The Soul

What is the soul?

The soul is an independent subject that adheres to the body, but the bonds the body undergoes cannot bind the soul. The soul is the core, deepest part of a person's whole spiritual world. The body is perishable, but the soul is immortal. The soul does not grow old with the years; theists even hold that the soul is not destroyed by the death of the body. A writer's soul may be immortal; through his words, his soul can remain and be perceived by later generations.

The body's capacity is limited, but the soul's capacity is infinite. The soul can transcend the body; the body cannot master the soul. What lies deep in the soul cannot be compared to anything else in this world. The union of soul and soul cannot be forced either. Dialogue deep in the soul is something one meets by chance but cannot seek out. The subtlety of the soul lies in this: to understand a person's soul, one can only rely on perception.

Most souls in the human world are lonely, because it is hard for another soul to enter the depths of our soul. In fact, everyone's soul-door is open, but few other people can find where that door is. The person who can truly open this door, once in the depths of our soul, is as if back in his own home, knowing every path of our soul's depths.

The mutual understanding of soul and soul gives a person the courage to be himself or herself. Because there is a soulmate in spirit, we know that our being ourselves possesses the value of existence; there is another person in this world who appreciates and affirms our soul. We do not need many such people; one is enough. With one, we have the whole world. With such a confidant, we can freely be ourselves, no longer having to transform ourselves to cater to the world.

Fate cannot be changed, but the soul is also beyond fate's bondage, is it not? Everyone's soul is absolutely free; the outer world may bind our body, but it can never bind our soul. Even those locked in prison have free souls; only the body is unfree.

Every day, our soul roams to the place it most wants to go. Every night, our soul returns to the place it most wants to rest, beyond anyone's control. The soul is so independent and strong that even we ourselves cannot do anything about it. We hope to control our soul, but we often cannot.

The soul is the truest, most willful part of us. However helpless life is, it can only make us lower our bodily head; it cannot make us lower the head of our soul. The soul is stubborn and resolute.

This is the soul, something that can only be perceived with the heart.