Talking To God

Saturday Stories

November 24, 2018

I

I used to wonder what I'll say if I could ask God one question. My ideas ran from "Why am I here?" to "Why do bad things happen to good people?" One day, I was at the public library near Fuente Osmeña. I was getting a book from the shelf, then I realized I've taken the one next to it – "Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue," Book 2, by Neale Donald Walsh. "This book," he says, "has arrived in your life at the right and perfect time." I felt what I can only describe as "resonance." Soon, through a series of what I can only describe as "synchronicity," I got my own copies of Books 1, 2 and 3 – and I was able to hear the messages on a deeper level.

II

Some will say it's just a fantasy. Neale asked about it, and God told him: "You will know these words are from Me because you, of your own accord, have never spoken so clearly. Had you already spoken so clearly on these questions, you would not be asking them." How we feel about something would tell us if it is authentic. As for me, I just knew it was God Himself, but in a way that words cannot describe. The messages are clearly coming from the highest source because there is no judgment nor self-righteousness. God says: "The Highest Thought is always that thought which contains joy. The Clearest Words are those words which contain truth. The Grandest Feeling is that feeling which you call love."

III

Now I understand why God doesn't show Himself in physical form. We see only through the filters of our own individual characters and beliefs, so He would look differently to different people, like in the Indian fable of the five blind men and the elephant. One person will say God is like this, another will say God is like that, and since their views don't match, they will persecute each other in the name of God. Then another person will say it was the Devil in disguise, while another will say it's a false prophet because the End of The World is coming. God meant his revelation as an inner encounter. He says: "When inward experience has revealed Godself, outward observation is not necessary, and if outward observation is necessary, inward experience is not possible."

IV

God has answered all my prayers. Yet there were times when I thought He didn't, but now I know He did – everytime, each and every one. The answer is always "Yes." When I told Him wanted something, I received the experience of wanting. A plea is a statement of lack, and what manifests is the experience of lack. God says: "The correct prayer is therefore never a prayer of supplication, but a prayer of gratitude. When you thank God in advance for that which you choose to experience in your reality, you, in effect, acknowledge that it is there." I know I won't ask God a question anymore. I'll just say "Thank you!"

Photo courtesy of Amazon

Listening To Angels

Saturday Stories

November 17, 2018

I

One of the most inspiring stories I've ever known is about the Russian scientist Dr. George Rodonaia. I first knew him in Are We Listening To Angels? The Next Step In Understanding Angels In Our Lives by Robert J. Grant when I read it about three years ago. Rodonaia was assassinated by the KGB in 1976 – and on the third day, he rose from the dead. He literally woke up in the morgue as the embalmers were about to cut him open.

II

Then, last year, I met him again in "Life After Life," a spiritually uplifting documentary about near-death experiences featuring Dr. Raymond Moody. I saw it on YouTube while looking for something else, and it happened at a crucial time in my life – when I was beginning to learn that there are no coincidences in the universe. I felt so happy when I read about Rodonaia's experiences while he was dead. It's not easy to explain why I know, with absolute certainty, he was not making it up. No one can fake a sense of peace and completeness and homecoming that are impossible to express in words. And he didn't even believe in God or in life after death because he was an atheist.

III

What makes the book even more meaningful to me is the inclusion of the Edgar Cayce readings on angels. Edgar Cayce was a devout Christian who had the ability to go into trance and access any information. He gave individual courses of treatments to people with seemingly incurable diseases whom doctors had given up on – and he had saved tens of thousands of lives. I always think of Edgar Cayce as the epitome of a decent man, a good husband and father, and a loyal friend. He never enriched himself, mostly giving free readings. His photo studio business was affected because he wanted to help as many people as he can, even as his health and finances suffered. It was as if he somehow knew he wouldn't be long in this world. All throughout the many financial difficulties from his refusal to exploit his powers, his wife Gertrude and his children and their closest friends stayed true to him and never left his side.

IV

Edgar Cayce is one of the most documented clairvoyants in history. I know that a lot of religious people condemn psychics, and my favorite irony is that I have become closer to God because of a psychic – because of Edgar Cayce. The Cayce reading that is most significant in my life was the confirmation that Christ is indeed divine. And the revelation was not colored by Cayce's beliefs because the reading also confirmed the reality – and explained the deeper meaning – of reincarnation and karma. My belief in Jesus took on a different character, and although I'm longer "religious" in the conventional sense, I also found myself having more respect and acceptance of other people's beliefs. This is why, when so many Christians felt threatened and defensive by the fiction novel The DaVinci Code, I felt solid and secure in my own inner convictions. I believe in Jesus because I believe in Cayce, and I know he was genuine because, until his death on July 1945 in his home in Virginia, his entire life has been a testimony to his simplicity, humility and incorruptible integrity.

Photo courtesy of Youhuaaa.com

Why I Am Not Scared To Die

Saturday Stories

November 10, 2018

I

I want to die like Luke Skywalker. I would be at the top of a mountain, gazing out into my beloved ocean, a witness to the most spectacular sunset in the world. My clothes would fall on the ground as my physical body disappears and becomes at One with The Force – if that is not too much to ask. 

II

I know that some people think of death as "morbid." Their logic is: whatever you talk about, you call it to yourself. I get that. So they don't talk about death – but they complain about life all the time. I am not afraid of death, though I'd like stay for a bit  I'm happy and I live a meaningful life, so I'd rather stay longer. But if it is my time to die, then I'm ready – even if it comes at this very instant. I find it amazing that some people think in extremes – either you completely ignore the subject of death, or you mentioned it because you are suicidal.

III

A friend and I were talking about posterity a couple of weeks go. I said it's okay if people forget me when I'm gone, and, for the record, I don't even want a funeral. This is because I believe that the real me is my soul, not my body. Many people have shaped my views on the afterlife, such as Raymond Moody and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, the pioneers of the modern scientific study of near-death experiences. My life has changed because of spiritual teachers I never met but whom I consider as my own –  Abraham Hicks, Gary Zukav, Neale Donald Walsch, and Wayne Dyer, who taught me one of the most profound lessons I learned – "You are not a human being having a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being having a human experience." 

IV

I have deep respect for people who save lives, like paramedics and firemen. Yet at the same time, I believe there is nothing shameful about dying. The soul knows when it is time to return to the Source, and there is a sense of Grace when you surrender to a Higher Power. I have been further blessed by the wisdom of the many teachers in Journeying East: Conversations of Aging and Dying by Victoria Jean Dimidjian – including Ram Dass and my beloved Thich Nhat Hanh. Now I know that if I accept Death as a natural part of my journey, then, and only then, I can fully embrace this miracle called Life.

Photo courtesy of MeetMattFraser.com

In The Arms of The Angels

Saturday Stories 

November 3, 2018

I

I want to share a story I never told anyone before. It happened on July 2007 in Avenida, or Rizal Avenue, in Manila. It was around nine in the evening. I was walking from the Santa Cruz district to Tayuman, on the way to the funeral of one of my closest and most loyal friends. Then in the corner of Mayhaligue, four men tried to mug me. They just walked up from behind and surrounded me. One had a knife just below my right rib. They took me in front of a locked establishment where it was dark, and pinned me to the accordion gate.

II

I have kept it a secret all these years. Why? Because it is totally unbelievable. If it hadn't happen to me, I may not have believed it myself. First, I felt so calm, my mind was so quiet, that emotions seemed irrelevant. And second, and even more inexplicable, is that they just went away. Yes, they just suddenly walked away. I did not do nor say anything. They also said nothing and did nothing, not even to reach into my pockets. One of them tried to get my watch, but their leader dragged him away. No one had come, no lights blazed nor sirens blared nor any shots rang. There was no reason why they would leave – but I'm glad they did. I was not hurt in any way, and I wasn't scared at all. Weird.

III

I started to walk as if nothing happened. A young man on a bicycle under the streetlight asked me if they had taken anything. I told him No as I passed him, and I have to admit it was the most embarassing moment of my life. It was not the first time that I've been so calm in a situation where the normal response would be fear. But for what it's worth, I'd rather be me than be normal. The only reason I mention it now is because of "A Book of Angels: Reflections On Angels Past and Present, and True Stories of How They Touch Our Lives" by Sophy Burnham. Apparenly I'm not the only one who had these kinds of experiences, and there is great comfort in knowing that.

IV

So I wanted to write a short four-paragraph note about angels. I began to type on a Notepad, just letting the words flow. When I saw it is becoming too intimate (and too long), I also realized that the most authentic story I could tell is my own. More than once I have asked a silent question, then I felt an impulse to do something that led to an answer. And many times I've asked for signs, and they would come, mostly in unexpected ways like a song on a radio or in the shirt design of a complete stranger. Some people would say that those things – and what happened to me that night in Manila – are just coincidences. They probably are. Yet ... something ... tells me they are not.

Photo courtesy of JeanMHheimann.com