Andrew Cohen: Soul

[Music] you speak about development of Consciousness do you see that tend amount to development of the soul and do you think the deepest sense of self is the same for everybody well yes in terms of the the deepest level of the self is the same for everybody but there's a difference between Consciousness and soul so Consciousness is completely impersonal Consciousness is not is not an individual it's it's it's the deepest level of the self is consciousness but it's not an individual the soul is the deepest part of any individ this the deepest part of the self that's still personal so when we get into just Consciousness itself there isn't it's beyond any any any individual but the soul is the deepest part of any person or any individual that's still personal and in my teaching uh the this this the state of the soul of the IND idual has to do with the state of moral development but the soul is is a is a very interesting thing and it's very important for the postmodern self to starts talking about Soul because over the past 30 or 40 years we've stopped talking about the soul because we've gotten so interested in the mind and so interested in the ego and interested in Consciousness we've forgotten about the soul but the soul you could state would be the state of moral development of any particular individual okay some people there are some people that are bad people have you ever met a bad person F you you have extremes like people like Paul pot or Adolf Hitler you have these extremes and then you have people that are really evil but aren't quite that bad as hit I mean Hitler's all the way out there and then you have one extreme and then you have other extremes of people that are Saints well a saint is an individual who who is gone so far beyond their ego they there's they they are living only for the welfare of others they don't live for themselves in they completely transcended the personal ego right so in in the presence of a saint one can almost feel horrified because in their reflection of a saint you see we you see your own selfishness right your own small-mindedness isn't that right if you're ever in the presence of a true Saint you go and you can see your own pettiness right it often can be quite unpleasant only okay so on one hand you have a saint with there's a level of Purity and pure motive and goodness that is very very very rare that's one extreme on the other you have an evil monster whose soul is absolutely black okay now if now if what we the way the way I Define the soul the soul would be the it would be the accumulated consequences of everything that has happened to an individual like there's a lot of things that have happened to us we've been victimized by so many circumstances this that and the other thing so many things have happened to us so this the soul is the accumulation of everything that has happened to us and all the different responses we've had to whatever it is that has happened to us and as you all know two different people can undergo the same kind of trauma some individual and they can both respond in very different ways some people you know can never recover it was so terrible I can never recover and some other people manage to recover and and and uh and and even Prosper as a result okay so the this so the soul would have to be the the the the state of moral development at the individual the deepest level it has to do with the goodness or lack of goodness of the self it has to do with moral development how much is any individual care is see how much do you or anybody else really care so if you really care not think you care but if you really care you live like you care it shows you right you really care so the the goodness and the care for something higher shines through such an individual because there's a high level of moral development so the postmodern self for the postmodern self h i i very much believe is very depraved because we've all become so selfish and it's not our fault we've all been we've been brought up in a culture of narcissism and materialism so we've all been taught to be very selfish sweetheart what do you want to do when you grow up it's all for you so we've been all trained to become to be narcissistic selfish people and our soul has withered we become very soulless uncaring people now when I say soulless and uncaring I mean I know you care about your boyfriend or your girlfriend your husband your wife your children your parents maybe but I'm talking about developing a deeper sense of care to wonder what you actually begin to care about bigger things you know it includes those things but you actually begin to care about life you begin to care about the universe you begin to care about the process you begin to really care and the degree to which you begin to care you that's moral development moral development and Care are the same thing [Music]