The Filipino ‘Simba Ko’, what was it to ‘Simba’ and the Reflection of Filipino Being:
Christianity taught us to be a lot more critical when it comes to beliefs and Christianity being forced upon many of the colonies back then tends to annihilate the religion existing in the area after it reaches the shores, especially in the Philippines. Before any foreign (western) invasion, the Filipinos are not legally born in European terms nor was there any because the land they were standing upon was a melting pot of different races enjoying a happy trade with each other, especially with the Chinese. The Filipinos have their brand of religion and that was the same with other religions that Christianity laid its sword upon. It was a belief of nature as a being divine. The Filipinos were deemed “pagan” for they worship rocks and trees, but they were “pagan” actually because they were simply not Christians. The Filipinos, dubbed as Asians, follow the non-dualist trend wherein dichotomies are rarely or even not at all explicated. Filipinos see the divine as in this world and manifested through nature, not like the other major monotheistic religions that their God is somewhere out there. Since the divine anywhere is human like most of the times, because almost any man attributes the divine as a man with exemplary exceptions. Anthropomorphology is that inevitable trend that makes what religions (especially to those who believe there is such that ultimate transcendent) similar to each other Filipinos also are part of that trend. The forest has ears, so therefore let not one be noisy while traveling there, so too with any wooden material have ears, and that is why, that belief is still carried on today but with the effect of urbanizations and scientific progress, it is becoming a rare breed and mostly old folks and those raised in the provinces continue the practice.
The phrase “simba ko”, is so familiar and that I am going to take as an object of study. “Simba” means to go to church or any place of worship to commence in a religious affair or to do rituals of religious end. Before Christianity, Filipinos practice simba almost anywhere since they are non-dualist and in so doing do not distinguish earth and divinity, but nature is divinity so to trees or rocks they show their reverence at. With “ko”, it means “I” or in other words “ako”. So the self does the simba.
“Simba” before Christianity arrived is not associated with church and priests (in Christian sense), but simba was actually associated with nature in general, whether to trees or stones as what they love to make fun of the Filipinos at. Nature is divine and anthropomorphic in character that she hears and get disturbed and makes you feel her wrath as revenge. Liken to a person who hears bad things and being moralistic by some point tends to scold the one saying bad things; since divinity is all righteous then it rightly and justly gives credit were credit is due. As to a Filipino who urinates on the soil and omitting the “tabi po” (excuse me), it is believed that nature not being respected tends to pay back in return and that is the Filipino’s balls will shrink or he will get sick. Filipinos have this concept of the invisible and the visible things and that is why they should be careful if they are urinating because they might hit some things or somebody which is invisible but in a huger sense that invisible is equated to also divinity and what is divine is manifest in nature and that is why nature is perceived as that divine being which must not be tampered. Simba then is to offer reverence or respect to nature because she is believed to have divine attributes.
When the Christians had successfully penetrated into our culture, simba is transformed through time as that something which we go to church. The Filipino intoxicated with Christianity distinguishes simba with church, but the Filipino prior to any influence let nature be their church. Simba today restricted in thought that there is a place to go but before Christianity, the Filipino makes anywhere as his church, so therefore there is no restricted thinking on where to go, but anywhere will do. History played a great role on reforming the concept of simba and that was the extensive result of three centuries of being immersed in Christian thinking.
The Filipino concept of the invisible also does not only attribute nature as manifestation, but also to agents called spirits. Still, spirits as we coin it is somewhat understood as something that is different from nature, but since as mentioned, the divine so as the sprits are manifested in nature and therefore still it is nature that the Filipino finds the spirits. What I am going to emphasize here are the “bad spirits”, since what is bad is what most or maybe all people care about in avoiding and that is other than the good being longed for, the bad also is carefully prevented. The bad or evil is anything but that must be prevented, and the bad spirits are these agents that make the bad possible and later on real. Since Filipinos are non-dualists, spirits are not only good but bad also, not like in Christianity, when you talk about spirit, it is only something good. But originally the Filipino thought if them as both. Since evil spirits are part of nature, and nature is a manifestation of divinity, therefore evil spirits have divine powers and that makes them capable of making evil happen. Also, since evil spirits are in nature and nature is anywhere, therefore evil spirits are anywhere. Being capable of evil happenings and in anywhere, alarms the Filipino to be careful in his life. What then evil spirits are capable of doing? Since as mentioned, divinity is anthropomorphic and as in the Philippines, therefore they are attributed with “person-like” capabilities, and primarily “hearing”, since evil spirits are divine, and consequentially under Philippine anthropomorphologic trend, they too can hear. Filipinos then fear to talk ill things because they believed that the evil spirits are capable of actualizing the ill talks. E.g. if a Filipino might talk about the death of someone, then he resents and acknowledges the presence of spirits by saying “simba ko” and knock on wood. Why does the Filipino do this? Since evil spirits are capable in bringing ill, and hearing ill talks might give them the idea to commit the ill just said, but before the evil spirits could ever do something, the Filipino then mentions “simba ko” and knock on wood, and it is believed that the evil can be prevented be such. Why “simba ko”? To simba is to revere something that is the object of reverence and to revere or pay respect will eventually prevent the committing of evil things by the evil spirits, because in the deeper sense, simba is also like asking help or penitence and the like, that denotes any act of sincerity that wishes for good tidings. Having said ill thoughts heard by evil spirits, “simba ko” is cancelling what the evil spirits heard by the revering of them.
The Filipino does not want anything bad that will happen and that it is inevitable to talk of something bad, “simba ko” is a form of counterweight and firstly the saying of it acknowledges the existence of bad energy or evil spirits and next to that is the acknowledgement that of the capacity of the evil spirits. And that the end of the saying of “simba ko” is to prevent the evil spirits action to actualized what was talked about that is bad. Not only the “simba ko” will do it rightly by the knocking on wood, because knocking would either creates noise for the spirit not to hear or the evil spirit be driven away for awhile by knocking. Why then on wood? As mentioned, nature and the Filipinos are inseparable therefore what was concretely nature by the pre-Hispanic Filipino which one is wood and is the most prominent is thought to be where evil spirits presides and the rest of the invisible elements.
This belief of evil spirits and of the “simba ko” is still evident in Filipino tradition though through rapid urbanization and scientific advancements, that will surely and slowly leads to the consequential forgetting of tradition since modernity challenges such belief and thus deemed them to be unrealistic. As time goes on, “simba ko” has been familiarized and therefore has lost its deeper sense, since Filipinos do it out of habit and sometimes habit leads to the dilution of meaning since one is accustomed to it and will act upon it as something that is like tooth brushing three times a day. The meaning is lost, plus when this is done by habit, it seems that this has occurred many times, and this implies that many times Filipinos talk ill and many times they reverse the ill with the phrase. The Filipinos are degrading in sense of good thoughts and also right speech, since the problem of the loss of meaning of the phrase is evident because of it being a habit. “Simba ko” has lost its meaning, that is why also, Filipinos go to church because it is a Sunday, meaning it is only out of habit that it is a must to do on Sundays; that is then why few only care about the sermons and the message of the mass, but others just go there because it is time to do so and just warm their butts and just be there, and passive. This is then the sense of the Christian simba, but the original simba, that was long crucified by history, and now another simba will dry up. The Filipino becomes only a ritualistic person, and lost his sense of meaning, also the evil spirit is vanquished because of modernization, so as the Filipino spirit is endangered because of habit. We are forgetting what was it to be authentic Filipinos, for we are shrouded and received aftershocks of the interference of modernization and our immaturity yet, to accept and mold ourselves to modernity; the immaturity with modernization leads to our consequential identity loss – “forgetfulness” of that being, being a Filipino.
What was it to be Filipino? “Simba ko” was initiated because of the sincerity of the Filipino no to mean harm to anyone or anything or to himself. It was intended as a formula to drive away evil happenings. Not be plainly said, because one was beyond sincerity that he wills not the evil to happen. When one does not even will it to happen, one does not even mention anything ill to anything or anybody. The sincerity of the formulation of the “simba ko” was of the sincerity that one was careful no to speak of evil. “Simba ko” was there to show that evil was not meant to be, and that the sincerity of which was the result that of the Filipinos feeling guilt, a severe guilt when something ill was said, that guilt paved way to sincerity and the sincerity of speaking as well. “Simba ko” is an indication that Filipinos are brothers to each other and to anybody because they mean no harm. “simba” is so revered so as the practice also, that is why nature is heavily respected and as much as possible the early Filipinos do not transgress nature and permission was sought to even use nature’s bounty. Also in the Christian sense “simba” was to be un church not because of Sunday but of and for God himself, and it should not only be in the church made of bricks, but anywhere for anywhere is nature and nature is divine. Whether it be Christian or of the pre-Hispanic Filipino, that was “simba” like and must be. Not just a mere word to mention, but a word which embodies within its soul, its meaning, which also embodies the Filipino sense of brotherhood, sincerity, reverence to divinity and cleanliness. For now we see people who are mediocre in attending mass in church and the sense of being Christian anywhere i.e. to be a good example. Concerning cleanliness, if “simba” is genuine, there should be no negligence to the care of nature.
I have been through to Guadalupe river in an activity that was to clean it, together with other schools and I say the Filipinos really forgot to “simba” nature, even at that particular incident of the Guadalupe river negligence.
Many or all Filipinos forgot what it was to “simba” as can be evidently seen in our environment today. I think we have forgotten the sense; also in our ethics of speech, we just backbite anybody anytime and even wish anybody the “baddest” of lucks. “simba” lost its meaning, and by this paper, I hope many will reflect upon the word and what was it to “simba".
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Christmas for Filipinos:
Christmas comes only once a year, and for the average Filipino it comes early and ends late. As early as September and late as February does the Filipino celebrate this holiday season, from the lowest class of carolers, like the ones who just shake their flattened bottle caps nailed to some piece of wood and sang in an almost unheard voice or those some arrogant carolers who are strong in their demand for the pay; to the highest class of carolers who amazed us with extreme talent worth of a good reward.. there is also an astonishing number of traveling since everyone wants to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones, either OFW’s coming back to the Philippines or others staying in a different province and going back to their home province to where their families are. To some it is the aroma of the 13th month pay and Christmas bonuses and with that on hand, so as to a boom on commercialism to where the lure of sales emerges. Malls are filled with Santa Clauses, series lights and Christmas songs as background music. Food also participate in the season, since the typical Filipino likes to have a feast or “noches buenas”, so food prices vary. There also s that traditional Misa de Gallo where early in the morning, people go to mass for nine days and in the eve of the 24th of December there is a night mass before midnight. All of this observable practices are mostly among the Filipinos, and it is there that Christmas has a particular identity here in the Philippines, but those practices has to do with much importance to money are not likely to be seen to those who barely have none. To those who have to carol for the hope of having their stomachs filled or for the typical old men caroling, to have some drinking session in order to forget awhile the problems they are in, especially he sense of little jealousy they get in seeing those who lavishly bask over their fortune.
The Filipinos fortunately never forgets to celebrate Christmas but to how everyone could ever wish that they can celebrate it lavishly especially on the dire want for money to spend, but some accepted the unfortuous circumstance that they are in, but some wished that their Christmas had gone better because of an overflow of money. In malls, Christmas is none other than a strategic event for commerce and the sad truth is that Jesus was only born on a manger in the animal section of an inn since the inn was already full, and here are Filipinos spending a lot where the family of the celebrant barely found shelter and a decent place to stay. Christmas has gone commercial and contrary to the actual event it was, so Christmas being commemorated today, particularly the Filipinos is deviating from what Christmas was, in the moment when Jesus was born. That then is the ill side of today’s Christmas celebration.
On the good side of the season celebration, some still maintained the spirit of giving as they say, that a selected few do charity work , a selected few tend to minimize cost buy buying only what is needed and necessary or to those who planned to sped their holidays by means of silence. The Filipino’s strong sense of kinship also is a good side of Christmas.
The Filipinos have a variety of ways spending the season and what was mentioned above are a few of the many ways how Filipinos do their holiday season, but what was mentioned were the most common and is part of the identity of a certain Christmas spent by a Filipino.
Commentary to the Article:
In the article “And God Cried ‘Uha!’” by Armosa Velez, she stated a similar content of what is the typical Filipino Christmas is all about to that I stated previously. But she stated about God crying, therefore when one cries, it signifies life or a need. Crying presupposes life since life is a vessel to where crying can take place and one other significance which she noted is that crying as a form of need. God cried, or also portrayed as the child Jesus in a manger. God’s need is for man to have a relationship with Him. This form of interpretation is likely to be done by a priest making a homily for a Christmas mass, but such an interpretation is good and drives a crucial message to the typical Filipino who forgets or never knew that Jesus as the center of event not Santa Claus or other popular icons, 13th month bonuses or gifts. God needs us to be with Him, not to be with these wants, that we should have a relationship with Him. But I will leave one question, since God is this all powerful being, why does He need? Need signifies a negative aspect which is called lack, and a God who lacks cannot be God in a sense. So that will be my hanging question to the article.
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New Year and Noise:
In every end of a year is another start for another year, we are here then reminded of the god Janus to where January got its name, to where January is situated in a transitional period between the previous year to the current one, and Janus has usually picture of two faces facing forward and the other backward. This facing in two opposite directions is also the feel of the celebration of New Year, where mostly all of the people tend to look back to events of the previous year and looking forward to a better year. Filipinos also have this kind of feel to where they look back at the past and account everything that was good or bad of that year and then prepares the upcoming year by wishful thinking of a bright future. Filipinos have this practice of preparing 13 round fruits in New Year to signify an optimistic hunger for good fortune, and to others wearing polka-dot tainted dresses to which extent my great grandmother died who was the only one around who knew about the reason which I failed to ask when I was yet young, and the only one who prevailed the tradition. I also came to encounter that one should not sweep during New Year because it might drive away good fortunes in the year. Well, Filipinos incorporate a lot of superstition to the event, some of them are well known and some of them are unknown to the Filipinos of today. The inevitable practice of firecrackers and the noise it produces and to those who can not afford to blow one, they bang their iron cooking pot lids to one another or banging the bottom of the cooking pot with something or making noise with a home made trumpet, while others use their sound systems and create booming noises around, and the weird one , is making noise in their pockets with coins in it. So much for the introspection and the foresight which sounds so deep and requires solitude, nut the other side of New Year celebration is by making noise, noise of any sort like those mentioned above. What then be the role of noise in such an event. Noise sounds to be irritating but in New Year, people intend to forget the ill side of noise and intend to make noise and if not yet loud, then a lot more until it becomes so noisy, and in addition to the list above are others honking out loud their cars. As tradition says and with the aid of correspondents that noise serves as a repellant to misfortunes and bad spirits, since everybody is aimed at making another year better than the previous, then the noise serves then as somewhat a solution or a ritual to prevent the agents of misfortune or misfortune herself to disturb the foresighted good tidings that has yet to come. Noise also signifies the feeling if liveliness since life should first come to be before any noise could occur because there will be no noise if there is no life to hear it. So everybody wants to start the year as joyfully and lively as possible.
So noise in New Year signifies both, life and the repelling of misfortunes because of an optimistic looking forward due to a unsatisfied reflection of the past, that people still want to find the best in every year and seeks off to find the better of it in the upcoming years.
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Sinulog:
Every year the Filipinos start their new year also with a celebration in honor of the child Jesus or popularly known as Sto. Niño in every third Sunday of January. The Sto. Niño has its historical roots from Europe since it was called the Sto. Niño of Prague and then got into the hands of the voyagers and then is presented as a gift to the natives of the Philippines to where it then feeds our ancestral delight on worshipping almost anything even to the sad truth of them worshipping also the white man. The idol survived a test of being a part of a burning house in which it was dubbed then as a miracle that it was not badly damaged or radically not damaged after all. Since this miracle took place, the rest expected more to happen and that was carried on up to this day that some say typhoons do net get too strong in Cebu since she has the Sto. Niño to protect her. Well I would also say along with the critics that this kind of reasoning is non sense being in the information age, then one could doubt to the fullest that kind of “selective” miracle since geographically speaking Cebu is strategic, but no matter how science develops, it fails to inculcate to the minds of the common Filipino believer , or science did not fail but the Filipino refuses any change in thoughts and is not prepared to have that traditional belief system rechecked. The typical Filipino is religious and when the Filipino is exposed to the Sto. Niño then he could inevitably burst out their sense of religiosity.
Sinulog is this feast and a ritual to the child Jesus, and before the third Sunday of January, there is a novena that serves a preparatory rite for the feast on the last day which is the third Sunday, but also prior to the feast is a procession that will happen on the day before which is Saturday. A sacrificial walk and prayer for the patron then on the day of the feast is the grandeur of the parade in honor of Him. Though religion is something that the masses can understand but the philosophy behind it is quite a challenge to the common understanding. Thought they speak of the proper rituals or of the interpretations of any events that leads to the attribution of power to Sto. Niño, but every religion has in its canvas a philosophy to where it lays its fundamentals into. Why then do most Filipinos revere the Sto. Niño? For that some say that by habit or by custom of asking and praying before Him, they have their prayers answered; this then laid a foundation of beliefs towards the image, and if there be any delay, then one’s implanted belief gives him that virtue of patience since he now therefore believes that delays are due to some circumstances or as a test. Another is, if one found grace or a somewhat miracle done unto him or to any other man, then he attributes it to God, but the common Filipino wants a more tangible source of the said miracle, then if he is close or oriented to the Sto. Niño, then the Sto. Niño receives credit, since the Filipinos from the beginning were idol worshippers, so they intend to find a tangible object of worship. The Filipinos’ search for a tangible object of worship backs then the idea that the Filipinos are concrete. Plus another is the typical sacrificial duty to any religious aspect, like the procession is an act of sacrifice like the sense of the primitive times in order to please the gods, and I think this is a Christianized version of sacrifice, but still yet bears the primitive motive of action.
So the Sinulog, a Filipino trademark with a tincture of European history and some pinch of philosophy so as with the chain connection of how Christianity was transformed by the Filipino frame which still carries in it the religion of our ancestors, or not of our own ancestors but as really how the primitive religions go.
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On the Dissertation regarding Naya-naya:
Usefulness of the useless as what one Chinese man said. There are many things that are apparently useless, because our consciousness is not aware to recognize the importance of what we might call futile. What then can we call at first useless? Useless according to Dr. Velez’s dissertation is the absence of qualities and the absence of being. Why absence of being? Because being for Zhuang Zi is diverse, it can be some things at any time and it can be both actually on the same time reference, but when it is neither of which, because being entails function and if not functional, therefore no being or nothing. To say being diversity, it is like we give a lot of names to one particular object, that resembles other beings as well, like a cow for instance, it is an animal for milking, or a beast with horns; similar with Aristotle’s universal and describing it with its particulars or with accidental cases. Whereas I might understand here is that functionality also refers to being and if that is absent, so as being also. That is why I might assume that something of no use, is nothing at all. But since Zhuang Zi proposed on the usefulness of the useless, he might have seen something that lead him to such, like for what he gave as an example of a very crooked tree, in which its lumber is so useless for furniture making, but try situating that tree amidst a wide open hot desert, and there, that the uselessness of the tree becomes useful.
Also in the dissertation, it mentioned about nothing which is apparently useless, but come to think of it, it is a matter of almost anything or nothing, as presented from a Reader’s digest column, about the importance, the joy and the sadness, the life and death relevance when it comes to nothing, wherein airborne units die if nothing comes out from their back pack and how many men whistle and find joy if women wear it and the like. Therefore, the seemingly apparent uselessness of nothing is somewhat, reverted when further realized that it is something that is important to the point of life and death.
Next I took also in the dissertation the concept of Naya-naya of the Filipinos, which means slow down or in Cebuano “hinay hinay”, wherein it is by means of slowing down that one can pause and reflect for awhile and why does naya-naya take place? Because it is inevitable in life that one encounters hardships and especially when it becomes too overwhelming that one pauses awhile in order to contemplate more on the current dilemma. This also makes one invulnerable in trying times, because one is re-energizing himself to take on the odds further, and also as defined in the dissertation that it is “a shield” from the chaotic world. Naya-naya is also finding courage and calm.
Silence is something that seems to be useless, but to Zhuang Zi, it is thus apparently so, but one does not know what use it might be for anybody. Silence is like nothing, no sound, and thus again nothing seems to be useless, but as what was mentioned earlier, it means a lot. Nothing means a lot. If silence can be equated to nothing, then also silence means a lot, why? As mentioned in the dissertation, silence is what Filipinos long for, or is the end of naya-naya or it is a means also. It is an end because at the end, amongst troubled times, one must overcome and achieves tranquility and not only as end but means, since to find calmness which is in naya-naya one must need to be silent, meaning in order to calm down, one must calm down and in order to arrive at silence, one must be silent in the way. So in silence therefore, Filipinos find a refuge amongst the hardshipand in naya-naya, it assures that silence is achieved, and in silence too is done along the way. Silence after all is apparently useless, but it is thus silence, one Filipino likes to achieve in naya-naya. To be a little comical, since silence is nothing, then the Filipino wants to achieve nothing.
As mentioned also in the dissertation, not only silence can be the only means in naya-naya, but seeing that Filipinos are more or like paradoxical or maybe not only Filipinos, but some people in the extent that their means is different than that of tranquility, is that noise also is a useless object, and even very irritating to point that it is unwanted, but is useful n the sense that some find comfort in it. The typical example presented by Dr. Velez is that for some instances, disco parties which have very loud and very noisy ambience makes one “feels the silence from the noise outside”. Sounds so paradoxical but in fact some really find comfort in crowds while others find comfort in being alone. But what is it in silence as an end, is longed for to be an end? As mentioned again, in silence one achieves happiness, meaning the comfort from turmoil regardless of the means, but silence as nothing as apparently useless is also happiness since it alleviates one from his or her disparity.
Conclusion:
So to sum up, the apparently useless is useful, and to mention one apparent futile object is nothing, which in the sense silence is also nothing, so as with noise, in which their seemingly futility is but a façade to what is really useful behind it and in fact in naya-naya, of the Filipino context, silence is the end so as the means, and noise too as a means, both are no things and yet in the end a Filipino achieves happiness.
I am in agreement as to what we seemingly perceive futile in things because it serves us no function, and the funny thing is, it serves us no function yet. A lot we deem useless maybe the reason that we do not know yet what is it worth, and that we disregard it, yet realization has to take place in order to make that apparent useless to something useful and especially when time calls it to become useful.
So silence and noise, as apparently useless are useful when one realizes how those no things are of good use, not even in material respects, but in one’s psychology or even his spirituality.
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On the Filipino Philosophy why not and Filipino philosophy of time:
The staggering question for national identity was abs sue and still remains an issue up to this point among Filipinos. Language was an issue, also the quest for that original Filipino or how really a Filipino looks like. Until it reached to the point where philosophy has to take the hot seat, wherein, is there really one? We all get deluded by facts that there are really certain brands of philosophy because they came from where it has brought about, like German Philosophy because it is from Germany or is done by Germans. Yet among the diversity of philosophies that are springing forth, it must not get the deserved fact of being branded since “deep understanding of reality is not colored”, and since understanding is not colored then it is also genderless, nationality-less. So philosophy in general, knows no race nor color, in fact I postulate a reason why there is such plurality, because there is this audacity to claim things as ours especially when it came out from us and all the more when we are the most vocal about it and another is that others do not know about it yet. But Dr. Velez is right in pointing out that there is no race or color in philosophy, that is why she leaves us with a question that is doing Filipino philosophy simply doing philosophy? Plus if a Filipino is thinking, is he conscious that he is already philosophizing? Then all the cases can lead to why is there not any Filipino philosophy, since primarily, our mind is not colored therefore there can not be German, Chinese and even Filipino philosophy. Plus the Filipino tends to be less conscious that what he is doing is already philosophy.
This is only the why not of philosophy, but the why there is one is also equally deliberated by Dr. Velez that there is a unique clear and distinct appearance of philosophy in the Filipino context. Knowing that the Filipino has too a distinct experience and consequentially summing all that and it leads to the expression of language, can a philosophy spring forth therefore, and the why is there Filipinos philosophy is thereby a yes there is, because the “Filipino amazement will somehow capture. . . a commonality that incarnates the Filipino soul – thereby constitutes Filipino philosophy.
Dr. Velez both argued the why and the why not of a Filipino philosophy and that I think will be another antinomy, that either sides can be proven, yet we do not know really what. But Dr. Velez could not continue her paper if she (I hope I got this right) took the side of the “why is there”, since that side leads her into a formation of a course outline of such.
She also included in the outline Time, in which justifies the why not, that in the mind being not colored, thinks the same, therefore everybody and every known human being (sane) recognizes time. Here Dr. Velez elaborates on a specific aspect of time which is the Filipino time, given the chance to think in behalf of what is we Filipinos know of time, and since we Filipinos have not yet had extensive discourses about time, then one better source to where Filipinos express their concept of time are through proverbs. Though proverbs are not like “The Critique of Pure Reason” where they discuss exhaustively on time, but they are made up of few lines, that carry within it messages that are clearly exposed by the proverb and others that are somewhat “subliminal” if I may use the word.
The first proverb is:
“Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makarating sa parorooanan.”
Or simply, one cannot go forward unless, he knows how to look back. What the proverb might tell us in moral context is that beware of not learning from anything, because it might not lead you forward. The first line denotes one having committed something wrong, and the second line makes the justification of why is there no progress when errors are not learned and therefore prevented. He must then learn from the past. What is underlying also in this proverb is the concept of time, wherein, in this context, there is past and a future and the implied time is the present wherein one is situated at to glimpse either ways. Not only then is time linear, but cyclical as well as it is implied in the proverb, because it is justified that looking back is a form of situating oneself back at some point thereof, but not only is it cyclical but spiral since in a spiral motion, something is higher and in a different level. So being in that time of looking into the past is at the higher level then when one submerges himself into the past, he is going back to that level and cyclical since there is this somewhat repetition, but spiral because it goes in different levels.
With respect to other proverbs mentioned that involves the concept of time as cyclical, some of them includes also that time is a canvass in which things happen in it or is the receptacle of change, especially in the second proverb:
“Kung hihingi ang isang bata ng paying pambinata, Ibigay mo kung kaya sa bulsa, Dahil minsan lang siyang bata.”
The being young and further of a person happens in Time and also shows that time can not be repeated since there is that last line that “she is just once a child”. Therefore she can no longer be a child again.
The Filipino is also conscious on being on time especially noted well on the third proverb regarding giving hay to where there is no longer a horse, and lastly on the fourth proverb that emphasizes time implying wisdom, since what the old man does is good and true for the child, that time molded the old man and therefore has the status of being an icon for the child to follow.
Conclusion:
In respect to how Dr. Velez provided the therefore-I-dubbed-it-as-antinomy, I acquiesce tot hat since the existence of such philosophy which is Filipino can be proven equally in both ways, but to add a sense of nationalistic pride, we therefore had to take into consideration finding what we really do have for a philosophy, knowing still in the end, it has no colors, but as for now, we are exhausting a lot more on what a Filipino really knows on some things, and since by the lack of literary basis, we do have proverbs that do tell us what we think of things especially to one topic specified which is time.
For now we have colors, but whether in pigment or in light, all colors will boil down to white (in light), or black (in pigment). Liken it to Hegel, these are just moments in history, and we will all end up in the
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