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What is Soul?
Soul
is the experience of personal depth, of personal
experience, of personal power and limitations, of
personal imagination, feelings, thoughts, sensations,
and intuitions. The mythical movement is in and
down. It is connection with history, persons, places,
objects and life enhancing processes (i.e. work,
play). We have connection to our bodies but they
are seen mainly as expressions of inner selves (i.e.
we smile, we wear certain clothes). We may be "spiritual"
but that is done because it involves a community
and has a feeling of inwardness.
Contrasting
Soul and Spirit
Spirit
is the experience of attraction to transpersonal
experience. The focus is moved away from the personal
towards insights about consciousness or life itself.
The mythical movement is up and away. It is movement
towards divinity or the cosmos, freedom from the
hold of our emotions, history, persons, places,
objects, and processes which bind us to the everyday
world. It is also dramatic movement away from that
which holds us physically---our bodies.
Differs
From Most Religious and Philosophic Views
The
above definition includes no comment on the existence
of the Soul as something that precedes the body
or survives the body. It says nothing about whether
the Soul is eternal or mortal. Nor does it comment
on its origin. Instead, it stays close to how we
can experience the Soul. As Thomas Moore says: "Soul
is not a thing, but a quality or a dimension of
experiencing life and ourselves."
Definitions
that give Soul transpersonal existence or divine
origins are really definitions under the influence
of Spirit. Following this Spirit laden approach
moves us away from experiencing the Soul here and
now, through our heart and guts. Instead, Soul is
explained in terms of the past (i.e. reincarnation
of the soul) and future (e.g. transmigration of
the soul). That approach teaches more about Spirit
than it does about Soul and moves us to a life berift
of Soul.
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