The Nature Of The Soul
I was watching a testimony from someone the other day who had found Jesus after exploring other forms of spirituality including Buddhism. He talked about how in Buddhism; ‘the soul is an attachment to the suffering that has built up in past lives and ultimately you have to let go of that.’
The sentence jumped out of me. Letting go of the soul? Like many people who consider themselves ‘spiritual but not religious,’ I have explored lots of different forms of spirituality. I’ve dipped in and out of Buddhist classes but didn’t have a deep understanding of what Buddhism actually is.
When I became a follower of Christ I wondered if I should continue to meditate or not. I knew the practise of stillness gave me much needed physical rest, and appeared to help my mind too. But I was also aware of the risk of opening ourselves up as a ‘portal’ to the spiritual realms.
At that time I thought the risk was when we go deeper, to more ‘advanced’ levels of meditation, where we might receive messages that are false from beings who are not who we think they are. I stopped meditating just because I found that I could get all of the benefits by sitting in stillness and praying, knowing that I was connecting to God as my safe anchor rather than floating free in a seemingly infinite realm.
But after I heard that comment on the video, it became much clearer to me that the risk isn’t just about becoming a portal if we take it too far. The risk is there in the very act of meditation itself.
The practise of meditation or mindfulness, is about sitting and observing our thoughts. We train ourselves to be a detached observer, just noticing things, and letting them float by, trying to stay out of our ‘monkey mind,’ watching the highs and the lows with a perception of distance.
It suddenly occurred to me that this very act of being a detached observer, is a training, a training in separation from our self.
It is packaged as something that is extremely healthy and beneficial to do. If we are experiencing strong emotions, such as anger, what could be healthier than learning to sit quietly with them rather than lashing out at a loved one?
But what if its truth mixed with lies? While it is healthy to learn how to manage our emotions, perhaps a practise where we are trained to distance ourselves from our emotions is not actually the best way to go about it.
When we ‘new age’ (for want of a better way to describe it), we can have a pick n’ mix approach to different spiritualities. So for example I practised yoga, which has its roots in Hinduism, and also practised a style of meditation I’d picked up in a Buddhist centre years ago. I had also dabbled in Tai Chi, and sexuality practises that have their roots in Taoism and Tantra.
What can get lost when we are in that pick n’ mix buffet of spirituality is either/or questions about the ultimate nature of our spirituality. Do we have an immortal soul or not? And if we think we do, do we want to be engaging in a practise based on a philosophy that does not acknowledge the soul’s existence?
The term ‘finding ourselves’ is often used to describe the act of spiritual seeking, of going on a journey to explore spirituality and healing.
But what if we are being led on a wild goose chase? If we sit quietly to be with ourselves, to find ourselves, while also engaging in an act of training to disconnect from the self, then we are being led in circles, constantly seeking but never finding.
Christianity sees it differently. That we are born to be in relationship with God, that we all have a God-shaped hole inside of ourselves that needs to be filled with a relationship with our creator. Yes, our thoughts and our emotions are a big part of the problem. However we do not need to empty ourselves, but rather to fill ourselves. In the Bible that act of meditation is to be filled, to connect with God, and to be filled with the Word of God, and to reflect on it, in quiet stillness.
We can lay down our suffering at the feet of Jesus. 'Lay down your heavy burden and I will give you rest.'
‘For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? - Matthew 16:26