Today mark the end of class in Metaphysics. Our professor asked us to make a synthesis paper on the theses of the treatise. I accomplished this as more than a requirement -- but a pesonal reflection and life-integration.
The Wonder of the “First Time”
Thesis 2: On the Transcendental Properties of BeingI believe that we don’t call our “first time” experience or encounter of something as hideous or ugly or repugnant. We would rather term it as unique or one of a kind. We wonder. We marvel at our first experiences. It is amusing how little kids manifest it. They are moved in wonder in their “first time” experience of things. I remember my godson as a kid enjoying scattering his food. At one time, we found him at the garden touching an earthworm. Contrary to his mom who dislikes dirt and horrid little creatures, this child enjoys the “first time” experience.
Our “first time” encounter of new things leads us to wonder. This is due to the fact that every being, despite the differences and multiplicity, is transcendentally one, true, and good.
The experience of wonder of something new attracts us. Here the word “attract” does not mean a necessary liking. The attraction is that something which captures our attention. This attraction is good. Anything that gets our attention is good. Therefore, all beings cannot escape our attention. We cannot hide our attention from the sun, the worms, the cow dung, the image of Pope John Paul II, the food, the thought that I am handsome. They are all good.
My first time experience in Sagada really caught my attention. In fact it is good, not only metaphysically, but good as in good. I could not forget that “first time” experience. I get to think of it more often. In fact back home, it has become the hot topic of conversation among the brothers. That experience is unforgettable. It got stuck to my mind. I could still think of it now. It is intelligible. It is true. Therefore, whatever being that attracts us or catches our attention, is not only good; it is also true inasmuch as it is intelligible and that we could think of it again.
The Sagada experience is not only unforgettable; it is a unique experience – a one of a kind. Here we consider the whole experience, that one experience. And therefore, that Sagada experience is one.
And since the Sagada experience is a joy to behold and something pleasing, not only that fact of recalling but the experience as well, then it is a beautiful experience.
The experience of wonder of the “first time” is true to everything. Whether that would be a cockroach or a computer or the idea of happiness, they all attracts us, in a sense that it gets your attention. They are good. The attention sticks in our mind. We tend to think of them from then on. They are intelligible. They are true. And because they stick to our mind, we find “each one” unforgettable. Each of them is one. Every being therefore is reduced to one, true and good, owing to that sense of wonder in us.
***
Commonality Beyond the Variety
People come from different backgrounds and it is difficult to remove oneself from one’s background, history, culture, gender, language, or education, to a sheer different system. Conflicts, at times, arise from these differences: the Ku Klux Klan against the “Blacks;” Team Unity against the Genuine Opposition; Iglesia ni Cristo against Eli Soriano; GMA 7 against ABS-CBN 2; James Yap against Hope; the Prefect of Discipline against the world.
The members of the Postnovitiate community are no exemption. People are different or unique in their own way. One confrere is superbly pious; another is workaholic. One confrere is glued to his laptop computer; while another is glued to his books. One confrere is always hungry that he keeps foodstuffs in his drawer; another confrere is worried by his looks. There are, perhaps, unlimited ways to demonstrate these differences. Yet despite the diversity, despite some conflicts these differences could cause, there is harmony, there is order. It seems that in the variance and multiplicity of things, paradoxically they are one as they are all ordained towards harmony.
We are many and yet we are one. We may be different, yet beyond these differences, each of us has something in common. Transcendentals teach us this valuable lesson.
The 1997 film Volcano is a simple movie depicting the survival of the people of Los Angeles from the sudden eruption of the sleeping volcano beneath the city. I was struck at the end part of the film when everything has been quelled and everyone has survived. The daughter of the protagonist remarked, “Look, dad, (she was referring to all the survivors with their faces and bodies covered with the volcanic ashes), we are all the same.” People of Los Angeles come from different backgrounds and races, yet at the face of the calamity, no one is black or white, no one is a doctor, or an engineer, or a child. Everyone is a victim. Everyone is a human being fighting for his existence.
The film Academy Award nominee Babel expresses the similar theme. Even the tagline says it all, “Pain is universal… and so is hope.” The movie, whose title is based from the biblical story of the Tower of Babel in which the whole mankind in their arrogance and pride were doomed to division and differences of language, is about a tragedy that strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching of interlocking stories of four different families from the four sides of the globe. As the movie narrates, it speaks to the audience and the audience relates. Coming from different backgrounds and culture, living a unique and individual life, we are all the same. We all experience pain, yet all can always hope.
This reflection is based from the thesis, “Every being is one, true and good.” No matter how different is one being to another, the transcendental properties universalize the differences.
My Philosophy of Hope
Thesis 3: On Act and Potency
My reflection on Act and Potency moved me to review my philosophy of life. I haven’t studied Metaphysics nor Aristotle’s act and potency yet when I wrote my Philosophy of Hope. I never thought that these metaphysical principles are the very principles I live by. Allow me to express some excerpts in my philosophy of life. It actually shows how “hope” follows the principles of act and potency.
Hope stands at the core of human condition. There is no aspect in my life that is unrelated to it. My very birth is an affirmation of hope. The fact that I breathe and that I rise each day opens up hopeful possibilities for me. I see my life in a journey of hope, and this is the essence of my philosophy. How I reached this far, and what keeps me moving on belies on my PHILOSOPHY OF HOPE.
Man is a being who hopes, because he is incomplete. He has limitations and weaknesses. Immersed in the intricacies of life, he can be subjected to failures and woundedness. But man is not fated to be stagnant. Just like every thing and creature, man is also planted with that seed of goodness. Hope is that seed waiting to sprout.
As a person, I, too, am incomplete with lots of shortcomings and weaknesses. I, too, am wounded and prone to corruption. But no person is born worthless or fated to doom. I recognize in me that seed of goodness which God had planted in my being. This I cling is my hope. I have ‘hope’, and I can become better. I have ‘hope’, and I am capable of surpassing all my sorrows and limitations. I have ‘hope’, and I can bear all sufferings and difficulties.
Man does not only recognize the seed of goodness in him, he is a seed. He doesn’t just simply grow, develop and mature physically, he has the capacity to even develop and outgrow his limitations and weaknesses. Man is a becoming. Man hopes for completion. For as long as there is breath in him, he continues to live as he continues to grow and mature. He continues to surpass all his weaknesses. This insatiability is a strive for completion. And even if he has strived to master himself, conquering all limitations, weaknesses and difficulties; even if after reaching that peak to which he can surpass himself, he still remains incomplete. For completion is not achieved here on earth, nor in this lifetime. His insatiability never ceases until he is completed in God. And so one in the prayer with the saint:
“My heart finds no rest unless it rests in you.” (St. Augustine)
But hope never ceases upon death. Hope leads that longing to be completed in God, in being one with Him. That is why perhaps hope is one of the ‘stuffs’ of which our soul was made.
Inasmuch as hope is a stream between the present and the future. The endpoint of hope is perfection. That is why all hope leads to God who is All-Perfect. God’s perfection is abounding with love. It is this love that man hopes for, and which God is ever-willing to share with man.
My existence is a call for me to hope. It is a call for me to realize that there are far greater things in the world; there are far better experiences and encounters in my life-journey; there is a complete and perfect “I” waiting to be fully developed.
Commentary: Clearly my philosophy of life shows man as incomplete and limited. Incompletion and limitation are characteristics of potency. But man’s potency is basically his hope. It is this hope that leads man to completion, to perfection, to “act.”
***
I do not regret having entered the seminary. I never thought of reaching this far. I never thought of myself growing not only in size but in all aspects as well. Before I entered the seminary I didn’t even know how to dribble the ball. I never thought that I have the potency to learn to play basketball despite my age and my failing health. Now, I do not only play, I could also make a lay-up or a reverse shot, or consume all possible fouls in a basketball game. That is perfection, an act, in the sense that I know and I can now play baketball. But then again, I still find myself a lousy player. I can’t help myself compare my skills with my brothers Jake, Mymy and Itchan. Although I may have the potency to improve myself in playing basketball, I could only reach at a certain improved level. My potency gives that limitation. I could still strive harder to improve or to be better, but I really don’t know if I could surpass the level of these three brothers. I could only hope and dream. J
“Pagiging Tao” is different from “Pagkatao”
Thesis 4: On Essence and Existence
“Madaling Maging Tao, Mahirap Magpakatao.” This Filipino saying may not be the perfect application or example governing the principle of essence and existence but it is for me the closest Filipino way of philosophizing the principles.
“Madaling Maging Tao.” It expresses the fact of existence of a human being. Man exists as you see him. He has ears, and nose; he can dance and sing; he is an offspring of his mother and father. But it is different from “Pagkatao.” “Pagkatao” perfects our being as “totoong tao.”
When people act on impulse or on instincts, they become no different from animals which do the same way. Man is equipped with intellect, freedom and will, the three things that make us in the “image and likeness of God.” It is the intellect, freedom and will that elevate man from all the other creatures. And so when man does not exercise these three gifts given him by God, he is not fully human in this sense. He does not complete his very essence. But this is not just about what man must do. It is about what man is -- his “Pagkatao.” “Pagkatao” does not only refer to the acts of the person. It refers to his fullness in being a “tao.” That fullness is his package of essence, and that includes the exercise in being a “tao.”
“Madaling Maging Tao, Mahirap Magpakatao.” This Filipino saying depicts the Filipino way of the real distinction of essence and existence in the human person.
***
The subject of the human person in terms of essence and existence is rich. Their distinction is very much evident in social reality. It is noticeable at the front gate of a cathedral how beggars flock as they greet the mass goers and beg for alms. At one corner, one particular beggar caught my attention. His legs and arms are cut. His left eye has been plucked out. He was placed in a push cart specifically constructed for him to vertically recline. At the front corner of the cart, an empty can was placed – an indication where coins or alms may be put.
This experience applies the real distinction of essence and existence. In this unsightliness, I paused and figured out his pitiful state. People pass him by everyday, perhaps treating him like a trash. His different outward appearance made me ask “what is it?” And there I realize that, essentially, he is a human person. “Tao pala.” Then after, it made me reflect about his existence. There he IS, in that pitiful condition. Then after comes the existential question: “what’s the meaning of all these?” or the moral question: “what do I have to do?”
Imagine
Thesis 5: On Possibles Imagine there's no Heaven;
It's easy if you try;
No hell below us,
Above us only sky;
Imagine all the people
Living for today.
Imagine there's no countries;
It isn't hard to do;
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too;
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace.
You may say that I'm a dreamer;
But I'm not the only one;
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one.
This is an excerpt of a song by John Lennon. I heard this a few days ago. This song Imagine was revived by a Filipina singer. I know for a fact that the song contains a Marxist-communist ideology. It is worth reflecting the construction of his thoughts. It is pretty obvious that he was influenced by such ideology. But what if we follow what the song says: Imagine!
Indeed, I could imagine what the song suggests. I could think of them. John Lennon and the communists, inasmuch as they could think of such ideas or ideals, moved them to strive for these ideals.
This is not an issue whether their doctrine is correct or wrong; or whether these ideas are attainable or not. They are simply ideas. And they are first thought of. They are “possibles.” These ideas are so attractive, so appealing, and so strong that many are moved to strive for these to happen. And there they went, striving to realize these ideas – their dream.
The content of the song – what the singer has been asking of us to imagine – are still ideas up to now. To achieve these is their cause, and yet they are still far to reach. While they are not yet found in reality yet, they are “possibles” in the mind, waiting to be realized – owing the fact that they are intelligible, they are first thought of. Could these ideas be reached or attained or could come into existence? That is what they are striving for. In the history of the surge and ebb of communism, their idea of Utopia has not yet come into actual reality. Yet, despite the fall of communism in Russia, Germany and in other countries, other passionate believers of Marx and this song still strives to make the “possible” actual. But who knows? The God they reject may even be the efficient cause to make this “Imagine” a reality. That would turn out to be one of the greatest ironies if that happens. But for as long as it can be thought of, and there is no contradiction, it is possible. In this case, it is.
The Gift, Not the Wrappings
Thesis 6: On SubstanceWe all pass in a child stage when we want to receive gifts. Who would not want a gift? It is, after all, free and generously given. Gifts come in various shapes, colors and sizes. Some gifts are wrapped very beautifully; they are very attractive when people first see them. Some come in very ordinary wrapping paper. Once in a while there is a “Special Delivery!” Some gifts come very loosely wrapped, others very tightly. But the wrapping is not the gift. It is so easy to make this mistake. It is amusing to observe how little children act or behave when receiving gifts, especially that big disappointment in their face that in the gigantic and attractive wrappings of the gift, it is after all the gift they do not want or need.
It is the “very gift” that matters. Sooner, we would rip and throw away the wrappers; and what is left is the “very gift” of which to treasure. The “very gift,” whatever it is, is the substance; the wrappings are just the accidents.
***
“Persons are gifts” – according to the Dominican Fr. George Ninetemann – “gifts received and gifts given… every meeting of persons is an exchange of gifts.” More often we don’t simply recognize the giftedness in a person. We tend to recognize the person as a functional individual. He is good in basketball. He is a musician. He is very good painter. He is the best computer graphics designer. But we are NOT WHAT WE DO. We simply ARE. Time will come when all these skills will rot or will be taken away from us. Time will come that our best features, our good looks and even our great physical ‘builts’ will pass. Too much identification of these “accidentals” will eventually lead us to despair as we connect our worth as a person (substance) to these passing qualities (accidents).
And so in giving affirmations, I feel sad for the person being affirmed when everybody are simply recounting his accomplishments and his best qualities. It is the person that matters. It is your encounter or relationship with the person that counts most. And so affirmation is not by words but through affirming relationships. This is a sure way of communicating to the person that he is affirmed, not by his accidents, or qualities or what he does, but by his substance or by who he really is.
He Does Not Exist!
Thesis 7: On Suppositality
I heard a story of a beautiful princess who reserved her love and marriage for an ideal man. In her diary she kept a list of all the ideal qualities of his ideal man, as she imagined how he is like. And so every time a man comes to court her, she would scrutinize him and compare the man’s qualities to her ideal man’s qualities. If that man lacks one of the listed qualities, she would dump him. Of course, the story ended with a princess in despair, and grown tired of waiting for that ideal man. She finally admitted that her ideal man does not exist and so she has finally settled and fallen in love with a simple farmer’s son who soon became her partner in life.
The ideal man in the story is not a Supposit. We have learned that the formal constituent of suppositality is the proper act of being. In this case, that ideal man, no matter how true or alive he is in the imagination, does not exist. Without his existence, he remains to be a fantasy. No wonder the princess got tired of waiting.
But the application of this does not simply remain in stories. In the history of the Philippine Politics, this thesis can be seen during the impeachment trial of our deposed president Joseph Estrada. In the impeachment case against him, the Jose Velarde account has been considered as something mysterious. How could someone create a multimillion dollar account when a person named Jose Velarde does not exist? Joseph Estrada claimed that there is such a person named Jose Velarde. In fact, one person appeared before the media claiming that he is Jose Velarde. In the end, it was proven that it was only a hoax. Then after, no peron ever come out claiming to be Jose Velarde. Clarisa Ocampo, a bank employee of Equitable-PCI Bank and the star witness against Estrada, proven the non-existence of Joe Velarde when she exposed Joseph Estrada, himself, signing a withdrawal check under the name of Jose Velarde. Jose Velarde, therefore, is not a Supposit inasmuch as it lacks that proper act of being or existence. We all know that this very non-suppositality eventually led to Erap’s deposition.
In Fairness to Accidents…
Thesis 8: On Accidents
In biology, we have studied the phenotypes and the genotype of an individual. The phenotype of an individual organism is either its total physical appearance and constitution or a specific manifestation of a trait, such as size, eye color, or behavior that varies between individuals. Phenotype is determined to a large extent by genotype or the genetic make-up of an individual. Many phenotypes are determined by multiple genes and influenced by environmental factors. And so by comparison, phenotype is likened to the metaphysical notion of accidents. Phenotypes, however, are more dealt genetically. But they both affirm inherence. Accidents inhere in a substance, while Phenotypes (inheres or) is specifically manifested in an individual. Inasmuch as accidents perfect the substance, the phenotype actually completes an individual with all it features and appearances as it distinguishes one individual from the others. The phenotype refers to everything that can be easily observed and measured about any plant, animal or human being.
***
In the novitiate, our brother assistant corrected one of my companions who doesn’t wear the proper attire during Eucharistic celebrations. He reacted to this, saying, “I accept your correction, but I just want to remind you that the interior disposition is more important (substantial) than external appearances.” At this, our brother assistant wittingly remarked, “That’s true. But a very good interior disposition moves us or induces us to be proper externally. What’s outside of us is very telling what is within us.”
Although the last statement of our brother may not be true all the time, but I agree with him when he wanted to stress externality or accidents for that matter. Accidents may be passing, but they complete or perfect the substance. I believe that our brother assistant, in stressing the point of external disposition, did not mean outright discarding of the internal disposition. Otherwise, external disposition without internal disposition would be empty – an hypocrisy, (just as accidents are empty without the substance). Inasmuch as the internal disposition is more important (more substantial), I believe that his intention is merely to accentuate the importance of the two. Wouldn’t it be better if we are properly disposed both internally and externally than internally alone? Wouldn’t it be nicer if we both have substance and accidents than accidents alone?
Who did it?
Thesis 9: On Efficient Cause
I still have this mystery case that has been bugging me for months. I lost my pair of scissors. It is a big pair of scissors with a blue plastic handle. This scissors has been with me since my first year college. It is about to celebrate his 10th year as one of my oldest possessions. And now, it’s missing. It has always been in my drawer since I last used it. And when the time came when I want to use it again, that was then I found out it was missing. I checked all my drawers, cabinets, all my things, and even inside my cabinet in the dorm. I couldn’t find it. I double-searched my things and I am convinced that I have not misplaced it. I wrote a notice at the study hall’s blackboard so that in case anybody who may have seen it or borrowed it without permission may return it or at least inform me. Days after, I received no response. I asked every single brother in the community, and everyone claimed innocence in saying that they have not seen my poor scissors. Of course, I surmise that our formators would not run the trouble of going to my desk and opening my drawer just to take my scissors. I also believe that our workers wouldn’t do that either. But where is it? In the first place, who took it in my drawer? It could not just simply disappear on its own. Otherwise, I would then be proving that the ninth thesis of metaphysics is wrong. Exaggerating further, perhaps God caused it to disappear; or perhaps some ghosts took it. But, no! Somebody really took it. I don’t know yet who that is. But I am sure that there is an efficient cause behind the disappearance of my ten-year old scissors. And I will get the bottom of this. Whoever that is… he will pay… unless he returns my pair of scissors. J
Levity aside, but in presenting the case of that missing pair of scissors, I simply want to assert that there is efficient causality in things. That scissors could not simply disappear on their own. It takes an efficient cause to make it disappear.
***
I enjoy reading or watching mystery and detective stories or films. Compared to other ordinary stories, their plot is in reverse. In the beginning part of the film, the outcome has already been told. The effect is presented first. The story goes on as it traces back the past, treks to that which causes the effect. Like in a murder case, the story will reach its happy ending (despite the murder) after identifying the murderer (the efficient cause) who actually started everything.
The Butterfly Effect
Thesis 10: On the Principle of Causality "It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing
can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world."
- Chaos Theory
I got this from one the formative films we watched entitled, The Butterfly Effect. This theory highlights the chain of effects in everything. It illustrates further the best formula of principle of causality we have recently studied in Metaphysics.
The story of the film presents how everything and everyone seem to be interconnected. This interconnection is brought about by the chain of effects.
In the film, the protagonist, Evan, played by Ashton Kutcher, was having blocks in his memory brought about by harmful and traumatic events in his life. As he tried remembering these “blocks,” he realized that he has been keeping under his bed his journals, which was the vehicle that helped him to reclaim his memories, helped him to go back literally to the past and to supernaturally alter his life. By altering the events of the past, Evan hopes to transform the present. But every time Evan changes something in the past, he returns to the present to find his actions having unexpected and disastrous consequences.
It is really mind-boggling to figure out how the unexpected disastrous consequences came about. This is the principle of causality: “Every being coming-from is a dependent being.” One effect comes from (or depends on) another, which comes from another, which comes from another, and so forth. Another way of illustration is through the use of variables, where A is the cause of B which is a cause of C which is a cause of D, and so on. This is what I call the chain of effects. Evan, in the film, tried to alter an aspect of his life, but he never expected how his alteration caused a series of other alterations following that series of cause and effect. All the unexpected disastrous consequences or results came from (or depended on) Evan’s act of alteration (causality). D cannot come to be without C which cannot come to be without B which cannot come to be without A. D depends from C which depends from B which depends from A. This illustrates our best formula of the principle of causality: “Every being coming-from is a dependent being.”
On a personal reflective note, basing this from the film, “What would I want to change in my past?” As I was one by one recalling and reflecting the “mistakes” of my past life and imagining the possibility of altering them, I got to generate the possible outcomes on how I would be living my life at present. Neither of these projected outcomes could satisfy. For every one alteration in the past, it could mean a foregoing of some of the “good things” which I am reaping in the present. In the end, despite all the tragic moments of my life and all the stupid mistakes, I am convinced to say that there are no regrets in my life. If I would be given the opportunity to go back to the past, I would willfully retrace back the steps I have taken. The important thing is that I take the most of this life and live it fully. Despite the tragedies I see around me, there are indeed countless blessings worth my attention.
The Vision-Mission Moves Us
Thesis 11: On the Final Cause The Educative Pastoral Community of Don Bosco Canlubang recites the vision-mission of the institution every Monday assembly. On Apostolate Sundays at the end part of the Holy Mass at Mayapa Parish, we recite the parish’s vision-mission. When I was in college, we were even forced to memorize our college vision-mission especially in those months of the college’s accreditation. I don’t know how people react to this or if they really understand these statements. But they are not just empty words written and uttered. I know how arduous it is formulate such. The vision-mission statement takes an amount of time to be reflected and be formulated. If people do not understand this, they are missing the point. The vision-mission statement expresses our purpose, our reason for being and doing. It defines all our activities. It summarizes all our goals. The exercise of recitation of our vision-mission leads us to the awareness of the many “why’s” in our daily activities. As a final cause or an end, the vision-mission influences us to act as it gives the reasons why we are here in this institution; why we study; why we have chores; why Salesians assists; why games and recreations are important; and the “why” to all things in this institution. It is that reason that propels or moves us. Inasmuch as every single activity or thing in this institution has a purpose or reason, they are all directed to and contained in the vision-mission as finality. Thus, every agent acts by reason of an end determined by an intellectual being. The vision-mission is in fact formulated by intellectual beings – those who formulated it representing the institution with a clear grasp of the end in their mind.
***
The power of the reason or the final cause that compels or moves us to do something led me to reflect on “Motives.” I believe that it is the psychological counterpart of final causes. It is our motives that desire or will to do something. In law, a motive is the cause that moves people and induce a certain action. Motive in itself is one important element of any given crime; Insofar as motive is an end in the mind of the agent that draws him towards action, it is a final cause.
***
The bottom line is that there is purpose in everything. We act on account of an end in mind. A man who acts without an end, who acts thoughtlessly may be likened to a leaf being tossed and swayed by the gush of wind, bringing him nowhere in particular; or he may be likened to any floating asteroid in space that has no particular destination. But we are self-directed. And ultimately, there is an end in each and every one of us that which is in store in the mind of God.
