Body and Soul Quotes

“The common Greek word, logos, was originally understood in several different ways; one of which was as “intention, hypothesis, or thought”. Heraclitus, in the 4th century B.C.E., the first to use the word in a metaphysical sense, intended by it the Divine Intelligence by which all the world is pervaded. Much later, a contemporary of Jesus, Philo Judaeus, an influential Alexandrian Jew with strong ties to the Greek, and specifically the Platonic, philosophical tradition, used the word to denote the Thought in the Mind of God, wherefrom the Idea of the world took form.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“Much later, the illustrious teacher (acharya), Shankara (eighth century C.E.), attempted a reformulation of Advaita (Nondual) Vedanta, and in the process introduced some ideas which are controversial to this day. In many ways, his metaphysical worldview is also remarkably similar to that of Plotinus:”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“there are many remarkable parallels between the (revised) metaphysical vision of Plotinus and that of the Bhagavad Gita. These parallels arise from the fact that both Vyasa and Plotinus had directly experienced these truths in their visionary revelations, as have innumerable other souls. We must not forget, however, that Plotinus must certainly have had some introduction to the Indian metaphysics through his guru, Ammonius, who was said to be conversant with both the Persian and Indian metaphysics.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“Unlike the conception of Moses, in which God’s Spirit, or Soul, had been imparted to man alone, Plotinus regarded Soul as a radiation of God’s Spirit imparted to the entire universe,”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“And here, Meister Eckhart distinguishes between the One and the Divine Mind, using the terms “Godhead” and “God”: God and the Godhead are as different from each other as heaven and earth… Creatures speak of God—but why do they not mention the Godhead? Because there is only unity in the Godhead and there is nothing to talk about. God acts. The Godhead does not. …The difference between God and the Godhead is the difference between action and non-action. …The Godhead is poor, naked and empty as though it were not; it has not, wills not, wants not, works not, gets not. It is God who has the treasure and the bride in Him; the Godhead is as void as though it were not.75 Eckhart’s “God” is the manifestory Power of the One, which has been referred to as Prakrti, Maya, Nous, Shakti, Logos, and many other names; we are calling It ‘the Divine Mind’. The Divine Mind is not a”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“From these many theological interchanges a concensus arose; and the historical Jesus became permanently associated with the Logos, and was thereafter regarded by Christians as an incarnation of God; or, in popular circles, ‘the Son of God’. Then, to the duality of the Father and Son was added the “Spirit” or “Holy Ghost”—thus constituting a holy Trinity, comparable to Plotinus’ trinity of The One, the Divine Mind, and Soul. This doctrine of the ‘Holy Trinity’ became firmly established as a metaphysical tenet of the Church with the formulation of the Nicene Creed following the first ecumenical council assembled by emperor Constantine in 325 C.E., and the Athenasian Creed, penned around the same time—though in later years Christendom would become bitterly divided in its acceptance of this tenet.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“In the mystical experience, which transcends all religious traditions and cultures and languages, the Christian, the Buddhist, the Muslim, and the Vedantist alike come to the same realization: They realize the oneness of their own soul and God, the Soul of the universe.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“By concentrated meditation—in other words, by the stilling and focusing of the vibrations of consciousness (chitta vritti nirodha)—the individualized soul is enabled to reverse this process and thus perceive its subtler reality, its Divine origin, its true Self.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“We must acknowledge that, although neither of them clearly comprehended the nature of the phenomenal world (nor did anyone else before the mid-twentieth century), both Shankaracharya and Plotinus had intimately known the one Reality behind all appearances. They were both illumined seers, and master teachers. There is no doubt that both men came to the direct knowledge of the Self as their true, eternal identity, and knew: ‘There is no other true identity but the eternal One by whom and in whom all exists.’ And the central and most important message of both Shankaracharya and Plotinus is the message of all authentic seers of the Truth: ‘Realize the Reality for yourself! Renounce all transient and illusory appearances and focus upon the Eternal. Know your lasting and permanent Self, where all knowledge and all Bliss resides, and free yourself from the snare of ignorance and suffering.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“There is now a transparancy to things in this new life—as though one’s body and all the objects were but holographic images with no substantial reality.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“Once caught in that Light, once illumined by the Eternal, does a soul will its restoration to embodied selfhood in the artificial multiplicity of samsara? I think not. Yet it re-emerges into that embodied life nonetheless—but with a new perspective: Samsara is now Nirvana. The mundane is now Divine. The mind and intellect are infused with a new awareness: all is bright with Divinity, within and without.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“Jesus put it well when he said, “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” According to this understanding, a man is free insofar as he is cognizant of his essential identity with the Highest, and bound when he departs from the knowledge and awareness of his Divinity, identifying with the body/brain complex. He then succumbs to the rule of earthly necessity, and is moved willy-nilly by the causative forces inherent in Nature. He has the power, as the Divine Self, to will freely, unencumbered, uncompelled by circumstance; and, for that reason is responsible for his individual actions.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“That such individualized souls exist is clearly evident to us who know ourselves as separate, individualized, self-governing, units of self-awareness. We may understand that Soul is nothing less than an extension of the Divine consciousness; and yet, we must also acknowledge that each soul’s perspective is unique. Differences in perspective seem to arise and persist through the accumulation of individual experience, inference, and willful intent. And so there appears a multitude of souls, united in the Divine Consciousness, but separate in manifestation.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“How, then, are we to explain this intermingling of Soul and Matter in a manner consistent with our current understanding of the nature of Matter? We can’t, of course. For Soul is not a substance; it cannot be described in a way similar to material particles or to photons or wave frequencies. It leaves no physical imprint; it requires no medium; I suspect it has no spatial or temporal signature at all. It is utterly undemonstrable to the senses. It is a Divine and eternal Consciousness which, despite its non-material nature, permeates and interacts with the world of phenomenal reality; and which, though undetectable by the senses, is clearly perceived subjectively as human awareness.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“It is clear to me that the disappointed expectations of materialistic science in solving the mystery of consciousness have their roots in the basic assumptions of materialists regarding the origin of the universe and the origin of life on earth. Their position on consciousness is logically dependent upon the theory that life (biological phenomena) occurs spontaneously and is intrinsic to matter, without the necessity of any extraneous operative; and that theory is in turn dependent upon the assumption that the universe itself originated from a material source without the involvement of any supernatural cause. The materialist-physicalist theory of consciousness is founded on those precedent assumptions; and without those assumptions, the physicalist theory of consciousness crumbles. It is a theory based on a theory based on a theory, each one dependent, not upon the accumulation of evidence, but upon the lack of empirical evidence to the contrary.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective

“Material Nondualism, a materialistic worldview in which Spirit (or soul) is rejected, and Matter (or body) is all that is said to exist.”
― Swami Abhayananda, Body and Soul: An Integral Perspective