Taoism is one of the most popular religions in China. It is not only a religion where many Chinese believed, but also a philosophy. In the year 440 CE Taoism, had transformed into a religious belief and was adopted as the state religion during the late East Han Dynasty. It has been said that the most famous founder of Taoism, Laotzu and Zhuang Zi did not intend to found religion. Laotzu and Zhuang Zi coined and developed the idea of Tao. It the essential life force that flows through all living beings they also believed that nature was the source for all spiritual living and all humans could only thrive if they lived in harmony together with the environment. Tao also pronounced as 'Dao,' can be defined as ‘path,’ ‘road,’ or the ‘way’. The Tao is the way of nature and of ultimate reality; it is often described as a force that flows through all life. We can say that our life is a happy life if it is in harmony with the Tao, with the nature.
In philosophy, Taoism is understood that the Tao is the one Thing that exists and connects the many things, all the living beings. Tao, nature, and reality are one they are the same in meaning.

“There is a thing, formless yet complete. Before heaven and earth it existed. Without sound, without substance, it stands alone and unchanging. It is all-pervading and unfailing. We do not know its name, but we call it Tao. .. Being one with nature, the sage is in accord with the Tao.” (Laotzu)

This is how Laotzu define the Tao. Tao is difficult to understand for it is something that we cannot see, yet it remains… that lived from the start to the present as something. It is called complete because of all that gathered as one. The center of Taoism is the Tao, which is the natural order of things and cannot be explained for senses, cannot grasp it. Tao is the natural way of the universe, the driving power in nature it is the order that hold all life and the driving force behind all living things. It underlies everything and works beyond human logic. Taoists believed the Tao is the origin of the universe and created all living beings. Taoists worshiped all living beings in the universe and everything else created by nature, that they are worshiping the nature. Taoism is a religion that is having the faith and worship to the nature as the mother of creation. It is the belief that shows gratitude and celebrating the unity of living communion of all living creature in a nature where all are celebrating their lives having the purpose from and for each other. Taoism has a belief on what they called Wuwei or non-action. Wuwei does not mean to do nothing as its literal meaning. It means to follow the natural flow of nature and let everything be on its natural movement, and trying not to change the works of nature, as let it be done according to nature. Taoism also advocates Wuyu or the non-intention that gives the people idea to be careful and to be aware of all their possessions, which people should not desire too much, the desire for worldly things such as money, power, fame etc. thus in our lives, everything that is too much is bad, for all that is enough in our lives promote a living that is balanced and having peace of mind, living in compassion, moderation, simplicity and humility these are the values of life that Taoism promote. Dialectic Taoism holds an opinion that the movement of Tao is continuous interplay between opposites. Taoists also believed in Yin and Yang as the negative and positive principles of the universe. One cannot exist without the other, and they often represent opposites in relations to each other. Yin usually means negative, female, dark, evil and earth while Yang means positive, male, light, good and heaven.

Taoism is a religion that shows importance and great faith to the nature as the in the union of all living beings. It gives us the feeling that to understand things around us and to know what are the reasons to our struggles in life, we need to be in one of the nature as to be one in the universe. Living in a life of balance and acquainted to the nature.

Religion has a great impact in our lives. It leads us to view life in a very different way. It is usually our strength in times that we are so hopeless and already falling. It is used to be our hope when everything seems to be hopeless, or everything turned away from us. It is used to be our refuge in times that we felt we are alone and being rejected by others. It inspires us to continue living our life despite of all the trials and difficulties that we have, or we will meet along the way.

Religion or faith has only one purpose. Its purpose is to gather all the people, regardless of their race, belief, and nature, because it serves as the path of all the people that will guide them so that they can gather as one; to be the children of one common Father- God. Yes, there maybe so different images of God that people possesses in their lives. But this God has a common purpose; to bring and maintain peace in the whole world by gathering all their children and to teach them to love one another. We can only have peace if there is existence of love within us. Peace is our heaven here on earth. We can only give peace to one another if we know how to love one another. We can only bring peace to the world if we let love to reign in every corners of the world. Love is the mother of peace, and if there’s love within us, there is no such a thing that we can do. We can make a better world for all of us wherein we can all together live without boundaries, war, persecutions, famine, corruption, etc. All of us are happy and at peace. That’s why our faith is created with love and for love, because God himself is love. This is the aim of religion to teach us to love and make it as the center of our being and the purpose of our existence.

The purpose of religion is to make us one. But I’m wondering why that there are these religions that are taking another way of viewing things. They are making boundaries out of their religion and condemning those who don’t belong to them. They are even fond of telling that those people who don’t belong on their faith will be punished by their God. That’s why it creates a question in my mind that why do they need to condemn people and other religions. What kind of religion or faith do they have? I thought that religion or faith brings us closer to our God which also means that we possess also the goodness of God. Possessing the good works of God will not only stop on our mere words but it must be proved in our lives. We should live with it. So why are these people acting this way? Aren’t their God is God of peace and love? Why do they create boundaries and condemning other people?

Gandhi on his philosophy about the equality of all religions, he is trying to say to us there is no supreme or a dominant religion. Religion is created for the spirituality of every being. It serves as the communication path way of every human being to their God. Religion is not a competition. It was not created to create a dominion in the land or in material things. Religion is meant to dominate the being and the spirituality of men. It dominates the inward side of man so that he can be guided to do what is good not only for his self but also for the others. Religion increases the spirituality of every human being so that his desires will not only dwell on what are material or earthly things, because these can’t give him the total happiness. True happiness can’t be found on the pleasures of human designs but it can only be achieved through the things which God has given to us so that we can experience true happiness and satisfaction in life (Family, friends, relationship, etc.). It is only by possessing God’s will in our lives that we can attain a blissful life.That’s why religion for Gandhi is not a competition. It must be equal, and it must respect one another, because it is the guide of all the people towards unity and peace.

Religion is our guide to be with our God. So it must be the source of our unity and will teach us to love and value one another, because as children of God, we are called to the mission to take good care for one another and to share God’s abundant blessings and love to each and everyone. 

Life is like driving a cab along the road, journeying on the road. The cab represents “life” and we are the driver. The road represents our daily experiences, and our destination serves as our goal in life. Before we start our journey on the road, we secure first the things that we need for our journey so that we will be prepared and secured no matter what will happen along our way. This is the same also with regards to our life. We try to learn things first before we act so that we can avoid committing mistakes, or to be put on difficult situations and troubles. If we are secured already the things that we need, then, we will begin our journey. As we drive along the way, we can’t avoid to spot things beside the road that we are taking into, and would somehow catch our attention, but in the other hand it loses our focus in our destination. This is also happening in real life, that there will be new things that will come along our ways and will make us confuse and will lose our focus in achieving our goals. But as we continue driving, we will meet new people along the way who are also taking their own journey. Some will just pass us by, but there are others who have befriended us and wanted to join us in our journey. These are people who became our true friends and good companions in our life. In our journey, we will experience also to be lost in our ways, because there are so many confusing roads that are lying ahead of us. These are the moments wherein we are being confronted by our own weaknesses and encountered by big trials or problems in life. But we are very grateful to these people that we met and became our true friends, because they could be the source of great help and inspiration for us in order to pursue our destination. That’s why should always consider our true friends as our precious diadems, because they are so rare and very difficult to find in this world.

There are other people who don’t see life this way. Instead, they considered life as a race not as journey to be cherished. They race for gaining power, money, fame, authority, etc. As a race, they are always on hurry, and they usually failed to appreciate things around them, they don’t give any importance to the people who care for them. They are only focusing themselves on their way going to reach their ambitions in life. They don’t even mind or bothered themselves to think that there are also consequences in their actions, that there are people who are being affected and suffering because of their wrong deeds. Possessing earthly things will just give us temporal joy, because earthly things do not last long, they just come and go. So this can’t make us truly happy. What can make us truly happy is when we posses something infinite-God!

Life must be a journey towards inward path, to possess goodness and to make it as our habit, or part of our being. If we have already possessed goodness within us, it will be automatic to our body. We will be so gentle in everything we do. We will not be harsh with our words. We will become so good in relating to others. Indeed, taking the inward path will help us to develop within us the values that we need in order to become truly human person. It will become so ordinary to us, that there is no need for us to be reminded to do them.

Life must be a journey. But if we make it as a race, then we should make it in a different way. We will make it as a race towards holiness. I imagine if all people will do this, I think our world now is very peaceful, there are no wars, no corruptions, no prostitutions, no violations on human rights, etc. Peace is our heaven here on earth! If we are at peace, there are so many things that we can do, and we can even make our world more better than the way we think it could be. So why don’t we achieve it? It won’t be very hard for, because the answer is already within us. It only requires us to do simple act of kindness and love in everything we do. So to say, we can only achieve true happiness if we take our inward paths- if we journey our life with God towards his kingdom.  

Anger is one of man’s greatest diseases. It is one man’s attitude that leads him to an unhappy and meaningless life. Anger is a strong feeling of grievance and displeasure. It is a feeling of annoyance and irritation towards others and in his world. A person who is always angry does not have an inner peace. His heart, mind or the entire self is always in bad disposition, bothered, disturbed and annoyed. He is always upset, in distress, in sorrow, in pain and in suffering. He considers the people around him as an enemies and antagonists. He sees and perceives the world as a disturbance, violent and not in harmony. Because he does not have an inner peace within himself, he views life negatively and depressingly. Bad behaviors and of course anger are the ones controlling and influencing his whole life. If a person is always governed by anger, he fails to love, to care, to comfort, to understand, to listen, to befriend, to be compassionate, to be in calm, to be sensitive, to be helpful, to be considerate, to be insightful, to be appreciative, to be open-minded, to be admirable, to be patient, to be pleasing, to be good and most of all to be a religious and sacred person. He will really not able to feel and embrace the true beauty, value and meaning of true friendship, oneness, peace and of course of the true meaning of life. His life is not only being affected and destroyed by his anger, however his spiritual life, his prayer life, his relationship with the Lord is greatly affected and changed. Because he is always angry, he loses inner peace, he loses his spiritual life. I believe that a true prayerful and faithful person knows how to control his anger. He is patient and sensitive enough on the feelings of others. He always does and acquires good and pleasing attitudes and behaviors. He always follows, gives value and lives the life and good teaching of Jesus Christ; to be patient, forgiving, caring, compassionate, sensitive, and loving to others.

Nowadays, as what I have observed, we are experiencing war, misunderstanding, chaos, imbalance, disorder and turmoil in the society because we are not in a good and strong relationship with one another. We are not in good terms. We are in revenge, hatred, and despair. I believe this are all brought about and consequences of our anger. We are angry to our enemies or even with our friends because they hurt and wounded us, to our neighbors because they made chitchats and rumors against us which are not true, to our classmates because they are irresponsible and tactless, to our government leaders because they are incompetent and serving not for the welfare of everyone but for their own advantage, and we are angry even to our God because we thought and felt that He never listens to us in times of difficulties and problems that come in our way. That anger remains in our hearts, in our mind, in our soul, in our whole self. And day comes, that we become unforgiving, insensitive and unloving.  Look and observe what are happening around us. Many crimes, injustice, discriminations, chaos, misunderstandings and more inhuman and immoral actions are unceasingly occurring in our society. People do not have a stronger and strengthened relationship with one another. Our society becomes a place of hatred, despair, misery, revenge, and selfishness. These are all the consequences of our anger. We are all to be blamed and responsible to these bad and unpleasant consequences that we are experiencing at present. What now? What are we going to do? Let us all reflect deeply and faithfully and there we will find the best answer. For us to resolve and cleanse ourselves from anger, we have to build and create an inner peace within ourselves.  We have to find peace within ourselves. By that, there will be no more space for anger in our hearts and minds. What if, instead of letting that great anger in ourselves, we have to learn in forgiving our brothers and sisters who have wronged against us. We don’t have to focus on the mistakes they have committed, but on the good ways for us to solve the problems and get or erase the pains and hurts. Let not anger govern ourselves but let love and forgiveness color and lead our lives. 

The theme song of the metaphysician is, “Don’t fence me in”. Meaning, in order for us to really see the wonder of our existence, of the true beauty of nature as a whole, we don’t have to enclose ourselves in that reality. We have to get in touch with that longing to know and get that moving. We have to be willing enough to explore, discover and taste what is all around us. By that, we start to go down into the depth, and get out, then just call our attention to what is all around us that we take for granted. By doing that, for sure we will taste and embrace the wonder of our existence in this beautiful world given to us by our God. “Existence is so familiar”. It is common to everything and usual, that we just don’t mind and tend to forget about it, and it drops out of our sight. Thus, we have to open our eyes again, for us to recognize the wonder and taste of our existence. We are not created just to be here, to exist, to see the fact of existence, but to see the act of existence. Let us all wake up to the wonder of existence, and we can explore this in many different ways. It can be discovered through our daily experience in life be it positive or negative. It can come from the loss of a dear one, or from total boredom or from a very terrible and dreadful event in our life. It can come from our greatest or supreme achievements and fulfillments in life or from our state of eternal happiness. And there we bump or strike into the taste of our existence. We have to “wake up to the wonder of existence, and that can really blow our minds when it hits us”.

Like Norris Clarke who has explored and realized his taste of existence, I have also discovered my own taste of existence in life. I live in a rural area. Our place is surrounded by mountains and hills. There are hectares of rice field and wide land areas. I love and enjoy living there. You can see tall wild trees, streams, waterfalls and many rare plants that are nice to see because they are so relaxing and refreshing. That is why; I would still choose to live in barrio than in the city even though there are many things to enjoy here. Living in barrio is so peaceful compared to the city. Before, I was an altar knight. Every Christmas, I together with my co altar knights had a pax te cum in each barangay. It was so tiring and exhausting but we really enjoyed it. And the most remarkable event we have experienced was that, when we passed in high and hilly mountains, we stopped and had a rest. We went up on the mountain for us to see everything even though we knew it was dangerous for us to go up there. Slowly but surely, we together climbed at the mountain. It was really a great experience especially for me. I can feel the cold breeze. I enjoyed watching other mountains being covered by wild and tall trees, the streams below, various wild plants and many more. I could hear the sound of birds. It was so peaceful.  I enjoyed and was surprised by the beauty of nature, the creation of God. I felt happiness and contentment at that very moment. That was one of my experiences in life that I can’t really forget. I was able to really appreciate and embraced the beauty of life. All of shouted because of too much gladness and joy. We laughed with each other. I could still remember the words that most of us uttered, “Ay abaw, nami-nami di sa babaw, tawhay-tawhay, makit-an ta gid ang kanamion sang palibot.” I could see in our faces the amazement and wonder. I was really able to get the taste, the wonder of our existence, of my existence. This was an experience and event in my life wherein I woke up to what I ordinarily just simply take for granted, the fact of existence, the taste of my existence.

But actually, you know, we are not in charge of our own existence. We could lose it at any moment. So, with the experience of mine, I was able to get the taste of what it means to exist, and I have never forgotten that.  Thus, this is a call and an invitation to all of us that, as long as we live, we have to explore and discover what is all around us for us to really embrace and wake up to the wonder of our existence, and taste of our existence.         

The Asian Philosopher that I idolized most is Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi is a famous Indian Philosopher and also a Nationalist Leader who established Indian’s Freedom through “Non-Violence” and “Passive-Resistance.” The two of my favorite quotes of Gandhi are: “Be the change you want to see in the World” and “Men often become what they believe themselves to be.”

What I would like to discuss about Gandhi is his quote about the power of believing. He said: “Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning.” Actually, I like this quote because believing is a part of “the law of attraction.” “The Law of Attraction” takes the concept that like attracts like and applies it to our conscious desire. The process is first to ASK the universe, then BELIEVE it, then FEEL we can get it, and be open to RECEIVE it. That is why people who always dream of what they want in life and believe that they can get what they want achieve them. They achieve what they want because they do not let negative thoughts enter in their mind. All they have in mind are optimism and the belief that they can achieve what they want no matter how hard it is on the way and no matter how many times they fall on the ground.

Believing is a great power of human mind that enables us to control our future. To believe is to accept something as true. If we accept something as true, it becomes true. I can relate this to one of my experiences. When I was still in high school, I noticed that those people who were saying and expressing their negative thoughts before exams like, “Ma failure gid ko ni ya” or “Indi ko ni kaya”, were also the ones who end up and got failing grades in their subjects. That is why, if we really want to achieve something, we must believe that we can achieve it. If we are afraid on the way and if we don’t believe to our self, we cannot achieve our dreams in life.

Believing is much related to faith. Most of the time, it does not need reason. Just believe and later we will see the “truth” in our beliefs. Gandhi’s quote on belief is really realistic. It is real if we believe in the powers of believing. If we ask the successful people about how they get where they are now, what is so common in them is that they believed that they can do it. In the end, they see the truth in what they believed in. As to the song “I believe I can fly”, it was they (successful people) who believed that they can fly high and touch the sky. They think about it every night and day. Because of their belief, their wings spread and they fly away. The lesson is, just believe and we can be the best we want to see in the world.

Success is what most of us want in life but not all successful people are happy in their life. There is lacking in success that is present in happiness. The formula for success is belief. If we believe we can achieve something, we can get it there no matter how hard it is. On the other hand, happiness can be achieved through believing and asking our self “what we really want?” Happiness is when “belief” meets our “passion.” We can also say that happy people are successful. Those successful people who are not happy are those who achieved something (with the help of believing) that is not their passion. On the other hand, those successful people who are happy are those who achieve something (with the help of believing) that is their passion. If we are to choose, where are we: to be successful alone or to be happy and successful?

In my paper, maybe I would mislead you about the focus of my paper. My focus is not really on success or happiness. My focus is really in “the power of believing.” I hope I can lead you through this: If we are to do something we don’t want but for the good, we better do it (success only). If we are to do something we want but not for the good, we better not do it (unhappy). If we are to do something we want and also for the good, we must do it (happy and success). My point is, there are things in life that we ought to do even though it gives us discomfort and there are times that we really need to sacrifice our success and happiness for the greater good. What I would like to emphasize is let us always remember that in everything that we do (successful but unhappy/happy and successful), we must believe that we can do it because it is only through believing that we can achieve the truth in what we believed in. In achieving the truth in what we believed in that is good, we can bring the better good not only for our self, but also for others and offer it to God. Believe and Achieve!

We humans were given by God the freedom to make our decisionsand choices in life. Because of freedom, we can choose and decide for our actions. God gave us freedom for us to control our self and our life. Through freedom, we can be the master of our fate and the captain of our soul. Along with this freedom is the voice coming from God which helps us to do what is ought to do in our everyday living. This is what we call “conscience.”Conscience is “God’s voice inside us” which is always with us in our life to guide us to be in the right path. If God gave us freedom but without conscience (no God’s voice in us), maybe we just do whatever we want to do without minding its consequences and the troubles it brings to our self and to others. Maybe we are not disturbed every time we commit wrong and give harm to our self and to others. That is why we humans have conscience to allow God to correct us every time we commit wrong. Through conscience, we experience God’s concern and love for us.

Conscience is our guide in our everyday life. It is the voice of God that affirms us and gives us the feeling of peace every time we do good to our self and to others. It is also the one that disturbs us, gives us sleepless nights and gives us the feeling of guilt every time we do harm to our self and to others. This voice of God in us is God’s own way of helping us to be with Him at the time we die (to achieve eternal life). If we follow our conscience, we follow God’s voice in us. Being ignorant of this voice is being ignorant of God. Conscience is the “Emmanuel.” It is “God with-in us”. If we destroy our life because of our foolishness and wickedness, it is not because God’s voice is not so loud that we cannot hear it but because we ignore this voice every time it corrects us. Because this voice of God is with us since we became aware of what is good and bad, we cannot say to God that He gave no help to us at the times we need His guidance in our life. Actually, He is always with us wherever we are and whatever we do. He is “omnipresent.” He really cares for us and loves us.

Life is a battle of good and evil. There are times that we do what is good and there are also times that we fall to sin. That is why the voice of God which is our conscience is always with us to guide us to the right path and disturb us whenever we fall to sin. If we are to search for God, why not we try to explore our conscience? It is God’s revelation of Himself to us that is always present in us but we are not just aware of. God is always with us to affirm us in our good deeds and correct us in our misdemeanors. Conscience is a day to day experience and encounter with God. Experience makes us mature. If we always follow our conscience, it is like we listen to God’s voice in us and we also become conscientious. If we always ignore our conscience, we become ignorant of God and it is also a sign of turning back to Him.

As a conclusion, God is always present in us through our conscience. Throughit, we are being guided by God through disturbing us at the times we commit harm to our self and to others. This disturbance in us is God’s own way of reminding us to go back to Him every time we fall to sin. Conscience is “Emmanuel” and “omnipresent.” It is God as always present with us. It is also God’s revelation to us. Conscience is our day to day experience and encounter with God.  Because we have conscience, we can say that God really loves us. He is concerned of us. We can also say that He is responsible because He is the first to correct us (through conscience) every time we commit wrong to our self and to others. Let us allow God to work in us through our conscience. It is one of the ways to know God’s will for us. If our conscience would let us experience the feeling of guilt every time we do wrong, it means that what we did is not the will of God for us. On the other hand, if our conscience would let us experience the feeling of peace and happiness every time we do good, it means that what we did is what God wills for us.

Confucius once said, “To be benevolent is to be human”. Now ask yourself are you a human being? Are you benevolent? Confucius is a man of virtues his aim is nothing but all are for good. He is a superior man. His wisdom is the product of his experience which he contemplated and also the result of all the risk which he experienced as he is growing up.

We are born as a human and we believe that even until now we are human. But what do we really mean of being human? Come to think of it. Where do we come from? Knowing where we really came from will make us truly human. This must be our first priority knowing and embedding in our self where we really came from.

Now a day, people forgot where they came from. People becomes selfish, they care only for their ownself, their personal desires in life without thinking of others, without thinking the possible results. People who think only for his own grow in a bad way. Probably it was also the result of how they were raised by their parents or may be the experiences which they encounter when they grow up. Yet it is not a strong based or arguments in order for us to become selfish to become bad person right now.

Go back always to the basic question of life “Who am I”. It will be a privileged to a person if one day he will ask his ownself this question. A three words question yet very important and essential to us as we grow up. To tell you honestly, this question does not also comes out of my mind when I was not studying Philosophy in St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary. Philosophy gives us the basic questions of our life.

Now, do you know where do you come from now? Yes! We all came from God. Out of the benevolent of God we are here today. We continue living because of others. Others who already knew where they came from and what the purpose of their life is. God does not condemn us because of them. It was written in the bible “God said, for the sake of ten I would not destroy the city of Gomorrah”. As long as the church is alive God is there. As long as many people believe and have faith to God, He will always love us.

As young as we are, it is now our time to become human. Being benevolent is one way of being human. Since the act of benevolence is an act of good. And we all came from good. Out of benevolent many other virtues and good attitudes that would arise such as peace. Peace is an important value that people should possess. There is no best decision in life than deciding something with a peaceful disposition. Sometimes our harsh decision cause by our emotions brings problems, disappointments and regrets in our life. With peace, decision making is not a problem but a thing to accept for it is the best for us.

By nature, we, people, are alike. It is only our customs and practices that cause us to become different from one another. By being benevolent we become also a gentleman that demands something much from itself. For Confucius, there are two kinds of man, gentleman and pettyman. While, a  pettyman demands something from others. A gentleman’s demand to itself is not only for the betterment of himself but also for the society. His actuations and attitudes is only a result of the hardships and sacrifices which he encountered before.

The goodness of a benevolent man is like a candle in a dark room. The lit of a small candle can be noticed and gives light to a dark room. The same also as of the benevolent man, in order for him to spread the goodness to others it should start first from itself and slowly it will influence other.

A benevolent man is like a bamboo, no matter how strong the outside forces that affects his self, the people put him down a benevolent man stand still and goes back to his own disposition that is helping others, like a bamboo that gives fresh air, to succeed. Only a benevolent man suffered for others to succeed. You may think for some time that you succeed without suffering that is because some people suffer for you. Sometimes you suffered yet do not succeed it is because others succeed because of your suffering. Life is like playing chess, sometimes you need to sacrifice in order to save the life of the King.

Being benevolence starts within us. We can be king or a sacrificial poon for others. A king who is there at in our side to defend us, to help us and a poon that is there to offer sacrifice for others. Our humanity is now in crisis because there are only few humans were left. Let us be one of those few humans that will help in spreading the attitude of being benevolence in order for us to influence others to make our society alive, living in a harmonious peace. As long as “you” are there humanity will exist.

                

“My heart is restless until it rest in You”, St. Augustine said. As long as we are a human being, we are a restless being. We always are working. When I am waking up in the morning, when I am attending the mass, when I am eating my breakfast, when I am going to school, when I play basketball and even when I am sleeping, my mind is working, my body is still in the state of working. There is no time to rest.

Before we experience what they called rest, we need first to be satisfied, to be at peace with our life. Satisfaction and at peace is one way of saying that I am contended with this life of mine. But the question is do we, human being, really experience satisfaction infinitely in this world? Are we satisfied with our life? For a short time maybe we experience satisfaction with our life, thus, we will have also to experiencing resting.

There is no best way for resting than to be satisfied and at peace with our life, to be contended here in our earthly life. But have you ever dream infinite rest, infinite satisfaction, and eternal peace? All of us dreamed to experience this infinite rest, infinite satisfaction and the peaceful living. When you want something in life, for example you have a goal in our life and that is to become the President of our country. When the time comes that you are already prepared for that position and you won, you are very happy. You may feel that you are satisfied with what you reach, you are satisfy because your dream comes true. Then, after months, there is no more satisfaction in yourself, you are not anymore in rest because of so many problems of the country you need to face and conquer. You dream again to solve the problem of the country and when the time you solve the problem of the country you are very happy and felt satisfied with what you did. It was not only you yourself who were satisfied and have to get rest but also the people, who became beneficial after solving the problem. Then another problem come, there is no again satisfaction in your life and so on and so forth. This earthly life of ours presupposed only that we can only satisfied and take a rest for a short time after that problems, goals and many other that will come in our way that will stop our resting.

The only best way of experiencing the infinite rest is to be with the Infinite Being. Other people say that if we only walk in the way of the Infinite Being, stable and constantly, here in this earthly life, we have experienced already what they called the infinite satisfaction. I am satisfied because what I am doing is for good and it is with the presence of the Infinite Being. Do good. Do good. Do good and avoid evil is what we ought to do if we are walking in the way of the Infinite Being. The Infinite Being is the only one, who can give us the infinite rest we wanted. And by doing good to others is already experiencing part of the infinite rest for the only greatest rest is to be with the Infinite Being.

Satisfaction of a mature moral person can be only acquired when the person is doing good. The conscience of the mature moral person when doing good becomes at peace. Where did this conscience of the mature moral person based? Of course it is based with the Infinite Being, the source of morality. Having peace in our life is experiencing also rest. I’m at peace therefore I can rest now.

Eternal peace can be granted only when we died and we come to go to heaven to be with this Infinite Being, our creator, the source of morality. The Infinite Being is the one that will give us the rest which the earthly world cannot give, the rest which the earthly life dreaming of. The rest which all of us dreaming of.  Peace is within us. Live Peace. 

“Buhat” is a work or a deed. In the first verse the word “buhat” was define as a good deeds. Understanding the first line of the first verse, I could say that somebody or someone have told us about the good deeds of God the Father, given the fact that “mo” refers to God the Father.

Connecting the second to the first line, it slowly makes me hard to understand the text or the thought of the verse. I know each one of us has its own view and perspective about the first, second, third and fourth line. For me, I understand it as this, someone have told us about the good deeds of God, the Father and those good deeds were revealed or passed to us generations by generations until t this day. I haven’t seen the good deeds of God, the Father that is Jesus Christ. The good deeds of God do not took place in my world. Yet the second line proposes that we saw the good deed, Jesus Christ. Or could it be that the composer of this lyric was born during the time of Jesus Christ and he was only reincarnated in this present time. And what he meant of the “kami” was the people whom accompanied him, witnessing Jesus Christ, the good deeds of God. Yet why should he still wrote “nakabati” if “nakita nya man si” Jesus Christ? Since he lives a long time go much better and more understandable if the lyrics would be “Nakita namon ang maayo mo nga buhat sa ciudad sang GInoo”. On the other hand if the composer was not being reincarnated and was really born at the present the more understandable lyrics would be “Nakabati kami sang maayo mo nga buhat sa ciudad sang Ginoo”. “Diba mas klaro ang lyrics?”

The composer might have a different explanation about the lyrics but since the idea is converted already in a text, it has already its own life. Various explanation and understanding now is applicable to lyrics. The life of the text is not anymore controlled by the composer. We are now the one that gives meaning to the life of the text.