opposites are basically natural: light and dark, hot and cold, high and low, hard and soft. They are all part and whole of this reality. Nothing separates them except in our minds. The experience of complementing opposite is what most spiritual teachings call Oneness.

Oneness is the ultimate sense of unity. It is deep beneath the physical reality we see. It is the essence of connectedness, no matter how different people, things and events may be. In Oneness, opposites do not oppose; rather, they are always one and the same. They are in the same spectrum. Darkness is simply absence of Light, and Coldness is simply absence of Heat. In absence, we define presence and vice versa. At first this would be mind-boggling, but we will further understand this when we understand the next kind of opposite.

Opposing opposites are distorted view of the opposite, an experience we often call Separation.The ultimate separation ingrained in our beliefs is the opposition of good and evil. From here, all natural opposites seem to be always at war with each other: Black versus white, superior versus inferior, strong versus weak, rich versus poor, man versus woman. We have always believed this illusion that it has perpetuated a culture of survival of the fittest. We destroy each other because we both believe the other is an enemy rather than a friend, or we see ourselves more righteous than others. We have become self-centered creatures that our only survival is our concern. This primal instinct has wiped the dinosaur species millions of years ago.

Seeing beyond the opposites leads us to an awakened soul. We would not see that the mind and body are separate, more so of seeing God and humanity. There is no more rift between two opposites, only understanding them as two expressions of the same essence. Deepak Chopra, the poet-prophet of mind/body medicine, says that "good is the union of all opposites; evil does not exist." As we operate on this consciousness, we would never identify evil as the great opponent of good. Good is the all-encompassing circle that includes all opposites that naturally mirror each other. No more enemies. No more evil.

But why do we still think in opposites. One reason: because the nature of Love is completely whole that it cannot be experienced without a conscious mind that can experience it.

Think of a flower. A flower is perfect in itself. It behaves on its own reality without the need of other flowers' appreciation. But a flower is not conscious of its own existence. We, human beings who are conscious of our own, cannot escape the reality of being conscious of others' existence, be it a fellow human, living beings such as plants, animals, and inanimate things such as nature, heavenly bodies. With this consciousness, we see the flower, appreciate and give name to it. This is the experience of seeing the flower, as if the flower experiences itself through us.

Because of this consciousness, we sense our reality as if separate from us, an illusion most thinkers call duality. I am here, you are there. Kahlil Gibran, the poet-mystic author of The Prophet once said: "Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?" By being down here, we can see the mountain up there. If we are up in the mountain, we cannot see the mountain at all.

This is why opposites exists, not to separate us from everything that exists, but to be conscious of all of them. Love is infinite in many ways, expresses in different forms, and how Love does it is a mystery to all of us. And these seemingly separate expressions of Love, be it in words, deeds, objects, persons, creatures, arts, etc., are all but same manifestation of this Oneness.

This is why opposites exist not to separate us from everything that exists, but to be conscious of all of them.

A man is naturally a man, and his experience is different from that of a woman. They are different forms of the same species: homo sapiens aka human beings. Can we really say that their nature is opposing? How can another human being be born without a man-woman sexual union? It is because of their difference--opposite--that they can complement each other, and their unity bears another creation, or material unfolding of Love that remains intangible and invisible.

It is in this sense of Separation that we can appreciate this sense of Oneness. And the irony is that It is because of this Separation that our consciousness seem to contradict itself. This is known to many as paradox. Christ himself has taught paradoxical teachings, of which loving your enemies is the most well-known. In the realm of separation, truth will naturally contradict in the form of paradox because each opposite can embody the truth of another. Paradoxes are so universal and natural that it traverses all systems of thought. Our notion of opposing opposites tells us to take sides, yet the realization of complementing opposites tells us that we cannot--choosing one means choosing the other. As one meditation teacher puts it, you cannot choose the right wing of a bird more important than the left one. Both of them are important.

Now, we can refresh our ways of seeing opposites. In a paradoxical manner, I am you, and you are me. We both have this same human experience and both of us seek to embody what Love is. So long as we seek for Oneness, through intentions of cooperation, collaboration and participation, rather than competition, domination and manipulation, we are materializing the possibility of Love to exist in our lives, not just a concept, but a true and tangible existence.

The Hero Within

2010-09-27T20:20:00.059+08:00

We are in a never-ending search for a hero. Or rather, a superhero. We often visualize a hero like our comic book characters. A hero must be as invincible as Superman, as ingenious as Batman, or as innocent as Harry Potter. Our movies are teeming with these superhero themes and they excite us as we watch them in silver screens, feeling the adrenaline fueled by mind-blowing action and special effects. Superheroes fantastically demonstrate their supernatural powers: flying, dodging bullets, lifting heavy objects, firing lasers, jumping from one building to another, reading another person's mind, accurate reflex, camouflaging, telekinesis, excellent martial art moves, etc.

And often, like kids, we still dream the same fantasies, asking ourselves how we can literally have the same power. Is there any way to cast the same spells, or wield the same sword, or wear the same mask and cape? We also often tell ourselves, given the opportunity to become superheroes, we would promise to give the world the most elusive peace and harmony by busting crime, war, terrorism, helping people who are suffering because of poverty and sickness, and annihilating all forms of corruption. Perhaps it is a dream that has kept aflame in our hearts: unleashing the passionate hero for humanity.

So when Presidents Barrack Obama (for America and the whole world), and Benigno Aquino III (for most Filipinos) were elected, the ideals of a hero in the political arena have been materialized. We have suffered years of blaming and sacrifice, and putting someone in the pedestal to give light to a new change and renewed hope is such a consecration of a hero.

At the same time, we still continue to mythologize our sacred heroes. The heroic personas radiated by ancient sages such as Jesus Christ, The Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna Lao Tzu, Socrates and others are still magnified in our consciousness. Their examples have influenced an expanding universe of belief systems and spiritual revolutions. They have inspired new heroes throughout histories, those whom we call saints, wise men, teachers, geniuses and enlightened beings. They are the face of the immense influence of heroic nobility. This blend of eternal and temporal perspective on heroes both characterize our timeless search for the true meaning of heroism, and our desire to become heroes ourselves.

The insights explored by Joseph Campbell has revealed the face of the hero: he/she is always in the journey of leaving and rediscovering oneself. The striking accuracy of similar patterns in all legends, myths, and even in themes of popular culture can never be denied portraying this archetype of the hero within us. But until we see ourselves as heroes, we would continue the pupal stage of inner chaos in our metamorphosis to become heroes. We would still resist the process, and deprive ourselves the chance to fulfill our heroic destiny. This destiny begins when we decide to let go of our old selves wallowing in fear, anger, doubt, and guilt, and begin to lift up our new selves in the light of Love, peace and harmony with the rest of humanity and the Universe. It is a difficult transition, but the rewards are beyond measure.

"Being a hero is not wiping the enemies out, but Loving them."

We are all in a hero's journey. In one deliberate, and often seen as disjointed premise, our hero's journey is nothing but the discovery of the Love within us. This Love that bears the vast potential, of our supernatural tendencies to create our reality, by moving mountains with just a seed of our faith. But we are still missing this truth. Our insatiable appetite of blaming others, of not taking responsibility for the choices we create whether conscious or subconscious, we continue to halt the emergence of our heroic selves.

Being a hero is not wiping the enemies out, but Loving them. Being a hero is not commanding others to do want we want, but connecting and collaborating with them to share our innermost selves in becoming part of grander solutions for humanity's global problems. Being a hero is not having supernatural powers and use them literally, but how we can symbolically empower ourselves with our lofty and realistic intentions for a better world. We cannot anymore displace our capacities to those who have political, economic and social powers.There is no authority above us when we see the hero within us. Everyone of us is a hero, and we can contribute great change by using our inner power. Coming from a famous line in Spiderman movie: "With great power comes great responsibility." This power is the power of Love.

We can all become heroes. In fact, we are heroes. We must acknowledge our intelligence not to compete or to destroy, but to offer our genius to Love more, in ways we know best within our domains and potentialities. Stop blaming and start acting: this is the dictum of a hero. In the light of Mother Teresa's words, our simple actions must be done with great Love. We have seen great examples, like Mother Teresa, as well as all people behind the global renaissance that awakens the Love within us. Gandhi reminds us again and again, and it echoes in our hero's perspective: the heroic change we want to see will happen only when become that heroic change.

Mariah Carey's song "The Hero" perfectly captures this heroic wisdom: "There's the hero, if you look inside your heart...And you finally see the truth, that the hero lies in you." Within our hearts, there lies the Love that longs to resurrect the hero that we can become. As we Love ourselves, our families, our friends, our enemies, and our whole humanity, our Loving hero within is now reborn.

Dancing Dragons

2010-07-21T15:48:00.012+08:00

photo by Christophe Schmid (Photoxpress)

I am not a martial artist. In fact, I am a frustrated one. Just like many kids of my generation, I lived my fantasies in many movies and Japanese TV shows called tokusatsu, which mostly feature a super sentai , a squadron of heroes in colorful cyborg-like costumes fighting crimes and monsters using weapons and hand to hand combat. As a teenager, I long to be someone like Jackie Chan, Jet Li or Chow Yun Fat. I love to see their seemingly paradoxical stunts, gentle moves with forceful strikes. I had this longing much stronger after an encounter with a boy's gang who almost hit me on my head. Because of this, I wanted to be "the deadly man" on the streets, so nobody can dare to harm me.

But this thought of becoming ruthless and deadly has become feeble, since I have been much more resonant with the characters of a wise sage in many movies and stories, such as Yoda in Star Wars. Commonly, this character exudes an extraordinarily calm demeanor while teaching a brazen apprentice. Then, in times of distress, he exhibits his skillfulness in combat no villain can match. Yet he remains alert, focused, and serene like an unperturbed pond. What makes this master a powerful yet tranquil force? Why do they learn something that harms another yet be so much at peace with their skill? Pacifist by nature, I haven't had any street fights with anyone (the worst perhaps was my verbal attacks and some mischievous actions against a high school classmate) I always have faith in peace, yet I still have this archetypal yearning of gaining some mastery in martial arts. It was certainly a koan of sorts, for the paradox of peace and war is present in this very yearning.

Then, like a swift blow in my mind, a sudden insight came. The sages, both in ancient history and in fictional depictions, are not masters of martial arts. They are, in truth, masters of mental arts. During their warring era, they have developed skillful ways in living through their war-torn society. They have learned the arts not to harm others. They keep their inner awareness that everything is in harmony, and their fighting skills are actually to restore the balance and harmony of the universe.I know that most martial artists would disagree, since evil, war, violence and hostility are all present in our society, and that we must develop self-defense in order to keep ourselves safe from any attack. Yet, from the perspective of peace, we need not to defend ourselves. No one attacks us but ourselves. Our true enemy is our fear and anger within. So this is not just self-defense. In spite of these negative forces, we still become aware of the peace within us, of choosing it and becoming the source of it. This is how a real master thinks and feels.

"Dancing dragons face death squarely in a total surrender not to their enemies, but to the harmony of Life. They pass through this difficult test of their experience, attaining the insight that they and their enemies are all but one being."

In so doing, the masters of the arts do not just box, kick, or kill anyone to survive. They have acquired the movement of animals, such as how the crane spreads its wings, how the mantis prays, how the snake slithers, how the tiger leaps. They have imitated the flowing of water, the swaying of bamboo, the falling of leaves. They have learned this great harmonic dance of the Universe, bearing the tremendous strength and nonviolent spirit, and therefore have become the dancing dragons.

As these dancing dragons fight, they neither harm nor kill for the sake of their lives or for bloating their egos. Unless they do so, they cannot master the art. For each move, blow, kick against the attacker is not done with anger nor with fear. It is the way they dance in the rhythm of violence and war that tears apart the sense of Oneness. As their enemies rip off peace, these dragons mend them back together. They face death squarely in a total surrender not to their enemies, but to the harmony of Life. They pass through this difficult test of their experience, attaining the insight that they and their enemies are all but one being.

A friend who is a long-time martial artist told me that sakura, or cherry blossom, a pink flower tree indigenous in Japan, is a common symbol for a samurai, or an ancient Japanese swordsman. Quite contrary to a seemingly macho image of a warrior. But as the symbol speaks for feminine beauty, gentleness, and evanescence of Life, a samurai embodies and reminds himself to see that all around him is pristine and peaceful; that no matter how violent his life may be, he wields his sword not to kill but to see honor and compassion all one with the Universe. This is the mind of a dancing dragon.

To master the dance of the dragons is not about gaining physical power over a weakling, nor about destroying an enemy. It is about seeing that both the weakling and the enemy are partners of the dragon's soul as they dance together in the music of spheres and savagery. They all dance together as they sense their profound connections, the truth that they are not separate.

A martial art known as aikido directly embodies this principle. It literally means "the way of joining with the spirit." It seeks not to be harmed nor harm anyone, but to find peace in the midst of war. A stark paradox, indeed, yet a truth worth understanding. So the nature of martial arts is beyond the literal concept of fighting, yet it is about doing things and treating people. It echoes what Mr. Han (Jackie Chan's character in Karate Kid remake) said to his young student: "Everything is kung fu." The word kung fu applies to all martial arts, as long as we choose to see it that way. Eating, working, sleeping, talking, walking, and almost all verbs that nourish Life can lead us to the essence of the art.
We can be dancing dragons ourselves. To be one is to sustain an awareness that we are all One, that we don't have an enemy. As we dance with anger and fear, we master this art that teaches us to Love those who injure us. As another friend puts it, through martial arts we are led to get deeper in the gentle yet strong force of Love, and move in concomitance with its energy. As you get better and better, you get kinder and kinder. As a mastery of all mastery, Love is the very core of what the true masters have achieved.

Virtual Illusions

2010-07-18T15:30:00.032+08:00

(conclusion)

I can't help but be overwhelmed by the power of media and information technology in persuading people to believe that their picture of reality is the basis of Life. The advent of broadcasting and filmmaking has revolutionized the way we view the world. The magic of our boob tubes and silver screens continue to shape our perceptions about how to live our lives, from handling money to keeping relationships, from denying truths to perpetuating lies. They have shown us many ways to entertain ourselves and escape from the harsh reality of our routines. We have witnessed great stories, have seen the world in an all-seeing eye, flashing kaleidoscopic scenes before our eyes. This power has gone from analog to digital, when the internet has offered us not just the opportunity to watch, but to have full autonomy upon it, making us to choose whatever we want to watch, to control, or to create one.

This power has brought us tremendous possibilities in terms of connecting the whole world, and horrible phantasms that delude us from discovering our true nature. How to wield this power is a matter of concern. Our fear-based tendencies will force us to wallow in this virtual illusion, or to begin arising from the consciousness of Love that interconnects us into Oneness.

I'm using media and internet as examples of virtual illusions, of fantasies we keep on craving and believing as the only reality there is. I am not saying that the technology is bad; after all, nothing is really bad. The point, however, is our way of using it. If this ground of autonomy and power causes us to isolate and cut off ourselves from each other, then we reap the consequence of alienation and indifference. These technologies are not just result of ingenuity of science. They are symbolic tangibility of our own collective consciousness. Our beliefs, desires, dreams, goals, idealogies, rules, and ethos are all interwoven in the tapestry of our outer illusions, concealing the inner knowing of our Soul. We have kept on veiling the truth by maintaining the unyielding status quo that the reality outside is the only truth, and be oblivious to the invisible intelligence that permeates the whole Universe.

In this light, we can see that our desire to gain full control of the erratic and unpredictable nature of Life make us desperate because we can see that every effort we exert is futile. The outside world, no matter how solid they appear to be, is an incorporeal molding that feeds our external senses. How about observing every stuff that surrounds you at this moment? Imagine how an artisan, an inventor, or a skilled worker worked on that from separate materials and supplies. Imagine how they designed it first using a blueprint, a parchment, a pen or a pencil. Imagine how everything that have thought is shaped by their minds. Imagine that those that you see as solid are everything but nothing.

In this evolutionary era of human consciousness, our challenge is to transcend the fourth universal attachment: craving for our ingrained fantasies and beliefs. These fantasies are the "matrix" that we keep in our thoughts as fixed states, such us our sense of materialism and consumerism that everything we acquire is the source of our meaning. Or perhaps those fantasies that to gain Love and respect from others, we should project ourselves based on how the society wants us to be. This process leads us to believe that this is the only truth, that we must conform to the whims of our society, as we continue to deny our inner, loving connection with ourselves, others and with the Universe. We fear that we might not belong, so we prevent at all cost not to be outcast from the tribal mind. This belief creates our consciousness and steers our destinies into rigidity and bondage.

Our young monk, afraid of their reputation as monks to be judged of defying their vows of not getting near any women, burst into anger and blamed his old companion. He has been living in that fantasy that such good monks must follow the rules, and not to follow them means humiliation. He has been living in a belief that actions such as the old monk did are embarrassing and does not fit a monk like them. What he forgot, though, is the essence of the old monk's deed. That first, the old monk did not do it to break any vows and rules he has committed to keep, but to be of service to the needy at a very fitting moment. And second, this service is an act of Love, the very essence of Zen, in which he saw his inner connection with a fellow human being, rather than be afraid of keeping a certain reputation or escaping any humiliation, even the anger that might conjure up from his young colleague. His very action can be nonconforming to their strict rules, yet his very intention conforms to the spirit of the Universe. He has able to let go of his anything, and just act right at the present moment. He does not trap himself of any consequence, and allowed himself to gain the wisdom by being compelled with the power of Love.

Therefore, as we see ourselves gaining much control over the virtual dimension of our technological reality, may we never forget to not to be succumbed by the illusion of living within its rules. We accept and honor whatever we see outside our inner spiritual realm, yet we also keep our own freedom of choosing to live with limitations of our fantasies and beliefs. We must let go of craving for material things, power, and fame alone. Nonetheless, we keep on achieving consciousness of Love as we forge our connection with our Soul, and let this force direct us into manifesting our material needs and unique expressions to contribute more to the betterment of our world.

As we let go of these universal attachment, we become more attached to the universal power within us, the indestructible power of Love.

Time Traps

2010-06-21T23:43:00.002+08:00

(part three)

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.
--Book of Ecclesiastes

All of us are trapped in time. We are too afraid not to accomplish our schedules. We are scared not to live our lives the way we want it, since Life is really too short. So we have tried to make things that can speed up our daily concerns. We multitask, almost wanting to grow more hands than what we have. We have made things instant. We do this in a belief that we don't want to waste so much time.

We are also trapped with how we had spent time. We dread many things in our past that we want to bury them in oblivion. And we tend not to risk because we do not want the past to happen again. We don't want to suffer again from the mistakes we made. We fear that history might repeat itself, so we spend our time preventing the future to repeat our past. All of our actions are driven by the fears of the past and longings of the future. We hardly live in the present.

And how often do we fix people in our minds as if they are still the same people we happened to meet in the past? We criticize, blame, mock, and badmouth them because of the belief that they could not change for the better. And it's funny because we also do these more to ourselves.

Let's again observe the two monks. Troubled and worried, the young monk burst in anger because of two reasons. First, he felt the old monk did something bad; and second, he thought that what the old monk did might hurt them. The young monk is trapped by his illusion of time: the baggage of the past mistake, and the burden of future embarrassment.

We are often in such a mindset that drags our lives and keeps us from living in fullness. Our past baggage makes our hearts heavy, keeping all the resentments, regrets and remorse we have created out of the experiences. Thus, we often recognize them as fate and we see ourselves victims. With these fears in mind, we are so afraid that we think Life won't spare us in the future, and we continue to act as if the past might happen again. And our future becomes just a projection of our past conditioning. Life becomes stagnant in this third universal form of attachment: living in the past and the future.

Time is not some kind of a reference point, in which we only begin to play between past and future. We regret the things we did, blame others for their shortcomings, or maybe we want to repeat the wonderful memories that have left us behind. We think that we must invest on our future, avoiding troubles that we think we cannot avoid. To live this way robs us of the precious gift of the present.

Indeed, Life has its own time, which is very different from ours. We have been living our lives trapped in an illusive time that our calendars and clock show us, and we haven't really experienced what time really is. Time is a misery to someone who runs before deadlines, while it is a mystery to someone who lives his or her life moment to moment. This poses us puzzling questions: What makes time difficult to grasp? Why is it so precious? It's about time to learn more about time.

In the third chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes, the author (who was purportedly claimed as Solomon) contemplates on the nature of time. As you read it, it sounds like time is a matter of cycle, of repetitive events that sooner will bore us down. But as it nears the middle of the chapter, it shifts into a new way of seeing: "He [God] has made everything beautiful in his time." (Ecclesiastes 3:11) It leaves us a paradoxical view of time. Our sense of time that makes us shrink into limited deadlines would open us up to God's time, where every minute is an eternity. To do this is to allow the Now now.

This is the premise of Eckhart Tolle's famous book The Power of Now. Tolle elegantly teaches us that Now is "the precious thing there is". To be worried about past and future stops us to see the value of our Now, because this is the only time there is. Allowing the Now is to leave behind the past and future as fragments of our illusory view of life, and living the reality as it is. Letting go - detaching - of our time traps makes us more attached to the most important things in Life. And that is to Love.

Time is the word Rick Warren uses to spell Love in his book The Purpose-Driven Life. Gerald Jampolsky, author of Love is Letting Go of Fear teaches us the same thing, that "our only reality is Love." To Love is experienced neither in the past nor in the future. We can only begin Loving by appreciating that people, thing, and circumstance are all found only in God's time, in this present moment - only Now.

We are the Now that exist in this time and space. Our presence is the present we give to this Life, to the people we Love, to the purpose we live. Let not each minute be wasted on anxiety and worries of future, nor on guilt and blame of the past. Let us not be trapped by the time of our clocks and calendars. Our lifetime is far more valuable than the requirement of chronos, the time of the world. Living our life and being Love are the becoming of kairos, the time of Love. To Love is not to Love yesterday or tomorrow. To Love is to Love Now. This is the only time we have.

Writing about this topic takes my precious time. But the time I have spent is the amount of Love I am willing to express. The poet Kahlil Gibran asks us: "And is not time even as Love is, undivided and paceless?". Time and Love are both inseparable, and giving our time for Love never traps us, but brings us freedom. For whenever we spend our time in this very moment is our eternity of living in the sacred moment of Love.

Living with Strings

2010-06-09T21:59:00.066+08:00

(part three)

Anger and fear entail the need to control. To feel angry and fearful is to seek for external power, a power that can gain others' attention towards the one who feels weak and insecure. This is a common experience for us. Being enraged and terrified, we have the tendencies to act illogically, as we attack others and protect ourselves from the illusion of danger of not being in control. And often we justify our actions like they suppose to happen for the sake of maintaining our external mandate over things, events, and people.

We are so fixated that we think that life do not change. This is one of the foremost illusions of attachment. Our attachment towards a monolithic view of life renders us unprepared for the constant and sudden uncertainty and inevitability of it. Just as how Ian Malcolm, the fictional mathematician of Michael Crichton's famous thriller Jurassic Park, sees the impossibility of running a dinosaur park smoothly based on accurate calculation of events, we must see that Life bears the same chaotic quality and remains naturally unpredictable. One plus one is not always two, as far as Life is concerned. But we seem to continue to control Life. Like a marionette puppeteer, we attach strings onto Life as if we think that we can make it move the way we want it, without bearing in mind that sooner the strings would snap anytime.

Once our smooth sailing lives jerk in ways we do not expect, instead of understanding the nature of change, we are more inclined to blame others for our problems and sufferings. We are succumbed to the devil's temptation of jumping over the cliff and waiting for angels to save us. Simply put, it's much easier to blame others and act with prejudice. We blame our enemies, government, relatives, partners, kids, authorities, and God. Ultimately, the least that we could do is to blame ourselves. So we end up treating ourselves as victims of fate.

"We are puppeteers who control Life with strings of our ego, and ironically the same strings have tied us into bondage of our own helplessness."

This is the second universal form of attachment: the need to change and control people, things and situations. Since we are so afraid or angry with many changes that we do not like, we force people to submit to our whims and manipulate the course of events in favor of our perceived security that things would always be in order as we desire it. We are puppeteers who control Life with strings of our ego, and ironically the same strings have tied us into bondage of our own helplessness. We paralyze our own freedom as we suppress the flow of change with our limited fixations.

Remember our young monk, who, compelled with his anger, blamed the old monk for his action. He felt that he had lost control when he thought his elder companion broke their rules. He forgot that on any muddy road, change is always possible. Likewise, the road of Life presents us possibilities that sometimes defy our fixated perceptions of what is right or wrong. We cannot control it, but we can go along with it. After all, Life has no rules to follow. Neither the strings of fear nor anger can control Life. Life is freedom at its best, given that we can honor and let it be.

And we can see that the need to control is like playing God: it's just impossible. We can only live like God, by allowing and non-interfering with a calm and cool attitude. We allow change to take place in the rhythm of nature and in the hearts of humankind. With this kind of consciousness, we do not anymore treat Life like a marionette. Life now becomes a kite: we allow it to fly with freedom. This is the upside of living with strings. The more we let go of our attachment, the more we become connected. In this kind of freedom, we open ourselves to Love more. As we stop fearing and hating, all the more we stop blaming and controlling. They work vice-versa. We allow anyone and anything to flow and grow. In turn, we also allow ourselves. Eventually, we will express Love with no conditions, and, finally, with no strings attached.

(to be continued)

The Raging Heart

2010-06-06T13:23:00.005+08:00

(part two)

Some years ago, in the process of dealing with my anger, I have discovered that anger was my easiest way to react to any situation I encountered that primarily defied my own notions of order and harmony. Anger was my attempt to gain attention from people who seemed not to submit to my control, which allowed me to harness a kind of power where people around me tend to bend on their knees in fear. With anger, I felt an immense force that later transmuted into an appalling helplessness. After throwing thunderbolts of insults and curses, I was left drained and disempowered, let alone stupid of making a lot of mess out of shattered bottles and chairs I hurled in the height of my reactiveness. I felt I had done a nonsense act, which carved within me a huge void filled with remorse of wishing nothing had really happened.

What used to be my deep-seated anger is an ingrained experience of the first universal form of attachment: hating and rejecting negative emotions. It is so universal that no human being can possibly describe oneself free from this attachment. All of us experience this dark and vile force of anger that can consume us uncontrollably. Like the young monk, we hate that we hate; this is the irony that enslaves us in moments of grappling with our unruly emotional monsters.

Long before running amok, an individual who says "nagdilim ang paningin" (Filipino: the sight has darken) has harmed someone not from sound reasoning but from an overwhelming wave of anger. This is the darkness one experiences that makes him or her a dangerous offender. Whatever degree of offense, from verbal to physical violence, it is the pitch black anger that often pushes us to injure others without seeing the consequence of our actions. In the end, the same anger is not anymore directed to others but to ourselves.

"To understand that you are angry in the moment of anger and fearful in the moment of fear is an automatic enlightenment."

We cannot just sever anger from us. It is impossible. Anger is darkness in its full force, coming from this vast fear. While anger is the gravity, fear is the black hole from where it comes. To find ourselves gripped with anger is basically an expression of our fears. We have tried to refuse the existence of fear by trying to wield external power of anger. Angry people are people filled with fear, and they are seeking connections with others and with themselves. Seeing both anger and fear as a call to vulnerability and openness to Love is a unanimous teaching among all spiritual teachers and ancient sages. They are both manifestation of the same dark energy within us, the energy in which both our uncertainties and potentialities aggregate and arise.

The idea that anger and fear should not be present in our lives is illusion at its best. This illusion is our most common attachment. It locks us inside the cycle of anger towards others, then anger towards our anger, and anger towards ourselves. Our target is not to eliminate them, since they would be as pitch black as ever. The darkness they bring needs the light of our understanding. This reduces them from abysmal darkness to a mere shadow we cast. Like Peter Pan, we must begin to stitch up again our wild shadow with us so we can be at peace and return to the state where our hearts remain young and alive.

The paradox of this is to accept our anger and fear in their pure state, letting them adrift in our thoughts and feelings. To understand that you are angry in the moment of anger and fearful in the moment of fear is an automatic enlightenment. You have already cut the cords of their unwanted consequences. It is the very moment when instead of wallowing on the turbulent edges of the storm, you seek the very eye where there is peace and serenity. The first form of our universal attachment has finally been detached. And it is quite interesting that as we detach from this form, we have also successfully detached from the other 3 forms. This is the mystery of their interconnection that we are yet to discover.

(to be continued)

above photo from PicApp

Understanding Attachment

2010-06-02T13:45:00.019+08:00

photo by juan de sant

There is a Zen story, which is told in many versions, about two monks, an old and a young one. It was a rainy day, and they were traveling together down a muddy road, when they came across with a beautiful woman in kimono dress. She wanted to cross the road (or the river), but unable to do so. So the old monk helped her by carrying her on his back. Then both of them left her and walked several distance ahead. On their way to the temple, the young monk felt so uneasy and angered that he burst out and blamed the old monk for carrying the woman, which, to his knowledge, is a grave mistake; for monks do not go near women, let alone carry one. He thought that such an act is dangerous for them as monks, particularly in following their rules of conduct. The old monk calmly responded, "I have left the woman, but why do you still carry her?"

The story is among the well-known koans, or Zen riddles, which provoke both humor and wisdom. In its simplicity and directness, the story has encapsulated what is so called attachment, and how understanding this will allow us to understand detachment (which I discussed in four parts last year). When a friend asked me how to release one's attachment, it would simply be achieved by understanding it. Yet, the way to understand it is quite vague for most of us, since our attachments are blind spots that we rarely identify in our everyday experiences.

The story of two monks captures our 4 most common attachments. These attachments are perhaps universal in nature, for they are all manifesting in many ways in which we feel negative and pessimistic, both sabotage our precious opportunities to become happy and Loving. Identifying them is an arduous task, and calls for one's vigilance and equanimity. Learning our attachments can lead us enough to master the art of detachment, for both are sides of the same coin.

In the following articles, we will explore these 4 attachments, how they grip us and how we can let them go.

Lessons from Cockroaches

2010-06-01T00:37:00.008+08:00

There's a winged wanderer in the insect world whose name is infamous in all households. Out of 3,500 species, only Periplaneta americana is the notorious one, known as the American cockroach, often seen scuttling on kitchen counters and sinks. Both adults and kids hate this, of all insects, save the mosquitoes and flies. Even as a child, I really hate seeing it flying around. I would always hit them with my slippers, and rejoice over their dead spattered body. With such morbid act, I used to keep all of them at bay. My friend told me his story on cockroach. He wrathfully kills them one by one, and like a prized collection, he puts them in an empty liquour bottle. It seemed that he collected more than a hundred.

But this abhored creature has an interesting story. For most of us, we haven't yet learned that cockroaches are among the toughest organisms that have remained virtually unevolved throughout natural history. Cockroaches have ruled on Earth long before humans emerged. That enough provokes me to think who the pest really are: is it them or us? In an article on January 1981 edition of National Geographic magazine, cockroaches were hailed as survivors due to many reasons. Cockroaches are not picky when it comes to food. Nothing is different between a fresh fruit and a stinking carcass. They eat whatever is given. Seems like only cockroach has a lot to teach on the quality of acceptance. Cockroaches have sophisticated mouth, well-equipped with powerful jaws and teeth structures; a cross among pairs of scissors and pliers and can openers. This mouth prevents them to starve.

Another thing is, according to insect scientists, spotting a cockroach at your kitchen gives you an estimated of 200 growing population of cockroaches. Expect a village of scavengers living in the darkest, wettest, and deepest corners of the house. Their rapid growth makes pesticides one of the bestselling household commodities. They come in different forms: sprays, chalks, patches, etc. But using all these, still it's impossible to wipe out all cockroaches.

An ideal paradise for cockroaches is a moist place full of garbage. They would feast on anything spoiled and rotten. We have always thought that they are bringers of microbes that may cause infection. But studies have shown that there is little evidence on it. They haven't caused even a single epidemic. It seems that we have always co-existed with cockroaches well.

"They seem to pester your life, but they are messengers of your consciousness. They are the very reflection of your prejudices, troubled choices, and unrelenting ignorance towards learning your Soul."

We often hate them, though they don't even know what hate means. They are always around to eat, that's all. And whether we admit it or not, we have always been their accommodating hosts. We provide them food and shelter out of our own mess and the desire to stack up things we don't need. We want to get rid of them and we seem to be oblivious of the irony of allowing them to thrive. We often deny it, that the moment we see one of them dashing over our meals or hovering over our curtains we have always attracted them to come into our lives. They are messengers of our need for order and cleanliness that we have always neglected. And beyond that they seem to bring the metaphor of a cluttered Soul.

Often, difficult people, sickening things, unwanted situations are all likened to a pest we call cockroach. We all hate them, and do all things to reject them by hook or by crook. We have thought that they often ruin our lives. Yet whatever we do, they stay. They persist as we resist them. Nonetheless, what we call "pest" are long existent even before we perceive them as pest. These pest are the inconsiderate boss, the moneygrubbing parent and relative, the annoying in-law, the disgusting moneylender, the mind-numbing buddy.

Even if you hate them, you can't afford to reject them. Nor you can stand the chance of getting rid of them. They seem to pester your life, but they are messengers of your consciousness. They are the very reflection of your prejudices, troubled choices, and unrelenting ignorance towards learning your Soul. They come to your lives because you need to unclutter your sacred space, to brighten and dry it from the darkness and wetness of unexamined negligence. These "cockroaches" mirror the things you hate about yourself, and they nudge you to "turn the other cheek", so you can stop blaming and see yourself more responsible in overhauling your own frailties. Have you ever been inconsiderate, moneygrubbing, annoying, disgusting and mind-numbing to others? If so, then your hatred towards the pests becomes reversible, and you will begin to understand them. Like the redefined name of God in Moses Code, you can now say "I am that, I am" to whoever and whatever you cast your rejections and hatred. I am that. You can now see clearly, and stop hating anymore.

You don't have to waste your time eliminating your pest. For the pest is you if choose to stay that way, and you attract what you reject. Now, begin to unclutter your Soul, so the cockroaches will naturally go away. The pest you see will not be a pest anymore, but an organism that reminds you of the wonder of life.

Cockroach (photo by Wm Jas)
Anger (photo by shawnchin)

The Perishables

2010-05-30T09:50:00.031+08:00

Observing everything in this world is pretty much threatening, especially if you come closer to the truth: nothing is static or fixed, everything is changing, everything is impermanent. To realize this is a sweeping dilemma, and I have observed this in many instance. Like a small toddler I saw a few years ago who is now an almost six-footer teenager. Or seeing a very different appearance of a place that I haven't visited for years, being shocked of contrasting it to the past image imprinted in my mind. Or some new stuff that I bought, like a shirt, a pair of shoes or sandals; after several months, what used to be a new, shining stuff with a resin-like aromatic scent has worn down bit by bit, fraying and chipping in many corners, and its glowing quality has been heavily scratched. I have seen this reality in spending my money, or going to a certain place, or experiencing a new situation. They are all gone and the only trace that remains is my memory of them. All these things are known as the Perishables.

It seems that we need to edit what the Buddha has taught. Life is not suffering at all. Life becomes a suffering because of the truth that every thing in life is actually a Perishable. Nothing is not a perishable. Every thing that has begun will about to end. This is the cycle of truth. We all suffer because we have always thought that Perishables won't expire at all. Whenever we cling to this idea, our lives become a chain of miseries, because we tend to regret to the time that has passed, cling to the realities that have long gone in our midst, and fix the things, and even people, the way we see them. And we will find out that doing these are futile ways to live, wasting our precious life in making sure that whatever we want to stay must stay the way we want. And, ironically, we often choose to do this than to let go, and continue to suffer, despite the desire to break free and be happy. Running after the Perishables will soon cause us to perish with them.

"Running after the Perishables will soon cause us to perish with them."

There is a profound wisdom in understanding the Perishables that I have noticed in my contemplations. The soon I get worried, I automatically sense that I am worrying of fixing the Perishable, of grasping its slippery texture, and find it easing out from my grip. It makes me feel sick, tired, wasted, and anxious, and soon I lose my control over the situation, especially over my mental composure. This experience has led me to see what I worry about is a Perishable. The sooner I see this I immediately engage myself to a timeless retrospection, imagining what my emotional and mental state would be like after 2 years of recalling this very moment. Would I still be anxious? Or would I laugh out loud, or simply smile for seeing that those Perishables have long gone perished? And I would come to my senses that I have nothing to worry about. I relax and accept things and events as they are, even if they are my inner anxieties or my outer worries.

Whatever perishes returns to the cycle of creation and re-creation, and it means I have to let them go to that process. Any people, material things or situation that comes across my path are all Perishables in one way or the other. It is not that they are unimportant, but to see them as Perishables is to honor their once role in our Soul, and as they return to the source of creation, we also honor their process of renewing the energy of the source. If we keep the Perishables in our heart, we will clutter our attention and limit our movement on our sacred space. They will appear to be junk that rusts and stinks in our consciousness. This is the call to clean our space, and let the Perishables perish in their own natural way. As they perish, we cultivate a new growth in our awareness. We allow the growth of Love.

I keep on reminding myself that if I am beginning to worry on the Perishable, I must stop, and let Love fill my heart. For I know that Love is the only stable and bedrock state that I can trust and cling to, that I can firmly grasp and grip. Despite the irony that Love is an essence and its nature is intangible, it is the most tangible truth I can ever hold on to. Love, and the Perishables that grow from its fertile ground remains ever-changing, but will never, ever perish.

Building Blocks

2010-05-23T21:09:00.039+08:00

Of all the toys I had as a little boy, I think Lego for me was the best. My fresh imagination creates structures using Lego blocks of different shapes, sizes, and colors. Perhaps I wasn't just playing with them; I was creating possibilities. It was my early days of creative exploration. I could imagine all sorts of forms, structures and humanoid characters. I could create different kinds of aircraft and spaceships that can travel to my boundless fantasies. I was in my own virtual universe made together by my Lego blocks and my infinite imagination.

Such a toy is ingenious, says Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder in his novel on the history of philosophy, Sophie's World. Lego gives children not only the power to create from simple blocks, but also the power to destroy. Here, the essence of destruction is not about to eliminate or crush anything. It is, in fact, the very impetus of re-creation. The process of destruction is not so much of destroying, but of re-creating. Whenever kids pick the blocks and attached them according to the forms they wish, thereafter they may simply choose to disintegrate them and bring them back to the same basic blocks they once were. Then, they can create whatever new forms they wish from the same set of blocks. Nothing is being destroyed, after all. Not a single block is wasted. Every block can be used again as a part of another created form.

Is the Universe made the same way? Are we not, living and nonliving, made from the same ingenious building block, the same stuff that stars and galaxies are made? If so, then whatever is created in our material and physical reality will soon perish or disintegrate naturally, and the "blocks" that have made them will be used again to create new physical forms? The constant process of creation and re-creation lies in the ingenious hand of the Absolute, the Source of all basic building blocks that makes every form be formed and transformed, the one we often call God--the one otherwise known as Love.

How does Love create and re-create? Such words cannot describe it. For the process of knowing Love is beyond the specific processes of creation and re-creation. In the realm of Love, both of them are indistinguishable. And it's own building block is itself. Love creates and re-creates Love. As Love creates Love, it manifest in millions of ways. Love is the very essence which builds all the color, the forms and the possibilities of our reality.

"Love creates and re-creates Love...Love is the very essence which builds all the color, the forms and the possibilities of our reality."

Take sometime to observe the place where you are right now. Every thing is made of that essence, of that basic atom or quantum particles, so to speak, which, according to physicist, make anything real and tangible. You and the table and the computer and wall and the water are made of the same particle, forming in different ways and manifesting in different shapes, sizes, textures, and colors. With those differences, experience becomes diverse, and expressions becomes myriad, all according to their functions that support every turn of your very existence. Nonetheless, all of them, including you, are impermanent. In time, we will perish, but process remains the same, creating and re-creating innumerable forms, having their unique, kaleidoscopic nature. Love is understood in this process, by seeing that this is the endless dance of creation and re-creation, like the dance of Shiva.

While we often see stumbling blocks in our creative processes, we can begin to see and use them as building blocks of Love, from which all creative momentum accelerates us to the peak dynamics of creation and recreation. Like the Lego block, no block can be a waste, for each has its purpose to build and form the grand structure our imagination creates. We transform each block and make them again a part of new forms, of new transformations.

Love is creating and re-creating Love moment to moment. You and I are both creations and re-creations of Love. The beauty of this is that we are not just at the mercy of those processes. We are, ourselves, the processes of creation and re-creation. All we have to do is to participate consciously. So we can begin to create and recreate Love with full consciousness. So we can form and transform the world into Love. And the only building block we can use is Love.

photo (above) by Reeport

Voting Beyond

2010-05-09T12:43:00.031+08:00

photo by linh.ngân

I was trying to visualize an election without using any automation technology or trashy paraphernalia. In a sense, it would be highly impossible, since our electoral systems run only through technology, be it manual or digital counting. But how about an election without all of these messy counting that are often subjected to inevitable fraud, an election that only uses intentions of light? Would this be possible?

Consider the Intention Experiment led by Lynne McTaggart. These are series of experiments that demonstrate the power of intention and how it influences external subjects like plants and microorganisms. In 2007, one of their pioneering projects was launched, called the Leaf Intention Experiment. Experimenters instructed participants around the globe to visualize the leaves of a geranium plant glowing with light. Through punctured holes on the leaf surface, light emissions were measured. Leaves were photographed using a highly sophisticated camera. Results showed statistically significant increase in light emissions of leaves intended with light. This experiment, along with others, is resonant to the nonlocal effect of intentions. It means that wherever we are in the world, our deepest intentions are effective, regardless of distance and time. This experiment also reminds me of many cases of how prayer works, discussed by Larry Dossey in his book Healing Words.

What are the implications of these experiments in this coming elections? Perhaps in a utopic way of thinking, our future might develop some kind of technology that will increase the extensions of intentions, particularly of Light. If possible, in a highly sophisticated electoral system, we are about to choose candidates by the virtue of our intentions, translated through light emissions accurately recorded and counted! (in Mctaggart's experiments, light or biophoton emissions were captured, analyzed and counted one by one. This means that results can still be counted.) Stretching our imagination on this kind of light intention-based election, candidates would sit down on a dark chamber (so there would be no chance to manipulate "light"), while people vote in precincts by casting their intentions on pictures of candidates of their choice. No need to write or mark any ballot. Intention is enough to do the job.

Doubts may still linger. What if there are flying voters, or manipulation of results, assuming that some candidates who voraciously desire to win would come up with their battalion of "light intenders" to increase their chance of winning? This is, in theory, possible. On the other hand, what if light cannot be cast with maleficent intentions? If the candidate tries to do this, results will be compromised. So it appears that the intention-based system will create innumerable problems in fulfilling a desire of fair and clean elections.

Stop. There is something wrong in this picture.

Even if this intention technology is available, it will still not be viable to serve the current status quo. Our society continues to starve for external power, and that is why elections are fertile ground for fraud and violence. My high school history teacher laments on this: "As long as the world is ruled by man, there will be no perfect government." Our highest ideals on true democracy and governance will continue to be tainted by greed, anger and ignorance, all in pursuit of ruling power over people. Unless each individual claims and asserts his or her own responsibility and integrity, there will be an endless litany of blames toward the so-called leaders of nation and their corrupted bureaucracies. Unless leaders, politicians, and bureaucrats transform their self-centered agenda into selfless service to humanity, there will still be perpetuation of abusive power that tyrannize weak people who continue to search for external solutions.

"Voting is not just about selection of who is fitted to run any government. It is about an empowered choice, of choosing beyond platforms and sweet promises."

There is a need for overhauling the system but not to change any external technology, like the ones done in electoral systems. Intention-based technology is true and effective, but to use it for external objectives like elections won't allow it to work. Intentions are inside jobs, inner soulwork that requires full awareness and intuitive discernment. This internal technology, as what Gregg Braden calls it, is highly effective if each and everyone of us awakens to the reality that whatever change we desire starts from within. That is, our inner consciousness in the essence of Love is the bedrock foundation that empowers our choices and decisions. When we create intentions of goodwill and harmony, Love begins to manifest in our actions. In this way, we influence each other's knowing and capacity in pursuit of extending our hands in initiating external transformations. We are now voting, in a literal and symbolic sense, for the process of change, not for any candidates who promise change and break them.

We can now begin to create intentions of light and make others "glow". We are literally the light of the world, we just exert our abilities in casting the light of our Soul. We can intend change by refusing to hate, blame and criticize, yet doing our contributions in our own unique ways. This is voting in the most ideal level, by doing what is needed to be done. We are filling ourselves with the feelings of Love while stopping corruption, conserving our environment, upholding freedom and dignity, saving lives from poverty and hunger or innovating efficient systems and technology. This feeling of Love is not a fleeting feeling of euphoria, but the deepest desire of understanding and serving the needs of others, which charges each action with compassion and joy.

Voting is not just about selection of who is fitted to run any government. It is about an empowered choice, of choosing beyond platforms and sweet promises. And an empowered choice is always a powerful intention, of casting the light of Love to the hearts of people.

May we always vote for Love.

Labor of Love

2010-05-01T11:16:00.037+08:00

Work is Love made visible -- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Today, as you read this, perhaps you are taking your break from an endless number of chores or tasks you have started or about to finish. I sense the feeling of being unproductive, despite doing a lot and spending great amount of effort, time and money. For the longest time you have believed that the things you do can bring you more meaning and purpose in your life. And you often equate this meaning with a brilliant career, a new set of skills, a fantastic relationship, or any expensive material possession. They are all good at their ends. Yet after achieving a few of them, if not all, you still feel the void. Something is looming, waiting to be discovered. It's a black hole of uncertainty. And it remains untouchable, and you are driven away by that fear that might sweep your life off your feet.

Why is it that even if you do things, you still have that feeling of being adrift in the ocean of the unknown. You have been asking yourself "What's next?" a lot of times, and trying to have fun or hooking yourself up to something enjoyable and addictive so you don't bother yourself answering that very difficult question. Because deep inside, whatever things you do remains empty, until such time you take the risk of discovering the answer way beyond the predictability of your life. There is more to do, but that thing is more than just any backbreaking stuff. It is more of an undertaking that neither your career nor your possessions can equal, yet both of them provide the tools you need to accomplish it.

Why not rethink your life right now? Why not see it again in a larger different perspective? In retrospect, try to see what you have worked for and what you have accomplished. Embrace all those things you did and had in the past, and those that you presently do and have. See all those failures and blunders and mistakes as part of your learning process. And see your small successes and big achievements not just rewards, but keys to the meaningful and purposeful life you are about to commit. You are here not as an organism of random biological processes. You are not here by accident in a seemingly unfriendly world. You are not alone in this vast universe waiting for your certain death. While life is full of suffering, it is in the realization of it that makes life more joyful. This is what you need to accomplish. To live your life full of joy, going above any pain and pleasure. But the question is, "How?"

Seeing the worth of your Soul is where you start. You don't need any credentials, or implements, or possessions, or rewards to fill in this inner space of worth that you often think as a void. You need not to capitalize on what you have or what you do, but on what you ARE. By the virtue of being a human, you are enough. To realize your worth without judging yourself against the standard of this world is the beginning of your true Soulwork. This is where the "next" comes in.

In this way, you are reliving again your Life as conscious as possible. You are not anymore an automaton who follows what the world dictates you to do. You are not just a rank-and-file jobber who is often measured by the things you do or have. You cannot be deterred in fulfilling your true life simply by being compared or prejudiced. Because you are precious enough to be you, and from being you, you can open yourself to the wide breadth of your potential. You can now begin to put grander meaning to everything you have, for they are the tools you can use to fulfill your purpose. You can see that the things you do are not just mechanical duties, but your great endeavor done little by little, adding to the magnificent scheme of inner and outer possibilities. Your Soul is doing a great job in allowing the Universe to reveal itself to you, simply by making yourself revealed in full awareness, of showing that you are conscious enough to see yourself as a work and product of Love. Each thing you hold is empowered with your Love. Each thing you create becomes Love. Whatever that is, it becomes an instrument of Love.

You are not anymore trading your blood, sweat and tears off. There is no need to die for any strenuous and stressful work. Because everything you do leads you to a fuller life. What you do is done with Love, a wordless prayer that expressed through your hands, a faith that is worth a thousand labor. Being you is a labor of Love. This is enough.

Writing from the Soul

2010-04-14T00:52:00.038+08:00

photo by mpclemens

At the age of seven I was thinking of what talent I do really have. Is it dancing, I thought. Perhaps singing, since I used to get up on stage and perform. Or cooking. As a pre-schooler, we were asked to bring eggs and hotdogs and pancake to fry and serve them for lunch. I enjoyed doing them. Well, those little things, as a kid, were things of enjoyment, of being in that moment without really worrying what will happen in the future. So it didn't occur to me that there is something more that I could really do.

At age eleven, I started reading a poem in Filipino. That poem ignited my deep interest on poetry, which was then the spark that has made me explore writing up to now. This newfound power compelled me to write my own story, create imaginative characters which I used to do while playing on my own, making humanoid toys converse with each other. Through writing I could create my own world of magic and possibility. I write stories on a yellow pad, a bond paper, or even on a flattened cigarette carton boxes. Inspired by children's fantasies on TV, I would write my own alamat (legends), fables, and fairy tales. I even create my own version of well known children's stories. During my grade school days, I would go to the library and devour on Filipino high school textbooks. After my stay, I would bring at least two textbooks with me, so I could read them the whole weekend. When my mom bought me a typewriter as a gift, I typed stories voraciously, spending my holy weeks madly banging the typewriter with endless ideas, stories and poems that spring from my imagination. These are my writing adventures, all of which are foundational for all the writings on Love you have read on this blog.

"Writing is my Soul. It is my being.
It is my becoming."

This time, I am rediscovering writing. It is my great tool. No, it is more than a tool. Writing is my Soul. It is my being. It is my becoming. It is the best thing I want to do, to enliven and to achieve. It is not just a routine of scribbling sentences and paragraphs. Writing is my form of expression, a personal experience, a timeless adventure. In writing, I can write my own world, bring back my wonderful memories, chronicle my own history, describe my experiences, learn from my inner creativity, relieve my stressful days, talk to myself and to God, share others my heart, and explore my true self. My writing is as unique as me, as specific as my DNA, for it allows me to create my personal dimension manifested in words. Sooner I may die and be forgotten for years, yet the gift of my writing to the world will outlast centuries, just as many writers who have lived their lives and left their legacies. Writing becomes the fossil of their once living beings, a blueprint of their entity and a witness to the fulfillment of their souls. In truth, I am bringing these same effects in my life.

Writing from the Soul has led me to find that everything around me can be captured through unspoken words untainted by worldly meaning. There is suchness in each truth I see, and each can offer that power to become written experience. The sea can become an inkwell or the earth can become paper. Or the sky a blank screen and the stones a keyboard. Every movement in nature has a dynamic awakening of words, in which every heart can read Love.

I am now writing a book on Love. Of all my writing adventures, this one is the ultimate. As words spring forth from this book, each rings the wonder and magic of Love. My Soul writes its own enlightenment, as Love brings light as its message to the world.

photo by Linds :)

My greatest fulfillment, and perhaps equally as my greatest success, is to write from the depth of my Soul. Yes, I could write in many ways, about many things, yet to write from the Soul is much more transformative. I have enabled myself to see things in the eyes of Love, and to account for those sights, hindsights, and insights. Bringing life to Love through words is a magnificent achievement. I feel that this goes the same for Souls who have chosen to express Love through music or arts or helping each other, and the expression of Love becomes their own radical unfolding. The same is true for my writing experience. Writing is the very key to the immense potentiality of my Soul. I have realized that if I'm going to seek first the kingdom of God, I have to find it through writing. Because this kingdom of God, which I call and experience as Love, remains formless until the time I weave words that would express it. Then Love becomes tangible and real. And from there, all forms of Love would flow incessantly, the blessings that come from my realization of Love.

Miracles

2010-04-12T09:26:00.005+08:00

photo by kelsey lovefusionphoto

How can we really see the world in a grain of sand? It seems that the English poet William Blake did it when he was alive. Rather than mastering poetry, he mastered how to see the miracles around him. And by seeing those miracles, he had written great poems that bespeak of these miracles. Perhaps that is the secret to witnessing a miracle. But for most of our lives, we have sought physical miracles. We are trying to wait for someone to descend from the sky, casting shimmering radiance. Or maybe be astounded by any object showing faces like miraculous inkblots. Yes, these can be miracles. They can demonstrate puzzling phenomena never before seen in daily encounters. Thus, a definition of a miracle is something that can shock anyone, usually in a very rare, extraordinary moment, preferably an attention-grabbing, mind-boggling experiencing that will bring out again that sense of faith buried beneath the consciousness.

Are we missing great miracles in our everyday lives? We have been living in a rapid pace of changing trends and technology, and still remain static in our sense of existence. Many of us still look for something grand and perfect that will somehow captivate our spirits hungry for magic and enchantment. If not a miracle of some supernatural event, maybe the thought of fulfilling our mundane desires could be equally miraculous, such as having a perfect partner, or winning in a lottery, or being promoted in our jobs. Those are miracles in their own ways. But all of them are miracles happening outside, making us flabbergasted. Nonetheless, within us are great miracles that are more than what our senses can witness; they are extraordinary that only the awakened soul can discern them. In the eyes of world, these miracles are mere ordinary occurrences, let alone a nonsense humdrum.

What are these miracles?

It is the miracle of the stuff you enjoy using, such as your phone or personal computer, assembled through the genius of their inventors, to make your life much easier. Haven't you wondered how it is miraculous to receive messages from your dear ones and friends in a blink of an eye? It amazes me how our technology has gone far just to make us more connected in the midst of long distances and time.

It is the miracle of the fragrant flowers blooming countlessly, the leaves growing from a broken branch of a big tree, the brook burbling continuously, the crickets chirping in chorus, and the small white butterfly gently flying from one leaf to another. It is the miracle of the changing sky, with its clouds fleeting like long, endless feathers; or its kaleidoscopic horizon in a sunrise or sunset, with a play of bright orange and yellow, or purple and red.

It is the miracle of the laughter and smiles from your loved ones and friends, kindling the fire of joy that gives warmth in your most intimate moments. It is the miracle of touching, hugging and kissing, ways that connect your soul to their souls, connections that even death can be defied.

It is the miracle of you as you see yourself in the mirror, feeling everything around you with your senses. The miracle of your sense of sight that sees every color and movement, your sense of hearing that hears every sound and music, and your sense of smell that enjoys every scent and aroma. It is the miracle of your hands holding anything and touching another, and your feet walking and dancing in various movements.

It is the miracle of an awakened heart, discerning the existence of your Soul in each and every thing you encounter. It is the miracle of Love that arises in your awareness. When you begin to recognize that whatever you see in this world and this life, sans your limited prejudice of beauty and ugliness, are all miracles, then you can begin to see the reality of Love. Love and all these miracles are the same. You can see Love as you see these miracles. Thus, the definition of Love is not just something that can shock but astonish anyone; not just in a rare, extraordinary moment, for every moment is extraordinary; it's not anymore attention-grabbing or mind-boggling, for these happen to those that are yet to see the nature of Love; and this Love renews this sense of faith into an enlarged consciousness.

photo by Faithful chant [back]

The mastery of Love is the mastery of seeing miracles. And the magic is this: we are not just spectators of these miracles. We can begin to create them. A Course in Miracles states " Miracles occur as natural expressions of Love. The real miracle is the Love that inspires them. In this sense, every thing comes from Love is a miracle."

When we begin to Love, we create miracles.

Inner Knowing

2010-03-28T10:13:00.002+08:00

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." --Book of Matthew

Our lives are full of uncertainties. These uncertainties are the result of suffering. We grapple our ways towards many fixations, of making life more secure and comfortable. We have sought ways in which we can stabilize the flow of life through the best ways we know, be it money or job or some sort of meaningful task or endeavor. We always make sure that whatever that is uncertain, which we always fear, must vanish through our efforts of creating a life that is more predictable and measurable. We often design ourselves like cogs in a machine, following the gears of a mechanistic, fated universe. So whenever we encounter the opportunity to change, we often shun them away, or worse we dread them, for these are uncertain choices that do not fit our expectations and assumptions. My former classmate raised a question during our usual group conversations a few years ago: "What happens to our lives after college? We'll finish school, get a job, get married, have a family, have kids, send kids to school, travel places, collect things, shop and buy, yet what will happen next? It is as if our lives is just a cycle of repeating experiences. I guess there is more to life than just these things." Yes, there is more to life. This is for sure. Still, what we are always missing is the certainty, the decision, the courage to take the risk and dare to venture the uncharted wilderness of that more in our lives.

Uncertainty is not just a fact, it is the truth. Through this, we can be always certain that there is more to life. But too seek this more outside ourselves is a futile venture. Because whatever we find outside, paradoxically, is all inside of us. Within us is the power to find the immensity of life. Our very tool is our Soul's Inner Knowing. It is both our tool and our being. The Inner Knowing brings us to this core of awareness, of being deeply certain in the middle of countless uncertainties.

Our Inner Knowing is the sense of our Soul. It knows what it both knows and does not know. It is our connection to the mysteries of Life, to the things we are yet to experience, to the possibilities we desire to achieve. Our Inner Knowing cuts through our vague understanding and brings us to reexamine our decisions and choices, and leaves us a question: "Am I coming from Love?" We become aware through our Inner Knowing when we can sense that deep essence of Love, and we answer our life's puzzle through the test of doing and acting from that very Love. Within this Knowing, we discern the passion of our hearts, on how it wants to express and experience Life in the grandest way possible. Often, the world around us, and the people we know will find that our choices that come from Love will always be absurd. It is because Love never follows the standard of this world. It has its own Inner Knowing. This Inner Knowing is always sure of what it chooses. It is always an empowered choice. And it transforms our Life into its truest fulfillment.

This Inner Knowing is the Kingdom of God and Christ encourages us to tap into it. We could find it nowhere nor sooner. Because it is, in Christ words, within and among us. We never wait for it, for this Inner Knowing only knows that the only moment is this very moment where we can always give the world what our Soul can offer, and that is Love. So we must stop seeking it elsewhere or waiting for tomorrow to let the Inner Knowing come. The here and now is the best time and place we can Love.

And it what ways this Inner Knowing knows and does Love? Our Inner Knowing knows Love if we stop judging and comparing ourselves with others. It does Love if we stop worrying of whatever happened in the past and will happen in the future. There is no Soul better than us, except the illusion that we are being compared and measured. These illusions stop us to acknowledge our Inner Knowing, but remind us that it is there. Soul has no time to wait, for there is really no time at all. In timelessness of the Inner Knowing, we have already achieve our desires, what we just need to do is to recognize them that we do. It is so obvious, but we think our Inner Knowing is still unknown because whatever unknown must be feared of. Fear of the unknown prevents us to seek this mystery, of diving to this overwhelming dimension of our Inner Knowing, of this Love within. Thus the paradox: the more we look for some known goal we are badly obsessed to grab, the more we lose our chance of being aware of the blessings that is right in front of us.

This Inner Knowing is the door leading to our awareness. Once we become aware, we are less afraid of what we don't know. Delving to this unknown, to this mystery of Life is the first step to our own transcendence. Life, however predictable it may seem to be, is no longer reduced into redundant routines. Each experience, even if it is so mundane and ordinary, becomes a sacred moment, where Love radiates into being. We can do things with Love, even as simple as washing the dishes or riding a bus. This awareness of Love moment to moment is the Inner Knowing that knows itself being known, and allows itself to be known in its most unknown and unlikely manner. It directs us into the state what our Soul really is. Inner Knowing is always sure and never fails to be sure, because the only thing that is exact to it is the certitude of Love.

In the unfathomable depths of our being, we have always known our Inner Knowing. It only waits for us to choose to know. There is no other way. Once we do, whatever limited things we know about Love expands. We will finally know that Love and Inner Knowing are both the same. This is the ultimate knowing that finally puts our hearts at peace with Life, and our Soul in the womb of Love.

My Journey to Shambhala

2010-03-21T13:32:00.006+08:00

This time I had no doubt.

This is the last sentence in the book The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight by James Redfield, which I had read right before I started the first chapter. It was an eerie coincidence. Right after I bought the book, I was in doubt if it was worth my money. That last sentence was a signal to a new adventure ahead of me. But after reading it all, it was way beyond. And it really transformed my life.

A new fountain of knowledge had drowned me to infinity but unable to quench my existential thirst, which led me to begin my journey to Shambhala, the renowned eden of the Tibetan Buddhist lore. It is said to be the place where people are in harmonious co-existence, and building up the possibility of the future of humanity. Learning this, Redfield's novel became my transcendent portal to Shambhala. It tells the synchronicity-propelled adventures of a nameless character. Nameless he is, for the author wants every reader to personify oneself as the character. I became the nameless, for my spiritual understanding was still unclear at the time I read this book. My life's milestones had yet to clarify their purposes.

But the journey was not easy. Life has always challenged me. I struggled with my turbulent emotions. I once wanted to become a robot, free from all sufferings and pains. I lived in anger and fear, sharing the setbacks of the nameless protagonist. My past, present, and future concerns were badly entangled. Yet my spiritual fervor had remained. I must arrive in Shambhala, whatever obstacles may lie ahead.

Despite the perilous journey, I have learned a great deal of wisdom. Going to Shambhala taught me the power of thoughts, which when harnessed with faith, transforms into a prayer. It came to my sense the very principle that operates behind the strange prayers of different religions and traditions, the principle that designs all man-made objects, or why prophets are able to act through divine will. It shows interaction of energy systems of all livings and non-livings, harmonizing with the laws of nature and affecting existence of this reality.

Like the protagonist, I have found the utopia of Shambhala, but in the cold, highest peaks of my bewildering life questions. There lies a pristine, warm paradise of intuitive wisdom, the mysterious Divinity which I experience through the most mundane word we have ever known: Love. In the book, it is conveniently called the fields of intentions. Yes, it can be a deceptive term, yet the truth of Love exudes from any kind of experience, such as intentions. A prayer, which is always a positive thought, empowers who ever receives and gives it. This is intention, and its power is unmistakable. The Loving, intentional thought can literally transform curses into blessings. And I have seen this working in my life, and how it has permeated and unfolded in every religious tradition. It is because in a hindsight, Love not merely permeates all, for all things in its true, pure nature, are tangible Love.

Now, I have grounded my practice of calming the mind and sending intentions of Loving-kindness as the essence of prayer power. In reading books on teachings of Love, my growing awareness has elucidated the questions that confounded me for years. With newfound friends who are on the same journey, I have seen my goal the same as theirs and those in Shambhala: to integrate the spiritual truths of all religions. That is, whatever differences in doctrines or rituals, they all hold the same purpose, which is to unite with the Divine source. I have seen that this is more than just interfaith. The goal of all religion is to live out the universal virtue all humans ultimately want to achieve: Love.

These interconnections of synchronicities, prayer fields, and new spirituality are part of a never-ending journey of unfolding the secret. Life for me is no more routine and confining. Arriving in Shambhala is being in the process: to learn and to integrate Love as the deepest spiritual truth that humanity has been learning ever seen.

This time I have no more doubts.

Hugging

2010-03-19T20:50:00.047+08:00

If there is one gesture that shows how pure Love can be physical and welcoming, perhaps that is the most universal: hugging. Yes, kissing is one, yet in many cases it can be very exclusive. But hugging encompasses all levels, situations, differences, and personalities. Hugging is so universal that any person, whatever language they speak, when he or she throws open arms to give someone a big hug, can always give the warmth of Love in that very moment. A hug welcomes and comforts everyone, breaks down the barrier between strangers, creates a circle of inclusive intimacy. Hugging is but Love, physicalized.

Leo Buscaglia, one of my favorite authors on Love, shares in his book Love that no person hugs the same way. In such a way that all of us is unique, we can express ourselves with great uniqueness, for there is no one person alive in this world as exactly as we are. In Buscaglia's insights, hugging has a signature. Giving a hug may look like the same, but Love has no limited expression. Since Love manifest in infinite ways, so as hugs.

Thich Nhat Hahn has invented a different kind of meditation. He calls it hugging meditation. He says it is a combination of East and West. In the East, people are good in meditation, but seldom in physical expression, unlike in the West. So hugging meditation brings the best of both worlds. He tells us that through this technique, we become aware of hugging another, of being there, of accepting with our whole presence the presence of the person we hug. I was quite surprised the first time I learned this because I've been doing this meditation with my significant other, as well as with my loved ones. And prior to learning that there is this technique, I'm glad to be able to hug them with such presence and Loving awareness. It is the easiest way of appreciating them and showing my Love.

I remember a study I have read somewhere that hugging is a way to increase immune system of our bodies. That explains why the more I hug, the less I get sad, even to catch a cold. Bernie Siegel said that no one of his patients would know how to increase their immune globulins, yet if he tells them to Love, the effect is the same. If there is one way to increase them, that is hugging.

It's heartwarming to find some Filipino youth, some years back, who went to the streets to offer free hugs to any passing pedestrians. Some people found it a little strange, if not taken aback. Yet, maybe because hugging is not a common experience, especially with a stranger. Nonetheless, it has opened doors for a stranger to get outside one's wall of isolation, and take refuge in the arms of another who offer hugs with such fun and caring. While for nature-lovers, hugging a tree or a pet animal is such a ritual. Young teens love to hug big teddy bear toys, which are cute cuddling substitutes, if not pillows. After all, hugging does all the job to let Love be known and shown in the most unlikely situations.

I find hugging as a way to unite again with friends I haven't seen for a long time. Time and distance seem to vanish, and we begin to commune again as if we are always together. Such gesture has the depth of Love, for it brings our pairs of separated arms wrapped into Oneness. We may all seem to be separated with each other, but hugging is where we can see how our unseen connections entangle again in the subtle level, where Love, as an energy, has always existed.

In our world where people often feel disconnected, I believe hugging makes us feel again this connection. We can undo the culture of feeling strange to feeling warm, where our physical bodies can be always in touch with another, to fill each other with Love. We don't have to wait for some miracle to happen. A pair of open arms receiving another is miracle enough. Hugging can create a wave of Loving energy that will reconnect us to the deep essence of our Souls. In the level where God can be found, everyone of us is always in this eternal hug of Love.

The Goddess Within

2010-03-16T23:08:00.000+08:00

For most of us, to see God as a woman is quite unimaginable, for we have long accepted that God is only a man, a father, who oversees us with power and control. Our history has galvanized the image of God as a man, whose power is beyond measure, and whose authority knows no boundaries. This is the God we have believed who fathered every one of us, and provided the life that we possess. But, today, the face of God is changing. In this new era of awakening, humanity is restoring the balance of how we see God. We are now embracing that God is not just a father, but a mother who gave birth to us all.

We are now invited to see God in a different way. There is no need to replace God as man with God as a woman. To see the powerful qualities of God in union with the nurturing qualities of the Goddess, we can now understand how significant this insight is in our lives. While we can find the kingdom of God within, together with all its greatness and strength, we can also take refuge with the sanctuary of the Goddess.

The Goddess within is not a substitute to the image of God. To recognize the Goddess is to reconcile with God's great Loving capacity. To find the Goddess within is to see that God can cherish us like a mother, or more so, a mother himself. The Goddess is the face of God in the time of conception and growth of Life. This Goddess is our inner humanity, our wonder and miracle, our potential to create. Regardless of gender, this is more to rediscover the psyche, what Carl Jung calls the anima. To honor the anima, our feminine psyche, which is just another way of calling the Goddess, is to do the same with God, our masculine psyche, our animus. To say that there is a Goddess within cannot dishonor God, for God is but the completion of being a man and a woman, not just in terms of sexuality, but in the light of Truth of the Soul. God is the union of all opposites that are always in harmony with each other. God and the Goddess are but two distinct being of Oneness. They are both within us. They cannot be separated. Christ said, "The two become one." In this union of the God and the Goddess, the being of Love is born.

We are romancing not just the idea of this union, but its potential to enrich our lives. God is no more a mere concept of a separate, superior being. God is always one with us, and He is within us. He transforms in many ways, and becomes the ultimate transformation of the Soul, manifesting in our Loving actions and thoughts. He is the God that becomes the Goddess through colorful possibilities. He can conceive our Soul, give birth to our goodness, and can nurse our hungry hearts. And He cannot anymore be labeled as He, for the pronouns that separates God and the Goddess no longer labels whoever is man or woman. Love becomes their main gender, and they are in One within our Soul. Our God calculates, organizes and focuses on the physical aspects of how Love is express. Our Goddess endows, sustains, emancipates the soulful, subtle energies of how Love purely exists. Whenever we share Love to others, God provides us tangible ways to do it, such as a physical gesture, or a material blessing. And Goddess imparts Her sheer, pristine divine power of caring and compassion. This very dynamic is happening within us, and we become both the God and the Goddess in our own right. For their awakening reveals the balance of Love within us, and the wholeness of Love invokes our Soul to be whole again.

The Nature of Circle

2010-03-13T20:18:00.006+08:00

In the Circle, all of the gifts of human being are yours. --Laura Day, The Circle

Our eyes bear the most sacred shape in nature: the Circle. It is not a polygon, unlike any other shapes, which have a number of corners. The Circle appears so organic and flowing, a perfect meeting of curved lines, closing at the same point of its origin. It is a metaphor of infinite space, where it embraces everything in its radius, and can expand into limitless boundaries. It is the most ubiquitous shape, possessed and manifested by many creatures and natural structures. The Circle is found from a tiniest disk of single cell to the gigantic celestial spheres in the universe. And whatever begins and ends at same point is a process of the Circle, where all evolve in the rhythmical cycle of Life. As the saying goes, "Life comes full circle."

If God has a shape, then it is Circle, since God is the alpha and omega, the every beginning and end of existence. In its tangent, all points of time are never-ending, and its fringes encompasses the past, present and future, all fused in timelessness. While within the radius of a Circle is the Oneness of all, wherein nothing is separated. Every being, creature, event and things is within the Circle's inclusive field. They are all within its grand universe, and nothing is unimportant or even deserted. And, in the center of the Circle, is the source of being, from where all possibility radiates and expands and flows into all levels of reality.

Circle is known in many forms, often consecrated as a symbol of the soul. Zen monks call it the Enso, and in their meditative brushstroke they conscientiously paint this Circle of enlightenment. Enso reminds them to see that the essence of Zen is within this shape of essence. While Tibetan monks painstakingly create a detailed sacred sand artwork known as the Mandala. This word literally bears the meaning of circle, and that of essence and completion. Carl Jung once called it the representation of the unconscious. The Labyrinth, on the other hand, is a symbolic circular design seen in medieval times as the path to God. Walking in the labyrinth is like a journey towards the center of the Self, a destination that is actually endless. In China, the moon gate is a common architectural element. It has rich spiritual meanings, yet depicts a symbol of passage. In ancient India, a Chakra (Sanskrit: wheel) is an ethereal passage into the Soul, or the turning wheel that carries our Soul in union with God. And, however mundane the wheels and gears are, they are the great Circles that propelled not just our entire material civilization, but our inner evolution.

Circle is the shape of the never-ending movement and possibility. It is an orbit of time and a cycle of existence. In Sanskrit, this is Samsara, the continuation of birth and death, where every life renews itself. Samsara is the Circle of suffering - and the understanding of suffering, when we realize that we have all enough of our repetitive cycles of our faults and blunders, where at a single point of awareness we stop, and transcend this rotation. When we do, we can see again our cycle in a different light, as Circle moves in the flow of time, where Life constantly creates and perishes, as we arrive in the conscious realization that nothing can escape change, the very nature of our existence.

In the bosoms of heaven we see Circle through the spheres of sun and moon and planets, all in harmony with each other, playing the Divine rhythm. The Light-bearers, sun and moon, shine like flat disks in the face of the sky. They ultimately display the interplay of opposites, the celestial Yin and Yang. They are Circles in the midst of our universe, and they bring the Light of Life in our realm.

This Hindu-Arabic numeral called zero, which literally means empty, carries the depth of emptiness. Within this kind of Circle is the Truth that everything is empty. Empty, not of essence, but of all definitions that constrains us to see Truth as it is. As you add those seemingly empty zeros after another number, that number increases manyfold. In the space of this Circle, we can see that zero is not a number of nothingness, but of infinity.

There, in the eye of the storm, lies the Circle of peace and calmness. Inside its trunk, a tree counts the Circle of ages. Each raindrop on the face of a calm water, Circles of ripples wave instantly, their movement reverberates across every other ripple. Wherever we look at, Circle draws our attention. We are reminded that each of us is a Circle that continues to bear the cycle of Life, the perfection of Oneness, the fullness of our Soul. Circle is the shape of our beings that shapes the consciousness of our collective inner peace, of our all-embracing wholeness, of our ancient yearning for Love.

Paradox of Love

2010-03-10T09:38:00.003+08:00

Truth is ultimately paradoxical. None of us can fashion any box of thought that can contain it. No one has any absolute power to make Truth absolute. The true nature of Truth both complements and contradicts itself. There is more to truth than what the eyes meet. There is more to how our senses interpret what we have always thought is real. Reality, after all, in Einstein's physics, is relative. Our own limited realities of Truth can disenchant us in a very drastic way, unless we open ourselves in realizing beyond how we have recognized and accepted them. If reality is dependent on what we choose, therefore, Truth follows suit. But it does not mean that its universality is compromised. Simply put, the Truth of how all Life organically grows is discovered through its DNA, and still the same structure of any DNA remains the same, but combines in infinite ways that makes many creatures different while expressing the same basic features and functions. Likewise, it is the Truth that every human being, despite cultural differences and beliefs, has always the same deep, inner perennial need: to Love and be Loved. If we humans find and express Love through many ways, labels and tools, the nature of Love remains the same.

How paradoxical is Truth? Since Love and Truth are just different words of the same essence that sets us free, why does the contradictory happens? Why are we still enslaved by the trappings of Truth and unable to discern the indescribable essence? To search for Truth is a great adventure, much as to experience Love. Going deeper beyond the surface of our own limitations can we be able to find how Truth and Love become clearly understandable. To understand them is to see the other side, what is unseen. Truth is always deceiving, until we let our inner Truth reveal itself.

This shows us how mind-boggling paradoxes are. The Western foundation of Logic has kept us thinking in terms of polarity: that anything has its opposite, and this opposite opposes the other; that anything has a category, a certain truth where anything can only belong, a compartment of reality that can never be lost. For instance, we have always believed that everything is solid, and categorized them accordingly. Yet our new physics tells us that everything is energy, nothing is solid. It puzzles us to comprehend this nature of reality, because however we can establish the Truth, it becomes more erratic and unstable within the dimension of our limited consciousness. Following Socrates' famous paradox, we can only know the Truth if we acknowledge that we really don't know it. It is only in darkness that one can see inner Light.

Christ foretold it: The Truth will set us free. But how? We must now begin with Love.

Love is the only Truth. We might contend it through time-tested philosophies, doctrines and premises. We might say that Love is just an aspect of Truth. Yes, another paradox: it is and it is not. Love is the trunk of a big tree called Truth. And Love is the big tree itself. We can only see beyond the baffling paradox if we see the big picture: that the Truth remains whole even if we often cut it into pieces. It goes beyond our common assumptions that anything can be divided and separated. Whatever you see incomplete, separated or fragmented is always complete, connected and whole. In this light, there is much to be said about Love.

The Paradox of Love is very true in each of us. We can only find Love if we stop finding it. No one can give us Love but ourselves. Much of our Love deserves the person that we are. We can Love anyone and be Love if we Love ourselves and be Love.

When we Love, we become powerful. But we can only wield power if we throw it away. We don't throw away Love, but the baggage that stops us from Loving, the overpowering manipulation and control we want to impose on others, and the standards of perfection we impose on ourselves. We wield this power but not to be powerful upon others, but to be and have the power of Love inside ourselves. Rather than seeking for the illusion of being perfect by rejecting our imperfections, we must accept them. When we do, we become perfect.

We are butterflies inside caterpillars. Within us, we find our true courage in our fears, our strengths in our weaknesses, our potentials in our frailties. We are humbled if we exalt ourselves, and we are exalted when we humbled down. When we begin to face our own demons, they transform into angels, who are messengers of our true Loving selves.

Beyond these paradoxes is an inherent reality that nothing is really paradoxical at all. That seems to be another paradox, and perhaps the ultimate paradox of all paradoxes: the paradox that there is no such thing as paradox. Because in the ultimate Truth of Love, nothing can be labeled, categorized, compartmentalized, dichotomized, contradicted or simply separated. In the presence of these ways of understanding, the Truth becomes automatically paradoxical. Nonetheless, putting an end to all of them, Truth is simply Truth. And that's how we begin to understand Love.

On Soul

2010-03-07T22:52:00.015+08:00

What is essential is invisible to the eye -- Antoine St. Exupery, The Little Prince.

Anything that carries mystery is often unseen. Such is the Soul. It is the invisible fragment of the invisible whole. The Soul is a fragment, yet it is not fragmented. The fragment is whole in itself. It remains invisible for those who remain blind to the truth it embodies. It cannot be seen through the eyes of doubt, through which most of us use. The naked eye that sees physical things in this physical world is incapable of seeing non-physical things in the non-physical world. Nevertheless, the truth never hides itself. The lovely, wise seagull of Richard Bach advises a little hummingbird: But remember that not being known doesn't stop the truth from being true. Truth stays, waiting for our inner eyes to see.

Truth of the Soul continues to be the truth as it is. But that truth is far from being defined by words or described by sight. A friend once said that The Soul is so abstract that it is so difficult to comprehend; it seems so far from concrete reality. She argued that there must be some way to make the Soul concrete, like some operational theory or explanation. Yes, there is one way, I thought. For us to understand the Soul, we must stop thinking of labeling it as abstract and reality as concrete. Because every thing that is concrete comes from the abstract, just how many sages of the past told us. The Soul is never an opposite of the flesh and bones or sticks and stones that we can see and touch. Rather, the Soul is all-embracing, as it embraces and permeates every physical thing that we see. The Soul is reality itself. It is both abstract and concrete. It never opposes anything, for all things are manifestations of the Soul.

Our visible reality is deceiving. It deceives us to believe that anything invisible cannot be described, and therefore untrue. But absence does not mean non-existence. The Soul does not just exist. It lives among and within us. The Soul is us, yet to be acknowledged. The Soul is real, yet to be described.

The Soul often appears to be a metaphor and a symbol of that which is indescribable. Since the Soul is beyond description, we have used many things that we can see, touch and feel as tangible metaphors and symbols.

Wind is one. It is invisible, yet it is felt. A Filipino riddle tells us that wind is something that comes yet still unseen. Wind blows between branches and rustles among leaves. It can always be gentle, sometimes fierce. The whole earth inhales and exhales it. Nobody can say that even wind is unseen, it is not true. Everyone feels how cool and strong the wind is. This is the same for the Soul. The Soul does not need to be seen in order to be true. Great truths, like the Soul, need more than physical sight. We must feel the Soul. Feeling the Soul becomes truer than it seems to be. To feel the Soul is to find it more than its existence. We must experience the Soul. Wind becomes real when kites fly or when flag waves or pinwheels spin. Kites, flags and pinwheels are useless without the wind. Or they won't even exist if not for the wind. Wind gave birth to them, and they bring life to the wind. We are all kites and flags and pinwheels that came from the invisible Soul. The Soul gives life to us as we feel its presence. And the Soul becomes more real because of us.

We need not to prove how real Soul is. It is. We can see it everywhere. We can find it anywhere. We can hear it. We can touch and feel it. Soul is as real as you and me. We are taught that Soul is something that resides in us and makes us alive. I would add more to that: It is within us, and yet it is absolutely us. The Soul faces us when we face the mirror after we wake up in the morning. And deep beneath pale cheeks and drowsy eyes, there is the Soul that stays unseen. The Soul is the life in us that makes our hearts beat, arteries throb and blood flow. Soul is Life itself, beating, throbbing, flowing.

From our hearts, arteries, veins and capillaries branch out. Blood traverses this web of intricate vessels, woven within layers and layers of tissues and flesh. It is a network, coming from a center. Tony Buzan calls this the natural architecture. Natural architecture is present in all things in nature. In fact, it is the only universal structure ever present in all things natural. A spider web is a network of fine web threads. A Tree is also a network of branches and leaves. Even brain itself is a network neurons. They are all natural architecture. Something from the center shoots up, grows, branches, and expands. But each outgrowth is a center itself. Each node is a new center, a new source where something again grows. In a whole network, each new source is complete. They are all centers. Nietzsche once said the center is everywhere. Likewise, each of us is a Soul, a center of being, a divine node capable of growing. We interconnect, like a huge invisible network. Indra's net. Jewels - we as Souls - are interwoven to this network.

In this light, the Soul is in fact the Soul of many Souls. We are individual Souls, woven together by underlying truth of the collective Soul. Together, we become a universal Soul. In our unconscious consensus, we are all One Soul. Oversoul, like as Emerson put it. It is called in many names. As we work in both as individuals and a collective, Our One Soul is our greatest aspiration and existence. We are not separate from the rest, because our One Soul is the encompassing reality of Love. The Soul we discover is the Love we can create.