Last night I asked my 11-year old daughter a question. I asked, “Where is your soul?” She balled her hand up into a fist and hit her chest. I understood from her body language that she felt her soul was within, and she associated it with the heart.
Next I asked her, “Where are you?” She threw her hands out away from her body in a “Ta Da!” type of motion. The expression on her face said, “Here I am, on the outside.”
I laughed. It is clear she knows her soul, but she is presently identified with the self…the outside…the temporary form.
When The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament (NTI) uses the word “soul,” it is synonymous with “being.”
It’s funny that we don’t identify with our soul…our being…don’t you think? We identify with the temporary form, but not with the eternal spirit.
In NTI 1 John, Chapter 1, Holy Spirit says, “God is our own soul, the heart of our truth, the Spirit that endures forever without end.”
What is self? It is misidentification with the outside, the world of form, the temporary personality, thinking mind and body. It is misidentification with that which does not last.
When we look at that…”misidentification with that which does not last”…we can see why identification with self results in suffering. We are identified with that which does not last, which means it must result in the experience of loss at one time or another. The most pronounced experience of loss is the one we call death.
Of course everything temporary is just experience, because we are eternal being. It only results in suffering if we identify with it…if we think that is what we are. The peace of God comes from identifying with being…that which moves in and out of experience, but continues forever.
NTI I John, Chapter 1, is a great expression of our true Self. As a gift, here it is in full:
NTI 1 John, Chapter 1
We proclaim the Word of Life.
This is a sentence of Self acceptance. This is a sentence that comes upon your heart as you look within and see that which you find there.
That which you find is Love, and it is you.
That which you find is Life, and it is you.
That which you find is beyond description,
and so we simply call it “the Word”
and that which you find is you.
God is Light; in Him there is no darkness at all. What, then, is God?
God is an awareness that is pure,
because it looks on only that which is wholly true.
This is God. And God, as an awareness, exists within you.
God is our own soul, the heart of our truth, the Spirit that endures forever without end. God is all that is true, and that which is true overlooks the false, because the false has no meaning in the Light of truth.
To Know thy Self, return the mind to God. This is done in a moment of peace when God is your only desire.