UNIT 1:

Philosophical Perspective
Overview: This section uncovers the philosophical essence in understanding the self.
Discussions in this unit encompasses the discourse of ancient to contemporary philosophers
on their perspective of the self. This will serve as a scholarly foundation on one’s knowledge
and assessment of one’s way of thinking and behavior using the lens of selected philosophers.

Specific objectives: At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:
1. Describe and discuss the different philosophical viewpoints.
2. Compare and contrast the philosophical perspectives from different era.
3. Provide a critical analysis on the philosophical perspectives and one’s reflection of self.

ABSTRACTION:
Concepts of self, according to Philosophers from ancient times to contemporary period.

Ancient Philosophers

1. SOCRATES/PLATO
( In some books, they discuss Socrates and Plato separately. In our case, we are combining both
their perspectives because Plato is a student of Socrates, is the one who wrote the ideas of Socrates
and not Socrates himself.)
SOCRATES The First Philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic questioning of self,
known as the Socratic dialogue. The task is not to attain true knowledge; the task is to keep on
asking questions. Therefore, the self is the by-product of the constant questioning.
(Nugget of wisdom from “The Oracle of Delphi”, Wise is it to know that you don’t know anything.)
Every man is composed of body and soul. This means that every human person is dualistic.
This means all individuals have an imperfect, impermanent aspect to him--- the body, which
belongs to the world of matter. While the perfect and permanent aspect is the soul, which belongs
to the world of form.
PLATO (a student of Socrates) supports the idea that man is a dual nature of body and soul.
The soul is in the body. Plato added that there are three components of soul:
a. The Rational Soul- (Wisdom) forged by reason and intellect has to govern the affairs of the
human person. The rational soul can control the spirited and appetitive soul.
b. The Spirited Soul- (Fortitude) is in charge of emotions which should be kept at bay.
c. The Appetitive Soul- (Temperance) in charge of the basic needs, and these basic need should
be controlled as well.

The ideal state is attained when the human person’s soul becomes just and virtuous.

Medieval Philosophers

2. SAINT AUGUSTINE
He Christianized philosophy by introducing the name God. He claims that humans are prone
to mistakes and that, there is the restlessness of the soul, it longs to be with God. The body is
bound to die on earth and the soul is to anticipate eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in
communion with God.

3. THOMAS AQUINAS
Adapting the ideas from Aristotle (who is a student of Plato), claims that man is composed of
two parts: Matter and form.
Matter (or Hyle) refers to the body.
Form (or Morphe) the soul.
The soul is what animates the body; Aquinas calls it “embodied soul”.
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Contemporary Philosophers

4. RENÉ DESCARTES – Father of Modern Philosophy

Cogito Ergo Sum,“I THINK THEREFORE I AM”
Descartes doubted the senses because the senses can deceive us (ex: the smell and taste of the
durian fruit.) The only thing that one cannot doubt is the existence of self, for even if one doubts
one’s self that only proves that there is a doubting self, a thing that thinks and therefore, that
cannot be doubted. Thinking assures us that we exist. Mind is independent from the body. The
mind assures us we exist; the body is composed of the senses. Therefore, man is dualistic: mind
and body.
Descartes is considered a rationalist (a priori), ideas comes first before experience.

5. JOHN LOCKE
Is on the empiricist side (a posteriori), we experience first before we can have knowledge.
Borrowing from Aristotle: TABULA RASA, we can only learn to engage with one’s self through
the experience we have with others. So, we are blank sheets, then we fill it with experiences,
then we have the self.

6. DAVID HUME
Who is also an empiricist, does not believe in ideas. Man can only attain knowledge by
experiencing. There is no self, but only an impression of self. He categorized the two:
a. Impressions are the basic objects of our experience and sensation. They form the core of
our thought. (When one touches an ice cube, the cold sensation is an impression).
Impressions are vivid because they are products of our direct experience of the world.
b. Ideas are copies of impressions. (When one imagines the feeling of being in love for the first
time, that is still an idea).

7. IMMANUEL KANT
• Explains the attempt of the human person to achieve moral perfection.
• The human person possesses a twofold nature:
1. Homo Noumenon (The essence)- The God-like self of the human person that
possesses psychological state and intellect. The noumenon cannot be known because it
is the essence of things= it is beyond experience
Example: the “tableness” of a table
What makes a table really “a table”?
2. Homo Phaenomenon (human self or the physical self)
The animal/ instinctual aspect of the human person, therefore it cannot be put under
moral obligation.

Inner self Outer self

Psychological state Senses
Rational Intellect Other instinctual functions

• Through the SENSES, we are able to have an EXPERIENCE. The “A Priori” nature of the
self.
• Coherence of experience- unity of our experiences implies the existence of a unified self.

What is the role of experience in framing your understanding of the world and of yourself?

Modern Philosophers

8. GILBERT RYLE
• Mental states are not private experiences but behavioral dispositions and linguistics
expression
• Mental states are expressed on how we behave in certain ways, in certain situations.
• Mental concepts should be analyzed in terms of observable behavior and actions. This
challenges the ideas that mental states are inner or private phenomena that can only be
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accessed introspectively.
 • Dispositional statements to explain mental phenomenon- refers to the tendencies or
propensities that people have to act in certain ways.
Brave means that a person have a disposition to act bravely in challenging situations.
• This erases the dualistic distinction between the mental and physical states. As mental states
are seen as description of behavior rather than separate entities.

What truly matters is the behavior that a person manifest in his day-to-day life. The SELF is
not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply a convenient name that people use to refer
to all the behavior that people make.

9. MERLEAU-PONTY
• The world is a purely subjective experience.
• We can only experience through our senses.
• Embodied experience- is a preconscious understanding of human of the world. This is how
we develop our understanding of the self.
• He based his theory on the Gestalt psychological perspective.

• Upon seeing the image, our perception will only focus on one image and the rest becomes
the background, our perceptual experience may change even if the image will not change.

Mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another. The living
body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all in one. Reality can be perceived as multi
angular façade--- the self is also multi angular. There are many sides to one’s self.

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 SOCIOLOGICAL/ ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
Activity:

WHO AM I?

Who am I? Who am I?
My clothes? My work? My mode?
Am I just a thing?
No!

Am I my parents? My siblings? My friends?

Am I they?
I think I am different from them.

Just who am I? Am I my name?

My face? My bones? My breath?
My feelings? My thoughts? And Memory?
Each of them is part of me.
But not me.

Who am I really?
What makes me, me?

Analysis:
1. Who is the real you?

Abstraction:

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

What is the SELF?

In contemporary literature, the self can be defined as having the following
characteristics: “separate, self-contained, independent, consistent, unitary, and private”.
By separate it is meant that the self is distinct from each other. Self is unique, it has its
own identity.
Second, self is also self-contained and independent because in itself, it can exist.
Lastly, the self being private suggests that the self is isolated from the external world.
However, this potential clash between the self and the external reality is the reason for the self
to have a clear understanding of what it might be, what it can be, and what it will be.
Social Constructivist argue that the self should not be seen as constant and not
changing.
We have different roles in the society. And each role we play shows a different self. As
we shift between the roles we play, our language and behavior changes also. Now, who is the
true self?
“The self is capable of morphing and fitting itself into any circumstances it finds itself
in”.

The Self and the Development of the Social World

How we put meaning to our experiences and how the presence, expectations, and
influence of other people shape the self. The self is dynamic. It grows, develop and evolves.
George Mead and Lev Vygotsky claims that human person develops with the use of
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language acquisition and interaction with others.

 Cognitive and emotional development of a child is
always a mimicry of how it is done in the social world,
the external reality where he is in.
Both Vygotsky and Mead treat the human mind as something that is made,
constituted through language as experienced in the external world and as encountered in
dialogs with others.
According to George Mead, this takes as the child assumes the “other” through
language and role play. A child conceptualizes his notion of self through this. How a child
makes scripts and dialogs with their toys as they play with them, this is how a child delineates
the “I” from the rest.
While according to Lev Vygotsky, a child internalizes real-life dialogs that he had with
others, with his family or his playmates. And eventually learns how to deal with the cognitive
and emotional conflicts along the way.
A different view comes from Charles H. Cooley, his “Looking Glass Self”, it describes
the development of one’s self and of one’s identity through one’s interpersonal interactions
within the context of society. Or through the eyes of other people. How we see ourselves does
not come from who we really are, but rather from how we believe others see us. If we are
labeled and evaluated by others, the self labeling may occur, which happens when we adopt
others’ labels explicitly into our self-concept.

Social Comparison Theory: Our Sense of Self is Influenced by Comparison with

Others.
Social Comparison occurs when we learn about our abilities and skills, about the
appropriateness and validity of our opinions, and about our relative social; status by
comparing our own attitudes, belief, and behaviors with those of others.

Self in Families
The kind of family that we are born in, the resources available to us (human, spiritual,
economic), and the kind of development that they will have, will certainly affect us as we go
through life. Individuals internalize ways and styles that they observe from their family. By
imitating, babies learn language and ways of behaving.

Gender and the Self

Sex is biological, gender is a preference. Gender is the part of self that is subject to
alteration, change and development. It is important that one finds, express, and live his
identity. Oftentimes, society forces a particular identity unto us depending on our sex and/or
gender. Husbands are expected by society to be the main provider of the family. The eldest
man is expected to be the head of the family. Over the years, there has been a slight
modification of gender, the LGBTQ+ activism. Gender has to be personally discovered and
asserted and not dictated by culture and the society.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
“ What is normally accepted in one place, may not be accepted in other culture”.

This section attempts to understand humankind in relation to their culture.

The self is both a biological and cultural entity.

Biological Cultural
➢ We are considered an animal specie that ➢ Adaptation to the environment for
underwent the process of biological survival, the self develops a culture
evolution. resulting in behavioral changes.

Two very important concepts in anthropology:

Culture Enculturation
➢ Systems of human behavior and ➢ The process of transmitting culture to
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thought. infants and other new members of

➢ Culture is symbolic. Used tools and society through both informal and
symbols become an integral part of the formal processes.
culture. Burial sites, ancestral homes, ➢ Hearing stories and seeing
landmarks of significant and historical performances of rituals and dramas are
events, rituals and customary actions. other long-standing forms of
➢ Culture is a historically transmitted enculturation.
patterns of meanings embodied in
symbols, a system of inherited
conceptions expressed in symbolic
forms by mean of which men
communicate, perpetuate, and develop
their knowledge about their attitudes
towards life.
➢ Culture is learned and is very much
integrated in one’s customs and beliefs

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 PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstraction:
What is Choice Theory? Developed by psychiatrist William Glasser, Choice Theory states we are
motivated by a never-ending quest to satisfy the following 5 basic needs woven into our genes: to love
and belong, to be powerful, to be free, to have fun and to survive.

1. The only person whose behavior we can control is our own.

2. All we can give another person is information.

William James, the proponent of the school of thought, Functionalism, conceptualize the self as
having two aspects:
“I” “Me”
• Is the “doer”, experiencing he immediate • The narrative self.
present. • 3 division of ME:
• The thinking self, is the part of self to the 1. The Material self- refers to tangible
soul of the person, or what is now objects people, or places that carry the
thought of as the mind. designation “my” or “mine”.
2. The Social self- refers to how we are
regarded and recognized by others.
3. The Spiritual self- is our inner self. It is
comprised of our self-perceived abilities,
attitudes, emotions, interests, values,
motives, opinions, traits and wishes.
(e.g. people think of themselves as
attractive or unattractive, intelligent or
unintelligent, honest or dishonest)

Another differentiation of self:

Global Self Differentiated Self
• Common characteristics or traits. • The uniqueness of the person.

Carl Rogers’ Person - Centered Perspective Fellow humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers agreed
with much of Maslow’s thinking. Rogers’ person-centered perspective held that people are basically
good and are endowed with self - actualizing tendencies. Unless thwarted by an environment that
inhibits growth, each of us is like an acorn, primed for growth and fulfillment. Rogers (1980) believed
that a growth - promoting climate required three conditions.
• Genuineness: When people are genuine, they are open with their own feelings, drop their
facades, and are transparent and self - disclosing.
• Acceptance: When people are accepting, they offer unconditional positive regard, an attitude
of grace that values us even knowing our failings. It is a profound relief to drop our pretenses,
confess our worst feelings, and discover that we are still accepted. In a good marriage, a close
family, or an intimate friendship, we are free to be spontaneous without fearing the loss of
others’ esteem.
• Empathy: When people are empathic, they share and mirror other’s feelings and reflect their
meanings. “Rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy,” said Rogers. “Yet
listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.”
Genuineness, acceptance, and empathy are, Rogers believed, the water, sun, and nutrients that enable
people to grow like vigorous oak trees. For “as persons are accepted and prized, they tend to develop a
more caring attitude toward themselves” (Rogers, 1980, p. 116). As persons are empathically heard, “it
becomes possible for them to listen more accurately to the flow of inner experiencing.”

Writer Calvin Trillin (2006) recalled an example of parental genuineness and

acceptance at a camp for children with severe disorders, where his wife, Alice,
worked. L., a “magical child,” had genetic diseases that meant she had to be tube-fed
and could walk only with difficulty. Alice recalled, one day, when we were playing
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duck-duck-goose, I was sitting behind her and she asked me to hold her mail for her
while she took her turn to be chased around the circle. It took her a while to make the
 circuit, and I had time to see that on top of the pile [of mail] was a note from her mom.
Then I did something truly awful. I simply had to know what this child’s parents could
have done to make her so spectacular, to make her the most optimistic, most
enthusiastic, most hopeful human being I had ever encountered. I snuck a quick look
at the note, and my eyes fell on this sentence: “If God had given us all of the children
in the world to choose from, L., we would only have chosen you.” Before L. got back
to her place in the circle, I showed the note to Bud, who was sitting next to me. “Quick.
Read this,” I whispered. “It’s the secret of life.”

Maslow and Rogers would have smiled knowingly. For them, a central feature of personality is
one’s self - concept —all the thoughts and feelings we have in response to the question, “Who am I?”
If our self - concept is positive, we tend to act and perceive the world positively. If it is negative—if in
our own eyes we fall far short of our ideal self—said Rogers, we feel dissatisfied and unhappy. A
worthwhile goal for therapists, parents, teachers, and friends is therefore, he said, to help others know,
accept, and be true to themselves.

Humanistic psychologists sometimes assessed personality by asking people to fill out questionnaires
that would evaluate their self - concept. One questionnaire, inspired by Carl Rogers, asked people to
describe themselves both as they would ideally like to be and as they actually are. When the ideal and
the actual self are nearly alike, said Rogers, the self - concept is positive. Assessing his clients’ personal
growth during therapy, he looked for successively closer ratings of actual and ideal selves. Some
humanistic psychologists believed that any standardized assessment of personality, even a
questionnaire, is depersonalizing. Rather than forcing the person to respond to narrow categories, these
humanistic psychologists presumed that interviews and intimate conversation would provide a better
understanding of each person’s unique experiences.

Another psychological perspective is the notion of the multiple self and unified self:
Multiplicity of Self States Unified Self
- Our self concept is greatly influenced by - Is connected to consciousness,
the “audience” we initially narrate to. awareness and agency(sense of control).
Change the audience, and we change the
self.

Alexander Lowen’s “True self and False self”.

False self or superficial self; the self presented to the world. True self is the feeling self; but it is
the self that must be hidden and denied.
The true self is represented by our real feelings and desires, while the false self is a side of us
that has changed its behavior, repressed feelings and pushed needs aside in order to survive. We have
the idea of the onion--- the true self is at the center protected by outer layers of false self. There are two
kinds of false self:
Healthy False Self Unhealthy False Self
The healthy false self is described as one which This false self is behind may dysfunctional
allows someone to be functional in society. It behaviors, including narcissism and addiction.
enables politeness and social courtesy, even D.W. Winnicott defines the unhealthy false self as
when we may not feel like it. one that fits into society through force
compliance rather than a desire to adapt.
Healthy false self is an awareness of personal
boundaries. Real life examples of the false self are based
around certain beliefs that we take on in order to
A healthy false self is one that works with and fit into our world better:
stays committed to the true self. It is a form of • If I am pretty, I will be more likable.
useful self-protection, in that it shields us at • If I have a lot of money, I am successful.
times when vulnerability would not be • One more glass of wine, and I’ll start
appropriate, or even be harmful. feeling better.

And the last psychological perspective is the:

Agentic Self Proactive Self
Albert Bandura defined human agency as “the Proactive behavior by individuals refers to
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human capacity to exert influence over one’s anticipatory, change-oriented, and self-initiated
 functioning and the course of events by one’s behavior in situations. Proactive behavior
actions”. To be an agent is to influence involves acting in advance of a future situation,
intentionally one’s functioning and life rather than just reacting.
circumstances.

EASTERN AND WESTERN THOUGHTS

Abstraction:
Confucianism
Confucianism is the main ancient philosophy of China. It implicitly embodies key aspects of
Chinese culture. Confucian beliefs have constantly changed and developed over the past 2,500 years.

What Confucianism Is
Confucianism has been the code of ethics adopted by most of the great Chinese empires (206 BC – 1912
AD). The ideas of Confucius, Mencius and Xun Zi were codified and adapted over millennia into system
of doctrine known as Confucianism.

His version of the golden rule: “Do not do unto others, what you don’t want done to yourself.”
Things Confucius wants us to remember:
1. Ceremony is important. Even the simple food that is served to us when we are sick is
considered a ceremony. He valued ritual propriety. Our yearly birthday celebration or the
wedding vows, rituals gives clarity to our intentions and it helps us how to behave.
2. We should treat our parents with reverence. Obey them when we are young. Care for them
when we are old. Mourn for them when they die. And make sacrifices on their memory
thereafter (honor dead ancestors). Filial piety, is to be there for our parents whenever they
need us. For moral life starts within the family.
3. We should be obedient to honorable people. “Let the ruler be a ruler; the subject, a subject;
a father, a father; and a son, a son.” We should be modest enough to recognize the people
whose experience and accomplishment outweigh our own.
4. Cultivated knowledge can be more important than creativity. Moral character and wisdom
is a work of a lifetime.

Taoism (Daoism)
Taoism is also referred to as Daoism, which is a more accurate way of representing in English
the sound of the Chinese word.

Taoism is about the Tao. This is usually translated as the Way. But it's hard to say exactly what this
means. The Tao is the ultimate creative principle of the universe. All things are unified and connected
in the Tao.

Founder is Lao Tzu. Introduced the “Wu wei” way of life. Flowing or effortless action. We have
to let go of our anxiety, our schedules and simply experience the world. “Nature does not hurry, yet
everything is accomplished”. Breathing, growing wiser, having relationships only happen on their own
schedule, like the changing of leaves in the autumn or the blossoming of flowers. We have to open our
minds to nature and people. We have to be in touch with our real selves. We spend a great time
worrying about who we ought to become, but we should instead take time to be who we already are. In
a world so preoccupied with technology and social media, one should give importance to stillness,
openness, and discover buried yet central parts of ourselves.
“ The way never acts yet nothing is left undone”.

Buddhism

Buddhism is a spiritual tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development and the attainment of
a deep insight into the true nature of life. There are 376 million followers worldwide.

Buddhists seek to reach a state of nirvana, following the path of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who
went on a quest for Enlightenment around the sixth century BC.
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There is no belief in a personal god. Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or permanent and that
change is always possible. The path to Enlightenment is through the practice and development of
morality, meditation and wisdom.

Buddhists believe that life is both endless and subject to impermanence, suffering and uncertainty.
These states are called the tilakhana, or the three signs of existence. Existence is endless because
individuals are reincarnated over and over again, experiencing suffering throughout many lives.

It is impermanent because no state, good or bad, lasts forever. Our mistaken belief that things can last
is a chief cause of suffering.

The history of Buddhism is the story of one man's spiritual journey to enlightenment, and of the
teachings and ways of living that developed from it.

The Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, was born into a royal family in present-day Nepal over 2500
years ago. He lived a life of privilege and luxury until one day he left the royal enclosure and encountered
for the first time, an old man, a sick man, and a corpse. Disturbed by this he became a monk before
adopting the harsh poverty of Indian asceticism. Neither path satisfied him and he decided to pursue
the ‘Middle Way’ - a life without luxury but also without poverty.
Buddhists believe that one day, seated beneath the Bodhi tree (the tree of awakening), Siddhartha
became deeply absorbed in meditation and reflected on his experience of life until he became
enlightened.

By finding the path to enlightenment, Siddhartha was led from the pain of suffering and rebirth towards
the path of enlightenment and became known as the Buddha or 'awakened one'.
Key facts

• Buddhism is 2,500 years old

• Buddhism arose as a result of Siddhartha Gautama's quest for Enlightenment in around the 6th
Century BC
• There is no belief in a personal God. It is not centered on the relationship between humanity
and God
• Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or permanent - change is always possible
• The two main Buddhist sects are Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, but there are
many more
• Buddhists can worship both at home or at a temple
• The path to Enlightenment is through the practice and development of morality, meditation
and wisdom.

The Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths contain the essence of the Buddha's teachings. It was these four principles that
the Buddha came to understand during his meditation under the bodhi tree.

1. The truth of suffering (Dukkha)

2. The truth of the origin of suffering (Samudāya)
3. The truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha)
4. The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering (Magga)

In the first two Noble Truths he diagnosed the problem (suffering) and identified its cause. The third
Noble Truth is the realization that there is a cure. The fourth Noble Truth, in which the Buddha set out
the Eightfold Path, is the prescription, the way to achieve a release from suffering.

The First Noble Truth: Suffering (Dukkha)

Suffering comes in many forms. Three obvious kinds of suffering correspond to the first three sights the
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Buddha saw on his first journey outside his palace: old age, sickness and death.
But according to the Buddha, the problem of suffering goes much deeper. Life is not ideal: it frequently
fails to live up to our expectations.
Human beings are subject to desires and cravings, but even when we are able to satisfy these desires,
the satisfaction is only temporary. Pleasure does not last; or if it does, it becomes monotonous.
Even when we are not suffering from outward causes like illness or bereavement, we are unfulfilled,
unsatisfied. This is the truth of suffering.
Some people who encounter this teaching may find it pessimistic. Buddhists find it neither optimistic
nor pessimistic, but realistic. Fortunately, the Buddha's teachings do not end with suffering; rather, they
go on to tell us what we can do about it and how to end it.
The Second Noble Truth: Origin of suffering (Samudāya)

Our day-to-day troubles may seem to have easily identifiable causes: thirst, pain from an injury, sadness
from the loss of a loved one. In the second of his Noble Truths, though, the Buddha claimed to have
found the cause of all suffering - and it is much more deeply rooted than our immediate worries.

Buddhists recognize that there can be positive desires, such as desire for enlightenment and good wishes
for others.
The Third Noble Truth: Cessation of suffering (Nirodha)

The Buddha taught that the way to extinguish desire, which causes suffering, is to liberate oneself from
attachment.

This is the third Noble Truth - the possibility of liberation.

The Buddha was a living example that this is possible in a human lifetime.

The Fourth Noble Truth: Path to the cessation of suffering (Magga)

The final Noble Truth is the Buddha's prescription for the end of suffering. This is a set of principles
called the Eightfold Path.

The Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Way: it avoids both indulgence and severe asceticism,
neither of which the Buddha had found helpful in his search for enlightenment.

The eight stages are not to be taken in order, but rather support and reinforce each other:

1. Right Understanding - Sammā ditthi

Accepting Buddhist teachings. (The Buddha never intended his followers to believe his teachings
blindly, but to practice them and judge for themselves whether they were true.)
2. Right Intention - Sammā san̄kappa
A commitment to cultivate the right attitudes.
3. Right Speech - Sammā vācā
Speaking truthfully, avoiding slander, gossip and abusive speech.
4. Right Action - Sammā kammanta
Behaving peacefully and harmoniously; refraining from stealing, killing and overindulgence in sensual
pleasure.
5. Right Livelihood - Sammā ājīva
Avoiding making a living in ways that cause harm, such as exploiting people or killing animals, or
trading in intoxicants or weapons.
6. Right Effort - Sammā vāyāma
Cultivating positive states of mind; freeing oneself from evil and unwholesome states and preventing
them arising in future.
7. Right Mindfulness - Sammā sati
Developing awareness of the body, sensations, feelings and states of mind.
8. Right Concentration - Sammā samādhi
Developing the mental focus necessary for this awareness.

The eight stages can be grouped into Wisdom (right understanding and intention), Ethical Conduct
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(right speech, action and livelihood) and Meditation (right effort, mindfulness and concentration).
The Buddha described the Eightfold Path as a means to enlightenment, like a raft for crossing a river.
Once one has reached the opposite shore, one no longer needs the raft and can leave it behind.

Western thought
- Is concerned in the formation of self.

Western Culture Eastern Culture

• You are distinct from the other person. • Everyone is interconnected.
• Western people talk about their personal
attributes when describing themselves. • Asians talk about their social roles or
• Highlights personal achievement. social situations.

• Feels that promoting the self can be seen

• Individualistic culture, their focus is on as boastfulness that disrupts social
the person. relationships.
* Collectivist culture as the group
• Completion is the name of the game. and social relations is given
They are straightforward and forceful in importance.
their communication as well as decision- • Looks after the welfare of their groups
making. and values cooperation.

• Values equality

• Westerners calls their bosses, parents, • Emphasis on the hierarchy as the culture
seniors by their first name. wants to keep things in harmony and
order.
• Respectful terms for seniors.

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