Finding Your Inner Soul
Summary: This essay presents a simplified approach to self-realization through contemplative practice. It clarifies that the inner self represents a state of consciousness distinct from ordinary awareness, hidden beneath mental activity. The discussion explains methods of concentration, meditation, and focused awareness that lead to discovering the center of perfect calm within. It emphasizes practices of detachment, mental restraint, and cultivating profound silence to directly experience the eternal nature residing beyond mind and body.
"If you, your life and all that you have is a storm, the center of that storm, where there is perfect calm and peace and where nothing happens, is your Self."
The soul or self is one of the most commonly used words in many descriptions and conversations. The words do not mean the same, but we will skip that part, since it is not relevant here.
Most people across all religions and diverse cultures believe in souls, ghosts, (and, nowadays, zombies). Depending on which religion you practice, you may have your own concept of a soul or self. You may believe in it or not believe it, and this belief about its existence or nonexistence may even define your life and how you regulate your life.
In some traditions, a soul has a distinct form, substance, and individuality. People believe that they have seen the apparitions of dead people they know and assume that they have seen their ghosts. Some even call God a Holy Ghost. From that perspective, the distinction between soul and ghost is negligible.
A similar concept exists in Hinduism, where Brahman is considered a Pure Self, Supreme Self, Absolute Self, and the like.
Jainas believe that souls have different sizes depending upon which bodies they occupy. Thus, according to them, the soul of an elephant is much bigger than the soul of a rabbit or squirrel. They also believe that in some cases, souls can exist in clusters or groups bound by karma or some other causes.
Buddhists do not believe in eternal and indestructible souls at all. Instead, they believe in the existence of souls that are perishable like everything else in existence. Their doctrine is known as Anatma or Not-Self. They think that this Not-Self is subject to birth, death, and rebirth until it escapes Samsara by attaining Nirvana or the state of its extinguishment.
Hindus prefer calling the soul the Self because it is absolutely pure, without parts, qualities, attributes, modes, identity, or individuality. Since it is beyond the reach of cognitive experience, no one can truly experience it in duality or describe what it is objectively. Yet, mystically, it can be experienced in samadhi and become absorbed in it.
For atheists and materialists, the mind is the soul of the body. There is nothing beyond the mind that can be consciously experienced or analyzed. According to them, belief in ghosts, souls, or ghouls is simply superstition, irrational belief, or obscurantism.
Finding the center of calm
The following discussion is a simplified concept of the soul or self. It is presented to remove all the complexity associated with the subject of self-realization or self-awareness. Here, I am not raising any dispute about what a soul is. I leave that matter to you. You have to find it yourself and tell the world what your soul is like.
I am presenting here a simple and practical way to reach your soul and find it within yourself. It is a journey that you must undertake and complete by yourself since no one else can participate or travel with you.
The method I am going to describe has been practiced in India for at least 5000 years. I have tried to simplify it as much as possible, peeling off all the mystical aura associated with it.
You do not have to wait to know your soul until you are gone to the next world. However, it is up to you whether you want to do it now, later, or never. Before I describe the method, it is important to state that the soul, or the self, is not different or distinct from you.
Your inner self is a state of your consciousness, very different from your wakeful consciousness, just as your sleep is. It is your deepest aspect, or your hidden aspect. You do not know it because it is hidden behind your wakeful consciousness, beneath the mental flux that defines your current wakeful state. It is created by what yogis call the mind’s modifications (vrittis). Until they subside, you cannot know yourself truly or discover the most tranquil and stable aspect of your consciousness.
Since your mind and senses are always active in your wakeful state and rarely rest, they are not greatly helpful in finding that solemn place in you where you can feel at home with yourself. In fact, they do not let you see who you truly are, as they are outbound and always try to draw you into the world and become involved with it.
Indeed, your mind is but an extension of the world and remains bound to it through numerous connections created by your desires and attachments. Hence, many people will never know their hidden selves when they are alive. They cannot perceive themselves through ordinary means and the methods we use in our day-to-day lives.
To see one’s pure self, one must stop interacting and grasping things from the objective world and stop becoming actively involved with it. Instead, they must slow down and begin to look deep within themselves, which they can do in three ways: concentration, meditation, and concentrated meditation. The last one is often called Samyama.
When you practice them, your aim should be to make your mind come to a total rest. You can do it in two ways: by forcibly preventing your thoughts from entering your mind by restraining your mind and senses, or by letting it do whatever it wants to do, while you remain a passive and detached observer, until your mind is fully exhausted and ceases to be active.
You can choose either of these methods, or both, according to your convenience. However, you will not go far on the path even with them, unless you also practice detachment, dispassion, self-control, and mental renunciation.
The calmer you become, the greater the progress, which means you must practice silence. The silence you practice in this regard should not be confined to the restraint of speech alone. You must silence both your mind and body and all the thoughts, desires, and activities associated with them.
When you establish this higher silence firmly within yourself and arrest all the movements of your mind and body, you will slowly cross the ocean of waves that rise and fall in your wakeful consciousness and discover the center of calm in you. When you enter it, you will experience perfect peace, stability, aloneness, and awareness without knowing.
Each of these words used here has a specific significance and meaning, and you will understand them when you make progress. That center of calm is your soul or self, and in that are hidden secrets of your past, future, and eternity itself.