Philosophy Of Man- Oriental Philosophy/teachings 31v26

Sem. Andro Louis M. Rulona

July 4, 2017

Philosophy of Man

Rev. Fr. Agerio Paña ORIENTAL PHILOSOPHY/TEACHINGS

 Confucianism According to Confucianism, that man should harmonize himself with nature. This harmony should be expressed actively through man’s translation of the innate laws of nature into action. In Confucianism, the innate laws of nature are Ren, Yi, Zhong, Li, and Xiao. Ren means human-heartedness. It also means love, benevolence, or charity. Yi means righteousness refers to the “oughtness” or to the rightness of an action in a given situation. In Confucianism, doing what “ought to be done” requires no compensation. This explains why “one-should-do-what-right-for-the-sake-of-nothing”. Zhong means conscientiousness (personality trait of being careful, or vigilant). Li means propriety (accepted standards of behavior or morals). It pertains to the rule of conduct that reflects a person’s good will. Xiao means filial piety. It means respect, reverence, and honor to one’s parents (including blood relatives, or the family as a whole). Also refers to the authentic concern for one’s parent’s welfare, both spiritual and emotional. Confucius teaches that every person can become the gentleman or the superior man, the person who lives in moral rectitude and high pitch of moral standards. Views and opinions: Confucius tells us what an ideal man or traits of a moral man by enumerating the traits. Also it is not enough for man to know those traits but also applying it to his live so that he can be called a gentleman or the superior man.

 Buddhism According to the Buddha there are three characteristics that encomes every human person, namely: suffering (dukkha), impersonality or no-self (antta), and impermanence (anicca). Also Buddha contends that the way to the annihilation of human suffering is through the Four Noble Truths, namely: (1) life is permeated by suffering, (2) the origin of suffering is craving, (3) the elimination of suffering requires the elimination of craving, and (4) the elimination of suffering requires one’s exercise of the Eightfold Path. These path can leads to liberation from suffering: (1) right understanding, (2) right thought, (3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right livelihood, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness, and (8) right concentration.

Views and opinions: Buddhism focus more on man’s suffering and how to overcome them. Secondly, he tells us also about the noble truths of life. I realized that Gautama or Buddha really tells us that sufferings are just part of life it makes life colorful and challenging.

 Shintoism The word Shinto ("way of the gods") was adopted, originally as Jindō] or Shindō, from the written Chinese Shendao, pinyin: shén dào), combining two kanji: "shin", meaning "spirit" or kami; and "tō", meaning a philosophical path or study (from the Chinese word dào. The oldest recorded usage of the word Shindo is from the second half of the 6th century. Based on the earliest Japanese writings do not refer to a unified “Shinto religion”, but rather to a collection of native beliefs and mythology. Kami are defined in English as "spirits", "essences" or "gods", referring to the energy generating the phenomena. Since the Japanese language does not distinguish between singular and plural, kami refers to the divinity, or sacred essence, that manifests in multiple forms: rocks, trees, rivers, animals, places, and even people can be said to possess the nature of kami. Kami and people are not separate; they exist within the same world and share its interrelated complexity. Views and opinios: This teaching seems like to Christianity who believe on spirits the difference is that Christianity believes only in One God in contrast with Shintoism which manifests in multiple forms, like those mentioned above.

 Taoism Tao embraces three elements, namely: road, human head, and human foot. This implies that Tao means the way. Lao Tzu, Tao as the Way means three things: (1) it is the Way of the ultimate reality, (2) it is the way of the universe, and (3) it is the way of human existence. From the standpoint of the ultimate reality, Tao is taught by Lao Tzu as incomprehensible, indescribable, imperceptible, and inexpressible. Simply put, Tao is in itself inscrutable (mysterious). Lao Tzu maintains that Tao is the cause or the source of everything. From the standpoint of the universe, Tao manifested itself in the course of things in nature as they are beyond human control. Nature has its own motion, course, and laws. For Lao Tzu, the fundamental law of change is the law of reversion (this is practically different from the view of change brought about by the moments in dialectic

as taught by Karl Marx and Hegel). Lao Tzu elaborates the reversing power of Tao through the active interaction of the two opposing forces or principles, namely: Yin and Yang. Generally, Yin is believed to signify softness, darkness, ivity, femininity, and the like, while Yang is construed to signify hardness, brightness, activity, masculinity, among others. Expressed differently, there can be no interplay between the Yin and the Yang without the active participation of Tao. From the standpoint of human existence, Tao pertains to the call of man to harmonize himself with nature. The path to this harmony lies in man’s practice of wu-wie-wu. According to Lao Tzu, wu-wie-wu means “to do nothing”. In other words, it means ivity or “having-no-activity. But, this “doing nothing” should not be construed as though it were really an act of doing nothing, because wu-wie-wu is not a “non-doing-of anything” at all. Wu-wie-wu means noninterference with the natural course of events. As man observes wu-wie-wu, man participates in the inherent influx of nature. This makes man harmonize himself with nature. Views and opinions: Taoism is more on the relation between man and nature, that man should be harmonized to nature. Taoism encourages us to love nature as our self. In this time we clearly see that there are opposing forces like Yin and Yang. But in different context, for now we are more focus on the opposing forces of good and evil. There is a seemingly the same ideas.

 Hinduism To the Hindus, the individual soul of every man on earth is in a state of suffering. They believe that suffering is caused by man’s attachment to the senses or to worldly pleasures. As a result, the human person is enslaved by Maya (illusion). The liberation of the Atman (soul) from Maya is to the Hindus a condition sine qua non for the Atman to be unified with the Brahman (Universal Essence). Samsara (popularly translated as reincarnation) is the key to this relinquishment of the Atman from Maya to effect purgation or purification of Atman. Hindus maintain that one’s knowledge of one’s self leads one towards a righteous life. This means that righteousness is an effect or a reward rather than cause. The Hindus believe that life is a journey, that is, from one’s enslavement to worldly affairs (Maya) which requires one’s self-realization, to the breaking of the self (samsara) to sanitize or cleanse one’s self. Then, it is to Moshka (or release from one’s enslavement of Maya through samsara), then, to final stage- one’s attainment of the total freedom from all worldly cares-Nirvana Views and opinions:

Hinduism and Buddhism talks about suffering but the difference is that Hinduism talk more about the suffering of the soul while, Buddhism talks about more on the suffering of the body or physical sufferings.