The soul is three-fold, a trinity-in-unity, having three essential aspects to its unitive life within the One Life. The soul is will, being, and consciousness. Though in itself the soul is one unity; where, will, being, and consciousness are one unitive reality. The soul can also be understood as will, love, and light.
Essentially, our soul is made of light. It's a body of light, a very high frequency of light. But more relevant to our experience, our soul is essentially consciousness, which is the subjective aspect of light, and consciousness too has many levels of possible frequency, just as light. Then, as part of this light-consciousness, or within that light, are the spiritual qualities of our soul, like many colors of light within our overall composition. These are the greater potentials in us, of which to realize and express. The most essential and fundamental soul quality is love, which is meant to be realized and expressed. And within this greatest quality of love are many more spiritual qualities and virtues, all of which it is the soul's purpose to realize and express.
Then as well, our soul is the spiritual will and spiritual power within us. This will of the soul is within the One Will, a power of being within the One Universal Power. It is the spiritual power that inspires us from within, or that motivates us, and it is our will-to-good. Our will-to-love, our will-to-serve, and all of our higher motives come from our soul.
The soul has its own special powers. These are its powers of love and spiritual vision. Our soul has the very special power to love. Inside us is a love for those close to us and also to everyone. It might translate as a caring and being good to others. Spiritual vision is a power to see the soul in others and also to mentally envision what is possible. Understand that all of this is to do with the soul's purpose, which is for the powers and qualities of the soul to be realized, then to express and manifest these spiritual powers and qualities through oneself and into the world. This is a compact summary of the soul's purpose.
So our soul is what is possible in us, what is possible to be. Our inner soul seeks to reveal and express through our mind, emotions and body/activities. Unfortunately though, most people begin on their spiritual quest with a sort of handicap, which is that their usual state of mind, emotions and activity is disconnected from their inner soul. Their inner soul is buried, as it were, underneath this soul disconnected personality. This makes it often seem that the spiritual goal is hidden or far from oneself, whereas the spiritual essence of each person, their soul, is just hidden a few sheaths underneath this previously conditioned mind that is dominating one's life. But all one has to really do is discover the soul within, and then wish it to come through, although the ego conditioned mind has to simultaneously stand aside.
The soul's will is two-fold, which is related to the soul's purpose. Soul's purpose involves both a path of ascent and descent. One is known as the ascension or Return. The other is known as the descension or incarnation. Yet both of these purposes complement each other and are equally significant; neither is 'better' than the other.
On one hand is the path of ascent towards The One, God, Wholeness, Infinite Light and Love. This is a path of progressive realization, the expansion of self-knowing. And as a soul progressively ascends towards The One, or returning to God, it will become evermore inclusive of all souls. This is ascending the hierarchy of Being. In this path of ascension, the soul expands within the Great Unity. Known as the ascending expansion, this is an increase and widening of consciousness, will and being. The soul is becoming wider and more universal in its being.
But the soul's purpose is also to expand in the three worlds of experience. This is the descent of soul into a personal vehicle of expression. The soul expands into the personal mental, emotional and physical life. That is, if it can.
Then. on the other hand, is the path of descent, which is the soul's purpose to have experience in the world and to express spiritual qualities in the world. The soul has a divine mission, as it were, to bring Divine Knowing and Divine Qualities into the manifest world; in other words, to express and manifest the Divine Being, with all of the Divine Qualities of God. Thus, every soul's descending purpose is generally the same as all others, to express and manifest the Divine Being; though how this will be accomplished will be somewhat unique to each soul. To state this most simply, everyone's essential purpose is to bring more goodness, love, and truth into the world.
This descent of the soul, however, is none other than God (the One Divine Being) purposefully descending, emanating, manifesting, incarnating; -- in order to reveal, actualize, express the Divine Qualities of the One Inner Essence; and also to make the Divine Presence known everywhere in all possibilities. Thus, the soul is really the Divine Being while in process of descent, as well as in process of ascent, known as the return or the remembrance.
This self is meant to be the vehicle, or medium, for divine realization and expression. This is our divine capacity, or divine potential. It is also of divine purpose. So in essence, the human self is not corrupted or bad, as some religious dogmas have professed. Neither is the self something that is meant to be annihilated or discarded. Our purpose is not to discard the self and ascend up into God. Rather, the divine purpose is for the self to be transformed into a finer quality or image of God. The self is meant to be spiritualized, not discarded. When mystics speak of self-annihilation, it is in a greater context of self-transformation. That is, self-annihilation is an aspect of self-transformation, rather than being the end goal itself. Also, the meaning of this self-annihilation is to do with fixated identifications and attachments, instead of suggesting an elimination of the self-vehicle altogether.
The Divine Purpose needs selves; it needs individual mediums or forms for expression. Without selves to express through, how could the Divine be known and expressed? A person-self is, potentially, a centre of divine responsibility and a loci of understanding. So in this more general meaning of self, as a capacity for Divine Expression, it should not be regarded as spiritually corrupt or as inherently deficient. Its present realization and expression may be deficient in relation to the highest divine ideals, but it could be seen as in a process of greater realization and expression of its potential divinity.
Yet if we look at the self in its particular mental state and expression, at any one time, we may indeed find corruption and deficiencies. A self can exist at a low level. Human consciousness can be so very contracted and fixated on petty or self-centered desires, that there is no experience of Divine relationship. At this lowest level of possible self, there is mechanical compulsiveness and separation from Divine Truth. So at this lowest level there is disassociation and separation from the Greater Divine Reality. At this level is the world of illusion. We don't not mean that the world itself is an illusion, but that the world experience is an illusion at this lower level of self. It is at this level that there is an un-connectiveness to the Greater Life, as it were. This is the level of self that we might call corrupt or without real Spirit. And it is at this level of separation and mechanical compulsion that is in need of transformation.
In the psychology of Sufism, for example, this would be called the lower nafs. Yet the nafs (meaning self) in its general capacity, or in its more general meaning, would not necessarily be regarded as corrupt or separate from the Divine. For it is quite possible to be in a conscious relationship with the Divine; for instance, being consciously open to the Divine. The lowest level of self (or nafs) is not in a conscious relationship, or as the Sufis might say, there is no remembrance of God. There is forgetfulness or denial. But it is certainly possible for the self to be in some kind of conscious relationship with the Divine, which is then a higher level of self capacity. So this leap out of the prison of separation and into conscious divine relationship is the first great step. And we have to keep working at this, re-connecting and re-opening the relationship, because it is all too easy to fall back into the lower level of separation and mechanical existence. Remember to keep coming back to a divine relationship, which essentially begins as openness and receptivity. Then, once in this relationship, continue to come closer to God, or closer to the Love and Light emerging from within.
One of soul's main purposes is to have conscious experience in this world of manifestation. This includes having conscious experience in the 'three bodies' of personhood - physical, emotional, and mental. And it also includes conscious experience in the world - the physical world, social world, and ideas in world conversation.
This experience ranges between discovery and creativity, whereby the experiences can be of what-is or it can be creations of new experience. Thus, the first purpose of the soul-will is to experience life, via the mental, emotional and physical bodies, to experience what-is in the world around and to experience what can be created by the soul's creative will.
The soul, working through the three bodies of experience, enjoys its conscious realization of spiritual manifestations, its qualities and insights, discovered and created in the three realms. The soul also gains from these conscious experiences. These spiritual experiences, these spiritual insights, spiritual emotions and spiritual sensations all contribute to the soul expansion and feed the soul-body. The soul realizes itself in the physical world, in the emotions and mind. And through these experiences the soul acquires a more unitive understanding of the One Truth, a more unitive feeling of the One Being, and a greater creative ability to manifest its incarnating purpose in the physical world.
Remember that the soul's incarnating purpose is to, through the mental body, reflect upon and understand its spiritual truth, through the emotional body to feel its qualities-of-being, and to manifest its creative spiritual power through the physical body and world. Partly, the soul incarnates to enjoy its being and consciousness and will in the three worlds, and partly, the soul incarnates to expand its being through the opportunities given by conscious life in this world of diverse persons, nature and events. These opportune experiences feed the expansion of soul, as the energies are transmuted by intentional consciousness.
The soul grows, as it were, by life in the three worlds. It is here that experience and insight furthers the soul expansion within the world of souls. From life in the three bodies, or experience in the three worlds, the soul acquires needed energies for its greater expansion and has the opportunity for leaping into higher levels of soul frequency. Without this incarnation into the three-fold world of experience, and without the energies consciously gained from this personal life, the soul remains as it is, independent and free in itself, but also incapable of further expansion toward the Absolute Unity. On the one hand, the soul needs the personal mind to realist more of its own mystery. And on the other hand, the soul-consciousness increases and becomes more inclusive by way of energies transmuted from the mind. Essentially, the soul feeds on energies and experiences of the three bodies.
Thus, this esoteric science of soul has practical importance. Mental energies, emotional energies and vital energies are all needed for the soul to expand and strengthen its permanent substance. Vital energies from the earth itself are needed. Thus, incarnation is essential for the soul's further expansion, for the soul's 'path of return'. An analogy would be the tree, as the soul must dip down its roots into the earth life for nourishment in order to grow high up into the sky. For its growth, the soul needs this earth life, as well as help from the Over-soul above.
The law of expansion is complementary. As the soul expands in this three-fold life, in the three bodies, it actually expands in its own dimension, and this is due to energies being transmuted and accumulated by the soul from the three bodies. As soul expands through the mental body, realizations and insights increase the soul-consciousness. As soul expands through the emotional body, unitive feelings of love and inclusiveness give a certain energy-substance to the soul-being. As soul expands through the physical body and is creative in the world, certain creative abilities are developed by the soul which increase its power of creative will.
So, part of the soul-work is to expand through the bodies, to more fully incarnate, and to achieve its spiritual purposes through this personal life. As the soul achieves this descending expansion, its ascending expansion is furthered. The experience gained, including creative abilities gained, by the soul's conscious expansion in the three bodies of life, is as food for the ascending expansion and empowerment of the soul-body.
Thus, experience gained is like an accumulation of energy-food for the soul's greater expansion. But it should be remembered that the soul does not grow from any or all experience. Any quality of experience will not suffice. Only experiences of truth, beauty and goodness are expansive to the soul. That is, only spiritual experience, via the three bodies, is expansive. Such are experiences of beauty and harmony in the physical realm, experiences of goodness and love in the emotional realm, and experiences of truth and spiritual insight in the mental realm. There are many potential spiritual qualities and realizations possible in the three worlds of incarnation, each being as food for the soul, but not all experiences are good food.
The other condition for soul-expansion from incarnation is that the experience must be conscious and not merely sensitive or automatic. Either, the experience must be intentionally given up to the soul and experienced for divine purpose, or the experience must be a direct intention of the soul-will. These are essentially the same but from different perspectives. In other words, the experience must have a soul connection, whereby the energies of the sensitive experience are transmutable into soul-energy or the increase of spiritual consciousness. The soul, essentially, makes use of these experiences, and spiritual consciousness is increased. The soul-consciousness is intentionally experiencing itself in the mental, emotional or physical realm. Through the mind the soul reflects upon its truth. Through the emotions the soul feels its qualities of being. Through the physical body, interacting in the physical world, the soul experiences enjoyable sensations and creations of its manifesting power.
The soul gains, or expands, from three things, from three essential foods. One is reflective conscious experience, as the soul mentally reflects upon its spiritual nature or truth, emotionally experiences its spiritual qualities, such as love and peace, and sensually experiences its physical incarnation and spiritual beauties of the earth life. Second, the soul gains from energies assimilated from the three bodies. Mental, emotional and vital energies are assimilated by the soul, via conscious breath, from these bodies and from the planet. Third, the soul gains creative power, or ability, to purposefully work through the three bodies and in this world of manifestation. Related to this is the ability to transform and transmute energies, to use energies and assimilate energies, and to gain understanding and skill in working cooperatively with other souls and other forces of the planet.
Thus, the soul is here to gain experience or understanding, to gain energies needed for conscious expansion, and to gain further ability or power to both manifest spiritual qualities and make use of this incarnating opportunity for its greater spiritual realization and conscious expansion.
Also, the soul is here to enjoy its creative power, to enjoy experience, and to enjoy this manifested world with other lives. Thus, the soul finds joy, as one of its potential spiritual qualities, in this life and this world, and although it is true to say that the soul has work to be done, this work can be done with joy and love.
The soul is not here simply for its own experience and development. The soul can gain experiences and energies in this world, but the soul's incarnating purpose is also very much to do with service and creative work in this world; for the soul is part of the universal spiritual purpose to manifest greater truth, love and beauty, to help nurture the unfoldment of spiritual potential in others and throughout the whole planet, and to help heal unnecessary problems and suffering in the world.
There are seven main fields of service work for a soul, corresponding to the seven major rays of divine Light.Describing these seven areas can only be a generalization, but here they are.
1. Politics and social leadership
2. Healing and care-giving
3. Education and teaching
4. Creative arts and innovations
5. Scientific discovery and
technological advance
6. Social and religious networking /or
gatherings
7. Financial-business and building /or
repair
Another way of understanding soul service is viewing the soul as either creative, healing, or protective in relation to life, world, and others. These are three possible paths for a soul to help improve the world or to help others. These are the three paths of creativity, healing, and protection.
Of course a soul can be on all three of these paths, or two, or just one. As well, these three paths can be understood as parallel with the seven fields of service already mentioned. Each of these lines of service are equal in their spiritual value. Some souls will more emphasis one of the paths, but all of the paths are important and could be worked at. Also, such service need not be on a grand scale. There is always something of value to do at least locally or in smaller groups. Whatever ideas and examples are presented here should not be viewed as exhausting all that is possible; so just because some kind of service is missing, it doesn't mean that kind of service is less important than some others. These are just some possibilities to consider and ways to distinguish kinds of service.
Along the path of creativity, one is focused on creating {or bringing forth} finer spiritual qualities in humanity and on our planet. This path brings into the world greater truth, vision, goodness, love, and beauty. It includes being the visionary, the artist, the inventor, the teacher, the scientist, or anyone bringing something new and good into the world, whether materially, emotionally or mentally. We tend to think of creativity as being exclusive to the artist, painter, musician, etc. But creativity and being a creative artist can be in any field. Anyone and everyone can be a creative soul in some way or another, bringing more divine possibilities and spiritual qualities into our world. We are, though, speaking of spiritual creativity rather than any sort of creativity. This doesn't need to be thought of as spiritual, bit it does need to include real spiritual qualities such as truth, goodness, love, and beauty. Many people throughout history have been creative, but not all have been spiritually creative; for it is quite possible to just create junk or debasing things or things harmful to the planet or to others. Man has been quite creative in the past few millenniums, but not all of this has necessarily been good or beneficial.
Next, along the path of healing, a soul-person is working to help heal unnecessary pain, suffering, hunger, and sickness in the world. One is working to heal any problems, whether in the physical level or in the body, in the emotional level, or in the mental levels of life. Healing means to restore back to health, harmony and balance. This could also involve healing abused parts of nature. So a healer soul might work to heal the mental confusions, the emotional turmoils and the physical illnesses of people, or to help reconnect people with their soul consciousness and spiritual intelligence. This is the path of the healer, or spiritual redeemer, or the restorer; and this work may be focused on physical, emotional, mental, or soul conditions. This path also includes an emphasis on health and healthy living - in body, mind, emotions, in communities and in life in general.
Next, along the path of protection, a soul seeks to protect life and nature, dignity and beauty. This could include being a protector of the existing ecology, the lives and the diverse beauty of the planet, which is being a protector of the spiritual goodness and wonders already existing in the kingdoms of nature, including the human. This path could also be called the nurturer, as it includes nurturing the unfolding health, goodness, and beauty of things, as would a mother or gardener. The protector also works to protect human rights (from political or social abuse), protect children and the elderly, and protect all people from harm and abuse. So this kind of soul work is to protect both our planet (and all of the natural world) and human beings living here.
All of these paths of service are external/outer soul-work (complementing inner soul-work). Yet another soul purpose is enjoyment of experience, which could be called the soul-play (rather than soul-work). Of course though, any work could also be a kind of play, depending on one's attitude in it or about it. Yet whether one feels to be in play or in work is not the main point. What is important is the enjoyment. For one of the real purposes of the soul incarnating and experiencing life is to enjoy. The soul's reason for being alive is not just to do serious work. Well, there is some work to do, there is a job to to do, but the soul is not here to just be serious without any enjoyment.
This is important to always keep in mind. Life is to be enjoyed. That is one of the great Purposes of Life! Or we could even think of this from the Divine point of view - that God is here to enjoy life, or that God {or Goddess} created this world to be enjoyed. So enjoyment is a Divine Value in itself. In other words, enjoyment needs no rational justification or reason for it; because enjoyment is a spiritual value in itself. So is love. Love needs no reason; it's of Value in itself, it's a Purpose in itself.
The very quality of joy, which is the essence of enjoyment, is a quality of our soul. Real joy, real experiences of joy, are from our soul. The joy comes from within. Joy is actually our own inner soul singing and dancing, enjoying being alive or simply enjoying just being. So joy is one of the primary experiences of our soul.
Enjoyment is also a service. It's a way to serve life and the world. It's a way to give to the world and to others. So one of our possible gifts to the world, one of our soul gifts, can be joy and enjoyment. Thus, enjoyment can be understood as a service - the bringing of more joy and enjoyment into the world. This might not sound so serious as healing work, or political or educational work, but a world with more joy and people enjoying life more will certainly be much more spiritual than a world with pain and suffering. A world with joy and happiness is certainly better than a world of frowns or a world of fighting. So we can be of service to others or the world, when we find ways to bring enjoyment. And as well, our own enjoyment increases the joy in others.
Enjoyment and joy can be found in any of our three-bodies, and also nurtured. Our three-bodies are the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of our personal life - which are the soul's vehicles of experience and expression. Through the mental body the soul enjoys learning, new discoveries, and solving things by reason or practical intelligence. Through the emotions the soul enjoys the many feelings regarding spiritual life, beauty, love, and being together with others in unity and harmony. Through the physical body the soul enjoys the many sensations, the senses, the moving activities, the coordination, and the manifesting power of the physical body. Thus, service and enjoyment are both purposes of the soul in incarnation.
These can be complimentary, of course, as service can be so enjoyed, and the various ways of enjoying experience can promote and benefit service work. If begged to answer which of these is greater on a spiritual scale, it would be difficult and we should simply say these are equal. One is tempted to say service is more spiritual than enjoyment, but what is the attempted result of service if not enjoyment? It would seem that service is towards enjoyment - creating, nurturing, and restoring health, beauty and enjoyment in others and around the planet. So how could one who knows not enjoyment serve the end goal of enjoyment? Imbalanced teachings have arisen, as the strong moralists deny enjoyment as a spiritual quality, while the hedonists deny unselfish service as one of the primary enjoyments. Anyways, the soul-connected heart cannot deny the inner feelings and urgings to both serve and enjoy life.
So, service in the world, as well as enjoyment in the three bodies and in the three aspects of life, are equal expressive purposes of the soul. It should also be noted here that expression, which includes both service and enjoyment, is not just about oneself but inevitably and purposefully involves the three spheres of planetary life. We could not really speak of soul-expression through the three-bodies, without also implying soul-expression through the world; since every body is related to its surrounding, collective world, and since every expression is effective to some degree in the surrounding three dimensions of planetary life. These three dimensions {or spheres} are, of course, the same as the three bodies - but on a larger, collective scale. And thus we can tune into, add to, nurture or heal: -- planetary health and harmony, the world sphere of emotions, and the mental sphere of world thoughts, beliefs, and ideas.
Remember that our three bodies all live within these planetary spheres, so it is not just the physical body which finds either nurturance or suffering from life. Our physical bodies must breathe the surrounding air of the physical planet, which can be either invigorating or polluting to the body. A similar truth can be said of the emotional and mental bodies, as these must develop from what is presently supplied, and these must live and share within the same sphere as other such bodies. One could say that "no man is an island", and neither is any one mind or emotional heart, just as no physical body could survive in complete separation from some surrounding ecology. So much of everything is interconnected and effecting other things.
We each live within a greater body, or field, or ecology, which
may be very harmonious and nurturing, or which may be disharmonious
and un-nurturing. We do what we can within this greater field of
being. We get what we can, or get what we will, out of this larger
space. We give what we can, or give what we will, to this larger
collective. We are very often affected by our surrounding physical
and non-physical environment, and we very often affect it. This is
sometimes good or helpful, and sometimes not, and most often this
effectiveness is out of our control or choice, and is usually quite
automatic and unconscious. It is only when we intentionally begin to
be conscious or aware of how our thoughts, emotions and health are
all influenced by the collective spheres, that we begin to create our
own personal destiny and become consciously helpful to the greater
good. Thus, becoming more conscious is the medium for our soul's
purpose.