What is a Soul?

I can offer an analogy. The ocean is connected to all rivers and bodies of water, either directly or through the process of evaporation and rain. So in essence, from the highest most absolute perspective, there’s really only one source of water in the world. 

From the relative perspective however, there are many rivers, lakes, ponds and so on. One particular river may pass through one country. It may have a certain depth, wildlife, temperature and speed to it. It may be distinctly different than a river from a completely different country. And yet, though they each have their relative individuated identity, they share the same absolute source. 

The same is the case for the souls of human beings. From the highest most absolute perspective, there is only one consciousness or one soul that’s transcendent of all relative, subjective ideas of individual human beings. The essence of one human being, their soul, is the same source as any other in the same way that the essence of two completely different rivers essentially come from the same source of water.

However, each human being’s individual soul is so unique that when compared to one another, we’re able to recognize them without getting confused or just seeing them all as one. It’s just like how you know that all rivers are part of the same source of water, yet you still recognize the Amazon and the Nile as different. 

The spiritual path is about recognizing that our individuality is not an isolated thing. There is no separation. Though it may appear as if I am completely different than another, if we inquire deeply enough, we come to see that just like all rivers share the same source, all beings share the same source as well.

To recognize this is to awaken out of the illusion of separation. After this awakening however, it doesn’t mean that we just walk around calling ourselves ‘one with everything, without any individual identity’. That’s only half of the journey. The full journey involves embodying our absolute nature as one with everything through the relative individual human body-mind-soul that we find ourselves in.

All individual souls share the same source. That is what we each stem from and that is where we are all eventually returning.


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