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The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an afterlife, but opinions may vary wildly, even within a given religion, as to what happens to the soul after death. Many within these religions and philosophies see the soul as immaterial, while others consider it possibly material.
Note: This article uses the word "soul" in the common form, and deals largely with varied concepts from which the concept originates, and to which it relates. The use of the word soul often does not explicitly correspond to usage associated with any particular view or belief, including usage in Western and Eastern religious texts, and in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Heraclitus, or Plotinus.
The current English word "soul" may have originated from Old English sawol , documented in 970 AD, which has possible etymological links with a Germanic root from which we also get the word "sea". The old German word is called 'se(u)la', what means: belonging to the sea (ancient Germanic conceptions involved the souls of the unborn and of the dead "living" being part of a medium, similar to water), or perhaps, "living water".
Ancient Greeks sometimes referred to the soul as psyche (as in modern English psychology ). Aristotle's works in Latin translation, used the word anima (as in animated ), which also means "breath". In the New Testament, the original word may sometimes better translate as "life", as in :
"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26)
If you exchange the word "soul" for "life" in the sentence above, the statement may seem less profound. Also, Jesus said, "He who saves his life will lose it", which means that a faithful believer must be ready to sacrifice his life in order to preserve his soul.
The Latin root of the related word spirit , like anima , also expresses the idea of "breath".
The various origins and usages demonstrate not only that what people call "soul" today has varied in meaning during history, but that the word and concept themselves have changed in their implications.
The Ancient Greeks used the same word for 'alive' as for 'ensouled'. So the earliest surviving Western philosophical view might suggest that the soul makes living things alive.
Plato, drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, considers the soul as the essence of a person, as that which decides how we act. He considered this essence as an incorporeal occupant of our being. The Platonic soul comprises three parts:
Each of these has a function in a balanced and peaceful soul.
The reason equates to the mind. It corresponds to the charioteer, directing the balanced horses of appetite and spirit. It allows for logic to prevail, and for the optimisation of balance.
The appetite drives humankind to seek out its basic bodily needs. Yet when the passion controls us, master passion drives us to hedonism in all forms. This is the basal and most feral state.
The spirit comprises our emotional motive, that which drives us to acts of bravery and glory. If left unchecked, it will lead to hubris -- the most fatal of all flaws in the Greek view.
Aristotle
Aristotle, following Plato, defined the soul as the core essence of a being, but argued against its having a separate existence. For instance, if a knife had a soul, the act of cutting would be that soul, because 'cutting' is the essence of what it is to be a knife. Unlike Plato and the religious traditions, Aristotle did not consider the soul as some kind of separate, ghostly occupant of the body (just as we cannot separate the activity of cutting from the knife). As the soul, in Aristotle's view, is an activity of the body, it cannot be immortal (when a knife is destroyed, the cutting stops). More precisely, the soul is the "first activity" of a living body. This is a state, or a potential for actual, or 'second', activity. "The axe has an edge for cutting" was, for Aristotle, analogous to "humans have bodies for rational activity," and the potential for rational activity thus constituted the essence of a human soul. Aristotle used his concept of the soul in many of his works; the Nicomachean Ethics provides a good place to start to gain more understanding of his views.
Aristotle's view appears to have some similarity to the Buddhist 'no soul' view (see below). For both, there is certainly no 'separable immortal essence'. It may simply become a matter of definition, as most Buddhists would agree, surely, that one can use a knife for cutting. They might, perhaps, stress the impermanence of the knife's cutting ability.
B.K.S. Iyengar
A photograph of B.K.S. Iyengar B.K.S. Iyengar , (aka Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar) born Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar, December 14, 1918, in India, is founder of Iyengar Yoga and one of the most respected yoga teachers in the world. Millions of students and followers around the world practice Iyengar Yoga. Iyengar and has written a number of definitive yoga texts. Iyengar Yoga |
Yoga Sutras of PatanjaliThe Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are one of the six darshanas of Hindu or Vedic schools and, alongside the Bhagavad Gita and Hatha Yoga Pradipika, are a milestone in the history of Yoga. The book is a set of aphorisms, which are short, terse phrases designed to be easy to memorize. Though brief, the Yoga Sutras are an enormously influential work that is just as relevant for yoga philosophy and practice today as it was when it was written. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali |
Hatha Yoga PradipikaThe most fundamental text of Hatha Yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika , a Sanskrit classic written by Swami Swatamarama, a disciple of Swami Goraknath. It is said to be the oldest surviving text on the Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga and Hatha Yoga Pradipika |
KundaliniKundalini is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning either "coiled up" or "coiling like a snake". There are a number of other translations of the term usually emphasizing a more serpent nature to the word— e.g. 'serpent power'. The caduceus symbol of coiling snakes is thought to be an ancient symbolic representation of Kundalini physiology. |
Zen
Bodhidharma, woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, 1887. Zen is the Japanese name of a well known branch of Mahayana Buddhist schools, practiced originally in China as Ch'an and subsequently in Korea , Japan , and Vietnam . Zen emphasizes the role of sitting meditation (zazen) in pursuing enlightenment. Zen can be considered a religion, a philosophy, or simply a practice depending on one's perspective. It has also been described as a way of life, work, and an art form. Zen is the common name for this branch of Buddhism in Japanese as well as in English. However, in the last half of the 20th century, Zen has become an international phenomenon, with centers in many countries around the world. Zen |
Kundalini Yoga - Awakening the Kundalini Energy Kundalini Yoga is the most powerful Yoga ever known and is considered as the mother of all the Styles of Yoga. It centers on awakening the Kundalini, the energy (serpent power or Bhujangini) which is found at the base of our spine or the Muladhara Chakra. Kundalini came from the word kunda which means "pot" but it Kundalini Sadhna, it is defined as the coiled energy that looks like a serpent with three and a half coils lying dormant at the base of the spine with the tip of its tail to its mouth. The three coils represent the Three Gunas : the Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, the half coil
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Sri Tirumalai KrishnamacharyaSri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) is credited with being instrumental in the resurgence of interest in hatha yoga. His students included Indra Devi, B.K.S. Iyengar, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and T.K.V. Desikachar—major yoga teachers in their own right. Born in 1888 in Mysore , India , Krishnamacharya received his first instruction in Sanskrit and yoga from his father. He went on to attend the Royal College of Mysore and later spent seven years studying in Tibet . He returned to Mysore in 1924 and later opened a yoga school. In 1976, Krishnamacharya's son and closest disciple, T.K.V. Desikachar, founded the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, a yoga center in Madras . |
Sri K. Pattabhi JoisSri Krishna Pattabhi Jois was born on Guru Purnima in 1915 in the village of Kowshika , near Hassan, Karnataka, South India . Jois currently teaches yoga at his school, the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, in Mysore , India . In 1927, at the age of 12, Jois attended a lecture and demonstration in Hassan by S. T. Krishnamacharya and the very next day became his student —the beginning of 25 years of study with Krishnamacharya |
Karate.
Two Karate practitioners engaging in competition style Karate. Karate or karate-do , "the way of the empty hand") is a martial art of Okinawan origin. Karate is a synthesis of indigenous Okinawan fighting methods and Southern Chinese martial arts. In modernity, it is categorized by some as budo, introduced to the Japanese main islands from Okinawa in 1921 by various Okinawan practitioners who moved to mainland Japan during the early 20th century
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MeditationMeditation refers to any of a wide variety of spiritual practices (and their close secular analogues) which emphasize mental activity or quiescence. The English word comes from the Latin meditation , which originally indicated every type of physical or intellectual exercise, but which later could perhaps be better translated as "contemplation." This usage is found in Christian spirituality, for example, when one "meditates" on the sufferings of Christ; as well as Western philosophy, as in Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy , a set of six mental exercises which systematically analyze the nature of reality. |
ChakraIn Hinduism and its spiritual systems of yoga and in some related eastern cultures, as well as in some segments of the New Age movement -- and to some degree the distinctly different New Thought movement -- a chakra is thought to be an energy node in the human body. The word comes from the Sanskrit cakra meaning "wheel, circle", and sometimes also referring to the "wheel of life". The pronunciation of this word can be approximated in English by chuh kruh ; with ch as in chart and both instances of a as in yoga (the commonly found pronunciation shock rah is incorrect).
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Self-realizationIn yoga, self-realization is knowledge of one's true self. This true self is also referred to as the atma to avoid ambiguity. The term "self-realization" is a translation of the Sanskrit expression atma jnana (knowledge of the self or atma). The reason the term "realization" is used instead of "knowledge" is that jnana refers to knowledge based on experience, not mere intellectual knowledge. As discussed in the article on yoga, while the goal of self-realization is the same in all yoga paths, the means used to achieve that goal differ. For example, in Sahajayoga or hatha yoga, self-realization is said to be achieved when the serpent force or kundalini rises through the shushumna nadi to the sahasrara chakra. |
AsanaAsana is a Sanskrit word that literally means a seat but in the practice of yoga refers to a pose or posture. In Patanjali's yoga sutras Asana means, mainly, sitting for meditation. The practice of asana involves stretching and moving the body into various positions. With practice, the body can be made to remain in a given position for a longer period of time, comfortably. When a degree of comfort is attained in a given posture, it becomes Asana . In general, however, the term is also used to refer to physical yoga exercises in general. Asana |
SoulThe soul , according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is the ethereal substance — spirit — particular to a unique living being. Such traditions often consider the soul both immortal and innately aware of its immortal nature, as well as the true basis for sentience in each living being. The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an afterlife, but opinions may vary wildly, even within a given religion, as to what happens to the soul after death. Many within these religions and philosophies see the soul as immaterial, while others consider it possibly material. Soul |
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