The Seven Mansions of the Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila

1. In this mansion are those of good desires, those who pray. However, they are still absorbed primarily in their possessions, honors and business affairs.

2. In this mansion are those who are searching for something deeper. They read the Bible, spiritual books, seek good friendships, and find themselves struggling against evil inclinations. 

3. This mansion belongs to those who do not desire to sin, even in the smallest way. They practice mortification and penance. They attend retreats and days of recollection. They are charitable to others. They maintain all things in their life in a balance. Yet, there still is a desire to search for something deeper. 

4. In the fourth mansion belong those who are experiencing infused prayer, also called the prayer of quiet. Their prayer is passive. It is peaceful. The movement is inward towards the Self where eventually it will meet its Lord. The most important virtue here is love. 

5. Here the person begins the prayer of union in which all the faculties of the soul are suspended. Teresa says it is like God becomes the cocoon in which the person dies. It is a period of darkness, but yet the soul is certain beyond doubt that it is with and in the Lord. During this period the soul grows more in love of neighbor, humility and faithfulness to prayer and the Lord. 

6. Here Teresa speaks of spiritual betrothal. It takes place during a rapture, when the soul is drawn out of its senses. It is a time of special 'secret' teaching between the soul and its Beloved who appears to the soul. Great courage is needed to take this step because the soul will be purified even more, not only through human trials and sufferings, but also through contact with the human person of Jesus. The results of this mansion are: a deep knowledge of God and self, humility, rejection of all earthly things that are not needed to promote love of the Beloved, and a joy so great that the soul cannot resist shouting it from the housetops. 

7. The mansion of spiritual marriage. When the person is ready for spiritual marriage, the Lord removes the scales from their eyes and they see and understand how beautiful they have been made by the Lord. Thus, fortified, they are united in marital love deep within the Self. They become one, and no longer fall into ecstasy. All mystical experiences are con-natural. It is not so much now what they do, but with the love union that they do it in.

Love Chronicles #3

We humans are good at burning bridges. It's easy. It's addictive. Pride and arrogance can easily consume us like drugs. When our friends hurt us, we tend to push them away and we always have that desire to escape the relationship. Worst, burning bridges is easy as 1-2-3.

I have burned a lot of bridges myself. I escaped some relationships which are actually the good sorts. I became a selfish, self-righteous, envious monster. Sad, but true. We can all relate to this (I hope I am not alone, haha).

On the other hand, building those burnt bridges again is never easy. It takes a lot of courage and humility to apologize, to say 'hello' and to offer a hand. No matter how hard it could be, let us build them anyway. Relationship matters. Love matters. 

***

Filipinos love for the underdogs.

We all heard of the "Amalayer" incident--the furious girl talking and shouting at a lady guard on duty. Filipinos reacted and they were really affected on the issue. It was a trending topic in twitter, facebook and youtube. A crowd of netizens became "haters" of the girl and they have posted harsh words against her and her manners. 

After a while, another group of netizens came to the rescue and told them to stop cyber bullying the girl. They told the other group not to judge the actions of the girl because we haven't really seen the whole picture or the story behind it. 

One thing I admire about Filipinos is their love for underdogs. Aside from the telenovela culture in which we all love the "bida" and hate the "kontrabida", its innate in us to make "pagtanggol the inaapi".  In this case, both the lady guard and the furious girl are standing on the same ground. 

Whether you are part of the first crowd or part of the second, a Filipino will never stop caring for others. And that's part of being human. :)

Me and my Cousins--Through The Years

1992

1993

1998

2011

2012

Jan, my partner in crime. LOL

Behind Glasses

Here are my shots today, November 8, 2012, using my New Lomo Cam. They were all taken behind a glass--the windshield, a car window, a store window, etc. 

Makati City, Philippines.

Makati City, Philippines 

The Busy Streets of Makati. 

One of my personal favorites. 

This was taken at a Christmas Decor store in Trinoma. 

I love the design of the wall.

I am in love with the glass effect. Really Lomo-ish.

Can you see the face of Obama? Congratulations to him. 

Rainy day in North Edsa.

By the way, I lied... I don't have a lomo cam, but I can make things look awesome haha. 

November 6 Field Work

The following pictures were taken during our fieldwork last November 6. We invited some participants for our trade fair this month and other activities.

This picture reminds me of Cambodian art. A bas relief taken from Mary Ann's Handicraft. 

Baphomet-ish fiber glass sculpture. Scary, yes!

I think this is the real thing. Brgy. Gandus, Mexico, Pampanga. 

Mount Arayat, Arayat, Pampanga

The very heroic dog. Magalang, Pampanga (infront of DAR office)

The mirror house. Ellen's House of Frames and Crafts Showroom. Apalit, Pampanga. 

A picture of my shoe inside the mirror show room. Apalit, Pampanga. 

Lantern Tour

Christmas is nearing and the Lantern Makers of the province are already "bombarded" with orders from all over the world. It's a good sign. It's their season. It's their time to shine. Get it? Shine? LOL.

Anyway, the task of our department is to provide them with new designs which will be useful after Christmas Season. It's pretty cool, you see. Unfortunately, I cannot post the prototypes developed by these manufacturers. It's a no-no! It's a deadly sin. Haha. Kidding aside, we want to respect the privacy of these manufacturers. 

Instead, I will post the behind-the-scenes of one of the factories we are assisting, Rolrens Lanterns and General Merchandise. 

Getting up close and being able to see how these lanterns are made is an honor. I am excited this Christmas. 

Love Chronicles #2

Our college teachers usually open the class with a prayer. But theology teachers are different. They open the class with a prayer, but they also close it with a prayer. Kailangan yun siguro because of the mere fact that they are theology teachers and its a Catholic School. 

One afternoon, my Theo teacher closed the prayer with the shortest prayer I heard. After the usual sign of the cross, she prayed: "God of Love, teach us to love, Amen", then the sign of the cross again. It was short. I don't understand it. I know that length is irrelevant but I grew up in a lengthy-praying family. My mom is a prayerful woman. She prays for ages. So, the 7 word prayer is new to me. She got our attention because of the shortness of the prayer, but not really what the prayer means. I was 15. 

After 8 years, the memory of that Theology class and the prayer came back to me. I realized that its not just a 7 word prayer but its a 7 word prayer that we all need to pray. Loving is freakin' hard. It's never an easy task. It's a sacrifice. Gaya nga ng Love Chronicles #1, one takes to be awkward to love.  We are given the power to love, but we are incapable to express it for we think that its just an idea. Love hurts. Love entails hardship. Love is sacrifice. We need God to help us love. His love is the perfect example of love. 

God of love, teach us to love. 

Amen.

Love Chronicles #1

Let me write may first tagalog-english post. iakakapagad mag English, nakaka nosebleed. Anyway, this is a collection of love-related stories and sabe nila, Love can be expressed in many language. 

This "love chronicles" is my daily observation about how good people are and how love is present everywhere. So in short, this is all about LOVE.

***

It was 7am. I arrived an hour before our first subject. I was a freshman in college. Before my classmates arrived, I placed a smiley pin on each desk, 40 of them. I told myself that I will make this batch happy, so I did some random acts of kindness. When they arrived, I saw the smile on their faces as well as shock. Nagtataka sila bakit may smiley pins sila. 

During that same semester, I have come up with a pseudo reality show through text. It's a big brother inspired text game but the "housemates" are all cartoon characters--spongebob, mickey mouse, snow white, etc. During "eviction" all my classmates vote for their favorite housemate. The cartoon character with the  least number of votes  will be evicted. It was funny that my classmates are actually talking about it during break time. The twists and turns of the game is really fantastic. I made this batch happy, and Im sure of it. 

Don't get me wrong. This is not to boast about the "good things" I did in college. Actually, looking back, I am asking myself "Bakit ko ginawa mga yun?". What got into me to enter such an awkward state. I should be the quiet guy. Ako dapat yung mysterious guy. Hindi dapat ako mainvolve sa katatawanan. I am not the high school kid anymore. I am in college. I need to be mature.

But I was thinking, LOVE will always be awkward. Instead na mafeel ko ang awkwardness, I got frustrated that I am no longer living a life of whimsy. I entered the safe zone. I lost my zest to do such stuffs. Love left me. No. Actually, the love that was left in me is the love of self. Ang napapasaya ko na lang ngayon ang sarili ko. 

I want to live a life of whimsy again. The goofier the better, as long as it is done with love. 

And that reminds me of Jesus' love for us. It is actually strange that he saved the world by being born in a manger and died on the cross. Goofy but POWERFUL! 

Prayer for the Heart and Will of God

Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know,
to love what I ought to Love,
to praise what delights Thee most,
to value what is precious in Thy sight,
to hate what is offensive to Thee.
Do not suffer me to judge according to the sight of my eyes,
nor to pass sentence according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant men;
but to discern with a true judgment between things visible and spiritual,
and above all things always to inquire what is the good pleasure of Thy will
- Thomas A. Kempis (Germany/C. 1380-1471)

The Reason Why I Love November 1: Family

The reason why I love November 1...its all about FAMILY. 

Nephy-poos

Im becoming more irritated every time my nephews are playing their "COMPUTER GAMES"... It's a pet peeve. They are missing a lot especially the awesome childhood we had, like 15 years ago. 

So I have decided to open the telly and let them watch scary TV documentaries. Serves you right, nephy-poos. Be afraid. Be very afraid. It's part of growing up and you will regret missing it, all because you've spent your childhood playing videogames. 

Blogs I Love #1

Let me promote my good friend Darren's blog! Although his blog is written in Chinese (He's Malaysian), his pictures are awesome especially the Lomos. His passion is contagious! He's one of the people who encouraged me to blog again. 

check out his site: www.juzlif3.blogspot.com

This was taken during his visit in the Philippines. 

My SHINDAN Experience

First, I really need to write this post so that there's no way that I will forget the awesome experience I had last week  during my Shindan Level 1 Training in Makati. Second, I promised myself to contain everything in one post, although I firmly believe that it's near impossible. (BTW, SHINDAN is a business counseling course provided by Japan International Cooperation Agency and BMSMED of DTI)

On my way to Makati City...

Makati is not new to me. I worked there for 3 months, but this time, I am excited to be back. Anyway, its a sleepless Monday morning when I left home. Worst, it's just 4 am but the buses are crowded. So I have decided to catch the next bus, regardless if I'm going to stand throughout the travel or sit on the floor. God is good he gave me the seat next to the bus driver. It has a nice view plus its a new experience for me. Because I don't have anything to hold on to every time the driver hits the brakes, I have decided to use the handle of my trolley. It was desperately done, but I never felt any discomfort during the time. God is good. 

New Friends...

My room mate was from the Mountain Province. My "night life" buddies were from Laguna, Aklan and Palawan. My groupmates were from Samar, Abra, Ilocos Sur and Cotabato. To make the long story short, I met 40 new friends all over the country--40 different accents and culture with 2 different religions (Islam and Christianity). 

The Learnings...

The whole training was all about Business Counseling. The trainors taught us on how to counsel, to mentor and to coach. Although this is nothing new and this is just a "normal thing" for all of us, we have learned a lot by emptying all our glasses. In fact, I had paradigm shifts on some theories and concepts of entrepreneurship. Special thanks to our professors during the training. Good job! And to the organizers of the training, your efforts are highly appreciated. 

The hotel was nice even though Im on the 35th floor. Glad that the view is breathtaking. I also appreciate the telly where I was able to play the Doctor Who series using my USB. Walang ganyan sa bundok.

Prof. Jay Bernardo (upper left) is my faaaaavorite speaker throughout the training. His wit is incredible. Prof. Cynthia Caballero (upper right) helped us unleash the empathizing counselor within. Prof. Jun Bernardo (below) showed us the practicality of entrepreneurship as well as the profile of an entrepreneur. We are blessed to have them as our speakers. Imagine, mga Asian Institute of Management (AIM) profs mga to mga tsong!

Being with people older than me is really a blessing. The wisdom is unfathomable. I love being with them. I thank God that I met these people! I thank God for the opportunity in general. Im really overwhelmed. 

This is God's grace at work. I heard it. I tasted it. I felt it. 

Eng Bee Tin's Custard Classic

Can't get enough of Eng Bee Tin products especially their Custard Hopia and their Mochi balls. After attending Manila Fame, we went to Binondo (Chinatown) to buy goodies. 

You should really try the custard classic. Highly recommended!!! Xiexie.

Manila Fame October Show

The opening of the Manila Fame was successfully conducted last October 17, 2012 at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City. I was glad that the manufacturers from Pampanga dominated the furniture sector. 

I like the statement of Ito Kish about liking "anything Filipino". I have to say that Filipino designs and patterns are unique in the world. I fell in love with native designs and indigenous materials since I entered DTI-- abaca, water hyacinth, buntal, bamboo, etc. My interest for commercialized bags was dominated by bicol-made bags. I am very Filipino! Haha

One area was allotted for our very own indigenous brothers and sisters creating works of art. I am really proud of my roots. The colorful culture seen through colorful garments is just fantastic!

Music from the south added mood to the cultural village. 

Im sure you are familiar with these naughty figurines from the north and the highlands. The ever creative Filipinos added some twists and "style" on these uniquely Filipino art. 

Outside the center was a Jeepney Arts Festival, also part of Manila Fame. They showcased the "king of the road" at its best. 

The queen of talkshow, Ms. Kris Aquino was there to feature our manufacturers. The furniture industry really neeeeeds loads of marketing from influential people. This will help a lot. 

I was able to meet(again) Ms. Alona of Betiscrafts (the tall girl in the middle). I asked her if I can take pictures of their products and post them somewhere online. Obviously she allowed me. They really want to promote not just their own business but the industry as a whole. FYI, the show is not the usual trade fair where you can take pictures anywhere. It's upon the discretion of the exhibitors to allow you because the designs of these items can be easily copied.   

I enjoyed this fair because not only I was able to know the trends of a certain industry but it's a cultural refreshment for me...to understand how complex and amazing Filipino art is and to know that we deserve a huge place in the international market.