Soul or Spirit: An Immeasurable Presence
The concept of the soul is richly described in the text of nearly every culture, present and past. Poets write of this mystical presence, the philosophical debate and discuss it. Does the soul exist, and if so is there any way to measure it?
Some describe the soul as the breath of spirit, stating that our spirit is far too expansive to bring fully into the physical. Connection can be made between the concept of the soul and our chi, or life force energies.
In shamanic teachings, a form of spirituality practiced around the world, the shaman speaks of soul retrieval. Traumas can lead to a detachment between the soul and the body personality as a protective measure. While the person may carry on in life they carry with them the sense of loss.
Why do we focus so strongly on the soul? Is it perhaps to find an identity that transcends the physical? Is it to retrieve a part of ourselves that our cultures encourage us to ignore? Maybe it is focusing on that part of us that lives beyond the clicking of the clock or beating of the heart.
“The soul is thyself; for thou knoest that which is different from soul and is perishable. But what is the soul? asked the king. The sage answered: He who dwells in the body, who heeds the body, and at whose departing the body suffers whilst he does not suffer, for uncertainty (such as the bodys) is not his – that is the soul. He delights in his beauty, he is immortal, fearless, and himself Creator. (Passage from The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, pg 176).
The soul speaks loudly within the silence. We can turn within and bring focus to our own being. Immeasurable yes, but nothing in this world can deny us the presence of the soul.
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