{"id":70403,"date":"2022-06-20T16:55:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T20:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=70403"},"modified":"2022-07-01T08:32:27","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T12:32:27","slug":"what-does-soul-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-soul-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does &#8220;Soul&#8221; Mean? An Eastern Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What does &#8220;soul&#8221; mean? Is it distinct from the body? Are there individual souls and group souls?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inspired by Eastern mystical traditions, Gary Zukav argues that a soul is part of the divine consciousness. He distinguishes the soul from the body and provides his explanation for how the soul and body interact and why. He also discusses what he believes are the differences between human souls and the souls of other material things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading for this view of what &#8220;soul&#8221; means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-souls-on-the-material-plane\">Souls on the Material Plane<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What does &#8220;soul&#8221; mean? According to Zukav, our souls are essentially small parts of the divine consciousness, so they\u2019re inherently connected to that and are made of light energy. Our bodies and minds, however, are products of the material world. They\u2019re intertwined with our souls, but they&#8217;re not the same, he says. <strong>Your body is simply a mortal vehicle that your soul is spending one of many lifetimes in<\/strong>; your body and mind will die, while your soul is infinite and timeless. Therefore, Zukav says, while <em>you<\/em> live only one time as the human being you are, your soul has already likely lived many lifetimes, and may live many more, in other bodies. He does say that, although your \u201cpersonality\u201d or \u201clower self\u201d is not typically aware of the other lifetimes of your soul, when you develop your intuitive sense, you may sometimes become aware of these other lives. This is why some people have past life memories.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>The Bhagavad Gita and the Soul<\/strong><br><br>Zukav\u2019s philosophy was clearly inspired in part by Hinduism. <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-bhagavad-gita\"><em>The Bhagavad Gita<\/em><\/a>, one of the seminal Hindu scriptural texts, discusses the body and soul as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/erenow.net\/common\/the-bhagavad-gita-classics-of-indian-spirituality\/15.php#:~:text=1%20The%20body%20is%20called,its%20Knower%20is%20true%20knowledge.\">the field and the knower of the field<\/a>.\u201d In this metaphor, the \u201cknower\u201d of the field is your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-find-your-true-self\/\">true self<\/a>, or what Zukav is thinking of as the \u201csoul.\u201d The field is composed of your body and your mind, and the thoughts and sense perceptions that arise from those, which can be obstacles to the soul, as they are susceptible to false understandings or illusions. Similar to Zukav\u2019s ideas about the soul being a part of the divine whole, <em>The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> says that <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-bhagavad-gita\/chapters-13-16\">it\u2019s crucial for us to understand the difference between these two aspects of ourselves<\/a>, and to realize our souls are all part of Brahman, the ultimate reality.&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Zukav, <strong>the extent to which your lower self is aware of, and connected to, your soul will determine your life experience<\/strong>. The more disconnected you are from your soul, the more conflict and negativity there will be in your life; a person who is totally out of touch with their soul will be \u201cevil\u201d or schizophrenic, Zukav says. By contrast, a person who\u2019s totally aligned with and in touch with their soul will be enlightened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As far as souls on Earth, Zukav says that all human beings have<em> individual <\/em>souls, but the rest of the living material world does not. Animals, plants, and minerals have \u201cgroup souls,\u201d he explains, meaning that all the animals of a specific species are connected, sharing a single soul. So, for example, all elephants are imbued with a small portion of the one elephant soul. This is why animals behave on basic instinct, he explains, while humans act with individual consciousness and choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, Zukav says, animals have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-collective-consciousness\/\">collective consciousness<\/a>, but all species are not equally conscious. There are greater and lesser degrees of consciousness in different animal species. As these collective animal souls evolve, he says, the soul essence can move into higher forms of animals, and eventually can evolve into a singular human soul. So, according to Zukav\u2019s description of the universe, the human soul is the highest-evolved form of spirit being that manifests in physical form. Beyond the human soul, there are only non-material spiritual beings, such as spirit guides and angels.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While each human has an individual soul, according to Zukav, we also have collective consciousnesses with groups of people who share some identity category with us. For example, all women have a spiritual connection to one another, as do all men, all people of a specific race, nationality, religion, and so on. Therefore, as your soul evolves, Zukav says, you\u2019ll contribute also to the evolution of other souls within those groups you belong to.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Aristotle and the Soul<\/strong><br><br>The idea of different types and degrees of souls in the living world can be traced back to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Aristotle\/Philosophy-of-mind\">Aristotle, who conceived of a hierarchy of life and consciousness<\/a>. He believed that plants have a \u201cvegetative\u201d soul which enables them to simply grow and reproduce, while animals have a \u201csensitive\u201d soul that additionally allows them to feel pleasure and pain. Humans, at the top of the hierarchy, have a \u201crational\u201d soul, which in addition to the functions of plants and animals, allows them to think and reason. Unlike Zukav, however, Aristotle did not conceive of the soul as something separate from the body, or as something immortal that lived on after death. The soul, in his view, is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scandalon.co.uk\/philosophy\/aristotle_body_soul.htm\">essentially what animates the body to do what it\u2019s meant to do<\/a>.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does &#8220;soul&#8221; mean? Is it distinct from the body? Are there individual souls and group souls? Inspired by Eastern mystical traditions, Gary Zukav argues that a soul is part of the divine consciousness. He distinguishes the soul from the body and provides his explanation for how the soul and body interact and why. He also discusses what he believes are the differences between human souls and the souls of other material things. Keep reading for this view of what &#8220;soul&#8221; means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":70406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,6],"tags":[662],"class_list":["post-70403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-spiritual","tag-the-seat-of-the-soul","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Does &quot;Soul&quot; Mean? An Eastern Perspective - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What does &quot;soul&quot; mean? According to Gary Zukav, a soul is essentially a small part of the divine consciousness. 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