Sem. Andro Louis M.

Rulona July 4, 2017

Philosophy of Man Rev. Fr. Agerio Paa
ORIENTAL PHILOSOPHY/TEACHINGS

Confucianism
According to Confucianism, that man should harmonize himself with nature. This
harmony should be expressed actively through mans 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 persons good will. Xiao means filial piety. It means respect, reverence, and honor to
ones parents (including blood relatives, or the family members as a whole). Also refers
to the authentic concern for ones parents 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 encompasses 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 ones 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 mans 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 Jind] or Shind,
from the written Chinese Shendao, pinyin: shn do), combining two kanji: "shin",
meaning "spirit" or kami; and "t", meaning a philosophical path or study (from the
Chinese word do. 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, passivity, 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 mans practice of wu-wie-wu. According to Lao Tzu, wu-wie-wu means
to do nothing. In other words, it means passivity 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 non-
interference 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 mans 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 ones knowledge of ones 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 ones
enslavement to worldly affairs (Maya) which requires ones self-realization, to the
breaking of the self (samsara) to sanitize or cleanse ones self. Then, it is to Moshka (or
release from ones enslavement of Maya through samsara), then, to final stage- ones
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.