Dictionary

In dictionary, the soul is defined as the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, the incorporeal essence of a living being, and regarded as immortal. This meaning is pretty close to what yoga and yoga teacher training says the soul is.

They have sensations and thoughts, desires and beliefs, and perform intentional actions. Souls are essential parts of human beings.

Different Perspectives

People view soul from different perspectives, scientific, philosophical, religious, etc. If  I was asked, I’d like to discuss from the perspective of religion.

Because science have already denied the existence of the soul; philosophy answers the question by using logic. Only those who have faith use mind and heart to feel, to search, to explore, and to find the answer.

Religions

Among the religions, I am most familiar with Christianity; secondly Buddhism. Buddhism denies the soul, so I will only talk about the soul from Christianity.

The characteristics of soul are as follows: 1. The soul is invisible to the naked eye, and the soul is immaterial. 2. People have souls, which are manifested in having the sense of right and wrong, love, compassion, peace, joy, shame, etc. 3. The soul is immortal 4. The soul is created by God. 5. After the person dies, the soul will go to heaven or hell.

Gods Imagine

The soul has the characteristics of God because it is created according to God’s image, but it has not equal quantities as of God because the human ancestors committed sin and lost the glory of God.

Like water droplets and the sea, water droplets come from the sea, but quantity is different. By accepting Jesus as savior, a person can be renewed and take back the glory of God, and as his life ends, he can go to heaven. This is because Jesus died on cross to cover all the sins committed by human beings.  

No Soul

Many people do not believe in having a soul. However, if you ask in reverse: “What is the body without a soul?” I am afraid that no one can correctly answer this question. If there is only a body and no soul, then the body is probably just a body.

The soul covers all aspects of our intelligence, emotions, conscience, and intuition.

From the development of science until today, it is impossible to produce a spiritual life from the laboratory, which in reverse proves that life is created by God.  

Koshas

Regalress where live Vancouver or Toronto, yoga see a person as five layers (koshas): the physical body, the breath body or energy body, the emotional body, the intellectual body, and the bliss body.

I really like this statement, which is more specific than the body mind and soul three layers that I have heard before.

My mind a knowledge is limited, but I prefer to believe the existence of soul, and of course at the same time, the existence of God, the superior power in universe.