An Introduction: "THE NIGHT OF ANGELS"
You are about to enter into something extraordinary--into something special and unique experience. If it is not, then it must be my own failing or the failings of things and circumstances that are beyond my power.
There is none that I would appeal to you but to your common senses and yet this must be my greatest struggle---the struggle of this desire to fully impart to you an enlightenment of the soul, in order that my visions will also become your visions.
Something magical has happened to me and the new reality that was laid upon me is one that even in my wildest dreams did not happen. If it would only be up to me, I would call this experience the most important phenomenon ever to happen to humanity in this present day, while we breathe the air of this mortal world. And perhaps, if circumstances allow, I would call it “the new sensation”.
To believe or not to believe my revelation is upon your own discretion. But this is what the truth as it is laid before me.
The angels appeared to me---and still appearing every now and then---often as the night sky is still early into the evening, and while the wind is very fragile yet gentle upon the weather. They first appeared to me sometime in the year of two thousand two, sometime and somewhere in the month of July while I walked the streets of Manila to pursue a career in law. They roved among the clouds to tromp in gaiety, wandering from one part of the night sky towards another, turning the horizon into a giant movie screen, in order to exhibit their plays and meanderings. They made signs not conversation---pure pantomime---but they were as lucid and evocative. If I read the signs well, that would be a question of faith and credibility.
I saw them enacting the man clearing a drainage with a long wooden pole. I saw a man holding the hands of another with others following in line, holding each other’s hands and walking towards a destination. There was the image of a traffic officer pointing also towards a place, in an upward direction through a line of cloud leading towards the sky, while just beneath him was a long line sloping downward.
They came through the clouds from one end of the sky towards another as more visions appeared before me such as the winged horses trotting thru and fro, the swords of the angels, a giant mushroom cloud and an ancient ship with sails swept by a strong wind, traversing an ocean that was then the night sky. I saw repeatedly a huge wooden face similar in features to the figure we see on totems and masts of ancient tribes.
If any one would have been at the same time looking towards the sky, they would have observed that the clouds were so dynamic that at any one point, images of many articles and objects appeared, and they appeared to me to be messages from the sky. This must have been how ancient people developed their alphabets, by signs and symbols that evoke a certain thought or fact.
The angels made crossing signs with their arms, as if to seek recognition of their presence that I also made the same gestures—like a handshake perhaps. And there was a bearded man, with long hair sitting on a huge throne, with the widest grin in his face, seemingly orchestrating the entire show in the night sky.
It was on those nights also that my mind seemed to be awake while I sleep. In slumber, my mind would become a colorful movie screen that I have dreams so vivid that I felt I was almost living in those dreams—alive and breathing. One of those memorable dreams was about a handsome young man standing on the side of a pool, with many women wading their legs in the pool. This particular dream started when a man in black turban and black robes was climbing a low barren hill. My sight was behind this turbaned man and I was sort of floating just above him. As the man reached the top of the hill, he peeked towards the other side, using stealth and care, as if he was wary of probable observers. The hill would lead to a depression of land in a semi-circling shape, like a bowl, that at the bottom was a large pool with many women wading in it.
There was this handsome man standing at the farther side of the pool, to the upper-right corner from where my sight was positioned, his skin was bronze and gleaming and he wore a measly garment covering his lower body. The man stared back so intensely towards the direction of the turbaned man, with brows furrowed signaling his apparent disgust over an ascertained intrusion. Despite the relative distance of the hilltop and despite the use of great care made by the intruder, the man by the pool had known exactly where the turbaned man was and had an inkling of the wicked intention to invade his silences, as if the handsome man had a power of sight and premonition. And the dream faded away.
In one of those dreams, I saw a bearded man also looking towards the sky while standing upon a hill, with a turban in his head, and robes in a beautiful black hue. Like me, he was also looking towards the sky, sifting the horizon for declarations. This was a relatively short dream that it felt like the snap shot of a camera.
In one of those dreams, I saw soldiers riding wild stallions as the horses furiously trod a desert to vanquish the enemies waiting ahead, ready to do battle. I saw this particular vision while I was floating above the wild stallions. It was a noisy dream that I felt somewhat rattled by the rumblings of horses’ hooves threading the earth so furiously and it was so real that I almost felt the ground tremble upon the ferocity of the stampede.
In another dream, I was in the middle of a gathering of monks wearing bright orange robes, walking among them in the crowd, readying eagerly for some forthcoming ritual or important ceremony. Each one of them was up in spirit, going thru and fro, minding each other’s concerns, shouting and belching at one another to straighten up this and rearrange that. Generally, there was a great feeling of excitement as the sun was full in the morning and because of such fullness, the sunrays had a glow that was a little bit yellow.
In one of those dreams I had found myself standing at the head of a huge ship, with many other ships on the wayside, approaching gradually a wide shore where the land was barren that I could see no greeneries whatsoever. Smoke and fog rises from the arid ground as the water was so still that as we sailed along, there was a silence that was uncanny and the little splashes of waves, as gentle wind swept by, was the only sound we hear. There were many persons aboard with me in that ship, all silent and sullen like there was a great tragedy that awaits us the moment we went ashore. They must have been soldiers anticipating a pre-destined battle---full of bloodshed, full of mayhem.
These dreams were so different from each other that I could not tread them together in order to come up with a single message or series of messages. All of the dreams seemed to speak of events happening in the ancient past, like memories hidden somewhere in the mazes of my mind. They were almost real that I could remember the details even as I write this and they were so clear and lucid that I have searched my waking memory for movies that I may have seen in the past, assuming maybe that some of those dreams were merely repetitions of scenes that I have witnessed in the near past. And there was no particular movie in my mind.
Unlike the visions, the images of my dreams did not have a clear message to declare.
Then came the most memorable night of all---the night when I saw an angel danced. There was the angel in long white robes with a hair length that reaches downward to its feet, with wings so lengthy that it filled half the sky that was in my view.
The angel danced with its hands swaying thru and fro, from left to right, and towards other directions, the hands in circling motions. It was a beautiful dance that it was almost familiar to me. The dancing angel instructed me to follow the dance and I followed it. First the angel kept on extending its arms so wide as if to invoke my repetition. I replicated its extended arms and the angel nodded. Then as the angel made each movement, I followed. When all the motions of the dance was finally revealed to me, the angel made a crossing sign with its arms, signaling the end of a lesson.
Until now, I recreate the dance over and over again. The dance was so magical that each time I recreate it I could feel an overall lightness of my being, of my body and soul, that it was sort of addictive, clearly a propagator of habit.
As I dance the dance of the angel, there is a force in my hands that startled me at first but to which I have grown accustomed to as days went by. It is a force that I could feel somehow strongly that it is impossible to disregard it or deny its existence. It is a force also that moves my entire body or at least interfering with the usual movements I make. It is such a palpable force in my hands that almost I could catch the wind. My hands until now seem to float above the wind whenever I put my open palms against any parallel surfaces.
This experience is so magical that in fact, as I make my every move, I could feel a force within and without me, sort of behind me, sort of apart from me and yet somehow also inside me. I developed a queer movement of my body since.
And there were also the little men on the wall in front of my reading table. There were actually two men aboard a boat, one sitting in front while the other one is sitting at the back. They made movements and signs in order to relay messages and they are contained in this book, as well as the messages from angels I saw in the night sky. This a book about the messages from the angels, those divine beings that are apart and certainly above us, ultimately coming from the Father of Angels, God, the Creator of All Things. How I was able to impute these messages to God is a matter of utilizing my common awareness upon the nature of angels. This is also a book on things that comes upon my realization, as I look into myself in consequence of the visions in the night sky. I will relay them to you while imploring upon the guidance of the divinity---whether they are of wisdom or of fallacy.
There is a message that the angels wanted to impart to us all. And this is the message as summarized in one sentence: “There is a voyage towards life hereafter and every one is invited”. To fully understand, please read on my brothers and sisters, so that we all may be aboard the ship that would take us to the Promised Land. Follow my footsteps.
Those who have eyes let them see. Those who have ears let them hear. These are my visions and let it be your visions also.
There is none that I would appeal to you but to your common senses and yet this must be my greatest struggle---the struggle of this desire to fully impart to you an enlightenment of the soul, in order that my visions will also become your visions.
Something magical has happened to me and the new reality that was laid upon me is one that even in my wildest dreams did not happen. If it would only be up to me, I would call this experience the most important phenomenon ever to happen to humanity in this present day, while we breathe the air of this mortal world. And perhaps, if circumstances allow, I would call it “the new sensation”.
To believe or not to believe my revelation is upon your own discretion. But this is what the truth as it is laid before me.
The angels appeared to me---and still appearing every now and then---often as the night sky is still early into the evening, and while the wind is very fragile yet gentle upon the weather. They first appeared to me sometime in the year of two thousand two, sometime and somewhere in the month of July while I walked the streets of Manila to pursue a career in law. They roved among the clouds to tromp in gaiety, wandering from one part of the night sky towards another, turning the horizon into a giant movie screen, in order to exhibit their plays and meanderings. They made signs not conversation---pure pantomime---but they were as lucid and evocative. If I read the signs well, that would be a question of faith and credibility.
I saw them enacting the man clearing a drainage with a long wooden pole. I saw a man holding the hands of another with others following in line, holding each other’s hands and walking towards a destination. There was the image of a traffic officer pointing also towards a place, in an upward direction through a line of cloud leading towards the sky, while just beneath him was a long line sloping downward.
They came through the clouds from one end of the sky towards another as more visions appeared before me such as the winged horses trotting thru and fro, the swords of the angels, a giant mushroom cloud and an ancient ship with sails swept by a strong wind, traversing an ocean that was then the night sky. I saw repeatedly a huge wooden face similar in features to the figure we see on totems and masts of ancient tribes.
If any one would have been at the same time looking towards the sky, they would have observed that the clouds were so dynamic that at any one point, images of many articles and objects appeared, and they appeared to me to be messages from the sky. This must have been how ancient people developed their alphabets, by signs and symbols that evoke a certain thought or fact.
The angels made crossing signs with their arms, as if to seek recognition of their presence that I also made the same gestures—like a handshake perhaps. And there was a bearded man, with long hair sitting on a huge throne, with the widest grin in his face, seemingly orchestrating the entire show in the night sky.
It was on those nights also that my mind seemed to be awake while I sleep. In slumber, my mind would become a colorful movie screen that I have dreams so vivid that I felt I was almost living in those dreams—alive and breathing. One of those memorable dreams was about a handsome young man standing on the side of a pool, with many women wading their legs in the pool. This particular dream started when a man in black turban and black robes was climbing a low barren hill. My sight was behind this turbaned man and I was sort of floating just above him. As the man reached the top of the hill, he peeked towards the other side, using stealth and care, as if he was wary of probable observers. The hill would lead to a depression of land in a semi-circling shape, like a bowl, that at the bottom was a large pool with many women wading in it.
There was this handsome man standing at the farther side of the pool, to the upper-right corner from where my sight was positioned, his skin was bronze and gleaming and he wore a measly garment covering his lower body. The man stared back so intensely towards the direction of the turbaned man, with brows furrowed signaling his apparent disgust over an ascertained intrusion. Despite the relative distance of the hilltop and despite the use of great care made by the intruder, the man by the pool had known exactly where the turbaned man was and had an inkling of the wicked intention to invade his silences, as if the handsome man had a power of sight and premonition. And the dream faded away.
In one of those dreams, I saw a bearded man also looking towards the sky while standing upon a hill, with a turban in his head, and robes in a beautiful black hue. Like me, he was also looking towards the sky, sifting the horizon for declarations. This was a relatively short dream that it felt like the snap shot of a camera.
In one of those dreams, I saw soldiers riding wild stallions as the horses furiously trod a desert to vanquish the enemies waiting ahead, ready to do battle. I saw this particular vision while I was floating above the wild stallions. It was a noisy dream that I felt somewhat rattled by the rumblings of horses’ hooves threading the earth so furiously and it was so real that I almost felt the ground tremble upon the ferocity of the stampede.
In another dream, I was in the middle of a gathering of monks wearing bright orange robes, walking among them in the crowd, readying eagerly for some forthcoming ritual or important ceremony. Each one of them was up in spirit, going thru and fro, minding each other’s concerns, shouting and belching at one another to straighten up this and rearrange that. Generally, there was a great feeling of excitement as the sun was full in the morning and because of such fullness, the sunrays had a glow that was a little bit yellow.
In one of those dreams I had found myself standing at the head of a huge ship, with many other ships on the wayside, approaching gradually a wide shore where the land was barren that I could see no greeneries whatsoever. Smoke and fog rises from the arid ground as the water was so still that as we sailed along, there was a silence that was uncanny and the little splashes of waves, as gentle wind swept by, was the only sound we hear. There were many persons aboard with me in that ship, all silent and sullen like there was a great tragedy that awaits us the moment we went ashore. They must have been soldiers anticipating a pre-destined battle---full of bloodshed, full of mayhem.
These dreams were so different from each other that I could not tread them together in order to come up with a single message or series of messages. All of the dreams seemed to speak of events happening in the ancient past, like memories hidden somewhere in the mazes of my mind. They were almost real that I could remember the details even as I write this and they were so clear and lucid that I have searched my waking memory for movies that I may have seen in the past, assuming maybe that some of those dreams were merely repetitions of scenes that I have witnessed in the near past. And there was no particular movie in my mind.
Unlike the visions, the images of my dreams did not have a clear message to declare.
Then came the most memorable night of all---the night when I saw an angel danced. There was the angel in long white robes with a hair length that reaches downward to its feet, with wings so lengthy that it filled half the sky that was in my view.
The angel danced with its hands swaying thru and fro, from left to right, and towards other directions, the hands in circling motions. It was a beautiful dance that it was almost familiar to me. The dancing angel instructed me to follow the dance and I followed it. First the angel kept on extending its arms so wide as if to invoke my repetition. I replicated its extended arms and the angel nodded. Then as the angel made each movement, I followed. When all the motions of the dance was finally revealed to me, the angel made a crossing sign with its arms, signaling the end of a lesson.
Until now, I recreate the dance over and over again. The dance was so magical that each time I recreate it I could feel an overall lightness of my being, of my body and soul, that it was sort of addictive, clearly a propagator of habit.
As I dance the dance of the angel, there is a force in my hands that startled me at first but to which I have grown accustomed to as days went by. It is a force that I could feel somehow strongly that it is impossible to disregard it or deny its existence. It is a force also that moves my entire body or at least interfering with the usual movements I make. It is such a palpable force in my hands that almost I could catch the wind. My hands until now seem to float above the wind whenever I put my open palms against any parallel surfaces.
This experience is so magical that in fact, as I make my every move, I could feel a force within and without me, sort of behind me, sort of apart from me and yet somehow also inside me. I developed a queer movement of my body since.
And there were also the little men on the wall in front of my reading table. There were actually two men aboard a boat, one sitting in front while the other one is sitting at the back. They made movements and signs in order to relay messages and they are contained in this book, as well as the messages from angels I saw in the night sky. This a book about the messages from the angels, those divine beings that are apart and certainly above us, ultimately coming from the Father of Angels, God, the Creator of All Things. How I was able to impute these messages to God is a matter of utilizing my common awareness upon the nature of angels. This is also a book on things that comes upon my realization, as I look into myself in consequence of the visions in the night sky. I will relay them to you while imploring upon the guidance of the divinity---whether they are of wisdom or of fallacy.
There is a message that the angels wanted to impart to us all. And this is the message as summarized in one sentence: “There is a voyage towards life hereafter and every one is invited”. To fully understand, please read on my brothers and sisters, so that we all may be aboard the ship that would take us to the Promised Land. Follow my footsteps.
Those who have eyes let them see. Those who have ears let them hear. These are my visions and let it be your visions also.
Chapter 1: The Night Beckons Me
It is in the early hours of the night that they come amidst the marching clouds, when the wind was fragile and the moon was
somewhere out of sight. Clouds of all sizes and magnitude swayed like sailboats and ships in an ever-moving sea. They remain vague to my naked eyes until I train it a little further until I gain more focus. Then the clouds would take shapes of all sizes, of men with great wings of the widest span---the images of angels appeared to me, as we know them in lore and stories of old, handsome in their white robes and wings white as pearls, signaling to me the messages that they desired to convey, in beautiful and graceful pantomime, vividly staging what to me was the greatest show ever witnessed by my mortal eyes. In some instances, winged horses appeared in the sky, just as handsome and nearly as graceful. And to emphasize their messages, the clouds would also take the form of other things, such as ships with giant sails, a traffic enforcer directing an intersection, a man clearing a canal, a beautiful woman adorned in a bridal gown, and a giant mushroom cloud. And the most enigmatic of all these vision was a very endearing bearded man, with hair lengthy and full, with a big grin on his face, sitting on a huge throne. If I was not mistaken, the bearded man on a huge throne was Jesus Christ Himself.
The cacophony of visions came through a span of many nights that until now, as I looked towards the sky, night or day, the clouds would take shape and there would appear “the greatest show on Earth”, to repeat and reiterate the messages, to make known that they have come to fulfill a promise that was given to us in a time that was so long ago. The angels have come indeed.
They have these wings with span nearly double their heights, and physical features that could easily be described as epitomizing the perfection of the human body. Indeed, the sight of them is so invigorating that I could feel a certain surge in my heart whenever they appear---such feeling of happiness and lightness.
There is also a feeling of being overwhelmed by the sight of an amazing grace, a view of an unparalleled beauty whenever the angels appear. A feeling of being subdued by a higher being that in my mind I vowed and declared full obedience to them and sought their utmost consideration. I asked for understanding of my being a lesser man, for the sins of my past and of the present, nearly confessing all my sins where my memory could reach them and seeking forgiveness as I avowed repentance.
The angels came through the clouds in order to impart to us a message so full of hope and promises, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow---to lead us towards a place and time that had been murmured and whispered to us from the beginning until the end of times. They have come to invite us all to follow their footsteps towards a voyage that would take us to a land full of joy and happiness, towards an everlasting life, in a world in which all men are brothers and sisters to each other with no regard to race or creed. Where conflict becomes a thing of the past. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” [1]
The Creator of All Thing---God---have prepared for us a new Earth, a paradise reborn somewhere in one of the constellation found in the universe, and there would be many worlds to dwell, as well as mansions in the clouds. The worthy shall have wings of great span where the entire universe is a place for us to wander upon, an infinite territory for us to dwell, without the limitations of our present habitat.
One may ask, why have the angels come? Why at this point in time? Is the end of the world nearly approaching? Have they come to punish us? Or have they come to bring the graces of the Lord?
The message is but singular, of a voyage towards a life hereafter and everyone is invited. Those who are chosen shall be aboard the ship and theirs is the rewards of Heaven.
The cacophony of visions came through a span of many nights that until now, as I looked towards the sky, night or day, the clouds would take shape and there would appear “the greatest show on Earth”, to repeat and reiterate the messages, to make known that they have come to fulfill a promise that was given to us in a time that was so long ago. The angels have come indeed.
They have these wings with span nearly double their heights, and physical features that could easily be described as epitomizing the perfection of the human body. Indeed, the sight of them is so invigorating that I could feel a certain surge in my heart whenever they appear---such feeling of happiness and lightness.
There is also a feeling of being overwhelmed by the sight of an amazing grace, a view of an unparalleled beauty whenever the angels appear. A feeling of being subdued by a higher being that in my mind I vowed and declared full obedience to them and sought their utmost consideration. I asked for understanding of my being a lesser man, for the sins of my past and of the present, nearly confessing all my sins where my memory could reach them and seeking forgiveness as I avowed repentance.
The angels came through the clouds in order to impart to us a message so full of hope and promises, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow---to lead us towards a place and time that had been murmured and whispered to us from the beginning until the end of times. They have come to invite us all to follow their footsteps towards a voyage that would take us to a land full of joy and happiness, towards an everlasting life, in a world in which all men are brothers and sisters to each other with no regard to race or creed. Where conflict becomes a thing of the past. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” [1]
The Creator of All Thing---God---have prepared for us a new Earth, a paradise reborn somewhere in one of the constellation found in the universe, and there would be many worlds to dwell, as well as mansions in the clouds. The worthy shall have wings of great span where the entire universe is a place for us to wander upon, an infinite territory for us to dwell, without the limitations of our present habitat.
One may ask, why have the angels come? Why at this point in time? Is the end of the world nearly approaching? Have they come to punish us? Or have they come to bring the graces of the Lord?
The message is but singular, of a voyage towards a life hereafter and everyone is invited. Those who are chosen shall be aboard the ship and theirs is the rewards of Heaven.
Underlying the invitation towards the Kingdom of God is a message for us to follow the way of the righteous and not that of the blind. It is a time for spiritual reawakening to the true meaning of our faith and the meaning of our existence here on Earth. It is a wake-up call for all of us, to work for changes and to heal this world from the many evils that holds it down like a monkey wrench. It is a time for us to prepare our souls for the coming voyage.
A spiritual renewal and reawakening of humanity must come soon and a world of understanding and harmony must be pursued in order that humankind shall be cleansed of the many evils that have pervaded within and around us. It is for us to thwart the many evils that had enveloped our everyday lives as well as the many great evils that give the peace of this world its present fragility.
Global terrorism and racial wars are stains to the very idea of a livable world, as God had intended it to be, as men nowadays kill in the name of false pride and false dignity, upon groundless assumptions and flawed conclusions.
Jews are greedy many say and soon conflict arises. Arabs are bloodthirsty and discrimination easily prevails. America is the great evil some say and upheaval takes place violently while the real evil permeates somewhere else. Europeans are imperious, they say and isolation results. Asians are too close-minded, and prejudice takes strength.
And ultimately, one Christian is against one Moslem and one Jew would be against one Christian.
These are causes of conflicts that are hounding us today and many times in the past and these causes, if we examined them closely, are grossly specious and unwarranted; when the truth of the matter is that many great conflicts that the world faces today merely arises from the basic evils each of us suffers. The envy and hate of one man injures another man. The envy and hate of many men injures the peace of the world. In order to repeal the great evils that harms us in a global scale, it is but time to heal ourselves with the many and “common” evils we face everyday. To stave away the great prejudices in this world, we have to take away first our personal prejudices.
If we could not defeat the evils in each and every one of us, then how could we aim to defeat the great evils that hound the entire humanity? All great evils come from the small evils in each man. For the devil implants in us a seed of evil and this seed would grow into full fruition if we do not stifle them with great faith in God and in the righteousness of man. In order to change the world, it is essential to change the self first.
In our everyday lives, many evils occur around us that their incidence have already reached a certain level of acceptability, as if they are merely part of our everyday life---a routine, a culture, and a habit.
Men in government steal everyday and we say there goes just another government man. Men gossip against another everyday, and we just say there goes another gossiper. Men lie in order to gain advantage almost every time, and he is just another opportunist.
There are many in our midst---a neighbor or a co-worker---who covet another man’s wife or lust upon another man’s daughter or son, and yet they are not so much already as a surprise to us all. And everyday many lives are taken due to the violence of some men; and while indeed killing is ever contemptible, we could not anymore escape their seeming ordinariness.
We must repel these “common evils” and rebel strongly to their occurrences. To lie and to gossip may be small faults and yet does a gossiper enter the Kingdom of God? Of course not, for a habitual gossiper would only disrupt the peace and harmony in Paradise. Therefore, gossiping then is just about similar to stealing and that to killing. If to gossip is never to enter the Kingdom of God, then what makes it less detestable than to steal or kill? (A lesser punishment perhaps for a lesser crime.)
There might be the cognizance of lesser crimes as compared to graver crimes but why should we risk losing the Kingdom of God with lesser sins when both the gossiper and the murderer shall be cast away from the Promised Land and thrown into “the vengeance of an eternal fire”[2].
What we need today is a total cleansing of our spiritual selves, to go back to the roots of basic ethics as declared to us in countless ways and in too many instances, over and over again, whether in The Torah or in The Holy Bible or in the Noble Qu’ran. For all these books, no matter the discrepancy in their roots, declares adherence to the same basic concept of ethics, a code of conduct that is uniform regardless of religion or creed for every religion is very similar in their propagation of good and the casting away of evil deeds, where stealing is intolerable as well as gossiping and where fornication is ever abominable. If every religion despises the thief and the fornicator what difference does it make then?
Let us go back to the dictates of the Holy Bible, of the Noble Qu’ran, of the Torah, or of the teachings of Buddha and Confucius. All religion preaches the propagation of goodness and the avoidance of evil and in them our salvation is secured and the dictates of the Lord God, as declared in many times and in many forms, are far too clear in fact for us to ignore them. The desires of God on how to go about our conduct were simple that to feign ignorance is almost criminal. Even if you have not read any book on religion or hear the sermon of any preacher, you could always determine what is good and what is evil by invoking the discretion of your heart and mind, and ultimately the inquiries of your consciences. For example, the act of murder is absolutely disdainful to anyone and wherever it may happen for it takes away the right of another to live and causes intense sorrow and difficulties to the kinsmen of the dead one. You do not have to read the Bible or the Qu’ran in order to know that murder is wrong. We feel a burden in our hearts whenever we commit wrong. It is like a microchip imbedded to us by God so that we may not be led astray and yet many among us have opted to disregard this mode of self determining the propriety of our conduct, preferring to lavish their earthly instincts by disregarding the callings of our consciences, leading them ultimately to no other place but their own perdition.
Stealing is abhorred in every religion. Killing is always heinous. Adultery and fornication are pure abomination in whatever religion. Gossiping is vice always.
On the other hand, sharing is ever enriching. Helping the poor and the needy a must to us all. Every religion teaches us to love our neighbors and to have the greatest faith in God---the Creator of All things---these are the usual works and traits of a man with great faith whatever religion he may profess.
All these dictates (in whatever book they are contained) are all very simple and easy to comprehend that we do not need extraordinary intelligence in order to know what is good and what is bad. It does not matter if the dictates came from Jesus Christ, from Abraham, from Moses, from Prophet Mohammad or from Buddha; for if we examine closely all their teachings, they are very similar to one another, that is, the propagation of the good and the avoidance of evil.
Every religion may be peculiar and unique on its own ways that certainly many differences arise. However, these differences are what we call marginal and does not often comes in the nature of substantial matters. These variances often come in social conducts and customs like the food we eat or the rituals of prayers yet the basic ethical dictates are generally similar. At the bottom of it all is that, it is not how we have faith in religion but how we have faith in God.
We need merely to realize the undeniable fact that God existed long before any religion arose, before the word “Roman Catholic” or “Islam” was conceived. And God has no religion. God loves the proper and obedient may he be a Chinese, a Russian, an American, a Jew or an Arab. The Christians pray while kneeling. The Moslems touches the ground with their foreheads. The Hindus does not eat cow’s meat. The Buddhist meditates for long hours. These are differences merely in the conduct and practice of religion. For Americans eat potatoes as staple while Asians have rice on their table everyday. Europeans have wine upon every meal while many of us have water instead. These differences are not reason for us to kill each other and be separated by prejudices for in fact the differences among us were meant to make this world more livable, to have synergy and diversity in our existence, so that a true brotherhood of man could be attained, where there is the acceptance that your brother may not look like you but still he is your brother.
For how could we ever imagine a world of Catholics all in faith or of a world of Asians all in race? The world then would be an existence of monotony, without assortment and diversity, and that would be a boring and insufferable world. When variety does not take place, no one would travel anymore in order to learn the unknown, for the conditions in other places and continents would just be the same as the place where one is coming from. And all the things that are found there are also found in the place where you are. Trade would not prosper if every civilization in the past produced silk, mine gold, molded porcelains and grow spices, olive oils, cotton and tea---all at the same time. There would have been no Spanish galleons and Chinese junks crossing oceans in the past. The Spaniard would not have met and known the existence of the Chinese man half a world away.
No one would have asked questions on the nature and peculiarity of other men if all of them looked the same, with the same facial features, the same body structure, the same culture, and hence the same character. Why would I be interested in you if in fact you are just the same as me? I would not have the usual motive to know you and to get acquainted with you, in order to inquire more upon your conditions in life, about your family, and your occupation if you are just the same as me. I would not have converse with you with the same level of interest as when you have blond hair and stand so tall while in contrast I am short and have brown skin. I would not be able to understand you as much, for our monogamy in person would make me inquire about you lesser.
Let not the differences in race and creed divide us but instead let them allow us towards unity and enhanced understanding among people of different roots and credos. We are brothers and sisters all, born from the same Creator, the same Maker. We all must agree that all things come from the one Creator, the only one God. We are all the offspring of the Lord.
Indeed, the rewards of the obedient are bountiful and aplenty beyond expectations and the punishment for those who have been defiant to the dictates of the Creator shall be of suffering that is also beyond the boundaries of our human comprehension. The reward is an everlasting life of joy and happiness in the Kingdom of God while the punishment is never-ending suffering and castigation in hellfire.
A spiritual renewal and reawakening of humanity must come soon and a world of understanding and harmony must be pursued in order that humankind shall be cleansed of the many evils that have pervaded within and around us. It is for us to thwart the many evils that had enveloped our everyday lives as well as the many great evils that give the peace of this world its present fragility.
Global terrorism and racial wars are stains to the very idea of a livable world, as God had intended it to be, as men nowadays kill in the name of false pride and false dignity, upon groundless assumptions and flawed conclusions.
Jews are greedy many say and soon conflict arises. Arabs are bloodthirsty and discrimination easily prevails. America is the great evil some say and upheaval takes place violently while the real evil permeates somewhere else. Europeans are imperious, they say and isolation results. Asians are too close-minded, and prejudice takes strength.
And ultimately, one Christian is against one Moslem and one Jew would be against one Christian.
These are causes of conflicts that are hounding us today and many times in the past and these causes, if we examined them closely, are grossly specious and unwarranted; when the truth of the matter is that many great conflicts that the world faces today merely arises from the basic evils each of us suffers. The envy and hate of one man injures another man. The envy and hate of many men injures the peace of the world. In order to repeal the great evils that harms us in a global scale, it is but time to heal ourselves with the many and “common” evils we face everyday. To stave away the great prejudices in this world, we have to take away first our personal prejudices.
If we could not defeat the evils in each and every one of us, then how could we aim to defeat the great evils that hound the entire humanity? All great evils come from the small evils in each man. For the devil implants in us a seed of evil and this seed would grow into full fruition if we do not stifle them with great faith in God and in the righteousness of man. In order to change the world, it is essential to change the self first.
In our everyday lives, many evils occur around us that their incidence have already reached a certain level of acceptability, as if they are merely part of our everyday life---a routine, a culture, and a habit.
Men in government steal everyday and we say there goes just another government man. Men gossip against another everyday, and we just say there goes another gossiper. Men lie in order to gain advantage almost every time, and he is just another opportunist.
There are many in our midst---a neighbor or a co-worker---who covet another man’s wife or lust upon another man’s daughter or son, and yet they are not so much already as a surprise to us all. And everyday many lives are taken due to the violence of some men; and while indeed killing is ever contemptible, we could not anymore escape their seeming ordinariness.
We must repel these “common evils” and rebel strongly to their occurrences. To lie and to gossip may be small faults and yet does a gossiper enter the Kingdom of God? Of course not, for a habitual gossiper would only disrupt the peace and harmony in Paradise. Therefore, gossiping then is just about similar to stealing and that to killing. If to gossip is never to enter the Kingdom of God, then what makes it less detestable than to steal or kill? (A lesser punishment perhaps for a lesser crime.)
There might be the cognizance of lesser crimes as compared to graver crimes but why should we risk losing the Kingdom of God with lesser sins when both the gossiper and the murderer shall be cast away from the Promised Land and thrown into “the vengeance of an eternal fire”[2].
What we need today is a total cleansing of our spiritual selves, to go back to the roots of basic ethics as declared to us in countless ways and in too many instances, over and over again, whether in The Torah or in The Holy Bible or in the Noble Qu’ran. For all these books, no matter the discrepancy in their roots, declares adherence to the same basic concept of ethics, a code of conduct that is uniform regardless of religion or creed for every religion is very similar in their propagation of good and the casting away of evil deeds, where stealing is intolerable as well as gossiping and where fornication is ever abominable. If every religion despises the thief and the fornicator what difference does it make then?
Let us go back to the dictates of the Holy Bible, of the Noble Qu’ran, of the Torah, or of the teachings of Buddha and Confucius. All religion preaches the propagation of goodness and the avoidance of evil and in them our salvation is secured and the dictates of the Lord God, as declared in many times and in many forms, are far too clear in fact for us to ignore them. The desires of God on how to go about our conduct were simple that to feign ignorance is almost criminal. Even if you have not read any book on religion or hear the sermon of any preacher, you could always determine what is good and what is evil by invoking the discretion of your heart and mind, and ultimately the inquiries of your consciences. For example, the act of murder is absolutely disdainful to anyone and wherever it may happen for it takes away the right of another to live and causes intense sorrow and difficulties to the kinsmen of the dead one. You do not have to read the Bible or the Qu’ran in order to know that murder is wrong. We feel a burden in our hearts whenever we commit wrong. It is like a microchip imbedded to us by God so that we may not be led astray and yet many among us have opted to disregard this mode of self determining the propriety of our conduct, preferring to lavish their earthly instincts by disregarding the callings of our consciences, leading them ultimately to no other place but their own perdition.
Stealing is abhorred in every religion. Killing is always heinous. Adultery and fornication are pure abomination in whatever religion. Gossiping is vice always.
On the other hand, sharing is ever enriching. Helping the poor and the needy a must to us all. Every religion teaches us to love our neighbors and to have the greatest faith in God---the Creator of All things---these are the usual works and traits of a man with great faith whatever religion he may profess.
All these dictates (in whatever book they are contained) are all very simple and easy to comprehend that we do not need extraordinary intelligence in order to know what is good and what is bad. It does not matter if the dictates came from Jesus Christ, from Abraham, from Moses, from Prophet Mohammad or from Buddha; for if we examine closely all their teachings, they are very similar to one another, that is, the propagation of the good and the avoidance of evil.
Every religion may be peculiar and unique on its own ways that certainly many differences arise. However, these differences are what we call marginal and does not often comes in the nature of substantial matters. These variances often come in social conducts and customs like the food we eat or the rituals of prayers yet the basic ethical dictates are generally similar. At the bottom of it all is that, it is not how we have faith in religion but how we have faith in God.
We need merely to realize the undeniable fact that God existed long before any religion arose, before the word “Roman Catholic” or “Islam” was conceived. And God has no religion. God loves the proper and obedient may he be a Chinese, a Russian, an American, a Jew or an Arab. The Christians pray while kneeling. The Moslems touches the ground with their foreheads. The Hindus does not eat cow’s meat. The Buddhist meditates for long hours. These are differences merely in the conduct and practice of religion. For Americans eat potatoes as staple while Asians have rice on their table everyday. Europeans have wine upon every meal while many of us have water instead. These differences are not reason for us to kill each other and be separated by prejudices for in fact the differences among us were meant to make this world more livable, to have synergy and diversity in our existence, so that a true brotherhood of man could be attained, where there is the acceptance that your brother may not look like you but still he is your brother.
For how could we ever imagine a world of Catholics all in faith or of a world of Asians all in race? The world then would be an existence of monotony, without assortment and diversity, and that would be a boring and insufferable world. When variety does not take place, no one would travel anymore in order to learn the unknown, for the conditions in other places and continents would just be the same as the place where one is coming from. And all the things that are found there are also found in the place where you are. Trade would not prosper if every civilization in the past produced silk, mine gold, molded porcelains and grow spices, olive oils, cotton and tea---all at the same time. There would have been no Spanish galleons and Chinese junks crossing oceans in the past. The Spaniard would not have met and known the existence of the Chinese man half a world away.
No one would have asked questions on the nature and peculiarity of other men if all of them looked the same, with the same facial features, the same body structure, the same culture, and hence the same character. Why would I be interested in you if in fact you are just the same as me? I would not have the usual motive to know you and to get acquainted with you, in order to inquire more upon your conditions in life, about your family, and your occupation if you are just the same as me. I would not have converse with you with the same level of interest as when you have blond hair and stand so tall while in contrast I am short and have brown skin. I would not be able to understand you as much, for our monogamy in person would make me inquire about you lesser.
Let not the differences in race and creed divide us but instead let them allow us towards unity and enhanced understanding among people of different roots and credos. We are brothers and sisters all, born from the same Creator, the same Maker. We all must agree that all things come from the one Creator, the only one God. We are all the offspring of the Lord.
Indeed, the rewards of the obedient are bountiful and aplenty beyond expectations and the punishment for those who have been defiant to the dictates of the Creator shall be of suffering that is also beyond the boundaries of our human comprehension. The reward is an everlasting life of joy and happiness in the Kingdom of God while the punishment is never-ending suffering and castigation in hellfire.
posted by yusop @ 9:30 AM
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