The Human Person As An

Embodied Spirit
(Recognize Own Limitations
and Possibilities)
Objectives
1. To recognize own limitations or
possibilities for one’s
transcendence
2. To evaluate own limitations and
possibilities for one’s
transcendence
3. To recognize how the human body
imposes limits and possibilities for
transcendence
4. To distinguish the limitations and
possibilities for transcendence
 Thomas Merton (1948) a
monk

Traditional Christian virtues

of Mercy, Pity, Peace and
 We have to struggle to
regain spontaneous and
vital awareness of our own
spirituality.
“I cannot believe in
invisible existence”
Ako ay Ako
… Kaya kong itapon o wasakin ang
hindi akma
At panatilihin ang mga naakma
At lumikha o kumatha ng mga bago,
kapalit ng mga itinapon o winasak.
Ako ay nakakakita, nakakarinig,
nakadarama, nakaiisip,
Ako ay may kakayahan upang mabuhay at
maging malapit sa kapwa.
Maging kapaki-pakinabang at
makaimpluwensya sa mga tao at bagay.
Ako ang nagmamay-ari sa akin, samakatuwid
kaya kong pamahalaan ang aking sarili,
Ako ay ako, at ako ay okay.
 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
 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
 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
 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,
 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
 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
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
 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
 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:
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
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
8. Right meditation, or concentration to the
point of complete absorption in mystic
ecstasy
 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
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