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
LET’S DO THIS!
LET’S DO THIS!
LET’S DO THIS!
LET’S DO THIS!
 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.
• 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.
Transcendence
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies
on Transcendence

• Hinduism
• Buddhism
• Christianity
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies
on Transcendence
• Hinduism, the world’s oldest religion, has no
beginning—it precedes recorded history. It has no human
founder. It is a mystical religion, leading the devotee to
personally experience the Truth within, finally reaching
the pinnacle of consciousness where man and God are
one.
Karma
• God's cosmic law of karma governs our life experiences
through cause and effect. As God's force of gravity
shapes cosmic order, karma shapes experiential order.
Through karma, your thoughts, emotions and
deeds-whether good, bad or mixed-return to you. Thus,
karma is your teacher
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies
on Transcendence
• Reincarnation
Through his past works he shall return once more to
birth, entering whatever form his heart is set on. This
mighty soul unborn grows not old, nor dies, for the soul is
immortal and fearless.
Dharma
• Dharma is God's Devine Law, the law of being. When
following dharma you are in harmony with the cosmic
order; you abide close to God. The moral dimension of
Hindu dharma is embodied in the either yamas
(restrains) and eight niyamas (observances)
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies
on Transcendence
• The yamas are: non-violence' not stealing; disciplining
desire; abjuring lust and greed; curbing arrogance and
anger; not lying; avoiding injustice; shunning wrongdoing
and evil company.

• The niyamas: be pure in body, mind and speech; love

mankind; seek contentment; cultivate devotion;
develope forbearance; give charitably; study the
scriptures; preform penance and sacrifice
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies
on Transcendence
Worship
Worship expresses our profound love for God. Puja, bhajan,
prayer and meditation are all worshipful means of direct,
personal communion with God and Gods. God, Gods and
devas are all real beings dwelling in the inner worlds. They
can and want to help you in every aspect of your life. God
has established many temples to allow us to intimately
communicate with Him.
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.
• 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 or the 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.
• 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
• the religion derived from Jesus Christ, based on the
Bible as sacred scripture, and professed by Eastern,
Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies.
• Christianity refers to the large group of religions
who believe that the son of god was born a man -
Jesus of Nazareth - over 2000 years ago. Christians
believe Jesus was also Christ (or God), hence the
name Christianity.
• 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 by turning inward to the soul itself:
▪ mere being; living being; and rational being.
• living beings are living things have a variety of
characteristics that are displayed to different degrees: they
respire, move, respond to stimuli, reproduce and grow,
and are dependent on their environment.
• A rational person is someone who is sensible and is able to
make decisions based on intelligent thinking rather than
on emotion.
Three Main Spiritual Philosophies
on Transcendence
• For Augustine, “man is a rational substance
constituted of soul and body.”
• 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.
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.