ITOGON

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

THERE is a creeping landslide far worse than Naga or Itogon. The landslide is happening inside of us, an erosion creeping insidiously, right at the very core of our existence, unnoticed, replacing traces of goodness and Godliness. Proverbs 6:16-19 lists six things that God hates and the seventh which is ” an abomination unto him”:

“17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”

Greek monastic theologian Evagrius of Pontus first drew up “a list of eight offenses and wicked human passions” in their escalating gravity: 1) gluttony; 2) lust; 3) avarice; 4) sadness: 5) anger; 6) acedia (not to care/ spiritual sloth); 6) vainglory; and pride. He ranked the sins based on the escalating severity as a progressive fixation with the self, with pride as the worst.

In AD 590, Pope Gregory the Great reduced the list to seven items, combining vainglory with pride, and adding envy. His ranking was supposedly based “on the degree from which they offended against love”, from most serious to least: pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust.

The Mahayana tradition of Buddhism identifies five mental states that erode the mind: 1) Ignorance (also confusion, bewilderment, delusion, disorder); 2) Attachment (also desire, passion, yearning); 3) Aversion (anger, hatred, rage, fury); 4) Pride (also arrogance, conceit, overconfidence, condescension); and 5) Jealousy (also envy, spite, covetousness).

We are the mountain sliding through. |The pain and suffering caused by whatever slides from our hands and hits any part of the body will hurt the whole body, not just the part. In hurting nature of which we are an integral part, we naturally hurt ourselves.

We are the victims of our own deeds.

 

Itogon

the earth drinks blood
cascading from where the sun peeps
down to the foothills where stones rest
and where the mud embraces,
creatures of the mountain.

where nothing used to grow, at the foothills,
seeds in deep sleep peep from the pods
seeking light, growing limbs
forcing out, from within
a cascade of wildflowers
and clusters of “everlasting”.

 

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