University of Antique
Hamtic Campus
Guintas, Hamtic, Antique
LESSON 7: THE SPIRITUAL SELF AND THE MEANING OF LIFE
Learning Objectives:
After finishing this lesson, you should be able to:
1 Identify the various religious practices and beliefs,
2. Understand the self in relation with religious beliefs and,
3. Explain the ways of finding the meaning of life.
Are you happy with your life now?
Do you find meaning in the things that you do every day?
What makes you truly happy?
In search of his true identity, man can never do away from considering his spiritual well-being.
For one thing, he is composed of both body and soul.
The body points to his relationship with the material world.
The soul, his relationship with the spiritual world, which is the transcendental dimension of life.
In search for the meaning in life, one of the major concerns is the development of balanced spirituality of
the human being which integrates well with his/her psychological maturation.
Such integration leads to a better understanding of oneself with the question:
✓ Who am I?
✓ What are my big aims in life?
✓ How clear are they?
✓ How truly Filipino am I?
✓ How truly Christian am I?
It seeks answers to the basic existential questions in life.
It leads to self-introspection, a journey into the core of the human being.
1.
❖ The spiritual self is another dimension of the Self.
❖ It is personal to each of us.
❖ It is referred to the real, true, or authentic you, without influence, stereotypes, or assumptions.
❖ It is not related to our race, our religion, gender, nor our concerns, not even our physical appearance.
➢ How much do you know of your spiritual self?
✓ It is good to ask ourselves about this because while we pay more attention to the other selves, like
physical and material self, the spiritual self is the least explored (That is because we focus more on
our physical realities, rather than on the spiritual).
✓ We have to remember that our spiritual self is always there in the background of our existence,
continually providing us the needed inspiration and motivation.
✓ Our spiritual self is the invisible force that holds the whole self together.
✓ It recognizes all the needs of the other selves that may lead to self-integration, increased
awareness, intuition, insights, and communication between and among the other selves.
➢ David James Lee, Spirituality expert of Wei Wu Wisdom
✓ Describe spiritual self as our intangible and invisible self, the gut feeling and inspiration inside us.
✓ It is true to us Only.
✓ Lee compared it to a beautiful candle that never extinguishes.
✓ No one else could extinguish it, but ourselves.
✓ It is the spiritual energy that makes intuition flow without effort from within, the source of
inspiration that motivates us to move on.
Inspiration
• It connotes the presence of a spirit within us.
• Inspiration keeps us going, living a more positive life.
• One who is inspired never stops moving forward.
• He is motivated to a mile more and achieve more and live a more productive life.
✓ Lee considers spiritual self as the higher self.
✓ He emphasizes the importance of getting connected with the spiritual self since this helps us find a
balance between the physical and spiritual selves to enable us to live to our full potential.
✓ It is through our potential self that we can communicate with the Divine.
✓ If we are disconnected from it, we hang on to our old self, continue living in the carousel of
negativity, being critical, judgmental and continue comparing ourselves with others, protecting
ourselves from them.
✓ But according to Lee, we have nothing to fear of others as regards our spiritual self because it is
only us who can create a spiritual disturbance on it.
➢ Bob Mangroo
✓ Beautifully referred to spiritual self as the eternal self, the intangible, non-physical, invisible part
of our existence.
✓ He called it, SOUL.
✓ He claims that with our physical reality, we can identify our date and place of our birth, meaning
the beginning of our existence.
✓ However, it is not true with our soul.
✓ We cannot tell when our soul was born, when it began to exist and where it is located within us.
✓ That is so because our soul has been in existence even before our physical existence and will continue
to exist even after we are gone.
✓ The idea of the existence of the soul leads us to understand that the nature of spiritual self is not
connected with religion.
✓ Our Christian faith taught us, that our body is the temple, the in-dwelling, of the Holy spirit.
✓ We believe that we have a soul and that, when we die, our physical body is buried, or cremated, as
the case may be, but our soul goes to either heaven or hell, to remain eternally depending on the
kind of life we lived when we were still alive.
✓ Mangroo insists that the nature of our eternal self is to live in the spiritual realm for eternity
after it leaves our physical body.
✓ Our spiritual self should manifest how we live our Christian faith, regardless of religion.
✓ We live our spiritual life highly motivated, aspiring for eternal life because our soul is destined for
eternity.
2.
✓ According to Victor Frank, “meaning is something to discover rather than to invent.”
✓ It has the same concept with inner happiness, life satisfaction, self-actualization, deep spirituality.
✓ He believes that in life, there is an existential vacuum which means that life is empty, meaningless,
purposeless, aimless, adrift, and so on.
✓ Because of this existential vacuum, we fill our lives with pleasure, eating beyond all the necessity, or
even having promiscuous sex.
✓ We might seek power, especially the power represented by monetary success.
✓ Because of this existential vacuum, Frankl says that we fill our lives with “busy-ness, conformity,
conventionality, anger, hatred, and even attempts to destroy what we think is hurting us, a
neurotic vicious cycle.”
➢ Three ways of Discovering Meaning in Life
a. Experiential Values
• This approach involves experiencing something or someone we value.
• The most important example of experiential value is the love we feel towards another – family,
relatives, friends, and workmates.
b. Creative Values
• This is the traditional existential idea of providing oneself with meaning by becoming involved in
one’s project, or, better, in project of one’s own life.
• It includes the creativity and passion involved in art, music, writing, invention, and work.
c. Attitudinal Values
• Attitudinal values include practicing virtues such as compassion, bravery, a good sense of humor, and
the like.
• But Frankl’s most famous example is achieving meaning by way of suffering.
• The ultimate goal is self-transcendence, in the spiritual realm.
• It is a reference to God, a reference to religion.
3.
➢Our spirituality helps us live a balanced and focused life, a balanced mental health and well-being.
➢With this kind of life, we become aware of our choices, behavior and actions.
➢We live simply in moderation.
➢Our spiritual life will direct us to focus only on the basics and essential with preference to what is
sacred and transcendental.
➢ In such a state, we can enjoy a more peaceful life and develop our fullest potentials.
What are the consequences of having a well-balanced life?
✓ The person who is healthy physically and spiritually develops into a spiritual person.
✓ Being one he/she believes and accepts that suffering and death are parts of life.
✓ He/she is positive in his/her disposition.
✓ He/she lives in serenity and enjoys peace of mine.
✓ He/she counts his/her blessings.
✓ He/she focuses on what is good in others.
✓ He/she is appreciative of the world around him/her and is connected to himself/herself.
❖ A person with a healthy spiritual life takes things in stride,
❖ He/she accepts any circumstances in his/her life positively and embraces them as part of his/her
existence.
❖ He/she believes that any experience in life, difficult though it is part of a greater scheme of things
and therefore, has a purpose and meaning.
❖ He/she puts his/her trust and faith in the Divine that provides him/her anchorage in life.
❖ He/she is aware of his/her behavior and actions and owns up the consequences of such.
❖ As a loving and forgiving person, he/she forgives his/her offenders and apologizes whenever he/she
himself/herself offend others.
❖ A spiritual person engages in activities that boos his/her self-identity and self-actualization and
that lead him/her to exercise such virtues as compassion and social concern.
❖ He/she enhances his/her interpersonal relationship through proper communication, trust in and
respect for others and his/her ability to resolve conflict.
❖ He/she avoids all forms of negativity in his/her life because he/she has self-confidence and high self-
esteem.
❖ In contrast, a person who does not have a healthy physical and spiritual well-being is not balanced,
focused and connected to self and others.
❖ Being in this state, he/she continues his/her habit of being critical, judgmental and negative.
❖ Getting angry and being defensive is normal to this type of person.
❖ He/she has no time to appreciative those around him/her, nor does he/she have the time to love
himself/herself, others and anything that has life, including nature.
4.
➢ Spirituality is part of our natural process of self-development.
➢ It grows as we live in and within, our respective communities and as we maintain our relationship
with our family and the society, in general.
➢ In the home, children can imbibe spirituality from their parents by the positive and nurturing
relationship experienced from them and through the spiritual orientation parents provide them
with to serve as a solid foundation of their healthy spiritual life.
➢ In schools, mental health and well-being may be imbibed by the students from their teachers and
from the vision, mission, goals and the core values of the school.
➢ The curricular programs including seminars and activities on the development of humanitarian
values of compassion, empathy and sensitivity for the welfare of others and other activities, like
retreat and recollections, can foster reflection, self-evaluation and contemplation.
➢ Through contemplation, we can answer such questions as:
✓ Who am I?
✓ Am I a good person?
✓ What is the meaning of all that are happening in my life?
✓ To where are they leading me?
✓ How can I put meaning into all these?
➢ As a result, we become more aware of our connection with the Divine Being who leads us to see the
purpose and meaning in every circumstance we go through, and helps us appreciate our blessings in
life.
➢ According to Lee, it is beneficial to remain connected with the one’s eternal self.
➢ To do this, he suggests three ways.
✓ First, have a specific intention and stay focus on it; keep it in your heart and mind and decide when
and how you would accomplish it.
✓ Second, live life cheerfully, honestly, truthfully, and authentically. Enjoy what you are doing. Never
lie to others or to yourself, as you work in achieving your intention.
✓ Third, be self-responsible. It is your desire to be a spiritual person. It is therefore, your
responsibility to live out consistently our goal, your target, that is-to become a spiritual person.
