Love for Korea

Listen, starshine -

If you have to love something as big as Korea,
you have to love big... embracing both North and South
saying to thy heart, "peace be unto thee, O Korea".

So lets think Now of all that is lovable in Korea,
let's think of what great wonders ennoble her soul,
let's think of what beautiful dreams inspire her people,
let's think of what great hopes animate her citizenry,
and let's give it all a big, big hug.

"Peace be unto thee, O Korea."
---<--@

Let us pray for peace in Korea, in our Asia, and in our world so needful of peace!

The Bow of the Infinite

Cowardly the heart
who longs not for remembrance -
whose soul have abandoned the hunger,
whose spirit have forsaken the thirst,
whose unfulfilled fire desires completeness no longer
and thus, forgot why it is a heart.

So be brave, O heart,
and in thy loneliness know
that thou wert made for Love to love -
thy constant longing, returning again and again

to the Seeker in thy dream, the unimaginable Beauty,

to the Seeker in thy dream - until -
in all thy coming and going,
thou findest in thou, a vision of thee -
asleep in the wilderness - and in thy awakening,
and in thy awakening, O my heart,
after all thy days are finally forever spent
blessing the earth with thy solitude,
awakening Home.



Listen, Starshine -

Those who do not remember the past - repeat it.
Those who do not respect the present - regret it.
Those who have no regard for the future - relinquish it.



Remembrance is a learning of the hope of communities past,
that it may lend its constant strength to the momentum of communities present,
so that all human community may gain a knowledge of each other
and find peace with one another, nation awakening nation -
peace which leads to an understanding of better days
and opens for all mankind, for the glory of God,
the way of our future.

A (labor of) country without a past is a nation without a present
and a nation without a present is a people without a future.

Draw back, feel the strength. 
Live it, accepting tension. 
Then trust, let fly.

---<--@

The Bitter Fruit



Woe to those who live in days without acceptance,
who dwells not in the Now of this present time,
dark shall be their sojourn upon the earth and their skies listless and without season,
trouble and mischief shall as twins dwell in their company as their brethren
they who rejoice only in seeing evil days and who number their days in the dust,
those who disdain the light and find no relief in the goodness of the LORD
who without gratitude rejoice not in their God and trample His creation underfoot
they who through the hardness of their hearts live yet are not alive,
and reject the common communities of the nations of Man,
for the knowledge of life itself shall utterly desert them,
all they whom wisdom hath spurned for hating the truth which is her voice
and shall partake forever of the fruit of their desolation.

Guns and Colonial Mentality

"Ang baril ay mabuting alipin ngunit masamang panginoon. (The gun is a faithful servant but an evil master.)" - Fernando Poe, Jr.



This quote encapsulates a liberating view of arms, one that releases our spirit from the colonial mentality that inclines us to believe - through the common experience of our people - that the prime utility of arms is to gain power over others, especially others weaker than we are.

If during past times the strength of arms were indiscriminately used to subdue the strength of our spirit, then the same truth that lives in the virtue of arms shall be the necessary remedy that shall awaken our nation from the error of past ways - so let us together reflect upon this...

Guns mean goons only if the virtue of arms is forgot dahil ang baril ay masamang panginoon.

But if we remember what FPJ said and make use of arms as our arms were intended - for the defense of our nation and in faithful service of all that we love - we serve ourselves well, my brothers and sisters of the Promise.

We serve ourselves well because we have - together - mastered the gun and by this throw off - more and more - of the lingering yoke of dark spirits past dahil ang baril ay mabuting alipin.

- selah -

People who fear the gun, in truth, fear other people.

But it is a work of Justice to instill good will and solidarity among men and peace and brotherhood among the nations of man that this fear may eventually turn into fellowship.

Arms do not serve individuals, arms always serve a community that looms greater than the self.

(Can we realistically conceive our local defense industry prospering in the absence of this truth in our culture? No, because colonial mentality holds us back in many places and through many diverse ways.)

To do justice to the gun, we must first do justice to ourselves - as ourselves - and re-discover ourselves as a nation - together this time.

In this context, the utility of arms find their original purpose and scope.

Through the reality of nationhood, the virtue of arms find strength and meaning and the ends for which it's knowledge and grace has been by God ordered and intended - in and among - our kindred nations of our one family of nations - the safety and peace of humankind.

This is the virtue of arms.
---<--@



So let us remember what FPJ said - to us - and - for us - about guns and the knowledge and virtue of arms - and say to him in return - "mabuhay ka, FPJ!"

Salutation #174

(Holy Week 2013)

Dearest Starshine,
of the Christian communities
scattered like the stars - among all the stars -
spread across the nations of the children of Mankind
with peace and love, I salute you -



In His Sacred Humanity
Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word
deigned to show unto all mankind
the Face of the Father of all living souls,
the one God of all heaven and earth,
despite the nakedness of our humanity
that we may in our own suffering
utterly and completely identify
with the LORD's longing for our love.



In the terrible suffering of Jesus
in His Passion and death by Crucifixion
and in the desolation of the Crucified Christ
the LORD has chosen, for all our good,
even before our exile was begun,
to bear with all of our common humanity
the depths of our pain and tribulations in this life
shouldering with each of us, the cross of our sufferings
- even unto death, even an ignominious death on a lonely Cross -
that through the same Passion and Blood of Christ
God may bridge for each of us the dark and infinite chasm
of the original sin that stole all our generations away
from the True and Eternal Light of His Presence
and the glorious Eden of our perfect Peace
with God and with each other.



And in the glory of His Risen Person
Jesus Christ kept for each of us - His Holy Wounds -
to remind us, always to always - over and over and over -
   through every faithful commemoration of Holy Mass
   the infinite grace of His seven Sacraments,
   and the presence of His Church here on earth,
of the wondrous power and unimaginable greatness
of God's fufilling love for all His creatures.



- selah -

The faith of our common baptism
gives us a share in the hope of this Victory,
the innermost life of our Christianity
being a constant celebration of Christ's love
- this mighty and mysterious Love -
that came at the heights of our unknowing
that even in the midst of all our un-loving
God may by His overcoming Love
save us all.



Alleluia, alleluia!
Truly, truly, how great is our God -
How majestic His mysteries,
how glorious His truths!



May the Holy Spirit bless each of us
with a renewed vigor of our Christian faith
that we may again live its glories
here on our earthly sojourn
for Christ and the peace of His Kingdom
at the approach of this
Holy Week 2013.



May the Blessed Virgin Mary,

Queen of all our hearts, pray for us.

And may our Lady ever accompany us
unto the completion of God's work
in each our lives, as she did Her Son.



Amen.
---<--@



O my Jesus,
zealous for souls,
thirsting for the love of mankind.

Come my Jesus
be Thou the God of my heart
and accomplish in me Thy will of peace.

Kindred Spirits

Don't just say something, dear Starshine,
say something because you have something to say.



An idea is multiplied by the sum of those who receive it,
being in truth divided by the whole of those who have come to possess it.

And so something of our spirit becomes - at once and for all time,
both yours and mine - kindred in light.
---<--@

Habemus Papam!

Mabuhay Holy Father Francis!

Let us pray to the LORD a hymn of thanksgiving - alleluia to God - 

a great song of praise to the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, 

in humble adoration of His Son, our Savior - Emmanuel;

a people grateful for the guidance of the Holy Spirit

for the Good Shepherd He has raised among us - and for us -

to lead us back - across our nations - to the path of peace 

unto oneness with our one God - the fullness of the new age - 

and the peace of Jesus Christ to all people of good will.

---<--@

Truth ---> Understanding ---> Action

Stop the Violence in Sabah

I am saddened by the fact that those who have the most responsibility to mitigate with reason and words the entire width and breadth of this conflict have fallen short of it, allowing it to gain from our nations the initiative we have initially possessed.

For it now stares us in the face like a bottomless, shapeless, undefined thirst.

Both the Philippine and Malaysian governments have a responsibility now to regain this initiative and stop the violence in Sabah: Is peace not thy sworn duty to uphold before thy nations?

Peace left undefended slips easily away. But peace defended to excess turns to ashes.

Stop the violence in Sabah in order to pave the way for the creation of the necessary conditions that would decisively favor negotiations that does not - and no longer will - involve bloodshed.

This is what is important now -



Stop the violence in Sabah now.

Let us speak out against the violence, violence against Filipinos and Malaysians alike!

Let us be resolute in our clamor that any course of action that involves violence as a means will not work to avail - for any of us - a meaningful, long term solution to the issue at hand, indeed it will only feed the hunger that relentlessly seeks to devour the life and the promise of both our nations.

For peace is the true craft of our nations!
---<--@

Vessel of the Generations

A NATION 
who lays asleep in the darkness,
fearing nothing - and - knowing nothing
is like a ship that knows only the safely of a harbor,
a vessel unaccustomed to voyage.



But that's not what nations are for,
dearest starshine.

:::Think and Unlock:::

Salutation #173

Wings that work
are wings that lift - aloft -
they fly not merely
because they can, or they must;
they fly because
they carry something that belong
to the skies!



(Burden of Justice)

A nation's burden of justice - is -
all its unaccounted for losses
   (these losses being all that was given us
   that was taken by force from among our midst)
measured in terms of individual human life
each in their own distinct and unrepeatable persons,
each with their own particular names known to the LORD,
the God Who commanded all nations to keep them all,
ever in their entirety, each in spirit preserved
in the sacred remembrance of every nation of the children of Mankind
as a debt of remembrance owed to the God of all life - and -
as a work of peace to be kept - in common trust -
on behalf of all the life of living creation itself.

To each nation God has provided a right of ascent,
a way through which a nation may attain to a knowledge of itself
   (being a way of our returning from the exile darkness -
   in spirit - through - the easternmost gate of faded Eden)
and to every nation there is only one right of ascent.

It is therefore crucial
especially in these present times
that every nation know - as well as -
understand the (1) truth that abides within itself;
   (in general, that every nation is distinct yet the same;
   that every nation though it may long for many things long for only one thing;
   that though the spirit of war marches to threaten,
      in every time, place, and in every age, the peace of all nations,
      that every nation exists for the good and only for the good;
   that every nation exists for the other and that, in the economy of grace,
      there is no other but the self alone;)
and (2) that the power of this ascent is directly affected
in proportion to every nation's burden of justice
and that the weight of this necessary burden
is carried by all of our citizens,
   (each of us according to the measure
   by which we receive them from the Providence of God)
to be shared - as a common labor of peace - across all our generations,
according to our national debt of remembrance -
   (so that it may be heavy - the people choose to forget their hope -
   or it may be light - the people choose to take responsibility for their hope.)

Failure to responsibly carry
this burden of justice - in a nation -
is failure itself.

For a nation overtook by the darkness
is no longer itself.

And every spirit of Country
that has become utterly corrupted
by the adversarial nature
of the enemy of all nations
shall perish forever
from the earth!
---<--@

Status quo ante in Sabah

With the initiation of hostilities in Sabah, we are now faced with more questions.

But this much is clear to me -

We are now staring down a steep and rocky decline that leads to a deep and dark ravine.

If we are so reckless, if we are not yet wise, we shall find ourselves hurtling out of control with Malaysia, spiraling together down the gravity of war.

We can not go there without undoing much of the present good and therefore, willingly relinquishing from our own midst, much of the promise of our futures together (in and between our nations).

We must tread carefully.

Work hard to recognize the things that remain - that we truly have in common with Malaysia - as the desire to obtain from the Providence of God, a peaceful resolution - and resolve to hold on to these things harder and stronger now in the ensuing darkness and confusion.

Now, when I say we, I will now include all the Filipinos in Sabah especially those of and with the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo - for they are ours. If we leave them - or any one off, if we remain divided in the course, we only strengthen the spirit of war.

For we are not united for the sake of spreading the fires of this unwanted conflict, we are now uniting for the sake of extinguishing it - not by feeding our souls to fan the conflagration - but through a determined and expeditious return to the safety of the high grounds of peace.

For war will exhaust itself - all by itself - if it is not fed.

We have to resolve to turn away from the descendant darkness that is now working hard to engulf us - all of us with Malaysia - and find our way back up to the safety of the ascent where there is still light.

If you can feel the inter-play of this gravity and counter-gravity, of this light and darkness, in your spirit, then let it be known to thy own heart that it is a thing to guide us, God-helping  -

Therefore, our most immediate goal at this present time in Sabah and one that we - at the level of the Republic - should coordinate in common with Malaysia must be a return to the status quo ante.

Status quo ante in Sabah!

Dear President Noy, I am convinced that that is the most immediate way out of this deepening crisis. It is to stop decisively and take a few determined steps back from the brink.

Once we are back there, God-helping - to the status quo ante - let us then work - together this time - to improve the situation - for all - aided by the retrospective advantage of a clearer vision - keeping in mind and heart what the sultan and his men was reported to have said "honor over lives".

For this is key.

We must understand them in their own term - not ours.

We must accept that fact that they can not come back home deprived of honor; that they must be able to come home clothed - at the very least - with what honor they have left our shores with - this is key.

We must choose our words wisely. And be truthful about it.
---<--@

Do not remember the fallen with anger
the darkness they fell to overcome
can only be served by it.

Do not honor their hope with hatred
the victory they have died to realize
can not be won through it.

We can never now visit their memory
in places where they are not remembered
so get away from us now, you darkness

turn away from us now, o sadness 

come back to us now, o soul
return to us now, o heart 
return us back to family
return us back to friendships
return us back to our homelands
return us back to our places of peace
and ever we shall remember
never again to forget.

Salaam. Shalom. Peace. God be with us all.

Peace is Present

These times when we do not know who or what is trying to prevent us from becoming, let them be - what is important is that we know where we are going, that we have a path and a vision:

So with all these things happening right now, let me get us back to the foundation of why peace is key -



Do you know why I am so concerned about the peace process? 

Firstly, because Peace happens in the Now: 

Peace is Present. You must always remember this -

It is never a thing that was nor can it be a thing that shall be - if not for today. 

We, as one nation, really have to get interested in it. We have to want it enough to seek it and we have 2000 years worth of information in our history with all nations to process this truth.

This is why, as individual citizens, we have to work hard to bring our remembrances forward into our hearts - here and now. 

We have to pray for it and work for it - in whatever way we can, large or small, known or unknown, utilizing the freedom of whatever gift or vocation we have received - in whatever state of life we have chosen before the LORD, our God. 

We have to want it enough to seek it.

For if peace is not in our minds here and now, we shall never obtain it from the God Who Is, the LORD, For He is God. That is my first point - complacency is deadly. 

Especially in this new age of spirit and thought.

Secondly, because in 20 or so years if we do not make ourselves better for our being united and focused as a nation, if we do not as one Republic obtain together the peace which is our shelter - there is a great probability that we shall never recover. The hardships and the darkness we see and know here and now will thus become permanent.

Let me not dictate it to you now: You only have to look at the world around us to validate this for yourself.

And if this happens, not only do we lose our potential as a nation, for which we are each accountable for - all our other kindred nations will also forever lose what good we Filipinos have to give to our world so much in need of it - and this place of earth will wane all the more darker for our not wanting the light.

And we will all answer to God at during Judgment Day for our lack of appreciation for the gift and the grace of nationhood. 

Our citizenship with each other might be something we undervalue in this materialistic times, undervalue so much that we may often times underestimate the truth of its excellence and worth.

It is a real treasure in these ever-changing times.

Did one think we were come to this life without rhyme nor reason? If so, perhaps one did also likewise think that the nations of our world exist only to thirst for their own destruction? 

No, you are not - and no, we are not - to everything there is a time and a season under heaven: For God is in heaven and the Throne of the LORD in Eternity - all will be well, all will be well.

So let us reflect and let us pray about our commitment to God and to each other that we may with much patience and hope succeed - against all adversity - in the common task before our hearts and our hands of building a better place in time for us and for our generations to the last of our generations - mabuhay!

"Public's participation is vital in the peace process as peace agreements are going to need the work of many people and not just the OPAPP alone." - Sec. Ging Deles
---<--@

Kanlungan

Nakalilito man
at madilim ang mundo,
mga kapatid ko sa Pangako,
huwag tayong mabahala
at huwag mawalan ng loob -
huwag matakot sa gabi!

Pananalig sa Diyos,
kapayapaan sa ating bansa;
kagandahang loob sa bawa't isa
bunga nang pagkakapatirang
namumuhay sa ating diwa,
at pagmamahal natin sa ating
nag-iisang sambayanang Pilipinas -
ito ang lagi nating maaasahan;
ang ating kanlungan sa gabi
at daan tungo sa umaga.

Salamat po

Remember me in your prayers, 

holy father - I love you.

For I am a sinner, in need of much help.

Continue to inspire us - 

even in the silence be nearer to us -
ever like our Savior longing over Jerusalem,

far away from the maddening crowd.

---<--@

On the Sabah Issue

Before we make certain our convictions as regards to the Sabah issue, let us examine and reflect on some key points -

The Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo - recognition, relevance, restitution.
The Federation of Malaysia - sovereignty, prestige, security.
The Republic of the Philippines - security, good will, credibility.
The ASEAN Neighborhood - unity, commonality of interests, strength of solidarity.

And some constants of the prevailing age - lest we get complacent with the darkness, let us remember where we are in the history of time:

- No peace without adversity - the expectation that with peace comes the challenge and the responsibility to serve, defend, and protect the meaning of its truth as enshrined and remembered in the hearts and halls of our nationhood.

- The 2009 minimum of the times - accept the status quo from 2009 - this includes all present borders, present disputes, present concerns from 2009 and constitutes the end point of the necessary labor of remembrance required by the season from the year of our Lord 0 AD to 2009 AD or the beginning of the new age of peace.

- The hope of the present season - peace, the real one - the one that ascends against all division unto true and everlasting belonging - and not the false one that is emptied out of its meaning by the darkness of the world or the spirit of war.
---<--@

Reflection:

At the level of the Republic government, the Sabah claim is not a claim of sovereignty. It is not like our existing stakes about the Western Philippine Sea.

At the level of the Republic government, the Sabah claim is a claim on the legitimacy of an historic line of royalty that resides within our sphere of responsible government and united among us by Providence in nationhood.

It is therefore, to us - a local issue - not an international issue - the Sabah issue - which we must moderate with Malaysia at the level of her Federation. Malaysia as a nation is not lacking in her own houses of royal lineages and will understand what this recognition means and how important it is.

Just because we are a Republic does not mean that there are no more of these lines that have survived the ravages of the last great age of war; where they survive they have survived to serve.

For Malaysia, this is an international issue. It is a claim only from Malaysia's point of view.

The Sabah claim ceases to be a claim from our Republic point of view but an historic grievance which has now been brought to the fore. It is something we can neither overlook, nor belittle nor abandon all together.

There is a win-win situation here. 

We feel ourselves under attack without attacking each other because we are in the dark about it. So let us together make the conscious choice not remain there but to emerge.

To do justice to every man, is this not part of the code and culture of our executive leadership? Laws bite hard against evil but it is justice to repair the damage done by evil deeds.

Is it evil to air a grievance? Is it not freedom to have and to hear a petition which is authentically human and therefore, visible and legitimate in the eyes of the nations of our world?

None has done this. If we have truly completed our remembrances, we will find that none has done this - no one. No one is to blame who presently exists in any form or way: none but a shadow of things gone by; a deadly illusion of war - for the truth is that it is up to us now to fix it - ever as those nations dreaming together this time.

We have to be willing to be the children of our Father Abraham once more that we may by the grace of God bless the communities of Mankind which are the nations of the children of Mankind.

It is not just a kindness to promote the good, in all truth it is to do justice to goodness and this, especially in the society of man is an act of civic virtue the nature of which can never be legislated for no law can ever be truly written in heaven and on earth to either bind it or prevent what God has placed in the heart of man - love perfecting justice - love in the truth.

This issue will only cease to be an issue - for all of us - for the Royal House of the Sultanate of Sulu, for their brothers spread among the other houses upon the earth, to the Republic of the Philippines, and to the Federation of Malaysia, only when justice is served - not again in partial or unclear terms, not through force of arms, not by anger nor the spirit of revenge - but by justice - one that recognizes and upholds the good - of all and for all - of nations and individuals together.

It might feel like this came at an inopportune time, I felt it too. I felt the suspicion. For my first instinct is to protect our internal peace process.

But at least now we have the initiative to actually do something with the Sabah issue - a boon in the midst of all this difficulty - let us then also recognize that if we overlook this or if we wax undecisive about it - we lose the opportunity.

We must state our position clearly first, and do this singularly from a national interest standpoint - in a way that is conducive to a meaningful and peaceful solution to the matter - privately if necessary - for the benefit of all - but especially on behalf of the Sultanate of Sulu, and in a manner that preserves the gains of our own internal peace process, and then ask them all to come home so it can be further worked out to a conclusion in concert with all concerned parties - officially and without Malaysia feeling untowardly threatened by any perceived intrusion and inadvertently even waxing hostile to our OFW's presently in their territory who only want to earn an honest living and nothing more.

Malaysia as a whole after all has invested time, prestige and treasure in the development of that region even enough perhaps to claim sovereignty rights but we should not abandon the claim of the Sultanate of Sulu and their grievance as regards to it neither must we compromise our friendship with Malaysia - we, the people, as represented by our government in the Republic state, should pray look for a more permanent solution to this pressing old problem to further make complete our present peace - together this time.

Above all, and highest of all - the Sabah issue can not be resolved by force of arms. It would indeed be an incredibly wrong turn of events to allow this to develop into open conflict; even a form of forgetfulness on an unpardonable scale, one that undoes the grace of nationhood.

Let us be patient. Let Malaysia be patient.

For I trust and believe we are better than the challenges that we presently must confront; that our peace together now is stronger and brighter here in the darkness than the darkness itself; that we, ever as our nations, are stronger than the night, this longest night, and therefore, truly belong to the morning and the coming day.

Peace is the test and to pass this test brings succees.

What ennobles is not might but right.
---<--@

Because it is also my personal hope that this issue is soon resolved - peacefully, for all:

Salaam. Shalom. Peace. Mabuhay po tayong lahat!

Salutation #13

The difference between a monarch and a president is one of election.

The similarity is that both of them still have to make the surrender of kings - an acceptance of a life of service to the nation as a rule above all rules.

(Completing our EDSA)

To all our national communities, Peace -

A significant part of the peace of the times, my people,

as it concerns our nation, the Philippines,

involves bridging the gap between generations

and between administrations.

There are specific moments in our history

that we need to re-examine in light of these times.

And we shall do this not to scatter

either our belongings to each other

or our remembrances together

but to more fully gather them together

in and amidst ourselves.

For if we know ourselves as ourselves,

we can no longer be a nation

swayed hither tither by a dark night.

If we find confusion in our hearts about the past -

especially from 1986,

now is the time to re-examine these pivotal events.

And we shall do this with a view to establish the facts

upon more familiar grounds of fundamental truths

we have now re-discovered about ourselves as a nation

as well as about our nation in the context of its God-given right

to prosper and advance

under the peace of a Republic undertaking of Country.

Look upon these present times yourselves, my honorable compatriots,

and see the coincidences for what they are - signal graces.

My intention here is to guide you -

but you have to let yourself be led.

And not by me.

- selah -

All our Presidents have had something to give to our Country.

It is up to us to discern what good there is

that we have inherited from past Presidencies.

For if we remember only the problems,

we shall fail to build on the strength

of previous administrations.

It is only natural for every generation

to inherit a degree of evil

(to test their strength and commitment to the truth)

but sufficient for this evil - always -

is the good of the prevailing day.

We have come to remember

the faults of our Presidents

and may God allow it to serve our vigilance well.

But to the point that we tend to almost always forget their virtues,

we are consigning ourselves to a labor of unending beginnings.

For it is these virtues that connect our lineages together

and it is by the strength of these connections that we prosper.

If we are wise, my people,

and if the LORD, our God, blesses us,

even what darkness there is may lead us to the light.

Only those who are without remembrance remain in the dark.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

(produced 20110613)