Illumination

May 24-30 Edition

Herman Hesse

Tony Robbins

Loving Nature

Talking To Strangers

Hermann Hesse

March 25, 2014

Tuesday

This is my text to my childhood friend GD

When I replied to your text message this morning, I found myself writing a timeless essay about who I am, where I am and where I want to be at this point in my life.

I have revised it, like a Buddhist monk tending a bonsai, and the new version has given new life to my magazine article about Siddharta, the young hero of Herman Hesse's classic novel.

Hesse has faced the same emptiness when it seemed his juices had run dry, not knowing what will come next as Siddharta has finally achieved spiritual enlightenment. What happened to me earlier is like the burst of creativity that inspired Hesse to finish his unforgettable story of the young Brahmin who I've identified with so much. I'm on a Zen state of mind.

See also my story on Hesse's Siddharta 
and Beneath The Wheel and The Journey To The East

Tony Robbins

April 6, 2014

Sunday

I live my life with my personal guide posts. I learn ideas from the lives of others, get only what's right for me and apply them to my own.

I got one of my core values from Tony Robbins. "If you keep doing what you're doing," he says, "you'll end up getting the same results."

The idea is: if I want a new destination, then I have to go into a new direction. If I stay on the same path, then I'll end up going around in circles, stuck without even realizing it until it's too late. I will never be like that.

Tony Robbins

How To Focus

Tony Robbins is one of the stars of one of my published magazine articles, "Insights From My Virtual Mentors," which is now part of Huggybear's Corner, my first non-fiction anthology.

Talking To Strangers

March 6, 2014

Thursday

I was having my coffee break around dawn, planning my coming vacation leave.

I was thinking how I had forgotten that a Higher Power is guiding my life. 

I can't believe how much I had stressed myself lately about things that, as desirable they as they are to others, have no significance to me.

A guy came up to and asked for a light. He asked me if I'm going to the gym today. Apparently he recognized me. I didn't know him.

"You're from Manila, right?" he asked.

Actually I'm Atlantean, I thought, smiling inwardly at a private joke. I'm used to people who say they know me. Of course they really don't. None of them do.

He began telling me about his plans to go there and set up his own foodcart business in no less than high-end Bonifacio Global City. His own company, mind you, not some overpriced franchise for sissies. He said he would love to ride in the crowded MRT train. That means contacts, he told me, which means more customers.

I'm also used to I'm also used to carrying on a smooth, talkshow-like conversations with anyone. I even prefer total strangers than plastic acquaintances who show their "concern" with unwelcome advice about how I should live my live.

Loving Nature

April 5, 2014

Saturday

I love the outdoors. I love fresh air. I love to gaze at the clouds that serenely go by on Indian summers. I love watching the stars twinkling in the night sky. My heart is full of love.

If I were to design my own house, it's going to be in a farm. I love to plant, to work in the soil, to make things grow. I love animals and trees and running water and living rocks. I will build a Zen garden, my own refuge from the madness of the crowd. I will breathe in the healing and purifying energy of nature. I will live in harmony with the planet. I will be at one with the universe.

Conviction of The Heart

Kenny Loggins

(See the Huggybear's Favorite Songs From Kenny Loggins)

"One with the earth,
with the sky,

one with everything in life!

I believe we'll survive
if we only try..."