{"id":435,"date":"2012-02-23T11:55:26","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T19:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/?p=435"},"modified":"2012-02-25T10:05:23","modified_gmt":"2012-02-25T18:05:23","slug":"soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/23\/soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Do We Need a Soul?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote this article many, many years ago but I thought I would re-post it on my new blog.<\/em><\/p>\n

We have a soul, so we have been told.\u00a0 We must believe that we have a soul.\u00a0 Belief in a soul is only an intermediate step between what we want and what we have.\u00a0 It is a practice created to assist us along the way.\u00a0 But, the belief in a soul, like any artificial creation, eventually gets in our way.\u00a0 This belief becomes a burden.\u00a0 When we look at why we choose to believe in a soul, we must ask ourselves what we are making important.\u00a0 What form (our ‘self’) do we worship?\u00a0 Are we practicing idolatry?<\/p>\n

When no form, no idol, not even our soul becomes important to us then we are perfectly free to live life.\u00a0 When we have nothing to lose, we are free to follow our heart.\u00a0 We have nothing to fear so why not love.<\/p>\n

One of the “Principles of Truth” is that the truth shall set you free.\u00a0 Therefore, that which does not speak of freedom is not of the truth.\u00a0 Does our definition of soul trap us or limit our life experience?<\/p>\n

When we ask a question, we expose our doubts, our weaknesses, to the world.\u00a0 Any corrupt and manipulative person could use this to control and manipulate you.\u00a0 If a person were fearful then they may ‘answer’ you with a concept that creates a controlling fear in you.\u00a0 Such is the idea of soul.<\/p>\n

The idea of a soul does have its value.\u00a0 It is a relative point or perspective.\u00a0 For example, one person has a certain size foot and a second person has smaller size foot.\u00a0 The first person’s shoe is not right for the second person.\u00a0 The second person’s shoe is not right for the first person.\u00a0 Yet this does not make the shoes either right or wrong in themselves only as they are relative to the person’s foot. \u00a0A third person comes along who has no feet.\u00a0 Neither the first \u00a0nor the second person\u2019s shoe will \u201cfit\u201d since they have not feet.\u00a0 The question is not relative for the third person has not position.\u00a0 For the third person there is no right or wrong shoe.\u00a0 Therefore, truth is relative to the position that is seen from.<\/p>\n

Right and wrong, good and evil require a datum, a point of focus, a reference point.\u00a0 For humanity, the datum is the self or soul.\u00a0 As long as we are human, we will have the datum of self and soul.\u00a0 When one awakens and realizes they are infinite, they recognize they are not limited to a self or soul and hence they are free of datum.\u00a0 Without datum there is no right nor wrong, no good nor evil.\u00a0 Without self and soul, you are free to love and appreciate all that is.<\/p>\n

BUT, (and this is a BIG but) prudence is necessary for survival.\u00a0 When you get to understand that we are not going to survive this thing called life, we wonder why worry about it.\u00a0 The worrying destroys the quality of the life experience.\u00a0 It is the concern for our \u201cself\u201d, our body and soul that creates the fear and erodes the joy and love.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Too much of either will be self-destructive.\u00a0 Too much prudence will erode the inner quality of life.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

What does it mean to have no soul or self?\u00a0 It means that we no longer think of our \u201cself\u201d or soul as important, which is perfect humility.\u00a0 It means we no longer concerned with protecting the illusion we call our \u201cself\u201d.\u00a0 When we have experienced the truth of the absence of permanence or realness of self or soul, then its temporariness becomes insignificant.\u00a0 We become insignificant.\u00a0 If we are insignificant and unimportant then we have nothing to lose in life.\u00a0 We become free to experience all that life has to offer.<\/p>\n

Of course, we will also recognize that if our soul or self is insignificant then so is everybody else’s soul and self.\u00a0 Then, only the quality of the play of life becomes important.\u00a0 The only real question remaining is, are we enjoying or loving life?\u00a0 Hence, the fulfillment of the scriptures is to love.<\/p>\n

When we no longer have make the self or soul important then we have broadened our mind, we have expanded our awareness, we have gone beyond the body and mind, we have \u201cdenied thyself\u201d completely.\u00a0 Now we can go on to something greater, much greater.\u00a0 We go on to infinity.\u00a0 Now there is no end to the true Self, and there was no beginning.\u00a0 Now you have eternal life, with no beginning or end.<\/p>\n

No amount of thinking can release us from this question.\u00a0 It is only when we come to the breaking point<\/em> will we willingly let go of the question.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

This creates a dilemma:\u00a0 How much of all the thinking that comes from philosophies, theologies, doctrines and beliefs is too much and how much is not enough.\u00a0 The answer, we cannot possible know.\u00a0 Here is where we get the opportunity to jump with faith.\u00a0 When we realize that life, soul or self is less important than getting peace from the question, then we will be free.\u00a0 Then we will let go of the questions.\u00a0 Then we will be free to enjoy and love what is.<\/p>\n

There is no need for a limited concept of soul.\u00a0 Nor is there a need for limiting ideas of life after death and reincarnation.\u00a0 The truth shall set you free so that which does not speak of freedom is not of the truth.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 If we feel trapped in our destiny by our acts or karma then we have based our feelings on untruths.\u00a0 If we have an expectation based on our belief about soul, life after death or reincarnation, then we have trap ourselves in our belief.<\/p>\n

Do we have a belief that something or anything we do here in life will affect what happens to us when we die?\u00a0 Are we afraid that we might go to hell or reincarnate as something less than desirable because we were a bad little boy or a bad little girl?\u00a0 If we have these beliefs then we are dealing with an untruth in our concept of soul.<\/p>\n

Where did the concept of soul first originate?\u00a0 We will probably never know absolutely, and it does not really matter who started the idea, but we can imagine how somebody might of come up with the question that soul became the answer or solution to.\u00a0 We all have asked ourselves at one time what is to become of us when we die.\u00a0 It is this question, and the doubt that it produces, that motivates a person to seek to know their destiny.\u00a0 With this question, one has to create a language for answering it.\u00a0 The word soul is part of that language.<\/p>\n

Yet, if people were to seek to understand themselves, this would force to ask them where this question came from.\u00a0 What was the motive for asking this question in the first place?\u00a0 Eventually in our exploration of ourselves, we will discover that what we really want is not answers but peace from the question.\u00a0 This does not take away from the natural desire to understand and communicate that understanding.\u00a0 It is the sense of needing an answer, the neediness, being negative, that motivates us to seek release.<\/p>\n

So let us imagine that the word soul was created as a way of sharing our understanding of reality.\u00a0 It is difficult for a person to imagine his or her own nonexistence, for if we did not exist we would not have a reference point for our perspective.\u00a0 How could a person imagine the future if their being did not exist in some form or another?\u00a0 How could a person conceptualize the future beyond death if they did not exist?\u00a0 Such thoughts are seemingly impossible to comprehend.\u00a0 Therefore, from this perspective of difficulty in comprehension we wish to create an easier way of perceiving the future beyond.\u00a0 We wish to create an easier way dealing with our discomfort with these difficult and seemingly impossible thoughts.\u00a0 So, we create the concept of soul.\u00a0 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 body\u2019s destruction or death.<\/p>\n

Once we know where we came from, we will know where we are going.\u00a0 Where were you before you were born? \u00a0If you believe in reincarnation then I ask you where were you before the universe was created?\u00a0\u00a0 What was it like to be there?\u00a0 What was your experience before you had the reference point of the human experience?\u00a0 Again, seemingly impossible questions; impossible maybe to answer given our limitation of language, but not impossible to understand.\u00a0 When you stand at the beginning you shall not taste death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote this article many, many years ago but I thought I would re-post it on my new blog. We have a soul, so we have been told.\u00a0 We must believe that we have a soul.\u00a0 Belief in a soul is only an intermediate step between what we want and what we have.\u00a0 It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,29],"tags":[113,111],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonduality","category-religion","tag-beliefs","tag-soul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}