CHAPTER 7: SUPERNATURALS: BELIEVE IT OR NOT

I. RELIGION
1. A belief in anthropomorphic supernatural being, such as spirit and gods
2. A focus on the sacred supernatural, where sacred refers to a feeling of reverence and awe
3. The presence of supernatural power or energy that is found on supernatural beings as well as physical beings
and objects
4. The performance of ritual activities that involves the manipulation of sacred object to communicate to
supernatural beings and/or to influence or control events
5. The articulation of worldview and moral codes through narratives and other means
6. Provide the creation and maintenance of social bonds and mechanism of social control within a community

II. RITUAL
 Performance of ceremonial acts prescribed by a tradition or sacred law
 A specific, observable mode of behavior exhibited by all known societies; as a way of defining or describing
humans
 Ritual has the characteristics of:
1. A feeling or emotion of respect, awe, fascination, or dread in relation to the sacred
2. Dependence upon a belief system that is usually expressed in the language of myth
3. Is symbolic in relation to its reference

I. Some World Religious Beliefs and Practices Buddhism

A. BELIEFS
 Life is not a bed of roses. Instead, there are suffering, pain, and frustration. This reactive cycle can be
broken through the practice of mediation, acquiring more wisdom and deeper understanding, and
acceptance of things as they are.

B. CUSTOMS AND PRACTICES

 Samatha is practiced as mindfulness of breathing and development of loving kindness; Vipassana
practices aim at developing insight into reality. Acquiring wisdom is by studying Buddha’s teaching, the
Dharma.
 Buddhist celebrations are Parinirvana Day in February; Buddha Day (Wesak) in May; Dharma Day in
July; Padmasambhava Day in October; and Sangha Day in November.

II. CHRISTIANITY
A. BELIEFS
 Christians believe in Trinitarian God, one God in three personas: God the Father (Creator), God the Son
(Savior), and God the Holy Spirit (Sustainer). Eternal life after death will be achieved through faith in
Jesus Christ. The Holy Bible is a selection of books, which is divided into two ‒ the Old Testament and
New Testament.
B. CUSTOMS AND PRACTICES
 The Sacrament of Baptism symbolizes the birth in Christian World. The Sacrament of Communion is an
act of remembrance of Jesus Christ’s sacrificial love.
 Christmas and Resurrection (Easter) are the two major celebrations in Christianity.

III. HINDUISM
A. BELEFS
  Hindus believe that existence is a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, governed by Karma, a concept where
the reincarnated life will depend on how the past life was spent. Vedas are sacred scriptures of Hindus.
Mahabharata and Ramayana are two other important texts of the Hindus.
B. CUSTOMS AND PRACTICES
 Diwali is the Festival of Lights. Navrati is the festival of nine nights, which celebrate the triumph of good
over evil. Hindus have set dates to honor particular manifestations of God.

IV. ISLAM
A. BELIEFS
 Islam means “willing submission to God.” Muslims believe in Allah, who is their “One God”, in the unity
and universality of God, that Mohammed is the last and final prophet sent by God. The Holy Book of Islam
is called the Quran.
B. CUSTOMS AND PRACTICES
 Muslims believe in the five pillars of Islam, which are the foundation of Muslim life:
1. Shahadah – statement of faith: “There is no God but the one true God and Mohammed is his
messenger.
2. Salat – the prayer that is practiced five times a day.
3. Zakat – the monetary offering for the benefit of the poor. It comprises the 2.5% of a Muslim’s assets.
4. Hajj – the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims who can afford are asked to do the pilgrimage at least
once in their lifetime.
5. Sawm – the fasting. Muslims do fasting, from food, drink, and sexual act, during the celebration of
Ramadan. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. The fast is from dawn to sunset.
 Eidul-Fitr is the celebration at the end of Ramadan, while Eidul-Adha is celebrated within the completion
of the Pilgrimage, the Hajj.

V. JUDAISM
A. BELIEFS
 The Jews believe in the God of Abraham, in the coming of Messiah, the Savior. The sacred scripture of
the Jews is called the Torah or the Law.
B. CUSTOMS AND PRACTICES:
 There are five major festivals observed by the Jews:
1. Rosh Hashanah – the New Year
2. Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement
3. Pesach – Passover
4. Shavuot – Pentecost
5. Sukkot – Tabernacles
 The Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday evening at sunset and is an important time when families gather for
the Shabbat meal.

VI. LOGOTHERAPY
 A psychotherapy introduced by Dr. Viktor Frankl
 The main belief is that “man’s primary motivational force is search for meaning.”
 Aids individuals to find personal meaning of life, whatever life situation they may be
 It uses the philosophy of optimism in the face of tragedy.
 The Franklian Psychology has these basic concepts:
 Life has meaning under all circumstances.
 The main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
 Freedom to find meaning
 Franklian Psychology aims to:
1. Become aware of spiritual resources;
2. Make conscious spiritual resources; and
3. Use “defiant power of the human spirit” and stand up against adversity.
VII. LEGOTHERAPY ASSUMPTIONS
1. The human being is an entity consisting of body, mind, and spirit.
2. Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable.
3. People have a will to meaning.
4. People have freedom under all circumstances to activate the will to find meaning.
5. Life has a demand quality to which people must respond if decisions are to be meaningful.
6. The individual is unique.

III. FRANKL’S SOURCES OF MEANING

1. Purposeful Work. Each individual has his/her own future goal to achieve or a task to perform; the meaning of
life is unique to every individual.
2. Courage in the Face of Difficulty. To find meaning of life is to recognize suffering, pain, and death as part of
life and to have the courage to face these life difficulties.
3. Love. “The ultimate secret on the spiritual foundation of life is that love is salvation and joy eternity.” The
ultimate factor to find the meaning of life is love.

CHAPTER 8: THE POLITICAL SELF AND BEING FILIPINO

I. ABSTRACTION
 The Philippines as we know it today has only emerged in the 1890s after over three centuries of
colonization of the Spaniards;
 Liberation from the last colonizers, the Japanese, only occurred in 1946.
 Foreign culture, beliefs, language, and religion have made a huge dent on our own by setting a
foundation to the contemporary Filipino identity and culture.

II. WHO IS A FILIPINO?

 According to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Filipino citizens are:
 “…those whose fathers or mothers are citizens of the Philippines, those born before January 17, 1973, of
Filipino mothers, who elect Philippine citizenship upon reaching the age of majority, and those who are
naturalized in accordance with law.”
 Citizenship is not the only marker of being a Filipino; People who were born and grew up in the same culture
develop and share common personality traits and values

III. FILIPINO VALUES AND TRAITS

A. THE FILIPINO HOSPITALITY
 Filipinos welcome their guests and tourists as if they are their own brothers and sisters. They always make
their guests feel at home, offering them something to eat, or even a place to stay.
 Respect for Elders
 Filipinos greet their elders by kissing their hand while saying “Mano po!” and constantly using “po” and
“opo” in conversations.
 A wide array of references to elder people such as ate for older sister; kuya for older brother; tito and tita
for uncle and aunt; lolo and lola for grandfather and grandmother; and manong and aling for older people
outside the family.

B. CLOSE FAMILY TIES

  Filipinos maintain a tight relationship with their families. They are fond of family reunions during birthdays,
holidays, or fiestas year-round.
 Some Filipino families even opt to live in a big house where everyone can stay together. Nursing homes
are almost always not an option for family members.
 Cheerful Personality
 Filipinos smile when they are happy, or sometimes even when they are sad or angry. Smiling has been a
coping strategy for many Filipinos especially during trying times and calamities.
 Self-sacrifice
 Filipinos go out of their way to extend help to their friends, families, and loved ones.
 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) sacrifice a lot. That is why they are regarded as modern-day Filipino
heroes.
 Bayanihan
 It is the spirit of communal unity and cooperation of Filipinos. It is also about giving without expecting
something in return.
 “Bahala na” Attitude
 It is the Filipino version of the famous line “Hakuna Matata,” meaning no worries.
 The phrase is said to have originated from “Bathala na,” where Bathala means God, and the phrase
meaning leaving everything into God’s hands.

C. CLONIAL MENTALITY
 It is regarded as the lack of patriotism and the attitude where Filipinos favor foreign products more than their
own; but also the desire to look more foreign than local and keep up with foreign beauty trends.
 “Mañana” Habit
 Filipino term for procrastination; derived from a Filipino phrase called “Mamaya na” meaning dawdling
things, which could have been done at an earlier time.
 “Ningas Kugon”
 “Ningas” is a Filipino term for flame and “kugon” is a Filipino term for Cogon grass that easily burns out
after it is put into flames. It is the attitude of eagerly starting things but quickly losing eagerness soon after
experiencing difficulty.

D. PRIDE
 Most Filipinos hold on to their pride as if they are more precious than keeping a good relationship with
family and loved ones.
 Crab Mentality
 It is a toxic trait among Filipinos where one resents the achievement of another, instead of feeling happy
for that person; just like crabs in a container, they pull each other down.
 Filipino Time
 Filipinos have this common attitude of arriving late at commitments, dinner, or parties especially if they
are meeting someone close to them.

IV. FILIPINO MAKERS

1. PROVERBS OR SALAWIKAIN
a) proverbs expressing a general attitude toward life and the laws that govern life
b) ethical proverbs recommending certain virtues and condemning certain vices
c) proverbs expressing a system of values
d) proverbs expressing general truths and observations about life and human nature
e) humorous proverbs
f) miscellaneous proverbs
2. SUPERSTITIONS
 Filipinos’ set of superstitions passed down from generation to generation
 Some of these may be influenced by beliefs from other cultures, but Filipinos have retold these
superstitions according to their own experiences.
3. Myths and Legends
  Due to the Philippines’s rich culture and history, numerous myths and legends have sprung.
 These stories are aimed to explain the origin of things, at the same time, teach a valuable lesson.
4. Heroes and Icons
 Heroes serve as a reminder of true patriotism and nationalism as they have sacrificed their lives for
the sake of their country’s freedom and progress.
 Famous Filipino icons such as Lea Salonga, Manny Pacquiao, and our very own national hero, Jose
Rizal, have made the Filipino name more pronounced worldwide through their own expertise.

V. HOW TO BE A GOOD FILIPINO?

1. Be an active Filipino citizen.
2. Study the Philippine history.
3. Support local products.
4. Speak the Filipino language.
5. Do not spread fake news and be democratic in engaging with dissent.

CHAPTER 9: WHO AM I IN THE CYBER WORLD? (DIGITAL SELF)

I. ABSTRACTIONS
 More than half of the population worldwide now uses the Internet.
 Internet has already become an integral part of everyday life for most of the world’s population. The
Philippines is among one of the countries with the most active Internet users.
 Online identity is actually the sum of all our characteristics and our interactions.
 Partial identity is a subset of characteristics that make up our identity.
 Persona is the partial identity we create that represents ourselves in a specific situation.

II. SELECTIVE SELF-PRESENTATION AND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

 Self-presentation is the “process of controlling how one is perceived by other people.”
 To construct positive images, individuals selectively provide information about them and carefully cater this
information in response to other’s feedback.
 Sharing ourselves is no longer new and has been practiced as soon as human beings were formed.
 Digital devices help us share information broadly, more than ever before.
 We have entered an extraordinary era of self-portraiture. In older family albums, the photographer was not
often represented in the album, whereas with arm’s-length photos, they are necessarily included (e.g., selfies
and groupies).
 Conversion of private diaries into public revelations of inner secrets; the lack of privacy in many aspects of
social media make the users more vulnerable.
 Sharing the good things, the bad, embarrassing, and “sinful” things we experience; we also react and
comment on negative experiences of others; empathize with people; argue with others online.
 Blogs and social media are the primary digital fora on which such confessions occur, but they can also be
found in photo- and video-sharing sites where blunders and bad moments are also preserved and shared.
 We should have a filtering system to whatever information we share online, as well as to what information we
believe in, which are being shared or posted by others online.

III. GENDER AND SEXUALITY ONLINE

 The terms “sex,” “gender,” and “sexuality” are often thought of as synonymous. They are actually quite distinct:
 Sex is the biological state that corresponds to what we might call a “man” or a “woman.” It is often explained
as biological, fixed, and immutable. It is actually socially constructed.
 Gender is the social understanding of how sex should be experienced and how sex manifests in behavior,
personality, preferences, capabilities, and so forth; as a socioculturally specific set of norms that are mapped
onto a category of “sex.”
 Sexuality is an individual expression and understanding of desire. While like gender, this is often viewed as
binary (homosexual or heterosexual), in reality, sexuality is often experienced as fluid.
IV. PERFORMING GENDER ONLINE
 Judith Butler conceptualized gender as a performance.
 Gender was performative, in that it is produced through millions of individual actions, rather than something that
comes naturally to men and women.
 The ability of users to self-consciously adapt and play with different gender identities would reveal the choices
involved in the production of gender, breaking down binaries, and encouraging fluidity in sexuality and gender
expression.
 Social media has been celebrated for facilitating greater cultural participation and creativity;
 The emergence of a “free culture” where individuals are empowered to engage in cultural production using raw
materials, ranging from homemade videos to mainstream television characters to create new culture, memes, and
humor.
 While the number of male and female bloggers is roughly equivalent, they tend to blog about different things;
 Although the technologies are the same, the norms and mores of the people using them differ.

V. SETTING BOUNDARIES TO YOUR ONLINE SELF: SMART SHARING

 Before posting or sharing anything online, consider the following:
 Is this post/story necessary?
 Is there a real benefit to this post? Is it funny, warm-hearted, teachable—or am I just making noise online
without purpose?
 Have we (as a family or parent/child) resolved this issue? An issue that is still being worked out at home, or
one that is either vulnerable or highly emotional, should not be made public.
 Is it appropriate? Does it stay within the boundaries of our family values?
 Will this seem as funny in 5, 10, or 15 years? Or is this post better suited for sharing with a small group of
family members? Or maybe not at all?

VI. RULES TO FOLLOW

 Here are additional guidelines for proper sharing of information and ethical use of the Internet according to New
(2014):
 Stick to safer sites.
 Guard your passwords.
 Limit what you share.
 Remember that anything you put online or post on a site is there forever, even if you try to delete it.
 Do not be mean to or embarrass other people online.
 Always tell if you see strange or bad behavior online.
 Be choosy about your online friends.
 Be patient.