Victor John Loquias: “Pagtood, Pagkanood, Pakikipagkatood” Page 1 Thomism and Asian Cultures: Celebrating 400 Years of Dialogue Across Civilizations Pagtood, Pagkanood, Pakikipagkatood: Practice, Learning and Friendship in Bikol Thought Victor John M. Loquias Abstract The Bikol term tood could mean “habituated, used, familiar, practiced or experienced.” It is also the root word of pagtood, pagkanood and pakikipagkatood which are the Bikol terms for learning, practice, and friendship. When they are analyzed according to their uses in ordinary language, the meaning of action, thought and friendship are found to be interlaced and constitute a holistic body of understanding because of tood as their common central concept. Learning is an activity acquired through practice and practice develops into an activity of learning. Thought and action are intertwined because learning as pagkanood comprises all physical and intellectual activities which are acquired through pagtood. What is practiced and learned become habits of thought and action that brings home an individual to his socio-historical situation where learns all his kinatudan (traditions, customs and body of knowledge). Learning is both a historically concrete and progressively dynamic enterprise. All learning or kanoodan come from the society’s kinatudan thus, pagkanood is a process of habituating or owning of his historical situation. But the owning of the society’s kinatudan involves a forward movement of development towards something more progressive. “Pagkanood kan kinatudan” or understanding of one’s learning implies pagkasabot or wisdom. Wisdom of kanoodan makes learning a continuous task bent to the enrichment and widening of the society’s stream of kinatudan.
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Victor John Loquias: “Pagtood, Pagkanood, Pakikipagkatood”
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Thomism and Asian Cultures: Celebrating 400 Years of Dialogue Across Civilizations
Pagtood, Pagkanood, Pakikipagkatood: Practice, Learning and
Friendship in Bikol Thought
Victor John M. Loquias
Abstract
The Bikol term tood could mean “habituated, used, familiar, practiced or
experienced.” It is also the root word of pagtood, pagkanood and
pakikipagkatood which are the Bikol terms for learning, practice, and friendship.
When they are analyzed according to their uses in ordinary language, the
meaning of action, thought and friendship are found to be interlaced and
constitute a holistic body of understanding because of tood as their common
central concept.
Learning is an activity acquired through practice and practice develops into
an activity of learning. Thought and action are intertwined because learning as
pagkanood comprises all physical and intellectual activities which are acquired
through pagtood. What is practiced and learned become habits of thought and
action that brings home an individual to his socio-historical situation where learns
all his kinatudan (traditions, customs and body of knowledge).
Learning is both a historically concrete and progressively dynamic
enterprise. All learning or kanoodan come from the society’s kinatudan thus,
pagkanood is a process of habituating or owning of his historical situation. But
the owning of the society’s kinatudan involves a forward movement of
development towards something more progressive. “Pagkanood kan kinatudan”
or understanding of one’s learning implies pagkasabot or wisdom. Wisdom of
kanoodan makes learning a continuous task bent to the enrichment and widening
of the society’s stream of kinatudan.
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Pakikipagkatood or friendship provides the intersubjective dimension of
thought and action. Katood, derived from the words tood and kapwa describes
two or more persons who inhabit a world of kinatudan linked together by a
personal bond. As magkatood they continuously choose to live together as they
find themselves at home with each other’s company. Likewise friendship is also
an activity that is learned and practiced but it is the one that tunes up learning
and practice to the goal of solidarity.
Ω
A Bikolano who speaks the three words pagtood, pagkanood and katood
signifies three different ideas but pronounces the words with almost the same
sounds. These words are the terms for practice, learning and friend in Bikol
language. They sound alike because they vary only in their affixes and bear tood
as the same root word. Hence the similar sounds are by no means mere
coincidence instead it implies that the three concepts enunciated are related to
each other.
This paper explains the central thought running through the Bikolano
understanding of practice, learning and friendship in the term tood. It will explain
as well the meaning of practice, learning and friendship as it is used in Bikolano
ordinary language and draws insight from Bikol literature where silent
philosophical undertones are waiting to be articulated. At the end it claims that
the central concept of tood interlaces thought, action and human relation.
Tood as a Central Concept
The idea of a central concept is based on the actual observation of the use
of tood as root word for different terms that convey different meanings. In Tria
and Lobel’s mini dictionary of the Bikol language tood is defined as “habituated,
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used, adopted and practiced.”1 In an earlier dictionary by Malcolm Mintz, tood
could mean “accustomed to, acquainted with, experienced, familiar with, handy,
proficient in, used to and an old hand at.2
Here are some examples of sentences using tood:
1. Nagtotood akong magmaneho nin kotse. (I am practicing how to drive a
car.)
2. Tood na si Juan magtagalog. (Juan already speaks Tagalog proficiently.)
3. Tood na si Jose sa kadlagan kaya dai siya nalalagalag. (Jose is familiar with
the jungle so he does not get lost.)
4. Tood akong magmata nin amay. (I am used to waking up early.)
5. Dai tood si Juan mag-istar sa malipot na lugar. (Juan is not adopted to live
in a cold place.)
Despite the different equivalent terms of tood in the English language, it
articulates a common idea running through the different meanings that unifies
them. But since tood is being explained here in the English language it is
important to choose a term that is nearest and most apt to point us out to its
central meaning. Thus, the term habit will be used as the general equivalent of
tood.
Papano natotood an sarong tawo? This question could be translated in
many ways such as: “how does one becomes used to, familiar with, experienced,
proficient in or familiar?” depending on the direct object being asked. All
questions nonetheless presuppose the concept of habit.
1 Tria lobel Jason William Lobel and Fr. Wilmer Joseph S. Tria, An Satuyang Tataramon A Study of the Bikol Language. (Lobel and Tria Partnership, Co., 2000), 324.
2 Malcolm W. Mintz, Bikol Dictionary, Vol II Bikol – English Dictionary 2nd ed. (Western Australia: Indonesian/Malay Texts and Resources, 1985), 972.
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In Bikol, the answer to this question would simply be “natotood an sarong
tawo sa pagtood” (A man acquires a habit through practice.). Pagtood or practice
means doing the same action repeatedly until one gets used to it. It is an activity
that grows into a habit. Thus the root word of pagtood (practice) is tood (habit).
The Bikol term for action though is gibo. And when one does the same
action all over again, it becomes his gibo-gibo which could mean manner,
character or habit. Thus, in this sense we could say “pinagtotoodan kan sarong
tawo an saiyang gibo-gibo.” (A man habituates his actions). Tood then as habit
assumes the meaning of action.
Pagtood or Practice
Pagtood means to customarily or repeatedly perform an activity that
eventually develops into a habit. In Bikol language any activitiy that is habitually
done can be expressed by the term. Thus thinking is not really conceived as
abstract because it is practical which means, it can be practiced and therefore
habituated.
Consider the following examples:
1. Nagtotood magbasa asin magbilang an mga estudyante. (The students are
practicing how to read and count.)
2. Nagtotood akong magtaram nin Tagalog. (I’m practicing how to speak in
Tagalog.)
3. Kaipuhan magtood an mga estudyante nin pamimilosopiya. (Students need
to practice philosophical reflection)
The actions involved in the given examples require thinking. And the use of
pagtood emphasizes thinking as a practical activity.
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A more concrete testament of the understanding of thinking as a practical
enterprise could be found in old Bikol literature. The Bikol term for riddle is
patood 3 and the game of asking riddles is called patotodon (riddling). 4 “The
patotodon or riddles reveal a concern with the familiar and material. Here the
abstract is made concrete. The first part is a positive metaphorical description.
The second part introduces an element to confuse.” 5 Here is an example of
patotodon:
Nagtanom ako nin ransas
Sa tahaw nin dagat
Kadakul an naghahanap
Saro-saro an nagkapalad
I planted oranges
In the middle of the sea
Many looked for it
Only one was lucky (to find it) Answer: Maiden
To know the answer to a riddle requires thinking. As Realubit adds, “far
from being simply descriptions whose referents must be guessed or revealed,
riddles are questions which must be answered.”6 But the thinking done in riddling
is not far removed from concrete human experience because “the subjects of
3 Ibid
4 Maria Lilia F. Realubit, Bikols of the Philippines. (Naga City Philippines: A.M.S. Press, 1983), 91.
5 _______________, Bikol Literary History. (Bikol Heritage Society, Inc., 2001
Bikols of the Philippines), 18
6 Bikols of the Philippines, 92.
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riddles are the familiar and concrete things in life.”7 And in riddling “what man
sees he tries to define and describe by giving it life or personification.”8
Obviously patood and patotodon are terms both derived from the root tood.
To be able to give answers to riddles one is required not just to think but to think
in a familiar way as the questioner does. This is a requisite because “the
understanding of these riddles depends entirely on participation in a culture
system (i.e. shared language, world view, etc.).”9 Thinking in this sense is an
activity that shows the concreteness and situatedness of man because pagtood
(practice) is an activity that is performed within a social context. To practice
means to habituate sets of practices and meanings already found where one
happens to live. These include the norms, customs, traditions and bodies of
learning in the society. Incidentally the Bikol term for these is kinatudan or
pinagkatoodan which is again derived from the root word tood. Kinatudan
therefore are sets of solidified habits found in the society. Pagtood then is a
process of habituating or owning of the society’s kinatudan which brings home an
individual to his socio-historical situation.
Pagtood as a process begins as early as a child learns how to speak a
language. The first activities that a child learns are themselves the result of
patood (training) that the child acquires through pagtood (practice). Human
existence as a whole is conceived as pagtood. As the process continues the child
becomes a part of the social milieu. This means that the person has habituated
the socio-historical situation he is in. And so he becomes a man of learning, a
man who can be entitled with being “a learned.” Learning in Bikol language is
spoken as pagkanood, another word derived from tood.
7 Ibid
8 Ibid 93.
9 Ibid 94
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Pagkanood or Learning
Pagkanood or kanoodan means learning. And learning based on its root
word in the Bikol language is the process of habituation reaching its completion
through practice. The Bikol epic Ibalong10 implicitly illustrates the portrait of a
learned man in the person of Kadungung. In the myth kadungung is addressed as
a wise man implored by the bird Iling to narrate the story of Handiong who
fought against wild beasts, settled in the land of Bikol and built a civilization
where his people could live in peace and abundance. Kadungung is the prototype
of a man who has acquired kanoodan (learning).
To be a learned man means two things. First, that one has achieved
intelligence. The word for intelligence in Bikol is dunong. Kadungung’s name it
will be noticed is derived from dunong, thus sometimes it is pronounced
Kadunung. Kadunungan or intelligence nonetheless does not simply mean having
a high I.Q or to be highly educated in a University. A madunong (intelligent
person) is one who has achieved mastery of a certain technical know-how within
or outside the walls of the school. Thus Manny Pacquiao could be considered a
madunong na paraboksing (intelligent boxer) because of his mastery of his craft.
A madunong na paratanom (intelligent farmer) knows the right season to plant a
crop and the proper way of taking care of it to enhance its growth and reap a
good harvest. And an academician is labeled likewise not only because of his
wide array of knowledge but also of his mastery of them. One is learned in the
respective fields because he has mastered or in other words habituated
(natudan) it through practice (pagtood). The learning of the technical know-how
10 An Satuyang Tataramon, 226-232.
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moreover should never be conceived as a private endeavour because it actually
takes place with other people within his concrete socio-historical situation. So the
practice of his technical knowledge cannot be separated from how it is actually
applied in his society. This goes to say that the learning of any technical
knowledge comes simultaneously with learning (pagkanood as habituation) of the
society’s kinatudan (norms, customs, traditions, culture and etc.). Kadungung in
the epic is praised by Iling as the only one capable and most apt to speak of
Handiong’s escapades because he himself is immersed in the way of life of his
narrative.11 Technical knowledge is learned together with the way of life in a
given society. What Kadungung recounts is itself the story of which his life is
included. As Realubit writes “Ibalon is the only Phillipine epic which recounts a
people’s story in carving for themselves a place to live in the midst of wilderness
and in beginning a civilized life.”12
The second meaning of being a learned is the acquisition of pagkasabot or
understanding. Wrenched again from the epic of ibalong, kadungung is here
interpreted as a man of understanding in his act of narrating the story of
Handiong. Iling which is the metaphor of the people in the epic extols Kadungung
as a narrator because aside from his learning he also understands the way of life
he tells in his narrative. Fr. Wilmer Tria, probably looking up to Fr. Roque Ferriols’
description of Insight13 defines pagkasabot as paghiling kan sadiring isip14 (a way
11 “For a bird Iling to begin the epic chant by asking Cadugnung to tell the story is itself indicative of the myth behind words and the way of life of the people. In Bikol folksong the bird is treated with much care and respect lest it feel sad and cause harm or abandon the people.” Bikols of the Philippines, 148
12Ibid., 143
13 Roque Ferriols, “Insight” in Philosophy of Man: Selected Readings by M. Dy. (Makati: Goodwill Trading, 2003), 3-6.
14 Wilmer Joseph S. Tria, Ako Asin an Kapwa Ko Pilosopiya nin Tawo. (Naga Pilipinas:
Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2009), 10
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of seeing with the mind). He further describes and likens this way of seeing with
an owl’s sharp eyesight.15 Because of a wide and deep way of seeing, a man of
understanding sees more than just what the naked eye sees. Understanding
gives man an insight that sheds light to his being and allows man to act
according to the light of understanding achieved. 16 The understanding
exemplified by Kadungung in the epic is no other than the way of life of his
narrative, which means the understanding of his learning itself (kinatudan).
Understanding of kinatudan is deemed as the most important learning one could
have because the wilful acceptance in freedom and/or dynamism of the stream of
kinatudan itself becomes possible. Freedom makes sense only in the point that
one gains an understanding of his habits. Thus the term for freedom in Bikol is
katalingkasan which is derived from the root talingkas which means “break” or
“rupture.” Freedom means to achieve a certain understanding of his habits so
that one could willingly embrace it, change it or unlearn it.
This means that pagkanood is a continuous process through pagtood. In
the epic, kadungung did not end the story of Handiong rather he stops his
narration and promises to tell the story some other time. It could possibly be
inferred that Kadungung understands the dynamism of human existence.
Learning (habituation) is a never ending task and so understanding (pagkasabot)
is likewise a lifetime endeavour. The reaction of Handiong to the last monster
slain where Kadungung cuts his narration is expressive of this idea. Instead of
rejoicing as his people did Handiong stood in amazement at the sight of the
creature (Rabot) and was absorbed in deep reflection before being able to return
to his senses. With this Realubit remarks on the last stanza,
15 Ibid. 9
16 Ibid.
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If there were no sequels to this fragment, the end as presented here is
quite logical. The last stanza says that Cadungung the narrator would continue his narration on another day’s leisure. Suppose there was no other
day because the Spaniards had come driving the Bard away or even
holding Handiong and his people captive? Then the Spanish came at the
right moment, and Handiong correctly foresaw the coming of a new age
and aptly mourned the death of his time. A serious young man, he was, too, a thinker and a philosopher.17
A demythologized interpretation of the end of Handiong’s story, if Realubit
is right, would only be the change of kinatudan or ways of life because of new
sets of practices and learning to be imposed by the colonizers. Handiong at the
last part of the story showed his understanding of what is to come which
perfectly exemplified another of Tria’s description of pagkasabot. “An pagkasabot
pwede man na magdara nin kamundoan kun ini igwang nahihiling na dakulang
peligro o kaputikan na natatahoban”18 (Understanding brings mourning at the
sight of a danger or concealed lie.). What else could Handiong foreseen but the
whole process of colonization approaching and endangering the way of living he
has established and lies concealed to usurp the riches of the land narrated by
Kadungung in mythological language? Colonization is no other than the
imposition of bodies of learning (kanoodan) and habits (kinatudan) through
practice (pagtood) outside the realm of friendship (pakikipagkatood).
Kadungung’s lesson for us in his narrative silently speaks about
understanding as the all important learning a man could have. For a colonized
nation, an understanding of the structure of human existence as moulded by sets
of practices and learning is required to be able to achieve distance from habits
17 Bikols of the Philippines, 152-153
18 Ako Asin an Kapwa Ko, 9
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imposed so one could either wilfully accept them or change them in the light of
progress that one would want to carve out for himself and his society.
Pakikipagkatood
Katood as it was first discussed by Fr. Wilmer Tria19 is the old Bikol term for
friend that is produced by joining the two root words kapwa and tood. Kapwa is a
universal term in Filipino languages that pertain to another person conceived as a
companion.20 To be magkatood (friends) would then mean “to inhabit the same
world of values.”21
Friendship is also something that is learned through practice thus it needs
time. It is not gained overnight rather, “it is a product of a long acquaintance.”22
Tood implies that friendship is built in time so it could be habituated. Friendship
is practicing and learning “pakikipamuhay” (living and being with) with one’s
kapwa. To coexist with one’s kapwa means that one shares kinatudan and way of
life with his kapwa and more importantly, one is willing to enter and live with the
kapwa’s kinatudan and world of values. This makes friendship coexistence par
excellence because it becomes the concretization of human solidarity. Adrian
Remodo, in a journal,23 describes pakikisumaro, the Bikol term for solidarity, as
the highest form of coexistence (pakikipagkapwa) because two persons no longer
19 Wilmer Joseph S. Tria, “Friendship: Bikol Philosophy Perspective” in Pagpukaw,
An Invitation to Philosophize, Vol. 3 Edited by Wilmer Joseph S. Tria, (Philosophy Department, Ateneo de Naga University, 2007), 41-47.
