40 couples for change

how to grow in a marriage : 40 couples for change

this is the year to express  my gratitude, to make my future  bigger than my past. so this week, i started listing 33 woman friends who i value. i want to thank  many women and men friends  for bringing colour and aroma to  my life .

today,  i continue the process and thought of  ” bonded couples” whose marriages and passion mirror what ed and i see as lifetime growth lessons.  it matters that i begin acknowledging their importance in our  marriage.  they provide the various strands that make the community  to which we express our love . it will be a bonus if they join us in sharing their own lessons  in their marriage.  the blog’s title is  an invitation for them to share  “how  to grow in a marriage.”

my first growth area is the community to whom we acknowledge our love -  where we locate  family, friends and people who know us and value our love. when we got married, ed and i did not just marry each other. we married each other’s family and  its culture and  history . charles handy,  ed and my favorite  modern philosopher , said to his son who was contemplating marriage ” beware, it wont be just the love of your life that you will be marrying, but a whole new family.”    this was also the gist of  what my mother told ed when he went to ask for my parents’ blessings. i have a big family, twelve siblings plus members of our  extended . ed willingly, with his eyes open wide, told my parents, he knew what he was going into and answered with a big smile  ” Alam ko na po“.” my parents welcomed ed with all my siblings cheering because, finally, there was a priest in the family,  even if he were officially  laicized by  vatican – with  permission to leave the church but under obligation,  in times of emergency, to give the sacraments when needed.  my parents had prayed for a son -priest but none of my brothers  entered the seminary. with my marriage, the family had gotten what it wanted, on the principle that ” a priest is a priest forever ” and that was a gift from heaven for  my parents.

the second growth area, where all my bonded friends  matter, is the work we are passionate about. charles handy said ” passionate people move mountains where missionaries can only preach.”  in all the martial law years we spent in the country and  overseas, many passionate couples provided  not just safe refuge but a truly national and  international perspective on work and love.  our life is better because we have all these couples in our work.

we thank you for the opportunities you  provided. we thank you  for all the work you did  and  continue to work with us for our country. we thank you  for helping us grow into who we are now -  moving  mountains with a passion  .

to all our  friends, which we call ” couples for change” , maraming salamat for the ripening and colouring of our marriage : jane maestro and cliff scherer,  dolf and hanneke hautfast, francesco and dixie alessi, brida and nonoi hacbang, malu and evert de boer, lulu and ton van der meer, arnold and norma vandenbroek, chato basa  and massimo, osang and byron bocar, edna and alex aquino, john and edith clancey, cesar and pinay palad, minda and dick groeneveld, maya and carlo butalid , princess and dodong, bm and belle, gani and lisa, sally and gerry, larainne and rene, lorna and wingie, iting and mon, oca and edna, lito and oyie, boyet and luz,  eric and petra, chuchi and cha, beth and tony, corinne and rene,buddy and shinette, joel and merci, salie and bong, eddie and joy c., bel and richard, monette and darwin, eddie and oyen d., delia and chuck, joel and hanneka, deng and benny, belle and ayi, mc and emely….  i will add more  couples  but for now, will post it now to get everyone tagged.

How to start 10 million solutions for climate change with two solutions

Ed blogged about Earthday’s campaign for ten million solutions. “Girlie, let’s list small and big actions to get the ball rolling for climate change.”Ed said as his first task one  morning. “Well, we are already doing it in our house and in the  E4 Resource Center in marunong street.” I replied.  So for everyone, we will share  our   small and easy solutions.

First, cultivate three plants :  mother-in-law-tongue plants, areca palms and money plants  in your house and office. These three plants are  effective in cleaning the air toxins inside the house and office. The scientist Kamal Meattle explained that it you have all three in shoulder length heights, it will convert carbon dioxide to oxygen and  also rid the air of nitrogen oxide and formaldehyde.   If  you dont know what these plants  looks like,  go to http://www.ted.com and find Kamal Meattle as  speaker on cleaning the air .

Second, start learning bodytalk.  It simply means, ask your mind what needs to  prioritize and do it with the whole body in balance . To understand how to do it , visualize your whole self as a growing universe  of  websites, bigger than Facebook and Google  subscribers . Go and imagine yourself as a   living computer, with a superb operating system and a search engine that can go anywhere, inside other operating systems, living or nonliving.  Each day, whether you are awake or asleep, your bodyweb operating system  is at work, sensing, asking  and communicating, working with millions of  your neurons, cells, nerves, bones, muscles and ideas and dreams . Every second, messages are sent by the brain to the heart to  monitor what needs to grow, glow and go.  With our lives becoming enriched by so many messages inside and outside our bodies, we select what we need or want to do. It’s fine  we are healthy and in tune with all that we are. But when we get ill and dont heal easily, then it means our body system is not able to work as it should. There may be a virus wrecking havoc on our codes and deleting vital signals. When we cannot make sense of what is happening and  health professionals tell us we have a serious  incurable disease like ALS , then it means  we failed  to listen to all the signals our brain was serving us.

But we dont have to wait  for a death sentence . We can  learn in one hour or one day  how the brain and heart balances  its  health act. Bodytalk is based on this discovery of our body universe and its innate wisdom . It  combines Western and  Eastern medicine to provide us a portable health operating system. It’s features are easy and even young children from ages one to five can do it.  It is a system that allows all living things and non-living things to contribute, like a universe in synchrony. Hence , a vital contribution to changing our lives and  environment for the better.

Bodytalk has many health programs and one of the better systems is that of the International BodyTalk Association . Please visit its website http://bodytalksystem.com and learn what,why and how it serves our need for effective healthcare.

Now with these two solutions, my day is complete. I can breath better and get my bodyweb growing, glowing and going well into my 60th birthday.

smelling apples on a xmas pine tree

Yesterday evening , i smelled  apples on a pine tree. ayen and i were at an evening mass and i was suddenly filled with the image and aroma of apples and pine. then i  remembered Anke Reese, a dear German friend I met in the early  80s  in Polch , Germany. i closed my eyes and my mind was transported back to the potato  fields where Anke and i used to walk in search of potatoes for dinner.  as i knelt on the pew, i saw Anke and i scooping up the dirt and picking  small potatoes.” Here are good potatoes that the machine did not harvest.” Anke was telling me. She told me that  German farmers have specific sizes for their potato machine to harvest and so many potatoes are left to rot. “It will be a waste not to take them home,”Anke told me and so I was happy to fill my basket with all kinds of small  potatoes. I can still see Anke picking the smallest potatoes and handing them to me. The sun was already setting and we hurried to get as much potatoes we could carry. “Tomorrow we will have enough food .”Anke smiled.

The next day, Anke brought me to the apple orchards and we picked apples . “These apples are no longer popular for the market,  their variety are considered only for making juice but they are really delicious.”Anke  told me that we would store them in the basement for the xmas season. Around December, I saw Anke hanging  them on a pine tree and lighting candles on the branches. It was the most aromatic xmas tree I ever enjoyed  and the whole house was filled with apple scent. i sang xmas carols with the Reese family and wished our kababayan a good xmas . thenw e hugged each other.

The evening  mass that Ayen and I were attending was about to end , and I hurriedly whispered a prayer for Anke and her husband Gunther, who both worked as german  devt volunteers for more than two decades to restore democracy to our country. when we got home, i told Ed that i remembered Anke. “I must contact Niklaus, her son, to find out if today is her  birthday or her death anniversary. It is my experience that when I  remember someone so vividly, there must be something she wants me to do for her.”

Amore, big and small

Yesterday, many friends, from Edna Aquino in HK,  Maya Butalid in  NL to  Chato Basa in IT  wrote on my Facebook wall that they will join me in writing stories of friends who kept us alive and safe during those years of turmoil. I suggested we blog in WordPress to start the writeshop and storytelling. I also asked Ed to help out jog our memories of life and  friends in Europe.

Tonite, Ed is telling me about Clare Booth Luce’s advise to use a sentence to describe a life. That got me going back to my computer to write this blog. What sentence will I choose to begin our story of  life in Rome ?

Will it be freedom is the most important goal of our life ? After five years in political detention and  many solidarity campaigns all over the world for his freedom, Marcos agreed to release  Ed in April 1980  on the condition that he be exiled to Rome. Ed flew to Rome accompanied by Inay and  he stayed with the SVDs until September 1980. Then the  Italians agreed to host a  Permanent People’ s Tribunal for the Philippines so cases against the Marcos dictatorship could be filed and heard. Ed was asked to help prepare the cases and he wrote me to join him in Rome. Visas for Europe were easy  then and all I needed was a reason to enter Rome. I packed my bags in October and said goodbye to my teaching job at Miriam. Wearing a furry coat and hat, I arrived at Da Vinci airport early in the morning. I  already smelled  the aroma of capuccino and  saw many people lining up to pass the immigration control.  The passport control officers were  tall and  macho.  I chose the line towards a handsome officer, dressed in sartorial elegance . He asked me ” Why are you here ?”  I  smiled and looked up in his eyes, then slowly  enunciated my reply  as a  woman  in the throes of love      “A M O R E “. The officer laughed and with a gesture, repeated the word “Amore”.  I went straight to Ed’s welcoming  hug and boarded the bus to Rome  where I noticed couples were already kissing passionately.

“Amore” became my lens  to the work  of the  Italians in the tribunal.  Ed introduced me to the Italians who   started  a solidarity campaign to restore democracy to our country during the martial law period. I met Francesco Alessi and  Gigi Ricciarelli, two ex-priests who worked in ZOTO before they were deported by Marcos. Ed was staying with the Alessis in Eur and Ed brought me to stay with them. The next morning, Ed left for Belgium and Francesco and Dixie, his wife, took care of me. Eur city , I learned from Francesco, was the suburb for fascists.

Francesco became my mentor in Italian language and culture.Every morning, Francesco would cook and simmer tomatoes for the sauces . His sauces smelled of fresh basil. After breakfast,  he  would accompany me to Rome and while driving, he would curse other drivers who swerve and cut him out with ” Cretino, salametto!” wagging a dirty finger. Sometimes, Francesco would shout ” Salamacho” at other drivers and raise his fist. I asked him what all the cursing meant. ‘Salametto means small dick and salamacho is a big one.”  Images of small and big became part of my education in Rome. For the Italians, Francesco and Gigi, big is the norm and they did everything in a big way especially  in holding the tribunal. I have never been to a tribunal, much less participated in an international court. The Permanent People’s Tribunal was held in Antwerp, Belgium and was a successful event for both the Filipino  national democrats and the Bangsa Moro warriors. The event introduced me to many nationalities from various countries, from Europe to North America, and opened many doors of friendship. It was a solidarity platform that  got Ed and me started on a long journey of amore.

Magic Now

Last Sunday Dec.20. I went to see Avatar with Ed.  How beautiful the movie is and wish we could touch all the luminous plants and insects that Jake, the principal earthling, discovered in Pandora, the  brave new planet in Avatar.

Our daughter Ayen, who saw it the next day, wished she could live in Avatar, without clothes and in communion with luminous beings. Such luminousity made me remember what Lito Tiongson said when he crossed beyond . As I was preparing for his funeral rites, he sent me a magical sense  of ” the luminous worlds”. I couldnt see at first what he meant, as I was cutting paper for the sarimanok  wreaths. All I could remember was the colours and various shapes that evoked a sense of great love. I promised Lito someday I will see what he sees – and that was what Avatar gave me. It was magic for me to see Pandora in 3D. Scenes of  luminous dandelions floating and communicating with beings, neon mushrooms opening and closing, dancing and swirling like dervishes, giant mountains floating in the skies, and the great pure Tree of Light  that provides everyone the memories of their  ancestors – that was the closest I can think of what Lito found as  a heaven beyond our threshold . So the movie is a gift – a gift so magical for today.

I wish Maloi Tiongson  and her family will see Avatar together. It is, I believe, the magic  of love and respect for creation we need today.

How to enjoy being 59 years old

Being 59 is a  season for grace for me. I will not subtract a year nor add. The Chinese round it up to 60 while many women describe it as feeling 29. Women have been changing how they look at growing old. In the age of cougars – or women who take young lovers – it is the time to enjoy being a full woman. This is how I feel – being a full woman but I need not be a cougar to enjoy good sex. 

What does 59  years bring ? A sense of confidence that what I have and who I am is what I worked hard for. My dearest friends sent me various essays on enjoying life yesterday as I limber up to 59 years.Of all the texts that I got as greetings, one sassy friend asked me to have as many orgasms for the two of us – which meant that she had not been enjoying it. I texted back that she would receive hers via my chakras.

Women friends who have menopause frequently describe their sex life as “Gone with the Wind”. Being a woman does not stop with the end of menstruation and fertility. A 59-old body  doesnt feel like a’ Venus rising from the sea ‘but it can provide many joys, almost like an Indian summer. This is how Ed describes me when he looks at me ” You ,Girlie are in bloom ,like an Indian summer, all the colours and shapes are in their brightest and expressive tones.” Yes, that is what I look like – my hair dyed in various shades of brown,my weathered skin moisturized daily with virgin coconut oil, my cheeks patched with rashes and my breasts reaching below the bra line. Sometimes I have to get a walking stick to get to the toilet in the morning.I cannot read text smaller than 12 fontsize nor do sms in a minute.

 But when I look at my feelings now, I have lots of red chilies,  spicy orange, radiant purple, electric blue, and  delicious green. Even the way I see friends – they are  my silver and gold. Five to six decades of growing have opened my eyes and ears to the degree that I want to live to ninety-nine years.

Being 59, I know many things now. Am bodywise. I do have many aches and my body always issues many signals. I know now why my hands cannot twist all the caps when opening drinks. But many nieces and nephews can serve me all the drinks I want. I know now why I cannot carry ten kilos of  groceries up three stories.I need not worry because many boys and girls carry my load when they see me. I know now why I  cannot do kayaking or water skiing. My daughter Ayen can do those sports for my fun. My body will not allow me to do what young people do because my muscles, my bones and my heart have the strength of a 59 year old.  Having  so many adventures, I wear my body as a seasoned coach. I am grateful my body advises me what I can do. Am not complaining since my legs and lungs can still bring me to many places where I see friends and exchange stories ,eg. walk around Edinburgh and Glascow last September, travel to Zambales farms last week, fly to Cagayan de Oro this week and meet many peacebuilders like the BMFI people. How many women can be as free to go wherever one wants to be?

So, women, we dont have to hide our age. We earned every day of  each year we live and love.Am proud I am 59 and happy. Ed lives longer because he knows I am whom he wants as a smartmate.

How to celebrate advent,xmas and the new year

Tonite, I have to start organizing  how Ed and I will celebrate the holidays. It is going to be simple since in the previous seasons we were caring for Inay. We will miss Inay but we are comforted by the thought that her xmas will be the real one since she is where Jesus lives. For me,  celebrating with loving people will be the priority, not just family but friends and community.

First are the people with whom we  share meals and gifts. Christmas is a time for us to see people we seldom see due to our work . We will go to Lucena  first, clean our home which we seldom live in , put up a native bamboo xmas tree, adorn it with gifts and  have Ayen enjoy her many cousins . I will probably gift my siblings  my home made vinegar laced with tarragon and rosemary. If this vinegar passes their palate, then I will give them to  my elementary and high school classmates whom I couldnt visit during their birthdays. Should my vinegar be a success, I will share them with our more discriminating neighbours and godparents. I will even bring some to the Carmelite nuns to thank them for all the praying they did for us.

On a fantasy limb, I told Ed I wanted to raise a million pesos for reforesting  Mt. Pinatubo as an Advent event . Three items came to my mind : I would raise a million pesos, distribute them in  crispy new twenty pesos bills to fifty  thousand tree volunteers and have them all plant the trees in  Mt. Pinatubo when New Year arrives. Ed smiled when I told him I already went to MetroBank to reserve a million pesos worth of twenty peso bills. Even the bank manager and staff were challenged by my request. I didnt tell them that I would still have to find the million pesos. So I threw my request to the cosmic basket. Once the universe  grants my request, I will be pursuing this mission.

After this cosmic wish,  we will go  to Naujan   and partake of the festive menu. Am going to buy  more organic rice and vegetables from the Mindoro  farmers of  Go Organics. We havent been in Naujan since Inay died in February and will bring a bouquet to her grave and that of Ed’s father Vivencio. Ed is planning to visit Ormeco, the electric cooperative in  Oriental Mindoro  and discuss how consumers can develop their voices in the light of electricity rates going up.

After taking stock of my resources and time , I will suggest to Ed  developing stronger  links with the organic farmers of Quezon by scheduling a  green  festival in Sariaya or Pagbilao, depending on what Rep. Procy Alcala and our Go Organics  movement can whip up. We find Procy Alcala very enthusiastic with organic farming and his green  agricultural program is very much evident in the Sariaya market. I plan to buy a 100  kilos of all the vegetables  in Sariaya after the New Year ’s feast and gift them to friends  who survived the  three typhoons. All I have to do is find the  Three Kings who will act as sponsors for the organic food  shopping.

People,organic  food, vinegar-making  and raintree foresting in Mt. Pinatubo   will fill up my holidays . By the time 2010 arrives, I will probably be smelling of vinegar, tarragon  and rosemary. Hopefully, it will lead to my raising a million pesos for Mother Earth. Then it will really be a  Great  2010.

They are our Mothers

Since the massacre in Maguindanao, I have been grieving and reading all the articles  and reports. The one item that has not been discussed is the fact that many of the victims were mothers,  both were Muslims and  Christians, some were human rights lawyers, media,  teachers and professionals, but many were mothers. I do not accept that what happened is part of the rido culture and that demons were behind the massacre. To reduce this brutality to a Muslim cultural practice is to excuse the masterminds and inflict more injustice to our Moro sisters and brothers. To label the killers as demons is to box in  criminal minds  and bar people from doing the right thing . Demonizing criminals enhances their power, imposes a climate of fear and weakens action that is possible among citizens. Many clans, from Cagayan to Basilan, even those in  Metro Manila must act against such powerful display of brutality, that lawlessness in those areas challenge members of the the modernizing elite to reform our justice and political  system. It is a fact that during elections, more violence is committed by those in power. Steinbeck said that  ” power corrupts but  the fear of losing power corrupts more.”

What should we do now ?  There is a Buddhist practice that we can develop as  a meme  : mindfulness and seeing the mother in all of us.  In planting the motherhood meme , we must regard  both victims and enemies as mothers. The power to kill mothers, wives, sisters should not be allowed to take root in our nation. This power can be challenged when we switch to  a powerful meme :  that all of us are mothers.  As mothers, women and men  have the power of life and truth. We carry every life to full term and  we have the duty to raise our voices and end all these  violence.

Every week, get people to wear their protest.

Then around Xmas time, enliven the period with loving mothers  issuing the call for truth and justice. Mga Ina ng Bayan tayong lahat.

Innate Wisdom

Ed asked me last night ” You havent been blogging Girlie.” “Yes, I havent been writing anything since my foot swelled and I couldnt go out.” I realized that being house- bound had made my writing difficult and that I needed to see, listen and talk to my body. Since my left heel became painful, I went to the acupuncturist for weekly treatments but last week, the foot that had been treated swelled and became very painful. My first impulse was to call the acupuncturist doctor for her to see me. I changed my mind and decided  to take responsibility first and did my bodytalk access protocols. I wrote to my bodytalk mentor Dorothy Friesen and she promptly did a distance scanning of my foot.

Let me first refresh people what bodytalk access  is so you can benefit from this blog. Bodytalk is a health system, a complimentary system that is consciousness-based. It taps the innate wisdom of our bodies and does not claim panacea for all illness. When Ed and I took a course in bodytalk access in January 2009, we were taught to respect our body integrity and to ask permission first before we do anything, especially if we were to help someone. After the course, we were encouraged to practice it on ourselves and our families. I tried it on babies, toddlers and on family members. I practised it daily and saw positive results. During small emergencies, I am able to use it as a fast aid, eg. cuts, bruises, stomach aches, colds, coughs and fever. My most painful dental treatments have become manageable with bodytalk. Even my bouts with food , eg. when taking food cooked by upset chefs, had been relieved by bodytalk  access protocols.

How does one tap innate body wisdom ? Dorothy Friesen does it via biomuscular feedback. She taps the part that is painful and asks. If she gets an bioelectrical pulse, she proceeds to do the protocols – simple steps where the brain and heart are tapped. There are five protocols we learned and they are all very easy to do. Even three year -old children can learn to do it. The protocols are done to maintain wellness and bodytalk does not claim to be a therapy for all kinds of illness. What it promises is that we become aware of our health issues and how we can deal with it. There are many body issues and the bodytalk practitioners do not engage in diagnostics, they focus on what our bodies want to do. Perhaps the word ” body” is not very succinct but since we have only one body, one mind, we focus on ourselves as a body.

But how do we know when we are really ill? Our bodies send many signals of which pain is the most common. When I did my foot scanning, I realized immobility is a deep source of fear – I am afraid to lose my mobility and my ability to help others. When Dorothy did a remote scanning ( since she is in Canada), she told me about my wanting to do so much for people who suffer. After Ondoy and the suffering it unleashed, I tried to do as much as I could to help. But I felt I didnt do enough. I reflected on the relief work, on the stories of those who needed help and the attitudes of people who were saved from the floods. I realized what many learned – that people have to rely on their neighbours, on families and friends to be rescued. The local government and authorities were not up to the task .The appeal to do fast emergency work were taken on by private samaritans. All these issues were in my feet.

So what am I to do ? I have to accept, as Dorothy advised, that I am one grain of sand in the sea shore. This is what I mean by coming to terms with myself and my health. I can be a samaritan my whole life, of which I am but I cannot be doing everything.What I do each day for others is part of a greater whole. With this attitude, I hope to heal my foot. Every step I take when I wake up will be a walk towards a golden day. Every day, I will practice mindfulness, this is my healing promise.

Communicating with ourselves towards a healthy life

Today, I realized I have been listening well to my body. After several nerves and muscles  in my body, from  right hand carpal nerve,  TMG nerves, and now my left tendon nerves sent me pain, I practised body talk access , which meant tapping  my cortices daily  for nine months, going through  reciprocals and insuring body hydration. My carpal nerve pain left without a fuss and I can now use my right hand, my TMG allows me to chew my food and use my new teeth enamels and my left heel allows me to walk ,though slowly. What does this mean to non practitioners? That pain is the alarm clock of our body but to attend to this pain needs a mindfulness that we need to develop.

Our body is not  a mere physical matter which our minds  inhabit. We are a living energy mass and we can learn so much from how our body system operates. Each part of our body is wonderfully organized into several systems and the various systems operate like a metropolis, there are cities inside us and we have to learn how they all work together to provide us the animating force :  life energy.

When we were babies, we learned everything by being curious, using our senses to a degree unparalleled by any machine made by human hands. In my experience, I started practicing bodytalk  on three  six month old babies, baby girls  who could not talk yet . Now, after six months of practice, they tap their heads when they see me and one of them said “Tap” with her hand trying to reach her crown. But what is amazing is that they know something positive is happening when I tap their heads and hearts. This tapping accesses their innate intelligence and allows them to see many things as positive. For older children, three to six year old children, it is different because they can already talk and so I always ask permission and explain why I am doing it.

As we grow older, our systems get to learn about the culture where we are born into. As we grow into a more challenging environment, eg. growing up in Manila, our systems developed various kinds of operating systems. In the case of mindful living, we begin to see the various facets of life and we start organizing categories in our mind. For those who are into wellness, we begin with a diet and exercise that we think is healthy. We live equate health with the absence of illness and suffering. For people who are into  wholistic living, they weave the  physical, the biological and psychological , the social-economic and  the political life into one integrative life. Our minds create all kinds of categories and we develop several languages to express these . In the study of medicine, there are many schools that promote  preventive health and in such schools, the promotion of a longer lifespan free of illness  is dominant.

Now why do so many people fall ill ? Last week when I went to my doctor, she said “Next year,2010, cancer will the number one cause of death in our country.” That made me think and be mindful. Yesterday, Nov.2, I counted all the people who matter to me who died of cancer, from my relatives to friends in the activist circles. Yes, the number indicate a rise in cancer as the main cause of death.

Having prayed for these loved ones who crossed over, my thoughts go to the cycle of birthing and dying. What arts and sciences have contributed to a mindfullness of  living and dying?Is spirituality a better  field of learning so that we may be free of fear and doubts as to what life is all about?

Ed spent his whole day yesterday listening to the online  talks on the charter of compassion. I have never seen Ed so immersed in a program and I asked ” Why are you glued to the laptap?” “because I think this project of  a charter of compassion is a good one and I wish to develop it further.” “Give me a handle what it says.” The Buddha way is one.”Ed answered.” I plowed on ” I read the fourteen precepts of the buddhist community in France, is it similar?” “Ed “It suggests of thinking of the mother in everyone, even in your enemies.” “Even in the most criminal  persons?” ‘Yes.”

That is another bodytalk, the way of the buddha, which means the awaken. But I am far behind in this discourse. I have studied few texts on Buddhist principles and practices. As of this conjuncture, I cannot say more about being enlightened. What I can say is that we need to practice mindfullness and bodytalk. We can learn so much in the innate wisdom of every system inside us. That is why being reflective, meditative, even just being  quiet, is healthy.