Six-day Summer Course Focuses on Spirituality and Peace

Four participants were officers in Mindanao and in northern Philippines for the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP). They had learned of the summer course when the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) referred to them the invitation of ISA. They finished the course despite having to monitor developments in their areas.  

Another participant was a priest of the Philippine Independent Church, and still another was Protestant pastor.

ISA Executive Director Fr. Rico Ponce, O. Carm, Ph.D. welcomed everyone to the Multi-Purpose Hall of ISA at the Teresa de Avila Building and gave them an overview via his paper “Spirituality as Locus for Peace Work.”

Fr. Ponce expanded the  definition of peace  from the absence of war and of violence (“negative peace”)  to freedom from structural and systemic violence as well as the presence of human security founded on peace with nature (“positive peace'”). 

He added, ” `Locus‘ means a center or source, as of activities and power,   and spirituality can be a locus for peace work. A close look at the original teachings of spiritual and faith traditions indicate that they are essentially wellsprings and resources for peace. We need to rediscover the principles and values that they uphold to remind us of their essential mission   – to seek peace.”   

The `closer look’ proposed by Fr. Ponce began with a study of the ancestors of today’s Filipinos.

On Day 2 of the summer course,  Marcela Balao Octaviano  and  Jun Padie, both from Southern Philippines which is home to 61% of Filipino tribal communities, discussed  “Building  Peace through Understanding Indigenous Peoples’ Culture and Spirituality.”

Ms. Octaviano is executive director of GeoCris Foundation, professor at Notre Dame de Marbel University in Cotabato Province (often a flash  point of conflicts about the ancestral domain of tribal Filipinos  which lead to the absence of peace and security), and trustee of Partners for First Peoples Foundation.

She started her career as a community teacher and as coordinator of the Religion as well as the Agriculture Programs of the Santa Cruz Mission Cultural Foundation, Zamboanga. Her co-presentor is half B’laan and half-T’boli, and is also a teacher taking masteral studies at the De La Salle University on a government scholarship. 

The two stressed, “Amidst often-illegal quarrying, mining  and development aggression, building peace in Indigenous communities takes three levels – personal or NAWA (including meditation and breathing to reconnect the soul to the body and the senses); brotherhood or sisterhood (WOGU) along with parents, the immediate family and community; and the larger community of humans and other forms of humans.”

They added that the T’bolis practice respect for spirits and hold a holistic view of the world. 

A concrete output of the session was group work where the course participants crafted pledges of support (Panatang Pangkapayaan) and  prayers for  indigenous  Filipinos. 

All three groups praised and thanked God “for creating diverse communities  and amazing cultures ” and asked God “for the grace to be the channels of peace” for us to protect and preserve their culture as well as their economic system;  to treat them “equally as people with dignity”; to accompany them  in working for their rights, “to be militant about IP education” and “not to convert them to Christianity.” In particular, Group 2 prayed, “May their cry for justice and fairness be heard throughout our land and all over the world.” 

Day 3 focused on Islamic Mindanao where armed rebellion started in answer to the 1967 Jabidah Massacre of trainees being groomed to enter Sabah, then being claimed by the Philippine government. In 1968 the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) advocated secession.

 In 1977 the speaker of Day 3 of ISA’s summer course, Fr. Sebastiano D’ Ambra, PIME, arrived in Zamboanga as a missionary and resolved to help re-establish peace. First, he acted as negotiator between the MNLF and the Philippines and second, he founded in 1984 with Muslim and Christian friends the Silsilah Dialogue Movement.

He also received a mandate to spread dialogue at the national level as the first executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Inter-religious Dialogue, founded by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.   

In his paper for ISA’s summer course entitled “Peace Work in Islam Before and Now: Signs of Fear and Hope”, Fr. D’Ambra wrote,  “Forty years ago I experienced the violence of the revolution in Mindanao, but not the hatred that today is part of the teaching of some sectors of Islam who have their political agenda…. In this stage of “fear” I find a number of good Muslim religious leaders `paralyzed’.

But Fr. D’Ambra also identified signs of hope after Vatican II (1962-65) moved for interreligious dialogue. These signs include  “A Common Word Between Us and You ” –  the open letter of 138 Muslim leaders of the world sent to  Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders of the world in 2007; the United Nations declaration of  the first week of February as “World Interfaith Harmony Week” (WIHW) between all religions, faiths and beliefs,  which became part of Philippine  laws when President Benigno S. Aquino III signed Republic Act No. 10525; the Harmony Chain Initiative   whereby Silsilah composed the Harmony Prayer inviting the different religions to pray for peace; and Fr. D’Ambra’s encountering at the airport in Manila an alumnus of the Silsilah Summer Course who was a radical leader.

“Well, at the end of the course I was convinced of the Silsilah spirit and now, I promote dialogue. I have now a good position in the educational system of Lanao,” this graduate said.

One other speaker at the ISA Summer Course, Maria Teresa Guingona-Africa, Ph.D., promotes Christian-Islam dialogue as founder and executive director of the Peacemakers’ Circle Foundation  (2001).

In her paper  “Being, Becoming and Building Peace in the Love of Christ”, Dr. Africa recalled how Christian and Muslims in an urban poor community in Tala, Caloocan City slowly  learned  to trust each other, only to have it  replaced by fear when their beloved leader was gunned down, perhaps related to the war against drugs led by President Rodrigo Duterte.

A highlight of Dr. Africa’s session was a series of mini-workshops on Christian spirituality (including naming one’s favorite saint or role model and relating him or her to one’s life). The exercises aimed to inspire participants to awaken their capacities to respond to the challenge of peace, healing, wholeness,  unity and harmony “by reaching out beyond our comfort zones to find new ways of being and becoming truly Christ-like in loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31).”     

The fifth speaker at the Summer Course of ISA was Shakuntala Vaswani, Ph.D., co-founder and president of the Peacemakers’ Circle Foundation. She was a trustee  (2002-2005) and the Southeast Asian Regional Coordinator (2005-2011) of the United Religions Initiative (URI), a global interfaith network for peace. 

Dr. Vasmani is also trustee and president of the Hindu Temple Bharati Women’s Association and the Indian Ladies Club. In her talk at ISA’s summer course (“Hinduism and the Quest for Peace”), she identified the ideals on world peace and harmony of what she called the world’s oldest religion.

First, Hinduism teaches respect for all religions (“Truth is one; Sages describe it variously” – the Rig Veda). Second, Hinduism believes in the presence of God in everyone and in everything. Third, ahimsa means doing no harm (non-violence as preached by Mahatma Gandhi  for independence from the British  and adapted by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in working for the civil rights of African-Americans).

Fourth, karma is the result of our actions and returns to us. Fifth, we should revere the environment because according to the Atharva Veda, “The Earth is our Mother; we are all her children.” And sixth, the purpose  of life is God realization. “Lead me from unreality to reality, … from darkness to light, … from  death to immortality” is a prayer from the Sudha Yajur Veda.

As a closing activity Dr. Vasmani invited her daughter Sharon to lead everyone in breathing techniques to help calm the mind and in yoga exercises to reduce stress and promote relaxation.    

For her part, Dr. Maria Marjorie Purino patterned her talk along the ideals of Humanistic Buddhism  as propagated by Venerable Master Hsing Yun of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Community, which has established the Mabuhay Temple in Manila and Cebu City.    

At the University of San Carlos (Cebu City) Dr. Purino wrote her dissertation on   D.T. Suzuki’s Zen Doctrine of No-Mind and Heidegger’s  Dasein on Postmodern Being.   In her paper for the summer course  (”Buddhism as a Vehicle for Peace”), she said, “Basically, humanistic Buddhism integrates Buddhist practices into our daily life by making the dharma – the basic tenets of Buddhism – more appropriate and relevant to our current affairs.” 

In the morning Dr. Purino discussed key concepts of Buddhism such as karma, impermanence and non-attachment,. She also led the participants in analyzing and comparing Buddhist and Christian worldviews.

In the afternoon she assisted a monk from the Mabuhay Temple explain the benefits of meditation and show the proper posture and method of meditation, including correct breathing.

The course ended with an open forum. One of the questions came from Rev. Patrick McDivith, a pastor, professor, and adviser to seminarians on pastoral counseling. He asked, “Is the decreased rate of breathing the key to concentration?”

The reply: “When you are feeling the `monkeys’ in your mind and getting away from the essence of life especially to the point that you get disturbed, concentration is a gift to return to the teaching on the balance of things.”

Day 6 ended with words of thanks from Fr. Rico Ponce to the resource persons, participants, staff and other supporters of the summer course.  He requested the participants to accomplish an evaluation form but as they filed out the room, some expressed satisfaction with the course.

“Oh, I learned so much which will be useful to my organizing medical missions and workshops on ecology, and for going online with those who support me,” said Dinnes Fideles, an NGO worker who is also with the Carmelite Society of the Prophet Elijah.

The next summer course will be on Philippine spirituality.  

                                                                       Pinky Choudhury