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Soulby Jim FreedomWe have a soul, so we have been told. We must believe that we have a soul. Belief in a soul is only an intermediate step between what we want and what we have. It is a practice created to assist us along the way. But, the belief in a soul, like any artificial creation, eventually it gets in our way. This belief becomes a burden. When we look at why we choose to believe in a soul, we must ask ourselves what we are making important. What form (our 'self') do we worship? Are we practicing idolatry? When no form, no idol, not even our soul becomes important to us then we are perfectly free to live life. When we have nothing to lose, we are free to follow our heart. We have nothing to fear so why not love. One of the "Principles of Truth" is that the truth shall set you free. SO, that which does not speak of freedom is not of the truth. Are you trapped with your soul? Are we bound by what our soul has experienced? When we ask a question, we expose our doubts, our weaknesses, to the world. Any corrupt and manipulative person could use this to control and manipulate you. If a person were fearful then they may 'an-swer' you with a concept that creates a controlling fear in you. Such is the idea of soul. The idea of a soul does have its value. It is a relative point or perspective. For example: one person has a certain size foot and a second person has smaller size foot. The first person's shoe is not right for the second person. The second person's shoe is not right for the first person. Yet this does not make the shoes either right or wrong in themselves only as they are relative to the person's foot. A third person comes along who has no feet. Neither the first person's or the second person's shoe will fit. The question is not relative for the third person has not position. For the third person there is no right or wrong shoe. So truth is relative to the position that is taken. Right and wrong, good and evil require a datum, a point of focus, a reference point. For humanity the datum is the self or soul. As long as you are a human you will have the datum of self and soul. When you awaken and realize that you are a god and recognize in reality that you have no self or soul then you are free of datum. Without datum there is no right nor wrong, no good nor evil. Without self and soul you are free to love and appreciate all that is. BUT (and this is a BIG but) prudence is necessary for survival. When you get to understand that we are not going to survive this thing called life, we wonder why worry about it. It is the worrying that destroys the quality of the life experience. It is the concern for ourselves, our body and soul, that creates the fear and erodes the joy and love. The whole truth is that for a whole life one is aware of both the desire to be prudent and the desire to be free of worry and concern. Too much of either will be self-destructive. Too much prudence will erode the inner quality of life. Too little prudence will destroy the body through which we experience life and without which we would not have the opportunity to enjoy and love life. What does it mean to no longer have a soul or self? It means that you no longer think of your self or soul as important. It means you no longer concern yourself with your self. When you have experienced the truth of the absence of permanence or realness of self or soul, then it's temporariness becomes insignificant. You become insignificant. If you are insignificant and unimportant then you have nothing to lose in life. You become free to experience all that life has to offer. Of course, you will also recognize that if your soul or self is insignificant then so is everybody else's soul and self. Then only the quality of the play of life becomes important. The only real question remaining is, Are you enjoying or loving life? Hence, the fulfillment of the scriptures is to love. When you no longer have a self or soul then you have broadened your mind, you have expanded you awareness, you have gone beyond the body and mind, you have denied thyself completely. Now you can go on to something greater, much greater. You go on to infinity. Now there is no end to you, because there was no beginning. No you have eternal life, with no beginning or end. No amount of thinking can release us from this question. It is only one we come to the breaking point that we willingly let go of the question. And it is in the peace and stillness that comes after letting go that gives us the clarity to perceive the perfect truth that will set us perfectly free. This creates a dilemma: How much philosophies, theologies, doctrines and beliefs are too much and how much is not enough? The answer, you can not possible know. Here is where you get the opportunity to jump with faith. When you realize that life, soul or self is less important than getting peace from the question, then you will be free. Then you will let go of the questions. Then you will be free to enjoy and love what is. We do not need to be limited by our concept of soul. Nor do we need to be limited by the ideas of life after death and reincarnation. The truth shall set you free so that which does not speak of freedom is not of the truth. If there are aspect of our concept of soul that create limitation in our minds then that aspect is not based on truth or reality. If we feel trapped in our destiny by our acts or karma then we have based our feelings on untruths. If we have an expectation based on our belief about soul, life after death or reincarnation, then we are en-trapping ourselves in our belief. Do you have a belief that something, anything, you do here in life will affect what happens to you when you die? Are you afraid that you might go to hell or reincarnate as something less than desirable because you were a bad little boy or a bad little girl? If you have these beliefs then you are dealing with an untruth in you concept of soul. Where did the concept of soul first originate? We will probably never know absolutely, and it does not really matter who started the idea, but we can imagine our somebody might of come of with the question that soul became the answer or solution to. Have we all at one time or another not asked ourselves what is to become of us when we die? It is this question, and the doubt that it produces, that motivates a person to seek to know their destiny. With this question one has to create a language for answering it. The word soul is part of that language. Yet, if a person where to seek to understand them self then they would be forced to ask themselves where this question came from. What was the motive for asking this question in the first place? Sooner or later in our exploration of ourselves we will discover that what we really want is not answers but peace from the question. This does not take away from the natural desire to understand and communicate that under-standing. It is the sense of needing an answer to release us that we do not want to have. Neediness, being negative, is not needed nor desired. So let us imagine that the word soul was created as a way of sharing our understanding of reality. It is difficult for a person to imagine there own nonexistence, for if you did not exist you would not have a reference point to take a perspective from. How could a person imagine the future if their being did not exist in some form or another? How could a person conceptualize the future beyond death if they did not exist? Such thoughts are seemingly impossible to comprehend. So, from this perspective of difficulty in comprehension we wish to create a easier way of perceiving the future beyond. We wish to create a easier way dealing with our discomfort with these difficult and seemingly impossible thoughts. So we create the concept of soul. We create the idea that we are an entity, a being, which would exist beyond the existence of our body, a being that did not end with bodies destruction or death. Once we know where we came from we will know where we are going. Where were you before you where born? If you believe in reincarnation then I ask you where were you before the universe was created? What was it like to be there? What was your experience before you had the reference point of the human experience? Again, seemingly impossible questions; impossible maybe to answer given our limitation of language, but not impossible to understand. When you stand at the beginning you shall not taste death. Some Soulful QuotesThe wealth of a soul is measured by how much it can feel; The man who is always worrying whether or not his soul would be
damned generally has a soul that isn't worth a damn. Most people sell their souls and live with a good conscience on
the proceeds. The soul, like the body, lives by what it feeds on. It matters not how strait the gate, The one thing in the world, of value, is the active
soul. My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I may
be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do not believe
it. One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that myriads
have believed it -- they also believed the world was flat. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. |