To say “no soul” in our culture sounds harsh, as if something is being taken away. A lot of Buddhist teachings translate as “no seperate self,” or “no seperate existence,” which, as Thich Nhat Hahn expresses it, means I’m actually connected to (not seperate from) the trees, the animals, and everything else.
It was actually prospect of the death of a beloved dog some years ago that awakened me to the pain inherant in imagining myself as a seperate self. When I was a kid my family moved around a lot. Three grade schools, four high schools. If I imagine my dog and I as seperate “souls,” that reincarnate, it’s a lot like saying goodbye to school friends. You exchange a postcard or two and then that’s it, they’re gone. But somehow, if that seperation disappears, in some inconceivable way, my dog is right here, I haven’t lost her.
Another cute trick I got from a zen teacher is this: at some point in meditation when you’re fairly quiet, introduce, very gently, a question: “Who is worried about soul or no soul?”
Don’t demand an answer, just ask the question and see if that person shows up.
(Another more humorous question I tend to ask myself in daily life, when I’m thinking about spiritual practice and “finding God,” is to ask just when God went missing…)
Great question… thank you… That sure put a smile on my face 
Hi Maximus, you said: [quote]
Louis, I appreciate your reply. No I wasn’t close to death neither someone close to me. But I have been and am in very deep and painful personal struggles and almost all my life has been and is being spent on overcoming them. The main inspiration for the courage required for such long struggles has been that we have an ever living soul and therefore it is ok to keep fighting to rejoice victory one day either in this life or after. If I had believed in soullessness, I would have thought ‘Ok, this life is the only chance I have to enjoy. I have been born as a species and that too as a human by pure coincidence so let us give up our assumed duties and principles and just enjoy life, for nothing matters in the end’.
In fact it appears to me that the entire Bhagwat Gita will fall apart if soullessness were the case. It won’t be easy to place emphasis on morals or duty for in that theory we are already dead eternally.
[/quote]I would ask the same question as - balance- about what practices you are doing.
The head tripping is an endless source of pain if not supplimented with practice.
The word that keeps coming to me for you my friend is -love- . Just drop the head tripping and allow love to be your bhakti. Allow the wings of love to carry you through the day and let love be your highest desire/bhakti. At the end of it all, its all about love. I know you know this really - perhaps now it is time for you to live it.
(I say this with an element of humility because I know I am quite a novice at it myself)
Lessons on Desire/Bhakti are: http://www.aypsite.org/TopicIndex.html
Louis
Hi All
Great posts everyone - and thank you, Louis
You wrote:
“Soul” is a thought; is it not? Without direct experience, it remains a concept. And all concepts veils what is. A concept can never be this. A concept is already history.
Also - “having a soul” implies that there are two: You…and your soul. If anything, you are one. You don’t have one - you are this.
As you so well explained it, your image of being a soul is what dropped. Wonderful, Louis! Now you experience consciously what you are. Pure space…What we call it doesn’t matter at all. Being this is all.
Louis… Have you considered this: The peak experience is always here now. It is you that come and go. The lasting benefit you talk about, is simply what gradually stops you from leaving all together. THIS.
Wolfgang wrote:
Actually…Wolfgang…you are whether you pose questions or not. Have you considered it the other way around? :
I am…therefore I think/feel.
So…all said…do we need theories to live? Life is here. One taste of life is better than 1000 menues. This is not an opinion. It is a direct experience.
or as Ranger puts it:
Exactly. Like the fish who searched all over the place for the great ocean…when he was actually swimming in it.
Maximus.
Don’t believe your own head. You are a heart…let your heart touch you. Accept the pain, but stop telling stories about it. You prolong it that way. Be quiet. As often as you can.
You are for ever - and therefor it is not necessary to keep fighting.
The fighting is what propels you out of Now. What is wrong with this moment? Ask yourself that. Why won’t you be here NOW? Usually, the answer to that question is pain. Emotional pain can be felt and released. But if you link the pain to mental images or stories, you prolong it. Stop talking about the pain. When the pain is released - and right before you start talking again - you are in a gap. This gap is NOW. Meditation helps you to taste this now. Meditation cleans your tastebuds. Eventually, the taste of now will outconquer the taste of yesterday for you. This has nothing do do with theories (menues). It simply is.
And This is LOVING, SPACIOUS and JOYFULLY EMPTY.
You can rejoice right now. Right here.
Actually…Wolfgang…you are whether you pose questions or not. Have you considered it the other way around? :
I am…therefore I think/feel.
Very nicely said, and very true, thank you for the hint. :kissing_heart: Wolfgang
Hi
I wonder why I want to leave such an experience, it is so nice and yet I leave it. I look back on it and applaud myself for having being there and realise I have come that bit further.
I look at my life and wonder about my relationship with my environment, my family, my possessions, my obsessions, my desires, people in general, my compassion or lack of it, and all the things that make up the matrix of Louis and how I live in the world.
It seems to me like all these things suck me back out of the peak experience and that I have to keep clearing and purifying and transforming, and as I do this the veils of illusion get thinner and the memories of the peaks stay longer and have a more permanent impact.
But what I need to remember is that in this unfolding I am also perfect as I am. The unfolding is perfect.
There is the sunshine of your words and of Yogani’s words and Shweta’s words and nandhi’s words and David Jim and Andrew and sadhak and Frank and Ranger and Wolfgang and balance, mystiq, Maximus and everyone else.
Everyone’s words and everyone’s experiences are perfect, just as they are, in their unfolding reach for unconditional love.
But Katrine, I love the way you back me into a corner bringing me face to face with my illusion and fueling my bhakti to drop it all and jump off the cliff. It is invigorating and sustaining and I have no doubt you will do it again 