Salutation #196

(Egalitarianism as a Civic Virtue)

Peace be with you, 
our beloved Starshine -



All human beings are
equal creations before God.

This we are
along with all the flesh of the earth.

We exist. 

And we exist because we have a right to exist.

In all other living things with Man upon with earth,
this right to exist resides in each their common natures.

In both plants and animals alike it equally resides,
and is expressed as a common survival instinct.

In Man above all other living things of the earth,
this right to exist resides in each our persons individually.

In both male and female alike it equally resides,
and is expressed as a common longing -
not only for all of life to survive and persist
but for all of life to ultimately triumph and prevail.

We neither caused our own existence as a whole
nor did we individually sought to exist
in our world, at its present course,
before our time.

Yet here we are - we are here.

We are - because we have life.
And we are here - because we are
of the human lineages of our Mankind.

Our right to exist is a natural right. 

Our right to life is a human right. 

And proceeds from our natural right to exist.

This is our most fundamental equality.

It is a moral reality
founded upon a spiritual truth
about ourselves.

For what is natural
is inalienable
to its own reality.

What is human therefore,
is inalienable
to the reality of Man.

The preservation of this right in Man is therefore,
an ethical imperative that is universal in character.

It is also among our Nations, a sacred duty.

As citizens,
beloved of the one Creator,
we are bound to each other in the freedom
to preserve, nurture, and improve upon
our natural rights to life - and thus, to live that life
in order to advance in and among our Nation/s,
a quality of life suitable
to the progress of our Liberty.
---<--@

Further Reflection -

Here in the Philippines, in this present day, we are witnessing multiculturalism anew.

Our Nation - by nature - is already a multicultural society but only on a hitherto local scale. For within our borders we enjoy a human diversity that is equal to or even exceeds what diversity the Providence of God intended from the beginning to abide within the souls of our other kindred Nations.

The richness of our human diversity should be a source of both wonder and joy to this Nation of ours... 

This is so because this self-same human diversity and its appreciation is both the cause as well as the hope of other forms of diversity in the life of lower creation.

We only impress upon the life of our animals and plants, our own understanding about life and its truths; that they were made to exist for us. And we for them.

Again, these days, we are beginning to see multiculturalism in our Nation that is regional, continental, and global in nature. And we, as a grateful people before God, should know how to welcome human diversity - and to actually love it knowing what a blessing.it is to truly understand that in this Nation of ours there is no unity without diversity.

This unity in diversity is built on our most fundamental of equality as human beings - to exist. 

And in our Nation, this is unity is made to prevail in time besides - through our citizenship with each other as we work through the economy of our generations to improve quality of life for all Filipinos - to the last of our generations at the Last Day.

(Our most fundamental civic equality being to know, seek, and do what is human, and true, and good for the other - as ourselves. That citizenship begins with the self. This is also was in essence what JFK was asking the American Nation when he said his most famous statement, "ask not...)

There truly can be no civic clarity where there exists no just human equality before God and in Country.

In animals or plants, when they shall take a life - they do so only with a knowledge of their own life.

In Man, when we shall take a life, we do so not only with a knowledge of our own life but also with that of the life of others - whether plant, animal, or human.

Any human life, each in person unique and meant by God always for completion, once willfully took by the hand of Man can not and will never be replaced. Its intended good shall always be missing in our midst... this is true - no matter what the externals may seem.

Yet the same challenges we will as a Nation face - undiminished; the same demand for virtue and its fruits God shall require of our labor of Country - in every generation.

Let us remember this, my Country, that we may thwart among ourselves the unbecoming devices of the evil and unwelcome spirit of past times -

Skin is innocent. Sin is not. (i.e. the sin of inequality)

Racism, in all its ugly appearances, has no place here in the Philippines.

We are all the colors of life. What is superior here is what is - in spirit and truth - faithful.

For the color of Gold is in our national standard.

It is the color of all things about ourselves - true and everlasting.
---<--@

Genesis 9:16

Salutation #190

Of the elements of Country, there are three -
the Nation, the Responsible State, and the Common Market.

(On the Country of the Philippines)

The Nation that we are, my people,
is founded on a Covenantal obligation
between God and the Children of Mankind
which is the Covenant that the LORD made forever
with all of the Nations of the Children of Mankind
that our God inaugurated in time
through Noah and his sons.

The Noahide Covenant
binds our generations to the freedoms
that ensure the preservation of sacred life
- the whole spectrum of it - that upon "our world"
   (as a realm apart from "the world" of the fallen Nations of old),
water shall never again consume the life of the Earth -
but shall through the life of our Nations
be nourished and sustained by it.

For we are through bonds of water and blood established.

Sacred Life is our sacred obligation -
and its preservation in ourselves and therefore,
throughout all of lower creation - is -
the fire that animates our spirits.

This "world - as our world"
that we are each as Nations is commissioned
to build together for all of the Children of Mankind
   (as God's own human peoples - arising from lineages apart -
   from the inhuman and irreparably corrupt spiritual lineages
   of the fallen Nations of old who sinned with the pride of Satan)
upon the Unknown Earth - which is likewise -
God's primary command to all the Nations of Mankind
   (including those fallen Nations of old
   whose life He utterly destroyed during the Great Flood,
   whose spiritual lineages the LORD disowned,
   and irrevocably unseeded in them)
is what we call the Inhabited Earth
that Crystal Blue Sphere that
   (it is blue because it is immersed in water)
from the spiritual realm
is a wonder for all
to behold.

This is our Covenant
- the Covenant of the Children -
and we are never free to break it.

To preserve the dignity and promise of Man - in all our Nations - is -
to do Justice to the image and likeness of Man - reflected upon the life of the world
and make it, "our world". Thus, making the Earth to the LORD, "very good".
Because to do Justice to the sacred life of this world - from the person of Man
right down to the very least of all of Man's animals and Man's plants
is the fundamental reason we are called to exist as Nations.

The existence of life in our world
- is - the soul that gives our Nation breath,
and the living up to the very wonder of this life,
along with the most profound existential questions
that specifically pertains to the mystery of life
and to the living of this life in this world,
- is - the spirit that is our breathing -
the truths of life's Salvation and its Redemption
is the fire that animates both our water and our blood.

The preservation of "the all" of sacred life
in this way - is the mission and the commission -
entrusted to all National communities of the Earth.
It is our Peace and the Goodwill of our Peace.

For the Universe
is not created for Man
Man is created for the Universe.

We as the Children exist for the labor.
Everything else exists for the glory of God.

- selah -

As a National community -
we are called of spirit and of blood born.
However, it is from water that our lineages upon the Earth are established.
For it is from the formless - that - the form of our citizenship
constantly renew itself and arise: Our truest citizenship is in our soul.

And from it proceeds the spiritual truths
where from we derive the first principles
that shape and define our Social Contract.

This Social Contract establishes - our labors as truth -
and - our truth upon the Earth - as a Sovereign Presence
before the LORD and the Assembly of the Nations before God
both in Eternity - and also upon the Earth.

This Social Contract is known as Democracy.

- selah -

We - as human beings -
do not practice our freedoms in a vacuum.

Freedom is a profoundly spiritual reality in Man.

Where in the life of lower creation, freedom is but a physical act,
completely reliant upon the nurture of freedoms ever greater than theirs,
our freedom is beholden to a spiritual dimension - because as human beings,
we implicitly know in our hearts that we must reach out to the only other freedom
reaching out to us, the freedom of God - in much the same way
that the life of the Earth reaches out to us.

The universe was not created for Man.
Man is created for the universe:
We belong to its labor
   (as common laborers upon the Master's field)
and only to its labor we belong -
particularly as Nations of the Children.

For example,
a dog whom we love or the plant that we nurture
- in the most immediate and real sense -
belong not to us.

For is it not also true
that it is Providence that speaks for its life?

We belong to it - or more specifically speaking,
to the labor of making it ours again.

And so inasmuch as we quicken our souls
to the work that we owe to the life in ourselves and to the life of all of lower creation -
in God and with each other, they become ours and they awaken again and learn our voice.

Else, this world - above the din of all other things that seek to confuse us -
will roar in silence deafening: For this world will never speak its secrets to our hearts.

And we will never know of it as our First Parents did intimately know of it
and so remain - very uncomfortably - strangers to the wonders of our own living Earth,
- trespassers and invaders to the varied realms that lay within our own Human Habitation.

If we love anything in lower creation - in the Truth,
they - like the Truth - become our possession forever. 

This is a freedom no animal or plant possess.

And it is never practiced like animals and plants practice their freedom.

It is never practiced in a vacuum.

And so
from Covenant proceeds Social Contract
and for us, my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
this is simply all about - Life and Liberty -
and so specifically - we are - as a Nation among Nations -
a participatory, constitutional Democracy;
a people brave, and free, and fair.

- selah - 

Why participatory?

Stronger freedoms require Liberty that we may exercise rights that exist to make our personal freedoms strong and also guarantee those same rights commonly preserved for other citizens not unlike ourselves.

Weak freedoms fall prey to any number of dangers and calamities, and the labor that we must fulfill is not easy.

If we do not hold on to our Nationhood, or worse - if we do not know how - it becomes impossible for any of us to build up the Earth.

Everything that in exile time progresses in Time without the Truth shall appear as an unremitting retreat into a devouring darkness - as the world gets darker and darker - meaninglessness becomes bitterness, bitterness turns into despair of self, despair of self becomes despair of others not unlike the self, and so - as the years become empty of their substance - Country will seem as nothing else but a madness that devours, and what once was in our common humanity precious as our hopes for all sacred life become abased into a sheer tyranny of beliefs founded in falsities and illusions.

The gravity of these things we must fight against - it is not our way of return: Ours is an Ascent in Time and unto the Truth.

We were never free to not fly upon Eagle Wings. For the LORD God saith that saying of the Nations, not of individuals. So when you shall sing to thy soul the popular song, "On Eagle Wings", make an effort to see that song as dedicated to Nations entire and not merely to individuals.

Our Nation, my beloved people, is one of those Nations. In this Nationhood, we are impelled to participate. We are therefore, we must.

But we can not build the right world with the wrong values.

- selah -

Why constitutional?

The Nations of the Children of Mankind is one great Peerage before the LORD.

And indeed, we are each - as human individuals, a peer to one another - through our personal and individual distinctions, equally - a keeper and a friend to our common humanity.

We all have - and have forever possessed - a basic, human citizenship.

Our communities too, are such as we - a Peerage of the Nations, for unequal each Nation may be in spiritual maturity and material strength, but as a Plenary Global Community - being as one Family of Nations - we are each enabled to equally overcome that we may together prevail against this world, and make of the Earth, our home away from Home.

For we are all here for a reason exclusive only to the fulfillment of a dream of happiness, and it is not even our dream, it is God's dream for us, and it is wonderful beyond wonderful indeed!

The authority to govern our peers whether from within the Nation or from among the Nations themselves is not a human authority, but a Divine authority.

And this authority is vested in a Responsible State and the structure of this State, as it applies to our Nation, is established in our prevailing Constitution - this binds us - in spirit - to a particular undertaking of Country that is in form - a Republic - and which therefore possess in itself - a very specific spirit.

We move like a Republic moves.

However, it is our personal freedoms that determine its Ascent - into its ages in Time - from emerging, developing, developed, and mature - and our Right of Ascent is likewise determined by the rightness of these freedoms.

Each Nation only has one Right of Ascent, each Country only has one freedom or Way of Ascent - all else falls into the gravity of the unveiling of the darkness of the desolation - and Democracy as a whole - is the Social Contract we specifically have - with each other, that we owe - for each other, and that our generations owe - to each other - that we will secure for ourselves and our Posterity this Republic, and it's Liberty.

It imposes a Burden
   (which we shall also expound upon very soon),
because our freedoms are neither cheap -
nor are they ever free.

- selah (pause and think) -

Now we come to review the Engine of our Economic Progression.

For to liberate our souls to pursue those spiritual freedoms that is our happiness,
we must first liberate our minds and our bodies from the physicality that in material weakness
mires us individually and prevents our communities from securing for themselves within the Nation,
our Republic Vision (as it arises from the Maturity of our Love and Remembrances together).

This engine is human enterprise Capitalism,
and it establishes upon our Common Market within the Nation,
a Free Enterprise Market structure.

It is the Engine naturally compatible with our Democracy and its sheltering Republic,
driving its Progress forward, against the flow of exile time, that we may secure - at the helm -
for all our generations to the last, through an Economy of matter and grace,
the wealth of our Nation - which is wealth already established in us
being in everything already dedicated as our possession forever.

The full breadth of the Vision of human enterprise Capitalism is to perfect the drive of human enterprise and liberate Man from the poverty and the humiliation of the human condition.

It creates material wealth as a means to secure and obtain - in the Nation - for each and every individual, the freedom to individually pursue a happiness that is fully and completely human - so each Man may know to be free - to learn to be happy, even in this world - securing and obtaining for himself or herself true riches - from perishable means to imperishable ends.

The full breadth of this Vision does not create more poverty. It makes the poor wealthy and the wealthy truly wealthy and leads all and involves all in the Real Economy of the Nation.

Furthermore, Capitalism is - a National proposition - and therefore, may not exist to serve only the interests of a few citizens, particularly in a Democracy. Else it should falter and fail - to the everlasting regret of all.

Also, as it serves a primordial need in Man's own being - to be truly free and truly happy, Capitalism - as an Engine of Economic Progress - must naturally possess a spiritual dimension. It's promise of happiness never was a material dream, for its dream of happiness is an invincible one.

People drown in riches because their souls can not be filled by gold alone.

Greed has no part nor place in a free enterprise Market.

And as ours is such a one - our free Market structure must naturally react to expel greediness - as tares are beaten from the wheat.

Indeed, it must be intrinsic to our Economic structures and strictures that inordinate wants and the many lusts that support them are not only counterproductive but also counter-intuitive to our National Economy and run counter to our economic good as citizens - being usually not only corrupted but criminal.

Truly, truly, virtue is currency.

Greed in our Economy is like having termites in the wood of our tree.

All of that which places the value of Man's things over the things of Man give nor possess no value and only exists to take from Country; it shortens the length of our days (making it appear to our hearts we're getting nowhere fast), is useless to the fostering of our sovereign freedoms, and is quite destructive to the labor of securing the National wealth.

We can be as rich as we want to be in our Economy, provided it does not make any of us filthy - but only truly happy.

In fact, in the most ideal sense - everyone should own capital, multiply it, and have a successful business so that we should all be billionaires, rich with good things besides, and wealthy at the same time.

A Capitalist does not value imprudence in the use of material resources and despises greed because greed is reckless. Greed is narrow and selfish and suffocates both human creativity and personal initiative. It is the saw that ultimately saws off the branch it is sitting on - calamitous to the Market it preys upon.

Capitalism values not how much money is in the bank but on how much capital enterprise is in the works, it values chutzpah, and rewards honest, dedicated and inspired work, no matter how small it may be, seeking to succeed not on how well and how bravely one runs from business - but on how well and how bravely a business is run.

The capital in capitalization, and the exclusive proprietary rights of those who own the means of work is only the result and not the source of the capital in capitalism. It is a myth that Capitalism is prejudicial to workers' rights; a legend propagated by the greediness of a few.

The human capital is crucial to the success of Capitalism, so that it's betterment - both in the labor force and in the management corps that serve each proprietary trust - in business and other market venture entities - that comprise our Free Market is vital to the success of our Economy.

But the value of the human element may only be as valuable as we recognize it. Fairness is what makes our Markets free. Therefore, a degraded economic identity in our citizenry will - and shall - imperil our Market Freedoms. When honesty in the small seem to count for nothing when the truth is that honesty can never be measured by any material dimension. Honesty is honesty in all persons.

And this in turn shall slow or even stop the many human gears that drive forward the popular engine of our Economic Progress. It will produce disparities in the way we view wealth and poverty, polarize it into an unnatural state of division - so that wealth and poverty are no longer connected - in both our minds and our hearts.

(That wealth and poverty as they exist - exists not harmoniously but are inimical to each other - like hydrogen refusing to bind with oxygen to make water.)

Indeed, there is now in our Nation, and perhaps also in other Nations not unlike ours, that selfsame unfamiliarity; a sense of unbalanced imbalances that seems so unnatural to the Economic evolution of any free, fair, and brave enterprising people - and one that prevents each our Country from taking wing, leaving us all earth-bound - below the clouds, under the darkness, out of sight of the stars and the skies.

This is not a deficiency in our people's virtue and good. There is so much bravery in a magbabalut or a fish ball vendor, or an honest taxi driver or airport porter - or any enterprising Pinoy who invests in the smallest of seeds - his or her citizenry - to dream of a better life - in this Nation - it is this spark that we should be looking for... 

(The author also has a specific proposal to make common for all Filipinos - the practical means to enter into our National Economy and strengthen our City's common ability to build up the National wealth which shall also be posted in this blog at a later time.)

For it is this spark that we may use it to jump start our Engine back to life - it is found in the here, there, and everywhere, just raring to go - in each of us, because all of this is - in the heart of the Filipino - and - in the soul of our Nation.

And Now is our Time.
---<--@

Salutation #154

(Human Rights)

Human rights - are those - 
inalienable and universal legal protections 

granted all human individuals 

that are derived 

from the manifest necessities 

that arise from the fundamental nature

of all human beings.

They
envelop human dignity 

- and - 

embrace human promise 

- and - 

constantly seek
- to do so -

each in their entirety.

In principle, 

these protections are directed 

toward defending our basic vulnerabilities 

and promoting our fundamental responsibilities 

to each other as human beings cognizant of our humanity

and are laws purposed together
by all nations for the benefit of all nations
to recognize, foster, and preserve
human life, liberty, responsibility, posterity, and destiny 

each in their most evolved
and universal sense.
---<--@

Salutation #147

Because time is a flow
and once it has gone out of the timeless

within our hearts, 

once time has flowed out of the Sanctuary of the LORD 

in our every hearts, 

it is no longer time but consequence 

and is near impossible to change. 

(You may refer to the River in Ezekiel 47: 1-12.)

(Nation, Mission, Commission)

My people,
our spirit is strong and virile -
at par with each our kindred nations!

Believe this today with me
and we will build everything else
around this belief -

In you and in me,
there dwells our Country;
'tis a will of peace and of good will
as well as the unity to build up together
from star to star, our one whole sky.

It is the love
that binds us together
in the freedom of human citizenship
and the belonging that holds us together true
in the completeness of our Republic one.

It is that intimated promise
we must hold in our heart of hearts;
the unspoken truth upon which is established
the lineages that leads us back from exile
unto our own Eden rebuilt!

Believe this today with me
and we will build everything else
around this belief -

For in this spirit is realized
the sheltering wings of our nationhood;

the strength to shall carry our generations forth
and the safety to see our vision through to the LORD
across the desolation of war and the darkness of exile time.

Believe this today with me
and we will build everything else
around this belief -

THAT
we are a nation,
one and distinct -

a nation
ordered and purposed
to shelter our common humanity
and to build up the inhabited earth -

a nation
commissioned by the LORD, 
to preserve the dignity and the promise

of all our generations in every generation -

a nation
faithful to our own remembrance
being endowed with justice and freedom
sufficient for the good of every present generation -

a nation
true to our own vision and lineage
and allied to the peace of all the nations
of the earth under heaven -

a nation
united and able through our unity
to overcome the evil of every present time -

THIS 
is in each our spirit first
before anything else
or not at all.
---<--@

spirit is energy

Salutation #129

ALL SALUTATIONS are meant
to invoke into our collective memory
the reality of something good.

Evil
being devoid of that excellence
we tend in spirit to honor and admire
is not something we commonly salute
as human beings - and so -
as human nations together
we do not openly invoke evil
in our salutations.

   (Therefore,
   we may safely exclude
   from this particular reflection
   anything else but the good in things.)



(The National Salutation)

"Mabuhay"
is the salutation
associated with the Philippines.

   (As such,
   it is quite familiar
   to all of us Filipinos
   and even to other nations.)

It is not a salutation of individuals.

- selah -

Therefore,
it can never be
something meant to refer to
(1) any single individual - or -
(2) anything about the life of any single individual - or -
(3) anything about his or her personal virtues
no matter how excellent.

So what does it mean
when we Filipinos say "mabuhay"?

And
when we Filipinos do say "mabuhay"
what for or to whom in particular
do we tend to - consciously -
as well as - unconsciously -
address this to?

Mabuhay
simply means "to bring to life".

It is a salutation
that invokes "life" or the quality of it.

Now,
the life of any nation
is the product of the quality
of the communities that exists
wholly within itself.

It is therefore,
a measure of the sum
of all its relationships,
vertical and then horizontal.

   (This sum
   is always positive
   no matter how deteriorated
   any nation becomes.

   For
   there are no last peoples
   only disappeared cultures.

   Indeed,
   there will always be
   - remnant nations -
   for as long as there are
   nations upon our world.

   Because
   just as there are no such things
   as false hopes, only real ones;
   there are no such things
   as false relationships,
   only real ones.)

Now,
the quality
of these relationships
within the nation
is a product of
the quality
of the national remembrance.

For it is remembrance
that dictates the quality
of the national peace.

- selah -

My brother and sister Filipinos -

Mabuhay - is -
the salutation of our nation
in its entirely - and so -
must refer to the quality of the life
of the nationhood in each ourselves
- as well as -
the completeness of the sacred remembrances
we must together keep through all our generations
as a nation upon this earth.

It intends
to specifically invoke
- in the one Filipino heart -
a memory of itself.

It is a salutation
addressed directly and simultaneously
to all Filipinos from everywhere
and from every time
and is meant to return (again and again)
our every present generation
to the timeless memory
of our people.

It ever reminds
of the reality of our nationhood;
its duties and responsibilities,
its mission, vision, promise, and destiny.

And says to every Filipino heart,
"long may our remembrances serve us".

So when we Filipinos say -

"mabuhay"

it should mean
that we do love the Philippines
as citizens to each other,
and that we do understand this love
as truth in our hearts.

- selah -

When we invoke
our national salutation
- with substance -
this truth empowers us.

It must elicit in our hearts
a love that is not distant or abstract!

It must ever remind us
of everything real to our national hopes
as a nation distinct among nations;
that particular something
we can all meaningfully understand.

It must continuously rekindle
in each ourselves (again and again)
- as citizens to each other -
that sovereign kind of mutual ownership
proper to our national trust
and empower us with a love of Country
that reaches right down to the ground
of our national communities
enabling every Filipino
to freely bring the blessings of our peace
into the lives of the very least
of our brothers and sisters,
our littlest Filipinos.

- selah -

The life of every nation
is derived from its particular sense of unity
and this particular sense of unity
is derived from the strength of its peace.

Upon this peace
(and the abundance or the lack of it)
is established the order and the cohesion
of all its national communities.

A nation's life - therefore,
is measured by the quality
of the sum of all the relationships
dwelling forever within itself.

- selah -

Mabuhay 
is meant to recall us
to a memory of all of these relationships
in particular with the poor and needy in our midst
not to remind us of what we lack
but to return us to what we all must be - together this time -
to the one labor that our nation is purposed for by God,
the one trust that binds together all our generations,
and that constant remembrance of the peace
that must forever and ever live
- in each of us -
as citizens, one to another,
- equally engaged -
in our one Republic undertaking of Country -


---<--@

(original produced 20110821)

Salutation #127

That we lead many nations
in terms of faith - only means one thing,
we are a people prepared.

- selah -

For the burden of the times
is a burden of expectation.

If it were a burden of justice,
would any nation survive?

Therefore,
do not despair,
my people.

Believe.

---<--@


(Burden of Expectation)

What does a nation do with a burden?
It bears it together!
---<--@

THERE IS
an expectation - under heaven -
about this one nation of ours;
a requirement to succeed.

What is it about expectations
that make us cringe, my compatriots?

To whom much is given,
much must also be expected!

Is the Filipino truly free?

Have we become a nation mired
in a state of permanent revolution?

The mindset of War requires division - even in the midst -
but against whom must we fight against these days?

Increasingly,
we are becoming a people exhausted,
a nation dark and despairing,
trampled upon by unnamed tyrannies
and nameless tyrants.

Is the Filipino truly free?

- selah -

What is this freedom, this vaunted liberty?

We are a nation distinct, a nation among nations;
we are a nation led by a vision enshrined in our Constitution,
bounded by laws, and governed by an entire lineage of sacred trust
that goes from strength to strength and hope to hope
embodied - in time - through the Offices of this Republic
and duly represented by the mandates carried
by each their presiding Seats of public service
in persons elected or appointed.

We are a human society,
endowed by Almighty God with a culture,
a history, customs, traditions, aspirations, civic values,
and a freedom to pursue the happy ends
for which our generations (as a whole)
have dedicated and gained for this nation
self reliance and self determination
at such a cost!

What is it about the national success
that is becoming so fearful to us, O my nation,
that we have come to shun it?

Have we forgotten who we are?

No other nation upon the earth
can build upon this one, faithful Republic
the foundation of all her better days
than this particular nation -
this one Filipino nation!

Truly, there is a requirement for us to succeed!

But this requirement - under heaven -
(being that rightful expectation we all, as fellow citizens, share)
is only a requirement - and shall remain so -
as a thing remembered for us by God
and reminded in our hearts - these days -
by the most beneficent will of His Providential grace.

We have yet to claim it and make it ours!

And so let us together say, "yes, indeed."

There is a requirement for us to succeed!

- selah -

We are no different
from our other kindred nations
yet we are also distinct from each of them
because of the things that gather us together
into one common, human belonging; one nation.

We can not allow ourselves
to be defined by the those things
that strive against our peace,
that seek to tear us apart,
but by our free and human belongings
to each other as a whole,
one and distinct.

A nation - is - the people
- and - our connections - with and to each other;
our relationships - as citizens to each other -
and what (Who) animates and informs it.

Our freedom proceeds from this realization.

For we can not truly become free
to fulfill our national aspirations
until we have learned to serve
- as citizens to each other -
and we can not become
- as citizens to each other -
unless we participate in the work
to achieve a better Philippines.

And that this Republic is but one work.

- selah -

I have a belief 
in our beloved Philippines 
that transcends mere optimism.

And I often feel,
if I think about it long enough,
that I have come to a conviction of this
long before our time.

It is as though
it has always been there,
and never at all was it lost.

It sought as I sought
and now - we are together -
in our seeking.

And
in this togetherness,
we are together sheltered.

- selah -

The work we must do
to restore to ourselves our Republic endeavor
is not just the work of our government
in the Responsible State (not just the President's)
- it is ours as well, my people beloved of God.

It may only be accomplished
by nations and indeed, it may only be accomplished
by this particular nation, our one Filipino nation!

This is why I am addressing
much of this communication to each of you:

Only as
- we, the people -
can we effectively stand
against the evils of our present times.

Truly,
my fellow Filipino compatriots,
we should only expect for ourselves,
united across differences and one in our generations,
to succeed because victory is the only lineage
that belongs to the national peace
we must soon come to profess -
together this time.

Now is the time for peace:

This is our time.

Peace, I salute you.

(original produced 20100914)
---<--@

Battlestrong

20110827

Salutation #47

A DEAF PERSON who goes through life learning to listen soon becomes wiser than a person who hears but never learns to listen.

While it is entirely possible - even desirable - to overcome this world without much speaking, without listening we are utterly ruined.

(The Wisdom of Listening)

If we are to proceed in the way of our learning,

from God to the communities embraced by His Providence,

we must learn to listen attentively to the reality

of the instruments of Providence.

It is always better to learn from persons

by our trust in the inherent good of others

- than to seek to unlearn -

the sincerity native to our good will

by nurturing any bitterness stemming from hurt

or from any perceived lack of good in the person of others.

This is always true with regard to those

whose littleness and difficulties conceal from many

the true value of their instruction

- all who are the least among others -

whom the darkness of this world blindly rejects.

For this must always come by way of false comparisons

that rob ourselves and others of our particular sense of uniqueness

and removes us further from the truth.

Therefore,

let us make it a rule of our everyday living

that it is always better to listen first than to ask first.

We must be listeners first and speakers last.

For much listening shall often reveal to us the answers

where much speaking give rise only to questions.

And counsel that is well-received

is worth more than a thousand questions.

But if we must know how to listen to the counsel of others,

we must also learn how ably we must bend - against our own will -

and this bending is the bending of obedience.

All our hearing amounts to nothing

if our listening does not lead to discernment.

For all our listening is a form of obedience.

It is wise only inasmuch as it leads us to the truth.

We must understand - first - that obedience merits much

only when we are taught in the way of mutual trust and respect,

in an atmosphere of understanding, and in the freedom of the truth.

When obedience fails,

it fails because it is given blindly

or when it is a choice wrongly taken away

or as a bondage that is forced against the will.

This is ignorance, timidity and oppression - respectively -

and it avails evil people much but then again,

by token of these same things,

it can also be said if we know how to listen to Providence

- that their evil is but a thing permitted -

by each and every one of us

who by token of their same evil,

are led to the leadings of the good.

For all tyranny that matures,

matures only because it is an evil allowed by the people.

Obedience - in a nation -

is neither servility nor weakness.

It is the strength to know the truth

as well as the resilience to uphold it,

in sacred remembrance of each other;

it is as the bending of a bow - aimed towards the infinite -

we let fly not because we are hurt,

we let fly because we have finally found

our peace with each other.

To not be ignorant, we must know to ask.

To not be timid, we must learn to know to ask.

To not be oppressed, we must learn to know

to always ask without fail.

---<--@

Most of the things that love says is never said at all.

---<--@

The Question -

An angel asked me, "...and what do I love, O heart?" For I longed to know.

It led me to a shop and showed me a thing I desired for myself but could not yet afford. Something I knew I knew but did not really think about that much.

"I love all these things that you love, O heart, that leads you to be good", the angel said to me.

"I love all the good clothes that was made for you, I love the cell phone that you'd so wished for so much, oh and that laptop - I love that as well - for you, O heart."

"So how do you love me in return?" The angel's question seem to echo from deep into my being for the lesson has now penetrated me indelibly right into my heart.

There was silence:

"You shall love the LORD thy God as one LORD alone".

"Make peace with the all of creation. Divide it not. Say peace to the river, to the sky, to the earth, to the animals (and the trees) of the earth and the fishes of the seas, to thy nations good will and to all thy fellow human beings, life and abundance. Do this if you love me."
---<--@

Our Land of Promise -

The nationhood that is our Promise shall not be as a house of cards, empty of substance, propped up by countless divisions, inspired by diverse and manifold hatreds;selfish, evil, reckless, irresponsible, and adulterous in the sight of God, Angels and Man.

We shall not be as a house in constant rebellion against its own lineages of truth - we shall not be this way.

We shall be the meaning that lives inside of our words, my beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise - the citizenship inside of ourselves - for ours is a spiritual renaissance.

---<--@

National Heroes Day and Eid al-Fitr 2011 -

This last Monday of August is National Heroes Day (August 29).

The following day, August 30, is Eid al-Fitr which is the event that marks the completion of the cycle of Ramadan for our Muslim brothers and sisters of the Promise.

Both of these days are legally recognized as public holidays in our Philippines.

In this pivotal year, my honorable Filipino compatriots, I bid us to welcome these commemorations as one nation and to honor these days, as citizens to each other, with remembrances proper to the peace of our Philippines.

Let us reflect upon this peace.

May we learn to keep it, one to another, as keeper and friend.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Peace. Salaam. Shalom. God bless us all.

Ignite

Starshine,
your addiction is to life.

There is nothing worthy
about things that cause harm -
Destruction is only good
if it brings about growth and transformation.

So remember this
when you shall desire to find yourself
when you shall seek to one day be
as stars looking out from yourself
possessed by your own light,
being by the one Beautiful beheld
seeing far into the darkness
of our needful world:
Make no provision in your heart
for evil things: Here, Now.

For there will come a time in your life
when you shall be confused
when you shall cross an imperceptible threshold
into an in-between world -
By the ebb and flow tides of shadow and light,
you shall wander alone with the Alone
and you will be compelled to look for those things
that are meant to be yours
as well as forced to shed away all other things
that should no-wise belong to you.

So listen to good counsel, Beloved of God,
for it is better not to begin weeping
than to weep until the tears that was begun
are all shed away by our weeping together
for before you can shed your own starlight,
our most precious Starshine,
before the love in your heart ignites,
you must first shed away all your tears.
---<--@

20110615

Second Half of 2011

We are now into the second half of 2011, my honorable compatriots.

Peace, I think we are doing well.

Everywhere around us things are changing but the secret to all this change is how we hold on to the changeless in ourselves. We need to return to first principles and build from those truths about ourselves that are immutable.

Only then, when we are come into the nation in ourselves, can we emerge into our truest potential as a Republic whole.

The LORD, our God, is upon His Throne in Eternity, my people - all is well!

Because God is in His heaven, my nation, peace shall reign in the heart of Man, good will shall prevail between all men and women of peace, and the order of the nations of Mankind shall persevere.

Do not be distressed therefore, about the darkness.

Indeed, there shall be confusion and perhaps we shall find ourselves in the thick of it more and more by and by at the approach of 2012. But understand now at the second half of 2011 that it is all a necessary passage.

Say to thy heart, "everywhere around me things are changing, alleluia."

For darkness is but darkness that does not lead to the light.

If today we have come to understand as we should, the changeless and the timeless in ourselves and in others like ourselves, we should by now have gained for each of ourselves, by grace of God, a special kind of appreciation of what beauty there is in our common humanity.

We would have fallen in love with the dawn, my honorable compatriots.

And this vision shall see us through the long night - as citizens to each other and as a nation among nations.

---<--@

Salutation #14

(Canticle of Praise)

Bless Your Name, O LORD!
From the highest of Angels

to the very least of us Men!

Bless Your Name, O LORD!

All creatures great and small -
let all of Your creation sing!

Bless Your Name, O LORD!

May Your praises be heard
from the fiery depths of hell,
across all the lands of earth,
far into the heavens above!

Our voices proclaim Your glory!
Alleluia! Amen to God!

AMEN!

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Long may our remembrance serve us. God bless us all.

Of Virtue and Vice

20110119

World Interfaith Harmony Week

On October 20, 2010, the United Nations passed a unanimous resolution to establish a World Interfaith Harmony Week on the first week of every February.

This initiative is being spearheaded by H. M. King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to whom we should give proper regard for this very praiseworthy undertaking. Therefore, may God bless him and his family for opening for us and for all nations this vital opportunity and may peace be unto the people of Jordan.

This initiative, my fellow Filipino compatriots, if we so choose to willingly undertake and adopt as an official part of our national commemorations shall benefit us greatly.

Because peace is our common salutation: All Christians, Jews and Muslims universally bless each other with it.

Why then is the world so resistant to this truth?

To even begin to comprehend the richness of the spiritual heritage of our three, great Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, we must first work to overcome the inertia of the last 2000 years.

We must begin to break down the barriers of ignorance and misconceptions that have for so long fed into those vicious cycles of violence that have set us apart and have denied for our world the promise that the LORD, our God, has intended through our Father Abraham - that we shall in His own time be as the numerous stars, a blessing to all the communities of Mankind.

Indeed, if we are to begin to comprehend the beauty of this promise of old and to finally come to an understanding of the true extent by which God in His graces have established - for our own good sake's - from the beginning of time, for all our nations, a singular path of brotherhood, we must first learn to take into ourselves the spirit of the new age.

And we must do this with much prayer and effort - together this time.

The paradigm of the last age was one of war. Understanding this paradigm of war is important for us, my fellow Filipino compatriots, because it allows us to begin to penetrate the darkness of war and perceive the unseen presence of the beast (spirit) of war.

First of all, it is vital we understand we are entering into an age of thought.

Now, the substance of thought is spirit. This spirit is the force of all truth and this force of truth gives form to all visible things and is comprehended by the soul of Man in terms of meaning not of words. It seeks to fulfill all things in the truth of God Who is Himself Spirit.

The beast of war is the opposite of this. It is a spirit that denies the power of truth. It seeks to corrupt the soul of Man and destroy the meaningfulness of all created things. It seeks to undo the purpose and the order of God in all creation.

This beast of war is ancient. It was cast out of heaven by the holy angels of God by the power of God. It first entered upon the earth at the time Cain killed his brother Abel, when man was first killed by the hand of another man.

Since days of old, this beast of war has fed upon the sufferings of countless innocents. The soil of our earth is soaked in their blood.

But the hope of the innocents cry out to God against war, "this beast is not sustained by virtue of our lives for we are those who lived for peace."

To all the nations of Mankind, they testify, "our blood is shed not to propagate this suffering but as a witness against the deception of war. For war is sustained by its own injustices."

"It has spread to sow the seeds of division upon the ends of the earth. It has shattered the reign of many of the lineages of the kings and rulers of old. It has brought forth the ruin of many nations."

"Upon its deadly wake, Man labor only in bitterness and despair."

Indeed, the last 2000 years have seen the beast of war inflict abomination after abomination upon all the peoples of the world. The last century is a century of genocide.

Now this beast threatens the very purpose and order of the nations of Mankind. For the nations of Man contend against war. But Man was never meant by God to contend against this beast.

Therefore, we must learn to understand the ways of peace and peace as a paradigm.

To do this, we must learn how to think as a nation. This is very important for us to understand, O my nation, because it will provide us with the strength and the solidity necessary to overcome the enormous momentum of the last great age of war.

There is a purpose and an order to our labors upon the earth: (1) The building up of the (unknown) earth (into the inhabited earth) and (2) the preservation of the dignity and promise of the children of Man.

The building up of the (inhabited) earth is a labor commanded by God of all the generations of the children of Man. This building is the purpose of the nations of Mankind. Because the (inhabited) earth may only be built by the labor of Nations. No man lives or dies for self alone.

Now, humanity is created by God to prosper the life of all visible creation. To the keeping of Mankind is entrusted the stewardship of the Sacred Life of all the visible universe entire. (Indeed, the void of the universe have become hostile to all of life itself only because of the shattering brought upon by the outset of war and exile time.)

Sacred Life being all plant and animal life, above all human life, each human being is particularly entrusted to the keeping of every other human being.

Each of us is singular, each of us is near infinite potential and all of us are arrayed from least to greatest according to the freedom of our gifts.

Our nations are so structured and established so as to maintain this design and in so doing to preserve the life of our common humanity and safeguard the order of our generations arrayed according to each their own times and seasons.

For the preservation of the dignity and promise of the children of Man as a reflection of the image and likeness of God in every individual human being is a labor that is likewise commanded by God of all the nations of Mankind.

Towards this purpose and order is established and ordained the brotherhood of the nations of Mankind so that by whatever name every present generation receives the unmistakable call of their original nationhood, this purpose and this order makes it forever meaningful and binding to the souls of all its citizens. For every nationhood is a work (of the heart). It is where it works. It is where it unfolds in time.

All true nationhood is a gift; an unmistakable sign of a divine endowment.

Therefore, true nationhood is not a thing that can be crafted by human hands. It is a reality that may only be granted by God alone. True nationhood is something that the children of Man seeks to obtain from the LORD not because Man is Man but because the LORD is God and He alone is God.

It is spirit and therefore, must always be sought from deep within the individual human heart.

It is timeless and therefore, encompasses all the generations of our people to the very last of our generations.

It is a promise won for Man by the immovable justice of God; a reflection of His great mercy to the children of Man, now fallen into exile.

It is a destiny perfected in the likeness of His love; a revelation of the fullness of His compassion to all creatures, great and small.

These are first principles of nationhood: It is spirit. It is timeless. It is endowed by God with both a purpose and an order. It is both a promise and a destiny.

The nation is the foundation of all human civilization. To begin to understand it as we ought, we must first come to accept it as it is - a particular living creation with us.

The nation is the people. To be more precise, a nation is a people under God; a community bound together in freedom by a spirit entrusted to a particular people of God.

This spirit is a particular angel of the LORD; a guardian of the people.

Therefore, when taken as a whole, the nation in each our minds and our hearts must always be more than what the present reveals.

It is what establishes us forever in the peace of our belongings to each other. It is light to drive away the darkness of an unknown earth; a sword to stay the beast (spirit) of war and a shield to preserve the Sacred Life of the people.

It is a keeper of our past, a guardian of our present, and a steward of our future. It is what keeps us faithful to to the original truth of our founding and the singular source of our common identity as Filipinos.

It is the invincible guardian of all our sacred remembrances, embracing all our generations into one lineage of hope.

It is an unseen reality that surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds all our hearts together into one particular love - the love of Country - the love of each other in God.

When we seek the truth of our belongings to each other, we are likewise sought by the nation in and around ourselves. When we begin to awaken to the reality of our being Filipino, we awaken to the truth of ourselves as ourselves as we begin to encounter the reality of our nationhood.

We know we are Filipino because our nation knows us - equally, individually, each by our own true names written in heaven. When we affirm it in ourselves that we are Filipino, our nation knows that we have come to finally awaken to a knowledge of our citizenship and that we have come to ally ourselves to the love that is the timeless keeper of the common patrimony of our people.

It is what binds all our lives and our fortunes together as one people, one work, one destiny.

For who is a Filipino but this love in the heart?

To seek the peace is to seek the truth of this love. And to understand that this love is not (and never was) beholden to division.

For this love is indeed present in the races but cannot be confined to a mere color of skin, sound of name, or slant of tongue.

It is a love that is, above all, allied to All that is bound by the freedom of the sons and daughters of the LORD, our God; the light in all His living lights.

We can never take this for granted.

This peace must be something that is constantly sought. For this peace is not the way of this world. Left to itself, our world as we know it will eventually spiral down the gravity of the void. Everything in this world, whether upon the earth or in the heavens above the earth, is destined for destruction.

Indeed, it is an imperfect peace. But it is the perfect acceptance of this imperfect peace that allow our nations to walk in constant humility before the LORD, our God, Who alone brings victory to our peace. Our common sufficiency as nations - indeed, as one family of nations - rely on our free and willing submission to this truth.

Indeed, these days, peace, like love, is oftentimes a word that is emptied out of its meaning. A lot of people know how to say it. But not a lot of people know what it really means.

Some people think peace is the cessation of conflict. But that is not so. For the peace we speak of here is a commitment to the truth in the presence of conflict.

Some people think peace is the side that sits opposite of war. But that is not so. For the peace we speak of here is the overcoming of this very mindset of division.

It is something that must be obtained from God.

It is a free and willing choice made by the individual.

It is an absolute and irrevocable commitment to eternity, virtue, humanity and universality.

Now, the first of these World Interfaith Harmony Weeks is set to begin on the first week of February of this year, my fellow Filipino compatriots.

It is my hope that we may begin to receive this initiative with much enthusiasm and faith this year that we may begin that month with the most advantageous attitude of heart.

Because February of this year is going to be a busy month indeed.

We are, as a Republic undertaking of Country, going to become decidedly, fully engaged in the restructuring of our national psyche - towards the peace, and the peace that prospers.

No man is an island,

no man lives for self alone -

we live for but a moment,

we labor for just a day -

we are here only for a time

then everything passes us away.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Three Elements of Country

Service, Synergy and Sovereignty