LESSON 3-HUMAN PERSON

AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT
TRANSCENDENCE
 TRANSCENDENCE
• In philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun
transcendence convey the basic ground concept from the
word’s literal meaning (from Latin) of climbing or going
beyond, with varying connotations in its different
historical and cultural stages.
 TRANSCENDENCE

• The fact that we have a soul that is capable of coming to

life and experiencing profound and hidden values, which
the flesh and its senses can never discover alone. This
spirituality in us is identified with the divine image in our
soul.
 INTRODUCTION: TRANSCENDING IN THE GLOBAL
AGE

According to Thomas Merton (1948), a Trappist

monk, there is no other way for us to find who
we are than by finding in ourselves the divine
image. We have to struggle to regain
spontaneous and vital awareness of our own
spirituality.
 THREE SPIRITUAL
PHILOSOPHIES
1. HINDUISM

2. BUDDHISM

3. CHRISTIANITY
A. HINDUISM
 A. HINDUISM
• Hinduism is a religion with various Gods and Goddesses.
According to Hinduism, three Gods rule the world. Brahma:
the creator; Vishnu: the preserver and Shiva: the destroyer.
Lord Vishnu did his job of preserving the world by
incarnating himself in different forms at times of crisis.
• THIRD LARGEST RELIGION
• OLDEST & MOST COMPLEX OF ALL RELIGIONS
• HINDU originated from the Persian word Hindu (in Sanskrit
sindhu) which means “river”. It also refers to the people of the
Indus Valley – the Indians
• It was given in the nineteenth century to describe the wide array of
belief systems in India. It was originally known as “Sanatana
Dharma” or Eternal Religion
 A. HINDUISM

-The Aum

• 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. For the Indians,
God first created sound and the universe arose from it. As the
most sacred sound, the Aum (Om) is the root of the universe
and everything that exists and it continues to hold everything
together.
 A. HINDUISM
• Human beings have a dual nature:
1. One is the spiritual and immortal essence (soul).
2. Empirical life and character.

The essence of the body is considered nothing more than

an illusion and even an obstacle to an individuals
realization of one’s real self.
 A. HINDUISM
1. Hindus generally believes that the soul is eternal but bound by the
law of Karma (action) to the world of matter.

REINCARNATION AND KARMA

Essential Hinduism is based on the belief in karma and has its
first literary expression in Upanishads. Everything in this life is
a consequence of actions performed in previous existence. For
the Jains, there is nothing mightier in the world than karma;
karma tramples down all powers.
 A. HINDUISM
2. Transmigration or metempsychosis is a doctrine that adheres to
the belief that a person’s soul passes into some other creature,
human, or animal.
3. Moksha is an enlightened state wherein one attains one’s true
selfhood and finds oneself with the One, the Ultimate Reality, the
All-Comprehensive Reality: Brahman.
4. Samsara – Cycle of life and death, a state of “nothingness”.
 A. HINDUISM
5. The goal of human life is conceived by the different Upanishads is
to overcome congenital ignorance. The Upanishads or sometimes
referred to as Vedanta, the concepts of Brahman and Atman (soul,
self) are central ideas in all the Upanishads, with “Know your
Atman” as their thematic focus.
6. For Hinduism, one’s whole duty is to achieve self-knowledge in
order to achieve self-annihilation and absorption into the Great
Self.
7. Hinduism is one of the oldest Eastern traditions, practiced by
hundreds of millions of people for about 5,000 years.
 A. HINDUISM

• Hindus strive to achieve Dharma which is a code

of living that emphasizes good conduct and
morality.
B. BUDDHISM
 B. BUDDHISM
“Like stars fading and vanishing
at dawn,
Like bubbles on a fast moving stream,
Like morning dewdrops evaporating on
blades of grass,
Like candle flickering in a
stormy wind,
echoes, mirages, and phantoms
hallucinations and like a dream.”
- THE BUDDHA
 SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA
• Founder- Siddharta Gautama or the Buddha. Out of the life
experience and teaching of highborn Prince Gautama of the Sakya
clan in the Kingdom of Magadha, who lived from 560 to 477 B.C.,
sprang the religious philosophy we know as Buddhism. Turning
away from Hindu polytheism and palace pleasures, Gautama began
searching for answers to the riddle of life’s sufferings, disease, old
age, and death. He explored Brahminic philosophies, then tried the
rigors of asceticism, but all to no avail. Finally, while resting and
meditating in a grove of trees, he came to a clear realization that
the solution lays in his own mind.
 SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA

• From here on, Gautama’s life sharing his “Dharma” or

Law of Salvation – a simple presentation of the gospel of
inner cultivation of right spiritual attitudes, coupled with a
self-imposed discipline whereby bodily desires would be
channeled in the right directions.
 B. BUDDHISM: FROM TEARS TO
ENLIGHTENMENT
Buddhism, is a major Eastern tradition, contained in the
teachings of it’s founder, Siddharta Gautama or The
Buddha.
1. DUKKHA-Life is full of suffering.
2. SAMUDAYA - Suffering is caused by passionate desires,
lusts, cravings.
3. NIRODHA - Only as these are obliterated, will suffering
cease.
4. MAGGA - Such eradication of desire may be accomplished
only by following the Eightfold Path of earnest endeavor.
 THE EIGHTFOLD PATH
1. Right belief 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 god will toward all
human beings.
5. Right means of livelihood or earning one’s living
by honourable means.
6. Right endeavor, or effort to direct ones’ energies
toward wise ends.
7. Right mindfulness in choosing topics for thought.
8. Right medication, or concentration to the point of
complete absorption in mystic ecstacy.
 Division Eightfold factor Sanskrit, Pali Description

the belief that there is an afterlife and not everything ends with death, that Buddha taught and
samyag dṛṣṭi, followed a successful path to nirvana;[169] according to Peter Harvey, the right view is held in
1. Right view
sammā ditthi Buddhism as a belief in the Buddhist principles of karma and rebirth, and the importance of
Wisdom the Four Noble Truths and the True Realities.[172]
(Sanskrit: prajñā,
Pāli: paññā)
giving up home and adopting the life of a religious mendicant in order to follow the path; [169]
samyag saṃkalpa,
2. Right intention this concept, states Harvey, aims at peaceful renunciation, into an environment of non-
sammā saṅkappa
sensuality, non-ill-will (to lovingkindness), away from cruelty (to compassion). [172]
samyag vāc, no lying, no rude speech, no telling one person what another says about him, speaking that
3. Right speech
sammā vāca which leads to salvation;[169]
no killing or injuring, no taking what is not given; no sexual acts in monastic pursuit, [169] for
samyag karman,
Moral virtues[170] 4. Right action lay Buddhists no sensual misconduct such as sexual involvement with someone married, or
sammā kammanta
(Sanskrit: śīla, with an unmarried woman protected by her parents or relatives. [173][174][175]
Pāli: sīla)
For monks, beg to feed, only possessing what is essential to sustain life. [176] For lay Buddhists,
5. Right samyag ājīvana, the canonical texts state right livelihood as abstaining from wrong livelihood, explained as not
livelihood sammā ājīva becoming a source or means of suffering to sentient beings by cheating them, or harming or
killing them in any way.[177][178]
samyag vyāyāma, guard against sensual thoughts; this concept, states Harvey, aims at preventing unwholesome
6. Right effort
sammā vāyāma states that disrupt meditation.[179]

Meditation[170] never be absent minded, conscious of what one is doing; this, states Harvey, encourages
(Sanskrit and Pāli: 7. Right samyag smṛti,
mindfulness about impermanence of the body, feelings and mind, as well as to experience the
samādhi) mindfulness sammā sati
five skandhas, the five hindrances, the four True Realities and seven factors of awakening. [179]

8. Right samyag samādhi,

Correct meditation or concentration (dhyana), explained as the four jhānas. [169][180]
 B. BUDDHISM: NIRVANA
• NIRVANA
It means that state in which one is absolutely free from all
forms of bondage and attachment. It means to overcome and
remove the cause of suffering.
CHRISTIANITY
 C. CHRISTIANITY
• Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of
Jesus of Nazareth. Its adherents known as Christians believe that
Jesus is the Christ, who’s coming as the messiah was prophesied in
the Hebrew Bible, called the Old Testament in Christianity and
chronicled in the New Testament.
 C. CHRISTIANITY
• Christians believe in the life after death. After death the soul of a
person will be judged according to his/her life in the world and will
either go to Heaven, to dwell with God or to Hell and be separated
permanently from Him.
• Belief in purgatory, where there is temporary punishment for those
who do not yet to go to either heaven or hell.
• Believe in the establishment of Kingdom of God
 BIBLICAL GOD AND HUMANITY

This section looks at the reasonableness of beliefs in Gods

existence. We shall treat the statement that “God exists” as
a hypothesis, which we call the theistic hypothesis. For
Augustine, Christianity, as presenting the full revelation of
the true God is the only true and full philosophy.
The religious problem reflected in the Old
Testament narratives not atheism but polytheism:
not the denial of God but the worship of too many
gods. Likewise, in the New Testament, the reality of
God is unquestioned due to the conviction that in
Jesus of Nazareth the eternal God became flesh and
dwelt among human beings.
ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
AND ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Will and Love
 ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
• For AUGUSTINE (354-430 CE), Philosophy is amor sapiential, the
love of wisdom; its aim is to produce happiness. However, for
Augustine, wisdom is not just an abstract logical construction; but it
is substantially existent as the Divine Logos. Hence, philosophy is
the love of God: it is then, religious. Teachings of Christianity are
based on the love of God, which Augustine’s, Aquinas’, and
Anselms’ arguments are basically rooted.
• For Augustine, Christianity, as presenting the full revelation of the
true God, is the only full and true philosophy.
It should be taken as a humble acceptance of the fact that
human beings alone, without God, are bound to fail. As
stated in 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 can do nothing. Further, to quote
Psalms 4: The thoughts are very deep! The dull man cannot
know. The stupid cannot understand this.
• For St. Augustine, even we grant that the senses yield no certainty
in themselves so that we can always doubt their reports, one thing
we cannot doubt, and that is the fact that we doubt. Here, then, is
absolute certainty. Now, if we doubt, we are and as doubting we
must be living and rational beings. We have then established with
certainty three grades or levels of existence: mere being, living
being, and rational being. His certainty has been established, not by
turning outward through sensation to the external world, but by
turning inward to the soul itself.
The lowest form of knowledge is that of sensation yet as we ascend
higher to knowledge of rational principles, it is the will which directs
the minds eye to truth, first invading to the mind itself, then upward
to the eternal Truth. In his earlier writings, Augustine speaks in
Platonic phrase of humanity as a rational soul using a mortal body.
Later, he favors, “man is a rational substance constituted of soul and
body”. In both cases, the soul retains its proper entity, and the soul
apart from the body may be considered as a substance.
 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
For St. Thomas Aquinas, another medieval philosopher, of all
creatures, human beings have the unique power to change themselves
and things for the better. His philosophy is best grasped in his
treatises Summa Contra Gentiles and Summa Theologica. Aquinas
considers the human being as moral agent. We are both spiritual and
body elements.; the spiritual and material. The unity between both
elements indeed helps us to understand our complexity as human
beings. Our spirituality separates us from animals; it
differentiates moral dimension of our fulfillment in action.
Through our spirituality, we have a conscience. Thus, whether
we choose to be “good” or “evil” becomes our responsibility.