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November 06, 2024

 The concept of the soul has intrigued, inspired, and guided humanity for centuries. Across cultures and historical eras, the soul has been viewed as a fundamental aspect of existence, often regarded as the immortal essence that transcends the physical body. While the interpretation of the soul varies across religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions, certain core ideas—such as the soul’s journey, purpose, and impact on morality—consistently appear. In this article, we explore the diverse understandings of the soul in major world religions, spiritual philosophies, and cultural beliefs.

Defining the Soul: Common Attributes Across Cultures

Though definitions differ, many cultures regard the soul as an eternal force beyond physical existence. Across these interpretations, the soul is often seen as a guiding principle or the core identity of an individual, one that interacts with moral or divine forces. Some cultures emphasize reincarnation or transmigration of the soul, while others focus on its union with a higher power or divine source after death.

The Soul in Eastern Religions

Hinduism: The Concept of Atman and Rebirth

In Hinduism, the concept of the soul, known as Atman, is central to an individual’s identity and existence. Atman is seen as the eternal, unchanging essence of a person, which remains consistent through cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. This cyclical journey, called samsara, reflects the soul’s experiences as it seeks to attain moksha—liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Hindu teachings suggest that actions in life, known as karma, shape the future experiences of the soul in subsequent lives. This perspective on the soul’s progression offers a unique lens on personal responsibility, moral choices, and the interconnectedness of life.

Buddhism: Anatta and the Transitory Self

In Buddhism, the concept of the soul differs markedly from many other spiritual traditions. Buddhism emphasizes Anatta, or "not-self," suggesting that there is no permanent, unchanging soul or essence within an individual. Instead, Buddhism teaches that what we perceive as "self" is an aggregation of thoughts, emotions, and experiences, all of which are transient. The absence of a permanent soul challenges followers to detach from ego and desires to attain nirvana, the state of enlightenment and freedom from suffering. Rather than the soul journeying through reincarnations, Buddhism speaks of a continuation of karmic energy influencing successive lives.

Jainism: The Pure Soul and Liberation

In Jainism, the soul, or jiva, is considered pure by nature but becomes tarnished by worldly attachments and desires. Jain philosophy emphasizes personal discipline and ethical behavior to purify the soul from these impurities. This purification process is part of the path to moksha, or liberation, where the soul achieves a state free from the cycles of birth and death. Jains hold that every living being has a soul, extending ethical duties toward all forms of life, including plants and animals, which is reflected in their commitment to non-violence, or ahimsa.

The Soul in Western Religions

Christianity: The Immortal Soul and Salvation

In Christianity, the soul is an immortal entity that represents a person’s core self. Christian doctrine emphasizes that the soul is created by God and imbued with eternal significance. The journey of the soul in Christianity is deeply tied to the concepts of salvation and eternal life, achievable through faith in Jesus Christ. Upon death, it is believed that the soul enters a divine judgment, leading to an eternal residence in either heaven or hell. The emphasis on moral conduct, confession, and redemption underscores the role of the soul as a moral compass, influenced by God’s grace and human choices.

Islam: The Soul’s Trial and Afterlife

In Islam, the soul, or nafs, is a divinely created essence that undergoes a journey of moral testing. Islamic teachings indicate that the soul will be judged by God after death, based on one’s actions and faith. According to the Quran, the soul exists beyond earthly life and will be resurrected for final judgment on the Day of Resurrection. The afterlife comprises Paradise for the righteous and Hell for those who disobeyed God’s guidance. The concept of fitrah, or the natural inclination towards goodness, suggests that the soul inherently knows and desires a connection with God, shaping ethical behavior and personal accountability.

Judaism: The Dual Aspect of the Soul

Judaism provides a unique perspective on the soul, which is often understood through its dual aspects: the Nefesh (the life force) and the Neshama (the higher, spiritual soul). The soul is considered a divine gift, and its purpose is to align with God’s commandments and moral law. In Jewish mysticism, particularly in Kabbalah, the soul is seen as part of a complex structure involving multiple layers or levels, each contributing to spiritual growth and divine connection. Jewish teachings focus on ethical living, community, and the pursuit of righteousness as means for the soul to fulfill its potential and draw closer to God.

The Soul in Indigenous and Folk Beliefs

African Spirituality: The Living Force

Many African indigenous religions view the soul as part of a broader spiritual ecosystem. It is common to believe that a person possesses multiple souls or spiritual energies, each with different roles in life and the afterlife. Ancestor veneration, rituals, and community rites play a significant role in connecting the living with the spiritual realm. In this worldview, the soul is closely linked to one’s lineage and ancestors, with a belief that the deceased maintain a guiding influence over the living. The interconnectedness of the soul, community, and nature fosters a holistic approach to life and spirituality.

Native American Beliefs: Spirit and the Web of Life

In Native American spirituality, the soul is an integral part of the natural world, connected to animals, plants, and all forms of life. This holistic view emphasizes interdependence and respect for nature, considering each soul as part of the "web of life." The soul is often viewed as journeying after death to join ancestral spirits or other realms. Rituals, storytelling, and reverence for nature all serve to deepen the connection between the individual soul, community, and the environment.

Shamanism: The Soul’s Journey and Healing

Shamanistic traditions, found in cultures across Siberia, Mongolia, and the Americas, emphasize the soul as a source of spiritual power and personal well-being. Shamans are believed to interact with souls through journeys to other realms, seeking healing, wisdom, or guidance. The shaman acts as a mediator, retrieving lost parts of a soul or assisting it in its transition after death. This profound relationship with the soul extends to animals, plants, and natural phenomena, highlighting the belief that all beings possess a soul and that harmony between souls is essential for balance in life.

Philosophical Interpretations of the Soul

Greek Philosophy: The Tripartite Soul

In Greek philosophy, especially as articulated by Plato, the soul is composed of three parts: reason, spirit, and appetite. Reason is associated with wisdom and rationality, spirit with courage, and appetite with desires. Plato believed that a balanced soul, guided by reason, leads to a virtuous and fulfilling life. Aristotle viewed the soul as the "essence" of a living being, integrating mind, body, and character into a singular existence. Greek philosophy’s focus on reason and ethics significantly influenced Western thought and continues to shape discussions on the soul’s nature.

The Modern Perspective: The Soul in Science and Psychology

In modern times, science and psychology have explored concepts akin to the soul, although they often avoid supernatural explanations. Carl Jung, for example, spoke of the collective unconscious, a shared reservoir of experiences that shape human behavior. In neurology and psychology, the focus is more on consciousness, memory, and identity rather than a mystical soul. Nonetheless, questions about the mind-body connection and the nature of self continue to spark curiosity and philosophical debate, illustrating humanity’s enduring interest in understanding the essence of life.

Conclusion: The Universal Search for the Soul’s Meaning

The search for understanding the soul’s nature and purpose reveals profound insights into human existence. While perspectives differ, common threads—such as the soul’s connection to morality, the afterlife, and divine or natural forces—reflect humanity’s quest for meaning. Each cultural and philosophical view contributes to a rich tapestry of belief, offering ways for individuals to understand themselves, connect with others, and explore the mysteries of life and beyond.


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May 22, 2017
EARTH ANGEL

Many people know there’s something special about them but lack a concrete understanding of exactly what it is.
Earth Angels are everywhere and were sent to learn certain things about the human condition and to guide humans on earth. They have been sent back to learn or heal others.
Most Earth Angels know and feel that they are different. They come into our lives at completely random, unexpected moments, specially when we need them the most. They’re here to spread positive vibes, peace, love, and to help guide us on the right path. Earth Angels make a difference on earth by bringing love and light of the higher spiritual realms into physical reality.
Earth Angels are people who walk among us, and whether you’re aware of it or not, you yourself may even be one!
Being an Earth Angel doesn’t mean you are perfect. Earth Angels also make mistakes, experience challenges, and feel disconnected at times.
If you think that perhaps you are an Earth Angel or know somebody who maybe one, yet you are not completely sure, then check out the signs below:
1.You are highly sensitive.
2. You rely mostly on your emotions and intuition.
3. Strangers tend to vent their problems and frustrations to you.
4. You accept others for whoever they are, even those that you can’t tolerate.
5. You seem wise far beyond your years and tend to carry a worldly energy.
6. You may not have stability yet your basic needs always seem to be taken care of.
7. You feel empathetic towards others, and want to help them through their problems.
8. You aren’t so great about managing your own responsibilities, time, or boundaries.
9. You have a grace that inspires people and you can lift peoples energy and spirit without much effort.
10. You may feel a constant struggle to align yourself with the physical world, this may manifest as struggling to deal with boundaries and your ego.
11. You try to align yourself with societal expectations but you have a very hard time doing so, as it leaves you feeling empty.
12. You have an intense and deep personality and not afraid to dig deep within your psyche and the psyche of others to find the truth.
13. Your emotions feel deep and heavy at times and can fluctuate from positive to negative. You also have an understanding of both the light and dark side of emotions.
14. As children, Earth Angels have a tendency to be diagnosed with various cognitive disorders because of their lack of concern for the material world.
15. Earth Angels are those who have a wish to bring peace, light and love to the Earth, humanity and all beings.

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September 29, 2016
atomic_bond

Some days, you might feel like a pretty substantial person. Maybe you have a lot of friends, or an important job, or a really big car.
But it might humble you to know that all of those things – your friends, your office, your really big car, you yourself, and even everything in this incredible, vast Universe – are almost entirely, 99.9999999 percent empty space.
Here’s the deal. As I previously wrote in a story for the particle physics publication Symmetry, the size of an atom is governed by the average location of its electrons: how much space there is between the nucleus and the atom’s amorphous outer shell.
Nuclei are around 100,000 times smaller than the atoms they’re housed in.
If the nucleus were the size of a peanut, the atom would be about the size of a baseball stadium. If we lost all the dead space inside our atoms, we would each be able to fit into a particle of dust, and the entire human species would fit into the volume of a sugar cube.
So then where does all our mass come from?
Energy! At a pretty basic level, we’re all made of atoms, which are made of electrons, protons, and neutrons.
And at an even more basic, or perhaps the most basic level, those protons and neutrons, which hold the bulk of our mass, are made of a trio of fundamental particles called quarks.
But, as I explained in Symmetry, the mass of these quarks accounts for just a tiny per cent of the mass of the protons and neutrons. And gluons, which hold these quarks together, are completely massless.
A lot of scientists think that almost all the mass of our bodies comes from the kinetic energy of the quarks and the binding energy of the gluons.
So if all of the atoms in the Universe are almost entirely empty space, why does anything feel solid?
The idea of empty atoms huddling together, composing our bodies and buildings and trees might be a little confusing.
If our atoms are mostly space, why can’t we pass through things like weird ghost people in a weird ghost world? Why don’t our cars fall through the road, through the centre of the Earth, and out the other side of the planet? Why don’t our hands glide through other hands when we give out high fives?
It’s time to reexamine what we mean by empty space. Because as it turns out, space is never truly empty. It’s actually full of a whole fistful of good stuff, including wave functions and invisible quantum fields.
You can think about the empty space in an atom as you might think about an electric fan with rotating blades. When the fan isn’t in motion, you can tell that a lot of what’s inside of that fan is empty space. You can safely stick your hand into the space between the blades and wiggle your fingers in the nothingness.
But when that fan is turned on it’s a different story. If you’re silly enough to shove your hand into that 'empty space', those blades will inevitably swing around and smack into it… relentlessly.
Technically electrons are point sources, which means they have no volume. But they do have something called a wave function occupying a nice chunk of the atom.
And because quantum mechanics likes to be weird and confusing, the volume-less electron is somehow simultaneously everywhere in that chunk of space.
The blades of the fan are akin to electrons zipping around the atom, occupying chunks of space with their wave functions. It’s a painful reminder that what might seem like empty space can feel pretty solid.
hand_body

You've never really touched anything in your life
Are you sitting down for this? Well, you’re not really. Your butt isn’t actually touching the chair you’re sitting on. Since the meat of your atoms is nestled away in nuclei, when you 'touch' someone (or something), you aren’t actually feeling their atoms.
What you’re feeling is the electromagnetic force of your electrons pushing away their electrons.
On a very, very technical level, you’re not actually sitting on that chair. You’re hovering ever so slightly above it.
So to conclude: Your very important human body is really, kind of, in a way, just a misleading collection of empty spaces on an empty planet in an empty Universe. But at least you have a big car.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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August 08, 2016

We are all beautiful souls, though some of us are older and more in tune with our true selves, hence capable of tapping into our soul’s infinite wisdom. Learn about the knowledge old souls have acquired in previous incarnations.

Old _Souls _man_The _Knowledge _Of _ Eternal_ Self

We’ve all heard of Old Souls before, but who or what are they really?

The real you, the Eternal Self, is your soul:
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The people who have incarnated on Earth countless times before and they are now approaching the completion of the incarnation cycle, are referred to as old souls.

Throughout their many lives, they have invariably mastered invaluable lessons and now they have a deeper understanding of the world.

Old souls show a pronounced understanding of people and life in general, and have an attitude towards life that is often labeled somewhere between intuitive and philosophical, or even weird and uncanny.

Old souls have a strong intuition, tolerance, and empathy towards others — because they have already “been there and done that” many times before.

Some of the old souls are able to connect with their higher selves and/or their Spirit Guides and, consequently, have easier access to lessons mastered in past lives.

As a result, they are able to gain insights, which (normally) appear to be ahead of their age group.

Even though many people feel like they are old souls because of their intense, tiring, lives, it does not necessarily mean that they are getting close to the completion of their incarnation cycle.

Others have indeed incarnated many times before but instead of being scrupulous about their work, they chose to have fun instead. These are the old souls that really enjoy life on Earth and are not really in a hurry to “graduate.”

Old Souls Accessing Previously Acquired Information

All of us have experienced epiphanies in our lives: during conversations on topics we had no prior knowledge about, offering deep and sound advice to our friends and family (that we didn’t think ourselves capable of), and, at times, quickly understanding the true intentions of a person that we’ve never seen before in our lives, or understanding the outcome of a given situation before actually happening.

That’s because we were able to access previously acquired knowledge or information. This is evidence that most of us have previously acquired and stored knowledge about the world, human society, and the deeper meaning of life.

Though only a handful of people are aware of this, it is actually possible to delve into ourselves through involution, deep meditation or introspection and tap our knowledge pool during self-discovery.

Obviously, the process varies from one person to another, but we all can — one way or another — access knowledge and information from previous lives.

Are YOU an Old Soul?

Your journey towards tapping into the knowledge that you might have gained in a previous incarnation begins with the question: Are you an old soul?

Below are some experiences that are common to all old souls. See how many are applicable to you:

01: You Look for Deeper Meanings

You find and observe deeper meaning in every aspect of life. You have found yourself contemplating about nearly everything, and you may have been teased by your friends for your philosophical look at the world around you.

Whether it’s a simple gesture from a stranger or colleague, or something that you have done, you often find yourself reflecting about the meaning and reason behind everything.

02: People Have Found You Mature Beyond Your Years

Since your childhood (or teen years), people have been impressed by your maturity and enjoyed talking with you. You remember experiencing a strong urge to be around people who were older and more mature than you, and enjoyed making conversation with them.

03: You Prefer the Simpler Pleasures of Life

A short walk, sitting silently in company of a loved one or watching them smile, watching the sunsets, cooking a meal, feeling the wind as you walk back home, etc. (the simple pleasure of life) — all of them make you feel happy and grateful to be alive.

As a result, you have come to attach more value and meaning to experiences rather than material things.

04: You Believe Solitude is an Important Aspect of Life

You enjoy solitude, sitting with yourself while being mindful of your thoughts. You find that solitude recharges you, allowing you become incredibly introspective of your life. Whilst others find solitude scary or depressing, you, on the other hand, find it necessary.

Perhaps you have intuitively realized that someone — a friend, loved one, or colleague — needs solitude and advised them so, as a remedy for whatever is bothering them.

This does not mean that old souls are necessarily loners or they don’t enjoy the company of others, but they do need their daily time off to recharge their batteries and entertain intellectual ideas.

05: Empathy and Tolerance Comes Naturally to You

People have pointed out that you are too forgiving of others, but you know that your empathy emerges from a sense of being connected with other people.

You have found yourself at ease with various people because you have never been inclined to judge others for who they are. You have always accepted people as they are.

As a result, you are the person people turn to if they need to take something off their chests, or they are in need of advise.

06: You Have a Strong Gut Instinct

You are sensitive to your surrounding and social cues. As a result, you tend to trust your intuition and gut instinct.

What if You Are an Old Soul?

If you have answered “yes” to most of the above traits, then yes, you are an old soul and in touch with the wisdom you have accumulated. You are already attuned to your heart’s calling and can easily connect with true self.

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