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Chapter 19 - What Is The Soul?
What is the soul? This is a question that has puzzled mankind for thousands of years and no one, as yet, has come up with a detailed and satisfactory answer to it. Some people hold the opinion that the soul is something invisible and untouchable, which may or may not exist. Some feel that, even if the soul exists, it exerts no influence whatsoever on the living person, and if it does not exist, then it is even less worthy of study. Is the soul really not worthy of study? Many people are curious about the nature of the soul, yet few have access to the answer. Is the soul really invisible and untouchable? Many people answer "yes" to the question, although they really do not know. I would like to boldly make a startling statement to the reader, "You are the soul." What is the soul? You are the soul! Why is it that being the soul oneself, one does not know nor realize that one is actually the soul? Where then is the soul hidden? There is this account in the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Original Vows Sutra: The Holy Maiden asked the Ghost King named Poisonless, "Where is Hell?" Poisonless answered, "Within the three seas are hundreds of thousands of great hells; each one is different." The Holy Maiden again asked the Ghost King, "My mother has not been dead long. Do you know where her soul has gone to?" In this sutra, there is a reference made by the Holy Maiden to the soul and the inference is that the soul continues to exist after a person dies. But, why is it that a person cannot see the soul when alive? My answer is, when man is born, the soul becomes surrounded by the external visible shell, and the soul loses its consciousness. When living in the visible world, man becomes dependent on all tangible forms. During this time, the soul can be said to be dormant. Although it dwells inside the body, it has lost its awareness; it is as if it is not there. Therefore, people take the illusory to be reality and believe the physical body is the true self. The soul remains silent, dormant until the day the physical body dies. Then the soul gradually reawakens, becoming active again. Herein lies the principle of rebirth and reincarnation. The cycles of birth and death continue endlessly. Taoist and Buddhist practitioners today are cultivating the transcendence of the soul over birth and death, not the longevity of the physical body. Therefore, one cannot experience one's soul while alive, because one's soul is dormant. There are probably people who still doubt this and find it hard to accept. But, imagine this, if one's soul is awake and conscious while one is still physically alive, what kind of world would such a person experience? This kind of realm is understood by only a very few people. Only when a person has reached the realm when his soul is conscious, can he understand what the soul is. Only then can such a person be qualified to use spiritual power to do divination. And what a wonderful experience that is! According to my knowledge, souls exist everywhere. They exist in the hills and woods, in rivers and oceans, in residences of living people (Yang abodes) and those of dead people (cemeteries or Yin abodes), in busy market places and even inside the human body. A soul can expand to cover the sky and earth, or it can contract to hide inside a grain of sand, a speck of dust, or a water droplet. There are also different types of souls: those of Buddhas, gods, humans, ghosts, and demons. This knowledge has come from my direct observations and not from any other source. The most important question is what is the soul? To me, the soul feels like a stream of "phi," a stream of "energy," or a kind of "transformation." What is the soul made up of? Since I am not a scientist, I cannot analyze this, but I can detect the soul's existence and to me it feels like "electricity" and "radiation." Normally, the visible world is inhabited by men and myriad material things, and the invisible world is inhabited by souls. Souls in the world of spirits can have knowledge of the visible world, whereas it is very difficult for men to understand the invisible world. This is the reason why researchers who are studying the soul still have not been able to unlock the riddle. Although there are some people whose souls are conscious and can communicate with the realm of the spirits, such people are usually ridiculed as mentally ill, imagining things, or actually hallucinating. Indeed, such experiences can be sensed, but not explained in words. A description of the truth and mystery of the soul can never evoke a direct experience of it. People who are interested should seek to learn firsthand about the world of the spirits. The world of spirits and the visible world are not just neighbors to each other, but are related far more intimately. We have come from the world of spirits and shall return to the world of spirits. Men also live together with the spirits, so how can we say that there is no connection between the two? One can manoeuver power from the world of spirits to accomplish many great tasks. Perhaps the reader still does not believe me, but if one will just read further, I will reveal the secrets in the rest of this book.
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