Boo Chanco in the Philippine Star of January 14 featured Pope Francis. The pope writing to the atheist Eugenio Scatfari: “I would not speak about ‘absolute’ truths, even for believers…”

He continued: “Truth is a relationship. As such, each one of us receives the truth and expresses it from within, that is to say, according to one’s own circumstances, culture, and situation in life.” This statement is expressed also in the writings of Michael Tamura and those of Wayne Dyer. Of course, Neale Walsh even said more.

The above is akin to what I learned from Kahu Ka’imiloa a keeper of tradition when interviewed by Lilou Mace. She spoke about how the spiritual elders have changed some rules to be relevant to times that have changed tremendously.

George Sison wrote: “There is a power in the Universe that you are always using to create your life. You can use it intelligently to be a blessing to yourself and to others.”

“With the realization of where the power lies (the Power is the God within you) a quantum leap in consciousness occurs.”

Dr Christine Page wrote: “Karma is not punishment for wrong doing. It is there to help us to understand both poles of existence (spirit and matter) and to choose to become neither. ”

“If we choose or fail to take advantage of the opportunity before us then in view of the fact that life is a spiral, the same experience will be offered again in a different guise. However, there is no guarantee that it will be easier next time. ”

“the purpose of man is to develop self-consciousness, i.e. to see himself as separate from his personality and then to lose this separation as the energies of the soul and personality merge to form spiritual man.

This is an esoteric strategy to attain final union with our God. For me this is a more doable injunction than the religious mandate to be perfect as the father is How?

Dr Page continued: ” This increase in consciousness is achieved by experiencing and accepting various aspects of duality and recognizing first their differences and then their sameness. In this way man can start to see himself as both spirit and matter and then to see that they are from the same source.”

I can’t help but wonder why in college we were not taught the above. In college and through life the strong dictum of religion and mainstream Catholicism has been to know, to love and serve God. How? How in the 21st century when conditions are sooooo different from Biblical times? I pray that soon my Catholic religion will be made more relevant. I still go to Mass and the sacraments but not due to compliance but I believe they truly connect me to my God.

Like Drs Goleman and Damaso, Shapiro recognizes: ” that powerful

negative emotions can serve an adaptive role, such as impressing upon us how to avoid danger. Shapiro believes that our information-processing systems provide a natural method for integrating distressing events, allowing us to maintain mental and physical balance and to function effectively. However, she believes that strong emotional events can overwhelm our natural mechanism and cause the processing to become stuck in our nervous system.”

The above has made me a fan of Cognitive Therapy. ” Cognitive Therapy ultimately changes our emotional responses by changing our core beliefs.” Continue reading →

“Reinventing one’s consciousness to a new concept of God… takes more than a little effort.”

“Happily  New Thought has come around to look at the nature of God more in terms of love and law, rather than in terms of a super being, somewhere out there who is judgmental, vengeful and jealous, and who insists on one unyielding way to salvation.”

George Sison words are in sharp contrast to what I was taught. He continues: “From school, we remember a white-bearded, aged figure with a thunderous voice expressing anger any moment one commits a sin or violates any of his commandments.”

Throughout my schooling and even through the 90s (!!!!) my life was ruled by the exacting cosmology of the nuns who taught me. Several retreat  masters ,mostly Jesuits, were just as fear trigger happy.

It took a young psychiatrist who eventually married my first cousin to open my mind. So ironical that eventually in the 2000s he left our church. I would like to believe he belongs to a more compassionate church now.

“Freeing the Soul from Fear” says: A culture that leaves no room for living connections with the spiritual realms can foster fear. Robert Sardello believes connections with angels, spirit guides or the dead can provide an antidote to fear.

My personal experience of this involves Julie Anne being stranded in Mexico because of stormy weather. I sought comfort through prayers addressed to my numerous prayer warriors among the dead. Two maternal aunts used to question this practice of mine. I couldn’t understand why these two aunts, traditional Catholics at that questioned my interpretation of communion of saints teaching!

Since August 29 of this year, (For lack of a better term) I have been spooked. It started with Emil’s passport which I could not locate just two days before our flight to Singapore. It was sheer agony to wait for the bank to open for us to check the safety deposit box. My husband and our daughter examined several options in case the passport could not be found.

In he bank, my husband calmly emptied the contents  of the safety deposit box. The passport wasn’t there. Then my husband decided for us to go back to the condo and for him to personally examine the contents of the overnite bag where the passport was supposed to have been kept.

Another round of agony for me. It was the longest three minute ride back to the condo for me. I did not even dare to check my overnite bag. My husband calmly too out the contents of my bag and quicly identified his passport. All along it was there but I mistook it as my old passport due to its thickness. I wrongly expected his passport to be as thin as my new passport. I completely forgot his old passport was attached to his new one when he applied for a visa to South korea. I did not go with him.

Back from Singapore this September, the spooky business continued. I could not locate my extra pair of glasses inside an embroidered Singaporean case. To make a long story short, my husband and I simultaneously saw the case on top of one of his many school bags. I did not bother to check in that area because I remember I did not unpack there. The logical explanation is: the embroidered case must have fallen from a paper lantern from Singapore I placed on top of Emil’s closed laptop.

I have yet to write about several unmindful episodes both in Singapore and herein Manila. Wake up calls!