Confidence in Life

The Portuguese word confidence comes from the Latin CONFIDENTIA of CONFIDERE, "to fully and firmly believe," formed by COM that intensifies, plus FIDERE, "believe, trow," which derives from FIDES, "faith". The same etymology is found in English, CONFIDENCE, which also derives from Latin; in French, CONFIANCE; in Italian, FIDUCIA of FIDERE, same translation as above; CONFIANZA in Spanish, and so on. This way we can understand that the word reminds us of the universal posture of certainty, conviction, dete-mination, strength, safety, and more, hope, faith, optimism, and still, liveliness and resilience. There is no doubt that the words have influence on our lives and serve as a stimulus to our behav-iour in the face of adversity.

However, words and the stimuli raised by words should not be taken only as pills of optimism, as if they were miracle drugs that give us the solution to our prob-lems. Words are the result of the elaboration of thought and, as such, should express the good feelings that we bring with us. When we say this, we do not claim that self-help would be effective as an immediate therapy because, as such, it only leads to analgesia, not curing the diseases of the soul.

In the documentary Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness, based on the book The Consolations of Philosophy, by the Swiss philosopher Alain de Botton, he highlights six great thinkers on important topics of our daily lives, and high-lights the confidence with Socra-tes: "Socrates walked through the market addressing people and questioning about the meaning of life in a very interesting way, but also in a very annoying way. If you ask for the explanations of people's beliefs, they often react ag-gressively. Socrates had no such inhibitions. He would rather be considered forceful than to allow his compatriots to carry on their lives without thinking. His intention was to make everyone reevaluate their beliefs, he believed that everyone had the duty to reflect on their lives, and that we all have the capacity to do it."

Socrates paid a high price for helping people to think, to assess the inconsistency of their existences, and for en-couraging the change of their poor goals (when they had them), poor because they focused only on the here and now.
Confidence comes at the moment when we know, through philosophical deduction, who we are, what we are doing here and where we will go. When we deepen these deductions with the help of the Spiritist Philosophy, this universe expands. We are not only citizens of a country, we are citizens of the Universe. Our lives are not con-fined to the present moment; we discover that we are heirs of the conquests of past reincarnations on route to a future full of achieva-ble promises; we learn that every-thing is temporary in the words of the Spirit Emmanuel (even the missed opportunities).

So we know that personal dramas have their duration and the achievements, in turn, should expand in the proportion that we conduct ourselves with absolute moral tranquillity.
We live today in a world full of conflicts that reproduce individual psychopathologies. Of course it is
difficult to trust on this construction, however, we have eternity ahead of us and the present moment to build, as best as we can, knowing we can count on the support and encouragement of the Spirits who love us.
Sonia Theodoro da Silva
Bachelor in Philosophy

MEETING HERCULANO PIRES - Conference Sonia Theodoro da Silva:Vampirism from the perspective of Spiritist Philosophy

BASED ON MICHEL FOUCAULT, PATRICK VIGNOLES, JOSÉ HERCULANO PIRES PHILOSOPHERS

The Autonomy of the Awakened Consciousness

The word autonomy comes from the Greek autonomous, from autos, "himself", and nomos, "law", "who governs itself by its own laws." The philosopher Immanuel Kant says that autonomy is to be "citizen and legislator" simultaneously.
Autonomy is the self-determination ability. Any agent can only be considered auton-mous when one’s actions are truly one’s and not motivated by external influences or factors. Kant then found that the will also have the ability to put itself in accordance with its own law, which is the law of reason. In this sense, the opposite of autono-my is heteronomy, in which the will is dictated by the objects of desire and no longer by reason.
Created simple and ignorant, the Spirit, the infinite traveller according to Plotinus, experiences evolutionary stages in which it goes assimilating impressions and developing all the elements that make up its nature. The consciousness will bloom over time positioning itself according to the divine laws that lie in the depths of its Being.
The journey of the Spirit, therefore, is in this development with the natural conquest of the responsibilities that belong to the Spirit. Will and free will are the drivers of this process.
Reincarnation and life in realms of physical and extra physical dimensions (physical here means the molecu-lar consistency of dense matter) will provide the necessary experience that is needed for the definitive acquisition of the Spirit’s own development.
Having yet to consider the freedom inherent to the individual, manifested according to the individual’s integration into the societies in which the being is conducted to live: the sociological freedom, related to the individual’s autonomy before society, with guarantees of civil or political liberty; the psychological freedom, in which the individual feels like "ones own master"; and the moral freedom, as the capacity that the individual has of deciding to act according to reason without being dominated by the impulses and the spontaneous inclinations of sensitivity.
Spiritism emphasizes the powers of the third freedom, mentioned above, as the driver of the gradual awakening of consciousness, which gives the Spirit the right conditions for the necessary, essential and eternal ascento to even higher evolutionary patterns.
When the Spirit stagnates in the illusions of matter, the mechanisms of this awakening start to appear, and then the pains, the sufferings of greater or lesser intensity will take care of making the Spirit resume its walk.
If our model is Jesus of Nazareth, as confirmed by the higher spirits to Allan Kardec, let us follow his examples, his teachings, his virtues, his life.
There is no other way – we live moments of moral transition; we bring within ourselves the atavisms of the ancient past with the predominance of the stored conflicts that require a revision. Therefore there is nothing to complain about as the current dramas have been planted by society in 6,000 years of civilization, with less than 100 years of peace. It is for us today to live the spiritual-Christian life, as hundreds already do, planting new seeds of compassion and brotherhood so that our near or distant future brings us the so desired kingdom of heaven in our consciousness.
Sonia Theodoro da Silva
Bachelor in Philosophy
(The Spiritist Psychological Society, May-June 2014)

The Beyond and the Survival of the Being

The dynamics of our current existences transferred to religions the questions about the nature of the Being, its origin, its destination and the reason for the dichotomy between the spiritual being and the public or real life being. If technology has brought us closer to each other, via smart phones, computers etc.., if the internet connects us with the world in real time, although this is a monitored and conditioned world, there has never been greater ignorance about the issues surrounding death and the possibility of the continuity of life in other dimensions.

In first world countries, where universities develop the knowledge, it is rare to find academic chairs of study in the survival of the Spirit; the Spirit is treated pejo-ratively as "ghost" or as an evil being who terrorizes the living, causing them self-destructive and pathological pro-cesses, mainly by the films and the TV Series.

There is the pioneer case of Duke University in the United States, where the paranor-mal is serious business. In Brazil, there are pertaining studies of the near-death experiences by re-searchers from the Federal Univer-sity of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. Also in the U.S., Doctor Raymond Moody Jr. investigates the possible relationships between the "dead" and their living relatives. His work has demonstrated, from research about the oracles  in ancient Greece, where communications were constant and real, that intra-worlds contacts have always been part of our civilization.

Without a shadow of doubt that Spiritism, with its mystical and mythical stripping, brought us another scenario of life after death: we continue to exist and compose (composed here are all the files of our past experiences recorded in our unconscious), we continue to draw the course of our destinations and we continue to exercise free will increasingly more freely as we become directly re-sponsible for Life. And our greatest example that life continues after death still is, and will always be, Jesus, stripped of the mythology established around him which has been consumed for centuries be-cause of the mixed Greek hero with the Jewish prophet. And He who is back in all its fullness, to demonstrate that there is no death, it is a mere human inven-tion, a product of existential emp-tiness that inhabits this moral plane of existence, back through the Spiritist vision that is not religious in the ritulistic sense, liturgical and theological, but liberating, awareness waken-ing, revealing.

Léon Denis, the consolidator of Spiritism in France after the death of Allan Kardec, brings extremely current reflections on his extensive work of which we highlight the great little book bearing the title of our article, which features a list of evidence to confirm the opinion of anyone who wants to investigate the supposed afterlife. And to finish our thoughts in his words, leaving a question up in the air: would human relations change to a better state should we identify ourselves as immortal beings?

"Isn’t it a touching sight to see those that accompany a funeral? To those I would say: the beyond is just what our senses do not reach. "
Sonia Theodoro da Silva

FELIZ NATAL!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

JESUS WAS BORN AMONG US... SINCE THEN THE WORLD WAS NOT THE SAME... THE MEN WERE NOT THE SAME ... HE HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING, HE HAS CHANGED EVERYONE... JESUS IS IN OUR SOUL AS THE BREATH  IN OUR LIFE - PAY ATTENTION ON HIM, ON HIS PRESENCE, HIS WORDS, HIS LOOK IS UPON US - SEE AND FEEL HIM, HE HAS JUST ARRIVED AGAIN !!

 KING S COLLEGE  

SÃO PAULO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 

The Spiritist Teachings

Joy of living

The present moment hardly leads us to believe in optimism in face of the challenges that the world presents us. To consider life only by its favourable outcomes would be to desire the Utopia by Morus to our daily lives: sweet dreams, since the dream of civilization from the author was a mere neologism to define unattainable goals – it would not be reasonable for us to fixate in such world views, since the big and small dramas that take place guarantee our feet on the ground.

If in the Americas, formal religion is still an alternative form of console (or would it be escape?) for most of its inhabitants, in Europe and Asia the atheist existen-tialism opens dangerous loopholes in the mind and the hearts, creating obstacles to its spiritualization. The Middle East with its constant wars and Africa with its ethnical conflicts demonstrate in a forceful manner what is a planet of trials and expiations in infinite degrees of manifestation, as the Spirits demonstrated to Allan Kardec.

If reincarnation was accepted as a biological law and as a principle of reason and never fideistic, because to believe implies reasoning in secure foundations of understanding, beyond the concerning research (such as the ones accom-plished by Doctor Hernani G. Andrade, in Brazil, Doctor Ian Stevenson in the USA, Doctor H. Banerjee, in India) we would conclude that there is not “history repeating itself”, but that we re-peat history through successive reincarnations, in which the intellectual and moral learning hasn’t been completed (or it has paused). This would change the current paradigms and would lead us to a new society, more fair and fraternal.

Someone has already said that the present humanity, stuck to utilitarianism, refuses to grow up, remaining in the adolescent stage. No doubt that the behavioral manifestations demonstrate such idea, it is noticeable the “intellectual sedentariness”, in which everyone seeks for pleasures in unbridled and immediate consumption.

However, optimism is a permanent state of soul that generates joy of living, it is recognized that it rests in small as in great things and causes: looking others with compassionate eyes, recognizing the human as the most beautiful form of divine representation which lies latent in all of us. But also in the simple things: to observe nature, follow the development of a child, recognize the miracle of life in a pregnancy process, follow the heartbeats of our own heart, that keeps us alive, look at the waves that wind provokes in the waters of a river, stretch out, read a good book, talk, smile, dedicating life to a worthy cause…

Therefore, to live optimistically does not mean to wait infinitely for the best, but to understand that we are agents of this process for everything that surrounds us.

Living is for everyone, but to live well and well living is for the wise who understood that the reincarnation opportunity is unique. The ancient philosophers knew this. The current philosophers need to relearn with those. And Spiritism assure us that, if today we are focused on serious commitments, nothing prevents us to make of them the necessary means for achieving our own happiness, which is to Live.

Sonia Theodoro da Silva

www.filosofiaespirita.org

 Columnist,  The Journal of Psychological Studies, The Spiritist Psychological Society 

(http://www.spiritistps.org/The-Journal-of-Psychological-Studies-29-Ed.-English.pdf) 

Psychological, Physiological and Spiritual Dreams

The cause of dreams and their meaning have always been a source of great curiosity and concern. In The Mediums’ Book, Allan Kardec emphasizes that the Science of his time never explained the origins of such phenomena. The current explanations, still incomplete, which consider only the psychophysiological reasons – illness, psychological disorders, professional and economical life conditions, influences relating to modern life habits, such as the use of licit and illicit drugs, sexuality as a disposable product, anxieties and stress generated by this whole process, plus the political and worldwide conditions that bring us expectations about the future – actually generate symptoms, the most diverse, reflecting in the quality of sleep.

However, what Science insists on ignoring are the spiritual reasons – compelling experiences related to past lifetimes that interfere with relationships and behaviour of the actual experience, the influences of the minds and feelings of discarnate spirits on individuals, whether or not they are directly related to their past actions, besides intimate conflicts relating to one’s own genetic inheritance.

With The Book of Spirits, questions 400 to 412, we conclude: we are heirs of ourselves, in other words, our history repeats itself because we insist on playing the same charac-ters. The current time is for reflection and changes in the way of acting and thinking and, without fear, to develop values and virtues. This is the way.

Sonia Theodoro da Silva
Translation SPS

(Published in nov/dec 2012: The Journal of Psychological Studies - Science, Philosophy and Religion;Journal Psychologischer Studien - Wissenschaft, Philosophie und Religion; Periódico de Estudios Psicológicos - Ciencia, Filosofía y Religión; Giornale di Studi Psicologici - Scienza, Filosofia e Religione; Journal d´études psychologiques - Science, philosophie et religion).


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Extrasensory Faculty

History records the actions of those who dared to transgress existing systems, whether it was of a political, religious or academic nature. Carl Gustav Jung was one of those divine transgressors; for him, life was not restricted to the period from the cradle to the grave, “the human, rational being, was endowed with extrasensory faculties that allowed one to exceed the ordinary limits of space and time, uncovering the distant past and having premonitions of the future”. (Bulletin SEI, No. 1963/2005).

The extrasensory faculties were present in the Greek and Babylonian oracles (the most famous of all was the oracle of Apollo, in Delphi), in the Jewish world with the college of mediums chaired by Moses, and before, in Egypt, where the leader of the He-brew nation learned, with the wise and initiated of his time, to prophesy, and other extrasensory modalities which were combined to his effective mediumship. More recently, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Swedish clairvoyant, was investigated and studied by the eminent philosopher Immanuel Kant, impressed by the accuracy of the information about a fire seen by him at a distance, in a nearby town.

Although the traditional philosophy, nowadays, has little interest in the paranormal, it is reserved for Science, to prove what Spiritism has judiciously studied, through Allan Kardec and supported by facts, the greatest discovery of all times: the human Spirit survives death. Such evidence certainly entails serious consequences to the nihilistic materialism.

Sonia Theodoro da Silva
Translation SPS

(Published in sept/oct 2012: The Journal of Psychological Studies - Science, Philosophy and Religion;Journal Psychologischer Studien - Wissenschaft, Philosophie und Religion; Periódico de Estudios Psicológicos - Ciencia, Filosofía y Religión; Giornale di Studi Psicologici - Scienza, Filosofia e Religione; Journal d´études psychologiques - Science, philosophie et religion).

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MERRY CHRISTMAS! FELIZ NATAL!

Mensagem de NATAL 2012

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Message of christmas 2012

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CHICO XAVIER, THE BEST BRAZILIAN OF ALL TIME

Momento comemorativo do Evento


Ontem, 03 de outubro, data de aniversário de chegada entre nós do Apóstolo de Jesus, Allan Kardec, Chico Xavier, com mais de 70% dos votos coletados por uma emissora de televisão, foi consagrado como "O maior brasileiro de todos os tempos".

Certamente que Chico, com sua notória humildade dispensaria mais esta homenagem, atribuindo-a a Jesus e ao Espiritismo - o que seria de se esperar que assim o fizesse, pois ele nunca quis os holofotes da fama sobre si. Sem dúvida que muitos dos demais indicados legaram, com suas vidas inteiras dedicadas a um ideal específico, o seu exemplo que merece o nosso eterno apreço e admiração: Princesa Isabel e Santos Dumont ("concorrentes" de Chico), Tiradentes, Irmã Dulce, Ayrton Senna, além de outros, nas áreas do esporte, da política, das ciências médicas, etc., porém, o que ficou gravado na memória dos brasileiros foi a presença amorosa de Chico Xavier, como legítimo representante do Amor de Jesus de Nazaré e do Espiritismo, a Sua Promessa de Paz e de amor entre os homens.

Chico Xavier, que em 2012 completa 10 anos de Vida Plena nas dimensões extra-físicas, certamente receberá, com muito carinho e o amor de sempre, mais esta homenagem de pura gratidão de todos os que levaram o seu nome e o do Espiritismo à divulgação plena pelos meios de comunicação.

Para nós encarnados, espíritas, a imensa responsabilidade de continuar a bem representar nos corações, na inteligência e nas obras esse legado de paz e de Amor de Jesus de Nazaré, de Allan Kardec, e de Chico Xavier.

Veja em: http://www.sbt.com.br/omaiorbrasileiro/

THE WORLD WE WANT

(Fotos: arquivo Sonia Theodoro da Silva)

Yesterday, July 27th there was the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olimpic Games. More than a competition, there is a feeling of self-overcoming and gathering among the peoples and athletes from different cultures of the five continents; sports as well as music approach people: and both were there in the opening ceremony.

The British performed pieces about the United Kingdom history (of course) appealing to Shakespeare and his union and bravery (King Lear's speech with Kenneth Branagh) but they also showed clearly that they support initiatives related to Peace and Gathering. An example was the presence of Marina Silva, a Brazilian who hold the Olympics rings together with UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the Argentinian condutor Daniel Barenboim and Nobel Peace Prize winners.The ex-Brazilian minister is internationally recognized by her job defending the environment. The only contradictory moment of the party was when the ones who were holding the flag representing Peace gave it to the military representatives - with a clear hidden message although explicit that what maintains "Peace" is war; the presence of the presidents’ or their delegates' bodyguards and all the military apparatus in the city can say so.

The Spiritist Philosophy, which came to us in one of the most important moment of our progress, in a country that although had the flag "Equality, Fraternity and Liberty" was almost destroyed in the first World War and soon after that (as it was only signed the armistice in 1917) highlights that this double meaning Peace and war has to be an end. Not only because it is stimulated by the small interests of the main leaders, but also because the human beings still have (the war) inside them.

A great evidence that most people choose for actions in favor of World Fraternization with the support of the Peacemakers was their presence holding the white flag of the Olympic Games, as well as the presence of the brave athletes of the countries which are in war nowadays, emphasizing Syrians and the look of their flag bearer who was at the same time happy as he was there at the party and sad because of the tragedy in his country.

The world we want depends on the respect for Life manifested in all ways. The great Masters' teachings and the greatest of all, Jesus of Nazareth bring always the folowing message: we were made by and to Love - sublime love showed in the gestures as the one we have just watched. But our small everyday gestures reflect our option to the Well; the Well we hope to see inside the others, but that few times we exercise in ourselves for good.

(Please read this article in portuguese at http://filosofandocotidiano.blogspot.com)

Photos: Sonia Theodoro da Silva's files; Images: TV Record, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

3rd. LESSON - THE MYTHICAL THOUGHT

General Objectives
This lesson aims to work on myth in its real meaning as the human thought’s interpretative tool of nature when building his psychological structure.

Descriptive and Reflexive Text
The myth in its purely existentialist- nihilistic concept has been responsible for the perpetuation of a stratified civilization.It is necessary to recognize that myth has been renewed today, as an instrument of propaganda and/or a subliminal language which creates psychological dependence. The human being must get rid of its meanings in order to go in search of his very essence, his spirit: "You know the truth and the truth shall make you free", said Jesus - this is the real underlying message to be worked around the context of the Spiritist Philosophy, and it is Jesus as the quintessential Being mistakenly turned into a mythological deity, disfigured by the cultural habits and customs, by the human misunderstanding and the theological process construction, who returns in Spirit and Truth contemplating humanity through the Doctrine of Light, the Spiritism, which eliminates His divine multiface and shows Him as the One who lives in essence, because His is the evolutionary model that, in the future, all the humanity will achieve. This process is worked on the lessons of the Spiritist Philosophy course, which belongs to the SPIRITIST PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES PROJECT. (Sonia Theodoro da Silva).

2ND. LESSON – SPIRITIST PHILOSOPHY: THIRD CONCEPTUAL SYNTHESIS - 1st. Part

"EVERY STAGE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION ENDS WITH A SYNTHESIS OF ALL ITS ACCOMPLISHMENTS." (J. Herculano Pires based on Léon Denis)

The authors define, as real masters, the meaning of the first coming of Spiritistism in the current stage of our evolution on Earth, categorized by the Superior Spirits as a transitional period. In the Gospel of Matthew (Mt.13, 24-30), we find the parable of the Wheat and Weeds, which symbolizes the good seed planted by the humans in the fertile soil of their existence, under the auspices of the higher spirituality. The text below reproduces this process; the full text can be found in The Spirit´s Book (Introduction), 100 years anniversary edition – 1957 (Lake Ed.).

"INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF SPIRITS"
With this book, on April 18, 1857, Spiritism becomes known all over the world. The promise of the Comforter, the Paraclete or The Spirit of Truth was carried out. To say this is the same as declaring that The Spirit´s Book is the code of a new phase of the human evolution. And this is exactly its position in the history of philosophy. This is not an ordinary book, which can be read from one day to another and then forgotten anywhere.
Our duty is to read it and meditate about it, it must be studied and again, constantly. A whole building lifts up on this book: the Spiritist Doctrine. It is the cornerstone of Spiritualism, its starting point. Spiritism emerged with it and it was propagated and consolidated around the world. Before this book there was not Spiritism, and this word did not even exist. People used to talk about spiritualism and neo-spiritualism in a general, vague and nebulous way.
The Spiritist facts, that have always existed, were interpreted in many different ways. But after Allan Kardec had published it, “containing the principles of the Spiritist Doctrine”, a new light has shone in the mental horizons of the world.

There is a historical sequence that we cannot forget when we take this book in our hands. When the world was preparing to leave the chaos of early civilizations, Moses appeared as the leader of a population destined to trace the lines of a new world: and from his hands the Bible emerged. It was not Moses who wrote it, but he was the central theme of this first new circle of revelations: the Christian one. Later, when the biblical influence had already molded the culture of that people, and when those people were scattered throughout the Gentile world, and spreading the new law, Jesus appeared and from his words, the Gospel arose, written by his disciples. The Bible is the Code of the first Christian revelation, the Hebrew code that was merged into the sacred principles and the religious legends of an ancient people. The greatest synthesis of the ancient efforts towards the spirit. It is not surprising that it has been presented to the modern men in a frightened and contradictory way.

2ND. LESSON – SPIRITIST PHILOSOPHY: THIRD CONCEPTUAL SYNTHESIS - 2nd. Part

The Gospel is the Code of the second Christian revelation that shines over the center of the triad of these revelations, with the image of Jesus of Nazareth as a sun, whose light shines over them, over the past and the future, and establishes the necessary connection between both. But just as in the Bible, the Gospel has already been announced, the prediction of a new code also appeared, the Spirit of Truth, as seen in John, chapter 14. And the new code came with Allan Kardec under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, exactly when the world was preparing to enter a higher stage of moral development. (...)
"EVERY STAGE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION ENDS WITH A SYNTHESIS OF ALL ITS ACCOMPLISHMENTS." As the Bible is the synthesis of the Ancient times, the Gospel is the Greco-Roman-Jewish synthesis, and The Spirit’s Book is the synthesis of the modern world. But each one does not bring only the results of the accomplished progress, but they also contain the seeds of the future. In the synthesis of the Gospel we have to consider, especially, the presence of Jesus, as a direct intervention from the highest levels of spirituality in order to rearrange the thoughts of humankind. It is thanks to this intervention that the evangelical principles do not need readjustments or modifications in its primitive purity, and passes directly to the pages of this book, as the main support to build a new era. (...)

CARNIVAL OR MOZART? A TIMELESS DIALOGUE

CONVIDAMOS A TODOS PARA A LEITURA E REFLEXÃO DO TEMA ACIMA; LÉON DENIS NOS PRESENTEIA COM O SEU PENSAMENTO ACERCA DA MÚSICA E DAS ARTES E DE COMO ELAS PODEM TRAZER ALEGRIA, E BEM ESTAR.

WE INVITE EVERYBODY TO READ AND THINK ABOUT THE ABOVE MATTER; LÉON DENIS GIVES US HIS BEST WHEN HE TALKS ABOUT ART AND MUSIC AND HOW THEY CAN GIVE US THE VERY BEST FEELINGS!

CLIQUE SOBRE OS GADGETS, OUÇA AS MÚSICAS E CONFIRA !

CLICK ON THE IMAGES (GADGETS) AND HEAR THE MUSICS !

ACESSE O ARTIGO "CARNAVAL OU MOZART? (UM DIÁLOGO ATEMPORAL)" NO BLOG http://filosofandocotidiano.blogspot.com

PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE "CARNIVAL OR MOZART - A TIMELESS DIALOGUE" IN THE BLOG: http://filosofandocotidiano.blogspot.com

PHILOSOPHY AND SPIRITIST PHILOSOPHY – CONVERGENT AND DIVERGENT ASPECTS - 1st. PART

What is Philosophy?
What is the origin of Philosophy? What is the reason why men desire or need to think philosophically? And putting into practice the act of philosophizing or just thinking, what man really expects to find? Our thoughts tell us that such an uncontrollable impulse is part of human nature. (...) The origins of Philosophy would exist in the first deep thought the first man who first philosophized (...) When God created man, He did not make him of clay, but of thought, so, philosopher. There are many definitions of Philosophy, but there is only one which remains essential: Pythagoras’ Love of Wisdom. (Excerpts from JHPires contained in the Program Booklet of the Spiritist Philosophical Studies Project, fev.2001).

Luc Ferry, philosopher, former Education minister in France, concludes that every definition of Philosophy remains controversial, since most philosophers have been discussed it nowadays without coming to a deal. Among several definitions, we can mention: the formation of a critical and autonomous thinking, a method to meet the main aspects of a rigorous thinking, the art of thought rooted in a wonderment and questioning attitude (FERRY, L. 2006); it is through its methods, more than its subjects, that Philosophy must be distinguished from other arts or sciences (AYER, AJ 2008); Philosophy is the study of fundamental, abstract and general problems since they are concerned to the nature of existence, knowledge, morality, reason and human purposes (Teichman, J., Evans, KC, 2009). No one is absolutely sure about what Philosophy is (...), it can be understood in a traditional way, when dealing with the three Big Questions: What is it? How do we know? What do we do about it? (...) Other thinkers also said that Philosophy is much more defined through a particular method which could find reasons for conclusions and making them clear: finally, some people still say that Philosophy is a kind of attitude or way of life based on Socrates’ teachings (GARVEY, J.; Stangroom. J. 2009).

PHILOSOPHY AND SPIRITIST PHILOSOPHY – CONVERGENT AND DIVERGENT ASPECTS - 2nd. PART

In the Socratic and after Socratic period in Greece, Philosophy embraces many subjects, when intended to be a method of apprehending reality. In fact, this movement had already taken place with the pre-Socratics and the search for the arkhe (source) of everything. The Western Philosophy, science of the sciences, inquires about the first cause, it is concerned on the “being of things” and about all the latest goals; so, in order to be developed it had to be separated from religion, since it is focused on divine revelation. Its questions about God, the origin of the universe, the nature of being, must be done by the reason itself, detached from any mystical or mythical interpretation.

PHILOSOPHY AND SPIRITIST PHILOSOPHY – CONVERGENT AND DIVERGENT ASPECTS - 3rd. PART

The Spiritist Philosophy

“This book (The Spirits’ Book) was written by the order and dictation of the higher Spirits to lay the foundations of a rational philosophy, free of the damage caused by the spirit of systems. (Prolegomena/SB)”. By saying that Spiritism is a philosophy, Allan Kardec was not excluding its scientific character, quite the contrary; moreover, as ethics or morality is one of the areas that Philosophy embraces, such denomination did not exclude the moral aspect of Spiritism, which is the essence of so-called spiritist religion. (CHIBENI, S.S. Spiritism’s triple aspect).
Philosophy has much to gain by seriously considering the facts of Spiritism, not only because such facts are the solemn sanction of its moral teaching and by themselves will prove to the most hardened spirits the responsibility of their behavior (...), the detailed study of the consequences deduced from the existence of the soul in a disembodied state (...) the knowledge of the essence of the soul will lead philosophy to know the essence of things and the attributes of God. Philosophy means the search for the answers, meaning, rationality, understanding of things, and Spiritism, by the very nature of the issues it manages, is Philosophy. (PIRES, JH, 1983).
What is the philosophical originality of Spiritism? It was born among the French rationalist heritage (formed in the West since Greek philosophy), it admits the self-identity, as an individual soul researched after death; it admits the intelligibility of the real, yet it admits the effectiveness of human action as a factor of evolution; it accepts the intuition, the possibility to access the spiritual side of life, therefore under this historical and objective reason’s control. (INCONTRI, D. 2004).

In other words, the being, as the immortal Spirit, builds his interexistentiality, his spiritual identity through successive lives. The Spiritist Philosophy, far from being conflicting and unsystematic, assumes the role of conceptual synthesis of all knowledge developed in secure foundations of reason leading to full understanding of natural laws, the divine presence in creation. More than that, it guides the being to a fully identification with his Father, and makes him to know his own religiosity in spirit and truth, so that one day the being might say as Jesus said, I am one with my Father.