Peace Work, Quantum Physics, and Mysticism

Joselito Belmonte Cendaña

You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level. (ECKHART TOLLE )

 Neither shall they say: “Behold here,” or “behold there.” For lo, the kingdom of God is within you. (LUKE 17:21)

THE blissful state of our hidden True Nature notwithstanding — that state of non-dual consciousness in which our identity is realized as inseparable from Ultimate Reality and all beings — it is hard not to be saddened by all the violence going on around us in our phenomenal world because of the pain and suffering they bring and also because of the many forms of inner suffering that give rise to violence. 

   For example, it is disheartening that in an era that takes pride in the existence of a united-nations organization and the implementation of international law, a war can still be waged on another nation at the impulse of a national leader’s whim. Or that even though religion, for the mystical treasure that is hidden in its heart, is supposed to be a vehicle of spirituality, some of the most horrific crimes and violent acts are committed in its name. Or that our society can allow the unnecessary brutal slaughter of tens of billions of our evolutionarily younger brethren in the animal kingdom every year for food and other forms of human consumption, even though this human activity is the leading cause of climate change, and a major cause of environmental degradation and world hunger, among many other problems. 

   We get hurt by these transgressions against our fellowmen and fellow sentient beings and get hurt, yet again, by the knowledge that transgressors suffer in one way or another which leads them to violence. Because both victim and victimizer are us and the wounds of the earth are our own wounds, we feel a stirring in our soul that moves us to commit ourselves to peace in this world.

Letting Go and True Freedom: A Story of Spiritual Discovery

Joselito Belmonte Cendaña

The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union.  For whether it be a strong wire or a slender thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until it has broken that cord, it cannot fly. (ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS)

MY younger brother Edwin and I were teenage college students some 50 years ago when he brought home this rather worn-out, saffron-colored paperback one day that he borrowed from the university central library entitled The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga by the Hindu guru and peace activist Swami Vishnudevananda. Inspired by all the newfound gems of Eastern wisdom that the manual contained, we practiced yoga diligently with careful attention to detail for the next couple of years, but with particular emphasis on pratyahara, the Sanskrit word for “sense-withdrawal.”

   When we look back to those memorable years, sib Edwin and I are as one man that they constituted the uncannily happiest two-year episode of our lives for many decades. Not that we weren’t happy in life after that, but our happiness then was more profound in an almost inexplicable way. This may sound odd because our daily round during the time was quite austere. 

The Empty Boat, Turning the Other Cheek, and Starting Over

Joselito Belmonte Cendaña

TURNING  the other cheek” is a metaphor in the Christian doctrine that refers to responding to an offense with love and understanding, instead of retaliation. Love is the central message of the Gospel because it is deeply connected to the fundamental nature of reality. Associated with the quantum field or unified field of consciousness by many quantum physicists and noetic scientists, love connects us with everyone and everything, and is in our very true nature.

   The Empty Boat: A Zen Story. Interestingly, there is a famous Zen story about “the empty boat” that shows why opting to “turn the other cheek” is not as foolish as it may seem, but actually wise.

 Protecting the Earth, Living the Ageless Wisdom

Joselito Belmonte Cendaña

Mountains, rivers, the earth, the sun, the moon, and stars are all the self. (MASTER DOGEN)

There is a spiritual dimension to our connection to the Earth. When we destroy her, we destroy ourselves. (CHIEF SEATTLE)

AT the heart of the current climate crisis lies the simple fact that we are not separate from nature but part of it, nay even one with it in the Unity of All Life. This means that our fate is intimately connected to that of our dear Mother Earth. Perhaps what is asked of us now is to return to a place of love, respect, and a renewed sense of responsibility for the natural world so that we may safeguard the future we all share.

   It is sobering to note that according to global surveys, as many as half of the world’s population aged 15 and above still either haven’t heard of climate change or do not regard it as an urgent priority, despite widespread scientific consensus that: global warming is real, it is driven by greenhouse gases emitted by human activities, and it will lead to more catastrophic events in the future if present trends continue.

   The Truth About Climate Change. As it is, there is a crying need for us to further raise awareness in our world about the precarious climate situation of our planet. It is of no consequence to many climate skeptics among our brethren, and no evidential value for that matter, that we have already witnessed an amazing streak of record-breaking hurricanes, supertyphoons, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, coral-bleaching, and floods the past decade, culminating in the 11 hottest years ever recorded from 2015 to 2025. Naysayers are quick to argue that the Earth’s climate really always changes and human beings have nothing to do with it. But based on what most climate scientists say, this is a mistaken notion.

The TS Mission Statement and the Four Great Aspirations

Joselito Belmonte Cendaña

AS a long-standing active member of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines and the Bahay Dalangin Zen community, I am grateful and touched to see both interspiritual groups helping each other more often in our shared mission of bringing meditation, and mystical practice in general, to more people, on top of our commitment to personal spiritual practice.

   Interspirituality and the TS.  It is often said that Interspirituality is “the common ground where spiritual traditions meet,” but it may very well be just a modern term for one of the aspects of Theosophy, the Ageless Wisdom, or the perennial philosophy. The truth is that the growing wave of interspiritual awareness that is sweeping our planet today is due in large part to the work of the Theosophical movement. In a sense, in fact, it is the Theosophical movement itself in another guise. For one, the Theosophical Society was mainly responsible for popularizing Eastern religions — especially Buddhism and Hinduism — in the West, and hence, as well as Westernized countries like the Philippines. In fact, it was H.P. Blavatsky, also a Buddhist, who first presented these Oriental religions as important and noble spiritual paths to the West, instead of the primitive, “pagan” religions that earlier Western scholars pictured them to be. Blavatsky’s TS co-founders Henry S. Olcott and William Q. Judge were likewise Buddhists who did their share of interspiritual work. It should be a delight to theosophists today that the TS is now benefiting from the fruits of its own labors in witnessing the possibility of long-term interspiritual cooperations such as this with Bahay Dalangin.

   Theosophy and Zen Buddhism. That there is a lot of common ground between Theosophy and Zen Buddhism, as well as all other authentic religions for that matter that allow for interspiritual work, is inevitable because Theosophy, while “ever-undefined,” as current TS international president Tim Boyd describes it in his commentary on the TS Mission Statement, is in one of its expressions, Wisdom Religion. As such, it is the body of timeless, universal wisdom teachings — indeed, the Ageless Wisdom — that underlies all world religions.