THE HUMAN

PERSON AS AN
EMBODIED
SPIRIT
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

Objectives:
1. To recognize own limitations or possibilities for
one’s transcendence
2. To evaluate own limitations and the possibilities
for one’s transcendence
3. To recognize how the human body imposes and
possibilities for transcendence
4. To distinguish the limitations and possibilities
for transcendence
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

❑Transcendence – to rise above or go

beyond the limits
❑Three Main Spiritual Philosophies
1. Hinduism
2. Buddhism
3. Christianity
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

HINDUISM
❑ Oldest organized religion in the world
❑ 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.

❑The AUM (OM) – most sacred sound which

symbolizes the manifestation of God, which is a
reflection of absolute reality.
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SPIRIT

HINDUISM
Human beings have dual nature:
1. spiritual and immortal essence
(soul)
2. empirical life and character
❑The soul is ultimately real. The existence
of the body is considered as nothing
more than an illusion
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SPIRIT

HINDUISM
The soul is eternal but is bound by the
law of Karma, which it can escape
only after spiritual progress through
an endless series of births.
❑Humanity’s basic goal in life is the
liberation (moksha) of spirit (jiva).
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

HINDUISM
Hinduism holds that humanity’s life is
a continuous cycle (samsara).
❑Metempsychosis (transmigration or
reincarnation)
A doctrine that adheres to the belief
that a person’s soul passes into some
other creature, human, or animal.
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SPIRIT

HINDUISM
BRAHMAN
✓ Supreme, universal spirit that is
eternal and unchanging
✓ Most Hindus believe that Brahman
is present in every person as the
eternal spirit or soul, called the
atman.
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SPIRIT

BRAHMAN
✓ It contains everything: creation and
destruction, male and female, good
and evil, movement and stillness.
✓ These are expressed in the
Trimurti: Brahma (Creator),
Vishnu (sustainer), Shiva
(destroyer)
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SPIRIT

HINDUISM
BRAHMAN
✓ Dharma – it means “duty”, “virtue”,
“morality” and it refers to the power
which upholds the universe and society.
✓ Upanishads – a collection of texts that
contains some of the central
philosophical concepts of Hinduism.
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

HINDUISM
FOUR PRIMARY VALUES
1. Wealth
2. Pleasure
3. Duty
4. Enlightenment
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

BUDDHISM (From Tears to Enlightenment)

❑Siddharta Gautama (BUDDHA)
✓ Founder of Buddhism
✓ He turned away from Hinduism to
seek answers to the riddle of life’s
sufferings, disease, old age, and
death.
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

BUDDHISM (From Tears to Enlightenment)

❑Four Noble Truths
1. Life is full of suffering;
2. Suffering is caused by passionate desires,
lusts, cravings;
3. Only as these are obliterated, will suffering
cease;
4. Such eradication of desire may be
accomplished only by following the Eightfold
Path of earnest endeavour.
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

BUDDHISM (From Tears to Enlightenment)

❑EIGHTFOLD PATH
1. Right belief in and acceptance of the
“Fourfold Path”.
2. Right aspirations for one’s self and for
others.
3. Right speech that harms no one.
4. Right conduct, motivated by goodwill toward
all human beings.
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

BUDDHISM (From Tears to Enlightenment)

❑EIGHTFOLD PATH
5. Right means of livelihood, or earning one’s
living by honourable means;
6. Right endeavour, or effort to direct one’s
energies toward wise end;
7. Right mindfulness in choosing topics for
thought.
8. Right meditation, or concentration to the point
complete absorption in mystic ecstasy.
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

BUDDHISM (From Tears to Enlightenment)

❑EIGHTFOLD PATH
1 and 2 enjoin us to develop wisdom, 3 - 5
urge us to practice virtue and avoid vice, 6-
8 tell us to practice meditation. We do this
essentially by following the three axioms:
cease to do evil, learn to do good, and
purify your own mind.
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SPIRIT

BUDDHISM (From Tears to Enlightenment)

❑The way to salvation lies
through:
1. Self abnegation
2. Rigid discipline of mind and body
3. A consuming love for all living creatures
4. Final achievement of that state of consciousness to
which marks an individual’s preparation for entering
Nirvana (enlightened wisdom) of complete
selflessness.
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

BUDDHISM (From Tears to Enlightenment)

❑Some rules embodied in the
Buddhist Book
1. Refrain from destroying life;
2. Refrain from taking what is not given;
3. Refrain from a misuse of the senses;
4. Refrain from wrong speech; and
5. Refrain from taking drugs or drinks
that tent to cloud the mind.
 THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

BUDDHISM (From Tears to Enlightenment)

❑Four States of Sublime Condition
1. Love
2. Sorrow of others
3. Joy in the joy of others
4. Equanimity or evenness of mind
as regards one’s own joy and
sorrows.
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SPIRIT

CHRISTIANITY
❑In the 5th century, Augustine’s writing is
considered to be the most influential in
the early medieval period.
❑Theistic Hypothesis – treating the
statement “God exists” as a hypothesis
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SPIRIT

THE BIBLICAL GOD AND HUMANITY

❑Religious people do not treat Gods existence
as a hypothesis.
❑The religious problem in the Old Testament
narratives is not Atheism, the denial of God,
but Polytheism, the worship of too many gods.
❑In the New Testament the reality of God is
unquestioned because the Jesus of Nazareth
the eternal God became flesh and dwelt
among human beings.
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SPIRIT

THE BIBLICAL GOD AND HUMANITY

❑For Augustine (354-430 CE)
✓ Teachings of Christianity are based on the
love of GOD which Augustine’s, Aquinas’ and
Anselm’s arguments rooted.
✓ Christianity as presenting the full revelation of
the true God, is the only full and true
philosophy.
✓ When comes this knowledge of God? It starts
with faith and made perfect by understanding.
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SPIRIT

THE BIBLICAL GOD AND HUMANITY

❑For Augustine (354-430 CE)
✓ Philosophy amor sapiential, the love of wisdom.
Hence it is the love of God: it is then, religious.
✓ All knowledge leads to God so that faith
supplement and enlightens reason that may
proceed to ever richer and fuller understanding.
✓ Human beings alone, without God, are abound
to fail.
✓ Only the pure in heart shall see God.
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SPIRIT

Evaluate Own Limitations and the

Possibilities for Transcendence
❑FORGIVENESS
When we forgive, we are freed
from our anger and bitterness because
of the actions and/or words of another.
The hardness of our heart is reinforced
by whole series of rational arguments.
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SPIRIT

Evaluate Own Limitations and the

Possibilities for Their Transcendence
❑THE BEAUTY OF NATURE
There is perfection in every single
flower; this is what the three philosophies
believed. For a hug, for every sunrise and
sunset, to eat together as a family, are our
miracles. These experiences can be truly
moments of grace. Our hearts will be lifted.
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SPIRIT

Evaluate Own Limitations and the

Possibilities for Their Transcendence
❑VULNERABILITY
To be invulnerable is something
inhuman. To be vulnerable is human. We
need to acknowledge the help of other people
in our lives. Such moments of poverty and
dependence on others are not sign of
weakness but being true with ourselves.
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SPIRIT

Evaluate Own Limitations and the

Possibilities for Their Transcendence
❑FAILURE
Our failure force us to confront our
weaknesses and limitations. Acceptance of
our failures makes us hope and trust that all
can be brought into good. Even if we have
sinned, there is hope and forgiveness.
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SPIRIT

Evaluate Own Limitations and the

Possibilities for Their Transcendence
❑LONELINESS
Our loneliness can be rooted from our
sense of vulnerability and fear of death.
However, it is our choice to live in an impossible
world where we are always “happy”. With our
loneliness, we can realize that our dependence
to other people or gadgets is a possessiveness
that we can be free from.
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SPIRIT

Evaluate Own Limitations and the

Possibilities for Their Transcendence
❑LOVE
To love is to experience richness,
positivity, and transcendence. Love
takes us beyond ourselves. In Buddhist
view, the more we love, the more risks
and fears there are in life.
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SPIRIT

Human being, therefore,

has a supernatural,
transcendental destiny.
WE can rise above one’s
ordinary being or self to a
highest being or self.
THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT

END