“the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating
cause of an individual life”
Hmmm… Just really
arouses the Heretic inside…
Actually, this all came up because my wife is reading Frances
Vaughn’s 1995 book “Shadows of the Sacred:
Seeing through Spiritual Illusions”
She has this book sitting on our shelf as bathroom
reading. So, I picked it up.
I’ve always loved reading Vaughn’s writing! (may her memory be for a blessing…)
Chapter 5 is:
“Awakening the Soul: Ancient
Wisdom and Modern Science”
She reviews the various definitions of soul in religions and
philosophies.
I resonate with Ken Wilber’s philosophy about the structure
of humans and the Universe.
So I loved his statement in his book “One Taste,” page 34:
“you must have noticed that the word ‘soul’ is now the hottest item in the
title of book sales—but all ‘soul’
really means, in most of these books, is simply the ego in drag.” … “thus ‘care of the soul’ incomprehensively
means nothing more than focusing intensely on your ardently separate self.”
Now Wilber does not dismiss that something might exist that
relates to the word soul. In this
online article he describes the Tibetan description as it relates to dying:
“According to the Tibetans, the subjective experiences that
accompany each of what are said to be eight stages of the dissolution are known
technically as: “mirage,” “smoke-like,” “fireflies,” “butter lamp,” “white
appearance,” “red increase,” “black near-attainment,” and “clear light.” In
order to understand these terms, we need a somewhat more precise and detailed
version of the Great Chain. So, instead
of our simplified version of body, mind, soul, and spirit, we will use a
slightly expanded version: matter, sensation, perception, intention, cognition,
psychic, subtle, causal (or formless unmanifest), and spirit (or ultimate).
I like the simpler model he describes of: Matter – Life – Mind – Spirit.
Very clear. The first 3 levels all depend on each
other. Matter – Life – Mind.
Matter is the most basic building block of the
Universe. And, e = mc2, i.e., matter and
energy are interchangeable.
Life is matter made animate.
Clearly a more complex state of matter.
You can’t have life without matter.
Mind is a more complex state of life. You can’t have mind without life.
Simple holon theory...
Now the terms soul and spirit makes things a bit more
complex.
I like to define Spirit, I also term this as Source, as
All-That-Is and All-That-Is-Not.
Now there starts the problem. What do you personally define as Spirit? How, does that differ from my
definition?
On the surface we all tend to agree on what is matter, life,
mind…
Maybe…
Matter might be easiest.
As long as you are not a physicist. Otherwise, you might
start arguing about string theory, dark matter, strange matter.
Most of us would agree on what is matter and what is
alive. We can tell the difference between a rock and
a cat…
But then again, if you are a biologist, you could start
arguing about whether viruses and prions are alive.
Things really start to fall apart when we get to mind.
So when we read Frances Vaughn’s chapter, we can see how
each religion or philosophy has various different definitions for soul.
Egyptian mythology had 7 souls bestowed in each person by
deities at birth.
Buddhism has a doctrine of anatta “no-soul.” There is no unchanging self or soul.
Shamanism is interesting as it defines shamanistic journeys
as soul journeys. Illness is attributed
to soul loss. Practitioners journey to
the lower or upper worlds for soul retrieval.
Early in my own search I went to a shamanistic practitioner,
where I felt a loss of feeling in my chest.
He journeyed for me and I felt warmth filling my chest area. A feeling of a return of wholeness. Many years later I had spontaneous
shamanistic journeys with a power animal during meditative practice. More recently we took a formal course in
journeying, deepening our practice.
So does that prove anything about souls?
Of course not…
Vaughn, following Wiber’s model, postulates, page 122, “soul
awakening at the psychic level of consciousness and evolving as witness in the
subtle and causal levels.” And page 124,
“The soul seems to be the final identity of the separate self-sense.”
The heretic in me says…
it is all bullshit…
Well maybe that's a little strong…
The space between Mind and Spirit is huge…
No rational thought can define this gap…
It is the worlds of religion and philosophy…
And the worlds we enter within meditation and entheogen journeys…
There is no clear description, it is ineffable…
So, feel free to define it in anyway you like…
Immerse yourself in the possible beauty of these
experiences…
Just don’t expect someone else to agree with your definition
of that space…
As for me…
Perhaps it might be best just hold it in the words of Iris
DeMent’s song used in the second season of “The Leftovers:”
“I think I'll just let the mystery be…”
