By Joan Mae Soco-Bantayan
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 22 August) — I first met Nicanor Jesus “Nick” Perlas over a decade ago when I was invited to attend one of his seminars called Mission Courage.
Nick spoke clearly as he facilitated the whole process. It was through him that I first heard a striking quote by Dorothy Day, “The revolution of the heart is the heart of the revolution.”
Having attended a number of personal development seminars, I had begun to believe that these seminars are made solely for self-gratification. That changed when I met Nick. The man talked about The Journey of the Soul—a call coming from one’s soul that’s akin to a phone ringing in the middle of the still, dark night, waking you from slumber. He says that you can ignore it but it will still come back stronger and stronger still until you decide to answer it. He talked about the adventures that an individual can have if one answers that call but he didn’t end there.
Nick would move forward to stress the fact that a change in an individual will ultimately hold a profound impact in the society. He would say that knowing who you really are is essential to becoming part of the solution to the challenges of the world, otherwise one would be like a headless chicken, unknowingly causing more hurt and damage.
His ideas resonated deeply with me. I knew that I was listening to a man who was walking his talk. His seminars would awaken that dormant thinker to the participant, adding a whole library of readings that he would laughingly call “homeworks.” Interestingly, he would ignite a feeling of truth and responsibility over the world to the attendees in the room.
In 2017, I wrote “Remember Who You Really Are,” and the ideas of Nicanor Perlas embedded in Mission Courage were among those that helped me come up with the main theme of the book: that remembering one’s true self is essential but is not for self-aggrandizement. It is to become of service to Humanity. He would encourage participants to hold stubborn optimism in viewing the challenges of the world, and to trust in the wisdom of the Spirit.
In 2018, Nick published Humanity’s Last Stand and began sounding the alarm for the lack of moral alignment of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He started discussions about the concerns that the Philippines will have to face when AI takes over the work force while raising awareness about spirituality and how Science is catching up with it. It was during those times that I was able to hold deeper conversations with him about the nature of this challenge on AI and some spiritual questions. In between laughs, he would talk about the Divine nature of the human being and the irony that we’re facing an existential threat. “We’re having this challenge on AI because we are not living up to who we truly are,” Nick once told us in his calm and clear voice. He also steadfastly talked about invoking the light of Christ and Archangel Michael in confronting these challenges.
One time, Nick visited Tuburan Institute Steiner/Waldorf School where I taught. In one of our chats, he told us, “Our generation failed you, so we must do our best to help.” That line taught me that as part of the older generation, we should not despise the younger ones for how they are seemingly becoming, because we are responsible for each other.
When pandemic came, Nick turned to his beloved agriculture and advocated for anti-mandatory vaccination, end of lockdowns, and held discussions on how the pandemic relates to the bigger things on a global scale and on the spiritual level.
Remembering my encounters with Nick makes me think of the times when a feeling of responsibility for my fellow human beings was awakened. For him, being who we really are should make us want to roll up our sleeves and do meaningful work for the whole creation. “If you know the condition of the world and you don’t do anything about it, then you are betraying who you really are,” he had said emphatically.
Indeed, Nicanor Jesus Perlas was a man of his time but more than that, he was a friend, a mentor, a comrade who urges you to stay awake and be courageous to hold a revolution of the heart.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Joan Mae Soco-Bantayan is one of Nicanor Perlas’ countless participants in his many seminars and workshops. She currently resides in Davao City with her family.)
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