490002423-The-human-person-as-an-embodied-spirit.pptx

The human person as an embodied spirit signifies the inseparable union of the material body and the immaterial soul, forming a unique being with both physical and spiritual dimensions. This concept emphasizes that the body and soul are integrated, making it impossible to understand a person without considering both aspects together. As embodied spirits, humans possess unique qualities such as self-awareness, rational thought, free will, and dignity, which allow them to interact with the world, form relationships, and transcend their physical limitations.

1. THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT (Recognize Own Limitations and Possibilities) Unit 3

2. LEARNING OUTCOMES: To recognize own limitations or possibilities for one’s transcendence. To evaluate own limitations and the possibilities for one’s transcendence. To recognize how the human body imposes limits and possibilities for transcendence To distinguish the limitations and possibilities for transcendence 3 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

3. SENSITIVITY CHECK Brainstorming: Discuss your views about this excerpt: Ako ay ako …..kaya kong itapon o was akin 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, nakakapagsalita at nakakagawa. Ako ay may kakayahan upang mabuhay at maging malapit sa kapwa. Maging kapaki- pakinabang at makaimpluensiya sa mga tao at mga bagay. Ako ang nagmamay- ari sa sakin, samakatwid kaya kong pamahalaan ang aking sarili,ako ay ako, at ako ay okay. 4 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

4. SENSITIVITY CHECK WHAT IS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT? 5 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

5. SENSITIVITY CHECK An embodied spirit is a human person who is made up of both body and soul that are inseparably united. It means we are not just a body and not just a soul—we are one whole being with both a physical and a spiritual side. 6 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

6. WHAT IS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT? Embodied… It is being materialized or incarnated (a spirit being reincarnated) “the inseparable union of body and soul.” (Christianity) “Embodied Spirit” = “The body is not separate from the soul, just as the soul is not separate from the body.” Thus, the human person is the convergence between the material (body) and spiritual (soul) entities Soul Body 7 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

7. SENSITIVITY CHECK What is an example of embodied spirit? 8 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

8. SENSITIVITY CHECK 9 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

9. WHAT IS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT? “Embodied Spirit” Why is it important? It enables us to know our potentialities & limitations It exposes us to a thorough understanding of ourselves as a unique creature united by body and soul Body Soul 10 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

10. SENSITIVITY CHECK Who said that Human being is primarily a spirit or a soul ? 11 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

11. PLATO’S VIEW ON THE HUMAN PERSON Human being is primarily a spirit or a soul . The body was nothing but a prison- house into her/his real self locked on account which has been of some crime committed in the fore- life.

12. 3.1 PLATO AND COMPANY Death was seen as nothing more than the moment when the soul was finally set free from the body- prison.

13. 3.1 PLATO AND COMPANY Human is primarily a soul ; the body is a prison for the soul. Reality exists in two worlds: World of Forms (eternal, perfect) World of Sense (material, changing) Death frees the soul to return to the world of Forms.

14. 3.1 PLATO AND COMPANY After- life, for the Greeks, was a question of the immortality of the soul, a natural quality or attribute of the spiritual soul of human being. Whatever, in this conception, the human person is primarily a soul which has a body – somehow like the way “I” wear a shirt.

15. 3.2 ARISTOLE AND COMPANY • “Body” and “soul” are not to be conceived as complete beings in conflict with two each being complementing other , but as two each principles of other . The human person is a composite not of “body” and “soul” but of prime matter and the human soul which, as substantial form, “informs” the former.

16. 3.2 ARISTOLE AND COMPANY Hence we have the traditional • scholastic definition of the human person as an “animal rationale.” The human being (homo) is an animal but what characterizes her/him from other animals of the same genus is the fact that s/he and s/he alone can reason , is endowed with the faculty of abstract thought .

17. THE HUMAN PERSON Man is not only body, but he is something infinitely higher. 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].

18. • 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 HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT

19. • 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.”

20. 3.1 PLATO’S VIEW ON HUMAN PERSON Human being should rise from mere “opinions” about changeable things of this world to the contemplation of the perfect and unchanging ideal forms in that world shining with light, our true home and natural state which we had forfeited due to that original fault.

21. THE WORLD OF FORMS • • 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. B y P l a t o The world of Forms which is proposed by

22. 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. THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT

23. 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 . THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT

24. 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 . THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT

25. 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 HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT

26. 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 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT

27. Is life in our contemporary world dictated by technology? Are our self- taken pictures or selfies any indication that we are not zombies? Are we pushing the responsibility for our existence on to society, instead of facing the question of who we are? TRANSCENDENCE IN THE GLOBAL AGE Q u e s ti o n s t o p o n d e r 28 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

28. TRANSCENDENTAL PHILOSOPHY In philosophy, transcendental the adjective and the noun transcendence convey the basic ground concept of the world’s literal meaning (from Latin) of climbing and going beyond , with connotations in its historical and cultural varying different stages. Art has transcendental existence . 29 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

29. THREE MAIN SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHIES TOPIC 2

30. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY Hinduism Buddhism Christianity 31 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

31. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY A. 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. For the Indians, God first created sound and the universe arose form 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. 32 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

32. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY A. Hinduism Brahman is Self-Hood Human beings have Dual Nature: Spiritual and Immortal Essence (soul) – is the ultimately real Empirical Life and Character – the existence of the body is considered nothing more than an illusion and even an obstacle to an individual’s realization of one’s real self. 33 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

33. A. Hinduism Soul is Eternal Hindus believe that the soul is eternal but is bound by the law of Karma (action) to the world of matter, which can escape only after spiritual progress through the endless series of births. God allots rewards and punishments to all beings according to their Karma ( Puligandla 1997). 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 34 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

34. A. Hinduism The Liberation (moksha) of Spirit (jiva) This humanity’s basic goal. A human being’s soul can be said to be temporarily encased in the body. Samasara Hinduism holds that humanity’s life is a continuous cycle. The spirit neither born nor does it die, the body, on the other hand, goes though a trans migratory series or metempsychosis – the doctrine that adheres to the belief that a person’s soul passes into some other creature, human, or animal. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 35 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

35. A. Hinduism Metempsychosis If the person has led a good life, the soul goes upward the scale. The soul of an evil person, on the other hand, may pass into the body of an animal. There will no end to the cycle unless the individual exerts real efforts to break away or liberate one’s spirit from the monotonous cycle. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 36 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

36. A. Hinduism Ultimate Liberation (freedom from rebirth) is achieved the moment the individual attains that stage of life emancipation, from which inevitably arises a total realization by the individual of spiritual nature as well as transient character of the body. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 37 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

37. A. Hinduism Moksha - is an enlightened state wherein one attains one’s true selfhood and finds oneself one with the One , the Ultimate Reality, the All-Comprehensive Reality: Brahman. Ultimate moksha leads the spirit out of monotonous cycle of life and death (samsara) to a state of “nothingness” (the concept of physical being) where the bliss of being one with Brahman compensates all the sufferings the individual underwent in his erstwhile existence in the physical world (Andres 1994). 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 38 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

38. A. Hinduism Brahma The Hindu view of humanity’s reality places a lot of emphasis on the attainment of self- knowledge. The goal of human life according to Upanishads is to overcome congenital ignorance. Upanishads or Vedante – means either the “last chapters, parts of the Veda” or the object, the highest purpose of the Veda .” The concepts of Brahman and Atman (soul,self) are central ideas in all the Upanishads, with “Know your Atman” as their central focus. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 39 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

39. A. Hinduism Brahma True knowledge (vidya) consists an understanding and realization of the individual self (atman). An individual by seriously understanding onself, comes to realize the dictates of karma that point toward the way toward moral progress and perfection. Thus, for Hinduism , one’s whole duty is to achieve self- knowledge in order to achieve self- annihilation and absorption into the Great Self. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 40 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

40. A. Hinduism Summary Hinduism is one of the oldest Eastern traditions practiced by hundreds of millions of people for about 5,000 years (Velasquez 1999). Readings on Hinduism Bhagavad Gita – consists of a beautiful poetry Songs of the Lord - consists great epic Mahabharata that introduces principal concepts of Hinduism 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 41 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

41. A. Hinduism Brahman (The Absolute) oneness of reality For Hinduism, only Brahman is real; everything else is illusory manifestation of it. The concept of Atman (no self) is a correlative belief “I” or the self is an illusion, for each true self is one with Brahman . When we 42 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit realize this unity with the Absolute or “Brahman,” we realize our true destiny. H i n d u G o d s 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY

42. A. Hinduism Summary Hinduism is one of the oldest Eastern traditions practiced by hundreds of millions of people for about 5,000 years (Velasquez 1999). Readings on Hinduism Bhagavad Gita – consists of a beautiful poetry Songs of the Lord - consists great epic Mahabharata that introduces principal concepts of Hinduism 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 43 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

43. A. Hinduism The Four Primary Values Enlightenment Duty Pleasure Wealth Spiritual values wordly values Liberation or illumination of oneself Where an individual find release from the wheel of existence “righteousness” – patience, sincerity, fairness, love, honesty and other similar virtues. When kept in perspective are good and desirable 44 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY

44. A. Hinduism Enlightenment One must understand the law of karma, the law of sowing and reaping. • All of us through what we do or do not do, determines our destiny. • 45 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit The wheel of existence turns until we achieve enlightenment, after we are released from the series of rebirth. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY

45. B. BUDDHISM Founder - Siddharta Gautama (The Buddha) Buddha’s Quest to Enlightenment Out of the life experience and teaching of highborn Prince Gautama of the Sakya clan in the kingdom of Magadha, who lived from 569 to 477 B.C. 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 ascetism, but all to no avail. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 46 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

46. B. BUDDHISM Founder - Siddharta Gautama (The Buddha) Buddha’s Quest to Enlightenment Finally while resting and meditating in a grove of trees, he came to a clear realization that the solution lays in his own mind (Puligandla 1997). 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 47 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

47. B. BUDDHISM “Dharma” or Law of Salvation - A simple presentation of the gospel of inner cultivation of right spiritual aṄtudes, coupled with a self- imposed discipline whereby bodily desires would be channeled in the right directions. Buddha was convinced that the way of escape from pain and misery lay in the transformation of one’s mind and that liberation could come only with the denial of any vain clinging to the things of this life . 3.1 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT 48 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

48. B. BUDDHISM The Teaching of Buddha The Four Noble Truths The Eightfold Paths *The “Four Noble Truths” will lead to the “EighVold Path” to perfect character or archatship, which will give assurance of the entrance to Nirvana at death. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 49 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

49. B. BUDDHISM The Four Noble Truths Life is full of suffering; Suffering is caused by passionate desires, lusts, cravings; Suffering will cease one’s we obliterate the above causes; The eradication of such desires may be accomplished only by following the EighVold Path 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 50 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

50. B. BUDDHISM The Eightfold Path Right belief in and acceptance of the “Fourfold Truth”; Right aspiration for oneself and for others; Right speech that harms no one; Right conduct, motivated by goodwill toward all human beings; Right means of livelihood, or earning one’s living by honorable means; Right endeavor, or effort to direct one’s energies towards wise ends; Right mindfulness in choosing topics for thoughts Right meditation, or concentration to the point of complete absorption in mystic ecstasy. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 51 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

51. B. BUDDHISM The Teachings of Buddhism The way to salvation, lies through self- abnegation, rigid discipline of mind and body, a consuming love for all living creatures, and achievement of that consciousness which marks individual’s full preparation the final state of an for entering the Nirvana (enlightened wisdom) of complete selflessness. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 52 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

52. B. BUDDHISM Nirvana In this state the effect of the Law of 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 into all eternity. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 53 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

53. B. BUDDHISM 54 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit The Sangha or Oder of Monks An organized group or brotherhood of believers consist of the followers of Buddha, who left the comforts of home, dons the robe of a monk, begs for food (wandering mendicants). They dedicated themselves to self- purification , total loyalty to Buddh a, the Dharma and the Sangha . They committed to a life of poverty whose sole aim was the “evangelization” of India through their dissemination of the doctrine of the Middle Way – between extreme ascetism and self- indulgence (Puligandla 2007). B U D D H I S T M O N K S

54. B. BUDDHISM The Sangha Precepts Refrain from destroying life; Refrain from taking what is not given; Refrain from a misuse of the senses; Refrain from wrong speech (do not lie or deceive); Refrain from taking drugs or drinks that cloud the mind 3.1 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT 55 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

55. B. BUDDHISM The 4 states of Sublime Condition Refrain from destroying life; Refrain from taking what is not given; Refrain from a misuse of the senses; Refrain from wrong speech (do not lie or deceive); Refrain from taking drugs or drinks that cloud the mind 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 56 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

56. B. BUDDHISM Summary Freedom of thought and intellectual independence of Buddhism are unique in the history of religions. The Buddha insisted that no one accepts his teachings merely out of respect or reverence for him, but each human being subjects the teaching to rigorous reflection and analysis and accept it only after all doubts and perplexities are overcome. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 57 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

57. 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. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY

58. THOMAS MERTON (1948) A Trappist monk who stated that there is another 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. He further talks about a continual movement away from inner and outer idols toward union with the desert of God of his Christian faith. 59 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

59. C. THE BIBILICAL GOD & HUMANITY We’ll be focusing whether or not the existence of God provides the best explanation of the existence of the world. For religious believers, God is constant presence. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 60 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

60. 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. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY

61. 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. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY

62. When comes this knowledge of God? It begins of with faith and is made perfect by understanding; All knowledge leads to God; Faith supplements and enlightens reason; Without enlightenment of faith, reason goes astray. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 63 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

63. Without God human being is bound to fail.. It begins with faith and is made perfect by understanding We must prove that truth is attainable by reason. 3 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 64 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

64. C. THE BIBILICAL GOD & HUMANITY St. Augustine (354- 43- CE) Philosophy is the love of God; it is then religious. Teachings of Christianity are based on the love of God. Christianity’s revelation of God is the only full and true philosophy. 3.1 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT 65 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

65. SUMMARY Indian thought recognizes complementary thought of all systems of belief. Hinduism is neither rooted in any doctrine, nor does it claim a monopoly on truth or wisdom. Buddhism preaches tolerance of all sincere viewpoints and includes many of these within its own spiritual teachings. For Christian faith , the power of change , cannot be done by human beings alone, but is achieved with cooperation with God. There is an infinite gap, which God alone can bridge through His power. Change should promote the good of the community. 66 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

66. SUMMARY Human being, therefore, has a supernatural, transcendental destiny. This means that he/she can rise above one’s ordinary being or self to highest being self. If a Human being perseveringly lives a righteous and virtuous life, he/she transcends his/her moral life and soars, to an immortal state of life. 67 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

67. CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING Explain “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” – St. Th$mas Aquinas 68 Unit 3: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit