A teacher’s message

Below is a short message by Prof Henry Francis B. Espiritu to his Philo students channeled via email on 12/24/2011 at 10:10 PM. He obtained his Master of Arts (M.A.) in Philosophy from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, obtained his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science (Cum Laude) from the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu, and is currently a Ph.D Candidate in Philosophy at the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU).

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THE SADDEST THING. We label ourselves Christian, or Muslim, or Buddhist, or Jew to flaunt our religiosity; yet many a times we have forgotten how it is to be “human”. Many a times we are so caught up by myriads of do’s-and-dont’s that we forget that the only basic rule of our humanity is simply “to love”. We are so obsessed with the words of our own creeds, our own dogmatic assertions, our pious notions and our fundamentalist articles of faith; and yet we have failed to realize that Reality is not in the words–Reality is much bigger than our own narrow perspectives and skewed views. As the Zen saying goes: “The finger simply points to the Moon; yet the Moon is not in the finger. Do not mistake your finger for the Moon”.

Our different creeds provide us glimpses of the Truth but Truth, in its multifaceted-ness, cannot be limited by our words. Similarly, we are so attached to ceremonies and ritualisms; yet we missed experiencing the Beloved Who simply requires the purity of our hearts and the sincerity of our intentions. Once again, it is now high-time for us to be reminded by the philosopher David Hume’s oft-repeated words: “Be a philosopher but amidst your philosophy, be human!”

If I may add my own; “Be a man-of-God but above all, be a person for others”.