The Human Person As An

Embodied Spirit
(Recognize Own Limitations
and Possibilities)
Man is not only body, but he is something infinitely
higher. Of all the animal creations of God, man is the
only animal who has been created in order that he
may know his maker. Man’s aim in life is not to add
from day to day to his material prospects and to his
material possessions but his predominant calling is
from day to day to come nearer to his maker
[Mohandas Gandhi, 1948].
To recognize our own limitations and
possibilities it is right to know where we
are, what is our world.

According to Plato reality is made up of two

worlds namely, the world of Forms and the
world of Sense where human beings
participate in both of these different worlds.
 
The world of Sense which is proposed and believed
by Heraclitus, is the world we see, experience, the
world of objects; a world of change, it is made up of
matter and is bound to decomposition.

Heraclitus proves this through the statements “Cold

things grow hot, the hot cools, the wet dries, the
parched moistens.” and “We both step and do not
step into the same revers. We are and we are not.”
The world of Forms which is proposed by
Parmenides who influenced Plato in this type of
world is a world that is eternal, perfect and
unchanging.
Parmenides proved the world of Forms by his
statement “ We can speak and think only of what
exists. And what exists is uncreated and
imperishable for it is whole and unchanging and
complete. It was not or nor shall be different since it
is now, all at once, one and continuous.
For Plato, reality is eternal and unchanging, it is the
real world, the world of forms. Everything in the
world of senses is but an imitation or a mere shadow
of the ideal.

Human beings participate in both the senses and the

ideal world because they have a material body and
immaterial soul, synthesis of change and
permanence.
Human beings is a body and soul, according
to Plato, body is evil for it is inclined to
temporal things; objected to temporal
satisfaction and happiness.
As stated by Origen, a Christian theologian and
philosopher that is also a Platonian “all rational beings
were once pure intellects in the presence of God, and
would remain so forever had they not fallen away
through Koros (satiety).”

Because of koros (sin) or our transgression and

disobedience to God we are punished by being given a
body.
To be free it is a human task to gradually recollect the ideas the
soul used to know through education in order for it to be
released from being imprisoned in our body and be able to
return to its place in the world of forms, for the soul is superior
and exists eternally even after the body evanesces gradually.

However, failure to recall everything the soul used to know, the

soul has to undergo another imprisonment and this process will
continually occur until the soul is ready to go back to its place
in the world of forms.
The freedom of the soul from the body, its
imprisonment is transcendence.
Transcendence is the existence that is present
beyond normal or physical level.
Transcendence means that: “I am my body but at
the same time I am more than my body. The things
that I do, all those physical activities and attributes
which are made real through my body, reveals the
person that I am”.
Three main spiritual philosophies:
Hinduism is the belief in karma and reincarnation.

•Brahman is Self-Hood  Hinduism lies the idea of human being's

quest for absolute truth, so that one's soul and the Brahman or
Atman (Absolute Soul) might become one. For the Indians, God
first created sound and the universe arose from it.
•The Aum (Om) is the root of the universe and everything that
exists and it continues to hold everything together, the most sacred
sound in which the universe arose from and was the first thing God
created
Four primary values of Hindus:
wealth, pleasure, duty and enlightenment
Wealth and Pleasure are worldly values, but when kept in
perspective they are good and desirable.
The spiritual value of duty, or righteousness, refers to
patience, sincerity, forgiveness, love, honesty and similar
virtues.
The spiritual value, though, is enlightenment, by which one is
illuminated and liberated and most importantly, finds release
from the wheel of existence.
Buddhism is the life experience and teaching of Prince
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha -he who achieves his aim), a
tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development,
solutions is lay in his own mind and is famous for its belief
in Nirvana; a place of perfect peace and happiness.
Buddhism, contained in the teachings of its founder,
Siddhartha Gautama or Buddha. The teaching of highborn
Prince Gautama of the Sakya clan in the kingdom of Magadha,
lived from 560 to 477 B.C, sprang the religious philosophy we
know as Buddhism.

Turning away from the Hindu polytheism and palace

pleasures, searching for answers to the riddle of life's
sufferings, disease, old age and death. Gautama's life was
devoted to sharing his "Dharma" or Law of Salvation; a
presentation of the gospel of inner cultivation or right spiritual
attitudes.
 Buddha set about sharing his discovery with anyone who would listen to him:
Four Noble Truths leading to the Eightfold Path to perfect character of arhatship
Gautama taught:

Four Noble Truths: Noble Eightfold Path:

1. Life is full of suffering.
2. Suffering is caused by
passionate attachment to
desires, lusts, cravings;
3. Suffering can be ended
by overcoming
attachment to desires
4. To end suffering is the
Noble Eightfold Path
1. Right understanding/belief in the
acceptance of the "Fourfold Truth"
2. Right intent/aspiration for one's self and
others;
3. Right speech that harms no one;
4. Right action/conduct, motivated by
goodwill toward all human beings;
5. Right means of livelihood, or earning one's
living by honorable means;
6. Right endeavor, or effort to direct one's
energies towards wise ends;
7. Right mindfulness, in choosing topics for
thought, and
The way to salvation, lies through self-abnegation,
rigid discipline of mind and body, a consuming of love
for all creatures, and the final achievement of that
state of consciousness which marks an individual's
preparation for entering the Nirvana (enlightened
wisdom).

The Law and Cause and Effect (Karma) are overcome;

the cycle of rebirth is broken; and one may rest in the
calm assurance of having attained a heavenly bliss
that will stretch out into all eternity.
Sangha, or Order of Monks and later the nuns also monks, nuns,
laymen, laywomen). With single-heart purpose, this brotherhood of
believers dedicated itself to a life of self-purification, in total loyalty to
the Buddha,

The Dharma and Sangha. Committed itself to a life of poverty whose

sole aims was the evangelization.

The Buddhist practice 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.
Christianity is the religion based upon the teachings
and miracles of Jesus where there is only one God. Suffering
leads to the Cross, the symbol of reality of God's saving love
for the human being and Evil is being disobedient,
contradicting the nature of God and distancing to God.
For Augustine (354-430 CE), philosophy is amor sapiential, the
love of wisdom; its aim is to produce happiness.

Wisdom is not just an abstract logical construction; but it is

substantially existent as the Divine Logos. Hence, Philosophy is
the love of God; It is then religious. Teaching of Christianity are
based of love of God.

For Augustine's Christianity, the revelation of the true God, is the

only full and true philosophy.

All Knowledge leads to God, so that faith supplements and

enlightens reason that it may proceed to ever richer and fuller
understanding.
St. Thomas of Aquinas, another medieval philosopher, of all
creatures, human beings have the unique power to change
themselves and the things for the better.

His philosophy is best grasped in his treatises Summa Contra

Gentiles and Summa Theologica. Considers human as moral
agent, the spiritual and material and that choosing between
'good' or 'evil' is our responsibility.