In this world there are no two natures alike, yet all are born with a small portion of Divinity within them, which we call the Soul. It is a mere spark smoldering in the centre of the clay with which we are encumbered, yet it is there.
—Marie Corelli
We know only that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and because our faith tells us so, that we possess souls. As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or who dwells within them, or how precious they are, those are things which we seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the souls's beauty.
—Mother Teresa
At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will from which God disposes of our lives.
—Thomas Merton
That humanity at large will ever be able to dispense with artificial paradises seems very unlikely. Most men and women lead lives that at worst seem so painful, at the best so monotonous, poor and limited, that the urge to escape, the longing to transcend themselves if only for a few moments is and has always been one of the principal appetites of the soul.
—Aldous Huxley
The Soul
Many think of the soul in religious context but the soul has nothing to do with religion. It is the seed of life. If all of life were to be reduced to a single atom, that atom would be the soul and within that atom would reside the essence of all existence.
In ancient and medieval philosophy essence is the fifth and highest element after the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. Essence was thought to be the substance of the heavenly bodies. This essence is contained within the soul and is latent in all living organisms. This latent essence is the common connection between all living forms and resides in the soul in a similar manner as electrons in an atom. If you remember your high school chemistry, an atom is the smallest unit of an element which contains all the characteristics of that element and atoms are held together in molecules by sharing electrons. In the same manner, I believe souls are held in connection with each other by love. (1)
The soul is the seed which manifests energy into life. The soul is what gives life to all forms. All forms, physical bodies, can only exist as life when the soul binds to that form. Each life, each soul is that form's alone but no one has ownership of this energy. The soul is never yours to control and it does not control you. It simply gives life to the physical manifestation you are.
"I am a finite physical expression of an infinite energy." (2)
“The soul lies outside of time, is the undefinable essence of a creature’s being, can never be touched yet resides in everything which exists.” (3)
The soul does not have a doctrine or an agenda. It exists only as a life giving source to physical lifelessness and therefore is present in every living creation. It is an energy which has always existed and life is its manifestation. In the same manner that heat and light are a manifestation of the sun's energy.
When the physical body dies, the soul as original energy, continues to exist as that same energy because energy can neither be created (always existed) or destroyed (dies). The soul is eternal existence of energy and that is the primary reason it holds such a high place in religious beliefs. Thomas Merton sees the soul as the mechanism through which God's will is dispersed but I believe the soul has nothing to do with a god or religion or for that matter, will.
“My soul will become a part of the invisible infrastructure which supports the visible world. I am now a part of everything you see and do not see. There is nothing of which I am not now a part. I am everywhere you are.” (4)
As I write this essay, there is a bright full moon floating outside my window. The moon is a dead sphere, a corpse in gravitational orbit around the earth. Its only energy is reflected from the sun. When the earth comes between the sun and moon, we see the moon as dark, dead because the moon has no life energy of its own, no soul. The sun has energy and will continue to disperse it for millions of years. At some point, however, it too will die. The same as you and me. The soul disperses the energy of life through our bodies until our physical bodies die. Our physical existence ceases but life's energy, the soul, continues. It is no longer a part of your corpse but it still a part of the original energy of creation. The energy is just no longer manifested as you in a living form.
If I were to take a bottle of black ink and throw it against a white wall, there would be a concentration of ink at the point of impact and a spattering of ink across the wall. The farther from the center, the smaller the splatters until you reach the last dot. That speck, no matter how small, still contains the same elements, (soul) of the original ink. Now, envision that bottle of ink as the original energy, some refer to it as the 'Big Bang', some as God, manifesting itself as life in each splatter except that this energy is continually manifesting and is not limited by one impact only. The energy continually manifesting itself as life keeps going and going and going. Creating, creating, creating ad infinitum, infusing each speck with the energy of the soul (life) from the original source. This is the reasoning behind the connectedness of all life, not just human life. Everything with the energy of life, soul, is connected. In some cases the energy is manifested as planets or solar systems, in other cases it is manifested as you and me. The soul is what gives life to these manifestations in whatever forms they exist.
Photo Credit: Soul Nebula
(1) Phillips, S.E. Another Look At Love. San Luis Obispo, California. Transformation Publications, 2011.
(2) Phillips, S.E. Go Wild And Bloom! San Luis Obispo, California. Transformation Publications, 2007.
(3) Phillips, S.E. Life's Greatest Transition. San Luis Obispo, California. Transformation Publications, 2003.
(4) Ibid.