The Soul
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At last for as long as we can judge from recorded history, human beings have been greatly concerned with the nature of their own inner self and with what it is that separates human beings from the animal kingdom. The element that has emerged in religions and cultures around the world as the single thing that identifies the human being and makes him or her of particular importance in the world is what we call the soul. It has different names in different traditions, but it is the animus, the life-force, the aspect of the self that is presumed to survive after death and that has some connection with the universe outside ourselves. Human beings are obsessed with the condition of the soul, with how it is formed, with how it is served by our actions, and with its general health as a guide to salvation or success in this life or the next, depending on the religious tradition involved. The literatures of the world show this obsession as writers have considered the meaning of the soul, its nature, and its relationship to human salvation in the universe.The obsession with the condition of the soul is apparent in Vedic literature from South Asia, though as Caws and Prendergast note, the soul in that region was thought of as primarily a male concern (488). Concern for the soul often took the form of an analysis of the individual who did the most to teach about the soul and how to perfect it--the Buddha. Buddhism takes on a slightly different patina in the different countries of
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by the Way, and the Way is something to be promoted for all: "A person can spread the Way, but the Way is not to aggrandize a person" (610). The Way is above the individual and beyond the personal. It is what the individual seeks, but the individual has to live up to the Way, the Way does not confer status on the individual. For Confucius, the individual must fit into the larger society in order to achieve what we might call a superiority of the soul, and the analects tell how to serve the social needs of both the individual and the society in which he lives.
Another view of how the individual fits into society is expressed in The Tale of Genji. The main character lives as a commoner though he has royal blood, and thus he is able to combine in one person the upper and lower strata of society in a way that illuminates characteristics of both. Genji's goodness of soul is apparent in the way he draws people to him so that even people who do not know him are drawn to him as if they were old friends.
The various rituals of death as indicated in this story serve to show how the idea of the perfection of the soul is embodied in ideas about life, about the meaning of life, and about the value of a person at death:
Quietly, forty-
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Elements Beowulf, Confucianism Confucius, Mount Hiei, , Buddha Ashvaghosha, Tale Genji, War II, Asia Buddhism, Buddha Buddhism, Caws Prendergast, concern soul, condition soul, southeast asia buddhism, southeast asia, achieve perfection, asia buddhism, oral tradition, analects confucius, world war, soul apparent, ethical moral,
Approximate Word count = 1676
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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