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**radikal** · 03-16-2010, 03:13 AM

Why not ? What makes you think the soul cannot be spoken about? I am a soul typing this and I am conscious of it. Even though I do not know everything about myself(my soul), I know enough parts of it. I know the soul is self-conscious, can think, can get my body to perform actions..etc ... etc.

What I meant is as in this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neti_neti .

If the soul is the I-sense, then it definitely disappears when one is in deep sleep, and moreover it has a different world experience in dreams. So is the soul not a constant? What and how does it experience? What can be said of the soul are statements which remain meaningless with respect to the world of opposites, which is exactly the one we live in.

If a tradition delivers or attempts to deliver chitta-shuddhi by any means, rituals, or mental practice, I think of it as a spiritual tradition.

But this presupposes the existence of the soul ! If the soul itself does not exist , what are you cleaning (shuddhi) ? AFAIK, chitta-shuddi is only a clean mind (the soul is infact considered to be absolutely and non-dually pure, atleast in Advaita), and is always achieved by the individual (i.e the one whose I-sense has not yet gone beyond individual body-minds). It need not actually presuppose anything about the soul or the transcendent state - any such concept about oneself is infact to be left behind for chitta-shuddhi.

And the subject does not exist as per Buddhism. I think its more like the subject does not have an 'independent existence in itself', or that with the rise of the 'subject-thought', the 'object-thought' also has to have come.

Yes. Thats what Buddhism does. It confuses. In any case, I truly believe that practice in a particular path is necessary before one can recommend or condemn it .. even so, it need (or need not) work only for oneself, others might have a different experience.

Love and Light.

03-16-2010, 03:13 AM	#12
radikal Join Date Oct 2005 Age 54 Posts 4,523 Senior Member	Why not ? What makes you think the soul cannot be spoken about? I am a soul typing this and I am conscious of it. Even though I do not know everything about myself(my soul), I know enough parts of it. I know the soul is self-conscious, can think, can get my body to perform actions..etc ... etc. What I meant is as in this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neti_neti . If the soul is the I-sense, then it definitely disappears when one is in deep sleep, and moreover it has a different world experience in dreams. So is the soul not a constant? What and how does it experience? What can be said of the soul are statements which remain meaningless with respect to the world of opposites, which is exactly the one we live in. If a tradition delivers or attempts to deliver chitta-shuddhi by any means, rituals, or mental practice, I think of it as a spiritual tradition. But this presupposes the existence of the soul ! If the soul itself does not exist , what are you cleaning (shuddhi) ? AFAIK, chitta-shuddi is only a clean mind (the soul is infact considered to be absolutely and non-dually pure, atleast in Advaita), and is always achieved by the individual (i.e the one whose I-sense has not yet gone beyond individual body-minds). It need not actually presuppose anything about the soul or the transcendent state - any such concept about oneself is infact to be left behind for chitta-shuddhi. And the subject does not exist as per Buddhism. I think its more like the subject does not have an 'independent existence in itself', or that with the rise of the 'subject-thought', the 'object-thought' also has to have come. Yes. Thats what Buddhism does. It confuses. In any case, I truly believe that practice in a particular path is necessary before one can recommend or condemn it .. even so, it need (or need not) work only for oneself, others might have a different experience. Love and Light.
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