%% Good points, but ''all is vanity'' is not all or mostly what he believes, he helped write Proverbs, SOS......... A soul includes or is connected to a mind; look at a mongoose fight a cobra. He seems to enjoy the victoryLOL
One idea is we're all part of an evolutionary re-birthing process. So animals have souls and will eventually elevate to human.
%% MOST likely not all. Why?? Because I dont like ticks or hornets. Birds like ticks, so not ''all'' is an educated quess Sure, I'm saved /believer. Some changes are in the future works also ;''lion lies down with lamb''
So if lion lays down with lamb there's no luscious lamb chops for dinner. Does lion eat grass? Does lion eat at all? Does lion procreate and have more baby lions? What stops planet being overrun with say lambs, lions and cockroaches if nothing eats them? Don't have an answer...!!?? Mmmmm maybe it's all hypothetical and lion laying down with lamb minus the lambchops is just bullshit, but bullshit come from bulls who must be eating in order to shit, so, maybe no bullshit.
In the scenario i describe, mind is indeed a rather all encompassing reality. So encompassing that there isn't really any room for anything to exist outside the mind. Also, mind does not need any kind of body to express itself, or to learn anything. Spirit is the best description of the soul of the mind. Arguably there are many minds, but because of one-ness, it's not worth counting, since they are all the same. This also means there are not private thoughts. The minute you can have private thoughts, the oneness, sameness, equality is potentially disrupted and even destroyed. Private thoughts are by logical nature, different. A material "world", which employs differences, such as the uniqueness of bodies, is the product of private thought. Private thoughts are fueled by imagination and faith. Out of this anomalous environment comes the concept of unique minds, with unique souls, which, at least once, or more, express as some kind of unique body, all of which are different. In this foreign environment, the so-called "soul" is really just a reference to the longest lasting expression of a gradually, but ever changing personality, which is different from any other personality. Out of this ignorance comes the concept of body-mind-soul, and the desire to find some balance between them so that they can all be real, simultaneously. We could call that a personality package. However, the entire package is false, and only "exists", still, within a realm best described as imagination and faith. Private thoughts are also not sharable, at least not sharable with a mind which knows. There is not an ability to co-exist between a mind which only knows, and a mind which only believes. So arguably, "we", as a single consciousness, are the only one's in any way "aware" or having the "experience" of a material world. None of the other mind(s) which know, are aware of this world, nor would they understand it if they were made aware. Even our own mind, that part which only knows, does not understand what "happens" in a material world of time-space. So to have this experience is to have the symptoms of a kind of psychological schizophrenia, known biblically as a "double-mind" or in modern terms, a split mind. This is why salvation is closely associated with single-mindedness. As a rule of thumb, any belief system which tries to salvage the material world, and place men and women back on top of it, is trying to save the personality package(s), and is actively condoning the status quo. None of these packages will be saved, if it's true that the only thing worth saving is a single mind.
Yes i don't doubt there are pleasant places to rest and relax before and after earthly experiences. In theory, all conditions, which have been imagined, have started out as pleasant. But given any degree of ignorance, the trend will be downwards as conditions turn circumstances into a demon manufacturing factory. In a world of ignorance, there will never be any agreement on anything, so yes, you will have neighborhoods and zip codes that offer better and worse living conditions, to satisfy various preferences in levels of ignorance. Sylvia Brown was pretty vocal about this general phenomenon, describing the better neighborhoods as Summerland. If you're coming from the depths of hell, these better neighborhoods might seem like "heaven". Brown described one neighborhood as always being 70 degrees, with hovercraft for getting around. But if i recall, she also described the existence of familiar faith cultures, including Islam. Anywhere faith still prevails, that's basically know you have not yet reached "heaven". Brown also described a lot of the psychological gymnastics which convince us that returning to, for example, earth, would be beneficial for our soul, or other souls. One of the more tempting ideas is that God needs us to explore the unknown and to feed back information in order for God to "learn", or "grow", or somehow become something more. It's this concept of "purpose" which often tempts us back into a material personality package on earth, or in any number of parallel universe experiences. Brown often claimed she was in her 50th incarnation, and was fully intent upon never reincarnating ever again. To accomplish this, one must reject so much of the ideological gymnastics which justify yet another incarnation in the matrix. For example, we have no purpose here, and God doesn't need anything that we experience or "learn" to be more complete, to grow, or to accomplish anything. Once this is admitted, the personality package begins to "die", so-to-speak, having lost a serious ideological pillar which upholds the various personality packages. I adopted Brown's determination never to re-incarnate again. So i always try to put things in perspective. There are golf courses in hell, because hell is essentially a temptation, not a punishment. Hell is the logical conclusion of a faulty ideology, fueled by imagination and faith. Within this ideology is the concept of hierarchy, and/or different experiences. So, wherever there may be angels, it is not heaven. If there are angels, maybe it is near the fork in the road where the road to hell is paved with good intentions. There are no angels at the original embarkation point into the world of the unknown (faith and imagination) because there is no such thing as hierarchy there. For all the good intentions around hierarchy, it is flawed, imperfect, problematic. To cease and desist reincarnation, one wants to go back, farther than the appearance of angels, farther than pleasant zip codes, and especially any condition where comparatively pleasant and hellish zip codes coexist on the same planet. We need to go back beyond Swedenbord.
Believing saves believers. Knowing saves knowers. There is no coexistence. Knowers exist. Believers don't, except in an otherwise "void" wormhole in the abusive use of imagination and faith. From that "dust" of nothingness does the believer return, back to the void of never-actually-existed, and never-actually-happened. Believing saves believers from knowers. Knowing saves knowers from believers.
I was thinking about the soul and wondering, what exactly is the soul, so I went searching on Wiki. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul It was a very interesting read. The conclusion I came to was, depending on who you are, where and when you were born, what religion you are in, what you had for breakfast and what time of day it is, every human has their own idea or belief. However, every christian is rock solid unbending that they know the answer to most anything spiritual. You see, because they believe in the bible and Jesus etc, they have been specially priveleged to have unique insights into the workings of the spiritual universe. Only one teeny weeny problem, these insights are not transferable to trading, God has placed a cork over that domain, for christians. If you want to be a good trader you must become a heathen first. So in answer to my query what the soul is, my reply would be, it is whatever you wishfully want it to be. Jesus is superman because I wishfully want a superman, but not for trading.
A man and his dog crossed over. He found himself and his dog walking down a country road on a fine summer day. After a while he came to a gate with a man standing beside it. "Is this heaven he asked?" - Sure is. But we don't allow dogs. Looking down at his dog who was gazing up at him with trusting loving eyes, he replied: "Well I'd sure like to get into heaven, but if you don't allow dogs I guess I'll pass." - Your choice. The man and his loyal companion continued walking down the road. After a while they came upon another gate also with a man standing beside it. "Is this heaven?" -Yup. "Do you allow dogs?" he asked -Sure do, said the man giving his dog an affectionate pat. "Did you know there is a man down the way the claims his place is Heaven?" -Yup. "Does that bother you?" -Not in the least young feller. He says us a lot of trouble. You see a man who would abandon his dog ain't worth spit. He punctuated his reply by spitting on the ground and then with a broad grin, open the gate wide for the young man, his loving pet trotting happily beside him.