The soul

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Abrahamic religions conceive of a soul that lies within each individual, which is of great spiritual significance. However, Judaism, placing more focus on this world than others, has resulted in multiple views... that man is a partner in God, all the way to the mysticism of numerology and the Kabbalah. Christian mysticism has diverse takes on the relationship between God and the soul with purification and reunion the goal. In Islam the mystical path is incorporated within Sufi.

Jains view soul as a perceivable non-matter which has the ability to connect to infinite knowledge but cannot receive that knowledge of soul since it is covered with the blanket of karma, but as we gain self knowledge and loosen the hold of karma everything can be seen clearly and nirvana(salvation) is achieved. The pure soul - divine unity - can be achieved when all the power of karma is destroyed.

Quakers view the soul as inner light, an inherent presence of God within the individual. Other Christian traditions, such as Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, hold a more distinct division between the individual soul and God, given the traditional belief that the salvation of the soul and union with God will occur only at the resurrection after physical death, but these faiths generally hold that righteousness is possible and necessary during life. Christian mystics seek this unity state of the soul, variously, through intense prayer, ascetism (purification), contemplation and meditation, to achieve resurrection of the Christ Self/nature in this life.

In Catholicism, saints and other beatific individuals are said to have received the Holy Spirit—an expansiveness of love in their souls that grants them miraculous, prophetic, or other transcendent abilities—and this belief is taken up in certain charismatic and evangelical faiths that seek out testaments to divine revelation through speaking in tongues, faith healing, the casting out of demons, etc.

Islam shares this conception of a distinct soul, but with less focus on miraculous powers; the Muslim world emphasizes remembrance (dhikr, zikr): the recalling of one's original and innate connection to Allah's grace. In traditional Islam this connection is maintained by angels, who carry out God's will—returning the soul to one's authentic origin - though only prophets have the ability to see and hear them directly.

Sufism (the mystical aspect of Islam) holds that God can be experienced directly as a universal love that pervades the universe. Remembrance, for Sufis, explicitly means remembrance of the soul's love/purpose or returning to one's original divine state, and Sufis are particularly noted for the artistic turn their forms of worship often take.

Eastern philosophies, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism are concerned with the individual soul's dissolution of ego (moksha) into transcendent reality (generally Brahmanor Ishvara). In the mystical aspects of the Vedic tradition Atman (something not entirely different from the werstern concepion of the soul) is believed to be identical with Brahman. Hindu mystical practices aim for God-consciousness and loss of lower self.

Buddhist teaching holds that all suffering (dukkha) in the world comes from attachment to objects or ideas (idols), and that freedom from suffering comes by freeing one's self from these inhibiting attachments. The doctrine of anatta suggests that the soul, or the perception of an unchanging and cohesive self, is a mental construct to which one may be attached, and thus a source of suffering. While conventional Buddhist religion has an assortment of deities and venerated beings, the mystical sects of Buddhism at minimum avoid affirming, and in some cases overtly deny the existence of a permanent or unchanging soul, or of any permanent or unchanging being to the universe.

Taoism is largely unconcerned with the soul. Instead, Taoism centers around the tao ('the way' or 'the path'). The human tendency, according to Taoism, is to conceive of dualisms; the Taoist mystical practice is to recapture and conform with that original unity (called te, de, which is translated as virtue).

Regardless of particular conceptions of the soul, a common thread of mysticism is collective peace, joy, compassion or love.

From the inner light of the Quakers to the Atman of the Hindu, many have found a soul or other essential essence within themselves to be a center of focus. Even the buddhist who seeks Buddhahood through anatta places a great deal of emphasis on their inner world.

In contrast some (particularly gnostics and other dualists) see the learned self (as opposed to essence) as wicked and deserving of punishment or extreme neglect through asceticism, with positive values placed only upon the transcendent true self.

Pantheism, acosmism, dualism

Pantheism means "God is The All" and "All is God". It is the idea that natural law, existence, and/or the universe (the sum total of all that is, was, and shall be) is represented or personified in the theological principle of 'God'.

In contrast Acosmism denies the reality of the universe, seeing it as ultimately illusory (maya), with only the infinite unmanifest Absolute as real.

There are also dualist conceptions, often with an evil (though existent) material world of the ego competing with a transcendent and perfect spiritual plane aligned with the true self/essence.

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14.03.2007. 10:22

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