A Nation's Treasures

A Nation's wealth is the life and promise of its people - across all our generations.

My people, as we emerge as a Republic in our ages, before we are burdened more and more with the responsibility of material wealth - I want us to remember the simplicity of our happiness in this picture.

It is commonly said that one ought to find one's happiness before doing anything so that anything one does shall be of good profit to the self. This is true.

But lest the world anymore complicate it, this is true only if one can keep one's happiness in the soul and keep it there - present and abiding as a joy in thy spirit - without anything else.

So that in knowing this, we shall always know, as we together undertake to further progress our journey of Country, Earth from Sky - the bounds of our reach and the reach of our limits - where the freedom of Man ends and the Freedom of God begins.

For our freedoms
shall always be our bounds,
our happiness shall to each of us
always remain within their reach
appearing as limitless to our hearts as the Sky
only as far as their limits are known to us here on Earth -
therefore, to transgress the freedom that keep us real
is to distort the happiness that keep us free -
as the gravity of material things tend to do
to remind us of responsibility.

Let us always remain with the truth - we are a spiritual people and therefore, when it comes to our dream of happiness - simply, a simple people.

Everything we need is within each of us - from this unity, God-helping, we shall confidently build.

Now, let us carry on - into the morrow.

Salaam. Shalom. Peace.
---<--@

We are to be wealthy first before becoming wealthy.

Salutation #175

Money is but a means to obtain wealth.

Brothers and sisters of the Promise -
if money and the mere count of all worldly things
were the ultimate end of our coming together into one nationhood,
we should realize - here and now - that we should be
the most unfortunate gathering of souls
in all of God's living creation.

For the devil has his crushing evil lies,
and the angels their quicksilver blue wings,
and the LORD, His glorious, golden Eternity -
But alas, my poor nation! we shall have nothing
if we do not learn, God helping, to multiply our means
not by selfishly obtaining for ourselves the mere number of their count
but by making - in behalf of the All of ourselves - even the merest of means count
so that every generation will have something that remains
to build upon and to hold dear.



(On Eagle's Wings)

Truly,
every nation has its wings
endowed to lift unto the sky of Heaven
the burdens of the earth-bound feet of Man.

But to do so,
We must realize that we, who are but one in our community,
should always look to the least, to the weakest, to the lowliest -
ever to the ones closest to the heavy and difficult ground of our earth
and know that we can not lift up our nationhood with its own wings to fly
IF we can not together uplift the lives of the poorest of the poor
in and amongst ourselves.

The power of our release from the gravity of our earth
we acquire from the presence of the poor - and we shall always have them -
(because the poor is, by measure of time as a whole, none other than the All of us)
for it is they - who are, at each moment, among the least among us - who give to us
- as a nation among nations - ever by the grace of the LORD, our King,
the constant opportunity to fly and to ascend to our completeness.

Remembering now the 4th Cause -
(which is the key to wealth generation in this new age
and the threshold that leads unto the other three Causes)
Indeed, within this Republic undertaking of Country
under heaven upon the earth - each of us -
who become rich becomes rich indeed
when we learn how to make each other rich
within a labor of Country borne ever aloft
by an economy of matter and grace.
---<--@

Our Divided Pond

"While the tree craves calm, the wind will not subside." This is a proverb the PRC media frequently quoted last year when commenting on the rifts between the PRC and the Philippines over the South China Sea.



Our only fault is not having a credible air-sea military deterrent to enforce our core national interests concerns within our territorial waters as well as the primacy of our economic interests within our own EEZ's alongside our international legal obligation to keep these outlying waters secure from piracy and free from lawlessness.

I always come back to this weakness in our own national defense when I ponder on the bilateral equation between the PRC and the GPH.

We did not unilaterally draw these lines on the map, we accepted them from the community of nations. We accepted them along with the rights and responsibilities that our nation must undertake along with them.

We did not harass the Chinese fishermen (PRC) in Scarborough shoal in April of last year, we were enforcing our maritime laws as we should - not because "we can" but because as a Republic, we must.

After all what is a Republic without law but a sham against the people and a lie against the nation it is commanded by God to shepherd.

But what is law without the truth? For the former arises out of the latter and drives it constantly against its limits, not to destroy it but to make it perfect.

But what is the truth? It is - in its ultimate form - certainly not a thing that Man may create for himself, else all law become void and the universe itself unmade.

It seems to me that when the truth is made to be arbitrary, as it is with Beijing's insistence on keeping all claimants cornered, regardless of the avenues of international legal remedy, it all will boil down in the end to raw force and in this regard, the time is late.

We have to accept responsibility for what we presently lack and build upon it in a way that is befitting the necessary and the real. And we must do this not for anything else but our own true sense of well regard for this Republic undertaking of Country of ours and our love for our nation as a whole.

We have to be firm in the right. Defend where we can and get our own act together as one Republic whole. The elections this year affords our people a chance to act upon our national longings, one of them being to live in the safety and security not only of our own peace but also with the peace of the nations in our region, their strength added to our own and ours with them.

We do not want to make an enemy of the PRC. I myself as a citizen of this Republic do not believe in enemies, for as a nation, it is my conviction that we must only believe in friends and potential friends. Not because we are weak for this is not a time to be weak. Now is a time for strength.

We must always be ready to answer to questions regarding matters of peace, whether they are of our own creation or is a thing created for us by circumstances within our world or through the dynamics involved in our necessary relations with other nations for we have constitutionally renounced the use of war along with all its potential for abuse.

This is not to say that we will not defend ourselves, this is to say that we must make it clear that our heart lies only in our defense and that we are answerable to the answers we as a nation have determined to allow for ourselves about these matters.

The real question is, has the PRC already made an enemy of us? Who is the tree and who is the wind?

Where there are more questions than answers, the truth is valued. When there are more answers than questions, there is no certainty.

The Code of Conduct, as I foresee it, being a document largely defined by the economic nature of the issue as regards the South China Sea-West Philippine Sea, must answer for our region - the question of wealth - is not peace and friendship between the nations in our region a form of wealth in and of itself?

Did not the Chinese also say that the angry can be made to be happy again but the dead can not be brought back to life? Indeed, not unlike this saying, I also place a high value on human life. This is why I place a high value on peace. For in its most complete and absolute form peace is truly over war.

Never must this issue take away our common hopes for a better Asia and from our Asia, a better world - for all nations... dreaming together this time.
---<--@

War is not the test,
O nations of the children of Mankind -
war is the tutor!

Peace is the test -
and to pass this test brings success.

Salutation #164

The real answer
to the question of poverty in our age
may not be more but BETTER forms of prosperity.



(The Question of Wealth)

Wealth,
darling Starshine -
what is it?

- selah -

"What is wealth?" -  beloved,
is a question we should each know
how to ask the citizen in each ourselves.

For the recognition of wealth -
its forms, orders of value, real purpose in time,
generation, preservation, conservation,
and ultimate possession -
is the central question being sought
(to be sufficiently grasped and understood)
by each our answering - in our own times and places -
the collective call of each our own undertaking of Country.

The answers - that each of us are -
whose completeness in the ascent - as a whole -
(like stars finding their way together
into every new morning of every new day
unto the completion of our Country)
drive forward the economy of our generations.

Indeed,
the singular - temporal - pre-occupation
of every nation (of the children of Mankind)
is how to adequately understand
the question of wealth.

Truly,
it is important to understand this question.

FOR
how one nation understands the Question
directs its timeless energies unto the answer...
even... precious starshine, all the way.
---<--@



Ask yourself:
is money - by itself -
wealth enough?

Money
can be good.

- BUT -

Money
can be bad.

Why?

Starshine,
what (or who) makes it so?
---<--@



Questions ask, answers answer.

Salutation #156

You can not see love
yet you feel it when it's near
and even more so when it is far...

The spiritual soul
implicitly understands this.

But to the unspiritual
this only brings confusion.



(Rich in all things, Rich above all things)

Starshine -

Is Mankind 
truly experiencing 
an awakening in the soul? 

We can feel our way
toward an answer to this
by how we learn to come to love
what we can no longer see.

We can not see virtue
but we can understand its worth.

AND if this love of the spiritual
overcomes our love for the material,
far from nullifying our national prosperity,
it will cause our people to become rich indeed -
rich in all things, rich above all things.

Reality is that our Reality is
99% invisible to the human eye -

   We can not see Country
   but we hope to understand its worth.
   For what is essential is formed in formlessness.

We are seen more than we can see.
And loved more than we are able to believe.

---<--@

Salutation #153

Prudent stewardship of the temporal order does not disincline the wings of the soul to flight for a rightful love of the things of the earth is one that does not diminish the appetite of the spirit for virtue and truth.

Material prosperity is not undesirable, materialism is. 

For materialism breeds greed and greed is the real dirt.

Therefore, one must guard not against matter but the spirit for it is this dirt that soils the soul; it is this dirt that buries the spirit.

(Nation vs Materialism)

SIMPLY PUT,
economic prosperity
depends on two things:
matter and spirit.

THIS is why materialism
ultimately destroys national wealth.

- selah -

Virtue is currency!

The rich need the poor, the poor need the rich
for each may only prosper with the other
and this relationship, by it's own virtue,
sustains the middle classes
which is the surest foundation
of a strong and steadfast democracy
providing safe shelter - for all:

A community of striving souls
standing for a just and lasting peace
where freedom is nourished - for all -
and peace, though imperfect, is yet
strongly believed and understood - by many -
as an ideal to be perfected in practice
in vision as well as in mission
- in thought and in act -
as an expression of the good will
of all citizens - least to great,
past, present, and forever.

A society of citizens
living in a just equality with each other
where every and all opportunity
though offered and received in unequal parts
by each individual citizen quantitatively
becomes a quality in the nation
that creates wealth equally
for all.
---<--@

Of Virtue and Vice

Salutation #108

Honest labors bless.

Dishonest labors curse.

Clean money brings happiness.

Poisoned money brings only death.

(Law and the Real Economy of Nations)

THERE IS a vastly distinct

- yet subtle -

difference between

an economy that is real

and one that is false.

- selah -

A real economy

is one founded on the labors

all nations ought to work -

the labor of common human needs!

It is the work

of building up the inhabited earth

which in turn sustains the life of the people

and bring together all our generations.

In a real economy

- virtue is currency -

and grace, free and divine,

an integral part

of the national economy.

It is always

- a labor of hope -

(and so, ascends to the LORD)

and is the soil upon which

every national vision

is planted.

From out of this soil,

every particular tree of Country,

ordained, endowed and commissioned by God,

grows and reaches out to heaven -

and destiny.

A false economy

is one that takes away

from the strength and the vitality

of the real economy

that ought to animate the spirit

of every nation's dreaming together.

It is not the opposite

of a real economy

but a false version of it

and one that may offer

the external appearance

of similar fruit.

(A real economy

that from all outward appearances

appear to be at 100%

may only be, in fact, at 40%

because of the 100% false economy

thriving within it.

It is never as clear cut as -

real economy = 40%

false economy = 60%

total economy = 100%

The discernment of the Responsible State,

the vigilance of all its concerned government institutions

underpinned by the skill and will of the citizenry

especially first responders in law enforcement

all have a necessary part to play -

for all these individual actions contribute

to the over-all workings

of a healthy national economy

- which in turn -

shelters the person

and promote the well-being

of all.)

All species of criminal activity

and all those activities (as a whole)

that exploit the hope of the people

and take undue advantage

of the common human needs

that ought to be entirely protected

- by the Sacred Trust -

of every nation

produces diverse structures of evil

(social in nature

and organized as far

as it is allowed

by it own host nation)

that, each in its own ill-turn,

feed into these false economies

that steal away (like a host of parasites)

the time, talents, and the treasures

of Country.

It is always a work

wrought in lies and false hopes.

It is always an endeavor

supported by vice and brute force.

And it ultimately leads the people

into emptiness and despair.

For

despite all outward appearances,

all false economies are possessed

of no vision, no promise,

and no victory.

To join with it then, is futility.

Now,

it is one of the essential functions

of Law to draw a line

- clear and straight -

between a real economy

and a false economy.

RA9160 requires that we draw that line!

---<--@

RA9160 is the Anti-Money Laundering Act of the Philippines.

Common Human Needs

To the Class of 2011

DREAM BIG DREAMS!

Your nation, dear starshine, is in need of your dreams. So you must dream big!

I kid you not, there is a strain of thinking in Filipino society these days that is so smallish, so restrictive, so constrained, so limited, it predisposes the unwary to a life of penury.

Don't you know you are the equal of any of your contemporaries on the planet? What dreams the youth of our world today are capable of - you are capable of.

So don't sell yourself short. My advice to you is to go and dream those dreams.

Dreams are all about possibilities. They are the "stuff" of yet unborn realities.

If you shall ask me what is this "stuff"?

I shall answer you with a question - "what are your possibilities"?

We are not a material (i.e. unspiritual) people, starshine. Everything you really need is already in yourself.

The plight of many of our poor people here in the Philippines is desperate indeed. But material poverty is no obstacle to the human heart. Many successful Filipinos will attest to that.

The only kind of poverty that truly impoverishes is the spiritual kind. Remember, we are not a material people, starshine.

Everything you really need is already in yourself.

Let go of the thinking that money is the goal of education. Better yet, let go of the thinking that wealth is about money. Money per se is not wealth. Wealth is much larger than money.

Learning itself is wealth. The ability to dream is wealth. Virtue is wealth. Health is wealth. A good friend is wealth. A good family is wealth. A lively faith is wealth. A healthy parish community is wealth. A vibrant and prospering barangay community is wealth. A strong and faithful nation is wealth. There are a lot of things other than money that make one rich indeed and you may add them all to this list.

So do not be restricted by the thinking that money is the ultimate end of your life's labors upon this world.

Let your dreaming be a dream of happiness. Let it be one of sweet release and of joyous realization.

What you believe in your heart, dearest starshine, are like seeds planted in your soul. So it is very important for you to know where these seeds come from and what these seeds are.

Because the souls of the young are fertile ground indeed. You must, especially in your youth, be aware to nurture only those things in yourself that shall lead you to your dreams that you may work sedulously to awaken these dreams in yourself - that you may bring it out into our needful world.

There are things - truths - proper to you. You must seek them and come to an understanding of them that you may come to know who you are as God intended you to be - who you must be and therefore, work to become.

You must become this person, dear starshine, and when you do, your dreams will come true.

Find yourself and the rest will follow.

The real secret to making money is not the desire to make money - it is simply the willingness to be yourself.

Money is a by product of the knowledge that comes with being happy with who you are - mature in your gifts, secure in your faith, steadfast in your hopes, and alive in your love.

It takes a lot of hard work to be happy - but isn't happiness the ultimate aim of all human labor? So why be skimpy?

Go and dream big dreams!Some people study with a view to making big money and end up sad and broken. They think with their minds by excluding their hearts.

There can be great desolation even in the midst of great material wealth. This is a sad fact indeed.

You must not be this way, dear starshine. You must always lead with your mind but think with your heart. For we are not a material people.

Jesus taught, "seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be given you besides".

Isn't this the same as to say, "everything you really need is already in yourself"?

Think about it, our precious starshine, and don't forget to pray.

Find yourself, Beloved of God: Believe.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless the Class of 2011.


Dreamer of Dreams