I believe, for example, that my father was brighter and more intelligent than I am, but I am more aware and/or conscious of more "things", enough for me to be more worldy-wise, more spiritual, more informed, more potentially wise; in general, better able to interact with my "total" environment. Intelligence and awareness.
Two distinct qualities that will have to be nurtured individually and separately?
In the case of physical growth, very minimal conscious effort is required from us. We will grow and age regardless of the amount of effort expended.
But awareness is something one has to continually feed and nurture if we ever hope to attain maturity. It does not develop automatically.
Thus, we sometimes judge that certain people while looking like adults, act and think like children.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Some Thoughts On Spirituality, And Then Some
For a good part of my life I have simply been trying to sift through and digest the many profound thoughts regarding spirituality. First off, I have to admire, maybe even bordering on envy, the clarity and steadfastness of the articulations of beliefs and passions on the issue as propounded by my many acquaintances. It clearly shows the prodigious amount of time and effort they must have spent trying to arrive at them.
Unfortunately for me though, my personal searches on the subject have come up with more questions than answers, though I definitely have strayed far from what we were taught in both Catechism and Theology.
I, of course, have postulated and cemented certain standards of conduct on certain things I consider crucial in my daily living of life. But I notice that they are getting to be more non-religious (based on our traditional understanding of religion), more secular, and more grounded in modern science which has now become more tolerant and observant of its joined-at-the-hip alliance with spirituality.
For one thing, I state that I do not believe in a personal God, i.e., a God who is a person fleshed out with feelings, emotions and qualities; though I understand that being human ourselves, we have to think in terms of what is known and familiar to us. To me, at this time and space, He is just everything I can see and perceive. For me, investing God with a "person" is synonymous to God saying, "I am God and you are not me".
A mystic seeks direct experience with the universe, not any particular entity or person. Having said that I still find myself talking to Him like a person in times of solitude and need. Childhood/adolescent experiences linger on.
Regarding evil, I have always subscribed to a quite simplistic attitude toward it by saying that it is nothing more than the misuse of free will; and since man is the only being I know that has free will, it must be man-made. I cannot say that it comes from God because I do not believe in a God that dispenses things apart of Him.
But this understanding is a little bit like putting the cart before the horse. Since before we choose anything, that choice must first be available. It must pre-exist before we can choose it. We have been taught dualism - good and bad, yang and yin, form and matter, etc.
For me, realities and perceptions of realities all exist in the physical universe. Being part of that, they are all subject, with exceptions that I still cannot fully comprehend, to very strict and almost immutable laws. We are familiar with some of them and science continues to unravel them for our consumption. If we defy them, then reaction/retribution will be instantaneous.
This applies to that football player who met an accident because he attempted to defy the laws of Physics. Our emotions which are bound to our physical beings in the state we are in, react similarly. The emotion of love which is good makes us grow and ecstatic, but hate which is bad is consumptive and gnaws at our beings, making us interiorly diseased. We even differentiate between healthy and unhealthy fears. But based on our limited understanding, we know that certain events defy these laws.
Lastly, consciousness or level of awareness (or call it by any name, as intelligence, mind, spirit, etc.) as a non-physical component of man I find not only very slippery to grasp but also quite intriguing. It is a quality we know each man has, quite easy to discern its different levels as manifested in different persons; yet so much unknown. Which is it? Immortal? Or eternal? Can it exist independently being an integral part of what a man is?
While all these sound ethereal, they do impact on how we as individuals handle our daily lives and our interaction with our environment, a great part of which is interacting with other people.
Therefore answers to these questions will define how we handle our fears, prejudices, moral values, ambitions, even our attitudes toward money and crime.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Conservatism and Liberalism
It is relatively easy to be liberal, to espouse the most moral, ethical, idealistic and compassionate views; but such views do not hold up to the rigorous demands/requirements of harsh realities. Thus, liberal adherents who are in most instances not accountable for getting things done, nor tasked with running things can say all they want because they are on the sidelines just watching and criticizing as the parade of events passes by. The people getting things done are the one having to contend with agonizing to arrive at the best decisions possible, the realistic ones to make for the best possible results. And of course, to bear the full brunt of criticism should failures occur.
The liberals amongst us articulate and espouse the most compassionate of views. And it’s quite normal for many men to feel good about themselves, knowing that they have espoused ideals. And in a perfect world, it would be incumbent upon each one of us to do so. But under harsh realities, one has to appropriately temper one’s views and solutions, not only so they work for the greater good, but also so they are attuned to realities.
Liberals, like those in academia and media for example, give full rein and expression to their most liberal ideas not only because of the freedom of expression, but because the consequences are quite minimal. They can feel smug and safe in their lofty perches. But pity those who are tasked, like those in government and law enforcement, with dealing with realities and real events. They have to continuously strike a good balance between what is most ideal and what is most practicable and equitable to serve the greater good. And one must weigh all these possibilities since this happy balance is continually addressed and examined.
The liberals amongst us articulate and espouse the most compassionate of views. And it’s quite normal for many men to feel good about themselves, knowing that they have espoused ideals. And in a perfect world, it would be incumbent upon each one of us to do so. But under harsh realities, one has to appropriately temper one’s views and solutions, not only so they work for the greater good, but also so they are attuned to realities.
Liberals, like those in academia and media for example, give full rein and expression to their most liberal ideas not only because of the freedom of expression, but because the consequences are quite minimal. They can feel smug and safe in their lofty perches. But pity those who are tasked, like those in government and law enforcement, with dealing with realities and real events. They have to continuously strike a good balance between what is most ideal and what is most practicable and equitable to serve the greater good. And one must weigh all these possibilities since this happy balance is continually addressed and examined.
Fundamentalism vs Extremism
We have to realize that Islam and Christianity are significantly different only in their practices, rather than beliefs. It is largely because of the practitioners that conflicts exist between the two ideologies, both in the past and at present. As usual, it is the disordered nature of man that allows these differing perceptions how the ideology should be practiced. And it is man's predisposition toward violence that accounts for all the deaths and destruction wrought over the ages. This should aptly explain the Crusades, the Moors overrunning Europe prior to it, the Inquisition, present-day ethnic cleansing, and of course, the present stand-off. We should remember that man left on his own is predisposed toward violence and evil, even Catholic theology would confirm this.
A growing body of nascent scientific studies about consciousness, point to how man has over the ages evolved and developed his own individual consciousness from a prior well-ordered group consciousness, necessitating the formulation and implementation of codes of rules and punishment to keep him in check. It is society's role to mete out punishment when man strays from the norm. While the US has initially pre-empted this role, it has now involved the entire civilized world with the coalition that it has formed and its open declaration of war against worldwide terrorsm.
We also have to be discreet and quite discriminate when we use the term Islamic fundamentalist for the practitioner’s understanding of fundamentalism is quite different from the connotation we have popularly assigned to this term. For them, fundamentalism is adherence to traditional beliefs and mores of their ideology - thus, the continued usage of traditional clothing, the use of facial hair as a symbol of piety and reverence, avoidance of alcohol, traditional rituals, temperance in most things we take for granted, etc.
Any practitioner who advocates hate and violence as a valid means for promoting causes, even righting past wrongs, cannot rightly be called fundamentalist. He has to be an extremist at least, and at worst, deranged.
A growing body of nascent scientific studies about consciousness, point to how man has over the ages evolved and developed his own individual consciousness from a prior well-ordered group consciousness, necessitating the formulation and implementation of codes of rules and punishment to keep him in check. It is society's role to mete out punishment when man strays from the norm. While the US has initially pre-empted this role, it has now involved the entire civilized world with the coalition that it has formed and its open declaration of war against worldwide terrorsm.
We also have to be discreet and quite discriminate when we use the term Islamic fundamentalist for the practitioner’s understanding of fundamentalism is quite different from the connotation we have popularly assigned to this term. For them, fundamentalism is adherence to traditional beliefs and mores of their ideology - thus, the continued usage of traditional clothing, the use of facial hair as a symbol of piety and reverence, avoidance of alcohol, traditional rituals, temperance in most things we take for granted, etc.
Any practitioner who advocates hate and violence as a valid means for promoting causes, even righting past wrongs, cannot rightly be called fundamentalist. He has to be an extremist at least, and at worst, deranged.
In Cagayan de Oro: Of Squatting and Squatters
This symbolic defiance of law and order, expressed as squatting, is not unique to developing countries like the Philippines. Some years back but already into the administration of the last mayor of San Francisco, the Civic Center area of SF did become an "encampment" similar to what one witnesses in our own city, replete with tons of used tires, derelict vehicles and carts, and what have you. It took almost two years to completely remove any traces of such a travesty.
And if one is familiar with the beauty and grandeur of SF's Civic Center with its ornate and Gothic structures, one would find it that much more difficult to imagine what it must have been like during the "occupation" by homeless people of all sorts of persuasion and background. And that much more difficult to imagine the ugliness that visited that revered place. But it did happen.
We have to realize whether we want to or not, that the very physical and social blessings that made Cagayan de Oro a very ideal and idyllic place to live in have become its bane. Relatively quiet in terms of peace and order; nice geographic location relative to Mindanao and the rest of the country; easy accessibility; warm, friendly, and almost subservient people; good schools, etc, etc. These are the very things that have made it a "haven and refuge" for most dispossessed and displaced people in that area of Mindanao and beyond. And people cannot be faulted for that.
The perennial problems of squatting and mindless disregard of petty laws are almost endemic to that place. It would be unkind and unfair to lay the full brunt of the blame on the present administrators. One needs only to recall the Macabalan area during our grade school and high school days. A good part of the pier area was squatters’ haven. Most everybody living in the immediate areas of the pier, including along the highway were squatters. Most of those areas were considered foreshore areas and thus owned publicly. I guess nobody raised much of a howl then, maybe because it was not in anybody's neighborhood, meaning anybody who found that objectionable or unsightly. And this, of course, was not the only area squatted on. But now, this pernicious practice has grown unabated and is now in everybody's neighborhood, including Divisoria Park. What to do! What to do!
The deadly combination of widespread poverty and ignorance is so disruptive and contagious that pretty soon, the whole society stagnates and festers. I believe Cagayan may only be feeling the initial pains and throes of this social contagion.
One optimism I personally harbor is in the area of grassroots economic empowerment. I continually harp about credit unions, especially those attuned to the common people. And just recently, the Bangko Sentral has allowed rural banks to be converted into "micro-finance" banks. So there are areas indeed, where meaningful changes can originate from. Why not more programs for economic investments, rather than on campaigns or missions to provide palliative relief for the sick and infirm? Why not go for the long run, rather than short term?
And if one is familiar with the beauty and grandeur of SF's Civic Center with its ornate and Gothic structures, one would find it that much more difficult to imagine what it must have been like during the "occupation" by homeless people of all sorts of persuasion and background. And that much more difficult to imagine the ugliness that visited that revered place. But it did happen.
We have to realize whether we want to or not, that the very physical and social blessings that made Cagayan de Oro a very ideal and idyllic place to live in have become its bane. Relatively quiet in terms of peace and order; nice geographic location relative to Mindanao and the rest of the country; easy accessibility; warm, friendly, and almost subservient people; good schools, etc, etc. These are the very things that have made it a "haven and refuge" for most dispossessed and displaced people in that area of Mindanao and beyond. And people cannot be faulted for that.
The perennial problems of squatting and mindless disregard of petty laws are almost endemic to that place. It would be unkind and unfair to lay the full brunt of the blame on the present administrators. One needs only to recall the Macabalan area during our grade school and high school days. A good part of the pier area was squatters’ haven. Most everybody living in the immediate areas of the pier, including along the highway were squatters. Most of those areas were considered foreshore areas and thus owned publicly. I guess nobody raised much of a howl then, maybe because it was not in anybody's neighborhood, meaning anybody who found that objectionable or unsightly. And this, of course, was not the only area squatted on. But now, this pernicious practice has grown unabated and is now in everybody's neighborhood, including Divisoria Park. What to do! What to do!
The deadly combination of widespread poverty and ignorance is so disruptive and contagious that pretty soon, the whole society stagnates and festers. I believe Cagayan may only be feeling the initial pains and throes of this social contagion.
One optimism I personally harbor is in the area of grassroots economic empowerment. I continually harp about credit unions, especially those attuned to the common people. And just recently, the Bangko Sentral has allowed rural banks to be converted into "micro-finance" banks. So there are areas indeed, where meaningful changes can originate from. Why not more programs for economic investments, rather than on campaigns or missions to provide palliative relief for the sick and infirm? Why not go for the long run, rather than short term?
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