Notes on Life and Learning Lessons: A note from the Author and Introduction

A Note from the Author

This is my first book. It is the kind of book many of my friends will not expect me to write. It is the kind of book I have never expected to write. Not until mid 1994.

In a small humble house, in an ordinary rural setting, I met a simple looking man. The man said that I was ready, in fact a few years delayed, for what I had to do. In an hour or so, he did something to me that forever changed the course of my life. That man was, in fact, a spiritual sage. From thereon, the puzzles and unusual experiences I encountered a number of times earlier became clear. I came to know who I really am and what I can be. I learned new kinds of knowledge and some skills which were commonly termed extraordinary.

A few months after that incident, one of the have to do’s became clear. I should help people analyze their important problems and experiences. I should help them find the lessons they should learn. Guided by the analyses and the lessons learned, they would see how to fix their lives. As they begin to see the right way of looking at life, they begin to grow emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

This book contains some of my interactions with these people. It also contains a few discourses on certain basic topics. Each interaction and discourse composes one “note on life” in this book. In view of the contents, I thought it best to entitle this book Notes on Life and Learning Lessons. Initially, I had no intention of writing the interactions. Late last year, I thought of writing them down in the hope that other people may find something useful and meaningful from them.

There is a general pattern in the development of these “notes on life”. The notes begin with simple issues and experiences. Beginning with note on life #15, the discussion and experiences become more and more focused on deeper and complex issues. The final note on life lesson #25 provides the general context and central of the book.

This general progression of topics, from a lower to a higher level of understanding life, from simple truths to deeper truths, is also a reflection of my own development of my own development in studying the “Ancient Knowledge of the Art of Living and Inner Wisdom”. This Ancient Knowledge is available to anybody who has a sincere and serious intention as well as the determination to know the meaning and purpose of life. I will soon be sharing this Ancient Knowledge, the Wisdom of the Spiritual Masters in a more formal way to anyone interested to anyone interested. I will be very happy to share all that I know.

Finally, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to the following people for their valuable contribution in the making of this book:

(1) the artists who shared their skills in drawing the sketches in particular Amor, Jun, Maike, and Sheibert. Their sketches and more importantly, their kindness have truly enriched this book;

(2) my good friend Francis who helped in the production;

(3) Rico Azicate, a co-teacher at UP, for my photograph;

(4) all those who shared their personal problems and experiences with me. I am honored for the trust and respect you gave.

(5) Emiliana U. Enriquez, the editor, I am very grateful for her special contribution. It was not by chance that she edited this book.

There are many excellent books on this Ancient Knowlwedge. There will always be Spiritual Teachers and Masters who will speak of this Knowledge. This is my way of presenting this Knowledge.

I sincerely hope that those who would come across this book will later find the time to take note of their experiences and the lessons to be learned. If the readers will do this, then this book would have served its purpose.

August, 1995

Introduction to the American International Edition

Sometime in the middle of 1994, I had a very unusual spiritual experience. A professional electrical engineer, with academic credentials equivalent to a doctorate degree in electrical engineering, told me I was ready to do what I have to do, that it was time to do my “mission”. There were risks, tests, he said that I have to undergo later to acquire the right to have unusual knowledge and skills. He did something to me for about an hour. He was sort of concentrating. I saw and felt nothing unusual with what he was doing except that I felt a certain kind of heat, a sort of some surge of energy throughout my body. After that, he wished me good luck.

Since then, many unusual things have happened to me. I began to know faster and more systematically, the right way of looking at problems, at issues, at relationships, etc. in conversations, I would share the right way of looking at a topic. Thereafter, people began to seek my advice on their problems. I began to know the real meaning and purpose of life not from books or other people’s ideas but from the same Sources other past and present Spiritual Teachers and Masters drew wisdom and inspiration from.

The meaning and purpose of life can simply be stated in this way:

The world is like one big school. We are all here to study “The Course”, which we can call, How to be a Good Person. Like many other courses such as Computer Science, Medicine, Engineering, Law, the Arts and Sciences, etc., there are subjects to take up. Some basic subjects we have to take up in “The Course” are how to be, a good son/daughter, a good brother/sister, a good friend, a good boyfriend/girlfriend, a good husband/wife, a good parent, how to stand up and fight for what is right and how to recover from bad, bitter experiences. Other subjects have to do with the right way of looking at sex, money, power, as well as the right use of such things. Like other ordinary subjects, we should take notes if we are to pass the tests. For instance, when young men come and tell me that they want to learn what I have known, I tell them they could begin by studying how to be a good boyfriend. I instruct them to buy a notebook, list down all the wrong and bad things they are doing to their girlfriends. Better, they should ask their girlfriends what they think are the wrong things they have been doing to them. Then I tell them to find out where they learned such wrong ideas and practices in looking at and in treating women in general and their girlfriends in particular. They should then avoid the things and/or people that had bad influences on them. Then, they should list down also all the right ideas and practices they should have compared to the wrong ideas and practices they are doing. Finally, they should write detailed, concrete ways to correct the wrong, bad ideas and practices.

They should also write the right things they are doing to their girlfriends. Similarly, they should also trace the roots where they got such right, good ideas and practices. They should continue to read such kind of good materials and/or continue their relationships with those good people who had good influences on them. Finally, they should think of good ways on how to further develop the right, good ideas, and practices. Then, I tell them to call me up when they are ready with their answers for us to schedule a sharing session of their answers. In this way, we learn valuable lessons from our own experiences and from other people’s experiences on the subject how to be a good boyfriend. It is also in this context why the book is entitled, “Notes on Life & Learning Lessons”.

Many people might find this presentation of life’s meaning and purpose as too simple. But, the basic truths are really simple. There are no very deep, complicated philosophical ideas involved. However, if I may ask, how many people take the time to seriously and systematically find out the wrong things they are doing to others, especially to their loved ones? Furthermore, how many consciously strive and succeed in developing the will, the courage to correct the wrong things?

Very few people do these things because our society teaches us that we must focus our lives on our careers, on earning more to buy more and as the logic goes, to become happier. Thus, we only seriously and systematically study things related to our work. There are no longer serious and systematic efforts to study how to become a good friend, a good neighbor, a good husband/wife, a good father/mother, on the right way of looking at sex, money, power, etc. Yet, deep down inside every person, he/she believes that it is very important to become a good friend, a good husband/wife, a good father/mother, etc. but still, very few take the time to study these things.

Somewhere along the way, as you pass many subjects of “The Course”, you will meet Someone who will show you other deeper truths of life for by then, you would have earned the right to directly know other unusual things. This is the Path I went through. This is the Path anybody who sincerely aspires to know the real meaning and purpose of life must go through. There are no shortcuts. There is no other path.

This is my first book where I share what I have known as the right ideas and values on the various issues of life – the right way of looking at people, at women, at sad and bitter experiences, at religions, at dreams, at lesbianism, at revolutionary movements and leaders, at karma and reincarnation, at psychic healing and so-called spiritual teachers, at what is right and wrong, etc. These are my “notes on life” a year after my unusual spiritual experience. I first published this book in my country (Philippines) in October 1995.

As we go on thru life, if we regularly take down “notes on life”, we will have more knowledge on the right way of looking at life. We will have higher realizations in life. The next major stage I realized is that in every experience, in any problem, there is always a right and wrong analysis. The wrong analysis leads to a wrong conclusion and one learns the wrong lessons. In this manner, experience becomes the worst teacher. Accordingly, the right analysis leads to the right conclusions and the right lessons to learn. Then, experience becomes the best teacher. For example, a person fooled by another person could analyze his/her experience by thinking that there are basically two kinds of people in this world – those who fool others and those who get fooled. Then, he will conclude that it is better to fool than to get fooled. Thus, his experience has taught him/her a very wrong, bad way of looking at life. Experience, wrongly analyzed, had become the worst teacher. The right analysis is that getting fooled is a bad, painful experience and that therefore, fooling people is a very bad thing. We should not fool and hurt people. One should help in stopping bad people from fooling others. Thus, this experience has taught him a right, good way of looking at life. Experience, rightly analyzed, has become the best teacher.

Some of the “notes on life” I took down after writing this book involved the right analysis of common problems related to sex, love, and happiness. This will be the focus of my second book, “Some Notes and Lessons on Sex, Love, and Happiness”. It is almost finished. I plan to publish it by September 1998.

I wish to give heartfelt thanks to the following people who helped in making this American International edition possible:

1. First to my mother, Pilar M. Aragon, who funded partly this book out of love for me and for believing in my ideas.

2. To my wife, Victoria, for helping me convince her relatives to invest. To my wife’s relatives, Uncle Pete & Auntie Precy, Peter, Butch and Linda, Agnes and Dan, Babet, Dr. Cirilo & Rose Farinas, Riza, Noemi, who invested because they believed in the importance and relevance of this book.

3. Special mention to Ma. Rizalina Lacsamana, my niece-in-law at Chicago, U.S.A., who persistently followed up the publishing of this book by AEGINA PRESS, Inc. I wish to thank her a lot also for the many long distance calls she never charged me in following up the publication of this book. Special thanks also to my brother-in-law Butch Lucina who also followed up the publication of the book.

4. Lastly, my heartful thanks to AEGINA PRESS, Inc. and University Editions, for publishing this book. In particular, my special, most heartful thanks to Mr. Ira Herman, managing editor, for believing that this kind of book deserves to be published in the U.S.A.

One last point. All of us have right and wrong ideas about life because everyone has right and wrong experiences in life. Furthermore, we also acquire right and wrong ideas from the social environment. Our first goal then is to find out the right and wrong ideas we have about life in general and about the many important aspects of life in particular. To correct our wrong ideas, we must first open our minds, examine which ideas are right and which are wrong. Part of examining our ideas is being also open to new ideas. But the new ideas can be right or wrong. Thus, we always have to be critical, we should always study carefully the old ideas we have acquired as well as the new ideas we encounter. We should retain only what is right. Indeed, to deepen our knowledge of right and wrong, we should be open-minded and critical.

The Father Above gave each and everyone of us a mind. We should use it and not let somebody else use it. Furthermore, we should use it correctly. We should not blindly believe something/someone. We should avoid fanaticism of every kind. We should carefully analyze old and new ideas before believing. And even after believing something at one point in time, we should still continue to test whether what we have believed in before is really correct or not. This is the right attitude in reading books like this. Such an attitude is the starting point of spiritual wisdom. Such wisdom, together with the will to do what is right and having unselfish love for others, will show you the Path that leads to real and lasting happiness.

Introduction

Some books of this kind have been written in different parts of the world. Though its purpose is a kind of spirituality, it does not purport to be religious. It appeals to the reader because it is not a “lie” like fiction. It is an experience; it is real. Notes on Life is about experience. To read is to experience experiences.

The author of the book is Danilo M. Aragon, born on 1 September 1953. His significant memories were those of a humorous, principled, sports-oriented, patient, and understanding father and a very kind and generous mother. The late Philippine Air Force Col. Pedro C. Aragon, Jr. was his father. Pilar M. Aragon is his mother. Home life provided Danilo Aragon traditional values of respect for women and elders, honesty, helpfulness, and integrity which he upholds till now. Years at De La Salle University, from elementary to college, instilled in him the Christian outlook of being seriously concerned with social problems like mass poverty, graft and corruption, and decadent values.

His involvement in the National Democratic Movement widened and deepened his knowledge of Philippine history and society. It gave him an opportunity to know first-hand the problems of workers, peasants, urban poor and minorities. He interacted with these people in the common search for a truly just and humane society. The Marxist tenet on the equality of woman with man underscored Aragon’s respect, affection, appreciation, and attraction to the opposite sex. To value life, all forms of life and to refrain from its indiscriminate use are echoes from both Marxist and Christian/Catholic ideology which find completion in his work and outlook.

Immersion in history has opened wide avenues for the study of various beliefs and religious scriptures. A major Asian religious belief notably permeated the pages of this book. Reincarnation is real and traceable. Reincarnation has a purpose – perfection. Man has a goal – to join his Creator, the Soul.

“Enlightenment becomes possible when we study our experiences and learn the lessons from them,” Danilo Aragon remarked. He is on the road, willing every single moment to achieve what should be. He stumbled upon his impetus in August of 1994. The same clarified, classified, and declassified all observed data, information, teaching and beliefs from childhood hence. A new dimension has been added to his thoughts, actions, and decisions.

The book contains segments of the diverse dimensions Danilo Aragon has perceived and employed. The stories range from the personal to the most private. The observations and evaluations are done with the intent to “help”, “to be of service.” As is the purpose of this book, it is the author’s only goal. He has not gone very far from his vocation. He teaches his own version of the truth.

Emiliana U. Enriquez, MA