OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY

Valenzuela City • Quezon City • Antipolo City • Cabanatuan • Pampanga

Veritas et Misericordia

Name: Jonard Louise Tolosa Date: 12/14/23

Program: VRTS Section:BSMLS 1-Y1-6

Truth with compassion, compassion through truth.

INTRODUCTION

Bringing truth together with compassion helps people to do all things. Compassion encourages humans to
ask ‘what might be going on for this person that they are behaving like this?’, starting from the
assumption that it makes sense rather than seeing them just from the self-centered point of view of our own
desires and how they are blocking these. Compassion to ourselves enables us to look honestly at what we
bring to the situation, without being overwhelmed by guilt and shame when we realize that we are also being
imperfect people and contributing to conflict, confusion and pain. Finally, compassion opens us up to other
aspects of the person – particularly the ones that are impressive – when our attention is in danger of
being fixed on ‘negative aspects’. It allows us to see that what we are finding difficult may well be inextricably
connected to things that we find valuable about this person (stubbornness and being committed, for
example, or flakiness and being easygoing).

Truth plus compassion helps people to see more clearly – indeed honestly – the vulnerability which we all
share which underlies much of our behavior. Then, instead of moments of conflict making us feel
disconnected, isolated and alienated, they have the potential to connect us more fundamentally, as we
recognize the familiar fears and dreads, hopes and desires, that drives the very behaviors that we are
finding so difficult. But we need at least a little kindness to cut through the sense that we are up against
a bad, blameworthy, inexplicable individual who is just getting in our way.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of this module, students are expected to:
1. Differentiate truth and compassion
2. Apply truth and compassion
3. Demonstrate truth with compassion

MODULE LESSON

In this session, the culmination of what is truth and compassion learned throughout the semester will be
presented as a group poster work.

MODULE ACTIVITY
A. POSTER MAKING. Express your understanding about “Truth” and “Compassion” using textual and
graphic elements.

TRUTH
Well, for me truth is the property
of sentences, assertions, beliefs,
thoughts, or propositions that are
said, in ordinary discourse, to
agree with the facts or to state
what is the case. Or in my own
words, truth is what reality is.
Like for example 2+2=4, it is a
property that is not a
contradiction, well you can
believe that 2+2=64 but that is
not true, that is your belief that is
false.
COMPASSION
Well, for me compassion literally means “to
suffer together.” Among emotion
researchers, it is defined as the feeling that
arises when you are confronted with
another's suffering and feel motivated to
relieve that suffering. Compassion is not the
same as empathy or altruism, though the
concepts are related. Or in my own words,
compassion is about you relating to other's
sufferings or putting yourself in somebody's
shoe and putting them out of their misery by
helping them because you care about them.
 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY
Valenzuela City • Quezon City • Antipolo City • Cabanatuan • Pampanga

Veritas et Misericordia

B. BIG GROUP ACTIVITY. Video Presentation and Analysis.

Write a short analysis of the video presented. Discuss the themes reflected on the video and write
your reflection about it.

The video is all about compassion and the true meaning of empathy by Joan
Halifax. Joan addresses in the video different kinds of compassion that is based on her
experience. She also said in the video the line that Dalai Lama once said, "Love and
Compassion are necessities. They are not luxuries, and without it, humanity cannot
survive." Which shows us brief explanation of how important compassion is. Joan also
shares her own experiences in India, Nepal or the Himalayas mountain and the Tibet
region which became the way to her to know what compassion really is and the true
meaning of empathy. Joan also said many interesting researches that explains how being
compassionate helps us humans, like for instance being compassionate enhance our
immune system, it also enhances what's called neural integration. She then asks, if
compassion is so good for us, then why don't we train our children in compassion? Why
don't we train our healthcare providers in compassion so that they can do what they're
suppose to do, which is to really transform suffering? and Why don't we vote for people in
our government based on compassion so that we can have a more caring world? This
video of Joan Halifax made me realize what compassion and the true meaning of empathy
and what can it do to our world. It made me realize that compassion is comprised of that
capacity to see clearly into the nature of suffering. It is the ability to really stand strong and
to recognize also that we're not separate from this suffering. But that is not enough
because of compassion, we actually aspire to transform suffering.

CLOSURE

Journal Writing: What do you think are the challenges in your search for truth and in showing compassion
to others?

Well for me, there are so many challenges in my search for truth. For instance, sometimes when we
search for the truth, there are people who will not believe or will disagree with the result of our search for the
truth because it is not aligned with their beliefs. That's why sometimes they will stop you from what you're
doing because you're destroying what their worldview is because they think that their belief is right and you
are wrong. Example of this is the superstitious people do not believe that vaccine helps us to fight the covid
19, in fact they believe that it can worsen our immune system based on their assumption and speculation.
Next is the challenges in showing compassion to others, for instance, sometimes when I'm being
compassionate in certain someone like the "malditas" they will think of it as an oa response and they will
bully you for being compassionate in them but you are really just concern in them. This type of people are
hard to show compasssion in them because they not know what the meaning of compassion themselves.
They're not incapable of showing compassion to others because they think that they are the main character
of the universe, or in other words they are narcissist.