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Eelco
16th September 2013, 06:40
So yesterday the 50 shades of Grey thread evolved somewhat and then lost some posts.
At that Time we were playing with the understanding of Soul and Spirit. Discussing the difference in what they are. The confusion that arises when switching them around in casual conversation.

To me the questions of what is Soul, what is Spirit, what is Life and what are there hierarchical differences and should we care are profoundly interesting and worthy of investigation. Time constraint make it somewhat impossible for me to go into some of its depths right Now, but I wanted to open this topic non the less.

Who knows maybe together we can get somewhere with this.

I do realize that a discussion about the very nature of Soul can derail quickly in believes, long looks at what we have held dear and true for many many years.
So I do urge everyone that feel the need to join this discussion to keep an open and respectful set of mind. In the end all we are discussing here are just thoughts and as thoughts and posts go.. They arise, do their dance, and then inevitably disappear.. No use adding sorrow and hurt to that mix.

With Love
Eelco

Eelco
16th September 2013, 07:20
Due to my lovely wife I have another 40 minutes at my disposal in wich I shall try to start explaining what Soul-Stuff is to me.

In its most basic component Soul to me is that basic building block from which all else is made from. Think the highest high all the way to the lowest low.
If we would call the whole of it realizing it as ALL THAT IS God. We can name subparts of it that become conscious of being a subpart of it a self.

Any part not conscious of itself in this view would still be Soul.

In my mind the Soul of any self (maybe apart from the realizing entity that experiences itself as ALL THAT IS) is not a fixed thing. It is a dynamic choice of p.o.v in which an idea gathers bits of soul and identifies with that as self. So from an idea that is aware of a subpart of Soul a Spirit emerges that identifies with just a few parts of ALL THAT IS and calls it I.

If we look at it like this. There is nothing in the experience of ALL THAT IS that can be soulless.

Hows that for a start?

With Love
Eelco

Eelco
16th September 2013, 21:28
Re-reading what I wrote I notice I used the word self.
I was listening to a lecture by Bhikku Bodhi. Well a series of lectures actualy. where he touched on the question what is self in relationship to the 5 aggregates and 3 characteristics that make up life according to the Buddha. (I am still not calling myself a buddhist b.t.w). Anyway he lays out a few characteristics a self should posess.
Self should be permanent.
self should be indivisabl/simple.
self should be able to consert some control over itself.

What do you think.. Soul, spirit
or non existent,

WIth Love
Eelco