How do You Sense the Soul?

Perhaps you have wondered, as I have, about that mysterious something we call the "soul."

We use the word in various ways, which make its meaning slippery.

We say certain music, or food, has "soul."

We speak of someone with "soulful" eyes.

Perhaps we remember Jesus' words "What good does it do to gain the whole world, and lose your own soul?"

Today's reading, taken from the Upanishads, those ancient Hindu Scriptures written long before the Christian era, gives a fascinating understanding of the soul.

Here is what the Brihadranyaka Upanishad has to say: I wonder how it's view might be helpful to you?

No one can understand the sound of a drum without understanding both the drummer and the drum.

No one can understand the sound of a conch shell without understanding both the shell and the one who blows the shell.

As there can be no water without the seas,

no touch without the skin,

no smell without the nose,

no taste without the tongue,

no sound without the ear,

no thought without the mind,

so there can be nothing without the soul.

When you throw a lump of salt into water, it dissolves.

You cannot take it out again and hold it in your hand.

Yet, if you sip any part of the water, the salt is present.

In the same way, the soul can be perceived everywhere and anywhere.

The soul has no limit or boundary.

At present, there is duality.

You perceive beings as other than you. You see them, hear them, smell them, and think about them.

Yet, when you know the soul, and when you recognize that the soul within you is the soul of all beings,

how can you regard yourself as subject and all other beings as objects, when you know that all are one?

But, what is the soul? you ask.

The soul is consciousness.

It shines as the Light within the heart.

The soul is waking life and the life of dreams.

When the soul inhabits a body, it seems to assume the bodies' frailties and limitations.

But when the soul sheds the body at death, it leaves all these behind.

Here is my prayer of response today:

Great Source of my soul, Soul of my soul,

I confess that I often forget the presence and importance of my soul, and the soul of others.

I get caught in the cage of my sensations and the mirage of appearances, all conditioned by my particular perspective and experience.

I seem to be separate from others, and have a hard time relating to some of them, especially when I don't like them. I focus on their personalities, their looks, their actions and words, so different from mine.

I don't focus on their souls, that mysterious underlying pure being which is also Your Being.

I want to get better at sensing the soul, Your pure Presence, in me and in all created beings,

so that I may experience the mysterious, all-pervading Unity that lies behind the diversity of life

in this world, and in this way be blessed.

Amen.