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My second question is: what led the Buddha to deny the existance of a a permenant soul? and what Buddhists say about the stories we hear about people experiencing their souls departing from there bodies?

hello Bundokji

my answer:

the Buddha denied the existence of a permanent soul because he could not find one. in his intimate observation (meditation) of his body & mind, all he could find was physical & mental phenomena, such as physical matter (the body), feelings (of pleasure & pain), perceptions (labelling), thinking (mental fabricating) and consciousness (sense awareness).

the Buddha found "self" is just a thought generated by craving & attachment. when craving & attachment ended, "self" disappeared

the Buddha found "self" is a tendency of mind that attaches to or "appropriates" (takes possession) of things

for example, the body & nervous system feel pain and the mind appropriates the pain by thinking "I hurt", "I am in pain". for the mind that is fully observant, there is just pain. but for the mind that appropriates, it turns mere pain into "my pain"

the same with consciousness. consciousness sees, hears, smells, tastes, touches & cognises via the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body & mind. for the mind that is fully observant, there is just seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, etc. but for the mind that appropriates, it turns sense consciousness into "I see", "I hear", "I taste", "I smell", etc

the same with the body. the body came from two tiny cells (sperm & ovum) and grew due to being nourished by physical food, such as milk, rice, corn, apples, oranges, fish, etc. this body come from "external" things but, for the mind that appropriates, it turns this physical body into "my body"

therefore, in summary, when the body is seen as 'body', the feelings are seen as 'feelings', the perceiving is seen as 'perceiving', the thinking is seen as 'thinking' and consciousness is seen as 'consciousness', there is nothing remaining in life that can be found. there is no soul or independent 'self-essence' that can be found within or apart from these five parts of life

the difficult part is the thinking. the concept of 'self' arises in the thinking. the thinking is fuelled by feelings & cravings

this is why in Buddhism, meditation starts with calming down & stilling the thinking, to allow the mind to see clearly

such seeing (like a Buddha) is not easy. for many (partially) enlightened beings, 'selfing' still occurs because 'selfing' is a natural psychological tendency (but merely a tendency rather than a permanent entity)

regards

element