WE CREATE OUR SUFFERING, OUR OWN HELL, OUR OWN SAMSARA

"Iti ruar ken ikub daytoy mangliwengliweng nga awang, addatayo latta a sipaparnged kadagiti berde a batbato ti lglagip iti daan a pagilian.Ket agtunglabtayo iti iliw iti bukod a kalsada, iti atiddog a a puraw a kadaratan ti baybay, iti asul a kabambantayan.Kankanayon a mariingak tunggal sumungadak iti daan nga ili ket addaak manen nga agpampanunot iti sipnget iti parbangon."

***
Sinuktandan ti nagan daydi kalsadami a Jose Palma a nangputar iti Philippine National Anthem. V. Ligot ti nagan daytoy a pagpagnaak idi agiskuelaaak iti haiskul. (Victorino Ligot, maysa a padi a nayanak iti Laoag ken nagbalin nga obispo ti San Fernando, La Union.) Agtung-ed daytoy a dalan iti asideg idi ti garahe ti Philippine Rabbit Bus Lines ket agpalaudak a kumamang iti laud a kalsada, tarengtengek agingga a madanonko ti Ilocos Norte Trade School. Agawidak iti pangngaldaw ket agsubliakto manen a mapan agbasa.. Kasta a kasta ti inar-aramidko iti uppat a tawen. Adda idin sumagmamano a dyip, malaksid iti kalesa,  ngem diak malagip no nagluganak kadagitoy a napan iti eskuelaan.

***

It was Bishop Mario Baltazar of Batanes who gave me the imprimatur to become a member of an ecumenical group that translated the whole Bible into Ilokano from the so-called original languages of Greek and Hebrew.

The Ilokano Bible Project, under the aegis of the Philippine Bible Society, was composed of Rev. Anacleto Guerrero, Rev. Juan Marigza, Rev. Gervacio Tovera, Rev. Fr. Godofredo Albano, Mrs. Patrocinia Tayaban, a deaconnes and the layman and Ilokano writer Peter La. Julian, with Rosalinda Camat and Rev. Noel Osborn as coordinator. It started in in November 1969 in Baguio City and was finished several years later. I did the apochrypha, the books between the Old and New Testaments, at the Bishop's Palace. Bishop Antonio Salgado was then the bishop of Baguio.

We don't know what happened to Rev. Osborn who was sent by the US-based United Bible Societies for the project. Is he still alive in Ohio, at least, that's what I know he came from?His family was with him then--his wife Emma, and their children Cindy and Philip. They lived near the Translation Center at Bokawkan Road.

Mrs. Camat lives in Baguio; Mrs. Tayaban in Tuding, Benguet; while Bishop Marigza resides in Agoo, La Union' and PLJ is an immigrant in US. The rest of the translators have died. I was supposed to be the youngest member of the Ilokano group then.

***

     We create our own suffering, our own hell, our own samsara as the Buddhists call it.

     My readings of Oriental texts and ancient gurus and teachers like Jesus of Nazareth, tell me we can only escape this bane of existence by liberating ourselves from the passions of anger, jealousy, hatred, selfishness and other harmful emotions and thoughts.

    Since time immemorial, this ruinous human nature has caused so much pain, conflicts and wars, killing millions and destroying cities and nations.

The blogger with then the Philippines' foremost essayist Kerima Polotan- Tuvera
during a literary awarding ceremony at thee Port Area in Manila.

Native bonsai infront of the Ilocos Norte Provincial Capitol in Laoag City

Opening Windows for Rebirth

Let go the person you used to be, says writer Lama Surya Das. In fact, "Letting Go The Person You Used To Be" is the title of his book, which advises that if we want to change and move on, we have to do away with attachments that impede our way out of the miserable life we have been living. These attachments include beliefs, people, places, possessions like books, even the house we have been living in for a number of years. It is these attachments that cause our pain and sorrows, he says.