The Person as Embodied

Spirit
 Lesson Objectives
 Recognize own limitations or
possibilities for one’s
transcendence
Evaluate own limitations and
the possibilities for one’s
transcendence
 Key Questions

• What spiritual philosophies deal

with the topic of transcendence?

• How can human beings attain

transcendence?
 Transcendence
• According to Thomas Merton (1948),
there is no other way 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.
 Transcendence
• Transcendental and transcendence
convey the basic ground concept from
the words’ literal meaning (from Latin),
of climbing or going beyond, with
varying connotations in its different
historical and cultural stages.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
Hinduism
• 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.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
Hinduism
• Human beings have dual nature:
the spiritual and immortal essence
(soul) which is considered real;
and the empirical life and
character.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
Hinduism
• Hindus generally believe that the soul
is eternal but is bound by the law of
Karma (action) to the world of matter,
which it can escape only after spiritual
progress through an endless series of
births.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
• Humanity’s basic goal in life is the
liberation (moksha) of spirit (jiva).
• Hinduism holds that humanity’s life is a
continuous cycle (samsara) where the
body goes through a transmigratory
series of birth and death, even though
the spirit is neither born nor dies.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
• Unless the individual exerts real efforts
to break away or liberate one’s spirit
from the monotonous cycle, there will
be no end to the cycle.
• Ultimate liberation, that is, freedom
from rebirth, is achieved the moment
the individual attains the stage of life
emancipation.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
• Hindu’s view of reality places a lot of emphasis on
the attainment of self-knowledge.
• The goal of human life as conceived by the different
Upanishads is to overcome congenital ignorance.
• True knowledge (vidya) consists an understanding
and realization of the individual’s real self (atman) as
opposed to lower knowledge that is limited to an
interpretation of reality based solely on the data
offered by sense experience.
• One concept common to all expressions of Hinduism
is the oneness of reality.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
• When we realize this unity with the absolute, we
realize our true destiny.
• Also common to all Hindu thought are the four
primary values: wealth, pleasure, duty, and
enlightenment.
 To understand enlightenment, one must
understand the law of karma, the law of sowing
and reaping.
 The wheel of existence turns until we achieve
enlightenment.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
Buddhism
• Another major Eastern tradition which sprang from
the life experience and teaching of Siddhartha
Gautama - Buddha, the highborn Prince of the Sakya
clan in the kingdom of Magadha, who lived from 560
to 477 B.C.
• Gautama’s life was devoted to sharing his “Dharma”
or Law of Salvation – a simple presentation of the
gospel of inner cultivation of right spiritual attitudes,
coupled with a self-imposed discipline whereby bodily
desires would be channelled in the right directions.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
• The teaching of Buddha has been set forth
traditionally in the “Four Noble Truths” leading to the
“Eightfold Path” to perfect character or arhatship,
which in turn gave assurance of entrance into Nirvana
at death.
• Four Noble Truths
 Life is full of suffering.
 Suffering is caused by passionate desires, lusts,
cravings.
 Only when the causes of suffering are obliterated
will suffering cease.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
 Eradication of desire may be accomplished only
by following the Eightfold Path of earnest
endeavor.
 right belief in and acceptance of the
“Fourfold Truth”;
 right aspiration for one’s self 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;
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
 right endeavor, or effort to direct one’s
energies toward wise ends;
 right mindfulness in choosing topics for
thought; and
 right meditation, or concentration to the
point of complete absorption in mystic
ecstasy
• The eightfold path enjoins us to develop wisdom,
urges us to practice virtue and avoid vice, and tells
us to practice meditation.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
• The way to salvation lies through self-abnegation,
rigid discipline of mind and body, a consuming love
for all living creatures, and the final achievement of
that state of consciousness which marks an
individual’s full preparation for entering the Nirvana
(enlightened wisdom) of complete selflessness.
• First steps that one can take after reading, hearing,
and pondering Buddhist teaching and establishing
some confidence in it:
 Refrain from destroying life;
 Refrain from taking what is not given;
 Refrain from a misuse of the senses;
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
 Refrain from wrong speech (do not lie or
deceive); and
 Refrain from taking drugs or drinks that tend to
cloud the mind
• Buddhist practice the four states of sublime
condition: love, sorrow of others, joy in the joy of
others and equanimity as regards one’s own joy and
sorrows.
• After Buddha’s death, a need was felt for putting
the sayings of Buddha into writing, or at least for
getting them fixed in the oral tradition.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
 First Council at Rajagaha (ca. 477 B.C.) – about
500 disciples gathered and together recited and
chanted the precepts now found in the Tripitaka.
 Second Council at Vesali (ca. 383 or 377 B.C.) – it
was found desirable to make changes to ease the
burden of Buddhist discipline.
 Third Council (245 B.C.) – serious effort was
made to reform and reorganize the Order and
embarked upon a program of expansion.
• Buddha insisted on freedom of thought and
intellectual independence in following his teaching.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
Christianity
• In the beginning, Christians do not see the need to
prove God’s existence.
• Looks at the reasonableness of belief in God’s
existence.
• Asks whether or not the existence of God provides
the best explanation of the existence of the world,
as we know it.
• Later, Christian missionaries felt the need to argue
philosophically for the existence of God when they
were confronted by various naturalistic philosophy.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
• For Augustine (354–430 CE), philosophy is amor
sapiential (the love of wisdom) whose aim is to
produce happiness.
• Wisdom is substantially existent as the Divine Logos,
hence, philosophy is the love of God.
• For Augustine, Christianity, as presenting the full
revelation of the true God, is the only full and true
philosophy.
• Knowledge of God begins with faith and is made
perfect by understanding.
• Faith supplements and enlightens reason that it may
proceed to ever richer and fuller understanding.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
• There are three levels of existence which has been
established, not by turning outward through
sensation to the external world, but by turning
inward to the soul itself:
 mere being;
 living being; and
 rational being.
• The lowest form of knowledge is that of sensation yet
as we ascend higher to knowledge of rational
principles, it is the will which directs the mind’s eye
to truth, first invading to the mind itself, then upward
to the eternal Truth.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies on
Transcendence
• For Augustine, “man is a rational substance
constituted of soul and body.”
• The progress in knowledge and wisdom is not only
speculative, it is more fundamentally practical and
moral.
• For St. Thomas Aquinas, human beings have the
unique power to change themselves and things for
the better.
• Aquinas considers the human being as moral agent
who is both spiritual and body elements.
• The unity between both elements indeed helps man
to understand his complexity as human beings.
 Limitations and Possibilities for
Transcendence
Forgiveness
• It frees us from our anger and bitterness caused by
the actions and/or words of another.
• On the other hand, the hardness of our heart is
reinforced by whole series of rational arguments.
Beauty and Nature
• There is perfection in every single flower.
• A hug, sunrise and sunset, eating together as a family
are experiences of miracles which can be truly
moments of grace that touch us deeply and
spontaneously lift our hearts.
 Limitations and Possibilities for
Transcendence
Vulnerability
• To be vulnerable is to be human.
• We need to acknowledge the help of other people in
our lives if we want to be true with ourselves and live
with meaning and direction.
Failure
• Failures force us to confront our weaknesses and
limitations and to surrender to a mystery or look
upon a bigger world.
• Acceptance of our failures makes us hope and trust
that all can be brought into good.
 Limitations and Possibilities for
Transcendence
Loneliness
• It is our choice to live in an impossible world where
we are always “happy” or to accept a life where
solitude and companionship have a part.
• Our experience of loneliness can help us realize that
our dependence on other people or gadgets is a
possessiveness that we can be free from.
Love
• To love is to experience richness, positivity, and
transcendence.
• Love can open in us something which takes us
beyond ourselves.
 Activities
1. Compare the Hindu’s concept of Karma to the
Filipino’s concept of Karma.
2. Based on the eightfold path, which is the most
important for you to cultivate in your life at present?
3. Relate to the class an experience that you were able
to go beyond your limitation.
4. Share with your classmate a moment in your life
that you faced failures.
Guide Questions:
a. How do you view suffering (as a blessing or a
curse)?
b. How do you acknowledge the help of others?
c. How can forgiveness free us from anger?