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Hi Folks, the Humans without Souls thread prompted some questions from me, such as; How would you describe or define the soul and what is it's function? How does Soul relate to Spirit? Are the two synonymous or is there a difference? I have my own loosely formed thoughts, but would like to hear from others that have reflected on this.

So Buddhism has the concept of no-self, Hinduism has the concept of atman, Christianity has the notion of soul. What is the Taoist idea in regards to the "self" or the lack there of?

Each one of us here on Earth is an Individualized Manifestation of the Very Source of All That Is!God is nothing but the Very Consciousness that pervades the entire Universe!!Your soul script or what all you will go through and what you will become is more or less decided before you are born, though many things are flexible and can be changed to a considerable extent based on the choices you make and the choices that others around you will make in your current life.Your soul script for the current life is decided by the sum total of experiences that you have had in your previous lives and the new lessons that your soul would want to go through in order to achieve a state of balance.The Real Purpose of Our Lives is to Have Blissful, Fulfilling, Enriching and Transformative Experiences. Our Soul Spirit needs these experiences and we keep reincarnating again and again until we have learnt all our lessons across the entire spectrum of experiences.As long as we don't learn our lessons and keep repeating the same mistakes, we will keep going through the same experiences.Then, once the state of contentment is achieved, the soul spirit will have a choice of either achieving Nirvana (Dis-individualization and merging back with Source/Universal Godhead) or to take Greater responsibility and move on to newer experiences in higher realms / dimensions / universes.Thus, everyday, Learn to Live it King Size, stop living it pint size as it comes. Develop a Zest for Life and start creating opportunities for yourself. Take ownership and stop blaming God, rather be thankful to God for granting you this infinite Gift of Human Life.It doesn't matter in what context you are born, in what family and settings you have grown up, know that this is how it was intended to be to enable you to have the required experience that your Soul seeks.In the process, different souls choose different paths, some choose dark/ service to self/ left hand path while other choose light/ service to others/ right hand path. There is no need to feel guilty about your past or present no matter what your background is because all will eventually merge and become One.Always remember that the potential for the Greatest Good and the Greatest God is Already present in each one of Us, All we need to do is to unravel ourselves to the inner most core to uncover the true nature of our own reality that has the Highest Purity, the Greatest and the Mightiest Power of God within it.Realize that each of our lives is invaluable and highly coveted, know that extra-terrestrials from far off stars desperately seek a human incarnation on Earth because this is where lessons are learnt. It is our planet that offers an environment for super fast learning and expedited evolution unlike anywhere else in the entire galaxy.The real evolution is that of the spirit and not the flesh, as our souls learn their lessons, the next birth may be in a more advanced body form in a different dimension commensurate with the settings needed for inculcating the next set of lessons on the souls incredible journey back to Godhead.The absolute truth is that the One Godhead (Paramatma) divided itself into infinite souls (Jeevatmas) so it could have infinite different experiences in infinite different ways.Life in this Universe is an endless pursuit of SAT-CHID-ANANDA. Sat (TRUTH) - Chid (KNOWLEDGE/WISDOM) and Ananda (BLISS/JOY/HAPPINESS).Everything is Science, Everything is Energy, Everything is God. There is no contradiction !What matters is to imbibe the Truth and accept your current state objectively and in a balanced manner. This way, we will be able to further advance the real purpose of our lives by contributing to the greater cause in whichever way we can and thus also serve the group consciousness (our soul families) in the most efficient manner.I searched for God everywhere, I only found myself !I searched for myself in everyone, I only found God !!

Here's a little fun for Monday morning... Stating the Obvious We often hear the words “my body”. For example: “My body is fat”, or “I hate my body!”. Well, think about that? “My” body. Body is a possession, is it not? Hence the “my”. If that is so then who is the possessor? But it gets worse. We also hear “my mind”. For example: “My mind is sharp”, or “his mind is dull”, or “she has a good mind”. Also possessive. Also a possession. Who is the possessor? There’s more! We hear such phrases as “I want to save my soul”. Or we hear “he lost his soul to sin”. Is that right? “my” soul. “his” soul? Is soul also a possession? Who is the possessor? Who is the possessor?

Does anyone else feel that cannabis (marijuana) used in the correct way (emphasis on correct ) it allows you to channel and connect more with your Chi / Qi life force? Smokeable cannabis is from the female part of the herb and I think in men it rejuvanates Qi which women and children generally have more of, according to what I have read.

Manitou used the words Dark night of the Soul referring to an experience the current pope went through. Its an interesting turn of phrase. My Aikido Sensei once said all the truly great martials artists went through some physical catastrophe which gave insight into how they could become extraordinary. I wonder if its the same with enlightenment through Dark Night of the Soul. You have to pass through it through some powerful loss before reaching the other side and gaining a bones deep understanding of the world, rather then merely intellectual. I know at least one person who credited there enlightenment with the loss of a parent. I've never suffered all that much, not really. So, its a phenomena I haven't experienced, for better or worse. I suppose many of you have. What triggered it, and how did it change you?

I have felt that the two were more similar than different, but lately I am seeing very great differences. I think that the goal of the two religions in meditation is the same. The Taoists in the Secret of the Golden Flower, say that the ego can remain after the body dies. I think, although I am not sure, that Taoism like Buddhism believes in ending the cycle of rebirths. This would have to be implicit in the Golden Flower otherwise the ego, as the Taoists call it, would simply be reincarnated, which I do not believe is implied in the SGF. But I am feeling that the darma or dhamma of Buddhism is a stricter and more explicitly laid out program. I do not read in Buddhism of the channels, e.g., the Governor, Imperial, or Central channels that have such prominence in Taoism. The Buddhists speak of anatta, non-self, when they describe the sensifacient phenomena of the body. In other words, these are merely material phenomena and not indicative of a "self." But one unanswered question I have is that the pattern and combinations of these material sense events are unique to one person. Therefore when we say Mr. X is prone to headaches while Ms, Y is not, the aggregate of sense events one person has would seem to define a "self". I have not cracked the idea of non-self, either that the world has no self or that the body has no self. This seems like a contradiction of the Taoists and maybe the Tibetan Buddhists both of whom hold that there is some sort of consciousness or "ego" that separates from the physical body and that can be reincarnated or not. Theravada ideas on non-self may contradict Tibetan ones. But if there were no self, soul, ego or conscious entity of some sort, then it would be impossible to escape the cycle of rebirth because there would be nothing that was escaping it. Whether I should regard myself as a self or not is a mystery to me. Any clarification would be appreciated.

What is the soul? Is that the most important question there is? Not what's out there, but what's inside us? Are we big brained apes creating rationalizations to soothe our fear of impending death and what is in truth a meaningless life? Or do we hold sparks of greater divinity within us? What theories do we hold? What proofs are there of them? Personally, as with most things, I sit on the fence. Simply not knowing, perhaps hoping, seeking some answers in silence, but I really don't know.

I've heard a little bit about this before but I didn't really understand it. What exactly is the difference between Shen, Jing, and Chi?