The Soul

The soul is a useful way to think about self, which is why I think the idea is so useful.  It also leads to a lot of mischief, such as the idea that an aborted fetus had a soul since the theory is that God gives each conception a soul.  I wonder if those who believe this have any idea of the number of natural abortions that occur before implantation.

Buddhism teaches that we are not a self, and certainly don't "have" a self or soul.  Instead, what we identify as self is really just a self-perpetuating process -- like a wave or a flame -- that continues to give itself rebirth from moment to moment out of its internal processes.  I find this convincing, as most people can who take a moment to sit quietly and "watch" the process of mind as it goes from thought to thought, bringing in memories or having idea rise up from the subconscious or noting an incoming sensation and so on -- each connected only to a certain degree to what the mind was at before.  This is process, not "thing.

(This always raises the question of, "Who is doing the watching?", for which there is a simple answer -- the same process -- just looking at short-term memory at its own state a moment ago).

One final point here: it is not necessary to take a materialist ("physicalist") approach when one accepts this view.  The process could be completely natural or it could have karmic (or whatever one calls it) aspects.