A wandering monk came across a Zen Monastery one winter evening. As he was extremely cold, the monk decided to make a fire to warm himself. The only thing he could find to burn were some wooden Buddha statues. He got a nice fire going, but this caught the attention of one of the monks who was on watch that night. Noticing the wandering monk was burning Buddha statues, the man became infuriated. "How dare you desecrate the Buddha in such a way!" The wandering monk asked the other, "What will happen to the souls of these statues now that I've burned them?" The other monk replied, "Well, these statues don't have souls." "Then hand me those other statues so I can keep this fire going."
I haven't made up my mind about souls, but if they exist surely all sentient beings have them. Have you ever looked in a dog's eyes and seen their emotion? Looked at the fear in the eyes of a rabbit? The calm that slowly creeps out from an injured bird once it learns you aren't hurting it? I think that if there is a soul, these are expressions of the soul in other species.
I used to catch frogs and lizards outside my house. At first, they are scared to death and try by all means to escape (even shedding their tail which is AWESOME). But once you hold them gently a while and feed them + put them in a warm glass case, you can see that they calm down (breathing slows way down) and they aren't so determined to escape your grasp.
Great question. Great thread... I would assume/speculate (as another poster said) that only sentient beings have one. Shit, who knows. I sure as hell don't!
It's boggling my mind. With cells. I believe they are conscious beings. They move, they know where to go, what to do in your body. They react to things. They are alive. IDK my minds running with thoughts and I can't seem to get them out properly.
I know man! and the DNA tells it what to do. It really is mind blowing realising how conscious everything is.. All atoms have rules they abide by ALWAYS. Why?
I used to think that cats had souls. Maybe somewhere deep down I still do. They're incredible animals, either way.
I believe that there are three types of souls. This is from from the Jewish Talmud There is the first level soul of mere existence. All beings possess this soul (rocks, etc) Then there is the second level which goes to basic life and animals with some consciousness but still follow nature completely. Lastly, there is the third soul which applies to highly conscious beings which would be humans. Humans have the choice of free will and can do either good or evil with that will.
All things, living and non-living (as defined by biology) have souls, IMO. Our souls are a piece of the Creator, and all things that exist contain a piece of the Creator. Therefore all things have souls. Blooms explained it well. Although I would say according to Judaism there are 5 different souls that we each possess: Nefesh, animal soul; Ruach, spirit (where our morals come from); Neshamah, higher soul (only humans have this type of soul); Chayyah (part of the soul that allows us to sense the Divine. Does not reside in the body according to Kabbalah though); and Yehida (part of the soul that merges with G-d in mystical states, also does not reside in the body)
I'm a Hindu so I believe that all beings have souls. Animals, insects, bacteria, etc. The soul reincarnates in progressively higher and higher forms of life until it reaches human form. Once the soul gets put into a human body it no longer automatically evolves. From that point on it can progress into higher forms or it can descend back into lower forms depending on the actions of the person. Lower animals automatically evolve upwards though.
There is no such thing. Our consciousness is just the product of the complex minds we have. Just because we don't fully understand something doesn't mean dogma is the answer.
The human soul, which seems flawed, is at the top? I think the soul of a tree should be at the top. Never hurting, only helping.
No. There is no such thing as a "human soul". All souls are perfect and equal. There is no differences between souls at all. The human body and mind are the highest form of life on this planet though, because of it's potential. No other form of life on this earth has the capacity to fully express the qualities of the soul. Very few do this though. Most people totally waste the capabilities of the human vehicle, living no different than lower forms of animals.
People like to have answers to things they don't under stand. That's how religion started. Now with all the information we have, the religious don't what to understand it, which is understandable because of how wrong they were.