"Soul is Spiritual Mud!" - A New Vision of Human Soul
& Glossary by Willi Paul, Planetshifter.com Media

"I read the Bible often
I try to read it right
As far as I can understand
It's nothing but a burning light
I'm going to ask the question
Please answer if you can
Is there anybody's children can tell me
What is the soul of a man?"

"Soul of a Man" |Bruce Cockburn | Nothing but a Burning Light

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As RUSH stings in their classic song: "The Big Wheel", the vision for the human Soul is a wheel that can go forward and backward; upward and downward. Please see the illustration. But there is, alas, no "right dance or final judgement per se, just a lifetime of exploration, decisions good and bad, and the memory of your life from folks that survive you.

Here is a new map of the Soul. An Ecology, integration and complex inter-relatedness simplified. Community-driven, experiential and value drenched scheme. In part, soul is religion soaked but not bribed; it is often pursued as a container or metaphor.

Not a mystery, Soul, is a multi-door initiation, a series of tests and responses. Temporary, customized per each life. A process alchemic: transmutational, paradoxical. Soul is measured in Human Life-Times.

Soul is Spiritual Mud.

Elements from the Vision -

Community (God) – As in my mythological work, community is front and center as our Soul work shines brightness in the group, neighborhood and town. I am soulful working side by side in the multi-generational clothes drives, food forest harvest and Nature classrooms.

Participation in music & arts –"Active Soul" is playing music and doing art.

Experience & protection of Nature – Being in Nature is the primordial meditation and Soul Channel One.

Family Values – The transmission of values and stories from your parents is Soul glue.

Religious practices – There are tons of reasons to attend a religious service, many are from routines and hypocritical, yes? See Community (above).

Personal experiences – How we make decisions and customize our days can bring our Souls rich rewards or a lifetime of un-fullfillment. Our Soul is our choice.

Healthy body & mind – Wise diet and exercise supports a healthy Soul.

Dreams – Soul cannot live without our dreams. These bring us symbols and archetypes that freshen.

Faith – Akin to Religious practices (above) but is more powerful when we include simple gestures and personal prayer.

Love – Trust making, honesty and respect.

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A Soul Glossary -

Quakers believe that God speaks through the contributions made at the meeting. Some people say that there is often a feeling that a divine presence has settled over the group. The words should come from the soul - from the inner light - rather than the mind.

"- Muslims infer the existence of the soul from the fact that we observe bodies that perform certain acts with some degree of will. These acts are exemplified in taking nourishment, growing, reproducing, moving and perceiving. Since these acts do not belong to the nature of bodies, for this nature is devoid of will, they must belong to a principle they have other than bodies. This principle is what is called 'soul'."

In Catholicism, the soul is the spiritual principle of human beings and is the subject of human consciousness and freedom; soul and body together form one unique human nature. Each human soul is individual and immortal, immediately created by God. The soul does not die with the body, from which it is separated by death, and with which it will be reunited in the final resurrection.

In Mormon scripture, the term soul is used as a synonym for spirit to describe a person in four different phases of his or her eternal existence. Soul is used to describe a person in pre-mortal life-before birth. During earth life, the soul is joined with a physical body. At death, the soul leaves the body and goes to the spirit world to await resurrection. In the Resurrection, the body and soul are inseparably connected, which is called "the redemption of the soul").

Paganism believed in the human soul. Paganism believed the human soul was immortal. Paganism believed in immortal human soul first. Then Judaism and Christianity came along, and Jews and Christians believed in the human soul. The soul is not a thing. The soul is a concept.

Jews believe that the soul consists of three parts which are called by the Hebrew names, nefesh, ruach and neshama. The word neshama is a cognate of nesheema, which means literally "breath." Ruach means "wind." Nefesh comes from the root nafash, meaning "rest."

The Buddha teaches that what we call ego, self, soul, personality, etc., are merely conventional terms that do not refer to any real, independent entity. According to Buddhism there is no reason to believe that there is an eternal soul that comes from heaven or that is created by itself and that will transmigrate or proceed straight away either to heaven or hell after death. Buddhists cannot accept that there is anything either in this world or any other world that is eternal or unchangeable. We only cling to ourselves and hope to find something immortal. We are like children who wish to clasp a rainbow. To children, a rainbow is something vivid and real; but the grown-ups know that it is merely an illusion caused by certain rays of light and drops of water. The light is only a series of waves or undulations that have no more reality than the rainbow itself.

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