THE
SOUL
1. No inanimate matter has a soul. Only animate, sentient matter, including
plants and animals.
2. Human beings have souls, but
comparatively
few human beings are regularly in touch with their soul, least of all
in
metaphysical terms.
3. For to be in touch with the
soul-of-souls,
the metaphysical soul, one has to be a genuinely religious person, not
a
scientific or a political or an economic type of person.
4. These others, on the contrary, are
regularly
in touch with their will, their spirit, their ego - each or all of
which
prevent them from developing soul to anything like a religious extent;
though
not, of course, to extents compatible with science, politics, or
economics, as
with regard to love, pride, and pleasure.
5. Doubtless more than a few animals and
even
some plants would have experienced something similar, even if not in
relation
to science, politics, or economics. But
are there what may be called religious plants and
animals, plants and animals, I mean, with a self-conscious capacity for
joy,
even bliss?
6. I shouldn't like to categorically deny
such a
possibility, particularly in relation to certain species of birds,
whose song
is - well, heavenly, and to certain species of trees which grow so tall
that
they seem to merge into the sky and blend with the surrounding air,
providing a
congenial habitat for the loftiest birds.
Of how many human beings could such a thing be said?
7. One would like to think that, at the
highest
level, the best, most soulful human beings can outdo trees and birds in
sublime
accomplishments; that they would in effect be more religious than those
other
species of life, but that is not to deny to such species the capacity
for
religious or soulful experience, still less to overlook the millions of
people
whose capacity to cultivate anything remotely resembling genuine
religious
experience is virtually extinct or sadly non-existent.
8. In this
respect,
mankind are no more homogeneous than any other kind of life on this
planet, not
excepting the plants.
9. A religious person will not be someone, you can rest assured, to shoot at birds
(least of
all singing birds) or to fell tall trees.
On the contrary, he will feel a sympathy towards and empathy
with
certain trees and birds that would be completely lacking in a
non-religious
person - say, a scientist or a politician.
But, more than that, he will feel sympathetic towards and be led
to
empathize with other religious persons to an extent that would be
inconceivable
in a non-religious person, even an economist.
10. But he must be
careful, if truly wise, not to allow such feelings to cloud his
judgement and
draw him into collectivism, whether under cover of religion or
otherwise.
11. For the genuinely
religious experience is cultivated independently of the collectivity,
by the Individual acting on and for himself or, more correctly, his
self. No-one can
meditate for
you, and, at the end of the day, the cultivation of metaphysical soul
is an
intensely private experience, an experience as far removed from public
show as
the soul itself.
12. Like essence, the religious experience is
neither seen nor heard, still less tasted or touched, but felt, felt in
the
soul as the peace that joyfully surpasses egocentric understanding,
including
the truth of God, which is for the godly individual but a means to that
heavenly
end.
