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DE LA CUESTA, Joseph Adrian A. February 23, 2012

3BLM

Crave for a thing, you will get it. Renounce the craving, the object will follow you by

itself. Spirituality, in relation to the prior statement, expounds what LIFE really is; for it sees

beyond what is physical. The object follows you by itself directly states that a person will

achieve genuine happiness once he let go of the materialistic world and follow a path of sacrifice

and peace. With this idea, this is what I have pondered more when we visited the Abbey. I can

summarize the tour with these two categories: what I have learned more with spirituality and

how I can relate with what I have learned with my personal belief.

My recent knowledge about spirituality is that it is a path of genuine happiness; but

because of the tour, I have learned the difficulties of the transition from a material world to the

spiritual world. First, I cannot imagine the level of discipline inside the monastery. It is like a

military training camp; nonetheless, it occurred to me that discipline is a way towards self

realization and robust faith. Through self-control, I can achieve a peaceful mind thus getting

more of a quiet environment to think about life fully. Furthermore, with a serene mind, I tend to

believe about the unknown. Second, I appreciated my Alma Mater more. Learning about our

schools history made me think twice that San Beda is a mere academic and athletic institution.

We are also an institution relatively transforming to become spiritual persons. It may deemed be

difficult to add to the weighing scales spirituality to accompany academic and athletic

concentrations, a Bedan life would be lacking and lame if we cannot realize genuine happiness.

Sincerely, I am an atheist. I tend to be more of a realist than an idealist. Nevertheless, I

had come to agree about the commonalities of my faith and with the monks - I found out the life

of humility. As a non-believer, contrary to stereotypes, I am not an arrogant advocate of being

against the teachings of the Church or any religious institution. I am a passive one, or being

tolerant to the beliefs of others. Moreover, I am a person who is open to new ideas and is neither

intimidated nor supercilious when I am proven wrong. With these contexts, I see myself as

similar with the monks. During the tour, I encountered that monks are second class citizens

because of the apparent discriminations against priests in the past. I pondered that as an atheist,

sometimes I get ostracized because of my radical ideas. By way of these blending experiences,

Ive found out that I and the monks puzzled together with our beliefs until the end without theneed of violence but only acceptance.

In the Abbey tour, I have learned more about spirituality and how it blended with my

own personal belief. Discipline and appreciating my Alma Mater is what motivated me to live a

life of spirituality. Also, humility is the intersection between my passive atheism and Benedictine

monasticism. Meditation is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal Bliss and supreme

joy in the end. What is painful in the present has its price in the future.