Hi Alan,
members,


There are some important questions in that list.
I wonder what the world would be like if everyone asked some of those questions even once a day and then sincerely sought the answers?

Two teachers who's works I rely on for inspiration and information have some material available on the soul.
I do not know if you are familiar with them or not.

1) Sri Aurobindo has a nuanced 3 part definition of what we generally call the soul. These links are from a follower of his:

http://www.kheper.net/topics/Aurobindo/Jivatman_Spark-Soul_and_Psychic_Being.htm...

Some quotes on the soul by Aurobindo can also be seen at  this link:
http://www.kheper.net/topics/Aurobindo/Psychic_Being.htm

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I would further recommend Aurobindo's writings, such as what is considered his magnum opus, "The Life Divine", which is pretty much a comprehensive spiritual cosmology, with deep, quite thourough discourses on virtually every spiritual subject, including the 5 or 10 subjects regularly discussed here at this site. (ignorance, evil, heaven/hell/realms/organization of reality, karma, reincarnation, also 'supramental' transformation/descent, which is the same as what new-agers call 'ascension' etc. etc.)

This link  http://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/index_e.htm  will provide a list of Aurobindo's books, including "The Life Divine" among them. I suggest looking over the table of contents. You can also download the entire book in PDF format. See Chapters XVII and XXIII which are specifically about the soul.

http://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/18-19/index_e.htm  

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Another set of Sri Aurobindo's writings which are very illumining and useful are his "Letters on Yoga", letters which were written to his disciples over many years on various spiritual subjects. These volumes have been edited and arranged by subject which is very helpful. The writings are more conversational in tone and therefore a bit easier to read. I also recommend looking over the tables of content to see if any subjects are of interest. Specifically on the soul - I know it is in there, because I have seen and read,  but could not presently find exact locations and unfortunately, beyond the tables, these volumes are not indexed, but there is much to benefit by.

http://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/22-24/index_e.htm

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2) another author I often recommend as being inspiring and helpful in a practical sense is Sri Chinmoy. Prolific like Aurobindo, but much more accessible and in an entirely different way. If you go to this site link below which is a large collection of his writings and do a site search (upper right) for "soul" you will get an unbelievable 12,000+ returns. Since many of these are within poems (he wrote tens of thousands) you may want to search using larger phrases that include "soul", in order to get some more expository or Q+A items, unless you like 'soul' poems.

http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/


As I said, and it needs to be said here - these authors are inspiring for me. I am simply recommending them provisionally with the qualification that readers must determine the ultimate value and possible utility for themselves according to their own values.

Meanwhile, I hope this may be helpful in some way. 

Be well,

- u  

I guess the big issue surrounding soul is the question of whether or not it has some sort of independent personal existence or permanence.

Here's a nice reference to a Buddhist view on the subject which suggests not: http://www.enotalone.com/article/4090.html

It's part of a book which sets out basic Buddhist teaching.

I'm personally unable to offer any informed view, but tend to be provisionally guided by the Buddhist teaching as I've had a lot of good experience with it and have developed some faith in it.

That said it seems to be possible to offer credible views in either direction which fit at least the commonly observed realities. My inclination is to as a result of some experience to feel that the lights do not at least just go out with death, but beyond that it's hard to call.

Hi alan This is what jesus says about the soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUInWmROjAI&feature=related

Love and God bless   love juditha

These are some good questions, Alan.  For some of them, I had a take on them, for others I wasn't sure although the links everybody has posted were pretty insightful. Here's my take on a few.

Our soul is the life and form of consciousness that we live as we speak.
While there has not been any direct answers to why we have the soul, we have the body as the vehicle for the soul in a lifetime, and we choose different forms for particular reasons.
Animals definitely have feelings, lives and minds, and I would say they have souls. Perhaps the form of an animal is training wheels for a human soul, like a practice round.
From both this speculation and personal experience I can say that a soul does grow. I am definitely not proud of my past, having grown up as a boy with a mental disorder that went untreated for the first 9 years of my life and having to go through years of therapy to get where I am now I can say that I was not the nicest guy and was once very self centered, but in more recent years learned the gift of being able to give back to my fellow man and actually have some clue as to how things made other people feel. It was a long and difficult road to get to where I am now.
Of course souls have feelings, we know our own souls to have feelings BUT sometimes it takes more time to learn that other souls have the same feelings that our own do and part of knowing this is to break away the barrier that so many people have of "US vs. THEM." When I asked my guitar teacher about the concept of satan, he told me "satan is separation, its easier to attack something we see as separate from ourselves." I personally believe all souls are one in the same in that they all feel the same spectrum of feelings. Obviously we are our own individuals.
The age old question of the soul mate. I would say we have them. The mystery of how sexuality and preference are uncontrollable and not always conventional is something that I have always wondered about, I have had the theory that it may have something to do with past lives or the preferences of the soul outside of C1 consciousness. Perhaps the soulmate who knew me in the other side, decided to take the form I'd find most appealing here.
Lost souls are probably the ghosts that for some reason are still here and have not crossed over. All I can say to that. I don't think you can sell your soul. What would you sell it for? A donut? The only case of this that I know of is a fictional case of Homer Simpson.
The souls origin is unknown.
Finally, the total obliteration of the soul has been mentioned by Bruce Moen before as something that is extremely rare and that only one of several billion people will make a combination of choices leading to that.
I'm still exploring all of this stuff myself but hopefully these answers were helpful.
Peace
David