The Human

Person as an
Embodied Spirit
 Ako ay ako
 … Kaya kong itapon o wasakin and hindi akma at
pananatilihin ang mga naakma
at lumikha o kumatha ng mga bago, kapalit ng mga
itinapon o winasak.
Ako ay nakakakita, nakakarinig , nakaiisip ,
nakakpagsalita at nakakagawa.
Ako ay may kakayahan upang mabuhay at malapit sa
kapwa.
Maging kapakipakinabang at makaimpluwensiya sa
mga tao at mga bagay.
Ako ang nagmamay-ari sa akin, samakatuwid kaya
kong pamahalaan ang aking sarili,
Ako ay ako, at ako ay okey.
Connect the dots in 4 strokes
Transcendence in the Global
Age
Are we dictated by technology?
Are our self-taken pictures or
selfies any indication that we
are not Zombies?
Are we pushing away ?
Who am I?
Thomas Merton (1948)
“There is no other way for us to find who
we are than finding in ourselves the divine
image.”
He adds, “ we have to struggle to regain
spontaneous and vital awareness of our own
spirituality.”
Transcendence
Transcendence
- Conveys the basic ground
concept from the word’s
literal meaning, of climbing
or going beyond, with
varying connotations in its
different historical and
cultural stages
Appreciate art
Knowledge and Law
Soul
3 Main Spiritual Philosophies
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 3.1 The human Person as an
Embodied Spirit.
The learner is expected to
understand the human
person as embodied spirit
as well as distinguish his/her
own limitations and the
possibilities of his/her
transcendence.
Hinduism
Brahman Is Self-Hood
At the heart of Hinduism lies
the idea of human beings’ quest
for absolute truth, so that one’s
soul and the Brahman or Atman
(Absolute Soul) might become
one.
The Aum
 Human beings have dual
Nature.

S
O
U
l
 Body

The other is
the
empirical
life and
character.
Hindus generally believe that
the soul is eternal but is bound
by the law of Karma (Action)
to the world of matter, which
it can escape only after
spiritual progress through an
endless series of births.
Punishments and Rewards
Liberation is humanity’s goal.

Spirit(Jiva)

Liberation (moksha)
Hinduism holds that
humanity’s life is a
continuous cycle
(samsara). While it is
the spirit is neither
born nor does it die,
the body on the
other hand, goes
through a
transmigratory series
of birth and death.
Transmigration or Metapsychosis
Itis a doctrine that adheres to the
belief a in person’s soul passes into
some other creature, human , or
animal. If the person has led a
good life, the soul goes upward the
scale. The soul of an evil person, on
the hand, may pass into the body
of an animal.
Ultimate liberation, that is,
freedom from rebirth, is
achieved the moment one
attains the stage of life
emancipation, from which
inevitably arises a total
realization by the individual
of spiritual nature as well as
the transient character of
the body.
Moksha, thus is an enlighten state
wherein one attains one’s true
selfhood and finds oneself one
with the One, the Ultimate Reality,
the All-comprehensive Reality-
Brahman.
Brahman- Soul
Atman - Self
The ultimate moksha leads the spirit
out of the monotonous cycle of
life and death to a state of
NOTHINGNESS.
“Know your Atman”(Self)

True knowledge(vidya) consists

an understanding and the
realization of the individual’s
real (atman) as opposed to
lower knowledge that is limited
to an interpretation of reality
based solely on the data
offered by sense experience.
4 Primary Values of Hindus

Wealth
Pleasure
Duty
Enlightenment
The spiritual value of duty
It refers to patience,
sincerity, sincerity, fairness,
love, honesty and similar
virtues.
Understanding Enlightenment
One must understand the
law of karma, the law of
sowing and reaping. All of
us, through what we or not
do, supposedly determine
our destiny.
Buddhism: From Tears to
Enlightenment
“Dharma” or Law of Salvation.
A simple presentation of the
gospel inner cultivation of right
spiritual attitudes, coupled by
self –imposed discipline
whereby bodily desires would
be channelled in the right
direction.
Escape from Pain and Misery
It lies in the transformation
of one’s mind and that
liberation could come only
with a sloughing off of all
vain clinging to the things of
this life.
4 Noble Truths
 Gautama taught
1. Life is full of suffering
2. Suffering is caused by passionate
desires, lust, cravings
3. Only as these are obliterated, will
suffering cease;
4. Such eradication of desire may be
accomplished only by following
the 8 Path of earnest endeavour.
Briefly these 8 steps are:
1. Right belief in and acceptance of
the “Fourfold Truth”;
2. Right aspiration for one’s self and
for others;
3. Right speech that harms no one;
4. Right conduct, motivated by
good will towards all human
beings.
5. Right means of livelihood, or
earning one’s living by honourable
mean;
6. Right endeavour, or effort to direct
one’s energies towards wide ends;
7. Right mindfulness in choosing
topics for thought; and
8. Right meditation, or concentration
to the point of complete absorption
in mystic ecstasy.
Three Short Axioms
1. Cease to do evil,
2. Learn to do good,
and
3. Purify your own mind.
The way to Salvation
It lies through self-
abnegation, rigid discipline
of mind and body, a
consuming love for all living
creatures, and the final
achievement of that state of
consciousness which marks
an individual’s full
preparation for entering the
Nirvana (enlightened
wisdom) of complete
selflessness.
In this state, the effects of the
law of cause and effect.

Karma is overcome.
Cycle of rebirth is broken;
and one may rest in the calm
assurance of having attained
a heavenly bliss that will
stretch into all eternity.
 Biblical God and Humanity
“God exists” as hypothesis or the theistic
hypothesis
Best Explanation
Pointless
Not Atheism but Polytheism
Jesus, as eternal, became
flesh.
The Emergence of Naturalistic
Philosophy
St. Augustine
 Philosophy is amor sapiential, the love of
wisdom; its aim is to produce happiness.
St. Augustine
Wisdom is not just an
abstract logical
construction; but it is
substantially existence
as the Divine Logos.
St. Augustine
Hence, philosophy is the love of
God: it is then, religious.
Teaching Christianity are based
on the love God, w/c
Augustine’s, Aquinas’, and
Anselm’s arguments are
basically rooted.
St. Augustine
 Christianity,
as presenting the full
revelation on the true God, is the only full
and true philosophy.
St. Augustine
 However, we can love only that which we
know.
When comes this knowledge
of God?

It begins with

faith and is made
perfect by the
understanding.
 All knowledge leads to God.
So as faith supplements and
enlightens reason that it may
proceed to ever and ever fuller
understanding.
Indeed without this
enlightenment of faith, reason
invariably sooner or later, goes
astray
John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are
the branches. If you
remain in me and I in you,
you will bear much fruit;
apart from me., you do
nothing.”
Psalm 4
“ The thoughts are very
deep! The dull man
cannot know. The
stupid cannot
understand this.
Truth is attainable by reason
For St. Augustine, “one
thing we cannot doubt,
and that is the fact that
we doubt. Here, then, is
absolute certainty.”
We are alive and rational
being
 Three Grades or Levels of
existence.

Mere being
Living being
Rational being
The “Will” directs the Mind’s
eye to the Truth.
 Before
St. Augustine speaks in
Platonic phrase of
humanity as a rational
soul using a mortal
body.
 Later
He favours “man is a
rational substance
constituted of soul
and body.”
St. Thomas Aquinas
Human beings as
moral agents. We are
both spiritual and
body elements; the
spiritual and material.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Our spirituality separates
us from the animals; it
differentiates moral
dimension of our
fulfilment in action.
  3.2 Evaluate Own
Limitations and Possibilities
in their Transcendence
A. Forgiveness
when we forgive , we are
freed from our anger and
bitterness because of the actions
and /or words of another. On
the other hand, the hardness of
our heart is reinforced by whole
series of rational arguments.
B. The beauty of Nature
Hug
Eating together as a Family
C. Vulnerability
To be invulnerable is
somehow inhuman.
Super heroes are
hiding from their true
identity
D. Failure

Our failures force

us to confront our
weakness and
limitations.
Our common failures
 Failed Relationship
 Fail a subject
 Expectation vs reality
 Surrendering to Mystery
 Possibility of our plans
 Immediate desires are not met
Good: Hope and Forgiveness
Such acceptance of
our failures makes us
hope and trust that all
can be brought into
good.
E. Loneliness (Mingaw)
Our loneliness can
be rooted from our
sense of vulnerability
and fear of death.
F. Love
 To love is to experience richness,
positivity, and transcendence. Whether in
times of ecstatic moments or struggles,
the love for a friend, between family
members or significant person, can open
in us something on the other w/c takes
us beyond ourselves.
Buddhist’s Perspective

“The more we love,

the more risks and
fears there are n
life”.
 Risk is a choice
 Life
is full of risks, fears, commitment, pain
and sacrificing and giving up thing/s we
want for the one we love.
 3.3 Recognize the Human Body
Imposes Limits and Possibilities
for Transcendence.
 A. Hinduism: Reincarnation
and Karma
An interesting Hindu belief is the
transmigration of the souls,
reincarnation or “metempyschosis.”
Essential Hinduism is based on the
belief in karma and has its first literary
expression in Upanishads.

Everything in life is a consequence of

actions performed in the previous
existence.
 Getting out of Karma
Only by building up a fine
record, or “karma,” can final
salvation be achieved.
b. Buddhism: Nirvana
Nirvana means the state in which one is
absolutely free from all forms of bondage
and attachment.

It means to overcome and remove the

cause of suffering.
 Buddhists see one who has attained
nirvana as one who is unencumbered
from all the fetters that bind a human
being to existence. (e.i wealth ).

 Onehas perfect knowledge , perfect

peace, and perfect wisdom.
St. Augustine : Will and Love
For, St Augustine, physically we are free, yet
morally bound to obey the law.

The eternal law is God Himself.

According to law, humanity must do well

and avoid evil, hence, the existence of
moral obligation in every human being.
Christian life is not easy. However, no
human being should become an end to
himself.

We are responsible to our neighbour aas we

are to our own actions.
 For St. Augustine
Though we are physically free, one does
not have a right to do anything if it is right
morally right tor of one will hurt another.

Right means pleasing to God. God has

given us a choice to discern between right
and wrong.
 3.4 Distinguish the Limitations
and Possibilities for
Transcendence.
Let us distinguish the limits and
possibilities of human beings
common to all Indian thoughts:

 Itis spiritual that endures and is ultimately

real. In Hinduism, the human aspiration is
to move to the divine. What we believe is
how we live; if our beliefs are in error, then
our lives will be unhappy.
 There is the preoccupation with
inner life – the road to
enlightenment that stretches not
outward but inward. To understand
nature and the universe, we must
turn within.
 There is an emphasis on the
nonmaterial oneness of creation.
This means that there are no
polarities; a single spirit provides
cosmic harmony.
 There is the acceptance of direct
awareness as the only way to understand
what is real. The Indians find this direct
perception through spiritual exercises,
perhaps through the practice of yoga.
Reason is of some use but in the final
analysis, it is only through inner experience
of oneness with all of creation.
 Thereis a healthy respect for tradition, but
never a slavish commitment to it. The past
can teach but never rule.
 Evil and Suffering
 InChristianity, suffering leads to the Cross,
the symbol of God’s saving love for the
human being.