UNIT 9_SPIRITUAL SELF

• God IN DIFFERENT RELIGION

  Christians - Jesus

  Moslems - Allah

  Hindus - Brahma

  Buddhists - Siddhartha Gautama
• The book, Sacred Pathways, written by Gary Thomas presents the nine sacred paths to connect with God.
• THE NINE SACRED PATHWAYS

  1. Naturalists: Loving God Out of Doors.
  2. Sensate: Loving God with the Senses.
  3. Traditionalists: Loving God Through Ritual and Symbol.
  4. Ascetics: Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity.
  5. Activists: Loving God Through Confrontation.
  6. Caregivers: Loving God by Loving Others.
  7. Enthusiasts: Loving God through Mystery and Celebration.
  8. Contemplatives: Loving God Through Adoration.
  9. Intellectuals: Loving God with the Mind.
• Naturalists: Loving God Out of Doors - You feel closer to God when surrounded by the beauty of nature: the sunrise in a beautiful mountain, the sunset by the sea, flowers in the garden, the birds, the trees, and butterflies. You see Him in the things He has made, and worship Him in the cathedral of His creation.
• Sensate: Loving God with the Senses - You love to worship God in ways that engage your senses of sight, smell, sound. Beautiful sanctuaries, scented candles, gentle touch of a nun, incense, Christian art, and religious and instrumental music are appealing to you.
• Traditionalists: Loving God Through Ritual and Symbol - You may be drawn to the Book of Common Prayer, liturgy, and observance of the church calendar, the sacraments, the ancient songs, and creeds of the Church.
• Ascetics: Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity - You love to be left alone to pray and tend to live a simplified and quiet life free of distractions that would hinder your worship of God.
• Activists: Loving God Through Confrontation - You are spiritually nourished by fighting for the right. You gravitate toward social or evangelical causes, drawing near to God through such things as prayer walks, food pantries, crisis pregnancy centers, marches, etc.
• Caregivers: Loving God by Loving Others - You serve Christ by serving others. In preparing meals, counseling, volunteering at a shelter, tending the sick, or opening your home, you feel closest to God.
• Enthusiasts: Loving God through Mystery and Celebration - Thomas calls you a "cheerleader for God"! You love to just follow the Spirits leading, celebrate God's mysterious ways, and exude gladness and wonder.
• Contemplatives: Loving God Through Adoration - You see God as the "Lover of your soul" You seek to practice His presence continually, and crave alone any time to gaze on His face and lose yourself in Him.
• Intellectuals: Loving God with the Mind - You feel closer to God when you learn something new about Him. You may sense God closest in study and meditation on Scripture, apologetics, theology, and creeds.
• Victor Emil Frankl (1959) introduced logotherapy, which is the pursuit of one's meaning in life. This theory is founded on the belief that human nature is motivated by the search for the purpose of life. Being the founder of (), his belief was influenced by his personal experience of suffering and loss in Nazi concentration camps.
• As a survivor, Victor Emil Frankl introduced the concept of tragic optimism. This is manifested when a person is genuinely optimistic even in the face of miseries, chaos and extremely negative circumstances. In logotherapy, this is represented by the "tragic triad," which consists of pain; guilt, and death. Frankl further explained that the human person is motivated by a will to meaning. This is an inner pull to find meaning in life.
• The Soul According to the Indigenous Filipino - Even before the coming of the colonizers to the Philippines, our ancestors believed in animism. It is a belief that everything has life or spirit.
• SOUL OR SPIRIT

  Tagalogs - kaluluwa

  Ilocanos - kararua

  Bagobos - gimokud

  Bukidnons - makatu

  Ilonggos - dungan
• The dungan or soul of the Ilonggos, according to Alicia Magos (1986), is not normally seen by the human eye. Sometimes, however, it comes out of the body and takes on a visible form, such as that of an insect (a housefly or a moth) or a small animal, like a lizard. That is why grandmothers are always telling their grandchildren to eat even just a little before going to bed for if the child's dungan gets hungry at night, it might go to the pot of rice in the kitchen and be mistaken for an insect and be killed.
• Magos gave the characteristics of dungan. The dungan is the essence of life and existence. It is a spirit that is unseen, which gives animation and vitality to a person.

  Without it, a person gets sick and dies after the loss. The () is also eternal. It is something light or airy since it goes with the air or wind. The () is an entity with a free will; it can leave the body voluntarily when the person is asleep and quite involuntarily when it is attracted by any other spirits.
• It is in the belief of spirits and supernatural powers that rituals and ceremonies are formed.
• Rituals - can be secular or religious, personal or communal. Flag ceremony, celebration of events, and sacraments are examples of ().
• According to Emile Durkheim (1965), the reference or object of a ritual is the belief system of a society, which is constituted by a classification of everything into the two realms of the sacred and the profane. This classification is taken as a universal feature of religion.
• A.R. Radcliffe Brown points out the primary functions of rituals: (a) give expression to the collective sentiment of a society; (b) contribute to social cohesion or unity; (and) maintain the social system through time.