Assuming that the soul does indeed exist, then a non-dual assessment would imply a solution beyond the "it-does/it-doesn't" approach. That alternative solution says that the question of existence or non-existence is the wrong question. The real question is, "How effective and efficient is the soul when it is operating?" In other words, this alternative approach recognises a spectrum of operability which only gives an impression of non-existence at one end of that spectrum, and total existence at the other end. The difficulty here lies in the use of imagery to communicate an idea by that which lies beyond ideas.
The soul is like an egg which develops by feeding on its spiritual albumen. There comes a point when that growing presence must break out of its shell, it must be hatched. When that event occurs, and the soul in all its brilliance and light becomes "visible", a contact is made with something far higher. Perhaps that contacting beam of white brilliance is a call, a homing signal, or a new pathway for further nourishment. I do not know. Yet there hangs the soul intermediate between the realm of the spirit and the domain of the ego. It is in necessary contact with both yet apparently belonging to neither. Here lies a great mystery, and one which is beyond the power of the ego to unravel and, perhaps, refute. ".....and light shines in the darkness (of the ego), and darkness could not overpower it." (5)
The ego deals in dualities, either/or solutions, and definitions. But the intermediate soul is beyond these considerations. They are meaningless to the soul, yet the soul must become involved with the ego. It needs its "powers", as Meister Eckhart (6) calls them, to learn about its path back to its source, or so I believe. There are too many references about this journey to list here, but they would include the parable of "The Prodigal Son"(7), the descent and return of Sophia (Gnostic text)(8), the Greek dramatic "Fable of the Pearl"(9), and others. In each of these stories there is one thread that repeats itself, and that is the element of "forgetting". This is a factor which Gurdjieff often refers to (10). Is it not possible that the process of forgetting oneself is what is being interpreted as the aborting of the soul?
I will develop the idea of the link between the soul and the realm of the spirit, and what it means for ones spiritual development, in the next part of these encounters.
(5) John 1:5 NJB
(6) Meister Eckhart, Sermon 2.
(7) Luke 15:11-32
(8) "Pistis Sophia"
(9) "The Gnostic Gospels", from the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostle Thomas
(10) "The Reality of Being", Jeanne de Salzmann
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