Learning love..it just dawned to me I should always be giving to everyone but most especially those whom we love our family or friends. I have learned to appreciate acceptance of the differences I have with others even if it is against my religion and beliefs or my culture or from my own wisdom but I have learned to see try to see the goodness that each one have. It may be short, overflowing or uptight but just the same what matters is there is goodness in everyone's hearts. I don't need to be right nor claim any righteousness but to have enough respect of the effort each one tries to put up amidst personal adversities maybe to save one's face or for the simple reason that a one can not give what he doe's not have. But by being supportive and understanding, I am sure it will allows other to feel joy, gratefulness and inspired. See my expectations are high but i leave it to myself now and never again be the benchmark for in doing, I carry the burden of unwanted frustrations. As my favorite saint would say..Make me a channel of Your peace........Good night everyone!!

Don't Mistake Your Candle for the Sun!!!
I have been toying in my mind how to bring this thought out and my childhood friend Medardo Panlilio, neighbor classmate author and in short a brilliant sterling mind gave me this inspiring title...Don't Mistake Your Candle for the sun.

It goes with "Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing" A Quiet River Runs Deep, An Empty Tin Can is stood differently so thus my folly.

Noisier Than a Filled One" Nevertheless, it's my own story that I unraveled. So I learned but under

I was sensitive..meaning easily offended, because I wasn't aware of the goodness that I have..

I was jealous because I failed to discern my own and others' gifts
I was angry because I thought I am unjustly persecuted but it was just the world moving on its own, thus, I dug deeper into my own misery.
I was defensive because I thought other people's actions and thoughts threatened me or derogatory but actually they're just trying to survive on their own just like anyone.
I was reactive because I thought other people's actions and thoughts were against me but actually they're just trying to react the same way I do. The hard part is accepting these differences and be less delusional that I am the center of the world

So I have mistaken my candle light for the sun. I thought the world revolves around me. And to my chagrin there are billions of other candlelights everywhere.

So I thought I was just a negligible fool to this world and as weak as it is yet it is still mine to protect and still be a respectable entity. Defensively.

Though I knew all along of that bigger light, my refusal to accept it has an end. We all learn at certain point in time.

This amazing light that can change the darkest of nights or souls. It can melt all the icy coldness in everyone's hearts, it can break all walls that is restricting us and so powerful that it can eliminate all fears, doubts and anger in us. It can illuminate everything

I pray that may all our thought, works and words bring or point everyone to the bigger light that gives life. There is a way. HUMILITY, the background of faith, the foundation of love, the fabric of patience.

I believe this and somehow relieved....This can be confusing though if we make judgements and condemn others to sin of their omission like gay relationship and gay love or worse gay sex.

Do the believers in Christ among the LGTB should have a ticket with this verse and equally with the many "straight" men and women who do extra marital or premarital sex? But I guess all is fair as long as each one does it for the sake of real love and not lust, permancence not permissiveness.

I believe too that marriage is sacred and only for those who would like to start families and have kids together because raising a family is sacred undertaking. So sexual pleasure is not something that should be qualified as animal act because it is beautiful but a biological need that should be satisfied as humans???

Being gay is not a choice never a choice it is just what it is and has physiological needs on its own. Never that it is man made so I believe it is God's creation too. Judgement belongs to God alone, not on man's intrepretation of whatever verse and learning, to accept and respect this diversity not as a malady but as our own individual challenge.

How i pity a gay boy or girl tortured by biblical verses against who he/she is. They should experience love on their own by all means and i will venture my own unclear unevolved personal opinion to go ahead experience love but keep your dignity and self respect and go with the partner who would entrust you his /her own sincere being. Not the from one bed to one another's bed existence for these I think is a  symptom of someone who has never experienced love and acceptance in life.  Everyone should learn to reign in one self and understand why one should  exercise restraint in character.

Tragic how our judgements can over come, destroy and misconstrue love, a gift from God used against His own believers. If we continue using the bible to accuse, judge and persecute anyone then we missed the real value, story, challenge and the inspiration the book is telling us.

We can not let our limited minds interprete one as infinite as God, the enormity of His love character for it is beyond our capacity to explain and contain.  Even so to the nuances of the writers' thoughts and situations or intentions during those times it is being written..Yet as we always say the Bible is timeless and timely. Let it's beauty unfold and see how wonderful it is by letting go of our fears and limitations and let the Infinite BE our own existence. Let us be respectful and accepting of others.

Though difficult, we can start with ourselves.

The Why to Hows..very enlightening.

I love Eckhart Tolle. I remember reading his book, The Power of Now in 2010 and from that moment on, whenever I feel that my mind is drifting, making too much noise and keeping me from being fully present and engaged in the NOW, I immediately go back to reading his book. I have learned so many wonderful lessons from reading his inspiring books, watching his lectures, and today I would like to share 27 of these  life changing lessons with you.

Enjoy

1. The present moment is the most precious thing there is.

“People don’t realize that now is all there ever is; there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind.” 

“…the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions.”

“Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.”

“Don’t let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment.”

“Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.”

“As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love – even the most simple action.”

2. Wherever you are, be there totally.

“Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.”

3. Always say “yes” to the present moment.

“Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.”

“Accept – then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.”

“Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? what could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.”

4. Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”

5. Don’t take life so seriously.

“Life isn’t as serious as the mind makes it out to be.”

6. Love is not to be found outside of you.

“Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you.”

7. The more you dwell on the negative, the more obsessed with negative things your mind becomes.

“People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgments, guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.”

8. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. 

“To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.”

9. There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it.

“There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.”

10. Letting go requires strength and a lot of courage.

“Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.”

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” ~ Eckhart Tolle

11. You are a Human Being not a human doing.

“In today’s rush we all think too much, seek too much, want too much and forget about the joy of just Being.”

12. Give up defining yourself and others.

“Defining yourself through thought is limiting yourself.” 

“Give up defining yourself – to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life. And don’t be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it’s their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don’t be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.”

“Once you have identified with some form of negativity, you do not want to let it go, and on a deeply unconscious level, you do not want positive change. It would threaten your identity as a depressed, angry or hard-done by person. You will then ignore, deny or sabotage the positive in your life. This is a common phenomenon. It is also insane.”

13. You are more than your mind.

“On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a joyous energy behind what you do.”

“To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation.”

“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.”

“Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not ‘yours,’ not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you.”

“The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not “the thinker.” The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.”

14. Where there is true love, there is no ego.

“A genuine relationship is one that is not dominated by the ego with its image-making and self-seeking. In a genuine relationship, there is an outward flow of open, alert attention toward the other person in which there is no wanting whatsoever.”

15. Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.

“To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them – while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease.”

“What you react to in others, you strengthen in yourself.”

“Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.”

“Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.”

16. Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.

“Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.True power if within, and it is available to you now.”

17. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain.

“Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain. Whatever the substance you are addicted to – alcohol, food, legal or illegal drugs, or a person – you are using something or somebody to cover up your pain.”

18. Exclusivity is not the love of God but the “love” of ego.

“Love is not selective, just as the light of the sun is not selective. It does not make one person special. It is not exclusive. Exclusivity is not the love of God but the “love” of ego. However, the intensity with which true love is felt can vary. There may be one person who reflects your love back to you more clearly and more intensely than others, and if that person feels the same toward you, it can be said that you are in a love relationship with him or her. The bond that connects you with that person is the same bond that connects you with the person sitting next to you on a bus, or with a bird, a tree, a flower. Only the degree of intensity with which it is felt differs.”

19. Seek to live authentically.

“Authentic human interactions become impossible when you lose yourself in a role.”

“Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.”

20. We don’t “see” God as He is, we see God as we are.

“Man made God in his own image…”

21. Seeking is the antithesis of happiness.

“Don’t Seek Happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness.”

“Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.”

22. What you give is what you get.

“For what you do to others, you do to yourself.”

23. Any action is often better than no action.

“Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it’s no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing.”

24. If you make the fountain pure, all will be pure.

“If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without.”

25. The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly.

“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly — you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over.”

26. Worry is a waste of time.

“Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.”

27. If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating the same world.

“Humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve or die. … If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction.”

What is your favorite quote from Eckhart Tolle? What is the one lesson you have learned from this beautiful and incredible Soul? You can share your insights by joining the conversation in the comment section below 

Acres of Diamonds

Either heartbreaking or heart warming story. 

A man owned a farm but got tired because of slow pace of success coming in, sold the farm and went around to the world to pursue his dreams....unfortunately he lost everything trying to make his dreams come true. 

Either you're patient and know how to persevere.  To wait and learn from an orchard that it takes a while to be rooted on the ground, that you grow in time, get strong and bear fruits. 

The man who bought the farm tilled it patiently, appreciated its stony nature even bringing with him in his altar those stones which he though was beautiful but clueless of its value and worth.  Until a Pastor came to their house saw, got struck and recognized the stone.  Asked where he got those stones, he proudly showed he got it from the farm he tilled.  Voila, they were diamonds  and De Beers Diamonds was born.

Sometimes what is given us or where we are is actually a gift that God willed for us but we are restless souls and we can't sometimes see the blessing of where we are.  When Abraham was left with the lesser productive land when Lot chose the river banks for his family and pasture, Abraham took it and did not despair for God has has promised that because of his faith he will be prospered more.   Lot suffered setbacks, he and his tribe were captured looted and became slaves but of course Abraham came and rescued them. 

The element of faith should sustain us even when we thought somewhere is a greener pasture .  Because what we have is a gift all we have to do is count our blessings, open our minds and hearts. In life there is always that wanting or longing that somewhere is a greener pasture waiting never realizing that where we are now is as rich as anywhere but then we can see only what we want to see. 

We are blinded by our desires for more, a symptom of our poverty mentality, of lack of, continuously TRYING. We do not seem to understand that we are already given what we need...precisely because we are restless souls...

We need to stop, calm down take stock and feel the blessings...absorb it in our system in our souls that our subconscious would know that we have gifts that we are abundant.  We have to be conscious of this to initiate a shift or a change. 

The state of our minds is the state of our environment We create our environment.. We create our lives because we depend on our own resources  (But should be by faith by God) What we think is the content of our minds, what we think is our thoughts, our thoughts become our words, our words become our actions and our actions define our lives. 

There you can say life or success is not a geography thing. 

We attract what is in our minds no matter where we are.  When we found a friendly place to live, made friends, and some job, then must it be that time where the the essence is to let things flow and  embrace these blessings.  We should  let these blessings grow in us deep in our souls and let them attract the same and not dissipate them with our wandering or uncontented hearts and minds. 

Weary of the blessings that comes or not ready to receive these blessings, we  kicked it out just as it has came in because our mind set is not ready.  Wonder why many lotto winners end up poorer after a little time? Why they squandered their wealth  so easily as it came.  Simple.  Poverty mind attracts the same so all the forces and  elements come in droves to reinforce it. We must learn to keep, hold sit on and protect the blessings for sometime to feel and absorb the energy to get the confidence that we are no longer in need but have enough.  To have an enough feeling translated to thoughts attracts one and the same abundance of blessings.  Good luck

Lou Lou Fall 2016 Couture Lou Lou is a brainchild of Ms. Lou Razon who hold court at the burgeoning City of Glendale. Lou hails from Manila. She started her career by working her way at the Fashion and Fabric Center of the world in Los Angeles CA. She learned the ropes from the best of experienced designers from the bloody competitive world of the LA Fashion Distict, the hub of the movers and shakers of the world fashion. For seven years she did and learned everything from pattern making, designing, sewing and fitting which laid and reinforced the foundation for her creative genius. Seven years and Lou decided she's ready to take a crack at the fabulous world of fashion. So in 1997, inspired by her own love affair with fabrics and haute couture, she put up her own boutique. She knew she can make a difference with her own unique idea how to make a woman fabulous with the right design. Thus just a few years after, she dressed up a top lady newscaster on mainstream TV and definitely it was a great ego and career booster as no less than George Cloney was fascinated by the whole package. Lou wants her woman stylish, elegant and sexy. It takes an eye to know what looked good on someone but the challenge lies more on how to make the design work to flatter the sometimes intricate body contours. She is excellent both in design and execution. Her works speaks of timelessness, elegance, feminine and innovative designs. Last March 2016 FWLA, she lauched her Lou lou lines using the rich materials of silk, brocade and lace. It was an instant hit as she came up with incredible innovations of workable elegance, sexy to the limits of being edgy yet refined and graceful. Lou Lou will again come back for Fall 2016 collection.

Ed Rame Ed Rame I believe this and somehow relieved....This can be confusing though if we make judgements and condemn others to sin of their omission like gay relationship and gay love or worse gay sex. Do the believers in Christ among the LGTB should have a ticket with this verse and equally with the many "straight" men and women who do extra marital or premarital sex? But I guess all is fair as long as each one does it for the sake of real love and not lust, permancence not permissiveness. I believe too that marriage is sacred and only for those who would like to start families and have kids together because raising a family is sacred undertaking. So sexual pleasure is not something that should be qualified as animal act because it is beautiful but a biological need that should be satisfied as humans??? Being gay is not a choice never a choice it is just what it is and has physiological needs on its own. Never that it is man made so I believe it is God's creation too. Judgement belongs to God alone, not on man's intrepretation of whatever verse and learning, to accept and respect this diversity not as a malady but as our own individual challenge. How i pity a gay boy or girl tortured by biblical verses against who he/she is. They should experience love on their own by all means and i will venture my own unclear unevolved personal opinion to go ahead experience love but keep your dignity and self respect and go with the partner who would entrust you his /her own sincere being. Not the from one bed to one another's bed existence for these is a bad symptom of someone who never never experienced love and acceptance in life. Tragic how our judgements can over come, destroy and misconstrue love, a gift from God used against His own believers. If we continue using the bible to accuse, judge and persecute anyone then we missed the real value, story, challenge and the inspiration the book is telling us. We can not let our limited minds interprete one as infinite as God, the enormity of the word love beyond our capacity to explain and contain, and the nuances of the writers' thoughts and situations or intentions during those times..Yet as we always say the Bible is timeless and timely. Let it's beauty unfold and see how wonderful it is by letting go of our fears and limitations and let the Infinite BE our own existence.