Life and Spirituality

Love of a mother I n spiritual philosophy there exists the concept of a soul. It is described as an imperishable part of humans that does not die even though the physical body does. The soul is the reservoir of our personality and the source of our emotions. What happens to it after a human dies? Well it can acquire another body and dwell in heaven or hell or float about as Casper the little ghost did. The details of what all can happen to a soul after death vary in different spiritual traditions of the world. Nevertheless, all of the major traditions admit to the existence of an imperishable soul. It seems that some time in the past, some Christian philosophers got together and concluded that while humans have a soul other animals do not. This is in contradiction to eastern schools of thought such as Buddhism which asserts that all life has a soul even the lowest of animals, nay, even insects and bacteria, and that a soul evolves gradually from the lowest levels to a h...

Golu, (Naynesh), my God Grandson H uman life is made up of sad and happy moments, some very sad moments, and brief or prolonged periods of sorrow or difficulties as well as prolonged periods of happiness. Yesterday on TV one of the principal characters of a program I watch mentioned that an evolved human is one who can face both sorrow and happiness calmly with equanimity, since these are inevitable portions of life. I completely agree with this view and feel that the Universal Intelligence makes humans face sorrow for precisely such evolution. One of the things that has made me face sorrow and difficulties in life with calm is the belief in an afterlife – the belief in reincarnation. I know that many do not believe in a soul or reincarnation but I believe that when one firmly accepts reincarnation as a fact, then sorrows and difficulties of life become less serious, even trivial at times. Perhaps all of us would have experienced an unpleasant dream in which something awfu...

I n a previous post John mentioned that he does not believe in the concept of reincarnation. It is a concept that was mentioned by ancient mystics. It is an inherent part of Christianity (read more) as well as Eastern religions. One may define anything more than one life as reincarnation. Without it another life in Hell or Heaven would be impossible. But then, there is so much else that ancient mystics mentioned that has not been proven by science. In fact some of what the mystics said has been shown to be absurd (unless it is viewed metaphorically). Therefore it is perfectly reasonable for a modern rational person to disbelieve in this concept. I too regard myself as a modern rationalist. My profession is a scientific one and I have made useful scientific contributions during my career. However my reflections have led me to believe firmly in reincarnation.Read why. My spiritual belief begins with a belief that there is something deeper to my self than my body i.e. the soul. I ...