MANOLITO GULLA
SCL 102
Professor Iona Thomas-Connor
My Philosophy of Life
I. Introduction
Life is bliss. The nature of life is towards more and more; more prosperity, more
power, more love, more happiness. From the blissful union of my parents I came into
being. I was born in a small rural village in Vintar, Ilocos Norte in the northern part of the
Philippines. My parents were elementary school teachers. I am their first born child
among a total of 5 children. As a child I exhibited a high degree of playfulness and
curiosity towards the nature of the world around me.
II. Physical Attributes
A book can not be judged by its cover. A person can not be judged by its physical
attributes. When I first meet a person, I usually don’t make a good first impression
because my physical attributes are not strikingly daunting. I am of average Asian stature,
about 5 feet 5 inches in height, 150 pounds and my face is anything but handsome. But as
people get to know me closer, they begin to get more comfortable with me. My innate
good nature and pleasurable personality shines and my company seems to bring joy and
excitement to their living. When I first met my wife, she completely ignored me as if I
did not exist. I was not “the one” she was looking for. I was not Mr. tall, dark and
handsome. But as time went by, she began to realize my existence and its value to her
life. But I know that she married me not because she loved me, but because I offered her
comfort and care after she was dumped by her white, caucasian, and good looking
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boyfriend. I married her because I was physically attracted to her. Her face was not
especially beautiful but her body is very thin and sexy like a supermodel. When I walk
with her in the shopping malls, I often notice how the men would turn around and take a
second look at her. Sometimes I become an inspiration to some men. When they see me
and then look at my wife I could almost read what’s in their minds: “Wow, if this geek
got a girl this beautiful, then I have a chance”.
III. Marriage and Family
Marriage bound with true love will last forever. Marriage done because of
different reasons won’t last. Physical attraction is not enough reason to get married. My
marriage was passionate and filled with pleasure. It was fun while it lasted. My wife
knows that many men are attracted to her and she got this idea that she will find
somebody ‘better’ than me. After more than ten years of marriage, she finally told me
that she wanted a divorce. I don’t believe in divorce. It is my conviction that when I
marry someone, I commit myself to her for the rest of my life, till death do us part.
Divorce is not good more than ever if there are kids involved. Children need guidance
from both parents in order to prepare them to survive in this frenzied world. Yet I
respected my wife’s decision and I valued her happiness. I did not contest her divorce
claim, and therefore we parted ways. Now I call her my ex-wife. Almost five years has
passed since our divorce and I’m surprised that she has not remarried. All the while, I
thought that right after our divorce, she will marry somebody else. Now it seems to me
that she is having difficulty finding Mr. somebody who is ‘better’ than me. It is easy to
come across someone who is more handsome and more macho than me. But to find all
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my other qualities is more difficult. My tender and affectionate nature is indisputable and
true. When she is melancholy, I would strum my guitar and sing her some songs to make
her mood turn bright. My ability to anticipate and fulfill her every need is natural and
flawless. My pleasant disposition and happy personality is worthy and precious. My
intelligence and a 140 IQ is rare and highly regarded. When some equipment in the house
break down or if she can not figure out something in the computer, I will always be there
to fix things and show her the way. Now she is probably realizing that physical attraction
is not the main ingredient for marriage and happiness.
IV. Career and Success
Each person has a unique skill set and therefore there is a unique job that is tailor
made for each one of us. If you have found that job which comes natural to you and
which makes you do the things that you are passionate about, then you have found your
place; your role in this world. You will have boundless energy and will continue working
even if it is time to stop. You treat your job as if it isn’t a job, it is something that you
need to do because you like and enjoy doing it. Life would be incomplete if you did not
do it. If you are not happy with your job, sooner or later you will give it up and start all
over again looking for that special job that is meant for you. The technique is to uncover
what you really want early in life. Early in our youth, it is wise to consider the opinion of
our parents and elderly members of our family. I felt that I have wasted a good part of my
life because I did not heed the advice of my parents. When I was young, my mother
advised me to take up medicine and become a doctor. But I chose some other profession
instead. Then it turned out that I was not happy in that profession and so here I am at
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LaGuardia, at this late stage of my life shifting my career into the allied medical
profession and realizing that my parents were right all along. Parents and the elderly have
more weight in what they say, more than we credit them for. They have gone through life
many years more than we do and their advice is baked in experience and wisdom.
Obeying our parents is one of the best philosophies in life.
V. Love and Relationships
Relationships are governed by the laws of action and reaction. For every action,
there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is a universal law, the golden rule. Do unto
others as you would want others do unto you. This is also called the law of karma. If you
do something, that action will return back to you manifold. If you smile, people will
smile back at you. Therefore if you want to be loved, you have to give love first.
Love is the tenderest impulse of our essential being. Lucky are those who have
found true love. Recently I met a girl that taught me how it really feels to find true love.
Love is when there is not a single day that passes by that you are not thinking of her. You
feel very happy just by the thought of her near you. If you think that she’ll go away, you
literally feel like you will die of loneliness and depression. You can not exist without her.
I never felt like this before, even when I was courting my ex-wife. Yet in all my
relationships with women, I have yet to find someone that reciprocates my feelings.
Someday my feelings of love will return back to me manifold. Someday, some lady will
see me beyond my physical attributes and appreciate my finer qualities. There will not be
a single day that passes by that she will not be thinking of me. She will feel happy just by
the thought of having me near. And if she’ll imagine that I go away, she will feel as if
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she’ll die of loneliness and depression. When I finally find that lady, I will marry her. I
still have faith in marriage. I consider married life to be better than staying single. When
two people get married, they function in synergy as one soul and the result is greater than
just the sum of the individual parts. Married life lets you unfold and actualize the
experience of increasing bliss and happiness that is inherent in this ever-expanding
universe.
VI. Finance and Wealth
Wealth is a measure of the good deeds that is done to humanity. If you do
something for the good of your fellowmen, you will gain wealth. Businesses become
successful if they serve a particular need of the population. Bill Gates created something
that totally changed how people do things and life became more efficient. No wonder all
that goodness came back to him in the form of wealth and he became the richest man in
the world. Nurses have high salary because they take good care of people. The care and
compassion that they give to the sick and the elderly comes back to them in the form of
money, lots of money. Whatever you do, if you do good to people, you will gain wealth.
If you make people happy and serve their needs, you will attain financial security.
VII. Spirituality
Spirituality is wholeness of life. When I was around 21 years old, I was very
fortunate to have met one of the most famous spiritual leaders of our time: Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi, more popularly known as the guru of The Beatles. From him I have
learned most of what would become the cornerstones of my philosophy of life.
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From Maharishi’s designated representatives I learned his technique of
Transcendental Meditation (TM). This is a simple technique that enables the mind to
experience finer states of thought until the source of thought, pure consciousness is
reached. The mind is like an ocean, ever changing waves on top but silent and nonmoving at the bottom. TM lets you dive into the ocean of your mind leaving the gross
relative field of thoughts and action, going into the silent transcendental field. The mind
becomes very quiet and calm just like the bottom of the ocean. Twenty minutes of this
practice brings many benefits to the person, making his mind more orderly and his body
more relaxed. More orderly thinking results in more accomplishments in life and more
relaxed body results in better health.
One of what I would consider to be the most important achievements in my life is
successfully coming to America. A few years after learning TM, I seriously thought of
coming to the US. I have no idea of how I could possibly come here. With no relatives,
and no money, it is very difficult for somebody from Philippines to come. Yet after that
thought was initialized, things began to slowly take shape. My actions started to gravitate
towards the fulfillment of that dream. Sure enough, in due time this seemingly impossible
goal has materialized. It takes a very organized, focused and orderly mind to be able to
accomplish something like this. For this I give credit to the fact that I learned TM and it
made me more sharp and smart enough to overcome the tremendous obstacles to
obtaining my goal. If I did not learn TM, perhaps until now I would still be in the
Philippines, an ordinary engineer, earning an average third world salary, living a third
world quality of life. I chose to come to New York because it is the capital of the world.
It is the seat of the United Nations. The largest stock markets, NYSE and Nasdaq, are
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located here. It is the financial center of the world. This is where the action is. The song
goes “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, New York, New York”. To be
in New York is the highest possible goal that anybody could dream of.
To gain fulfillment in all fields of life we have to achieve the highest first. What is
the highest need in life? Maslow calls it self-actualization. Maharishi calls it the
realization of ones unbounded potential. The highest field is the unbounded Absolute.
This value of life we aim at bringing to our awareness first, and then all other values of
relative life will be accomplished without effort. This is the same as when the Bible says
“seek ye first the Kingdom God and all others will be added unto you”. Just like if you
capture the fort, all the gold mines and the silver mines and all other mines that belong to
the territory under that fort will automatically belong to you.
According to Maharishi, the sun shines everywhere the same but its reflection in
different pools of water is found everywhere different. Absolute Being is everywhere the
same but the reflection is everywhere different because of different nervous systems. The
reflection is the individuality of the self. It may be possible to purify the pool of water to
make a clear reflection of the sun. The muddy reflection has become sunny and clear.
The reflection gains the quality of the sun and it could say “I am the sun”. In the same
vein, it may be possible to purify the nervous system of stresses to make a clear reflection
of Being, and then it could say “I am That”. The individuality of the self has risen to the
universality of the Self. This is self-realization; realization of one’s unbounded potential.
This is Self-actualization.
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VIII. Role of LaGuardia
LaGuardia Community College has impacted immensely in the development of
my philosophy of life. This philosophy has always been there deep within me. But thanks
to my Professor in this subject SCL 102, Iona Thomas-Connor who literally forced me to
write this assignment, I have come to formally write down and concretize my philosophy.
Little does she know that she has done something everlasting. This piece of mine will be
published in my ePortfolio at the LaGuardia website. Many years from now, I might have
been gone in this earthly existence but the website will remain. My children and
grandchildren can still visit the site. They will be happy to know that their grandpa is a
fine man with a sensible Philosophy of Life.
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