Pushing the Limits of Sky

This century, we might be establishing the fundamentals of space travel.



After this century, space travel might be developed enough for humanity to become an established presence in and around our local star system.

In the century after the next one, the possibility of interstellar exploration might open itself to the pioneering spirit of our mankind.

When we first broke free of the bounds of our planet, new horizons of learning and discovery became available to the human spirit.

When we break free of the bounds of our solar system, it is not unreasonable to expect to see and experience even greater horizons.

If we survive ourselves.

Believe.

Species of Soul

I think. Therefore, I am.
Lions think. Eagles think.
I am, the mind of my kind.

The bear and the trees think.
And the whale. And the bees.
I am, the mind of my kind.

I know. Therefore, I am Man.
To their thoughts. Not unkind.
To my thoughts. I'm not blind.

I think. Therefore, I am.
I am, the mind of my kind.
I am Man. Therefore, I am.

10,000 gazelles I am not!

A swimming salmon swimming,
understands more about winning
if my own soul keeps forgetting...

I am Man. Therefore, I am.
---<--@

The ASEAN Peace Corps

Regional citizenship is the vision.
Regional development is the mission.

Peace is through strength. In ages past, particularly the age we are about to leave behind, peace was through war. War was thought to be strength. What errors this kind of thinking produced is obvious in our world today.

Peace is through strength of the human spirit.

We can never lose our individual identities through peace work. We could only gain a better appreciation of the diversity embraced by the ideals that underpin the fostering unity of our ASEAN by learning about each other.

Peace is a journey of directions. 

If in the recent past, the horizon for our world and in particular, our region seem endlessly dark, it may be thought that our world was wandering in search of a way out of the long night.

We are many in ASEAN but all of us, with the rest of the nations of our world, long for a new day.

Integration is next year. Our governments alone can not fully consolidate the region. We must engage the civic consciousness of the region and provide it a channel into deeper waters.

As such, this shall be a civic organization. It shall operate under the aegis of ASEAN, the auspices of our member States, and the common good will of our peoples.

It shall be a volunteer regional organization with the stated aim -

To strengthen the spirit of human citizenship in our region in Asia through peace work (vision) and - To support of the vision of one ASEAN through regional development (mission).

It will allow our peoples not only the gain of a knowledge of the region and an understanding of its unique heritage of living cultures and experiences, it shall also provide for them, from nations across our region, a meaningful way to gain broader expertise in professions and specialties from the many fields of human endeavor as gifts they may take home with them to their home Countries.

This translates to a capability for evenness in regional development and a broader peace for ASEAN.
---<--@

Personal Thoughts 

Five of each ASEAN member States are mainland (Mainland) and maritime (Seaward). Of the mainland States, I believe Cambodia and Laos need the most assistance.

Personally, I envision a railroad that will connect the five mainland nations and serve their logistical needs as well as develop their tourism potential.

Here in the Philippines, it is a further grounding on our the principles of our national economy that I believe most necessary.

When shall the future be...

When shall the future be... 

Corruption we can never banish entirely - we have to take man as he is. 

Our society ought not suffer its evils easily though. 

We should work to gain from these trying times, a vital tempering that shall steel our will of community. That corruption never again openly threaten our common labor of Country. 

The Filipino dream of freedom belong to all Filipinos. 

We will always behold this dream as if it were a future far away if our nation remains shackled by the many fears that hold us back. Our future is near as tomorrow once the Filipino can dream again. 

We should not fear to break out of old molds of thinking. We should not become comfortable with all too familiar pains. The ghosts of past things shall seem terrible to us indeed if we shall harden our hearts...

Nations have a right to be - forever. Therefore, every Country in our present world, properly established, expressed, and brought to fore in time, has a right to succeed. We must own what is ours.

We want better things for our nation. All things that better a nation ought always to last. If a thing is not such and after a while perishes, shall we call it a gain of happiness? Or a betrayal of it? 

Wealth to our community is enrichment - good and wholesome to the total being of man. Corruption and its propensity to multiply its sins against community is never a means to achieve such a wealth. Evil foundations shall never stand the test. Time itself shall pull its worthless idols down from this world. 

What we must dream and labor together to possess is the kind of riches that promises to profit our souls a happiness that is invincible. Material wealth yes. Most certainly! But the gain of its honorable pursuit as well. 

By the gain of virtues multiplied, the pursuit itself becomes a blessing unto every life's learning. We enable our citizens to become masters of their temporal possessions and therefore, captains of our national fortunes. 

Wages and salaries, benefits and allowances - everything that adds to every citizen's ability to move and to be - these are not survival options but economic necessities. 

It should not be such a hard decision to make - to increase the economic potential of the Filipino - IF the wealth we as a nation possess were to be established on the building up of good and abundant things that make our Country in the sight of Providence very good. 

But wealth born of the wrong things curse. It is naught but dust and earth in the end and shall leave for our generations nothing but bitterness and grief.

Our connections are human and valuable. Peace is the source of the national wealth.

Our citizenship in this Republic draws its sovereign reality from the strength of our connections with each other. How we esteem this sacred trust and how we honor our citizenship is one and the same duty. 

Betrayal of the public trust usually arises either indirectly through ignorance or directly through malice wrought against the sacred trust of our people. 

Simply put, our civic allegiances we profess to each other under God - through the Flag that rally our spirit unto the liberating work of our Country. 

From this we are emboldened and stand to gain much fortune. 

For the gaining of the earth for man is the original intention of our coming together as a nation. Before the fall it was, after exile it still is. 

---<--@

Namaste

I see you, namaste. 
Peace be upon us.

Affirm life. Affirm death. 
Affirm good. Affirm evil. 
Affirm joy. Affirm pain.

Say yes. 

Good will unto all beings bless. 
Things in time return again to rest. 

Knowing not knowing. 

All is one. Forever.
---<--@

Personal Reflection

(I shall refer to Man here without prejudice to Woman - as a reference to being not gender.)

   Man in his soul is a creature of the light clothed in darkness; a being of time, in time.

   To recognize the inward being of the human person is to see Man as he is.

   To see Man is to appreciate his humanity. To appreciate the humanity of Man is to respect his person.

   To respect the person of Man is to accept his being as Man.

   It is to say yes to Man.

   To do this is to understand the other as a reflection of the Divine Light in every Man.

   To embrace this freely is to love the other as thy self.

   It is to say yes to God.

   ---<--@

Are we the bulb or the light in the bulb?

Namaste is more an experience than a greeting... 

It is just like saying, "peace".

Today is International Peace Day 2014.

Thoughts on Democracy

If we get this right, it will really be right for us.

Democracy is not a rule of State. The Republic is our system of rule.

Democracy is our way of nurture. It has everything to do with the peace that lives in the heart of our people. A people at peace with their freedoms is a people strong and steadfast, fully capable of building up the earth and of bettering their society.

Democracy is freedom kindled by the unfailing light of reason. Liberty is its sheltering burden. The rule of the State is thus received freely by the nation and popular government is enlightened by it.

Democracy is received by the soul of a people. It may only be sown by its own citizens and grown from out of the soil of its own nation. It must be received by the sovereign State. It is an unfolding of itself in time. It must therefore be directly experienced by the people.

It may be helped along in good will by learning of the shared successes and failures of Countries similarly nurtured by its guiding ideals - through reforms. It can not be safely transferred intact and complete from Country to Country.

Elections are not it's measure. What lasting wealth it establishes in the community of the nation and the fruits of it in the people are its true measure. Justice, Equality, Liberty, Humanity are some of its common ideals.

The way of amity among nations. The right of family with the nations. The duty of common defense and the ideal of dedicated arms. Sovereignty emanating from the unity of the people. Citizenship established through faith in God and faith in each other. Sufficiency through reliance with Providence as the highest Reliance.

Enlightened liberties as primary guarantor of justice and domestic tranquility. The dignity of the human being and the unleashing of the human potential. Human development led national development.

Human citizenship. Common rights and human responsibilities. Free expression. Rule of law. Equal protection under the law and equal justice before the law. The protection of minorities and representation of the dissenting voice.

Belief in human enterprise. Belief in an enterprise economy driven by capitalism. Economic cooperation in a free market structure driven by initiative, daring, entrepreneurship, opportunity, and competition. The pursuit of happiness. The multiplication of capital, the improvement of means. The alleviation of the humiliation and poverty of the human condition in the nation and also among the nations.

Love of the Flag and the symbols of Country. Deep regard for and recognition of civic virtues. Respect and appreciation for the power and glory of the human spirit. Pride and participation in the living communities of the people. Global sense, local presence.

Plurality of religion without hypocrisy or syncretism. Freedom from war. Civilian superiority over the military. Freedom of the national press. Freedom of academic thought. The establishment of National and Civic Endowments for the sciences and scientific research, technologies, arts, sports, humanities, and life values.

Reciprocity of the good both common and individual. The integrity of the family. The integrity of the national ecology and the preservation of indigenous flora and fauna. The conservation of the national will and culture through interdependent, plural and harmonious community.

The conservation of the national wealth through proper stewardship of resources. The common trust of the generations. Posterity as a living and spiritual economy.

Equal Taxation and responsible use of public funds through due representation in the formal affairs of State. The prudent preservation (through necessary transformation) of national institutions, laws, and infrastructures of State to guide the national progress and support the vision of the national success through changing times.

Food, water, power, human mobility (transportation and communication), and human safety (public health and public hygiene, medical emergency and healthcare access) as principal elements of human and national security. Physical elements of human and national security being only secondary.

Historical sensibility and a sense of sacred remembrance of the living and eternal memory of the nation. An understanding of the place and purpose of the nation among a family of nations. Love of friendship.

These are all principles of a free State. If we, the people, desire democracy we have to be willing to carry its burden with vigilance. Much depend on the spirit of our citizenship. And how steadfastly we identify truthfully with our labors, failures and successes.

There is no perfect democracy. It shall always be a work in progress while time is time...

Every generation shall be challenged by evils sufficient for their own days.

The LORD shall require a harvest of the fruits of these enlightened freedoms every season. He shall from every generation demand His portion of the life of our nation, according to the whole of each His intended good for each our generation.

Through covenant decreed by the Almighty from eternity, His Providence shall not increase or decrease His portion for each human life.

How it is we shall succeed depends much on our meeting the challenges of each present time as a lineage of human generations embraced and sheltered by our nation, represented and guided by our State, and fostered and served by our Country.

Thus, we shall never be able to triumph or fare well enough to raise the dignity and promise of our common humanity without abiding in a peace that does abide and prevail in us. For without peace we place ourselves under the dominion of war and it shall our troubles and woes multiply exceedingly with tears that make bitter the earth. We shall have no defense against the despoliation of the sword that wanders the earth as a restless spirit. It shall with violence and blood lust consume our people and destroy us from within.

Neither sky nor earth, night or day shall come to our aid until we remember in ourselves no more: That life is sacred. That each human life is to be cherished. That these are our values. That our society is in the service of man and woman as living souls made to shine for the earth, in behalf of the life of the earth; a little less than the stars in heaven but precious to God above all.

Adversity shall come against our democracy. It shall as a violent storm crash against our foundations and hurl itself against our labor of Country. Time and time again it shall test our generations - how deep are its roots? How much watered by the soul of our citizenship is our peace? How right are our freedoms? How sovereign our Liberty?

We will endure the test and leave things as they were, we will fall short and lose length to our days and light to our years, or we will together prevail over it, prosper our people in glorious triumph and add to age of our Country in time, the memory and sacrifice of our own life and times.

In our civics, unlike our politics, little things matter... small things count. From the exercise of little things - for ill or good - arise the magnificence of our values. Democracy is a way of awakening and of nurturing the seeds of these values.

That we become in time, surely as we must. 

If we get our democracy right, it will be really right for us.

If we get it wrong, we are always free to make it right.

Vigilant trust. Self-determined destiny.
---<--@

Salutation #200

The spirituality of peace is connection.
It is a common human striving. Known to all peoples.
It seeks wholeness in the self and unity with the community.

(The Eternal Salutation)

Peace is the eternal salutation.
Before all things were, peace was with God.

Peace preceded heaven and earth from the beginning.

Peace is foundation, deeper than one might think... 

Peace is a blessing, it is the primordial grace of creation.

Peace is sown in community and reaped in good will.

It is what gathers the wandering tribes of the earth.

It is what sends them forth as a human people.

Peace grounds the mystical reality of human community.

A nation grows its roots deep into its living memory.

And withstands the scattering winds of the restless enemy.

---<--@

The Bird with the Beautiful Song

Recall to mind the 3rd Rupture: Man-Creation. Let me share a wonderful myth that specifically deals with this common human theme - from The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell pp. 76-77

MOYERS: Of course, we moderns are stripping the world of its natural revelations, of nature itself.

I think of that pygmy legend of the little boy who finds the bird with the beautiful song in the forest and brings it home.

CAMPBELL: He asks his father to bring food for the bird, and the father doesn't want to feed a mere bird, so he kills it.

And the legend says the man killed the bird, and with the bird he killed the song, and with the song, himself.

He dropped dead, completely dead, and was dead forever. 
---<--@

Personal Reflection:

Our exile is not a place. It is a time.

Nature is asleep to our identity. The newness of the earth await our return from a time.

We do not need to fight against nature. We need to tame ourselves first and awaken to nature that we may effectively harmonize with the life of the earth.

It is us who need to awaken.

We need to reconnect with nature in ourselves and say peace unto the wilderness, the mountains, the plains, the rivers, the lakes, the seas and the skies and all the life therein.

That we may find once again in ourselves through our nationhood the freedom to make friends - and appreciate with strength of understanding - the bird with the beautiful song.

Nature is a Filipino national value.

The Seed of the Small Self

The mind is a synergy of forces.

Of all of the systems of the human being,
it is the most unitive.



It is first of all, aware -
and this awareness can be measured by its depth;
a measure which is near limitless because
the deeper one delves
to explore one's own human awareness,
the more expansive and infinitely small it becomes.

It realizes in us,
a knowledge of the smallness of the infinite;
that each our fragile seed of being is embraced
by an ocean of nothingness within one's own self -
profoundly terrifying and yet... also deeply comforting
for when the reaches of the mind becomes intimately known
so too does the vast and tranquil reaches of this "emptiness"
slowly open itself to our awareness as "light".

And aware of its being aware - 
in the light that knows that it is - of the Light,
one can sense the "being of the self"
knowing and not knowing - arising, awaking -
in the seed of the self, through the smallest of selves -
come afloat at the surface waters of the mind -
where time and the timeless meet
to become our own person.

At the surface of the timeless waters,
whatever is temporal and limited in ourselves is found,
time and space as it is experienced - at the surface of the deep -
experienced through the mind's sense
of ascending and descending
from a point shining as a sun within the heart,
in the seed of the self, through the smallness of selves -
in order to encounter within one's awareness,
the being arises from within the life of the soul -
so that the formless spirit in ourselves may proceed
to take form in the field of the temporal
and in the plane of the everyday
in the being of the mind.
---<--@

I don't want to be anything other than 

what I've been trying to be lately...

The Burden of Scalawag Cops

The uniform belongs only to those who wear it with honor.

General Purisima should not bear the burden of scalawag cops in his force. At the very least, it shall set a bad precedent for the rank. It is not part of his command responsibility to be psychic. 

After all, dirty cops must hide their activities behind the PNP uniform. They have to, don't they?

Good cops don't have to. To the finest belong the PNP institution - it's dignity and traditions are theirs alone. What the Republic admires as noble and excellent in our professional citizen-police are virtues - true and beholden - only to the spirit of good policing. Not to scalawags.

The service arm provide a citizen-police with additional protective cover. Additional because it really is the integrity of their badge that protects them. 

The national community recognizes the badge and so cooperates willingly with their finest within a system of Justice meant to preserve every good and wholesome thing universally loved and cherished in the life of our society, night and day, across the seasons, under our Sun and Sky.

Some cops go their entire career without firing a single shot in the line of duty. They are not less brave or less honorable than their fellow brothers and sisters in the blue.

Our mistrust of the uniform is directly a consequence of our internal divisions. Scalawag cops reinforce the appearance that our police is a force we should be unwilling to trust - as a service and an institution per se. This becomes a burden good cops must everyday live with. It makes them vulnerable.

The civilian character and national scope of our PNP should be allowed to reach its true promise and this may only be arranged when the normalization processes take into effect after the conclusion of the whole national peace process  Another benefit of peace we should look forward to...

Bad cops should bear the additional burden of General Purisima's contempt along with the contempt of all those who wear their PNP uniform with honor. 

That's my take on the matter.

.

Service. Honor. Justice.

---<--@

Never Forget

Love and Remembrance Piercing the Darkness

Never been to see you.

However, across the Pacific I still feel you -

I love you, New York!

=^.^=

Extraordinary Universes

As children,
we used to carry with us
our own universes.

We carried them openly,
our eyes so full of wonder.

We understood it,
and believed completely
in its mystery.

Remember the questions we used to ask?

Then
as the outside years found us,
we slowly grew out of it.

As the sheer weight
of time in the world descended upon our youth,
the ordinary universe outside of ourselves
merged with our own.

Slowly but surely,
the everyday world we must know
became opened and plain to our sight.

For good or ill.

Even now however, a part of us still believe...

In each of us truly is hidden,
the seeds of extraordinary, new worlds.

---<--@

Personal Reflection

After I saw the Crystal Blue Sphere, it took me a while to eventually understand its finer details. What the lights were... Why the sphere was blue...

These realizations came to me in time. Usually, when I needed them. I saw how beautiful human life can be, especially when we come together in the peace of our living communities.

We are stars, constellations and galaxies together.

Each of us carry within ourselves the seeds of new universes.

When we were children, each of us carried this universe around with us all the time. It surrounded our souls with such wonder that the questions we asked in our youth were usually the most courageous questions we may ask in our lifetimes here on earth.

When we lose our sense of youth, we also lose that certain sense of wonder. Now, as regards this on-board, internal sense of wonder - physical aging affects it not.

We only become hardened to the spiritual realities within us when we allow the calm of that shining vision to be defeated by the deafening crash of exile time.

We become dark and aloof to everything wonderful and bright that can be in ourselves only when we allow what is ageless in ourselves to become eclipsed by its darkness.

For as we mature upon this world, we become more and more engaged in its external realities and the living universes within our souls slowly merge with the physical one - the one destined to die.

We forget.

We forget what is really beautiful is within, that each of us were born with it, and that to honor true beauty is to honor the LORD Who made us into near-infinite reflections of the wonder and the Beauty that He is.

We are those lights.

Clothed in a primordial darkness that is innocent as the first night, a living work in our Creator's hands, and mortally wounded from within by the Adversary of all creation.

Time in the world is a passage we all must endure.

Physical time must pass through the timeless in our hearts as threads through the eyes of needles - that we may together weave together a new creation with the LORD, our God and His Angels.

So here we are, destined by His Providence, even in this time and place, to live and prevail in Him. Freely and humanly, according to our own realizations of happiness and its willing pursuit.

Shining, together shining, shining and seeing far into this longest night - especially ordered according to the peace of our human communities - the nations of the one family of Mankind.

For when we are at peace as nations together, there is no darkness we can not pierce; no devouring beast or pursuing dragon that can prevent our swift and mighty ascent back to the LORD of all living communities and unto the Truth of His glory which is the realization of all our common human hopes.

This is why I shall never cease to have hope for my nation and for all our kindred nations. How can I? After all of this, it would be very difficult for me not to believe we can build a better, brighter world...

Dreaming as nations - together this time.
---<--@

A Milestone for Mindanao

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Thoughts on the City Community

First of all, let us recognize the life of a City community with a separate peace, apart from the peace that we must together as one Republic accord to each other also as human persons and individual citizens. 

Let us love and regard the being of a City community as if it were a single person - born with a similar nature it shares with other Cities in our Republic as well as unique characters special to each one.

At the heart of every City is a promise. 

This promise is directly related to an old Chinese saying, "to get rich, build roads first."

When I reflect on this proverb, I am reminded of our Cities; that the orderliness and efficiency of their roads are a direct reflection of their health and well-being.

For our Cities are where our people work. Our Cities build together the national wealth. 

Self-interest is not the rule in any City community.


Wealth is the rule. 

People may come to be greedy. But a well-established City community prospers only in liberality.

For a City is never build. It is envisioned. 

Problems do not manage a City, it subdues its nature. Greed subverts its character and promise.

The City Executive is a manager of the City wealth. He or she must deal everyday with a restless kind of wealth, seeking always to break new ground and conquer hitherto unknown boundaries.  

He or she is not a manager of problems. The Mayor wisely envisions his or her City, manages its wealth, and the problems, whenever they shall arise, are managed by it. 

Sheer momentum of prosperity will repel most of it. 

Therefore, if one seeks to see into the heart of a City, bring it better wealth.

That each City may consistently be a realization of itself - shared by all.

Taken the right way, this is always true.

The way through a Mayor's heart is through his or her City. 

Right now, I am of the belief that our traffic problems are managing us. We are not managing it. It is essential that our City Executives come together in behalf of their communities and work it out... 

Envision it. 

I know we can. I believe it.

---<--@

Broken Freedoms

With all your heart, do you remember?

"The spirituality of peace is connection."

The 4 Ruptures

Man-God
Man-Woman
Man-Creation
Man-Man
---<--@

The Queen of Broken Bread

I once was a sower. Sowing seeds.
I planted in heaven. My own needs.
There once was a Lady. She came to see.
From a Kingdom of Sowers. Who were we.

My name is happiness. I said to her.
I carry a yoke. Too heavy to bear.
The land is barren. The water is poor.
The harvest is thin. The weather unsure.

I am a Woman of such those things. Said she.
From a Kingdom of Seeds. Came her to me.
Do you know me? This Woman asked of me.
A kindly dressed maiden from across the sea...

Saint Maximilian taught me my Marian spirituality.

Honestly though, I am far from being the Marian Knight that my Patron Saint is - in service to the Queen of Heaven and Earth. So very far...

Our Lady filled the skies above my soul with stars.
She is the Queen of Broken Bread.
She magnifies Christian joy.

Knowing her is to understand an easy kind of splendor unmatched by any Saint...

A magnificence so pure and awesome yet sweet, 
kindly relenting to souls of much lesser brightness.

God broke me before I came to know religion. Religion was for me, an mere extension of myself - a way to project ego. It was a kind of power that made me feel good about myself.

All of this happened mostly unnoticed by my mind numbed and distorted by sin and vice. It was a fearful thing when I think about it now. Terrible. It exposed me to dangers everywhere, seen and unseen.

I was a self-righteous ass. Stubborn as a mule. This was the me deep inside of me - and above my soul was nothing. My soul was dead to itself, it saw not, it heard not, and it lived for nothing.

I wasn't all that bad. All that time, I strived to be good. I tried my best to be better. But always fell short. I was never truly happy about anything I did. Nothing seemed to stay on.

I think as human beings we instinctively understand that doing good is good for us. Animals instinctively understand it too. But to us humans, there is a bit more - for we seek a happiness animals shall never either understand or desire.

In all ages, all our attempts at society everywhere have ebbed and flowed with this same basic human desire for happiness in mind.

Animals are content to be content. But human beings wish for the power to dictate how it is that we shall be content - we desire a freedom which is simultaneously a happiness and we desire it in perfection. 

This perfection to us is blessed felicity. At the same time, it is a time honored impossibility.

Neither Man nor his society alone may satisfy what we all ultimately want. Thus, we warred and fought and died in droves through the ages. Terrible.

Now, this need to be happy and this want for a perfect happiness is also in me.

But as I was yet unbroken, I received a lot of pounding from Providence indeed. And it was Mama Mary who gave for me that one final blow that broke my ego.

She made me realize she was a reality apart from my own reality. That she was separate...

It might sound simplistic right now. But at the onset of it all, it was terrifying to me... Many of my old selfish notions were overturned - much like the tables of the sellers in the Temple.

I had our Lady's support though. And she made it so that I also had the support of more than a few good friends, seen and unseen, who helped keep me sane though it all.

In letting go of old molds, I understood the character of lasting friendships - that connection that in the Gospel our Savior mentioned is as brother, sister, and mother all in one - the friendships of angels.

That we are like a sky, night and day, full of multitudes - shining for God.

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, through those years it had pleased our Lady to teach me to see each my relationships and their connections in a wholly different light. Suddenly, the skies above my soul were not so empty after all.

It was this one whole sky that led me to Jesus and to God.

After all, can one navigate the night of the soul without light or sight of any kind?

One can pretend as I did. Or one can know. We can pray.

I am not perfect still. I don't think I ever will in this life. The difference now is I know joy. I am no orphan to joy. At the core of me, there is joy. Amidst my problems and my struggles, there is joy.

And it all began with the Queen of Broken Bread.

It is just like Pope Francis said, those of us who neglect loving and knowing Mary are like orphans...

God never intends for any of us to be orphans though - in more ways than we may know. Isn't this joyful in itself? The embodiment of all of that reflecting in our humanity - is Mary, our Mother.

I think that is what Marian spirituality is really all about - being joyful.

And of finding ways to share Christian joy through works our faith teaches us, that our Savior taught us.

Not being dour and overly solicitous about the complexities of life and of being trustful as a child, even in the midst of the roaring lions of everyday problems that seek to devour our little hopes.

So today is Mama Mary's birthday. Let us be joyful for her that we may in ourselves discover how simple it is not to be complicated in a complicated time.
---<--@

St. John Paul II, 
Pope of my heart, my Holy Father most memorable.

You were to the Church in the world, our Good Shepherd during the formative years of my life.

And saw my generation through those tumultuous years.

Help us build a better, brighter, safer world.

Lead us on today...

Help us to know Mary. Help us comprehend Christian joy and see in loving others as Christ did the wealth neither tyrant nor thief may remove from our souls.
---<--@ 

Thoughts on the Philippine Constitution 2

Nation is sovereign Foundation.
State is sovereign Expression.
Country is sovereign Motion.
---<--@

Our Constitution being the rule of the Filipino people, the ideals and consequent provisions derived therefrom must be responsible in particular to the question of power.

How sovereign authority is to be utilized to serve the Nation through the Republic within a Philippine democracy are its principles.

These principles serve the Constitutional vision and are the principles of national power.

National power and its structures are Constitutional accommodations - exclusively.

Therefore -

National power must be aligned with Constitutional authority - always.

National power must be made to serve the people - always.

Justice serves the State not because the State is perfect but because the State is flawed and human from the very beginning. This is why the symbol of a Republic is a shield.

And it's wings are sheltering wings.

All Country are zealous for their peoples. But the most zealous of all, as far as our experience may tell, are Republics. This presents us with dangers and advantages unique to our form.

And the most severe, as far as the question of rule is concerned, is the subject of how power is to be preserved, accommodated, and duly exercised in and through the Republic form.

Whatever advantages of permanence lost to us shall linger long after the flames from which all Republics are born have become transformed into the light that warms us, ever guides us, and bids us to carry on marching forward.

Continuity, Concordance, Concentration, Coherence - which Monarchical States, though differing in each their accommodations, reserve to each themselves in a way original to their form, we must in a Republic consistently address as though they were in danger.

This is cost of our Liberty, an eternal vigilance.

Because if we do not properly address these matters - whenever we must, our own zeal will consume us. Toxic power will poison our labor of Country.

In a democracy, we are all responsible for each other's good. The rights we enjoy demand it.

If we as a people falter in our vigilance, if we lose our civic sense and cause this public's trust to fail, what trustworthy fruit shall we reap from this Republic then?

Sovereignty is an emanation of the popular will of the Philippine nation - the people - as our whole in general, but specifically, especially where politics are concerned, in our present form and favor.

How our Republic builds is enabled by how the Philippine State establishes itself in power.

Let us always be reminded that - power without authority is toxic to the State. That power must always align with Constitutional authority - for our own sake. Power itself in a Republic does not necessarily corrupt. A lingering sense of popular powerlessness does - and will.

Tyrants and tyranny are not just of people. They have a powerful social manifestation. Betrayal of the public trust is a betrayal of national power.

Corruption is born of political ambition first. It is never a thing that arises from origins purely civic in nature. But will consume with desire what is civic and make it all political.

A purely political State will appear obscure even to itself. Civics and politics must always agree on a balance. It is a tension, not born of evil fears, but of zeal for the good - a vigilant trust.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so the saying goes.

And since we have to take the human being as we are, we have to also take our society as it is - there will always be a degree of corruption in an otherwise healthy Republic, but when the common cold is enough to kill us off, that is another matter altogether... Something, somewhere is not in order...

Politics serve. We must demystify the political culture of our Republic and make it clear. Public service is a calling to serve. It is not an ambition to power but nonetheless remains a reward unto itself.

For all consequent successes of the State begins and ends with its most faithful servants - along with its prestige and its rewards.

There is a better way to for the Filipino to prosper, a much surer way. Indeed, if only we can get Country right, it shall be very well for all of us - rich or poor, man or woman, young or young-once.

The popular ambition is a meaningful happiness born in pursuit of freedoms reachable, reasonable, and real; emanating from a Liberty that shines out as a light, to enlighten our nation, nourish the souls of our citizenry, and embrace with a sheltering warmth, the life of the many communities that live within our one Republic whole.

Happiness is different for each person.

However, it is always a consistent theme among all States. How happy it is to be happy - and be whole; one, clear blue Sky in an eternal, golden Summer. War will not purchase for us these things. Therefore, wherever war may seek to present itself, war must be met and withstood. By our peace.

And with all our means.

My fellow Filipinos, brothers and sisters of the promise -

The peace process is a litmus test for this one Filipino nation. I have long carried this message of peace and have consistently conveyed it through my writing.

If by 2020 we are still a split people, it might become less and less likely that we will reach our goal by 2046, and we will fall short.

Hopelessness in all our national communities along with all its attendant paralysis is what we must address: Stagnation, retardation, and impotency in the national life.

National power must be made to serve the vision of our Constitution and build for our people something more worthy of our labors together as one Country.

Hunger in the nation should be one of the first on the list of things we should seek to efficiently channel our national power onto and effectively address.

If we take us for what we are, we know it may not be a thing we can do in haste, or an accomplishment we may claim by our disparate parts.

This nation must prosper the peace, prosper the people - together this time.
---<--@

Sunday Evenings

I haven't really watched much TV for about two months in a row now. I don't like ingesting too much news. I'm neurotic enough as it is. What I've been watching is House and some good Anime (like SAO). Perhaps, a documentary or two once in a while.

Other times, I either read a good book or play puzzle games on iPad. I still manage to keep abreast though. I think well of our free press. One or two headlines a day however, seems enough for me at the moment.

Notwithstanding my personal idiosyncrasy, there are issues that needs to be looked into with more width and breadth though. Those issues seem to jump at you I have found. You can not not notice them. 

Today though, we will rest. 

We will find ourselves a nice enough far away place with family and friends. Be close to nature. Be near to God. We shall find the time to smile, to pray and be still. To ponder in the calm, the challenges of the week that lies ahead of us.  

Together let us recharge our spiritual batteries.

While we let time in the world play itself out from a distance.

---<--@

Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,

Let us revere the LORD because it is right. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Let us love God because He is God.

Let us come to Him. To the Son of Man as Lord of the Sabbath. To Jesus Christ our Savior Who is to us, our most efficacious rest.
---<--@

Love is blind?

If love were blind,
why ponder the mind?
That's so unkind.

If love were blind,
why seek the heart?
Where to start?

If love were blind,
why must lovers begin...
where from within?
---<--@

Some say faith is a blindness that allows you to see. This is true, you know.

Hope is born of those little glimpses faith accords the eye of the heart...

And love, love is the sight that allows us to trust in faith.


We used to have those little autograph books in the sixth grade. In it there is always a blank that asks you for a favorite motto. I know a lot of us peek at answers others have given, I did too. One of the most famous answers was, "love is blind".

Hmmm... In retrospect. I must've thought this response mysterious enough to be universally considered a cool and appropriate sixth-grader response. Yup, I used to put it down a lot.

Intermission...

Love is not really blind though. It can be stupid to the eyes of the world. But what is wise to the unwise?

What love really does at times really, only love may really understand. And unless the love itself admits the heart into its inner council of love, one shall never see what is beautiful from the eye of its beholder.

You see, it is this world outside of ourselves that is blind after all. Not love.

Come to think of it, I should write, "love is kind", as one of my favorite mottos next time around...

It's more true for me nowadays.
---<--@

      You're the star that shines in me...

Peace is one

Peace is one
When the many understand this
There will be peace

---<--@

Peace as a flower

We used to get these as a wreath in Baguio City, they last for ages...

If peace in the Philippines
were a flower...

I think it would be
the Everlasting Flower.

Why?

Because it is lasting,
durable, and meaningful.

Just like the peace we are,
as one nation, working towards.
---<--@

Peace is gladness

Let us drink to national sobriety.

Peace is gladness. It must be!

She's a sweet song of vict'ry!

The difficult wine of a triumph

so sweet... Of which we drink 

to intoxication. 

Together...

That we might sing...

---<--@

Seek peace and seek it absolutely.

I am proud of our peacekeepers

In all ages, internal strife produces the same effect in all nations which is retardation; the abeyance of life - social, economic, and spiritual. External strife likewise retards the life of regions, continents, and entire worlds. How do we shelter ourselves against such an evil?

I am proud of our peacekeepers.

If one is to look at our world today and see the extent of brokenness among nations, it is not difficult to see the need for peace keeping. In fact, we might as a world be better served to recognize why it is that we find ourselves in such a need - that we may as one family of nations better receive the advantages of maintaining missions like UNDOF.

Peacekeeping is not warfighting.

The full spectrum of warfare from total war to low-intensity warfare doctrinally define opponent force/s distinctly from that of peace keeping missions. Peace keeping mission commanders, in my view, should therefore be expected to possess a different sort of mindset.

Wars are fought and withstood. Peace is gained and maintained. Whenever a peace keeping force is deployed, we have to remember, not anymore - what to fight against - because that battle has already been fought and bled (by those nations mutually resolved to work out their remaining tensions through channels other than the military), we have to remember what we fight for. (I have spent time in thought about this matter. And to be honest, I am still developing some of it in my mind.)

We fight to deliver a space for a necessary peace to take its hold and plant firm root.

In an ideal sense, there is no external enemy to defeat in peace keeping. If the reality of each mandated deployment were such that they were always consonant to the ideals of peace keeping, it is always a win-win scenario to deploy a peace keeping force - anywhere, anytime.

Such must be its good reputation that in itself spells safety for the troops.

What may really defeat us - as a family of nations - where peace keeping is concerned is a failure to clearly appreciate how the actual mission must consistently apply itself to prevailing realities on the ground.

What happened at the Golan of late is an example of a failure in (not of) the peace keeping force.

The operational dimension of the UNDOF mission changed since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, and has steadily deteriorated right under our watch.

I am including myself in my own critique because I support the UN mission on the Golan. I still do.

I am a firm believer in the potential of that besieged Region as a whole to soon enough break itself out of its most ancient rut. In particular, I am quite proud of my Country's deployment on those heights.

A peace keeping force exists on a plane that is above the ordinary field of battle. Because it must. A different landscape of mission prevails in peace keeping, quite distinct in itself. The mission must at all times defend its own internal sense of clarity - as if from a height. I am speaking figuratively here of course, but as regards the particular mission on the Golan, those words might also be taken literally.

What we seek to preserve and represent there in my eyes is a hope for a future Middle East region that is much more than the shadow of itself that we everyday witness at this present time. A future that is as near as each tomorrow - everyday we maintain clarity and focus on the missions the UN as a whole has decided and mandated as essential to keep the specters of greater conflicts in that area at a minimum.

In view of what our contingent did in their storied bid to deflect the armed threat that was forced upon them - by an adversarial force that before this time, existed outside the basis of all our planning and training - I am fully in agreement with their tactical decisions - every one of them that led to an outcome that gave my nation a deep sigh of relief and our AFP - along with all our uniformed services, a boost in confidence and belief in the excellence of the Filipino profession of arms.

I thank the Irish contingent and all who had helped make it possible for our troops to extricate themselves from their primary positions. It will indeed be remembered.

It is my opinion that the UN force commander, Gen. Iqbal Singh Singha, miscommunicated his instructions which in the heat of the moment, land force commanders wont to have made sure was clear, concise, and never-wise contradictory to any and all standing TSOPs general to the force or particular to any contingents that comprise its composite whole.

I regret to disagree with Gen. Singha but those orders "to leave your weapons quiet" should have been given less succinctly and more clearly - in the mode of the receiver.

It is not an act of cowardice to stand up in one's defense - any time, any place. Overall, I believe there was a failure of strategy to evolve with the prevailing reality on the ground in Syria. This failure can not be laid upon the shoulders of down echelon rank and file but is a command responsibility that should be accounted to by the force commander himself.

This is by no means an indictment of the honor of the entire Indian military, the UNDOF mission, or the UN institution as a whole.

(I am a firm believer in human institution and the transformative power of national cultures; that good is by nature a communal undertaking in Man, that virtue is vested in human societies because virtue is original to their native character.

Evil therefore, whatever the extent of its mystery is to be better overcome in greater society by actively and consistently building on what is good. Law and its judges is in the courts system. Justice and its watches is in the people. Both of them, by their separate institutions and departments, seek together to love and serve the life of our communities - with hope and vigilance - because of what is good in each human life, its intrinsic value.

Mankind is innocent by first principle, so that - unlike all things good and excellent in every act we shall together sow in the human spirit and reap through those many harvests of the blessings and gifts that Divine Providence multiplies according to His pleasure in and through our national communities - evil acts are individual and singular, being inherently a corruption which is always isolated in nature.

The key to the 1 is in the 99 is my chosen approach. You seek for the lost by knowing those who are not.

Individually, as citizens in a society of citizens, I believe in seeking what is questionable, not what is evil. Evil is not as relentlessly pursued and the spirit of the people are well rested - because in the face of a great and noble culture, within a human nation, evil flees by itself.

I value the uniform. I know what is sacred in it. Above all, I love those who wear their colors within, who live and breathe always clothed by the living memory of their sovereign citizenship.)

Playing the blame game is a political matter which I will not tread upon here. It might be far better in my opinion to internalize what valid internal UN concerns there are and externalize the lessons learned to current deployments without much ado as soon as possible.

What is more important is to move forward and keep on moving forward.

Finally, as a citizen of this world personally grieved by the pointless argumentation being openly made in the media between what should be a united camp, I should like to draw our attention to the more urgent matter of trying to resolve the plight of our brother Fijians peacekeepers who, at this present writing, are still being criminally detained against their will.

May all people of good will within the UN and around the world continue hope, work and pray for their safe release at the soonest possible time.

Mabuhay po tayong lahat.
---<--@

20140912 UPDATE: Fijian troops were released safely. The group that held them against their will were calling themselves the Nusra Front. Peace be unto the region.