In the beginning, atman
(Self, Soul), verily, one only, was here - no other winking thing whatever. He
bethought himself: 'Let me now create worlds.'
Aitareya Upanishad, 1.1
The soul is the first origin and moving power of all that
is, or has become, or will be, and their contraries.
Plato, Laws, X
896
Jesus said, 'If they say to you, "From where have you
originated?" say to them, "We have come from the Light, where the
Light has originated through itself. It stood and it revealed itself in their
image." If the
say
to you, "Who are you?" say, "We are His sons and we are the
elect of the Living Father." If they ask you, "What is the sign of
your Father in you?" say to them, "It is a movement and a
rest."'
Gospel According
to Thomas, 50
He who consists of mind, whose body is life (prana), whose
form is light, whose conception is truth, whose soul (atman) is space, containing all works, containing all desires,
containing all odors,
containing all tastes, encompassing this whole world, the unspeaking,
the unconcerned - this Soul of mine within the heart is smaller than a grain of
rice, or a barley-corn, or a mustard-seed, or a grain of
millet, or the kernel of a grain of millet; this Soul of
mine within the heart is greater than the earth, greater than the atmosphere,
greater than the sky, greater than these worldsContaining
all works, containing all desires, containing all odors, containing all tastes,
encompassing this whole world, the unspeaking,
the
unconcerned - this is the Soul of mine within the heart, this is Brahma. Into
him I shall enter on departing hence.
Chandogya Upanishad, 3.14.2-4
Every soul, authentically a soul, has some form of
rightness and moral wisdom; in the souls within ourselves there is true
knowing: and these attributes are no images or copies from the Supreme, as in
the
sense-world, but actually are those very originals in a mode peculiar
to this sphere.
Plotinus, Fifth-Ennead,
IX:13
Every soul, authentically a soul, has some form of
rightness and moral wisdom; in the souls within ourselves there is true
knowing: and these attributes are no images or copies from the Supreme, as in
the
sense-world, but actually are those very originals in a mode peculiar to
this sphere.
Plotinus, Fifth-Ennead,
IX:13
The self's (Jiva) essence is life.
(Jainism) Tattvarthadhigma Sutra,
II:7
He who breathes in with your breathing in (prana) is the
Soul of yours, which is in all things.
Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad, 3.4.1
Socrates: If I am to say what occurs to me at the moment, I
should imagine that those who first use the name psyche meant to express that the soul when in the body is the
source of life, and gives the power of
breath and revival, and when this reviving power fails then the
body perishes and dies, and this, if I am not mistaken, they called psyche.
Plato, Cratylus, 399
Socrates: If I am to say what occurs to me at the moment, I
should imagine that those who first use the name psyche meant to express that the soul when in the body is the
source of life, and gives the power of
breath and revival, and when this reviving power fails then the
body perishes and dies, and this, if I am not mistaken, they called psyche.
Plato, Cratylus, 399
The soul is the cause or source of the living body. The
terms cause and source have many senses. But the soul is the cause of its body
alike in all three senses which we explicitly recognize. It is the source or
origin of movement, it is the end, it is the essence of the
whole living body.That it is the last, is clear; for
in everything the essence is identical with the ground of its being, and here,
in the case of living things, their being is to live, and of their being and
their living the soul in them is the cause or source. Further, the actuality of
whatever is potential is identical with its formulable
essence.It is manifest that the soul is also the
final cause of its body. For Nature, like mind, always does whatever it does
for the sake of something, which something is its end. To that something
corresponds in the case of animals the soul and in this it follows the order of
nature; all natural bodies are organs of the soul.
Aristotle, On the
Soul, II:4
What is the origin of the word Seele? Like the English word soul, it comes from the Gothic saiwala and the
old German saiwalo,
and these can be connected etymologically with the Greek aiolos, 'quick-moving,
twinkling, iridescent'. The Greek word psyche also means 'butterfly'. Saiwalo is related on the other
side to the Old Slavonic sila,
strength'. These connections throw light on the original meaning of the
word soul: it is moving force,
that is, life-force.
Jung, Structure and
Dynamics of the Psyche, p. 345
When the seer perceives that the modes of nature are the
whole agency and cause of works and knows and turns to That which is supreme
above the gunas, he attains to madbhava (the movement and status
of the
Divine). When the soul thus rises above the three gunas born of the embodiment in Nature, he is freed from
subjection to birth and death and their concomitants, decay, old age and
suffering, and enjoys in the end the Immortality of its self-existence.
Bhagavad-Gita, XIV:19-20
Be still, and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10
Four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what
the soul is.
Voltaire, "Soul," Philosophical Dictionary
I know my soul only as an object of inner sense, by
appearances which constitute an inner state, and the essence of it in itself
which lies at the ground of these appearances is unknown to me.
Kant, Prolegomena to
Any Future Metaphysics, 49
The distinctive characteristic of self is attention.
(Jainism) Tattvarthadhigma Sutra,
II:8
The Atman - the experiencer - is
pure consciousness. It appears to take on the changing colors of the mind. In
reality, it is unchangeable. The object of experience exists only to serve the
purpose of the Atman.
Though the object of experience becomes unreal to him who
has reached the state of liberation, it remains real to all other beings. The
Atman - the experiencer - is identified with Prakriti - the object of experience - in order that the
true nature of both Prakriti and Atman may be known.
This identification is caused by ignorance. When ignorance has been destroyed,
this identification ceases. Then bondage is at an end and the experiencer is independent and free.
Patanjali, Yoga Aphorisms,
II:20-25
To the man is his self a friend in whom the (lower) self
has been conquered by the (higher) self, but to him who is not in possession of
his (higher) self, the (lower) self is as if an enemy and it acts as an enemy.
When one has conquered one's self and attained to the calm of a perfect
self-mastery and self-possession, then is the supreme self in a man founded and
poised (even in his outwardly conscious human being) in cold and heat, pleasure
and pain as well as in honor and dishonor.
Bhagavad-Gita, VI:6-7
(Arranged by Sanderson Beck)