Soul consciousness with Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle
These 2 short videos are “highly” recommended to watch for a couple of reasons:
1) They give an idea of what “intellectual knowledge” is versus practical knowledge.
2) They give an idea of what description does versus an experience.
The topic is the soul.
As described in this previous article: http://bkgyan.com/2012/04/22/notes-to-consider-on-the-raja-yoga-7-day-course/
The soul has no location. Why? Because the soul is timeless (beyond time.) The experience of time comes about with the experience of physical matter. Then we have time and location.
The soul is consciousness; however as we know, that consciousness is not “working accurately,” for even though we are timeless; we are subdue by time. Without using all the “nice scientific terminology,” we can say that to experience time when it does not exist is then, an illusion (Maya.)
When Dr. Chopra says “Your soul is not in your body; your body is in your soul.” Most will take those words literally, looking for a ‘definition.’ Basically he is just referring to the “experience” of the body through our consciousness ( For he defined the soul as timeless consciousness.) This is what we call “body consciousness.”
Note the dialogue. It is about descriptions. It is about rationalized theories and even the person asking questions is just happy with getting definitions, something to talk about, but certainly no experience at all.
A definition cannot bring the experience. It is just useless intellectual information.
Therefore, other words arise such as : Where is the soul? Dr. Chopra would say: “You cannot find “your” soul because “you” are looking in space time.”
Useless question. Useless answer. Why?
Because if the soul is beyond location…there is no “where,” for the soul. There is nowhere “to find” the soul.
“Don’t point here when you say consciousness…” ( As the interviewer was pointing to his head)
The Raja Yoga line, “The soul is in the middle of the forehead.” It is a “pointer” to an experience. It is not to be taken literally. “Where is located” is meaningless, when the experience of it is what matters.
What do I mean by “pointer”?
Mr. Tolle has a good response to that question. Note that the “experience” of who we are (soul) is beyond words, descriptions, analysis, etc.; but the words of someone who has experienced the experience, have some intrinsic power, which is undeniable.
Even though he does not use the “term,” soul; we can perceive his experience of it.
Some use the words right. Others, will have the experience of those words. Your “choice.”
Exploring the Depth of Living 