My Legacy

When my children asked me to laave a legacy to future generations by writing this book, I was overwhelmed by the task because I have lived only a simple life. Then it occurred to me that therein lay my legacy to them—the simplicity of my life and the quiet joy that I have felt living this existence.

Body

The first part has to do with prolonging life by physical action. We must eat right, exercise enough and sleep well.

After my experience with prostate cancer and a mild stroke, I have become convinced that we must watch our food intake. Prevention is better than cure.

It is better to start preventive care this early on in life, instead of waiting until we have all sorts of ailments before dieting desperately in the hope that we can still fix what is wrong with our bodies. Some things, like clogged arteries, cannot be undone without drastic intervention. So eat the right food!

I eat a lot of vegetables and fruits. I have oatmeal in the morning because it’s good for absorbing bad cholesterol. I eat a lot of camote. I hardly eat meat—no pork, no beef, only native chicken and fish. Nothing fried, just steamed or boiled. It’s good to eat fibrous foods. Aside from providing roughage to help eliminate toxins from the body, basic fibrous foods are also not costly. For the budget conscious dieter, you’ll find that vegetables are generally cheaper than meat.

Exercise at least half an hour each day. At 85, I still go to the gym at the Westin Philippine Plaza Hotel. For my cardiovascular routine, I use the treadmill for 20 minutes and the stationary bicycle for another 20 minutes. Then I lift some weights to keep my muscles from becoming weak. Exercise is good for the heart and for blood circulation. When your blood is circulating well, your organs are receiving enough oxygen and nutrients and expelling toxins properly, thereby increasing your general health. Exercise also releases endorphins, the chemicals that occur naturally in your brain to keep you happy. However, here’s a word of caution: If you haven’t been exercising regularly, check with your doctor before you begin an exercise regimen.

The third element is good sleep. Most people take sleep for granted. At the end of the day, however late at night or close to dawn it is, you’re tired and so you tumble into bed and hopefully sleep until it’s time to get up again. Well, here’s something you need to know. Between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., the body recharges the immune system. Those four hours of sleep are crucial if you want to prolong your lifespan. Over an extended period of time, if you miss those crucial sleeping hours, you are doing your body incalculable harm. Additionally, you need to sleep at least seven hours a night. You need to give yourself ample time to go through the cycles of sleep so you can reach that level of deep, regenerative and healing sleep. My busy schedule sometimes keeps me up late, but no later than 11 p.m. And I do get seven hours of sleep each night.

Mind and Emotions

Part two has to do with the mind and the emotions—or the soul of a person. Think happy. Be positive. Laugh at least three times a day. And keep on smiling. I cannot stress enough the importance of all these. Thinking happy thoughts, being positive, laughing and smiling transform your countenance, make you look younger and help reduce stress. Stress causes acidity in the body, which is the environment that cancer and other disease-causing cells (free radicals) thrive in.

When you are sick, laughter lightens your sickness. If a person who is sick of cancer has a normal, happy existence, his or her life will be prolonged. If the sick person is moody, worried, sad or bitter everyday, he or she will not live as long. These observations are valid. I have been visiting five or six sick people every Saturday for 50 years and have met tens of thousands of ailing people and prayed with them or for them. The happy ones live longer.

Thinking happy thoughts and being positive are not attitudes that are achieved overnight. These are built over a period of time. You pick happiness instead of sadness, peace instead of strife, mildness instead of anger, forgiveness instead of resentment or revenge. Each time you encounter one of these choices, you make a decision. Every time you choose the better alternative, you are fortifying a good habit and affirming the best in you. Over a lifetime, you can become one of the greatest positive forces in the lives of people around you. So decide today! The choice is yours.

By the way, you make that decision to pick good instead of bad with your brain, regardless of how you feel about something. Even in the midst of trouble, you can decide to be happy.

You can also decide to let things pass, particularly when somebody offends you. You have a choice—to get angry or to be forgiving. Being forgiving is not the easier option, but (in my view) it’s the better one. If you take the longer perspective, if you look beyond this life, the offense committed against you becomes insignificant, especially if you want to go to heaven.

God is there to watch. When other people take advantage of you, when they take something from you, God knows. And He will deal with them in His own time and in His own way.

Spirit

The third part has to do with the spirit. After all, we are tripartite beings: body, soul and spirit. The spirit is the great, unseen part of us, the one made in the image and likeness of God. God is Spirit. We approach God through prayer and meditation. We cannot “reach” God if we are earth-bound, if we persist with worldly desires, if we cling to material things, if we see only as far as this life, and if our values are of the flesh and not of the spirit.

I tell my children and grandchildren, “When something negative happens, pray. Prayer is the most important action that you can take. It brings you right into the throne room of God, the Almighty, who can move heaven and earth for you. Prayer to our Blessed Mother and the Saints can make them whisper in God’s ear on your behalf.”

Our integrity and the values that we espouse are also very important. Material things are passing and we should not be too attached to them. I recall a film titled Good Earth. The protagonist, a woman, went through her lifetime holding on to a pearl that was very dear to her. Often she held that pearl in her clenched fist. However, when she died, the pearl slid from her lifeless hand and rolled away.

The lesson of Good Earth is that we cannot hold forever on to anything earthly that is dear to us. Certainly, we cannot take our money, our jewelry and our property with us to the afterlife. The world today is becoming too materialistic and too attached to creature comforts. If we have enough to eat, enough to spend, enough to give to the people, we’re OK already. It is important to keep on sharing, giving to the people in need.

In my lifetime, I have experienced both lack and hardship. For about 20 years, I sacrificed so that I could build a business to support my siblings and my family. My wife and children had to sacrifice with me because I ploughed whatever earnings I could save back into the business to fund its expansion. God blessed my efforts with success. Eventually, the business was earning enough so that I could share the blessings with others.

Look Beyond

My children say it’s All Mine to Give, after the title of a movie. The reason why I can share generously is because I maintain this frame of mind: What God has given me remains His to dispose. Having been blessed by God, I am, consequently, a channel or a conduit of His blessings. (When I was president of the Rotary Club of Downtown Manila, the theme of my term was “Look Beyond Yourself.”)

To be avaricious, to be attached to wealth and to think that I have achieved all these by my own effort alone would be terrible mistakes that would put my soul in jeopardy. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but to lose his soul?

At the grand old age of 85, I think that I can say: Don’t be attached to material things because these are passing. What is important is beyond this world, beyond this life. I practice a very powerful and deep meditation during which I contemplate my last end. (When you come to understand the magnitude of God’s love, contemplation on death is not a fearful experience.)

When meditating on death, everything is suspended, floating. I have no desire, no more ambition, no more worldly things to cling to. I can begin to look beyond myself, beyond this life. Nothing should remain that stands between me and God.