Few weeks ago we had started our journey to well-being. In this Journey we had explained four keys we need to have them under control. Today, this key is different. Key five to well being is The Soul. This key, you can’t control. You have one option to be his friend and to free your self from all distractions to listen to his subtle talks. Soul has no intention to grab your attention. It also has no worry that you missed its whispering advise.
The previous four keys we had reached on the path to well being so far were: (Click on any title to reach it)
- Thoughts, the one secret behind well-being
- Select New Thoughts
- Expand your choices
- The physical body, The Battle field
What is the soul?
That’s a question with many probable answers but no one guarantees the correct answer i.e. no one can claim that his idea of the soul is the correct one. There are many approaches to understand the soul. We are going to touch on all of them in this discussion.
My personal model for the soul
Even if this model won’t look spiritual enough while we are talking about the soul with all its mysterious vivid perceptions, it will speed our arrival at a common understanding with all other different approaches. Starting from this common point, each one of us can continue his own journey to meeting his soul if he is willing.
I think that there is something called soul that constitutes a vital corner of our existence. To be able to understand it I had chosen the model of the computer BIOS -Basic Input Output System- to compare it to our soul.
The BIOS was introduced in the 1970’s. Before that, the computers were delivered loaded with an operating system. You can’t upgrade it or change it and it runs the software and the hardware of the machine. When the BIOS was introduced, it made a protected link between the hardware and the operating system. What we really encounter in any interaction to a computer is basically the operating system and a punch of software applications dealing with the hardware through the operating system.
The BIOS is delivered loaded on the motherboard, When you push the ON button, the BIOS runs, checks the hardware, loads the hardware configuration and starts the operating system. I feel the same when I wake up.
In case the operating system is corrupted or you need to change it completely, still the mother board, the input/output devices as keyboard, screen and hard or soft drives are working and accessible. That’s when you change your believe sets, your profession or even daily routine, not to mention those who suffer memory loss or identity loss and they need to build a new one.
How the BIOS is a good example for our soul?
Actually, the soul resembles the BIOS in being the initial operating system that links everything together when we are born. With time our operating system and software apps develop and we only interface with them. Those are our self, intellect and emotional bodies.
Other common point, the soul is a like the BIOS as it delivers warnings if one of the hardware components is not functioning properly so you can take action. The soul warnings comes in the form of a desire to walk, to drink more water, to eat healthier food, to have some rest and many, to speak to someone and, other soft ideas. Those soft ideas we can simply ignore or validate based on our trust in the messenger.
In case the BIOS fails your PC is dead but you can use its parts to build a new one. Same with our soul when it leaves the body, the body will be good only as spare parts and for a limited time.
Many years before this analogy I believed that the souls is like the battery. It is consumed within the day so we need to sleep to charge it. When our battery is not rechargeable anymore we die. This analogy was serving me good for many years but I was having a question. Why many spiritual and religious teachers says it is sacred. The idea was a little pit childish at this point but I was thinking why we don’t come with a spare battery. I was always joking that those who live longer might have managed to find a new battery at a certain point of their life. Nowadays I believe that some tweaks in our life as introducing new things extends our desire to stay alive and in well being. This desire is the real fuel of longevity.
The spiritual approach evolved my model.
The reality that this basic understanding allowed me to build up on it the additional functionality I realized about the soul. I didn’t come up to it totally on my own. Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tole, Wayne Dayer and many other gurus were always speaking that the ultimate state of life is to be in harmony with your soul. Well, I can reach the BIOS settings, change it, rescue my computer or update it. But, why do I need to be in harmony with a static piece of software. It only gives me an alarm when a disaster occurs or about to occur. I do respect it as it keeps me alive but that’s it
Well this limited point of view appeared to be that of the ancient Greek Homeric Poems. It says that the soul is, on the one hand, something that a human being risks in battle and loses in death. On the other hand, it is what at the time of death departs from the person’s limbs and travels to the underworld, where it has a more or less pitiful afterlife as a shade or image of the deceased person. [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy] [Ancient Theories of Soul]
How did my understanding evolve?
Sometimes you need to follow on and practice what you read and the understanding will come later. I had practiced quieting the mind for some time. Then, I started to ask questions that needs answers from outside the logical approach. I found it, I found low faint ideas coming to my mind. Those ideas where different from what I am used to. They weren’t packed with proves and logic neither they were emotional. They were simply there. Like a candle in the midst of the dark. It won’t replace a 100 watt lamp or a laser head light but it is doing a great job in showing you the correct way.
Then I added this functionality to the soul. It is the correct answers bank. Many times I don’t have enough courage to blindly follow its answer which logically seems at the first glance not relevant. But, in the few times I followed it, I had acknowledged that the soul is not like anything else. It is every time here for me but, I am few time here with it.
Why Soul is an Important key that opens many doors towards our well-being?
Simply, the Soul is an independent entity. It is not the self or consciousness, it is not the ego, neither it is the intellect or the emotional body. It doesn’t age or change its concepts with time. The soul is one of the components of our existence. It has an overview of what is coming on the way to serve us better and guides us to it. In case we missed its guidance, don’t worry it will give you a new guide over and over again. If we buried its voice deep under the ego and the intellect, it is still there doing its functions. We can return to it anytime and listen to its guidance. When we decide that this earthy experiment is fulfilled for us, just then it returns where it come from in the first place.
Conclusion
The Soul is a tool gifted to us. Whatever our believes are, we have some believes that we are supported by one mean or the other. Luck, angles, friends, family, talent, effort, awareness, creator, universe, nature are all different names of a probable support. Add to them near the top based on your believe system, the soul.