I have a question.

So I have a question that I've been considering the last week or two,and hear it is:
are the soul and the self consious (or higher self?) one in the same,or are they two different things entirely?
Thanks!

Does life change for you if they are the same, or different, or don't exist at all? I'm just asking how much really changes based on the concepts we hold in mind. What exists, exists and it is through our direct experience of what exist that we come to understand it.

Do you have a soul? Do you have a higher self? Don't just answer yes because you want to believe it or think it sounds nice to say. Where are they in your experience, if anywhere at all? How do you know when you're interacting with them? <--- when you can go deeply into these questions and have direct experience of what is for you, then you will have your question answered in a way that no one else can answer for you.

Your next question in response to this might be: How do I investigate into the reality or existence of a Soul or Higher Self? <--- there is a juicy question.

[declan]

What we call the mind is consciousness.The soul and the self are mental constructs , meaning they have no existence outside of the mind.I hope this helps you. Declan

Coming in after Top sometimes feels like Wierd Al taking the stage after Bob Dylan....but I'll give it a shot. The real meat of your inquiry lays within the inquiry itself and doesn't necessarilly need an answer. That state is in itself a way to liberation.

When you look at something, evaluate it, conclude and decide what you are looking at, who is doing this? You the non-physical, immortal, spiritual being, operating a mortal, physical, human body (like a car) and are not that body, the mind, or, anything else. You are you, a soul, spirit, or, entity...
The mortal, physical, human body dies, but not you or me, because we are immortal (can never ever die or be killed) and we go on and grab another new baby body, new parents, new name, etc. and as a rule forget our previous lifetime. Because we forget from one lifetime to the next and we have had very many past lifetimes, we also forgot our native spiritual abilities, therefore how to use these abilities. When you search for, find, learn, understand, and apply the exact and correct spiritual truths or knowledge now available in a certain non-faith-based religion, you start advancing spiritually as a spiritual being becoming more and more your true self and remembering and realizing what you once knew and forgot, therefore you become what is often referred to as your higher self, which is you with most or all of your native spiritual knowledge, perceptions, abilities, intact again... Like a ninja-pilot who knows all there is to know and is highly skilled in flying and operating fighter jets. One day he gets amnesia and forgets everything he knows about fighter jets. He cannot remember a thing about jets, let alone, how to fly one. All of that knowledge and skills are still there, but he simply cannot access it anymore...

[NightSpirit]

I reckon we should just send Top around the threads to answer all the questions, that way we can save our fingers and energy because he covers it all.

One thing I will say though, is be wary of all the new-agey type hoo-ha beliefs. They tend to lock you into a particular line of thought, giving no free space to realise the door swings wider.

[BlueSky]

Originally Posted by NightSpirit

I reckon we should just send Top around the threads to answer all the questions, that way we can save our fingers and energy because he covers it all.

Did I miss something?

As far as I can see the soul is pretty much the core around which the self/identity revolves around (and a persons consciousness revolves around the self/identity.)
Consciousness and identity changes rapidly and adapts to internal and external factors constantly, its a reaction to everything happening on the surface of a persons being.
In comparison the soul is much deeper, its the most basic and unchanging part of who you are as an individual.
The soul itself is who and what you were created as and who you will always be, in a way the soul is your "species" and instincts all wrapped into one.
It's difficult to explain it properly when these kinds of things really do defy words. That the basic jist of my personal understanding of it all. *Shrugs*

I don't really see what understanding such things acheives unless you find a way to use that knowledge to your advantage. It's kind of irrelivant to me whether one thing is another or if they are one and the same. Everythings connected in some way so I view it as a whole rather than parts of the whole.

Originally Posted by not human

Coming in after Top sometimes feels like Wierd Al taking the stage after Bob Dylan....but I'll give it a shot. The real meat of your inquiry lays within the inquiry itself and doesn't necessarilly need an answer. That state is in itself a way to liberation.

You did not just compare me to bob dylan. I'd rather be weird Al.

[NightSpirit]

Originally Posted by WhiteShaman

Did I miss something?

I don't know..did you?

I was just remarking on Tops great post and that it came as a complete package leaving no need to add to it.