Questions about soul and reincarnation

[mohdanas]

What is a soul? How to best define it? 

 

Does a soul have a personality of its own? What I mean here is,  just like people are different at the level of their mind dew to their learning and personality, are two people different at the level of their soul dew to certain traits? 

 

What is a spirit? The difference between soul, spirit and pure consciousness. 

 

Why are we born? 

 

Is reincarnation true? 

 

If so, why are we reincarnated again and again? Do moksha ( end of reincarnation ) a true? 

 

Thank You. 

 

 

 

 

[Joseph Maynor]

Those are all great questions.  What you’re gonna do on the Path is deep-dive all those questions.  What you have there is like an investigation itinerary.  You’re gonna go on an expedition to try to find answers to those kinds of questions.  That’s the Path.  You already got a great sense of what the beginning of the Path looks look like.  You can see the issues.  That’s great.  Being puzzled is the first step of the Path.

Edited March 13, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[mohdanas]

16 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Those are all great questions.  What you’re gonna do on the Path is deep-dive all those questions.  What you have there is like an investigation itinerary.  You’re gonna go on an expedition to try to find answers to those kinds of questions.  That’s the Path.  You already got a great sense of what the beginning of the Path looks look like.  You can see the issues.  That’s great.  Being puzzled is the first step of the Path.

Thank you, The core reason for understanding this is to understand why we are born, if reincarnation happens again and again and for a reason, that we have to work towards in this life, then I will definitely want to work towards it. 

Edit: I need some guidance, some basic answers to my question and resource materials that I can go through. 

Edited March 13, 2018 by mohdanas

[mohdanas]

Have been searching the net and found some of the answers. 

the Mundaka Upanishad (3.1.9) explains that the living being is the soul, and that: “The soul is atomic in size and can be perceived by perfect intelligence. This atomic soul is situated within the heart, and spreads its influence all over the body of the embodied living entities. When the soul is purified from the contamination of the five kinds of material air, its spiritual influence is exhibited.”

My Thoughts 

Beautiful, so the soul is as small as an atom, not like the energy in the human shape as shown in movies. 

It is situated within the heart and spread its influence all over the body, so this basically hints that it is more than blood that is going through the body, the heart is performing its function to regulate blood but underneath much more is happening, this make me curious as to what the soul is doing to channel its influence throughout the body like heart. 

 

 

It is further explained that we should know that which pervades the entire body by consciousness is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul. Only the material body of the eternal living entity is subject to destruction. . . For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, undying and eternal. He is not slain when the body dies or is killed. . . As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.

My Thoughts 

So, the soul just is and is forever but then why does it go through different bodies? 

What is the reason for the journey of the soul from body to body? 

 

 

The Katha Upanishad relates that within the body, higher than the senses and the sense objects, exists the mind. More subtle than the mind is the intelligence, and higher and more subtle than the intellect is the self. That self is hidden in all beings and does not shine forth, but is seen by subtle seers through their sharp intellect.

My Thoughts 

Layer of human being

- Body

- Senses 

- Mind 

- Intellect ( what is this ?) 

- True Self/ No Self 

 

 

From this we can understand that within the gross physical body, composed of various material elements, such as earth, air, water, etc., there is also the subtle body composed of the finer subtle elements of mind, intelligence and false ego. The psychic activities take place within the subtle body. It is also within the subtle body wherein exist the memories of past lives, however deep they may be. Yet, the living being has his spiritual form that is deeper than this subtlety, otherwise he could not have repeated births. A person actually sees his spiritual self as well as the presence   of   the   Supreme   Being   when   he perceives that both the gross and subtle bodies have nothing to do with the pure, spiritual self within. Therefore, it could be asked that since we are separate from the gross and subtle bodies, why do we so strongly identify with the material body? It is explained that though the material body is different from the soul, it is because of the ignorance due to material association that one falsely identifies oneself with the high and low bodily conditions.

 

My Thoughts 

Alright, I do believe in reincarnation and past life, and now this text tells me that we can have access to the memories of your past lives. 

Yo Leo, have you accessed your past lives yet?

 So, to summarize, the soul is a particle of consciousness and bliss in its purified state of being. It is not material in any way. It is what departs from the body at the time of death and, in the subtle body, carries its mental impressions, desires and tendencies, along with the karmic results of its activities from one body to another. To understand and perceive this self, which is our genuine spiritual identity, is the real goal of life. Such a realization relieves one of further material existence. As it is explained, those who have purified their consciousness, becoming absorbed in spiritual knowledge and absolving any impurities in the mind, are liberated from karma that frees them from any future births. They are free from any more births in the material world and are delivered to the spiritual atmosphere. How to do this is the ultimate accomplishment of human existence. 

My Thoughts 

If soul is a particle of consciousness, then what other particles constitute consciousness? 

So the personality of the soul would be related to the mental impressions, desires and tendencies, and karma that it takes away after death of the body? 

According the author and blogger "Stephan Khapp"

- to understand and perceive this self a.k.a enlightenment is the real goal of our life. 

- It will free yourself from the birth cycle. 

 

 

Is anyone familiar with the work of "stephan kapp", should I order and read his book on vedas understanding and enlightenment? 

 

 

 

[NikitaW]

The discussion of self or non self goes back all the way to the buddha and has often been changed since then. I am in Thailand at the moment and here lived a famous buddhist monk Buddhadasa. He translated the original Pali texts again. He says that there is no self whats so ever.  Nor soul. Only in the relative truth one has still a self for he is in a state of delusion. In the absolute truth there is no self (anatta) an no birth no death. He also says to hold on to higher self (ātman) leads to attachment. And nibbāna is more like a extinction zone freed from cause and effect without a self. What i learned from the monks there is that the wheel of dependent origination (basis of reincarnation samsara) is actually not meant in a way of the physical rebirth, but more like the ego that gets created in a second of a thought process in the 12 nidānas and that you can train your mind to bee so fast that you catch your own ignorance in the point of contact with the six senses and transform it into wisdom thru true insight of the very nature of things. Impermanence.

[Nahm]

18 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Those are all great questions.  What you’re gonna do on the Path is deep-dive all those questions.  What you have there is like an investigation itinerary.  You’re gonna go on an expedition to try to find answers to those kinds of questions.  That’s the Path.  You already got a great sense of what the beginning of the Path looks look like.  You can see the issues.  That’s great.  Being puzzled is the first step of the Path.

?❤️