Standing Above a Crowd

You're supposed to treat others the way you would want to be treated. Do this throughout your life on earth and you are promised eternal life. Celebrate the gift of life that is given to you and try not to be selfish with your time here. Do this and upon your death you will enter a kingdom where there is no pain, fear, worry, or sorrow. 

That all sounds desirable. This man came around 2,000 year ago and told everyone he met these kinds of things. It's no wonder he found a few followers. Since then, millions of those who believed him have lived and passed on, realizing for whether his promises were true or not. For better or worse, we don't know if they proved him right or wrong. 

Yet even if it was all false, what the man told us to do to get there really isn't asking for much. In fact, if you have ever done kind things for others and showed compassion to those in need, you more often than not feel good about yourself anyway. Isn't it ironic how you are ultimately serving yourself by serving others? 

Anima

We focus on where the soul will end up. Those that believe in the soul anyway. But for those that do, maybe we care so much for where the soul will end up because that is where it dwells for the longest amount of time. "We" are in our bodies for only so long, a flicker of time compared to the amount of time it is nonexistent or beyond in some other plane. 

Then again, maybe we care so much about where the soul ends up because that is the continuation for those that die and leave their bodies. We want the solace and peace of mind that the individual we knew is still existing somewhere. We like to tell ourselves that the deceased person, their soul, is in a better place if they were good. Some like to imagine that those who were evil are in torment. That even though their bodies are dead, their soul is somewhere suffering and paying for what they did in that flicker of time here among the living. 

I wonder if the soul can do good or evil after it has left the body...it's hard for me to imagine not. The choices and actions of good only seem to be as such because there is an experience of evil and bad. I have no answers though. I'm not sure what to think about the soul. I believe in its existence, but I don't know when it is born. When it enters the body is a mystery, and it may not even matter. Some say it is once the egg is fertilized. Some say the heartbeat. Some say when the body opens its eyes. I've even read in some places it is not present until the individual has a name or can speak. 

If the soul is associated with the afterlife so much, I wonder what its role is here and now. Again, we focus on where the soul will end up. What about now? Are our bodies more than vessels that carry the soul to the next place? Do our bodies mean anything at all? Should I focus more now on my soul while I'm here? Heavens! How do I focus on it? I don't even know how to reach it! I could be reaching it now and not know.