Birthed from a sudden inspiration

well.. it was such a need that i couldn't wait to post it here and i ended up posting it as a bulletin in friendster ^_^ di ko ma-edit yung typos dun waaaahT_T

Title:Be Still and Drink Deep. These are not meant to be gulped, Rather savored

"The man without purpose is like a ship
without a rudder== waif, a nothing, a no
man. Have a purpose in life, and having
it, throw such strength of mind and
muscle into your work as God has given you."
-Thomas Carlyle

there is one intrinsic(/basic?) purpose
for all creatures/beings ( for those who
think they are without-- and this is by
no means easy nor negligible nor of a
lesser nobility, hamlet's asked the
question too >;p)... BE. aka realize
your potentials ..aka self-realization.

"fear leads to suffering."
--Yoda
from:"fear leads to anger.. anger to
hate. hate to sufferringg...."

"Society in its full sense... is NEVER
an entity separable from the individuals
who compose it....No civilization has in
it any element which in the last
analysis is not the contribution of an
individual"
--Ruth Benedict

i agree with the above. good or
bad(element/s).think of the
repercussions of the above quote of Ms.
Benedict...

"We are so vain as to set the highest
value upon those things to which nature
has assigned the lowest place.What can
be more coarse and rude in mind than the
precious metals, or more slavish and
dirty than the people that dig and work
them?And yet they defile our minds more
than our bodies, and make the possessor
fouler than the artificer of them. Rich
men, in fine, are only the greater slaves."
--Seneca

"WISDOM is the right use of knowledge.
To know is not to be wise many menknow a
great deal, and are all greater fools
for it.There is no fool so great as a
knowing fool.But to knowhow to use
knowledge isto have wisdom."
--C.H.Spurgeon

"The wise man does not give the right
answers, he poses the right questions."
--Claude LEVI-STRAUSS

so the basic thing within obvious reach
of all, is knowledge, such as we can
perceive or apprehend in our current
states.should we wait for it to come and
thump us on the head? or do we at least
try and seek for what is already within
reach?

"The optimist claims we live in the best
of all possible worlds, and the
pessimist fears this
is true."
--James Branch Cabell

"Pessimist -- one who, when he has the
choice of two evils, chooses both"
--Oscar Wilde
--
"There are only two ways to live your
life.One as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a
miracle"
--Albert Einstein

"it is not our abilities that make us
who we are.
it is our choices."
- Albus Dumbledore

"Nothing more completely baffles one who
is full of tricks and duplicity the
straight forward and simple integrity of
another."
--Charles C. Colton

"The plan to improve the world is first
in one's own heart and head and hands"
--Robert Persig

"Action springs not from thought, but
from a readiness for responsibility"
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer

and on that last qoute we shall end our
little break from the all too insistent,
immediate "reality(?)"

may this have been not only a respite
but may it have helped shine a little
bit more light in our
consciousness/awareness. >;p

til the next break >;p

P.S.

"The smile that you send out returns to you"
-- Old Indian saying

Roots, Arts &Reggae

had lots of fun last nyt. good clean fun!!!!

it was a nice way to spend my first "gimik" ever since i came to Davao last December(last gimik ko nung nasa manila pa ako ^_^). i really had fun! now if only i was a bit more "able" it would have been more fun.. hahahaha di tlga makuntento ang tao..if i was more, as i said "able" i would have danced a lot more and participated more in the dance-and-feel-good-we-are-all-in-this-together-so-let-it-all-hangout atmosphere in MTS last nyt.kudos! to the organizers of the event(the title of the post). special mention of course si Popong Landero for conceptualizing/organizing said event. i'm already looking forward to next year's version>;p
The theme of the event was elevating: artistic freedom, unity in diversity, have fun and peace-out hahaha (the first two were prominently advertised during said event, the last two was the atmosphere there ^_^) and a lli can say is "Ang Galing!" good clean fun exists!! and is alive and well in Davao!!dabawenyos really never fail to impress me with their cosmopolitanism(in the best sense of the word)s'why i love davao so much! hehehe... pefect pa mga songs ni papa Dom to end the event ("Lupang uhaw sa pag-ibig!""naghihintay ng halik ng langit.""Maghawak-hawak ng kamay at isigaw ng sabay-sabay:"Kapayapaan!!""Sa Kadabawan!""sa Kadayawan!!""Kapayapaan!")galing! and no one was disruptive, imagine that.. the atmosphere didnot permit it hehe.. if there wer very drunk people there, they were dancing and singing along and having, you guessed it: good clean fun!best of all, though i couldn't quite participate that well in the dancing.. i was having fun on other levels.. what with evryone(teenagers with dreadlocks- this after all was a reggae event and kolehiyalas and moms and dads of all ages with their children) singing"kulay man nati'y magkaiba!, mundo natin ay iisa!". it was nice to just bask there and enjoy evrybody enjoying singing and dancing to songabout unity and peace.. makes you realize that all of it are within reach, no matter how unreachable it may seem sometimes.

imagine dancing and singing to this:

Lupang uhaw sa pag-big...
(Lupang uhaw sa pag-big!)
Naghihintay sa halik ng langit...
(Naghihintay sa halik ng langit!)

Kapayapaan! (Kapayapaan!)/(sa KaDabawan!)
Kapayapaan! (Kapayapaan!)/(sa Kadayawan!)

Mundo nating hati-hati
Pag-isahin nating muli.

youjust know that it will sink in given enough time and more events like this..until.. it bears fruit to action that will make the wish a reality...

Madayaw sa inyong tanan!!

Happy Kadayawan from me to all of you out there.. ^_^




p.s. special thanks to Dennis for making me go to that event.. ayos kaayo 'tol
and of course to Omar and Company for keeping me company and making me dance hahaha.. enjoy kaayo ko.

A Prayer Shared

An Interfaith Litany

We thank you God ...

For our Muslim brothers and sisters, for their commitment
to prayer and faithfulness in worship.
For our Sikh brothers and sisters, for their warm hospitality
and public witness to their faith.
For our Bahai brothers and sisters, for their genuine openness
and overriding desire for unity
For our Buddhist brothers and sisters, for their peace and
relinquishing of self.
For our Christian brothers and sisters, for their message
of love and practice of forgiveness.
For our Jewish brothers and sisters, for their enriching
symbols of worship and cherishing of tradition.
For our Hindu brothers and sisters, for their kindly dispositions and
open hearted acceptance of others.
For our Jain brothers and sisters, for their deep respect for life
and practice of nonviolence.
For our Zoroastrian brothers and sisters, for their stress on
personal honesty and striving for harmony.
For our sisters and brothers of indigenous traditions, for their reverence for nature.

For all these of every faith and tradition, we thank you and praise you, God... for their variety and richness of spiritualities, for their common quest for truth, their yearning after love, their commitment to justice and longing for peace. God, help us all, inspire us all, and ever unite us. AMEN.

taken from "Many Paths to Peace"(condensed from Circles of Peace), in the Theosophical Digest 2nd Quarter 1997

Zen and what i got out of it ^_^

still percolating... of course>;p

do net let the mind,
o mind,
confuse the mind

a caterpillar was happy quite,
until,
a toad in fun ,
asked: which leg came after which?
which led his mind into such a pitch
that it left him lying in a ditch
considering how to run.

nothing else exists only the eternal Now.

Why am i doing this?

first draft off ...>;p hehe

inspired by the little candle prayer: in the meantime what are we? are we children of darkness or children of the light? and if you're sure i'm talking about good and evil here then get a clue.. lolz...are we here to just sit in the darkness,asleep, or moaning/whining in the darkness?letting life happen without us seeing, participating, appreciating the manifold beauty of it as it unfolds? is this what "keeping it real"means? ^_^ is the darkness all that is real in our world? in our lives?or are we meant to shed our light in the darkness? to light it up? to actually reveal the real with our combined light?so that we can perceive the beauty that surround us. or maybe we just need to open our eyes to see that uor reality is illumined by the light that is the source of the light within us and that beauty and meaning is already there for us to see/enjoy without us needing to do anything but open our eyes... (evrything is indeed darkness if we insist on closing our eyes)

i believe we are children of the Light,and the first thing for us to do is to open our eyes and when we do and darkness is still perceived then it is our responsibility to light our light than stumble in the darkness or moan and gnash our teeth in it. hehehe more than "keeping it real" let us "be real."
so there it is. the reason why i'm doing this is to help shed a bit more light so that awareness is spread/expanded and more may participate in living life with eyes wide open, coz beauty is there for all to see and enjoy... perceive and participate - share your lessons- shed your light for all -, we are all in this together in this journey of life, in this journey of being. for better or for worse.

i found this qoute late and though i do not agree with it completely(in the specifics), i find i agree with its general thought:

"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being"
-Carl Jung

A Why to the importance of purpose

Start with a cage containing five apes.

In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it.

Before long an ape will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with cold water.After a while. another ape makes an attempt with the same result - all the apes are sprayed with cold water.

Turn off the cold water.

If, later, another ape tries to climb the stairs, the other apes will try to prevent it even though no water sprays them.

Now remove one ape from the cage and replace him with a new one.
The New ape sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs.
To his horror, all the other apes attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five apes and replace it with a new one.The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked.

The previous Newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Again, replace a third original ape with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well.Two of the four apes that beat him have no idea why they where not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest ape.

After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes, all the apes which have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced.

Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches the stairs. Why not?

"Because that's the way it's always been around here.

"That is how organizational behavior is indoctrinated into social/corporate policy and a culture becomes entrenched."

--Unknown
Courtesy of Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, TOR
taken from Theosophical Digest"Culture", 2nd quarter2004