Important Soul-questions

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Your first question is: "Does the soul's will always correspond to the will of God?" The ultimate answer is yes. But the shorterm answer is no. For the soul's will is to create and to form karma, and karma is a part of maya or illusion. It is the will of Love that we ultimately outgrow all illusion. So, we can, in time, rise above the "illusion," the virtual reality, the very "real" dream, of karma. The soul's will is always the will of karma, from the very deep Unconscious, but it is not always the will of the deepest Unconscious (God). The purpose of illusion is to allow us to outgrow illusion.

Theologians speak of two forms of the "will of God," and the mystic concurs: God's active will is for the enlightenment in Love, and for the oneness with Lovemind, in bliss and ecstasy, for all creation. But God's permissive will allows for ignorance, error, illusion, pain, loss, and the creation of karma. For this is how the soul learns and grows. So, karma is and is not the "will of God." It is not God's active will, but is God's permissive will. For karma serves Love, ultimately,as does all illusion.

You continue, "If the soul's agenda can overide the conscious mind, then is it the Sprits powerful Love and Forgiveness that can erase or change the soul's direction?" Yes, the Power of Love can over-ride, and erase and neutralize, all karma. If the soul cooperates, it is then led by the Spirit into Lovemind. But this is never forced by the Spirit. Instead, the soul must agree to it. This is a deeply unconscious "contract" or agreement between soul and Spirit (god; Lovemind). Love is greater than karma. So, the forgiveness that erases karma can over-ride the soul's karma. Karma then disappears. Ancient Christian gnostics called this the "forgiveness of all our sins," and were confident that the Love of God had already accomplished this by grace.

You ask, "Is it possible for the soul to lead one in a direction of karmic chaos and be pulled back because of the power of Love overides the forces of the soul's agenda." Yes, the soul can lead you into apparent "chaos." This is a part of karma, which is a part of maya. But, since it is all illusion, the Spirit can over-ride the soul's will or intentions, and the mind can break through into a higher reality. It can enter ultimate Reality, the Spirit Itself. This is the ultimate will of the Spirit. Mystics teach that your desire for God (Love) is really "God desiring God through you." So, it all originates with Spirit, which always has the Power to alter, cancel, or overcome the soulagenda of karma.

You ask, "What about a diseased or sick soul? What are the symptoms?" Since soul is mind, the disease is mental. Common souldiseases include greed, destructive anger, violence, selfishness, egotism, dishonesty, and a list of related psychopathologies. The symptoms are negative-karma-creating actions. Any intentional activity that deliberately harms the self or any other sentient being is a symptom of souldisease. So, the ideal of the mystic is ahimsa-- rooting out of her life any action that intentionally harms any sentient being. To live in fullest honor, we cannot, must not, harm any sentient creature--
physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or socially. This is what, in Buddhism, is called the Way of "non-injury" or "harmlessness." It is a very high, and indispensable, ideal of the enlightened life.

You ask, "Does one place trust in the total Spirit of Love?" Yes, this is precisely the ideal of the mystic. Her trust in It is so complete that, in most cases, she simply relaxes into the Flow. We call this "flogoing." She does not try to control her life, or the lives, minds, or behaviors of other adults. She lives, as Jesus said, like the birds and the flowers. She seeks, not increase of control, but the total cessation of control. So, the success of the mystic is measured by how much she decides NOT to control, by how little she forces things. This is just the opposite criterion, of course, of the one by which "success" is usually measured.

You ask, "Is this Spirit of Love the true healer of the soul and all karmic forces?" Yes. In final analysis, the Spirit of Love is the only Healer. If any other healing occurs, it is because Love has chosen to work with, within, and through a being. In time, it will neutralize and erase all karma in all living creatures. That is when, as the mystic Paul predicted, "God will be all in all." Then, Love will be the Fountain of all thoughts in all creatures. Every thought in the cosmos will be a thought of Love only, every impulse one of Love only.

Next, you ask, "Does one trust the Soul?" Yes, at times. But ultimate trust is to be given only to the much-deeper Spirit, not the soul. For, exactly as the soul is very deep within the mind, so the Spirit exists very deeply within the soul. The Spirit is the "Unconscious" of the soul. So, we trust the soul only to create, or dream up, our karma, but our fullest trust, faith, is in the Power, the Tao, Spirit, Lovemind.

You ask, "How does one determine good intentions of the soul, if it appears like it has It's own agenda or the agenda is hidden?" The ultimate "intention" of the soul is enlightenment in Love; it is in full harmony with the Spirit here. It has only our best interests at heart. The greatest and most wonderful gift that it can ever give us is awakening. But, at times, it must use "negative" events to shake us awake. So, even in the midst of catastrophe and tragedy, we can rely on the fact that the soul is dreaming to create a stronger and wiser Mind. It brings even pain and loss for our own good. A mother knows that her little girl is going to scrape her knees, even break her bones, in playing. But still, she does not lock the little girl in a closet filled with cotton. We would consider this a horror. Why? Because, although the little girl would be completely safe, she would not develop normal coping-skills, people-skills, communication-skills, etc. To become a strong, wise, and skillful soul also requires scrapes and bruises. The Spirit's purpose is not to keep us safe. It is not to make or keep the egoself happy. It is to educate the soul. And so, the soul is allowed to dream up any virtual reality that will enhance or accelerate its growth in Love.
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