Finalist-PhilBlogAwards 2010

Finalist-PhilBlogAwards 2010
Finalist for society, politics, history blogs

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Friday, December 07, 2007

LOVE THY FREEDOM

Bro. Erle Frayne D. Argonza

[Writ. 21 September 2007, Manila]

Good day to you all seekers, freethinkers, freedom fighters!

Today is the 21st of September, a day of infamy that many adults in my homeland (Philippines) and overseas vividly recall. On this day in 1972, then President Ferdinand Marcos y Edralin declared Martial Law. Fourteen (14) years of darkness then ensued, amid the erstwhile developmental pursuits toward industrialization by this fledgling nation-state.

Marcos’ tyrannical fiats declared the closure of congress, banned all political parties and mass movements, confiscated the assets of detractor oligarchs, and sweepingly incarcerated around 30,000 perceived enemies of the state. When the dictatorship was overthrown in February 25 of 1986, over 120,000 were totally imprisoned without due process of law for the entire duration of the regime.

The bloody capstone of terror was the torture and execution of over 10,000 detractors of the regime. Add to these the tens of thousands who perished in the dictatorship’s brutal war against the Bangsamoro people and the dirty war against the Left, and you’d have a picture of a Dark Era in Philippine history that approximates the previous Dark Era of Japanese occupation of the country (1941-‘45).

This mystic was an adolescent during the early years of Martial Law, and was among the youth radicals of his restive heydays. I was then a 3rd year engineering student at the University of the Philippines when I witnessed several of my own buddies and club-mates arrested and imprisoned incommunicado for 1-3 months. Sensing that military agents were after me one time, I fled into hiding for almost two (2) months, forcing me to take leave from school for that affected semester.

One after the other some friends of mine, including a guitar jamming pal Bong M., were murdered by state agents. Bong’s body was found floating among the water lilies of the highly polluted Pasig River. A former freshman dorm-mate, Ting, also an activist, was shot by the son of an army general and the case remained unsolved. Fraternity brods of mine in the Collegium Liberum were locked up, while others who chose underground life as their primary vocation were gunned down by pursuing military commandoes.

For many years a Bogey Man dressed in military fatigue kept on appearing in my nightmares, relentlessly chasing me and gunning me down without compunction. In some occasions I chased back this Bogey Man and killed it. But he kept on coming back in my next nightmares. Even when I was already a young state official, and later a professor at the University of the Philippines, the same Bogey Man kept coming back deviously.

Martial Law surely had a way of building up my paranoia. It was a challenge for me to detoxify myself of the dense energies from the experience of facing the mighty dragon of Martial Law machinery. But it was possible, and I succeeded. By the year 1990, when I was already a practicing yogi, my paranoid fears have effaced, and gone was the militaristic Bogey Man for good. My nightmares likewise dwindled to almost nil.

It is nauseatingly erroneous to say that Martial Law was an entirely ‘negative experience’. It was an experience, to say the least. It induced anxiety and paranoia, true. But it also presented a window of opportunity for the libertarian flame to awaken from its nocturnal sleep. And this is the sublime lesson of those dark moments: people learned to love their freedoms more and fought for their liberty in blood when exigencies so demanded.

Furthermore, Martial Law also accelerated the renascence of Philippine nationalism that, like the libertarian flame, slept undisturbed in the catacombs of the damned. Nationalism is a progressive force in the Philippines that comprises of over 100 ethno-linguistic groups. In the absence of nationalism, each ethno-linguistic community is like a nation unto itself, promoting its parochial interests and fomenting separatist wars of independence.

And the crowning glory of the Filipinos, for all the sacrifices they exhibited during those dark years, sacrifices writ in blood notwithstanding, finally arrived, when upon gathering their strengths collectively, they overthrew Tyranny via ‘people power’ in 1986. Such a sublime feat won accolades from fellow peoples of Earth everywhere. So the patriots who laid their lives to restore democracy and an ‘open society’ didn’t die in vain after all, but died with full honors as heroes of the nation and the human race.

Personally, Martial Law forged in me the warrior traits of Iron Will and audacity in action. In 1975, as a naïve freshman, I was a thin, fragile, wimpy nerd who just entered the august halls of the University of the Philippines. The sight of rambles and fistfights were enough to unnerve me and made me pee on my pants due to fright… By 1980, after over three (3) years of activism, I was a determined warrior-type soul, ready to face not only grimly-faced enemies in the battlefield but also demonic types in the astral domains (I was already a seeker and yoga student by then). I have mutated, thanks to Martial Law!

Not only the forging of 1st Ray (warriorship) traits, but also the countless capabilities I’ve learned from radical civil society were equally manna from heaven. Name them: social marketing, advocacy, policy analysis, campaign strategies & tactics, mass campaign planning, development communication, and more. All spin offs from my youthful experiences of facing the Mighty Dragon of tyranny.

Finally, two decades after becoming a youth activist (I joined the underground Kabataang Makabayan or Patriotic Youth in August 1977), I was, as a mystic of the GWB, able to articulate libertarian experience into a coherent wisdom tradition: libertosophy. As I argued in my book Libertosophy & Freethought (2000), the libertarian as a social type can climb the transcendent height via the libertarian Path, provided that s/he will complete the lessons in life with the other ingredients of a yoga package.

Very revealingly, I also realized, along my spiritual journey, that a Divine Being, Liberty, exists as the inspirational Light of all libertarians or social emancipators. To my delight, I discovered that the Lady Liberty constructed for the New York harbor is a wonderful archetype of this Being of Light. Formless in shis natural form, Liberty inspires and guides libertarians, provided that the libertarians sojourn the Path of Light.

So, Fellows in the Path, let it be summed up: Tyranny, in whatever form, is an experience that presents both positive and negative aspects. It is a tapestry of tragic incidents of every kind, but it likewise presents opportunities for learning, capability-building and innovative actions. This thesis is a ‘take it or leave it’ one: either you see only the negative aspect of the experience, or you see both aspects dynamically relating to each other like yin-yang forces.

Liberum Semper!

(Freedom always!)





Sunday, December 02, 2007

RE-ECHOING THE MAHARLIKA PROJECT

By: Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza, GWB
Good Day, Fellows on Earth!
This yogi, mystic and teacher of the Path is a firm advocate of the Maharlikan cause. In the light of the success of the latest national activity of the Ang Katipunan ng mga Maharlika ng Pilipinas or AKSM, an alliance of multi-sectoral organizations advocating the same cause, I hereby re-echo the Maharikan cause.
Before I came to encounter the name of PR Sarkar, founding master of the Ananda Marga which is the spiritual base order of the AKSM, this teacher already was a strong advocate of inner transformation and nomenclature change for the Republic of the Philippines. I was glad to know that a senator of the Repubic, the Hon. Eddie Ilarde, who is also a veteran communications man and TV personality, was advocating for a similar cause, with Maharlika being advanced as the new name for the republic.
From 1977 t0 1997, I gravitated towards the progressive Left formations in the country, was catapulted to national leadership posts of mass movements, and was able to use the progressive organizations as venue for percolating and advancing ideas about inner and cultural changes in the country. Being a sociologist and economist, I also found these organizations as appropriate for studying and advancing nationalist, patriotic and dirigist policies of development.
By 1998 I was a personality on my own, an independent thinker and analyst, who was invited in many venues including the TV stations to share my thoughts about various public issues of the day. I never relented in my advocacies a bit, at the same time that my yoga practice had moved me towards the mystic phase of my Path. Though an independent intellectual, I decided just the same to join the Sunday Kapihan-Independent Review Circle of Dr. Maning Yap and Ka Mentong Laurel, both eminent personalities and fellow political economists. In the Sunday Kapihan discussions, I made it clear about where I stood, and gave the group a copy of my essay "Testament of National Grandeur" that advocated for an inner revolution and a nomenclature change for the islands from Republic of the Philippines to People's Patriotic Republic of Maharlika.
The reason for the nomenclature change was discussed in another article that appeared in my book 13 Gate Unveiled. At that time (1999, 2000), I began to interact with the Ananda Marga monks and PROUT practitioners whom I met at the Earthlite, a center for LightWorkers in Manila. I found out from the monks and also from an article by Eddie Ilarde that PR Sarkar knew the ancient name of the Philippines which accordingly was Maharlika.
Comparing the names Philippines and Maharlika was no easy task. Being a social scientist, I had to use analytical methods for the comparison, using the Power-criterion as yardstick. I had to answer the question: which name was more powerful than the other? Using a theory of language evolution for my study, particularly the monosyllabic theory (languages evolve from monosyllabic to polysyllabic), I reduced the terms Philippines and Maharlika to their barest phonemes or mono-syllables.
I realized, using the method, that both names were powerful. Philippines was imperious and kingly, permitting us to become the leading nation of Southeast Asia through its vibration. It contains both masculine (phi) and feminine (lip) elements, ensuring a complete yin-yang balance in our affairs. I admitted to the power of this name, and paid no attention to the Machiavellian tirades of fellow patriots who rather stressed on the negative elements associated with King Philip II of Spain, the emperor from whose imperial name Philippines was derived.
However, the term Maharlika was more powerful. Breaking it down to Ma Har Li Ka, and searching for the meanings of each syllable by using linguistic experiment, I discovered that it also contained both the feminine (Ma) and masculine (Har or Haj or Jah) elements, ensuring a yin-yang balance in our affairs with its usage. However, the terms Li (signifier for alteration or change) and Ka (Sanskrit signifier for revolution), when attached to Ma-Har, resulted to a term that meant Great Force for Change/Revolution, and was a cutting edge term without doubt. This name was beyond doubt more powerful than Philippines!
Being so, this yogi-mystic-teacher then made his position clear, armed now with a scientific evidence of the greater power of Maharlika, that a name change should be effected. I declared this clearly even in the earlier article "Testament of National Grandeur" that was circulated in the Independent Review-Sunday Kapihan Circle, which the eminent historian Dr. Serafin Quiazon, past Executive Director of the National Historical Institute, at once catalogued at the prestigious Lopez Museum/Library.
I am standing pat on this advocacy for a nomenclature change, and likewise a corresponding inner transformation for us Filipinos or Maharlikans. The exoteric or popular meaning of Maharlika is Noble, a great signifier of our nobility as a people before all peoples of the planet, assuming that we do follow the programs of attainment for us to indeed become virtuous people.
I stand by my fellow patriots' standpoint, including the devotees and disciples of PR Sarkar, for the nomenclature change and the agenda of change in the economic, political and cultural spheres. The name change must go hand in hand with the social-economic-cultural-political-psychological changes and never in isolation from the broader 'transformation project'.
To all peoples of the planet, let us all chant MAHARLIKA! Chant Maharlika with us New Maharlikans! Connect to our heart chakras as we do to yours! Attune with us as we do our mission of fomenting audacious and noble inner revolutions for the planet!
Maharlika for Glory and Grandeur!

SOLIDARITY MESSAGE TO YOUNG MAHARLIKANS

SOLIDARITY MESSAGE TO THE AKSM

From: Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza, GWB

I hereby extend my most fraternal solidarity greetings to all of you officers, cadres and members of the Ang Katipunan ng mga Samahang Maharlika, on the occasion of your magnanimous national organization’s General Assembly.

Your noble organization had attained enormous progress through the past couples of years. With certitude our fellow patriots do recognize by now the potency of the AKSM and its sister organizations that comprise the Ananda Marga network. May you continue to sustain your organization’s growth till you reach the farthest extent of your potentiality and contribute in no small measure to the permeation of noble patriotic and transcendent values among our compatriots.
The challenges ahead of you are legion, so it is deemed crucial an event to reflect on the next 25-30 years and configure master plan-type of strategic courses of action. Among the highly discontinuous events that can happen over the next 30 years are: the earth changes and serial catastrophes accompanying them; the possible eradication of nation-states and the rise of a totalitarian global state; the devastation of the market economies; a global war; and, large-scale population decimations occurring as offshoots of the turbulent changes.
Prepositioning the Philippines and leveraging the strengths of our fellow Filipinos in the forthcoming decades are of the tallest orders of missions. Let us all do what we can now to prepare for those coming contingencies. I opine that the broad compass that AKSM is embarking on—of building model economic systems at the grassroots interconnected through proper institutional arrangements at all levels—is a strong pro-active course of action.
Please go ahead with your pre-defined agenda for strategic planning. Rest assured you will gain greater mileages in your future efforts through your output plan and the will to execute the determinative goals.
May the Divine Beings including your founding Master be with you all in your endeavors. May the souls of our departed founding patriots of the Philippine nation—Rizal, Bonifacio, Mabini, Quezon—also be with you always.
Long Live Maharlika! Long live all Magnanimous Maharlikans!

[Quezon City, 17 November 2007]