Pagkamatay ng Libog

Madalas akong magpunta sa Bo's Coffee Greenhills noong high school. Doon ako nagsusulat sa aking journal/diary/idea book - hindi pa uso ang blog noon kaya naman wala pang litrato at hindi masyadong halata ang istilo ng pagsusulat. Mabuting magulo at direcho dahil nawawala ang mga ideyang dumadaplis na lang bigla.

Mula sa aking kinauupuan, natatanaw ko ang banal na sakramento dahil may kapiliya katapat ng Bo's. Tahimik ang lugar, wala masyadong tao at talaga namang makapagiisip ka ng mabuti at tuloy tuloy.

Bumalik ako kanina doon para magaral ng Pilosopiya ni Nietzsche para sa pabigkas naming pagsusulit at sumasangayon ako sa ama ng nihilismo na nawalan na ng libog ang karamihan ng mga tao - lalo na sa aking henerasyon kung saan nakatali sa sistema at kulturang nakasanayan na. Pinatay na yata ang kakayahan nilang mamili at isabuhay ang kanilang gusto.

Ginapos na ng lohika at pagiging praktikal ang dapat malayang kalikasan ng tao. Ang isang bata ay hinulma ng sistema ng edukasyon na kailangan niyang mag aral ng mabuti, magtapos at maghanap ng trabaho. Sila na ang nagdikta kung ano ang dapat gawin. Ganun rin ang batas na naglilimita sa matatandang magtrabaho kung naabot na niya ang 60 o 65 na taong gulang.

Kaya nga dapat pumiglas sa pagkakagapos na dulot sa mga naghahari-hariang institusyon gaya ng relihiyon o kapitalismo upang matupad ng tao ang kaniyang sarili. Ginagamit lang natin sila para agad mapunan ang pangangailangan at makahanap ng sagot sa mga katanungan - saan na tuloy lulugar ang free will kung may nakatakdang batayan (moralidad) na bago pa ito magamit?

Nawalan na ng libog ang tao - unti unting lumabnaw ang masidhing paghahangad na mabuhay. Hindi ko hinihiling ang pagwasak ng lahat ng institusyon dahil sa maliliit na komunidad ay may mga sistema namang epektibo at nakasanayan na kaya hindi na kailangang panghimasukan pa. Dapat patayin natin ang iisang diyos na nagdikta sa tao kung ano ang dapat gawin kapalit ang pagsasantabi sa mas nakararami.

At sa pagpatay natin sa diyos na ito, tayo mismo ang magiging diyos, 'tayo ay diyos' - sabi nga ni San Pablo (St. Paul) sa bibliya. Tayo ang gagawa ng sariling landas natin tungo sa sariling kaganapan - mas magiging liberal at demokratiko at marahil siguro, maibabalik ang libog na matagal ng nawala.

Littering, Loitering and Wrestling in the Green Film Festival

I think it was last year when Greenpeace invited me to a screening of their film The Age of Stupid at Glorietta. There were cocktails before the start of the screening, foreigners in their long sleeves and coat flocked the event - even Tim Yap was there wearing an all white outfit with an emerald green coat to interview people after.

I got invited because at that time, we were looking for a material to present to some private and public schools in Mandaluyong and they recommended us to watch the film. If it passes our "taste", they can show the film to the schools free of charge. Unfortunately, the film was not for our target audience so we had to look for a new one (which we found eventually)

This year, I went to SM's Green Film Festival to kinda judge the material they are showing and recommend it to some public schools.

Instead of professional looking dignitaries, I watched the film with some public school elementary students - and it was chaos beyond imagination!!!

The kids were running all over the place. Outside the cinema, they were chasing one another. Inside the cinema, when the lights are dark and while the movie is already starting, they are still chasing one another up and down the stairs, in front of people.

There was even this mother who, after her son finished a Zesto drink, just threw it on the floor. Hello!?! This is an event dedicated to the environment! (That's the culprit with the moss green shirt and a sling bag)

Below is a photo of a girl being wrested by a girl and a guy - sounds like a love triangle. Maybe they don't realize that they are in a mall and people are actually looking at them. They still didn't stop after I took some pictures.

After the event, I am kinda amazed at the patience of these public school teachers and their resistance to the temptation of murdering each one of these midgets.

And if you are planning to go to the event, forget it:| The material was informative, (especially the 11th Hour which I happened to watch when it was still in cinemas) but the crowd was really unbearable. You are sure to be stuck with noisy students because SM targets them to watch this film fest as a way to promote the environment.

Kudos to SM though. They were the same company that brought Al Gore here in the Philippines (where i paid 5,000 pesos and fell asleep during his talk:|) Good job for blazing the trail towards a greener and brighter future:D

While Reviewing for My Philosophy of Religion Class...

1) We are divine beings. “God” is within us. I am entangled with you and everything that is.

2) We are made of energy.

3) We are creators. We create using thoughts and intentions. “That which is likened to is drawn.”

4) Our existence in this physical realm is connected to everything that is beyond our senses.

5) We were never born. There is no death. It’s just transcending to other dimensions.

6) The disconnection to inner being and the truth that is oneness starts when earthly beliefs are introduced. We are immediately being programmed by education and religion to act according to the dictations of society. Our perception of reality shifts to mediocrity.

7) Beliefs are hard to knock down especially when we’ve been programmed by society to limit our senses to the world’s physicality. There is so much beyond this physical world that the possibilities are endless. We can fly. We just don’t believe.

8) In this three-dimensional world we live in, there are infinite possibilities but we only get to choose one. We can only perceive one possibility/experience based on our own beliefs and perception of matter.

9) A three-dimensional creature would look strange to a two-dimensional one. Our senses and what we accept as reality deny the existence of other worldly beings.

10) Are aliens, UFO’s from another dimension or far, far away galaxies? Or are they humans going back in time? I firmly believe that they assisted in making great architectures of the past (i.e. pyramids). Why are they here now and in great numbers like ever before?

11) We develop an ego. The voice in our heads that feeds on anything but love, peace and happiness.

12) Love, peace and happiness in its truest forms don’t have opposites.

13) Nature would often remind us of the power of now and the absence of everything that is false arises. A brief glimpse of enlightenment. A brief sense of oneness is experienced.

14) Religion is the cloth tied around our heads and the chains that prevent infinite freedom. A hindrance to personal evolution.

15) Religion promotes fear. Fear means control.

16) Religion justifies killings and wars. “My God is better than yours.” It brings about separation.

17) The religions of the world are astronomical. Different religious events mirror each other because they are based on the movements of the sun and the constellations – anthropomorphism.

18) This is our concept of God: He’s a white-bearded man sitting in the clouds watching over us. He gives us rules written on stones for us to follow. If and when we offend him, he’d send us to eternal damnation. Isn’t that ridiculous? For a God who’s suppose to love unconditionally? And he wants our money!

19) That eternal damnation is in our conscience. Sin is a religious concept. There is no right and wrong but it doesn’t mean it’s free for all.

20) Religious organizations are being used to gain control over the masses and to fund wars.

21) Wars are not meant to be won, they are made to be sustained = money.

22) Terrorism (and global warming) is fictional. A concept made up by governments to cause fear and panic among its citizens so we would willingly approve of their plans for tightening up their grips around our necks even more (i.e. invasion of privacy, human rights violations).

23) The media is a tool for mass mind control. They tell us what they want us to see, need and believe.

24) Materialism helps us identify ourselves with objects causing us to fly further away from the connection to inner being. If we lived a much simpler life, big corporations would shut down. Banks would no longer house our money. Etc.

25) Movie/Music industries are bombarded with symbolisms and subliminal messages that our subconscious minds capture and in turn influence our perception of things – hypnotism.

26) When prominent figures of society who’d been used by these secret societies wake up and try to inform or warn the public about their agenda, their reputations are butchered and when all else fails, they are assassinated (i.e. John Lennon, Bob Marley, JF Kennedy, Princess Diana, Michael Jackson).

Eco Trip

What's the rush? Paula, a South African environmentalist, and I were talking about how people always had this desire for 'more' and they can't seem to stop and take a rest at this super fast paced world. They're like zombies.

Last March, I was walking with two foreigners, one is Irish, the other is Paula. The sun was setting at the right side of Mt Arayat - cool breeze carried the big owl over the ecovillage.

John, the Irish guy, was talking about the death of his grandfather and how he had a vision that one day he'll pass away at the top of Mt Arayat while looking over the village he built.

He is a designer practicing permaculture and you can see below the layout of the village last January.

So I took the time last Saturday for this Environmental Trip organized by our school's student government (this was the first time I actually "cared" about what they're doing)

and I was expecting a bit more from CELL (Center for Ecozoic Living and Learning). By the way, the organizers of the trip were all awesome and friendly:D

When I toured our "headquarters" or center in Nueva Ecija, I was on a kayak personally being toured by one of the owners.

When I toured CELL, ants bit my legs and the landscape seemed very chaotic.

I was expecting more beauty, and there wasn't much. Even the chicken agrees with me here.

It wasn't that bad. I mean, the facilitators were funny.

But I attended this series of seminars/talks by Fr. John Leydon (did I get the spelling right?) so their talk on the New Story of Creation and Permaculture made me fall asleep.

Good thing I was with my freshmen friends so we just played table tennis during the break.

No one knew how to play table tennis so we got rid of the table and it became a micro version of lawn tennis! :))

Everybody was a bit tired around 2pm

so instead of doing some earth care, which is like the main point of why we went there,

we just went home.

What made it memorable was not the place or the inputs they gave us, but the people I was with! It was fun hanging out with you guys again!:D

By the way, one of the organizers, Carlie, gave a beautiful prayer at the end of the session. It was moving - something about rest and stopping to admire beauty. And that I think is what I need most especially when college graduation is fast approaching and requirements seem to pile up quick.

Shattering State: Ateneo Art Awards 2010

The exhibit in Shangri-La Plaza runs from August 6 to 16, it will be then transferred to the Ateneo Art Gallery and will be there until October.

The jury made sure that every piece would stick with the theme. I was blown away by the intensity of the images used and how creatively they are executed.

There's something in surrealism that attracts you and then you become adverse to it. Reminds me of a philosophical/theological concept - mysterium tremendum et fascinosum.

I like this collection much. Nagpapakita ng talaban ng liwanag at dilim, sibilisasyon at kalikasan. There's so many ironies here.

Sagad sa buto ang problema ng bayan.

Very powerful images. Dark!

The grass here is made of plastic. It explores the secret garden they've built in the Bilibid Prison - fully of life in a place where the only thing they may have is hope. Completely opposite the next pictures.

Visit the exhibit! It does stimulate your senses. In Jon Sobrino's words - conscientization - it has that ability to take you beyond the facade of society and really explore what lies beneath all our assumptions.