Spir

• Amit Ray: '"Go deep into your feelings and explore the mystery of your body, mind and soul. You will find the truth."'
• Self


  A person's essential being that distinguishes them from others
• Categories of self


  • Physical self
  • Psychological self
  • Social self
  • Spiritual self
• Spiritual self


  The unseen part of who we are that provides our physical self with insight, intuition, and other ways of knowing beyond what our five senses experience in the physical world
• Spirituality


  The self's existential search for ultimate meaning through an individualized understanding of the sacred
• Religion


  Believing in a god or group of gods as manifested by strict adherence to the religion's beliefs
• There is a clear distinction between spirituality and religion although both are paths to God
• Religion


  A system of beliefs, symbols, and rituals, based on some sacred or supernatural realm, that guides human behavior, gives meaning to life, and unites believers into one single moral community called a church
• Supernatural being and power


  The original and fundamental source of all that exists, above, beyond, or transcendent to the natural world, and commonly conceived of as better, higher, or purer than the mundane, natural world around us
• Major world religions


  • Christianity
  • Islam
  • Hinduism
  • Buddhism
  • Judaism
• Christianity is the world's largest religion with about 1.7 billion followers
• Islam is the world's second largest religion with over 1.1 billion followers
• Hinduism has about 750 million followers, most in India, and is the oldest, continuously existing religion in the world, developing around 3500 years ago
• Buddhism has about 350 million adherents and derives itself from Hinduism
• Judaism has about 15 million adherents scattered around the globe
• Dungan


  A life force, an energy, as well as an ethereal entity, a spirit with a will of its own that resides in the human body and provides the essence of life
• The dungan or soul of the Ilonggos is not normally seen by the human eye but sometimes comes out of the body and takes on a visible form such as that of an insect or a small animal
• If a person sees themselves in their dreams it means that their dungan has left their physical body
• Whatever happens to the dungan also happens to the physical body, and the dungan withdraws from the body if said body is badly treated
• The dungan has a secondary meaning of "willpower" - a strong dungan is the intellectual and psychological capacity to dominate or persuade others to one's way of thinking
• Rituals


  Symbolic actions that represent religious meanings, ranging from songs and prayers to offerings and sacrifices that worship or praise a supernatural being, an ideal, or a set of supernatural principles
• Ceremonies


  Formal acts performed in observation of an event or anniversary
• Rituals are transformative, while ceremonies are commemorative, though both functions may at times coincide in one event
• Functions of rituals


  • Communication
  • Channeling of certain behavior patterns
  • Creation of new motivations that influence social conduct
• The final function common among different types of rituals is to ensure the cohesion of the group and to distinguish it from others
• Ritual


  A range of activities from songs and prayers to offerings and sacrifices that worship or praise a supernatural being, an ideal, or a set of supernatural principles
• Ritual


  • They have very strictly determined behavior
  • They differ from ceremony in that the latter refers to a formal act performed in observation of an event or anniversary
• Ritual (as a formal term of analysis)


  Emerged in the nineteenth century to identify a universal category of human experience
• Ritual was used to elucidate the social existence and influence of religious ideas, especially in regards with debates that talk about the relationship of myths and rites
• Ritual


  Regarded as action and thus automatically distinguished from the conceptual aspects of religion, such as beliefs, symbols, and myths
• Beliefs, creeds, symbols, and myths

  Forms of mental content or conceptual blueprints that direct, inspire, or promote activity, but are not activities themselves
• Ritual


  Symbolic actions that reflect interior processes in outward behavior
• Rituals are "indispensable for those who -- being on their way -- have not yet reached [liberation]"
• Rituals are "signboards of life" that mark significant points in the life cycle distinguished in the culture
• Religion


  Beliefs and behaviors related to supernatural beings and powers
• In the Philippines, majority of the people identify religion with Roman Catholicism
• Religion cannot be identified with belief in the supernatural which involves belief in phenomena outside nature, as exemplified by Confucianism
• Magic


  An idea or belief that manifests in acts and rituals, texts and spells, and objects such as amulets and talismans
• Magic


  An attempt to make supernatural forces act in specific ways
• Religion


  An attempt to please supernatural forces