EMBARKING ON A PLAN

OF PERFECTION

  

 

When you build a house, you do not just buy and buy cement, nails, wood, and iron bars and start digging.

 

The house might not become finished.  It might collapse in case it is finished.  To avoid this, you follow a plan.  If done by an architect, it will most likely end up a beautiful house.  This is also true in building a church, a ten-storey building, or any structure --- you follow a plan.

 

It is also true of a big business venture you are planning to put up.  You first assess the profitability of the venture by making a feasibility plan.  In that way, you will foresee problems and avoid pitfalls.  If the venture will prove profitable and beneficial to your countrymen, then you go ahead with your plan.

 

The lesson from above tells you that if you intend to realize a big project, you do not just start but you plan.  Because if you plan, then you foresee problems.  If you plan, then you assure the success of the project.

 

When you grow and are on your own, it is best that you do not go where the winds blow.  You don't simply act by what surrounding events tell you.  You don't just react to your surroundings. You act. You make things happen.  You can because you have a master plan in your mind.

 

You meditate on the plan as often as possible so that you are not waylaid along the way.  If you do not have a plan, it is just like a ship from the Philippines going to the USA without a map.  You are not' exploring. You are not on a leisure, pleasure trip. You are on a definite journey with a definite destination.

 

So first, you determine your destination.  Like a project, you want to build something concrete.  Each one is here on Earth for a purpose:  to be perfect in Will Power, Intelligence, and Love so that someday you can be one with the Creator, the Infinite Being.  So your main destination in the journey of life is to go back to the Creator, to be one with Christ, to make a temple of God out of your hearts.

 

How can one make a temple of God of himself?

 

First, he prays.  He can pray short but often.  He prays the Lord's Prayer for himself, for his relatives, friends, and neighbors.  He prays for his departed loved ones who badly need prayers for their further purification in the other life.

 

 Then he can always pray for his Guardian Angel.  Prayer is the food of the spirit.  Prayer draws pranic energy from God Himself and he directs it to his Guardian Angel when he prays for him.  It makes him strong for him to assist his ward in times of temptation.  He prays for him especially in times of great temptation.

 

Why pray for one's Guardian Angel?  To strengthen him so that he can help you better.  Why him?  Because he or his representative is  beside his ward when he sleeps to warn him when the left spirit starts putting negative thoughts in his mind, and the mind or spirit with still material affinity is drawn and attracted to the temptation, usually of a sexual nature.

 

Sometimes, the left spirit whose job is to tempt and test man if he is fit for promotion implants in him the seed of selfishness, of envy, and more often than not he is successful.  Thus, in one's relationship with his neighbor, he is prevented from really loving him, sharing with him what he has.  He tries to compete instead of working smoothly for the common good of the group.

 

At this point, it is best to pray for his Guardian Angel and ask him for guidance.  Sometimes, the left spirit, unable to come through his ward through ill thoughts will induce other people, be it of the opposite sex or a previous enemy, to come across his path, so that he succumbs to temptation.  That is why in the Lord's Prayer, there is that portion " ... and lead us not into temptation..." precisely to summon strength to resist the temptation given by left spirits.

 

In short, one has to pray as often as possible because through prayers he is strengthened, as praying is drawing pranic energy from the Infinite Source, God.  Through prayer, one overcomes temptation.

 

When one makes his master plan for perfection, he prays for guidance from the Holy Spirit for his enlightenment.  Then he meditates.  He looks at himself as tiny specks in the universe trying to reach out to be one with God.

 

Then he makes a firm resolve: "I will be one with Him!"

 

But how?  Because initially he has prayed, he is predisposed to be attracted to God rather than to the attractions offered by material things.  Material things are the dual of spiritual matters.  The more engrossed one is with the search for material things and carnal pleasure, the less inclined he is to the search for spiritual truths.

 

But Jesus Christ enjoined man:  "Seek ye first the kingdom of God ..."  This means, one has to firmly make that conscious decision that everything he does would be for the glory of God, for his perfection, for the good of his neighbors.

 

After making that decision, that statement, "I will become perfect,” he draws up a master plan like an architect, or an engineer, or like a successful businessman with a definite objective.

 

He looks at himself in terms of physical attributes.  What are his good points?  It may be a healthy body, a beautiful body, attractive eyes or hair.  Can he improve his health?  Yes, through moderation in food, work, and sleep.  What are the things that can be improved?  What are those he wants improved but cannot?  He has to psyche himself up to accept it, and it should not be a source of inferiority complex which will affect one's relationship with others.  The things that one can not change could be one's eyes, height, or physical defects. One has to be contented.

 

But as to one's weight, this he can change. He can decide to maintain his weight at a desired level at all times through exercise. In any case, to maintain good health, one should program himself to follow strictly the exercises given in Chapter 51, "Drawing Good Luck."

 

With the body maintained like a machine in perfect condition, never to be abused in use, then one can focus attention to the mind.  How can he improve it?

 

He contemplates "how to study," "how to read a book," how to improve memory, concentration, meditation, public relations and communication, positive thinking, and how to attain personal magnetism.

 

Armed with the tools for improving the body and mind, one now goes to his most important goal, that of spiritual development.  Learning and improving one's mind and body is making one's tools for perfection efficient.  But being efficient is not his primary objective.  Spiritual perfection is!

 

How does one attain spiritual perfection?  He attains it through the ordinary things he does, and through the extraordinary things he sets out to do.  In all things, he decides to strictly follow his conscience. He decides to be pure in thoughts, words, and deeds.  When he decides this, in effect, he tells his subconscious to behave accordingly.

 

Because one has decided, anything which contradicts that decision will produce in him an uneasy feeling so he knows that he is straying away from his decision.  By consciously repeating to himself the statement: "Be pure in thoughts, words, and deeds," then it becomes a part of himself.  His every action is then guided accordingly.  He is, therefore, on guard of his movements.  In this way, he is more predisposed to controlling his inner desires.

 

Then, one meditates on his weaknesses.  List them down.  They might include sex, envy, anger, recurring jealousy, or any negative feeling.  Decide to banish them and when they come, change them with pure thoughts.  One's weaknesses are the opposite of virtues he failed to learn in previous lives.  Men are repeaters taking removal exams for these subjects of negative thoughts and feelings.

 

Therefore, realizing this, one embarks on a plan of controlling them.  Decide you will overcome them.

 

Then look at oneself with these two injunctions as guide: "from the sweat of thy brow thou shall eat" and "love thy neighbor".  How do you reconcile the two?  Man must eat to live.   To live with dignity, he has to earn money.  Earning money is man's problem and man' s alone.  The spirits can only help with tips.  Therefore, decide that you will earn money the ethical way and earn as you help your neighbors in need.

 

How?  If you succeed in earning lots of money and you allocate ten percent of your earnings to charity, you reconcile the two prescriptions.  What is more, by allocating ten percent of your income to charity, you pay part of your money karmic debts in previous life.  And if you do that, once paid, the spirits somehow return the money in some ways, in good luck, ten-fold, when your money karmic debt is fully paid.

 

Is this enough?  Somewhere in the twilight of your life, you embark on apostolic work.  Teach the young or the unenlightened with the spiritual things you learned in life.  Increase their Awareness for spiritual things.  Do not debate as this is counter-productive.  Influence them in subtle ways to embark on a conscious effort in perfection, in constant improvement of body and mind, in learning, in helping one's neighbors.  In this way, you are able to reach out to your neighbors.  You are in effect following the footsteps of Jesus Christ who found the Truth, lived the pure Life, and led the Way to salvation and convinced the whole world at his time and through this time to follow him to salvation.

 

Salvation is the perfection of one's Intelligence, Will Power, and Love.  And you have made a plan on how you can attain that.  Then, decide and say to yourself, "I will be perfect like Jesus Christ.”  Then off you go to the road of spiritual and material perfection, with your conscience as guide, with your Guardian Angel as your invisible assistant.  When the temptations along the way are too much that you stumble and fall, then decide to get rid of the cause.  It might be due to too much attraction of material things to your body.

 

You try an acute operation to get rid of that affinity for material things.  Go to the mountains.  Withdraw.  Bring spiritual books.  Bring a tape recorder with recorded prayers.  Pray and meditate.  Read.  And when you are resting or sleeping, put the earphone to you ears to listen to prayers.  You are in effect barring all material thoughts from your brain and substituting them with spiritual counterparts.

 

Remove every material attraction of the body by fasting for 40 days and nights.  Just drink water and take some pure honey.  How do you survive?  Breathe in pranic energy and fill every part of your body with it.  That pranic energy is Christ, the Love of God.  Let it dwell in every molecule of your body to remove the body's affinity for material things.  This 40-day and night fasting is what Jesus Christ did to finally liberate himself from any material attraction.  This you follow.  At the end of 40 days, gradually eat and recover.  But your subconscious will never recover.  All its yearnings and drives have been driven out.  You are now in full control of your body.  The left spirits, the devil, have no more hold on you that even if he materialized and offered you all the riches in the world, as he did to Jesus, you will refuse and say, "I do not want your trash, I want the kingdom of my Father."

 

Deciding to embark on the road to perfection as you do the ordinary and the extra-ordinary things in your work, in your home and family, in your contact with your neighbors is the most important decision of your life.  The decision to attain spiritual perfection is the worthiest act a creature of God can make.