Farewell to Promise

Truly, your individual remembrances make you a human being and your national remembrances make you a citizen. Therefore, know ye in the end that all national remembrances are human remembrances; that every nation's hurt are always ultimately a hurt that arises from the human condition.

When you pass the line of your own remembrance - from past to present - and complete the necessary labor of your spirit... you should, in deepening your memory of all of these things, be carrying in your will of human citizenship - more love, more hope, and more faith in our common humanity and in the labor of our family of nations*... not less.

(*to build up the Inhabited Earth and fill our world with a myriad living lights)

Certainly you are going in the wrong direction (retrograding) if your remembrance causes you to forget all these things and instead, embrace the easy power of hatred (and become by evil inspired).

This is not remembrance but the corruption of it.

The way of remembrance returns us back to our nation's lineages of victory and is proof against the spirit of war - the way of return guarded by the Angel at the East Gate of Eden (Gen. 3:24).

Will those souls who - from all ages and from all our nations - have suffered death from the spirit of war and hatred in the past cry out to our God for more war and hatred?

There is no other kind of suffering but the human kind and we do not remember to forget.

The past will not penalize us for not confronting it, the future will.
---<--@

September is peace month... may we deepen in the spirit of our peace!

Starshine, peace is not the mere absence of war 

just as Cherubs are not those fluffy, little, baby angels 

sitting dreamily on lazy, white clouds... 

For peace is a mighty presence - 

'tis in all that is worth keeping and defending 

born of every love worth living and dying for... 

'tis the presence of a spirit that is unafraid

to force to bless, transform, and fulfill
as truth to overcome the world -
in spite of the presence war.

Salutation #3

Darkness is but the darkness if it does not lead to the light.

(Darkness)

To the numberless lights 
of our kindred belonging,
greetings of sincere hope
and good will -
my love and prayers:

There is evil in our days,
as it was in those days of old.

Evil where it is allowed to endure
into every present time
to stand against the line (of our nations)
established in the Now of the moment
is an enemy that is never meant
to defeat the will of the good (nor it's Source).

For the arrangement of all past things
in every (individual, unrepeatable) person's life
like a romance between human choice
and the serendipity of God's grace
is always intended in such a way
by the beneficence of Divine Providence
so as to culminate into every present time
which is always sufficient in its own Day
with regards to the particular evils
- that - each and every individual soul
(this is equally true in the life of communities)
must in each their own time and place
learn to recognize and vanquish
by and through the grace of our LORD
in (support of) and with the support of our human communities,
(each in their own order and context, as wholes within wholes)
civic and religious, national and international (and beyond),
that exist for our (human) benefit
- in exile time (across the veil of time) -
to safeguard and foster our common good.

Should there be evil in our day,
even if the past had a large part to play
in its appearance in our present time,
indeed, it should not be here to give us reason
to conveniently dwell on the darkness of past things
(and allow our spirit to be absorbed into the darkness,
with hearts sunk into the unfeeling, unknowing nothingness
of the void of all things that never were).

- selah -

Where evil is allowed to endure
- into the present reality -
of souls and communities of souls,
it is so that we may learn in our own lives
how to effectively close the doors of past things.

Believe that evil endures
not to defeat the human being
but to allow him or her the unique opportunity
to recreate in every present moment
through God and with each other,
the beginnings of better, brighter
and nobler things (for all Mankind).

Peace.
---<--@

(produced 20081208)

The Unbelonging

When evil inspiration inspires,

remember your remembrance,

holding true to all things dear,

go the other way.

When the unbelonging beckons,

remember your remembrance,

drawing close to all things near,

go the other way.

James Eagan Holmes, you have no concept of community.

You still have no idea how much hurt you have caused. I don't know whether to be furious at you or to pity you; of whether you are a criminal or a victim.

But I sure am grieved for what you caused!

You have murdered your fellow Americans, betrayed the cause of your citizenships together. You stole the lives of your victims from their loved ones, dishonored their dignity, and humiliated their promise in front of God and your Republic.

(This is all not to mention what hardships you have now undertaken to place on the shoulders of your own family and friends as well as your own loss to the community that sheltered you.)

You sir, have made Colorado a lesser place by your presence in her and now, by your own deficiency, you have delivered yourself in her hands and in the hands of the Justice of thy own Country.

May God be with you and may He show You what you did not show your own brother and sister Americans in that theater.

I love the movies.

I have gone to the movies myself (on many Friday night occasions) with friends and family and am deeply disturbed by your crime.

You should be put in a room by yourself with Old Glory and the flag of Colorado to dwell for years as to what you have failed to do.

For it is what you have chosen to omit in your soul that is your true crime.
---<--@



Let us continue to pray 

for the victims and their families.

The hardest part of our remembrance
is always in the finer details, in the littler things,
where the truth is nearest felt.

If the pain is to be understood,
this wounding must be felt (again and again) -
the names have to be known,
their lives have to be glimpsed,
their tragedy re-lived,
their hopes seen and heard,
and their pain embraced.

Only then can the lessons be learned.
Only then can the horror be unlearned.
Only then can the healing be efficacious.
---<--@

A Personal Retrospective -



(20120728)

Cinema is an experience.

What we buy
when we see a "movie"
is this experience.

The product we desire
is an intangible reality that we get to keep (for always)
as (good or even better, better) memories.

The craft of cinema-making
encompasses a wide array of disciplines
that include humanities, arts, literature,
culture, and the sciences.

Film is only
the material for this experience;
theater is only
the medium for this experience;
the cast, the crew, the set, the props,
the time involved and the money invested -
all of these contribute toward this one event
so that when a ticket is purchased
or a licensed record is bought,
everything comes together.

We enjoy the experience of the "movies".

And since
this is an (intimately human) experience,
it tends to transcend physical (temporal) limitations.

- selah -

Now then,
when I was watching
the latest Batman movie,
from 10,000 miles away
here in the Philippines,
I kept on looking
at the fire exit
to the right of the screen.

Being conscious
of what had recently happened in Colorado,
I can not help but be this way.

(I wasn't afraid or anything, I was just conscious).

However,
since I love this experience
and I understand it - a whole lot more.

I simply will not let that nutcase blow it.
(Excuse me but that's what I told myself).

So I got my money's worth.



And Anne Hathaway frikkin' rocked.

Simply awesome.
---<--@

Salutation #132

(Starlight in thy Sight)

Let us not believe 

so easily in the darkness

when it is yet so dark

and so easy to believe

in people saying,

"it is dark!"

There are heroes

among us everywhere, my people.

From all states of life, 

diverse vocations, 

and areas of Republic service,

private as well as public, 

high as well as low,

they walk namelessly with us.

We only have to trust

that we walk among them

- while it is dark -

that we may believe

at approach of morning

that we were right to believe.

Do you understand this?

Evil will try to inspire us

to do good for the sake of its name

and cause us to believe

with the conviction of faith 

that its causes are right and just.

Darkness will by its own power

attempt to inebriate us

even unto our every soul

and in the confusion,

cause us to believe

with the affirmation of hope

that Night is Day.

Let us not believe

so easily in the darkness.

For

darkness that is deep

is madness!

Let us be (the opposite) 

being a people, faithful and fair -

one in heart, at-one in mind;

a Nation, true and true -

spirit-minded, rightly-guided,

vision-inspired, human and just!

---<--@

You may,
as a way of further understanding this Salutation,
also recall into thy mind the One Ring:



The reliquary of the spirit of Sauron,
the power of which is a hidden deception
masked by the golden shine of its grand allure;
an evil inspiration that led to the madness of Saruman,
the betrayal of Orthanc, and ultimately,
the ruin of Isengard.



The power of a myth lies in the reflection of its truth.

Remembrance as Virtue

Yet in Your great mercy You did not forsake them in the desert.

The column of cloud did not cease to lead them by day on their journey, nor did the column of fire by night cease to light for them the way by which they were to travel.

Your good Spirit You bestowed on them, to give them understanding; Your manna You did not withhold from their mouths, and You gave them water in their thirst.

Nehemiah 9: 19-20



REMEMBER NOW,
my brothers and sisters of the Promise -

Our remembrance is virtue.

It is born of the cardinal virtue, Justice.

One who is thus
guided by remembrance
can not be by evil inspired.

For no virtue may be possessed
for purposes that are unbecoming and evil.

Our remembrance does not serve
to throw thy present into the confusion of the past.

But serves to add to the momentum of thy present
the present hopes of every generation past.

- selah -

If the present seem dim, O my nation,
it is because the future seem distant.

And the future only seem distant
because the glories of the past
is somewhere forgot.

Therefore -

Remember the good things
and build upon it.

Remember the evil things
and let this lead you to a remembrance
of the good things.

Never build upon evil inspiration.

- selah -

It is not remembrance
to hold on to a hatred of past things
and remain in thrall of the gravity of War.

For what redeems is only virtue;
goodness sufficient for every generation.

By virtue this long night is overcome!
---<--@

(original produced 20110610)

20111111

(NOTE: I often use this double reminder below to remind each of us of the deeper underpinnings of our sacred remembrances - external as well as internal in their manifestation - being both temporal and eternal, corporal and spiritual.)

Lest We Forget. Lest We Forget.

Peace, I salute you.

Today is commemorated Veteran's Day in the USA and Armistice Day in Europe, including Australia, New Zealand and others.

It is a day of remembrance; a solemn day, a blessed day, a day of days. It is a day of common military remembrances and is therefore, a day of peace.

My fellow Filipino brothers and sisters of the Promise, I know for a fact we do not commemorate November 11 here in the Philippines but we should at least try to learn to understand what makes this day valuable to the sacred remembrances of many nations - for we are part of just one family.

In doing this, we are not only being generous - to ourselves and to our other kinder nations - we are being responsible - for ourselves and for our other kindred nations.

- selah -

Therefore, I write this here today to formally and officially remind us that, however dark the past may have been for all our nations - without exception, we belong to just one family.

Indeed, the past has been terrible and dark: For the spirit of War has deceived us all.

The truth is that all our nations, however great or small and however diverse our distinctions, belong to only one true belonging - so let us remember this today - that we are truly only one global community and let us try to meaningfully commemorate our peace with each other as nations - dreaming together this time.

Let us remember that our Philippines is - and shall forever remain - integral to this one family of nations - represented by our United Nations institution.

Let us say, "I remember you, my brother, I remember you, my sister - mabuhay!"

Let us say, "I remember, I remember."

---<--@

Shifting Paradigms -

When we talk about remembrance we essentially speak about the substance of our inspiration.

This is why we should be wary of evil inspiration because the source of all evil inspiration is false remembrance.

You only have to shift your focus to see that the night sky is so full of stars...

(Photo courtesy of Harmony Lovelife and Haragan Makamandag - Go 1ID 35IB!)

Our brave soldiers - who can bear not to love them...

Despite all the controversy (and these days it seems controversy is everywhere), in the darkness, above the fleeting clouds, they are there -

standing steadfastly,

preserving our best military traditions,

shimmering with virtue and valor,

ever ready, ever faithful,

ever hopeful for better, kinder days,

guarding our better tomorrows -

Therefore, I do not choose to believe in controversy.

However deep the night goes, I choose to believe in you

(for I believe in Justice and the good fight)

I choose to believe in our better selves -

and as sure as I live and breathe today,

the morning will surely come

for our beloved Land of the Morning.

Go team AFP - go PA - mabuhay!

---<--@

You only have to shift your focus to see that the night sky is so full of stars...

Often, when all that we care to remember

is how huge the darkness and how frail and tiny the light,

we weep bitterly unto despair

and completely forget

which one is pure substance

and which one is pure illusion.

Be inspired about the right things and they will produce in you, the right things.

Be inspired about the wrong things and they will produce in you, the wrong things.

So do good and abhor evil by doing good. Do not be by evil inspired.

For even if you fight evil through its own evil inspiration in yourself, it shall eventually consume you.

---<--@

It is not the severity of Justice but the certainty of Justice that deters good people from becoming less virtuous than they should and evil people from becoming more criminal than they deserve.

---<--@

Love your Country.

Your Country is the land where your parents sleep,

where is spoken that language

in which the chosen of your heart, blushing,

whispered the first word of love;

it is the home that God has given you

that by striving to perfect yourselves therein

you may prepare to ascend to Him.

- Giuseppe Mazzini

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! Salaam. Shalom. Peace. God bless us all.

...the brightness of thy Banner undiminished in triumph waves, the glory of thy stars and sun are lights that shall ne'er fade...

P.S.

Today I also commemorate 2 years of recovery. I am so glad to say, this is a battle I now know I can win. I thank each of you for your prayers and your support! (You all know who you are.)

20111110

The National Peace

Hi there!

You know as well as I do that I am (as well as you are) fully committed to the peace of our Philippines.

Now then, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, restoring the native peace of our beloved Country is not just about fighting and negotiations.

Though we hear so much about it in the news, the peace that we speak about here - when we talk about peace - is much, much more than that...

You'd be surprised.

The peace we desire does not require every one of us to possess a soldier's heart and acquire a warrior's skill.

Winning the peace for our Philippines does not require every one of us to become involved in politics or any of those high-level, hush-hush things that seem beyond the power and scope of the everyday, ordinary Filipino on the ground.

99% of us are not directly involved in the peace process. We are the other 99. This is so since, the political peace is distinct from the national peace.

So let me be clear on this - peace is essentially all about relationships.

To impress upon the nation, our conviction of the right things, as ordinary citizens, we must each understand in the broadest sense that our civic peace is all about loving and caring - all things and all persons both great and small - as well as each those places in time and their associated memories - families, friends, compatriots - least to great - which is everything that connects us together across our generations in one timeless, seamless remembrance.

Remember when I told you that a Filipino is a kind of love and this love binds us together into one nation? Well, its true. Its not just a romantic myth, its a basic fact of our national life.

Truly, we are to love our our own and others like our own...

So from today, we're also going to talk about love... (And I might even begin a new series of open salutations just about love - love in all its wondrous forms - from the romantic to the practical, from the sweet to the bitter but necessary kind - especially that love which must be between Man and Woman.)

I - Love Dares -

Can you hide it when you are in love?

Would you be a fool and feign affection when there is none?

For love is like a song that must be heard!

When love sings, there is harmony and it knits every word.

When there is no love, there are only words and no rhyme.

When a fool sings, it is without meaning.

For only a lover can sing to the heart.

Love is wise that makes itself vulnerable.

So when you are in love, make sure to let thy beloved know.

In the midst of the din and the haste

of thy everyday living, let thy beloved know -

with words but especially without, sing her a song.

Let thy beloved know of thy love -

let the whole world hear of thy sweet, sweet melody

and everything will soon fall quiet as your hearts begin to sing...

---<--@

II - Love Happens -

If I myself can not accept you

- for who you really are -

then, who am I?

If I myself can not accept you

for what you have done or have failed to do

- whether good or bad -

then, what is good and what is bad?

Am I not only a reflection of the love I offer?

If I feign love, I am unsure.

But if I am true,

I will see you - for all that you are.

And I will say, "yes indeed!"

Beauty is when love is in the heart.

---<--@

Often when all that we care to remember is how huge the darkness and how frail and tiny the light, we weep bitterly unto despair and completely forget which one is pure substance and which one is pure illusion.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Yes to NO Political Graffiti!

Salutation #68

To use a line from the recent HBO mini-series, "Game of Thrones":

"Winter is coming, we can not afford to fight a war among ourselves."

(The Evil in all evil things)

If guns were the root of all evil,

we'd be fighting these wars

with sticks and stones instead.

If money were the root of all evil,

we'd still be poor for lack of love.

If people were the root of all evil,

why are there still people in this world

so much in need of our humanity?

For God does not suffer evil without a cause!

And if God were the root of all evil,

why do we suffer all these questions?

Alas! There is an Evil in all evil things -

all that in spirit sows diverse corruption in the soul of Man

causing the human spirit to turn against its own self;

inspiring the human heart with adulterous lies

and the promise of empty, defeated things

poisoning both the willing as well as the unwary of soul

with false inspirations wrought by the fallen vision

of the eternal destiny of the nations of the children of Mankind.

This spirit is the spirit of War -

the ancient adversary of all national community;

an emptiness that seeks to consume as if with fullness -

crafting division, sowing discord, scattering peoples,

and devouring generations entire.

- selah -

We shall not be useful against War.

For to contend against it - and therefore, against each other -

is what War desires for us to do.

We are to build from upon these times,

the better, brighter, kinder shape of things to come;

maintain it where it needs, advance it where it should,

defend it where we must, always being mindful -

to never exceed ourselves in our observance of peace.

For the more we build upon our peace as one nation,

the more we drive against the darkness of War - and -

as we press on and away from this midnight of our times,

the more sense of hope we shall meet along the way,

ever the nearer we are to the breaking of the day

- where the new age awaits -

ever shall we also know Peace

in our heart of hearts.

And even if we do not live to see those days,

for we are here to nurture trees whose shelter we shall never use

and to build the foundation of things we shall never finish

- if we believe in the LORD and in each other -

if we endure despite ourselves and prevail in unity and in the Good,

in spite of all these things, we shall,

at the one final gathering of all our nations,

I know, come to a knowledge of these things...

- selah -

O my beloved people -

remembrance is the bond

that binds together our lineages,

our families, tribes and our peoples,

into that one gathering sense

of a self-cognizant identity

that we recognize as our nationhood.

It is in our spirit;

a unity bound by our labors

to obtain from God and heaven,

the vision of our peace - here on earth -

in time - and - unto the fulfillment

of time as we know it.

It is a unity fostered and protected by our one Republic - forever -

and a Republic guarded jealously by the Angel of the Philippines.

If there were a billion of us who belong to this one nation of ours,

endowed by our liberty with the same strength of diversity,

we would each be possessed by the same awareness

of what makes our belongings to each other

a valid and common reality.

We are children of the Promise

and born to this Land of Promise

unto a labor of common dreams

as citizens like unto each other.

We are Filipino

who by any other name

is what binds us together

as this one Filipino nation.

And this sense of belonging applies

so long as we exist as a people

together in time (our generations)

and across dimensional space (our families, our tribes)

so that if there were only two of us left,

it would still be the same truth.

Therefore, as a nation, when we forget,

it is worse than when we knew nothing.

For when we knew nothing,

there was nothing to forget.

But when we forget,

we are always divided against something.

Worse, it is always something

we should never have forgotten.

The War in Heaven is in the heart.

---<--@

"Ang bansa nati'y hindi nabubuhay dahil madilim ang gabi."

Never Again!

Revelation 12: 7-9

O Holy Michael,

by the power of God,

the dragon prevailed not!

O Heavenly Hosts,

by thy swift and powerful ascent

to the unity of the LORD,

Satan and all his fallen angels

lost their place in heaven.

War is vanquished forever!

20110725

Starshine, peace be with you -

Have you prayed for Norway and her people recently?

What happened in Norway, of our one family of nations, is a terrible thing.

What had cost that nation many lives, mostly young lives, is a spirit that once led into the human heart divides it against its own humanity.

It is not the fault of Norway.

Most certainly, it is the fault of Mr. Breivik. But most of all, it is the fault of the enemy of God and of all our kindred nations.

Do the innocents justice, our beloved Starshine, and tolerate no division, no enmity, no chaos within thy own selves - preserve the reign of the LORD within each thy own worlds within.

Of whatever name or doctrine it may fashion itself as, Beloved of God, when it shall propose itself - with lies - at the door of thy soul, you must never allow this spirit of War into thy own heart of hearts.

With due diligence preserve thyself, precious Starshine of the nations of Mankind, in the good graces of God and in common good will to each other as free citizens of His creation, for by thus thou wilt strike at the very heart of the spirit of War itself.

The law of the land of Norway will bind the evil of Mr. Breivik. But the justice of your own souls, Beloved of the LORD, must work to continue to preserve the common good in our societies outside of the courts of our nations.

Let us review the following -

Salutation #3

(Darkness)

TO THE NUMBERLESS LIGHTS
of our kindred belonging,
greetings of sincere hope
and good will -
my love and prayers:

There is evil in our days,
as it was in those days of old.

Evil where it is allowed to endure
into every present time
to stand against the line
established in the Now of the moment
is an enemy that is never meant
to defeat the will of the good.

For the arrangement of all past things
in every person's life
like a romance between human choice
and the serendipity of God's grace
is always intended in such a way
by the beneficence of Divine Providence
so as to culminate into every present time
which is always sufficient in its own Day
with regards to the particular evils
that each and every individual soul
must in each their own time and place
learn to recognize and vanquish
by and through the grace of our LORD
in and with the support of our human communities,
civic and religious, national and international,
that exist for our benefit

- in exile time -

to safeguard and foster our common good.

Should there be evil in our day,
even if the past had a large part to play
in its appearance in our present time,
indeed, it should not be here to give us reason
to conveniently dwell on the darkness of past things.

Where evil is allowed to endure
into the present reality
of souls and communities of souls,
it is so that we may learn in our own lives
how to effectively close the doors of past things.

Believe that evil endures
not to defeat the human being
but to allow him or her the opportunity
to recreate in every present moment
in God and with each other,
the beginnings of better, brighter and nobler things.

Peace.
---<--@

Salutation #5

(Freedom)

PEACE, I salute you.

Even the smallest of lights
shines in the darkness -
so shift your focus, my friend,
if you haven't already done so
for each and every good thing counts
regardless of the darkness.

What is praiseworthy is right action.
It is what makes us distinct from the darkness -
it is ignition -
the actual point of contact
between human will and divine grace.
Right action is, in the painting by Michelangelo
of Adam reaching out to God
with their fingers extending out to each other,
that bright spark at the imagined point of contact
between the freedom of Man and the freedom of God:
Right action always results in good works.

What motivates the will to act
must also be what inspire the heart to love.
Therefore, evil action is always the result
of false inspiration -
the idolatry of sin!
So if we are to do good,
we must first learn to love the good -
and shun all that is evil.

For we profit not from evil,
my dear friend,
but from the good;
our motivation being derived
from purposes that are good,
our hopes being anchored upon things
that are true and therefore, good,
and the wings of our surrender to prayer
being ever vigilant and discerning
in its ascent
to the one Giver of all good things.

For evil no longer hold us captive.
We have come to know it
and forever bless the LORD for His Light.
Therefore, we seek now to unknow it
upon paths of repentance
that lead away from darkness
and into peace -
peace in our hearts -
peace with our fellow human beings -
peace with all of heaven -
and peace with our God.
---<--@

Anything fashioned purely out of hatred and the spirit of revenge bring only darkness and grief at its wake. Do not be by evil-inspired.

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! Peace be to Norway and her people. God bless us all.

Lastly, just a final reminder for all my honorable Filipino compatriots - mamayang hapon na po:

We will certainly be discussing this - constructively - in support of the mission of our Republic and in the context of the goals of the Aquino administration.

Mabuhay ang ating Presidente at mabuhay din po ang kanyang Bise Presidente!