Wednesday, October 31, 2007 Arinday: Of life, death, and soul By G..H. Arinday, Jr. Sunfare
"MAN does not live by bread alone; this truth is thoroughly falsified by interpretation that spiritual nourishment is an adequate substitute for too little bread." -- Herbert Marcuse, "Negations"
IN AFFIRMING the positive character of culture in the realm of religious practices, such as the commemoration of All Saints' Day and followed by All Souls' Day, the latter being construed on those who have passed away is somewhat limited in scope because the word "soul", being a "noncorporeal being of man is asserted as the real substance of the individual."
The soul and spirit are interchangeable misconstrued entities but the abstractions give the person the higher feeling of his existence "that encompasses everything that is not world".
From one's point of view of his faith, the same must be taken out from empirical psychology because of its metaphysical nature, although this philosophic discourse is contradicted by the Hegelian perspective that the "soul is actually mind".
In the aural understanding of the soul, we connect such belief with the existential nature of one, who has passed away considered in teleological study of man's nature of having life after death, thus our prayers for the repose of the soul.
In a larger sense, the soul embodies the holistic panorama of the folk-soul (volkgeist), a cultural dimensions developed by the people with common traditions, usages, customs, superstitions, and the accepted norm of conduct upon which the morals and laws are based.
Traditionally, All Souls' Day is the day exclusively for the prayers for the souls of the church faithful still suffering in PURGATORY.
The folk-soul interpretation of All Saints' Day and All Soul's Day have adopted a festive equation just as Halloween (October 31) is being done with celebration in full colors.
It is no longer surprising to witness the festive mood in the cemeteries today just as drinks flow in abundance with food aplenty, while the Halloween is done with gaiety in scary costumes.
Beliefs of the souls returning to their abodes are prevalent among us and foods are symbolically served on them to welcome their "visitation" from the realm of the unknown.
The holidays being the advent of winter and New Year among the Celtics predate Christianity. Philippine folklores vary in many respects from region to region often embellished with superstitious beliefs to avoid demonic intervention and curses from the departed ones.
Some of those believing in the return of visitation of the dead have enhanced the potent force of spirituality.
In the earlier study of the "soul", the same has been rejected by the "affirmative culture", only to recognize the same as man's feeling of inner existence, separated from all that is real or has evolved, "a very definite feeling of the most secret and genuine for potentialities on life, his destiny, his history".
While the "soul" is often linked with the departed ones, the same encompasses the reality that there is a higher plane of existence other than the body.
Of course, our nation on All Soul's Day is limited only to the commemoration of the passing of the loved ones, but in a surreal world of esoteric, such study in thoroughly considered, otherwise we would not experience from the "journey" of those who have gone to encounter the existence of "life after death".
Whatever reasons of discovery as time evolves with man's quests for the role of the soul and spirit in our lives, they shall certainly bring about metaphysical understanding, if not a wholistic grasp of what they really mean after the body dies.
As of now, we are tempted by the idea of reincarnation and it could be true.
