The Spiritual Self

 Is one of the four constituents of the self.

 One’s moral sensibility and conscience.
Religion
 Rebecca Stein defines religion as a set of cultural and practices that
usually includes some or all basic characteristics.
 The choice of religious belief lies within the spiritual self although the
choice maybe influenced by the society and its culture.
1. Anthropomorphic supernatural being such as spirit and gods.
2. Sacred supernatural, sacred refers to a feeling of reverence and
awe (respect or admiration)
3. Supernatural power or energy found on supernatural beings as well
as physical beings and objects.
4. Ritual activities involve manipulation of sacred object to
communicate to supernatural beings and or to influence or control
events.
5. Articulation of worldview and moral codes, narratives and other
means.
6. Creation and maintenance of social bonds and mechanism of social
control within a community, explanation for unknown and sense of
control for individuals.
The Ritual
 Ritual is the performance of ceremonial acts prescribed by a tradition
or sacred law. Ritual, observable mode of behavior exhibited by all
known societies.
 3 fundamentals characteristics of rituals according to 3 fundamentals
characteristics of rituals according to Penner.
a. Feeling or emotion of respect, awe, fascination or dread in relation
to the sacred.
b. Dependence upon a belief system that is usually expressed in the
language of myth.
c. Symbolic in relation to its reference.
Some world religious beliefs and practices
1. Buddhism
  Buddhism believes that life is not a bed of roses. Instead there
are suffering pain and frustrations. It becomes a habit known as
the reactive cycle of wanting and hating, like and dislike and
craving and aversion (hatred).
 The practice of meditation acquires more wisdom and deeper
understanding
 Customs and Practices
a. Samatha: practice of mindfulness of breathing and
development of loving kindness.
b. Vipassana: practice aim at developing insight into reality.
Acquiring wisdom is by studying buddha’s teaching. The
dharma.
 Some Buddhist celebrations
a. Parinirvana Day – February
b. Buddha Day (Wesak) – May
c. Dharma Day – July
d. Padmasambhava Day – October
e. Sangha Day – November

2. Christianity
 One God in three personas: God the Father (Creator), God the
Son (Savior) and God the Holy Spirit (Sustainer). Eternal life after
death.
 Jesus Christ is, God the Son, who came flesh to spread the good
news of Salvation. He died in the Cross for the sin of the
humanity but resurrected from the death, so anyone who
believes in him will be saved and have eternal life.
 The holy selection of books which is divided into two, the
Old Testament and new Testament.
 Customs and Practices –
1. Sacrament of Baptism – symbolizes the birth in Christian
World.
2. Sacrament of Communion – is an act of remembrance of
Jesus Christ’s sacrificial love.
 3. Christmas – usually every December 25 commemorates the
birth of Jesus Christ.
4. Resurrection (Easter) – Depends of Lunar calendar sometime
March or April

3. Hinduism
 Hinduism believe that existence is a cycle of birth, death and
rebirth, governed by Karma.
 Karma is a concept where reincarnated life will depend on how
the past life was spent.
 Soul passes through a cycle of successive lives and its next
incarnation is always dependent on how the previous life was
lived.
 Vedas are sacred scriptures of Hindus.
 Mahabharata and Ramayana are two other important texts of
the Hindus.
 Customs and Practices
a. Diwali – Festival of Lights
b. Navrati – Festival of nine Nights which celebrate the triumph
of good over evil.

4. Islam
 Muslim believes in Allah, who is their “One God” they believe in
the unity and universality of God.
 Strong sense of community or “ummah” and an awareness of
their solidarity with all Muslims worldwide.
 Islam means willing submission to God.
 Muslims believes to Mohammed is the last and final prophet
sent by God. Mohammed was born in mecca in 570 CE and
received revelations from God through Angel Gabriel over a
period of 23 years.
 The holy bible book of Islam is called Quran, which is taught to
be Arabic because any translation is seen as inadequate.
 Customs and Practices
 a. Shahadah – statement of faith (there is no God, but the one
true God and Mohammed is his messenger.
b. Salat – prayer that is practiced five times a day
c. Zakat – monetary offering for the benefit of the poor. It
compromises the 2.5% of a Muslim’s assets.
d. Hajj – yearly pilgrimage to Mecca.
e. Sawm – the fasting. Muslims do fasting, from food, drink and
sexual act. Celebration of Ramadan is the ninth month of the
Islamic lunar calendar.
f. 2 major festivals in Islam are Eidul-Fitr and Eidul-Adha
celebration of Ramadan within the completion of pilgrimage,
the Hajj.

5. Judaism
 Jewels believe in the God of Abraham. Hebrew slaves from
Egypt to Canaan, the promised land through the leadership of
Moses, Later and Joshua.
 The coming of Messiah, the Savior. The sacred scripture of the
Jews is call Torah or the Law.
 The torah – is the guide of the Jewish living. It is the
interpretation and part of Jewish Culture.
 Customs and Practices
a. Rosh Hashanah – The New Year
b. Yom Kippur – The day of Atonement
c. Pesach – Passover
d. Shavout – Pentecost
e. Sukkot – Tabernacles. Families gather for the shabbat meal.

 Religious beliefs, rituals, practices and customs are all part of the
expression of the spiritual self.

Finding and Creating Meaning of Life

 Dr. Viktor E. Frankl was born on March 26, 1905 in Vienna Austria.
(where famous Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler lived).
  He was a psychiatrist and created The Viktor Frankl Institute in Vienna
in 1992.
 He published a book about Legotheraphy in 1959.
 Legotheraphy – is a psychotherapy introduced by Dr. Viktor Frankl,
who considered the father of Legotheraphy.
 The main belief of legotheraphy is that man’s primary motivational
force is search for meaning.
 Legotheraphy aids individual find personal meaning of life, whatever
life situation they may be.
 Experiencing something or encountering someone and the attitude
toward unavoidable suffering.
 Philosophy of optimism in the face of tragedy, where people can turn
suffering into human achievement and accomplishments.

The basic concepts of Franklian Psychology

1. Life has meaning under all circumstances
2. Main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life
3. Freedom to find meaning

It aims to:
a. Become aware of spiritual resources
b. Makes conscious spiritual resources
c. Use defiant power of human spirit and stand up against adversity.

Legotheraphy Assumptions:
a. The human being is an entity consisting of body, mind and spirit. Body
(Soma), mind (Psyche) and Spirit (noos). According to Frankl, the body
and mind are what we have, and the spirit is what we are.
b. Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable.
c. People have a will to meaning. Motivation for living and acting. When
we see meaning, we are ready for any type of suffering.
d. People have freedom under all circumstances to activate the will to
find meaning. This deals with change of attitudes about unavoidable
fate.
 e. Life has a demand quality to which people must respond if decisions
are to be meaningful. Found and fulfilled. Voice of our conscience.
f. The individual is unique. Realization that we are irreplaceable.

Find Resources of Meaning

a. Purposeful Work – holding a future goal. Own future goal to achieve
or a task to perform.
b. Courage of the face of difficulty – a meaningful is a life with suffering.
Suffering is inevitable of life. Recognize suffering, pain and death as
part of life and to have the courage to face these life difficulties.
c. Love

Activity # 3: Video Clip and Documentary