Category Archives: Social Conditioning

Social Conditioning

Greatness

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I am a critical Catholic. I repeatedly choose to stay in the church in spite of my frustrations. I go from one Sunday Mass to another pleading God for conversion.
I write because like Arlene Babst Vokey (Philippine Daily Inquirer,March 16, 2013) who has a son, I have a daughter Whom I desire to catapult to her birth right of greatness and “being made to the image and likeness of God” beyond Catholic guilt and false humility.
I write because with a new pope, a Jesuit at that I hope some of my issues will be resolved. I write because inspired by the parable of the one talent I don’t want to let my one talent: writing, to go to waste.

 

The New World

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Maria Perla M. Hudtohan

February 25, 2013

It’s more than just climate change. The world did not end in 2012 but practically everything has changed for me.  I  am a product of a predominantly rote-memory education.  It has served me well.  After all, it gave me a comfortable retirement package.  With the help of my husband and our only daughter we are now settled comfortably in a condo.

However, I want a life.  Nowadays, I thrive with the help of my Buddhist mental adapted from the books of Sylvia Boorstein.  I do a lot of new perceptual training with the help of Peter Ralston’s Zen-Body-Being. Continue reading →

Right Speech

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Photo by David Victor

Being silent to Boorstein my favorite American Buddhist writer is “receiving in a balanced, non-combative way what is happening.’ What is implied is that one will be able to relax and be able to listen to one’s inner voice calling for the recognition of the truth one’s present situation. The more important implication is to be present to the NOW!
There are several considerations before one can break silence. Consider the intention for any remark. Do you want to help? Is it to show off? Or do you want to denigrade? Continue reading →

Sense Drenching

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David Victor Photography

 

I’ve learned a useful technique from Martha Beck. Instead of indulging in useless worries I use moments,especially when I wait for deliveries: laundry, meals, packages etc. to delight in sense memories.
For example, I enjoy thinking of beef broccoli and the peculiar taste of the vegetable so different from the healthy but unpalatable green leafy vegetables. Next I move on the smell of freshly cut grass which leads me to think of a relaxing back massage.

I also enjoy thinking of the sensation of twirling my fingers along smooth locks of hair. All these while I listen to the bell-like sound of rain hitting metal. The crowning glory of this musing is the picture of topiaries in the Botanical Garden of Singapore and the regal trees in Hyde Park in Sydney.

David Victor Photography

Senior Efforts

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David Victor Photography

In this our one- click-away-from-answers age I get startled when I need receipts, certifications, and other documents. These can’t be googled! I usually panic and sometimes even get high blood pressure in the process. I get rattled when I can’t find pieces of linen from delivered laundry or when I can’t have answers to questions posed by my professor-journalist husband. For months I was pleased with myself having a website.

 

Then several reader coaxed me to open a Facebook account. For years I managed to stay firm in my resolve to stay away from Facebook. What with the troublesome experiences of some of my fellow senior citizens. Then a nephew opened an account for me under a false name. I already wrote about my woes, not being able to access using my password created by my nephew. Eventually I got tired emailing and texting my nephew for instructions. I decided to take a more daring approach. I changed my password. Since then I have been enjoying my Facebook network.

 

When I was still active in the academe I would do a lot with “Word”. But after my mild stroke last May typing with my left hand has been like swatting flies and never hitting any. So I impatiently, but with prayers to my favorite saints email my essays to Marc Co in installments! Once in a while I dream of hiring an encoder but the mere thought of having another soul in our condo stops me. I have illusions of living like Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond but only till my husband comes home daily from work.