Category Archives: Social Conditioning

Social Conditioning

Bolstered Faith

According to Ronald Mann:…”the spiritually wise and awakened being knows that subtle spiritual forces control and direct all of creation.”

bolstered faith

The above has inspired me not to rush and fix circumstances. It has given me a certain peace; after all I was reminded by a very good friend when I was still teaching at SJDDios College: “Be still and know that I am God.” Though my faith is not as strong as hers I have learned to trust that God is in control..

I interpret subtle spiritual forces as the energy that springs from my prayers. Together with the Law of Attraction, these subtle forces draw to me the circumstances that match the energy of my thoughts and emotions. It helps that foryears I have tried to tame my negative emotions of fear and guilt. It also helps when I pray joyfully. I have learned o believe a childhood, pious statement from a nun that joyful prayers are carried faster by the wings of angels. It doesn’t bother me that several books have debunked the belief that angels have wings.That’s God’s problem ,not mine.

Recently, from “Zen Limits” by Joe Vitale I learned the Ho’oponopono prayer which has helped me to surrender cases clearly beyond me. When my brother-in-law died inspite of our prayers I immediately shifted my prayers for his loved ones especially my youngest sister. We were extremely saddened but deep down we experienced peace.

It takes Faith to entrust to God circumstances which otherwise would have left me frustrated or depressed. Somebody posted on Facebook: “Faith is having peace when you don’t have the answer.”
Another posted: “I will open my mind and my heat to believe that God is loving and trust my loving higher power to do for me what I can’t do.”

Bolstered Faith

According to Ronald Mann:…”the spiritually wise and awakened being knows that subtle spiritual forces control and direct all of creation.”

bolstered faith

The above has inspired me not to rush and fix circumstances. It has given me a certain peace; after all I was reminded by a very good friend when I was still teaching at SJDDios College: “Be still and know that I am God.” Though my faith is not as strong as hers I have learned to trust that God is in control..

I interpret subtle spiritual forces as the energy that springs from my prayers. Together with the Law of Attraction, these subtle forces draw to me the circumstances that match the energy of my thoughts and emotions. It helps that foryears I have tried to tame my negative emotions of fear and guilt. It also helps when I pray joyfully. I have learned o believe a childhood, pious statement from a nun that joyful prayers are carried faster by the wings of angels. It doesn’t bother me that several books have debunked the belief that angels have wings.That’s God’s problem ,not mine.

Recently, from “Zen Limits” by Joe Vitale I learned the Ho’oponopono prayer which has helped me to surrender cases clearly beyond me. When my brother-in-law died inspite of our prayers I immediately shifted my prayers for his loved ones especially my youngest sister. We were extremely saddened but deep down we experienced peace.

It takes Faith to entrust to God circumstances which otherwise would have left me frustrated or depressed. Somebody posted on Facebook: “Faith is having peace when you don’t have the answer.”
Another posted: “I will open my mind and my heat to believe that God is loving and trust my loving higher power to do for me what I can’t do.”

Communities of Celebration

From “Natural Wakefulness”:  “Communities of celebration evoke and then bask in the joy of human togetherness.”

This we experienced las November 10 and again last December 15 at our favorite eatery, Chickboy at Harrison Plaza. We enjoyed togetherness with what has emerged as a kind of core group for the drumming session facilitated by Francis Gspar. Friends of kindred spirit but certainly of diverse personalities celebrated the transformational joy of community. Personalities like the happy sisters Oding and Beng; the couple from China Banking Marivic and Rois; Val from SJDDios; Emil and myself and our adopted son Marc Co. Not to be forgotten is Bernice,the wife of Francis.

Gaylon Ferguson continued:  We share a common ground with our sisters and brothers, and the ground is a space for music and dance, for festivals and ritual gatherings. Communal feasts are the practice of great joy, looking up toward the space of heaven, down to the practicalities of earth, and the horizontally at the family of basic goodness . Through this practice of meditative awareness in action, natural wakefulness blossoms as enlightened society.

 

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Reading Skills

reading

It is in our self-interest as individuals and as people in a community to review our reading skills. At age 70 I find it necessary to engage with social media if only to survive by learning new coping skills.

It is not only the new vocabulary. I have to familiarize myself with more often than not with the nuances of the ideas. Notwithstanding my many years of analyzing print media and teaching literary appreciation I know I have yet to learn so much.

Take for example one Facebook post about a shampoo.

Many people use shampoo in the shower. However, when doing so the shampoo runs down

the body. Printed clearly on the shampoo label

“For extra body and volume”

No wonder people gain weight

I must confess, that for just a second I was fooled. I had gotten used to reading posts about important alerts about dangerous taxi drivers, the dangers of drinking thawed cold mineral water from the plastic bottles, immigration officers tearing pages from passports etc I intently paid attention to that shampoo post.

The lesson for me is to follow a standard Buddhist warning not to believe everything that one is told but to test things for one’s self.

Rhythm

gaspar     My second drumming session with our friend Francis Gaspar was an experience of freedom. For some minutes I did not mind not being in control. I even allowed my body to move with the rhythm.

But better yet was the freedom I experience moving from the intellectual thoughts to what would pass as mundane thoughts but expanded. My thoughts went beyond my aches and pains to embrace with compassion the people around me. I felt I was one with the security guards of Grand Towers for whom my husband and I were hosting a party.

It was a good Christmas experience celebrating with a friend from SJDDIOS, with the happy sisters:Oding and Beng, with our adopted son, Marc, with our godchildren Marivic and Rois and of course with Bernice the wife of Francis.

A fitting quotation from Life Is a Gift says: Freedom means loving yourself enough to be true to yourself and trust your emotional guidance. It means not giving in to what is socially expected or what others demand of you or what the inner voices of fear exhort you to do nor feelings bound by past choices that are no longer serving you. It means making choices that express more of who you are. It means feeling your way into the flow. It means having faith in a loving cosmos.