The Human Person As An

Embodied Spirit
(Recognize Own Limitations
and Possibilities)
Objectives
1. To recognize own limitations or
possibilities for one’s
transcendence
2. To evaluate own limitations and
possibilities for one’s
transcendence
3. To recognize how the human body
imposes limits and possibilities for
transcendence
4. To distinguish the limitations and
possibilities for transcendence
Thomas Merton (1948) a monk

Traditional Christian virtues of

Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
 We have to struggle to regain
spontaneous and vital awareness of
our own spirituality.
“I cannot believe in
invisible existence”
Ako ay Ako
… Kaya kong itapon o wasakin ang hindi akma
At panatilihin ang mga naakma
At lumikha o kumatha ng mga bago, kapalit ng
mga itinapon o winasak.
Ako ay nakakakita, nakakarinig, nakadarama,
nakaiisip, nakapagsasalita at nakagagawa.
Ako ay may kakayahan upang mabuhay at maging malapit
sa kapwa.
Maging kapaki-pakinabang at makaimpluwensya sa mga
tao at bagay.
Ako ang nagmamay-ari sa akin, samakatuwid kaya kong
pamahalaan ang aking sarili,
Ako ay ako, at ako ay okay.
 Man is not only body, but he is something infinitely
higher. Of all the animal creations of God, man is the
only animal who has been created in order that he may
know his maker. Man’s aim in life is not to add from day
to day to his material prospects and to his material
possessions but his predominant calling is from day to
day to come nearer to his maker
[Mohandas Gandhi, 1948].
 To recognize our own limitations and
possibilities it is right to know where we are,
what is our world.

According to Plato reality is made up of two

worlds namely, the world of Forms and the
world of Sense where human beings participate
in both of these different worlds.
 The world of Sense which is proposed and believed
by Heraclitus, is the world we see, experience, the
world of objects; a world of change, it is made up of
matter and is bound to decomposition.

Heraclitus proves this through the statements “Cold

things grow hot, the hot cools, the wet dries, the
parched moistens.” and “We both step and do not
step into the same revers. We are and we are not.”
 The world of Forms which is proposed by Parmenides
who influenced Plato in this type of world is a world that is
eternal, perfect and unchanging.
Parmenides proved the world of Forms by his
statement “ We can speak and think only of what exists. And
what exists is uncreated and imperishable for it is whole and
unchanging and complete. It was not or nor shall be different
since it is now, all at once, one and continuous.
 For Plato, reality is eternal and unchanging, it is
the real world, the world of forms. Everything in the
world of senses is but an imitation or a mere shadow
of the ideal.
Human beings participate in both the senses and
the ideal world because they have a material body and
immaterial soul, synthesis of change and permanence.
 Human beings is a body and soul,
according to Plato, body is evil for it
is inclined to temporal things;
objected to temporal satisfaction
and happiness.
 As stated by Origen, a Christian theologian and
philosopher that is also a Platonian “all rational beings
were once pure intellects in the presence of God, and
would remain so forever had they not fallen away
through Koros (satiety).”
Because of koros (sin) or our transgression and
disobedience to God we are punished by being given a
body.
 To be free it is a human task to gradually
recollect the ideas the soul used to know through
education in order for it to be released from being
imprisoned in our body and be able to return to
its place in the world of forms, for the soul is
superior and exists eternally even after the body
evanesces gradually.
 However, failure to recall everything the
soul used to know, the soul has to undergo
another imprisonment and this process will
continually occur until the soul is ready to go
back to its place in the world of forms.
 The freedom of the soul from the body,
its imprisonment is transcendence.
Transcendence is the existence that is
present beyond normal or physical level.
 Transcendence means that: “I am my
body but at the same time I am more than
my body. The things that I do, all those
physical activities and attributes which are
made real through my body, reveals the
person that I am”.
Three main spiritual
philosophies:
Hinduism is the belief in karma and reincarnation.
• Brahman is Self-Hood Hinduism lies the idea of human being's
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.
• The Aum (Om) is the root of the universe and everything that
exists and it continues to hold everything together, the most sacred
sound in which the universe arose from and was the first thing God
created
Four primary values of Hindus:
wealth, pleasure, duty and enlightenment

Wealth and Pleasure are worldly values, but when

kept in perspective they are good and desirable.
The spiritual value of duty, or righteousness, refers to
patience, sincerity, forgiveness, love, honesty and similar
virtues. The spiritual value, though, is enlightenment, by
which one is illuminated and liberated and most importantly,
finds release from the wheel of existence.
Buddhism is the life experience and
teaching of Prince Siddhartha Gautama
(Buddha - he who achieves his aim), a
tradition that focuses on personal spiritual
development, solutions is lay in his own mind
and is famous for its belief in Nirvana; a place
of perfect peace and happiness.
 Buddhism, contained in the teachings of its founder,
Siddhartha Gautama or Buddha. The teaching of highborn
Prince Gautama of the Sakya clan in the kingdom of Magadha,
lived from 560 to 477 B.C, sprang the religious philosophy we
know as Buddhism.
Turning away from the Hindu polytheism and palace
pleasures, searching for answers to the riddle of life's
sufferings, disease, old age and death. Gautama's life was
devoted to sharing his "Dharma" or Law of Salvation; a
presentation of the gospel of inner cultivation or right
spiritual attitudes.
 Buddha set about sharing his discovery with anyone who would listen to him:
Four Noble Truths leading to the Eightfold Path to perfect character of
arhatship Gautama taught:

Four Noble Truths:

1. Life is full of suffering.
2. Suffering is caused by passionate attachment to desires,
lusts, cravings;
3. Suffering can be ended by overcoming attachment to
desires
4. To end suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path
Noble Eightfold Path:
1. Right understanding/belief in the acceptance of the
"Fourfold Truth"
2. Right intent/aspiration for one's self and others;
3. Right speech that harms no one;
4. Right action/conduct, motivated by goodwill toward
all human beings;
5. Right means of livelihood, or earning one's living by
honorable means;
6. Right endeavor, or effort to direct one's energies
towards wise ends;
7. Right mindfulness, in choosing topics for thought,
and
8. Right meditation, or concentration to the point of
complete absorption in mystic ecstasy
 The way to salvation, lies through self-abnegation, rigid
discipline of mind and body, a consuming of love for all
creatures, and the final achievement of that state of
consciousness which marks an individual's preparation for
entering the Nirvana (enlightened wisdom).
The Law and Cause and Effect (Karma) are overcome;
the cycle of rebirth is broken; and one may rest in the
calm assurance of having attained a heavenly bliss that will
stretch out into all eternity.
Christianity is the religion based upon the
teachings and miracles of Jesus where there is only
one God. Suffering leads to the Cross, the symbol of
reality of God's saving love for the human being and
Evil is being disobedient, contradicting the nature of
God and distancing to God.
 For Augustine (354-430 CE), philosophy is amor
sapiential, the love of wisdom; its aim is to produce
happiness.

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. Teaching of Christianity are based of love of
God.
 For Augustine's Christianity, the revelation of
the true God, is the only full and true philosophy.

All Knowledge leads to God, so that faith

supplements and enlightens reason that it may
proceed to ever richer and fuller understanding.
 St. Thomas of Aquinas, another medieval philosopher,
of all creatures, human beings have the unique power
to change themselves and the things for the better.

His philosophy is best grasped in his treatises

Summa Contra Gentiles and Summa Theologica.
Considers human as moral agent, the spiritual and
material and that choosing between 'good' or 'evil' is
our responsibility.