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member, Human Development and Harmony Cluster, Pamayanang SanibLakas ng Pilipinas
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1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism 2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine 3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission 5. Civics and Democratic Governance 6. Culture as Community Creativity 7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education 8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony 9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice 10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development 11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations 12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology 13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships 14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace 15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart' . |
Beware of Being Unaware By Ed Aurelio C. Reyes Prof. Reyes is one of the foremost champions in the Philippines of the serious study and conscious application of the synergism principle on various fields of human concern. He taught synergism-oriented subjects of Applied Cosmic Anthropology, the doctoral program of Asian Social Institute (ASI) in Manila. ONE can grope only in the darkness of a strange place, not in the darkness of one's own room or own home where the contours and the placing of all possible obstacles and pitfalls are so familiar that one can safely sleepwalk around them in the dark from bed to the comfort room and back every single day. That's routine sleepwalking, in this case for one to answer the call of nature. Sleepwalking is all right, for as long as we do not do it the whole day, or, worse, the whole day all our lives. Society has been described as a slow-motion stampede. What do you think? Are you comfortable with it, in it? To beware is to be aware. As in "Beware of pickpockets" or "Beware of the dog." Beware of the dog that might bite you and also of the dog that is so small that you might accidentally step on it. Chiuaua naman! Beware of unawareness. Especially, beware of unawareness of unawareness. Something like what Pocahontas sang about in that animated Disney movie: "But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew you never knew." She just might continue: "Yes, my love, there are indeed things that you do not know, or do not yet know, but are important to your situation, or to your very being!" Whenever necessary, be honest enough to be able to admit, no sé, diac ammo, ecubalu, dicus alamus, I dunno, ewan ko, instead of seeking or projecting an illusory sense of security in little knowledge because of a frantic fear of the unknown. Actually, much of the unknown can be very pleasant. Including that Heaven might be right where we are, that we don’t have to go to heaven but just have to wake up in it. Be aware of your every breath so you can fully live it, be aware of your every heartbeat so you can fully feel it, be aware of your every bite of food and every drop of drink so you can fully enjoy it. Cherish your every cell that your breathing and eating and blood circulation allows to breathe and eat, and to grow and replicate, and allow you to live. Be aware of every living cell within you …and without. Especially of that magic of life going on in every blade of leaf, photosynthesis we call it, which allows the plants and all else to eat, and which allows us and all else that need oxygen to breathe. Be aware of the beauty of biodiversity and symbiosis, the living symphony of Nature, and such full awareness that can only lead to appreciation, to amazement and awe. And revere Life in every leaf. Be aware of yourself. Assume the viewpoint of your soul and watch your personality and your body vehicle (the body you are now wearing) behave, feel, think, react….overreact. Watch yourself as you move from mood to mood. See the patterns, be aware of the patterns. Be aware of the beautiful music in silence. Of your own peace of mind in your own silence. Be aware of the love that you give… how pure? Can it be "purer" or unconditional? How about the love that you receive? How clearly, how successfully, do you express your appreciation for it? “Let us place ourselves in the presence of the Lord,” we often hear a prayer leader. But, no, let's make that "Let us be conscious that we have always been, that we now are, and that we always will be in the presence of the Lord." And where in the presence of the Lord? Ask one set of people to look and talk to God, and they'd look up to the clouds in the sky. Ask another set and they would look down deep within their hearts. Some would even look at one another with love. (Still others might look for a visual image of God that looks human.) Amnesia may cause one to forget one's own identity, or even one's own name. Most of us remember well our name, or more precisely the name given when our baby bodies were registered by the state or baptized by the church that we belong to. But most of us have forgotten our identity as beings living in the image and likeness of the Divine. This can be seen in many of our thought and behavior patterns. We have remembered the text of that phrase "in the image and likeness of the Divine" but we have forgotten to experience and enjoy it. Worse, we often relate to the Divine as if the latter were existing in the image and likeness of our own nature or, worse, of our own weaknesses: vindictive, harsh, jealous, rigid… “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do… for they are unaware…of what they do.”' That doesn't sound at all like vindictive, harsh, jealous, rigid… Seek and appreciate awareness. Beware of unawareness to be able to throw light of awareness on it, only to gradually conquer it. No need to hurry yourself along this path. If you are consciously moving from unawareness to awareness, even if very gradually, you have already made the very important step. That would be a step all your own, not one forced upon you by the slow-motion stampede of the sleepwalking human society.
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Synergism and the Cosmic Human-- in Cosmology, Philosophy, &
Spirituality
