It seems that certain people are more interested by the activity of the soul than the activity of the body.
Funny thing! The Soul doesn't have any activity! What do you mean by "activity of the soul?"
I mean, talking about meditation, a mental, spiritual thing.
A simple thing: are they doing meditation with their mind or anything else? That's the mind. Where is the spirit? Where is the Soul? The Soul doesn't have any activity.
It depends on what you call "Soul," because in the West we have different terms.
What?
For us, the "soul" is what makes you alive. That's all. So, the soul can have feelings, the soul can think. Plato says the thought is a silent dialog of the soul with herself.
Now what is the difference between your soul and your mind? The mind is wrongly identified as the Soul and there comes the problem.
When you say, "mind" do you imply "citta?"
Yes, yes. The mind has various layers, like an onion, you see. Starting from the body; there is mind in the body also, like the rivers' banks. The mind has the body as a bank on one side; and on the other side, something beyond the mind is the bank of it. So the mind on the other bank of it is closer to the Soul. It is not the Soul. It is closer to the Soul.
You said last time that the mind was identifying itself with the Soul, like the servant with the master; when the mind is happy, he thinks that the Soul is happy...
Yes. We identify ourselves with the mind that's why we say, "my mind is happy, I am happy." We never say, "my mind is sad but I am happy" or "my mind is happy and I am sad." It never happens. We identify so much. Actually, the relationship between the mind and the Soul is that of the servant and master, as Patanjali puts it. Patanjali says the Soul is the swami, the master, and consciousness is the servant. In spite of such a relationship, there is a big difference between the master and the servant. There is no need to tell you what the master is and what the servant is; but although they are master and servant, there is still identification. One is sentient and the other one is inert. There is the living principle, and the non-living principle. The Soul is sentient, the consciousness is insentient. Do you follow what sentient, insentient mean? Living, non-living? So, one is inert, the other one is animate. Now there is a big difference between the two, but still there is a mix-up and there is imposition.
So when they speak about meditation, they are doing something with the mind and not with the Soul. The meditation that they consider as an activity of the Soul is not an activity of the Soul. The Soul doesn't have any activity. It is mental.
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