Your mantra for the week: “I am so blessed in all ways.”

 

Today is Father’s Day and the most important father of all is our Father in heaven within. Speaking of “Our Father,” the prayer is the only known prayer that Jesus ever taught.

 

The “Our Father” is truly a magnificent entreaty in the original Aramaic in which it was first expressed. When translated directly to English—and not from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to English—you will find that the words are sheer cosmic poetry:

 

O cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration! (Our Father which art in heaven)

 

Soften the ground of our being and carve out a space within us where your Presence can abide (Hallowed be thy name)

 

Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission. (Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done)

 

Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire. (On earth as it is in heaven)

 

Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share what each being needs to grow and flourish.  (Give us this day our daily bread)

 

Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us, as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes. (And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors)

 

Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose, but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment. (Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil)

 

For you are the ground and the fruitful vision, the birth-power and fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again.  (For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory)

 

Visualizing our desires

 

In the metaphysical world, the word father means “to sire” or “to father.” It symbolically stands for our desires, our goals, our aims or decrees.

 

All these can be brought into fruition by envisioning them already done—by the use of our imagination, which metaphysics considers our seventh sense, the sixth sense being intuition.

 

If you have enough faith, it would be easy for you to visualize what you desire to manifest in your life. With the help of affirmative prayer, you can picture in detail what you seek to create.

 

The vision, for greater efficacy, should be specific and deeply felt by your subconscious mind, the female aspect of the mind which delivers your desire in its physical form.

 

Seeing the accomplished goal first in the mind is of great importance because it generates the feelings that accompany success. This brings about a sense of gratitude, and being grateful is an all-important ingredient in manifesting a goal.

 

Very few people realize that the Father we speak of says yes to all our thoughts as active prayers. For example, when you say I am poor, sad or depressed, it will give you some form of lack and limitation, something to cry about or reasons to get depressed.

 

Why is this so?

 

I now refer you to the biblical quote from Isaiah 45:7—“I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.” The Lord in the Bible metaphysically oftentimes refers to a Law (the law of sowing and reaping) and not Jesus, the Lord.

 

The reason I recommend affirmation as a form of prayer is because it makes firm what we are desiring. The point, believe it or not, is that anything you attach to the words “I am” (which is the name of God as in “I am that I am”) comes into manifestation in your life. Again, metaphysically, not in religion, the three persons in One God works very much like the grammar version of three persons: I am, you are, they are.

 

So, when you say to your neighbor, “You are stupid,” it is like saying, “I am stupid.” You are simply using the second person in the trinity of persons. This may sound strange to a lot of people, but when it is understood in the context of how the mind works, you will realize its veracity.

 

In the spirit of experimentation, keep saying “I am a loser” and you will experience some form of loss in an area or two of your life, like your health, wealth, relationship and success.

 

Try repeating “I am a winner” as a mantra, and you will see how you attract all forms of blessings into your life.

 

My dad

 

Now, let me talk about my father on earth. Many knew him as a brilliant lawyer, a successful businessman, a wizard in poker and in the casinos, a ladies’ man, a good friend and the epitome of wit.

 

He was also assistant press secretary to President Manuel Roxas and wrote speeches for some presidents thereafter, not to mention a most-read columnist for several publications during his lifetime.

 

His columns were titled “Through My Glasses,” “Strictly for Women” and “My Son and I.” He had five sons and I was not necessarily the son he was writing about.

 

My dad’s name was Carlos Moran Sison.

 

We, his children, had different opinions about him, depending on who you ask. But we all agreed he was a liberal, yet a disciplinarian and extremely conservative when it came to his own family.

 

He and my mother were really young when they started having children—he was 20 and she was 16, virtually just practicing to be parents.

 

When I confronted him later, on why he had to have children when he wasn’t ready to be a father, he candidly replied, “In our day, we couldn’t have sex unless we were married.” With that statement, I forgave him fully for all his trespasses as a father.

 

The least favorite

 

I was the least favorite of all his children because most of the things I wanted to do, he believed, would not guarantee a solid future.

 

Because of my closeness to my mother, he was afraid I might reveal to her his infidelity, which I discovered in my seven years of astrological counseling. In fact, there is only one person who is 100 percent faithful to his wife, and that is my brother Louie. Even as a brother, he is very loving.

 

My father worried a lot about me. When I was a stage actor he warned me that one day I would probably starve to death. It was only after I dared him to write a play that he acquiesced to my being a stage actor. He wrote “The Affair,” staged by Barangay Theater Guild. I produced, directed and starred in his other play, “Heaven, Anyone?”

 

When I started painting and writing poems, he believed I got myself into a worse situation; he said I was painting things “like a house that didn’t look like a house.” He reminded me of all the artists who went hungry for their “art.”

 

But he was amazed that I sold all my paintings in the three one-man shows that I put up.

 

The only thing he considered a consolation was that I was able to teach at Far Eastern University right after I graduated from the University of the Philippines at the age of 18 and landed another job, in an advertising agency.

 

It was then that he invited me to work for him in his many thriving businesses. He promised to pay me a bigger salary, and so I accepted even when I felt in my solar plexus that it was not the right thing to do.

 

Sure enough, after a couple of years, I was fired for either insubordination or inefficiency.

 

This happened because while working for him, I started setting my poems to music which Pilita Corrales recorded. My father was puzzled where I got the time to do the things I was doing.

 

He didn’t know I slept every other day, drank 40 cups of coffee, and smoked four packs of cigarettes daily to keep me going.

 

With all the things I was busy with, I succeeded in setting up my own business—manufacturing woodenware for export which did well until I shut it down with the arrival of Martial Law.

 

While in business, I was simultaneously writing a horoscope column called “Celebrity Horoscope” for Panorama magazine, and “Social Climbing with the Conde de Makati” for Graphic magazine. My father didn’t know I was the Conde until he found out from Imelda Marcos, who requested him that I refrain from writing about Malacañang and her Blue Ladies.

 

My father had three groups of friends that he liked hanging around with: his golf cronies like Nanoy Ilusorio, Joe Marcelo and Charlie Palanca whose eldest daughter Nenen married my older brother Caloy; his poker mates Ambassador Amelito Mutuc who was also our next-door neighbor, George Litton Sr. and Johnny Limjuco; and his intellectual barkada whom I had the privilege and honor of sitting down with at lunches while I was under his employ. These statesmen were Senators Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Tañada, José Diokno and Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee.

 

The female columnists he admired were the commanding Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil for her prose that read like poetry, and multi-awarded writer and advocate of culture and arts Rosalinda “Baby” Orosa whom I owe a debt of gratitude for supporting me in all my multifarious “careers.”

 

Daddy’s girl

 

Who was my father’s favorite child? It was my way-out and endearing sister Margarita. He said, “I want to spoil the girls so it would be difficult for them to settle down with those who cannot support them in the manner they have been accustomed to.” But he was ironically strict with Margarita in the most unexpected way.

 

It was the time of the Miss Caltex years and I asked Margarita whether I could nominate her for the title. She agreed, so I filled out all the forms and gathered all requirements for her to qualify as a candidate. My reward was to be her chaperon in her traveling stints, one of which was a tour of Southeast Asia.

 

My father was totally unaware of our plans which were done secretly. As far as I was concerned, my sister was a sure winner. She had the beauty, the brains and the grace (she was a Bayanihan dancer and a Karilagan model).

 

A few days before the results were announced, Conching Sunico, who was chair of the voting committee, informed my father that Margarita was going to be proclaimed Miss Caltex.

 

My father blew his top and threatened to withdraw his account from Caltex, which was quite substantial because of his logging business. He summoned me and said, “What kind of a brother are you, to allow your sister to be ogled by millions of men?” How the rain poured on our parade!