How do you get a soul?

Answer 1

Probably the easiest way to describe the soul is that the soul is not something you possess, the soul is who you are. The soul is the essence of your being, It is the real you, and is infinite, eternal, and it transcends mind, body, and personality. To the soul- the real you- these are attributes that are created and tried on, experienced, and learned from. They may come and go, depending upon their purpose, but the soul-you- is eternal, infinite, and divine. Some spiritual systems may refer to the soul as one' s "higher self", meaning the completed, omniscient, perfect, and actualized version of us, having reached a state of complete self awareness and awareness of the spiritual unity of all existence. This state may be roughly what is meant by terms such as "Nirvana", "Heaven", or "Enlightenment" . Some belief systems may refer to this self actualized state as "Buddha Mind" , "Christ Consciousness" , etc.

Depending on what spiritual ideas you maintain or those embodied in the doctrines of your spiritual or religious practice, your soul can be something that may be created or destroyed, damned or redeemed, bought or sold. In fact, it is this less exalted, flawed, and imperfect spirit- prone to sinfulness or wrong thinking, that is the general concept of soul held by most major world religions. It is what we might refer to as personality, granted an allotment of time to experience physical existence while associated with the body.

It is what one does with one's time on Earth, how one thinks, believes, and behaves that will help determine the eternal disposition of one's existence: salvation or perdition, soul death, or nonexistence, union with or separation from the deity, etc. This concept of the soul is the human spirit, that supernatural, trans-physical personality that continues after the body dies. It is this concept of the soul that may created by God, lost to the damnation of hellfire, redeemed by the blood of Christ, etc. According to the beliefs of the Abrahamic traditions, the soul is the eternal self, the spirit part of one's earthbound personality or ego. It is the part of us that continues after physical death, and that may be lost or saved. From Christianity for example, Jesus asks, " For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" It is thought of as a metaphysical commodity, a ghostly possession, hardly divine.

The higher self, concept as described above- the real you- perfect, omniscient and one with God and All That Is, comes from sources as diverse as Native American spirituality, Eastern religions, The New Age movement, and New Thought Christianity. The soul isn't something you own, the soul isn't something you "get", it is you - the real you.