Don’t stress. Do your best.
Forget the rest
THE LIFE AND PHILOSOPHY OF ARISTOTLE
Aristotle (384 BCE-322 BCE)
➢ Born in in Stagira, a Greek colony of Thrase
in Northern Greece.
➢ His parents died when he was young
➢ Proxenus of Atarneus directed his
education
➢ Sent to Athens to study at Plato’s Academy
➢ The mind and the reader of the school
➢ He was expecting to be the next master of
the Academy
➢ Married to Pythias and had a daughter
➢ Lived with a woman named Herpyllis, and
had a son named Nicomachus
➢ Founded his own school of philosophy
named Lyceum. Dedicated to the god
Apollo Lyceus.
➢ His students are called Peripathetics
➢ Charged of impiety
➢ Creator of the first important library
➢ Tutored the greatest ruler of the ancient
world, Alexander the Great
➢ Invented logic
➢ Shaped the thinking of the entire culture
➢ “There is no soulless body and bodiless
soul”
➢ “Man is a Rational Animal”
Three-Fold Nature of Man
1. Vegetative
➢ the growth of the body represents the
vegetative aspect
e.g human hair grows as does any form of
vegetation.
2. Animal
➢ man’s emotional, sensual, and sensuous
nature.
3. Rational
➢ cultivates the vegetative nature and
regulates the animal nature of man.
➢ is a life fit only for cattle.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF ARISTOTLE
➢ Deeply influenced by Plato
➢ A thing would undergo change only insofar
as the nature of such thing permits it to be
such. In other words, there must be a
principle within such a thing to allow for the
change.
➢ Although the principle varies according to
the kind of change involved, in general, they
can be referred to as the principle of
actuality and the principle of potentiality.
➢ Called the principles forms
'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 4: 6-7
➢ In the physical thing, these principles are
the form, which signifies the act, and the
matter, which signifies the potency or the
capacity of the matter to obtain another act.
This teaching is called the hylomorphic
doctrine.
ARISTOTLE AND THE HUMAN PERSON
➢ Agreed to Plato that a human being is
composed of a body and a soul.
➢ The soul and the body are not separate
entities in a human person.
➢ The soul forms the entelechy (realization
of potential), the definite form of the body.
➢ The human mind is a tabula rasa, or a
blank sheet.
THE FUNCTION OF THE HUMAN PERSON
➢ Reason makes a human person resemble
the Supreme Reason, who rules and guides
the destinies of individuals and nations and
leads all things to their proper ends.
➢ His philosophy speaks about the proper end
of things, his philosophy is considered to be
teleological
➢ Every action of the human person is aiming
towards an end, which are two types: the
instrumental end and the intrinsic end
➢ Man can only be considered good if and
only if he is functioning as a human person.
➢ Everyone must be able to discover first the
distinctive function of everyone in order to
obtain goodness.
➢ The function of the human person is an
activity of the human soul, which follows or
implies a rational principle.
➢ The end or function of man must have
something to do with his specific activity.
A MORALLY VIRTUOUS ACT
➢ Every human person is naturally seeking
towards the attainment of happiness.
➢ The word Aristotle used that is so often
translated as “happiness” is eudaimonia.
➢ Eudaimonia implies being really alive rather
than just existing: fully aware, vital, alert.
➢ Happiness should not be connected with
pleasure. A life devoted solely to pleasure
➢ Pleasure is not the goal of life; nor is the
acquisition of wealth. Fame and public
success do not lead one to eudaimonia.
➢ The more self-sufficient we are, the happier
we will be.
➢ Human beings are political (social)
creatures designed by nature to live with the
others.
➢ A rich and full life is a social life.
➢ All actions of man can be adjudged as good
or bad depending on the goodness or
badness of its effect on others.
➢ A reasonable person does not avoid life.
Rather, he engages in it fully.
 Don’t stress. Do your best. Forget the rest
➢ There is a greater peace of mind and
satisfaction in knowing that I can provide for
my own needs than there is in depending on
others.
➢ From the objective point of view, a morally
virtuous act consists of a measured activity,
following the rule of the Just Middle or the
metoses.
➢ Virtue is an activity that proceeds from
certain proper dispositions. A Virtuous Act,
therefore, is that which proceeds from a
ST. AUGUSTINE ON THE CONCEPT OF EVIL
habitual state or disposition acquired
through constant practice.
➢ A virtuous act is that which proceeds from
right intention.
➢ In order for the human person to be sure
that his action is done in permanent
disposition, it should be done in the act of
contemplation.
➢ Whenever an action is performed based on
contemplation, such action is said to be
coming from phronesis or the practical
wisdom.
➢ As an action, the phronesis is the practical
intellect that properly decides to act.
➢ Aristotle, like Plato, viewed the communal
life of the polis as the proper place for the
exercise of the moral virtue.
St. Augustine (354-430 CE)
➢ Aurelius Augustinus has been described
as a “colossus bestriding two world”
because of his efforts of synthesizing early
Christian theology with his own
understanding of Platonic philosophy.
➢ One of the foremost philosopher-theological
of the early Christianity and the leading the
figure in the church of North Africa.
➢ Born on November 13, 354 CE in the North
African City of Tagaste in the province of
Numidia
➢ Christianity is a religion for simple folk, for
the uneducated and unlettered, whose Bible
is primitive in style and contradictory.
➢ If God is the creator of all things, how can it
be possible for a moral evil to arise in the
world created by a God who is a Summum
Bonum.
➢ His philosophy is eudaimonistic in character
because it takes happiness as the be-all
and end-all of human life.
➢ Happiness can only be attained in God
alone.
➢ God is the Creator of all things. He created
everything ex nihilo. God created the world
out of love and the human person is part of
this creation.
➢ Morality consists in the constant imitation of
the divine model. Morality consists in love
since it is this love that leads us to imitate
God, who is Love.
ST. AUGUSTINE ON THE HUMAN PERSON
'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 4: 6-7
➢ The human person is an Imago Dei
➢ God is triune, i.e., a trinity of persons in one
nature.
➢ Man, also bears a societal dimension.
➢ God is the Supreme Unity, the perfect
exemplar of society.
➢ Life is a dialectic movement towards love.
Hence, virtue is the order of love. His
philosophy is considered a philosophy of
love.
➢ Man will always have the tendency to love
because of his incompleteness.
➢ Evil is not an existing reality. It simply is a
deprivation of something.
➢ Those things that harmonize with other
things are considered good. When there is
disharmony, then there is evil.
➢ Love is the principle of unity, of completion,
of meaning. It is the primary reason of
one’s existence, the source of meaning in
life.
➢ He did not agree with Plato that the cause
of evil is simply ignorance.
➢ The life of a person would be a matter of
choosing whether they are for God or
against God.
➢ The life of a person would be a matter of
choosing whether they are for God or
against God.
➢ All humanity possesses the freedom of the
will.
➢ There could be some circumstances
wherein the human person does not know
the ultimate good or is not aware of God.
➢ The turning away from God and the turning
to God are not forced acts but rather a
voluntary act. Evil, or sin, is the product of
the will.
➢ If evil is caused by an act of free will, virtue,
on the other hand, is the product not of
people’s will but of God’s grace.
➢ Since all men seek happiness, such
happiness is to be found when the human
person submits himself to the Divine Order
and by seeking eternal peace, not in earthly
society.
➢ It is definitely the human person’s pride that
leads him away from God’s grace.
➢ Man is not self-sufficient physically,
emotionally, and spiritually.
➢ Passions may be good. But they will
become bad when they go beyond or defeat
the purpose for which God has intended
them to be.
➢ The society who loves God is called the
Civitas Dei; whereas the society who loves
self and the world is called the Civitas
Mundi.
➢ Man’s desire for the earthly yearnings is
what Augustine held in his doctrine of
disordered love.
 Don’t stress. Do your best. Forget the rest
➢ Each man should know his own destiny.
➢ All men, so long as they are mortal, must of
necessity be miserable.
HINDUISM
➢ This is the religion of the majority of people
in India and Nepal.
➢ It is the world’s first organized religion.
➢ In terms of population, it is said to be the
third world’s largest religion. It grew in
number because it is an umbrella religion as
it included any Indian religious practice that
does not claim to belong to another religion.
➢ The different religions acknowledge the
authority of the sacred texts known as the
VEDA.
➢ “Hinduism” is the Western name given to
the lossely-knit family of diverse religious
beliefs and practices which call themselves
“Vaidika” (Vedic) after these sacred texts.
➢ It has no single founder, no single scripture,
and no commonly agreed set of teachings.
➢ Hinduism is considered as just “a way of
life” or a mere ‘family of religions.’
THE PRACTICAL CHARACTER OF INDIAN
PHILOSOPHY
➢ India has been famous for giving high
regard to those who seek for wisdom.
➢ About 3000 years ago, the wise men of
India were trying to provide an answer to
the questions: “What is the self and what is
the nature of the ultimate reality?”
➢ Though it focuses on the spiritual character
of the self, it has also a great practical
character.
➢ Indian philosophy insists on self-discipline
and self-control as the way to eliminate
suffering.
➢ Wisdom comes from the knowledge of one’s
self.
➢ Wisdom is not a rejection of worldly
pleasures. Worldly pleasures will be
considered bad only if it will create a
vacuum between what is and what one
desires.
➢ The desire to establish the connection is
what is considered as the darshana
(“vision”) or translated also as “philosophy’.
➢ Indian philosophers were busy with how to
find ways on how to get rid of suffering.
➢ The way to get out from suffering became
their darshana, their philosophy of life.
'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 4: 6-7
➢ This philosophy is not free from error. It has
to be verified by the evidence of truth. To
verify, there are to methods:
➢ Logical analysis
➢ By way of determining the result in
practicing one’s philosophy.
➢ Darshana must be put into practice.
➢ Vision are considered true depending on
how they can improve the quality of life.
THE SELF AS THE FOCUS OF PHILOSOPHY
AND RELIGION
➢ The self bears a dignity of its own because
the Indian thinkers, particularly the
Upanishads, would consider the Brahman
(the one who energizes the universe), and
the atman (the spiritual energy of the self)
are connected to one another.
➢ The life of each person is a continuing cycle
wherein one may reincarnate in a number of
times. This is called karma.
➢ Liberation from the cycle of suffering is
called moksha.
➢ The goal is the attainment of nirvana.
➢ Everyone must act in order to maintain the
order of the family, society, and the entire
universe, thereby contributing to the well-
being of others. This is called dharma (“to
uphold or support existence”).
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF HINDUISM
➢ The first religions and philosophical writing
that has been recorded in India is the Rig
Veda, which may have been composed as
early as 1500 BCE.
➢ The history of Hinduism may be divided
according to the following philosophical
traditions: the Vedic period (1500 to 700
BCE); the Epic period (800BCE to 200 CE);
the Sutra period (400 BCE to 500 CE); the
Contemporary period (400 CE to 1700 CE);
and the Modern period from 1800 CE to the
present day).
➢ The Vedic period began when the Aryan
people moved from Indus Valley around
1500 BCE).
➢ The cultural tradition of this people were
received by those who are in the valley.
This became the beginning of the Indian
culture.
➢ The main texts of the Vedic period are the
Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and
Atharva Veda.
➢ Each Veda has four parts: (1) samhita; (2)
Brahmana; (3) Aranyaka; (4) Upanishads.
 Don’t stress. Do your best. Forget the rest
➢ Among the Vedic texts, it is said that the
Upanishads is considered to be the most
important because it contains the most
profound inquiries into the meaning of life.
➢ Upanishads are to the Vedas as the New
Testament is to the Bible.
➢ Upanishad comes from the Sanskrit words
upa, meaning “nearby”, ni meaning
“devotedly” and sad meaning “seated”.
➢ Upanisad refers to one seated devotedly
around a teacher to receive instruction from
him.
➢ To understand the Brahman, one should
identify himself with it so that the distinction
between the Brahman and one’s self no
longer applies.
➢ Atman comes from the Sanskrit word
manah meaning “thought” or “thinking”.
➢ The self is known only through thought or
through one’s consciousness. In short, the
atman is the self.
➢ To know the Brahman, one should resort to
the self because the Brahman is All.
THE HINDU BELIEFS
➢ Persons reach true enlightenment and
happiness only after freeing themselves
from their earthly desires. This can be
achieved by way of worship, the attainment
of knowledge, and the continuous
performance of virtuous acts.
➢ In terms of worship, Hinduism does not
have a set of creed or system of beliefs.
➢ Relationship with God is only between him
and his God.
➢ Hindus do not actively attempt to convert
non-Hindus to their religion.
➢ Although it is not required, most Hindus
share a common set of beliefs.
➢ Hindu believes in reincarnation.
➢ Hindu society was divided into four castes:
• Brahmins or the priests who are
concerned with helping the people
with worship (puja);
• Kshatriyas (soldiers and the people
who belonged to the nobility);
• Vaishyas (farmers, merchants and
craftspeople);
• Shudras (servants and the laborers);
• Dalits or untouchables
➢ People were born into certain caste
because of their karma from their past life.
'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 4: 6-7
➢ Some Hindu believers were objecting to the
level of power the Brahmins had.
Eventually, another group of religious
leaders emerged: the hermits.
➢ The Upanishads were actually composed of
the forest hermits.
➢ One of the main teachings of Hinduism was
regarding the process of undergoing birth,
death, and rebirth, which they called
samsara.
➢ The cycle will end up when a person
achieves moksha, the final stage of purity
attained by repeated good deeds.
THE HINDU CONCEPT OF DEITIES
➢ Many Hindus are henotheists. They
acknowledge many gods but they devote
themselves only to one god.
➢ The Hindu atheists believed that a non-
personal reality, who is not God, underlies
the world of appearances.
➢ Most Hindu, particularly the Puranas,
grouped their gods.
➢ Of the three primary Hindu deities who
embody God, Vishnu is the preserver of the
universe. (The two others are Brahma, the
creator, and Shiva, the destroyer.) He
descends to earth at various intervals during
the cycles of existence in the form of one of
10 avatars, such as Varaha, the boar, to
protect humanity and guard the earth from
forces of destruction. The 10 avatars of
Vishnu are each represented in a traditional
dance, the Dashavatara. Because Vishnu
maintains the cosmic order of the universe,
or dharma, he is characteristically portrayed
standing upright and balanced.
➢ Multiple limbs or heads represent the
supernatural powers of a deity
VISHNU
➢ Vishnu is depicted with four arms
➢ In his upper left and right hands, he
holds attributes associated with his battle
against evil: a conch shell (upper left),
used as a war horn to signal troops, and a
razor-edged disc (chakra), a powerful
weapon that symbolizes dharma.
➢ Its circular shape suggests that the circles
of existence are assured by proper
behavior. Vishnu's two lower hands
form mudras: The lower right makes the
gesture of granting protection and
reassurance; the lower left once held an
object, perhaps a lotus flower, a symbol of
spiritual enlightenment. Vishnu is depicted
in the garb of a king, adorned with jewelry
and an elaborate crown, trappings that
 Don’t stress. Do your best. Forget the rest
symbolize his status as supreme lord of the
cosmos.
➢ The role of Vishnu is to return to the earth in
troubled times and restore the balance of
good and evil.
➢ He is reincarnated nine times and it is
believed that he will be reincarnated one
last time close to the end of this world.
➢ Hence, he is likened to Jesus Christ of the
Christian religion.
➢ His worshippers were called Vaishnava.
Vishnu monotheism is called Vaishnavism.
➢ Like Jesus, he is associated with the light.
He is considered as the leader of the seven
solar gods (Adityas).
➢ He is considered as the most important of
all gods.
➢ He has appeared in various incarnations.
➢ The first incarnation of Vishnu is as Matsya,
who took the form of a fish.
➢ This story is similar to the biblical
representation of Noah.
➢ The second incarnation was as Kurma, a
turtle who is so powerfully capable of stirring
the Great Ocean.
➢ This is an explanation as to how the gods
were able to defeat the demons and thereby
became immortal.
➢ Vishnu told the gods and demons that they
should use Mount Madura as a stirrer with
the giant serpent Vasiku as a rope.
➢ When the elixir of immortality rose up, the
demons rushed to grab it but Vishnu
assumed the form of Mahini, a beautiful
woman who captivated all the demons.
Through magic, he changed the elixir into
alcohol and brought it to the gods.
➢ Together with the elixir and the precious
stones rose Lakshmi, a beautiful woman
standing on a lotus flower.
➢ The third form was Varaha who took the
form of a boar.
➢ In this image, Vishnu was able to recover
the stolen Vedas.
➢ The fourth form was as Narasimha, who
was in the form of a half-lion and half-man
creature.
➢ Through this form, he was able to conquer
the devil who had become tremendously
powerful that no man, beast, or god were
capable of overcoming his evilness.
➢ The fifth form was as a dwarf sage named
Vamana.
➢ The evil Bali conquered the world and
warded off the gods from the heavens.
➢ As a dwarf, he tricked Bali by saying that he
can cover all of Bali’s empire only by three
steps.
➢ The sixth form is as Parasurama, the fierce
hunter.
➢ In this form, Vishnu was able to free the
earth from the irreligious and sinful leaders
of a kingdom or society.
'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 4: 6-7
➢ The 7th form is as Rama, the greatest
warrior and the ideal husband who killed the
demon King Ravana, the abductor of his
wife Sita.
➢ The 8th form is as Krishna, a highly
intelligent man who is depicted as the hero
of the epic poem Mahabharata.
➢ In this poem, Krishna delivered his famous
message, the Baghavad Gita.
➢ The ninth incarnation of Vishnu is in the
form of Buddha, the all-knowing one, who
appeared in the 5th century BCE.
➢ In some traditions, Buddha was replaced by
Balarama as an incarnation of Vishnu.
➢ These incarnations of Vishnu will happen
again towards the decline of this present
age.
➢ The incarnation will be in the form of Kalki,
who will be arriving as a person gloriously
seated on a white horse.
BRAHMA
➢ Brahma should not be confused with the
Brahman, who is the supreme God force
present within all things.
➢ Brahma is the least worshipped god in
Hinduism today. There are only 2 temples
in the whole of India devoted to him.
➢ His consort is Saraswati.
➢ He created a woman by the name of
Shatarupa.
➢ Because Brahma demonstrated incestuous
behaviour, Shiva admonished him by
chopping off his fifth head for such an
unholy behaviour.
➢ Shiva’s curse was that people should not
worship Brahma as a form of repentance.
➢ Brahma was not worshipped also because
his role as a creator has already ended
when everything has already been done.
SHIVA
➢ Shiva is responsible for change both in the
positive and negative sense.
➢ What is destroyed is the illusion of
individuality in order to purify and to see
reality more clearly.
➢ Destruction opens the path for a new
creation of the universe, a new opportunity
for the beauty and drama of life.
➢ Hence, Shiva represents the most essential
goodness.
➢ Shiva is also the deity where the art of
meditation takes its most absolute form. He
is the symbol of deep meditation.
 Don’t stress. Do your best. Forget the rest
➢ The snakes in his head are indications that
he is beyond the power of death and
poison.
➢ The sound of Shiva’s two-sided drum
maintains the rhythm of the heartbeat and
creates the sound AUM in the overtones.
AUM means everything.
BUDDHISM
➢ The Dharma Wheel, the symbol of
Buddhism. The eight spokes symbolize the
Eightfold Path.
➢ Buddhism is a way of life. It provides its
adherents a guideline as to how man should
consider life and how this life should be
lived.
➢ Buddhism began as a pure ethic, which
rejected the authority of the Vedas and the
Brahamanas, and established a way to
human liberation and salvation solely
through human effort and discipline, which
refused any supernatural revelation or
intervention.
➢ True happiness is not to be obtained solely
through temple offerings and ritual
sacrifices.
➢ Happiness can be obtained by way of living
a moral life and performing good deeds to
fellow human beings.
➢ The known founder is Siddhartha Gautama.
THE FOURFOLD NOBLE TRUTH
'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 4: 6-7
➢ In both, it is made up of three parts: hence,
it is called Tripitaka: (1) Sutras (sermons
and fables); (2) Vinaya (collection of
monastic laws); and (3) Avhidarma
(collection of moral and metaphysical
treatises).
Siddhartha Gautama
➢ Siddhartha was believed to be born at
Lumbini, in the Terai lowlands near the
foothills of the Himalayas in modern-day
Nepal.
➢ He left the palace four times. During this
time, he was able to encounter an old man,
a sick man, a corpse, and finally, an ascetic
man.
➢ The teachings of Siddhartha are contained
in the canon of the Sacred Scriptures.
➢ The teachings appear in two main forms:
the Pali (Chinese version) and the Sanskrit
(Tibetan version).
➢ For almost 7 years, he listened to the
teaching of the different masters of wisdom.
He studied meditation techniques and
austerity
➢ He arrived at the pace known ever since as
Buddha Gaya, and there, sitting under a
Bodhi or fig tree, he meditated. In the
middle night, enlightenment comes
THE BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN
PERSON
➢ Buddhist adherents follow the Hindu belief
that a human person, in reality, was
originally united with the Brahman.
➢ This human person was accidentally born
into this earthly life; thereby, acquiring an
atman.
➢ The atman was not simply the soul but the
whole personal life of the human person.
➢ When the human person became a mortal
body, he was made subjected to diseases,
death and decomposition, which brought the
human person to experience pain and
suffering.
➢ Sufferings and pains would end due to their
belief that there is reincarnation.
➢ Reincarnation should not be seen as an
opportunity; rather, it should be seen as a
punishment for failing to live a moral and
holy life.
➢ Nirvana is the sinless, calm state of mind,
the destruction of earthly desires, the
absence of lust, and the cessation of
sorrows.
 Don’t stress. Do your best. Forget the rest
1. Life is suffering;
2. Suffering involves a chain of causes;
3. Suffering can cease;
4. There is a path that leads to the cessation
of suffering.
THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
THE BUDDHISTS’ GUIDE TO DOING GOOD
➢ Every human person is obliged to follow the
ahimsa (not harming).
➢ Ahimsa includes a number of other
obligations: maîtri, dana, and karuna.
➢ Maîtri means loving-kindness. It is a call for
heroism.
➢ Maîtri is not genuine if it does not lead to
dana, which can be perfected by
danaparamita.
➢ Karuna is more perfect than danaparamita.
It is the virtue of helping others by raising
others from misery and introducing them
into beatitude.
➢ The 3 Cardinal Faults of humans are greed,
hatred, and delusion as represented by the
pig, snake and the rooster.
➢ We have to have one passion only: the
good of others.
➢ People are never happy because they have
always been seeking for their own
happiness.
➢ There are two essential characteristics of
good action: universality and
disinterestedness.
THE BUDDHIST RELIGION
➢ Buddhism does not have a concept of a
god.
➢ It is more important to follow the Buddhist
path than to worship gods.
'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 4: 6-7
➢ The reason for one’s suffering is ignorance,
which is of two kinds:
1. That which leads people to think and
act as if they are eternal;
2. That which leads the people to think
and act as if everything is
permanent.
➢ Nothing is permanent in this world. Hence,
one should not crave for the attainment of
material things.
➢ To overcome ignorance, one should be able
to put into one’s heart the Buddhist truths
and at the same time transform one’s
thought, action, and experience.
➢ Buddhism received different interpretations
resulting to the development of the
Mahayana Buddhism and the Theravada
Buddhism.
➢ Mahayana Buddhism emerged in the 1 st
century CE as a more accessible
interpretation of Buddhism.
➢ It is considered as the “Greater Vehicle”
because it accommodates people from all
walks of life—both the ascetics and the lay
people.
➢ This is the primary form of Buddhism in
North Asia and the Far East, including
China, Japan, Korea, Tibet and Mongolia.
This is also known as the Northern
Buddhism.
➢ Theravada Buddhism is being practiced in
the South, which includes Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and in
some parts of Southeast Asia including
some areas in the Philippines.
➢ Theravadans believe that one has to strive
to become arhats, or the perfected saints
who have attained enlightenment and
nirvana.
➢ The ultimate purpose in life can only be
attained by monks and nuns. The laity can
obtain meaning by way of hoping to be
reborn in the monastic life.
➢ Mahayana Buddhists do not hope to
become arhats but instead become
Boddhisatvas.
➢ Enlightenment can be attained in a single
lifetime and this can be accomplished even
by a lay person.
➢ The three Mahayana tradition like Zen
Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism and Pure
Land Buddhism are teaching different
methods on how to attain such
enlightenment.
 Don’t stress. Do your best. Forget the rest
➢ Mahayana is more religious than
Theravada.
➢ Mahayana includes veneration of celestial
beings like Buddhas and boddhisatvas.
➢ They also perform religious rituals and
magical rites.
➢ They also use icons, images and other
sacred objects in religious ceremonies.
➢ Buddhism does not totally reject other
religious beliefs. Some followers can have
other religious practices.
➢ Majority of the Buddhists have a well-
developed tradition on meditation.
➢ Theravada Buddhism practice Samadhi
meditation, which is dealing with some
exercises so as to correct certain vices and
vipassana or an insight meditation which
aims at a complete awareness of the
environment.
➢ Followers of Zen Buddhism practice zazen
or sit meditation and kinhin or walk
meditation. Through zazen, they will be
able to experience satori.
THE BUDDHISTS’ CELEBRATION OF
FESTIVALS
➢ The Buddhists celebrate New Year, which
occurs on the new moon of February. This
celebration symbolizes new life.
➢ The Vaishakha festival, which is celebrated
on the 8th day of the second lunar month, is
the time to remember the birth of Buddha,
his enlightenment, and his passing into
nirvana at his death.
➢ Hana Matsuri feast is being celebrated on
April 8. This is the Japanese celebration of
Buddha’s birth.
St. Thomas (1225-1274 CE)
➢ Aquinas made it a point that philosophy and
theology played complementary roles in the
human person’s quest for truth.
➢ Aquinas held that all knowledge originates
in sensation, but sense data can be made
intelligible only by the action of the intellect.
➢ To reach understanding of the highest
truths, those with which religion is
concerned, the aid of revelation is needed.
This is Aquinas’ moderate realism, which
placed the universals firmly in the mind in
opposition to extreme realism, which
posited them as independent of human
thought.
➢ Philosophy and theology played
complementary roles in the human person’s
quest for truth.
'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 4: 6-7
➢ All knowledge originates in sensation, but
sense data can be made intelligible only by
the action of the intellect.
➢ To reach understanding of the highest
truths, those with which religion is
concerned, the aid of revelation is needed.
This is Aquinas’ moderate realism
➢ Besides, the divine reality is far above the
capability of human understanding.
➢ It is a natural function of the human mind to
link effects which it encounters in nature to
their causes.
➢ It is natural for man to search for his origin
and link himself with a Creator; hence, the
Quinque Viae or the Five Ways (S.T. I, 3).
➢ Moderate Realism places universals firmly
in the mind in opposition to extreme realism,
which posited these universals as
independent of human thought.
➢ It was necessary for the salvation of man
that certain truths which exceed human
reason should be made known to him by
Divine Revelation.
➢ Man is capable of knowing the nature of
God in this life because our knowledge is
limited by its origin in sense-experience.
➢ The divine reality is far above the capability
of human understanding.
THE FIVE WAYS
➢ The First Way begins with the sense
experience of motion or change in the
universe. It upholds the principle: omne
autem quod movetur, ab alio movetur.
➢ The second way is from the nature of the
Efficient Cause.
➢ The fifth way is taken from the governance
of the world.
➢ The fourth way is taken from the gradation
of perfection to be found in things.
➢ The third way is taken from possibility and
necessity.
GOD’S RELATIONSHIP WITH MAN
➢ The given proof of God’s existence does not
exactly tell us positively what God is.
➢ The imperfect goodness and wisdom of
man may be taken to represent or mirror the
perfection of these qualities in God.
➢ God’s purpose in creation is to
communicate His perfection, which is His
goodness, to the world.
➢ Goodness and wisdom may be found in
man but it will be found in a perfect manner
in God.
➢ Good and wise in God and man are not
equivocal nor univocal terms. They are
analogous terms.
 Don’t stress. Do your best. Forget the rest
➢ The universe contains both the corruptible
and the incorruptible entities.
➢ Both happiness and pain, life and death
would exist simultaneously with one
another.
➢ Evil exist because of the privations inherent
and unavoidable in creatures of different
grades of goodness.
➢ Suffering and death occur not because God
wills these evils as such.
➢ Why did God not create a better world
instead?
➢ God’s work of creation is not something that
He would want us to know.
➢ What we can only know is that God created
the universe because of his goodness.
➢ God does not have a relation with His
creatures.
➢ Should God have created another universe
instead of this one, that universe would still
be created out of the goodness of God.
➢ How is God related with His own creatures?
➢ God’s existence does not have any
reference whatsoever to the existence of
His creatures simply because God is a
Necessary Being. His essence is His own
existence.
➢ The moral end of a person is not simply a
natural end towards which he, by nature,
tends.
➢ The creatures would have a real relation to
God because were it not for God, the
creatures would not exist.
➢ Man is created endowed with goodness.
He yearns for goodness because of his
synderesis (innate principle to do good
and avoid evil) and conscience.
➢ Synderesis is the intellectual habit or
disposition by which man, in given
situations, is in possession of the
fundamental principles of morality.
➢ The fundamental principles of morality: DO
GOOD AND AVOID EVIL.
➢ Doing evil is not in accordance with the real
nature of man.
➢ Moral law is the dictate of the voice of
reason.
➢ The dictate of reason is expressed in the
moral principle: “the good must be done and
evil must be avoided.”
➢ If man goes against his nature of goodness,
then he is going against the moral law.
THE NATURAL INCLINATIONS OF MAN
➢ To know whether we are acting rightly or
wrongly, we must see to it that we are
following the voice of reason.
➢ Conscience will serve as the natural guide
in making moral decision.
➢ Man will know that a particular act is good if
it is in accordance with the human nature.
➢ Man is the proximate norm of morality.
➢ Man has 3 natural inclinations:
'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 4: 6-7
1. self-preservation;
2. Just dealings with others;
3. Propagation of species.
THE THREE DETERMINANTS OF MORAL ACT
➢ Man’s ultimate happiness consists in
contemplating God and not in goodness of
the body.
➢ Man should always be aware of the morality
of his action.
➢ Man’s ultimate happiness consists only in
wisdom and not in any other sciences.
➢ 3 Factors that can help determine whether
our action is moral or not:
1. Finis operas (end of an action)—that
to which the act tends before all else.
2. Circumstantiae– the condition which
will certainly affect its morality.
3. Finis operantis—the intention of the
agent.
➢ A good act with a bad motive makes the
moral action bad.
➢ A person may not employ an evil means in
order to attain a good end.
➢ Human acts are good if they promote the
purpose of God and His honor.
➢ An act is considered evil if it deviates from
the reason and the divine moral law.
THE MORAL PRINCIPLES AS BASIS OF HUMAN
ACTION
➢ St. Thomas follows the principle: agere
sequitur esse.
➢ The rationality of man makes him
responsible for the effects of his action.
➢ Principle of Double Effect: a good effect
and an evil effect will result from a good
cause
➢ 4 principles of Double Effect:
1. The action directly intended must be
good or at least morally indifferent;
2. The good effect must follow from the
action at least as immediately as the evil
effect;
3. The foreseen evil effect may not be
intended but merely permitted to occur;
4. There must be a sufficient reason for
allowing evil to occur.
➢ Principle of Totality—the right to cut off or
mutilate a certain part of the body for the
good of the whole.
➢ Principle of Inviolability of Life—Life is
God’s and has been loaned to us; hence, it
is inviolable and sacred.
 Don’t stress. Do your best. Forget the rest
➢ Principle of Stewardship—human life
comes from God and no individual is the
master of his own body.
➢ Principle of Sexuality and Procreation—
this underscores the two-fold purpose of
sexual union: unitas et procreatio.
6 NATURAL RIGHTS
1. Right to Life
➢ Highest right of a person among all rights.
2. Right to Private Property
➢ He believed that a human person has the
right to own some property in order to live a
decent life
3. Right to Marry
➢ Marriage is not a duty. It is a right
➢ No one is held liable to submit himself to
marriage without the consent of the person
involved
4. Right to Physical Freedom or
Personal Liberty
➢ Every person has the moral power to move
around freely or to go to places where he
wants to go
5. Right to Worship
➢ No person will have the right impose religion
on the other.
6. Right to Work
➢ This implies the right of any person to a
living wage.
6 NATURAL DUTIES
1. Duty to Keep Healthy and Take Care of One’s
Self
2. Duty to Take Care of One’s Property and
Respect Other’s Property.
3. Duty to Support One’s Family
4. Duty to Respect Private Boundaries
5. Duty for Religious Tolerance
6. Duty to Perform one’s Best

'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 4: 6-7