THE SPIRITUAL SELF
THE SPIRITUAL SELF
Spiritual
 relating to or affecting human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
SPIRITUAL
A spiritual person places little importance on beliefs and
traditions and is more concerned with growing and
experiencing the Divine.
The spiritual approach to God is through the path of love.
Believes in God who is omnipresent and omniscient,
someone who is a living presence in our heart.
Spirituality feels all faiths are valid
RELIGIOUS
A religious person is someone who believes in a
god or group of Gods and consciously adheres
to the beliefs of his/her religion.
Religions takes the approach of fear
Talks to God who is high up in heaven
Religious people strongly feel the need to convert
others to their faith
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Why spirituality is important?
Spiritual practices
 associated with better health and well-being.
Spiritual traditions
 encourage participation in a community. (ex: Spiritual fellowship)
Contemplative practice
 method to develop concentration, deepen understanding, insight and
compassion.
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Examples of contemplative practices:
Meditation
 mental exercise for reaching heightened level of spiritual awareness
Prayer
 spiritual communication with God as in supplication, thanksgiving, adoration or confession.
Yoga
 a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline that promotes physical and emotional well being
Journaling
 studies show that writing during difficult times could help one person to find meaning in life’s
challenges.
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Religion
"belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power,
especially a personal God or god's“
"particular system of faith and worship“
is an experience
A systematic attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a
God, animal, objects.
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According to Steven Reiss, religion attracts to many followers because it
satisfies all 16 basic desires that human shares.
1. Acceptance 9. Physical Activity
2. Curiosity 10. Power
3. Eating 11. Romance
4. Family 12. Saving
5. Honor 13. Social contact
6. Idealism 14. Status
7. Independence 15. Tranquility
8. Order 16. Vengeance
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4 Dimensions of Religion
Belief
 generalized system of ideas and values that shape how members of a
religious group come to understand the world around them.

Rituals
 repeated physical gestures on activities, such as prayers and mantras used to
reinforce religious teachings, elicit spiritual feelings, and connect worshippers
of higher power.
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Spiritual Experience
 feeling or immediate connection with a higher power

Unique Social Forms of Community

 Social dimensions that religions share
 Religion gains credibility when agreed and shared by a group
 Religion provides a basis for ethics and proper behaviors
 Religion is an act as a form of social control
 Religion provides source of entertainment, socialization, and support
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One way scholars have categorized religions is by classifying what
or who they hold divine.
RELIGIOUS WHAT/WHO IS DIVINE EXAMPLE
CLASSIFICATION
Polytheism Multiple gods Hinduism, Ancient Greeks, Romans
Monotheism Single god Judaism, Islam Christianity
Antheism No deities Antheism, Buddhism, Taoism
Animism Nonhuman beings Indigenous nature worship, Shinto
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The Major Religions
Judaism
 encompasses the religion, philosophy, and culture of the Jewish people
 It is characterized by belief in one transcendent God
 sacred text is Torah
Christianity
 based on life and teachings of Jesus Christ (focal point of Christian faith)
 word of God is written in the Bible
 world's largest religion (2.1 billion followers)
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Islam
 means submission or surrender
 root word of Islam is "Salam" meaning "peace"
 religious faith of Muslims who worship Allah and believes Muhammad is His
prophet
 holy scriptures is the Koran
Buddhism
 refers to the teachings of Gautama Buddha
 Buddha means "the enlightened one" or "the awakened one"
 an ordinary man taught his followers to follow the Enlightenment
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Hinduism
 The word Hindu originates from the Indian Indus River
 combines the beliefs, philosophy, cultural practices of India
 Guided by Vedic Scriptures and believe in righteousness, the laws of cause
and effect, and the cycle of birth and death.
 sacred texts were written in Sanskrit
 sacred texts of Hinduism are called Vedas.
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The Concept of “Dungan,” Spirit, and Soul
Babaylan healer, spiritual leader, medium
 performs rituals through chants or prayers for spiritual intervention to drive spirits that cause
illness or misfortune
 they explore the world of Animism
"Dungan"
 a life force, energy, an ethereal entity
 spirit with a will of its own that resides in the human body and provides the essence of life
 conscious intellectual and emotional aspects
"Ginhawa"
 a vital force that occupies the body
 responsible for the heart's ability to beat
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Difference between the soul and the spirit
SPIRIT SOUL
Etymolog Latin "spiritus" meaning "a breathing, old English "Sawol" meaning the "spiritual and
y breath, breath of a god" emotional part of a person's, animate existence"
Biblical the Holy Spirit, third part of the trinity conscious, the moral, and thinking part of a person
Beliefs immortal; it will go to hell, purgatory or heaven
Western ghosts or any supernatural beings moral consciousness
Culture
Eastern emphasis on shamanism, divination, spirit part of the person that has dharma (obligation with
Culture possession, faith healing respect, social custom, civil and sacred law)
animastic spirits, ghosts, deities
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The soul according to some ethnolinguistic groups of the Philippines
 Linnawa or "soul of the dead" by the Ifugao
 Kaduwa of the Isneg (Igorot) believes that the dead exits in a realm called
aglalanawan(soul)
 Kankanaey (Igorot) believes that human person is composed of the physical
body and the ab-abiik (soul)
 Kaluluwa is the Tagalog people's concept of soul
 The Ibanag/Ybanag (Cagayan, Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya) believes that
soul has physical characteristics. It gives direction and wholeness to the man.
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 The Ilokano has a 4 soul systems:
 Kararua or the soul proper, equivalent of a soul in the Christian concept
 Karkarma stands for natural vigor, mind and reason, it can leave the
physical body
 Aniwaas can leave the body during sleep and visits place familiar to the
body
 Araria is the liberated soul of the dead, can make sounds and manipulate
physical objects
 Hanunoo Mangyan (Mindoro) believes in plurality of souls.
 Examples: karaduwa tawo, manok, baboy, kuti, hipon
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Ritual
 a ceremony or action performed in a customary way
 Genesis of Ritual
 Origin approach
 ritual behavior was the part of the human evolution
 Functional approach
 in terms of individual and social needs
 History approach
 an expression of the sacred, how the material human connects with the ultimate
reality
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Classification of Rituals
Imitative
 based on some belief system
Negative ritual
 "avoidance"
 focus on rules of prohibition
Positive
 concerned with giving blessings to an object or to an individual
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Sacrificial
 total destruction of the sacrifices as offering to a "higher being"
 sacrifice can be a human, animals, food corps, objects
Life crisis ritual
 transition of one mode or stage of life into another

Ceremony
 Is a formal act or ritual performed in observation of an event or anniversary