As we breathe our breaths each day we always dedicate it for the compensation of yesterday and for the betterment of tomorrow. Resulting to the making of the present a mere intermediary to what has been and what is to be. With this mindset, we come to conceive of time of having the past, the present and the future. With mechanical time to govern our everyday lives- to set what is past, what is present and what is future. But, the problem is that we no longer live the present but instead engross ourselves to what is the future.
Our existence is not that of early video recorders wherein in it is composed of different slides to project. What has been projected is the past, what is being projected is the present and what is to be projected is the future. I come to points of my life wherein I look at myself in the present not focusing on it but focusing on what I have been and what I am to be. Neglecting altogether my present and never living it.
Imagine a potter. He has clay in hand and facing his spinning wheel. The clay is so simple and irrelevant coming from the roads we tread, from the gardens we toil and from other uninteresting locations. But there the potter is, never stopping of dreaming of forming something beautiful and precious from this irrelevant clay. He put the clay on his spinning wheel and began to spin it. With his bare hands he began to form the simple clay into something different. With the simple spinning and with the graces of the potter’s hands comes out from earth’s clay something unique- a jar.
I spent the last 3 years of my elementary education in a rural school in Laconon, T’boli because of my parent’s teaching work. My classmates were natives of the T’boli tribe with only few of us from the lowlands. My earlier elementary schooling was spent at Notre Dame of Norala, Inc. After graduating from that school I proceeded my high school at Koronadal National Comprehensive High School. At first my parents are not confident of my status taken that I am only a graduate of a rural school. So, they comforted me that I should not hope too much of getting into the honors of that school. They are not even hoping that I get into a higher section. But then I realized that its not about which school you were really from but it’s about how much you value education and how much you value learning.
If the potter did stop dreaming and instead of thinking of forming something unique from that clay but focused on the irrelevance and ugliness of the clay he will find himself not forming something appreciative but instead stuck in his folly with nothing to accomplish.
Life is like that, at certain times we take time blaming and blaming the cause, things that have been done and cannot be undone, for the mistakes of the present that we neglect the things that we can do to better the things of the present. We take more time blaming who is responsible that we realize that we have spent all the time with nothing more to do because the time that we can spend in making things right we have already used in blaming who’s who.
Life will not always be perfect. We come to crossroads wherein the choices to choose is never positive. All four corners of the road are in flaws. But, the thing is that we are gifted with creativity for us to use. Besides, because of this creativity of man do all priceless possessions on earth arose. To name a few does from the sands of Egypt arose the pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza, from the clays of Yuang tze, the great yellow river of China, does came the great Chinese porcelains and from the great Alps of Italy came the raw marbles that became sculptures donning the great halls of Italy and the Vatican.
We can never choose which part of history does destiny wants us to place. We can never choose who we are and what we are on the day we were born. The thing is that, wherever and whichever part of history we are in we can always change the world. Remember that He who is the prince of the world was born in a simple manger but his love became the epitome of love for mankind- He has changed the World. Why don’t you?
Apr 26, 2016
The Question of Man is Across Time
Most often than not, man has always been imposed with this question: “What is man?”
For centuries, answers to this single question were given varying from culture to culture, custom to custom, from philosopher to philosopher and even from man himself to another man. Some of which gave answers starting most often with the self, grounded from his own existence. Others gave answers starting with the statements of those claiming to have possession of an interaction with the absolute.
This act of man questioning his nature does not only imply man’s curiosity and awareness of his existence but presupposes a certain search for meaning. A search for meaning in his existence.
The answers to this question started with Greeks whose view of man as part of the Cosmos (Cosmo-centric) gave fame to the Socratic motto: “Know thyself.” Man was seen as a microcosm, and the search for truth about man was simultaneously the search for truth about the universe.[1] Therefore, man is everything.
Other periods in the philosophical landscape emerged and gave rise to new thinking of what is man but this know thyself has and will always leave its mark. With the coming and predominance of Christianity on Medieval Europe, this “knowing thyself” has somewhat found its new perspective. “Know thyself” in the perspective of faith. Philosophy became the handmaid of Theology (Theo-Centric or God-Centered). Reason was the companion of faith, its task was to make faith reasonable...Man was viewed still as part of nature but nature now was God’s creation.[2]
The change of focus began with the philosophizing of Rene Dascartes...Everything was dubitable...all except for one fact- the fact that he was doubting.[3] From this criterion, Descartes has somewhat established of understanding man in the standpoint only of himself. In the standpoint of the ‘I’ taken in itself. (Anthropo-Centric)
Yet, the zeitgeist is so alive that new ways of understanding man were born. From the standpoint of the I, where modern philosophy established man, emerged Martin Buber’s ‘Thou.’
[1] Dy, M. (2001). Philosophy of Man: Selected Readings (2nd edition). Philippines: Goodwill Trading Co., Inc.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
For centuries, answers to this single question were given varying from culture to culture, custom to custom, from philosopher to philosopher and even from man himself to another man. Some of which gave answers starting most often with the self, grounded from his own existence. Others gave answers starting with the statements of those claiming to have possession of an interaction with the absolute.
This act of man questioning his nature does not only imply man’s curiosity and awareness of his existence but presupposes a certain search for meaning. A search for meaning in his existence.
The answers to this question started with Greeks whose view of man as part of the Cosmos (Cosmo-centric) gave fame to the Socratic motto: “Know thyself.” Man was seen as a microcosm, and the search for truth about man was simultaneously the search for truth about the universe.[1] Therefore, man is everything.
Other periods in the philosophical landscape emerged and gave rise to new thinking of what is man but this know thyself has and will always leave its mark. With the coming and predominance of Christianity on Medieval Europe, this “knowing thyself” has somewhat found its new perspective. “Know thyself” in the perspective of faith. Philosophy became the handmaid of Theology (Theo-Centric or God-Centered). Reason was the companion of faith, its task was to make faith reasonable...Man was viewed still as part of nature but nature now was God’s creation.[2]
The change of focus began with the philosophizing of Rene Dascartes...Everything was dubitable...all except for one fact- the fact that he was doubting.[3] From this criterion, Descartes has somewhat established of understanding man in the standpoint only of himself. In the standpoint of the ‘I’ taken in itself. (Anthropo-Centric)
Yet, the zeitgeist is so alive that new ways of understanding man were born. From the standpoint of the I, where modern philosophy established man, emerged Martin Buber’s ‘Thou.’
[1] Dy, M. (2001). Philosophy of Man: Selected Readings (2nd edition). Philippines: Goodwill Trading Co., Inc.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
Philosophy and a Better Place
It is said that Philosophy has three main branches, namely: Metaphysics, Epistemology and Ethics.
Metaphysics, as said, is the branch of philosophy that deals with the fundamental nature of reality. Epistemology is said to be dealing with the theory of knowledge. And lastly, Ethics is said to be the one concerned with the actions of man.
All three, in my opinion, does not only stop at looking and staring at reality. Not that Metaphysics should only tell us what is reality, Epistemology telling us what are we to know of reality and Ethics as telling us what is our reality and how should we conform to it. Instead, we can make a better world out of these three. Not of course if we only codify it in books and make that book as precious as the Bible and fossilize it in our mere memorization of quotations from the greatest of Philosophers and walk in the corridors of NDMU as though “the future is in your hand.” Of course, I am not telling that the future is not in your and our hands but what I am telling is do not fool yourself that by mere memorization of these quotations will you ever change the world. For even dogs live in memory. Instead, live it. The future will certainly slip in your hands if you only live in fooling yourself.
These three branches of Philosophy can make us a better place. It is like making from the sands of Egypt rise the pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza, from the clays of Yuang tze, the great yellow river of China, the great Chinese porcelains and from the raw marbles of the great Alps of Italy the sculptures of Michaelangelo donning the great halls of Italy and the Vatican.
So, how do we live it? We should do it. We should be the one looking at reality. We should be the one facing reality. Vis-a-vis. So as to know what are we to know and live conforming to what we know. We must know how to connect these branches into a unified working on reality. We must know how to transcend our dealing with reality in Metaphysics into strengthening and verifying it in Epistemology and thus apply it in our Ethics.
The greatest tragedy of man is selfishness. Few are the songs and literatures that youth listen to now that pertains for the longing of the common good. Nationalistic songs are becoming things of the past. Even the Aglipayan church whom I admire much in their patriotic cause have stopped wearing their Philippine Flag as vestments. Most students would choose listening to ‘Pusong Bato,’ ‘Boom Panes,’ etc. They would even choose to read ‘Hopeless Romantic’ of Marcelo Santos III neglecting that we have a greater tragedy to face than the tragedy that happens in their puppy love escapades.
Who would dare to listen to this song now with its heavy use of patriotic words and even with its use of native musical instrument?
Saan Ka Patungo
Joey Ayala
I would dare, would you?
Metaphysics, as said, is the branch of philosophy that deals with the fundamental nature of reality. Epistemology is said to be dealing with the theory of knowledge. And lastly, Ethics is said to be the one concerned with the actions of man.
All three, in my opinion, does not only stop at looking and staring at reality. Not that Metaphysics should only tell us what is reality, Epistemology telling us what are we to know of reality and Ethics as telling us what is our reality and how should we conform to it. Instead, we can make a better world out of these three. Not of course if we only codify it in books and make that book as precious as the Bible and fossilize it in our mere memorization of quotations from the greatest of Philosophers and walk in the corridors of NDMU as though “the future is in your hand.” Of course, I am not telling that the future is not in your and our hands but what I am telling is do not fool yourself that by mere memorization of these quotations will you ever change the world. For even dogs live in memory. Instead, live it. The future will certainly slip in your hands if you only live in fooling yourself.
These three branches of Philosophy can make us a better place. It is like making from the sands of Egypt rise the pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza, from the clays of Yuang tze, the great yellow river of China, the great Chinese porcelains and from the raw marbles of the great Alps of Italy the sculptures of Michaelangelo donning the great halls of Italy and the Vatican.
So, how do we live it? We should do it. We should be the one looking at reality. We should be the one facing reality. Vis-a-vis. So as to know what are we to know and live conforming to what we know. We must know how to connect these branches into a unified working on reality. We must know how to transcend our dealing with reality in Metaphysics into strengthening and verifying it in Epistemology and thus apply it in our Ethics.
The greatest tragedy of man is selfishness. Few are the songs and literatures that youth listen to now that pertains for the longing of the common good. Nationalistic songs are becoming things of the past. Even the Aglipayan church whom I admire much in their patriotic cause have stopped wearing their Philippine Flag as vestments. Most students would choose listening to ‘Pusong Bato,’ ‘Boom Panes,’ etc. They would even choose to read ‘Hopeless Romantic’ of Marcelo Santos III neglecting that we have a greater tragedy to face than the tragedy that happens in their puppy love escapades.
Who would dare to listen to this song now with its heavy use of patriotic words and even with its use of native musical instrument?
Saan Ka Patungo
Joey Ayala
Chorus:
Saan ka patungo panganay ko.
Ano ang hinahanap mo sa ating mundo?
Ako’y tutungo sa siyudad upang hanapin ang kaluluwa nito,
Papasukin ang mga pintuan at gusali niya at hihiga sa kaniyang semento.
Ako’y tutungo sa siyudad at sasagupa sa dahas nito,
Ako’y sasama sa kanyang mga pulubi at pusakal at yayakap sa kaniyang aspalto.
(Chorus)
Ako’y tutungong katedral upang tumitig sa mukha ng Diyos,
Isasaulo ko ang bawat guhit sa kanyang mukha at dadalhin ko siya sa aking puso.
Ako’y tutungong mesquita upang tumitig sa mukha ni Allah.
At kung matuklasan ko na ang Diyos at si Allah pala’y pareho ang mukhang pinapakita,
Aking imumungkahi na dapat magkaisa ang lahat ng mga Muslim at Kristiyano sa lupa.
(Chorus)
Ako’y tutungo sa ginintuang palasyo ng mga hari,
Titingnan ko kung ang kulay ng mga haring ito ay tunay na tulad ng kulay kong kayumanggi.
At kung matuklasan ko na ang tunay na kulay nila’y pintura sa mukha’t balat-kayo,
Makikita ng mundo na ang nakaupo sa trono ay di hari kundi manika lamang.
(Chorus)
Ako’y tutungo sa parang upang hukayin ang dunong sa lupa.
Isip ko’y bubungkalin diwa ko’y itatanim at aanihin ko ang katotohanan.
Ipamamahagi ko sa aking kapwa tao ang mga bunga ng aking diwa.
At kung may hahadlang sa pagbungkal ng isipan awitin ko’y magsisilbing sandata.
(Chorus)
Saan ka patungo, panganay ko.
Tila mpanganib ang adhikain mo.
Ita’y ako’y patungo sa dulo ng mundo.
Ang aking hinahanap ay ang kalayaan ko!
Ito ang aking pakay at ako’y nakahanding ipagpait ang aking buhay para sa KALAYAAN...
I would dare, would you?
Know Thyself!
Everybody who knows Socrates will surely recognize the words which he uttered almost 2,500 years ago yet still gives out a challenge to every man of this modern time: "Know thyself!"
What does really make a better you? What makes a good life? Most of us would think it would be things, material things.
During my childhood years, we lived at a subdivision in Norala. Some of my friends came from well-to-do families and they have as it seem everything they want. They have computers on their homes. Encyclopaedias don their living room. Bulky dictionaries would be their companion during studies. Their “yaya’s” would even accompany them going to school with their cars to bring them to and fro. At a young age they have cellphones to call their own. To sum up, they are rich while my family is only from the middle class. Though our everyday life is alright, not as bad as others, to dream of someday also becoming rich was implanted to my being. I was taught that if I study harder, someday I will also have these things and my life would be better. Better if I also have those things.
At first I succumb to that temptation of dreaming of having also those things. I wished I also live on a big house; I can be brought to school with a really nice car. I also dreamed of reading those thick encyclopaedias in our home and scan that dictionary everytime I have assignments. I really thought happiness, before you will have it, you should have these things also. But it is not.
I was transferred school when I was in Grade 4 because of my Mother’s work. It was really a new life where I transferred, totally a new life.
I was transferred to Laconon Elementary School. It was actually the second largest school in T’boli but still a few kilometres from the town proper. We will be trekking an 8-kilometer road with 2 rivers just to get there. Our house there is made of nipa. We live in a compound where teachers are boarding. Our water supplies come from springs. There are springs there where you can tap a hose up to your house and would be the source of water for your house. Sometimes if our tapping system would break we will be most happy because we will have no water and we will be washing ourselves in a river at the back of our house. The water is so pure and clean and it is literally as cold as water with ice! We used to heat water first before bathing.
Life is very different from that of Norala. Everything my classmates at Norala have, that’s the very opposite of what my classmates in T’boli has. Literally, small houses, no cars and we don’t even have books from the school. My classmates would start “walking” from their houses at 4 and still they would be late for the first period. Our school also practice an “early dismissal system” so that those who live in the barrios can reach their homes early. At 3:30 pm we are already dismissed. Life is just so simple in that mountain. But, one thing makes them superior than my rich classmates before. They truly know life.
With all the scarcity of what they have, they would still share, laugh and enjoy each day. You would even think if they have problems at all! They are all relatives by the way; they can trace every member of their clans though they do not have the same surname. Even those whom you would expect to be “siga” can be so gentle in his sister, can share the little he has with his friends and can be of company for his brothers in walks miles away.
Well, that is philosophy. It teaches us how to truly live our lives. They would say, “Philosophy is so hard!” Others would ask, “If you graduate the course, what good will it bring you?” Well, it is bringing good to you now.
Philosophy is never detached from the world. It actually gives balance and meaning to the world. As a telescope would help astronomers venture the heavens, know the vastness of the cosmos and discover the deepness of the universe so is Philosophy leading us to discover what life truly is, the life itself. It leads us to our most being. If you look into the heavens under a light post, that artificial light from the post may blur our eyes from seeing the very beauty of the moon and the stars. If we look into what happiness in life is through the lenses of material things, we may be disillusioned from what real happiness is.
Our life is like the universe, so vast and full of wonders yet unknown. It may be discovered but still there are more to offer. The stars, the moon, the comets and many other wonders lie beneath the dark spaces. We are told that these wonders are only fragments, debris; trash of what happened millions of years ago. If this debris would fall so beautiful, what more is that very nucleus which happened long ago? Philosophy does that; it makes us discover that very beautiful self of us. That very nucleus of ourselves which if discovered is so beautiful.
So let us anchor to Philosophy and let us live life itself.
What does really make a better you? What makes a good life? Most of us would think it would be things, material things.
During my childhood years, we lived at a subdivision in Norala. Some of my friends came from well-to-do families and they have as it seem everything they want. They have computers on their homes. Encyclopaedias don their living room. Bulky dictionaries would be their companion during studies. Their “yaya’s” would even accompany them going to school with their cars to bring them to and fro. At a young age they have cellphones to call their own. To sum up, they are rich while my family is only from the middle class. Though our everyday life is alright, not as bad as others, to dream of someday also becoming rich was implanted to my being. I was taught that if I study harder, someday I will also have these things and my life would be better. Better if I also have those things.
At first I succumb to that temptation of dreaming of having also those things. I wished I also live on a big house; I can be brought to school with a really nice car. I also dreamed of reading those thick encyclopaedias in our home and scan that dictionary everytime I have assignments. I really thought happiness, before you will have it, you should have these things also. But it is not.
I was transferred school when I was in Grade 4 because of my Mother’s work. It was really a new life where I transferred, totally a new life.
I was transferred to Laconon Elementary School. It was actually the second largest school in T’boli but still a few kilometres from the town proper. We will be trekking an 8-kilometer road with 2 rivers just to get there. Our house there is made of nipa. We live in a compound where teachers are boarding. Our water supplies come from springs. There are springs there where you can tap a hose up to your house and would be the source of water for your house. Sometimes if our tapping system would break we will be most happy because we will have no water and we will be washing ourselves in a river at the back of our house. The water is so pure and clean and it is literally as cold as water with ice! We used to heat water first before bathing.
Life is very different from that of Norala. Everything my classmates at Norala have, that’s the very opposite of what my classmates in T’boli has. Literally, small houses, no cars and we don’t even have books from the school. My classmates would start “walking” from their houses at 4 and still they would be late for the first period. Our school also practice an “early dismissal system” so that those who live in the barrios can reach their homes early. At 3:30 pm we are already dismissed. Life is just so simple in that mountain. But, one thing makes them superior than my rich classmates before. They truly know life.
With all the scarcity of what they have, they would still share, laugh and enjoy each day. You would even think if they have problems at all! They are all relatives by the way; they can trace every member of their clans though they do not have the same surname. Even those whom you would expect to be “siga” can be so gentle in his sister, can share the little he has with his friends and can be of company for his brothers in walks miles away.
Well, that is philosophy. It teaches us how to truly live our lives. They would say, “Philosophy is so hard!” Others would ask, “If you graduate the course, what good will it bring you?” Well, it is bringing good to you now.
Philosophy is never detached from the world. It actually gives balance and meaning to the world. As a telescope would help astronomers venture the heavens, know the vastness of the cosmos and discover the deepness of the universe so is Philosophy leading us to discover what life truly is, the life itself. It leads us to our most being. If you look into the heavens under a light post, that artificial light from the post may blur our eyes from seeing the very beauty of the moon and the stars. If we look into what happiness in life is through the lenses of material things, we may be disillusioned from what real happiness is.
Our life is like the universe, so vast and full of wonders yet unknown. It may be discovered but still there are more to offer. The stars, the moon, the comets and many other wonders lie beneath the dark spaces. We are told that these wonders are only fragments, debris; trash of what happened millions of years ago. If this debris would fall so beautiful, what more is that very nucleus which happened long ago? Philosophy does that; it makes us discover that very beautiful self of us. That very nucleus of ourselves which if discovered is so beautiful.
So let us anchor to Philosophy and let us live life itself.
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