Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The Buddhist Concept of No Soul, Anātman

I don't really know much about Buddhism. One day I'll find the time to study it in depth. One Buddhist concept that interests me is that humans lack a soul, anātman. I saw a post on a message board stating: "A 'soul' implies that a spiritual body is in place but there is no such thing in Buddhism." Link, see 6th post. I'll just riff on that thought a bit (which may or may not have anything to do with Buddhism).

All things come from God.
Nothing exists outside of God.
All things are one.
All things are God, but God is nothing.

Only the veil of our human ignorance of the fullness and absoluteness of God allow for the concept of a soul. All things flow from God and must, inevitably, flow back into and merge with God. In fact, they never left, only the illusion of having left exists. In the end, no thing will exist, only God who is not a thing. The Godhead is nothingness.

An individual soul is only a temporary illusion that will ultimately disappear with knowledge of the oneness of God. A soul is supposed to be divine. But that which is divine cannot disappear, divine = immortal. Thus, the Christian divine soul is itself an illusion.

But what part of us travails in life again and again striving for perfection? We in the west call it the soul because it survives death. But in Buddhism, that which survives death is merely energy. I posit this energy must contain information regarding past lives that is carried forward. The karma scorecard has to reside somewhere. Under this concept, the soul is just an energy based data card doomed ultimately for erasure when the veil of ignorance is pierced and the energy reunites with the source.