What Is This Soul?

[Dodo]

Is soul just the spiritual Ego? Claiming that you are an entity that controls this earthly body? Always sounded to me like Ego, ever since I got introduced to non-duality, which in my view is real spirituality.

But conventional spirituality always talk about Souls etc. Is it just some lovey dovey belief or is there some truth to this Soul character guy.

[Prabhaker]

32 minutes ago, Dodoster said:

What Is This Soul?

Really, no matter what we call it, we will miss it. Any conceptualization is going to miss the real - any conceptualization - so whatever has been known as the self, the soul, the atman, is not the real thing. It cannot be. All those who have defined it, have defined it with a condition: that they are trying something that is absurd. That which cannot be said they are saying; that which cannot be defined they are defining; that which cannot be known they are making a theory about.

There have been three attitudes about it.

First, there have been the mystics, the knowers, who have remained totally silent about it. They will not give any definition; they say definition is futile. Then there has been another group of mystics - the largest group - that says, "Even an effort that is futile can be helpful. Sometimes even untrue theory leads to truth, sometimes even wrongs may become rights, sometimes even a false step may lead you to a right end. It may look false at the moment, or in the end it may even prove false, but still, false devices can help."

This second group feels that by remaining silent you are still saying something, that nothing can be said. And this second type of mystic has a point. Definitions belong to them. Then there is a third type who has been neither silent nor who has defined. They have just denied the whole thing in order that you will not be at all obsessed with it.

Buddha belongs to this third type. If you ask him whether there is a soul, whether there is God, whether there is an existence beyond life, he will just deny it.

[Toby]

There are many different point of views on this. One is this:

 

[Martin123]

@Dodoster It is the individuation of god into you that is on its infinite journey to merge with the absolute again. Ego is a part of the journey, liberation is definitely not the end LOL.

[Echoes]

I liked the description from the book "Conversations with God" I don't know if it's true though:

Imagine a house with 5 rooms. There is only 1 space in the house with permeates all 5 rooms, but the space of every single room might have a different smell or feeling if you enter it. There is no real seperation, and the transition from room to room is undifferentiated. Equally, our souls are not really seperate, but might have developed certain unique tendencies which lead to specific manifestations and experiences.

[Loreena]

I've always likened the soul to computer analogy. Our spirit uses this body to interact with the physical world. The spirit is like you sitting in front of your computer. What you think of as you is just an avatar. Something the spirit has chosen to attach itself to. What we are just ads to the spirit. The spirit the soul is eternal. We just exist in this world, so we might as well enjoy it.

[jse]

Our hands reach out to touch the world, yet they are not separate from our body.  I see our Souls in a similar fashion, as an expression of the Indivisible awareness, reaching out to touch and experience this duality we are so fond of.

And just like our left and right hands which are made for each other, perhaps there is a soul mate for each of us wandering souls.

[Nahm]

I think the soul is a good enough concept to pursue connection. The acceptance & understanding of the whole God / everything isn't always readily available. 

[pluto]

Our energetic blueprint?