Body and Soul

Is there really such a thing as the soul? Do we have a permanent spiritual identity, or are we merely transient material phenomena? Our answers to such questions often depend on the tradition with which we identify. The tradition of science, for example, holds that, since there is no empirical evidence for a soul, it is to be assumed that matter is all there is-that even our minds are but a 'natural' evolute of matter, an emergent quality arising from properties inherent in a material universe. But there are a number of enduring 'spiritual' traditions which discount that worldview, asserting that matter is the product of an energy projected by a divine source, and that mind also arises from that immaterial divine source, constituting a universal 'soul' which inhabits the material world and our individual bodies. In Body And Soul, Swami Abhayananda examines the disparate views of these opposing perspectives-including the Biblical, the Platonist, the Vedantist, the Buddhist, and the scientific viewpoints. In the process, he offers many of his own unique insights into the nature of matter and spirit from his own mystical experience, and provides us with an integral perspective that takes into account both the spiritual and the scientific views, allowing for a comprehensive and satisfactory understanding of our true nature.