25 Oct 2014

The path of joy is the path to the soul.

I

When you read these words on your screen, can you hear their sound in your mind? Do you see their images in your head?

If you hear them or see them, could you say who or what is aware of the sounds or images in your mind?

Please take a moment to explore the above question.

II

Now, please take a look at what is around you and notice what you see.

Do you see a computer, a phone, a chair, walls? Please be aware of what’s around you.

Now that you have become aware of these things, could you say who or what is aware of them?

Meaning what is it in you that is aware of your experience?

Please take another moment to explore.

III

Now, let’s continue:

When you taste something, who or what do you think is aware of the taste? When you hear something, who or what is aware of what you hear? Who is aware of what you feel?

Please take another minute to explore.

IV

Is it your mind which is aware? Is it you?

The answers you may have to the above questions will be most likely answer made of words, constructed by words. Meaning you are going to use words to describe what you think the answers are for you.

Language does this. We use words to define our experience.

For example, when we see a screen on a computer or phone, we call that thing “a screen”, but that thing is not a screen, it is what it is but we call it “a screen”. A cat is not a cat, a cat is what it is, we just use the word “cat” to describe it, to label it. The word/label is different than the thing. This is an important distinction.

Our minds uses words to define and make sense of the world. And we use these words to communicate with others. This is a very valuable skill, which has allowed human kind to develop languages and “rise above” our primitive nature. We quantify our experience and we then use these quantifications to understand the world, to learn how it works.

But there is often a downside in this process. We often forget that words are not the thing itself. We forget that they are only descriptions of our experience of the thing, not the thing.

V

The Soul is only a witness.

Paramahansa Yogandanda

What is it then that is beyond our mind and its descriptions and quantifications?

Existence.

What is that which is aware of our experience of existence?

Some people say our Soul.

Some say our Soul is what is aware and the one who witnesses our experiences. Our soul may be who and what we truly are.

Some believe the Soul is eternal continuing to exist even when our body dies, while others believe that what we call soul, is a creation of our brains that gives us a sense of us but that it dies with our bodies.

No matter what your belief is, I believe it is important to be in touch with our Soul, because it may be the closest we can get to experience ourselves beyond our bodies, emotions and the structures of our minds. It is the ultimate way to trascendend our primitive aspects.

The more we can experience our Souls the more we experience our deepest and highest nature, whatever that may be.

And how do we do that?

By practicing being aware and by by training our mind, body and emotions.

This is the path of Self Realization. Which is the path of getting closer and closer to our Self or Soul.

I believe this is, if not the most important thing we could do with our lives, for sure it is one of of the most important.

Why?

Because most of the things we want in life anyway, are just objects we seek to fill a void created by the lack of experience of who we truly are.

And because most our ailments are effects of this lack, I believe.

The more we experience who we truly are, the more amazed and in aw we can be of creation and what may have created us, even if that was nature itself.

The more in touch we are with our highest nature, the more we can realize that we are all part of one living thing, one Universe, one huge breathing Soul of which we are all part. How could we not be in aw of such awareness?! Of such experience! This is the path to our soul, the path of joy and our journey to go back home.

The Path To The Soul