The document discusses perspectives on life from several religious and spiritual traditions. Buddha taught that a pure, unselfish life free from attachment was key to freedom. Lao Tzu emphasized simplicity and living in harmony with nature's laws. Confucius saw life as comprising three stages requiring different virtues. Muhammad viewed life as unified with God at the center. Gandhi advocated simple living. De La Salle saw teachers' role as cultivating virtues to fulfill humanity's destiny. Overall, the perspectives emphasize virtues, simplicity, purpose and unity, though expressed differently across traditions.

2. HUMANITY’S SEARCH FOR LIFE
• HUMANITY – NOUN (plural humanities)
1. The human race; human beings collectively:
Environmental destruction is an appalling crime against
humanity
2. The fact or condition of being human; human nature:
Music is the universal language with which we can express
our common humanity
3. Humaneness; benevolence; kindness or compassion for
others
He praised them for their standards of humanity, care, and
dignity
4. (humanities) Learning or literature concerned with human
culture, especially literature, history, art, music, and
philosophy.

3. HUMAN LIFE
• Different from any kind of life

4. Only human being searches for a
meaningful existence
Remember the previous activity?
You are more than those meaningful
symbols.
All those symbols however marvellous and
amazing they may seem, still fall short in
relation to the REAL YOU.

5. Ecumenism - The principle or aim of promoting
unity among the world’s Christian Churches.
•Interreligious dialogue
All people of
good will
World’s Religious
Tradtions
Other
Christians
Within
Church/es
Within the Church/es
Other Christians
World’s Living Faith
All people of good will

6. Ecumenical
effort
• The Latest
Common Declaration of Pope Francis and the
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I
"Our fraternal encounter today is a new and necessary
step on the journey towards the unity to which only the
Holy Spirit can lead us, that of communion in legitimate
diversity"
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/common-declaration-of-pope-francis-and-the-
ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-i

7. POPE FRANCIS HAS INVITED THE PRESIDENT OF PALESTINE MAHMOUD ABBAS AND
THE PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL SHIMON PERES TO MEET AT HIS HOUSE IN THE VATICAN
AND PRAY FOR PEACE

8. Whatever be one’s philosophy in
life or faith belief, it affects LIFE
• Deepening of the Opening Prayer (Acts 16:22-34)
Paul and Silas Human experience speaks about LIFE
Life is not without struggles and pains.
It speaks about FAITH. How their faith leads them to
real freedom even if they are in prison.

9. How this human experience could
relate to us?
Prison – unfreedom,
weaknesses, timidity and fear
Earthquake – threatens
the foundation of life

10. Perspectives on life as exemplified by
some Personalities
of different faith traditions
1. Siddhartha Gautama - Buddha
“If a man lives a pure life, nothing
can destroy him. To live a pure
unselfish life, one must count
nothing as one's own in the midst of
abundance. Without health life is not
life; it is only a state of langour and
suffering - an image of death.

12. 2. Lao Tzu
“Human life, like
everything else in the
universe, is constantly
influenced by outside
forces. He believed
“simplicity” to be the
key to truth and
freedom.

13. 2. Lao Tzu
“He believed “simplicity” to be the
key to truth and freedom. Lao Tzu
encouraged his followers to observe,
and seek to understand the laws of
nature; to develop intuition and
build up personal power; and to use
that power to lead life with love, and
without force”.

15. It is important to be in accord with the
Tao. The Tao is the mystery of the cosmos,
the ultimate reality, the substance and
the vital principle underlying the way of
the cosmos and the way of human life.
(Wostyn, 2004)
Tao is the “eternally nameless” - (Dao De Jing-32. Laozi)

16. 3. Confucius
Human self is a node not an entity.
The self is a meeting place where
lives intersect.
Reciprocity or shu impels propriety
that has to be manifested in the basic
relationships of society (Wostyn,
2004).

17. 3. Confucius
There are three life
cycles: youth, maturity
and old age. For each
cycle, one must guard
oneself from those that
deprive harmony with
life,
namely,
the youth against lust;
the matured against strife and
the old against avarice.

18. and music can aid the final harmonization
with the WAY is necessary if the old
person is to die in content. (Carmody,
1982)
Poetry can
harmonize basic
emotions, ritual
can be a
structure for
forming and
expressing the
character of the
mature persons,

19. 4. Muhammad
Life is oneness.
(Wostyn, 2004)
Human life ought to
comprise a unity and not
be departmentalized.
(Carmody, 1982)

20. 4. Muhammad
Life is oneness. At the
heart of it is the oneness
or tawid of Allah.
Because Allah is one, to
feel the reality of Allah is
to bring a peace-giving
unity and powerful focus
to one’s life. Believing in
and feeling Allah, one is
centered, rooted,
concentrated.
(Wostyn, 2004)

21. Muhammad
Human life ought to comprise a
unity and not be
departmentalized; everything
originates from the one God,
worship of whom is the human
being’s primary purpose;
God has given human beings
guidance through the lines of
prophets that Muhammad
completes. (Carmody, 1982)

22. An advocate of simple living, Gandhi ate a vegetarian
diet and made his own clothes; the spinning wheel
became a symbol of his uncluttered lifestyle.
He lived a spiritual and ascetic life of prayer, fasting,
and meditation. His union with his wife became, as he
himself stated, that of a brother and sister. Refusing
earthly possessions, he wore the loincloth and shawl of
the lowliest Indian and subsisted on vegetables, fruit
juices, and goat's milk.

26. 6. John Baptist
de La Salle
“Man/Woman had a
destiny, and the
teacher was to
inculcate this truth
by cultivating and
developing the
theological virtues in
the souls of the
children”.

27. SUMMARIZING THE
PERSPECTIVES
What are the main
perspectives presented?
How are they different or
similar with one another?