We have two souls?

When we die our body (now a corpse) is no longer animated.  It has become incapable of producing any of its former activities which we called “life”. 

This lifeless body has no blood circulation, respiration, digestion, speech or thought.  Some will say that the soul has separated itself from the body but none of us know what this soul is.  We cannot see it now even when our body is fully animated. 

According to the Buddha this body is empty, there is nothing real about it.  It is a soulless thing.  A person who is greatly attached to this body is sunk in delusion; they are far from complete detachment where the unconditioned is revealed.  But since we are not detached we are still tied to the senses and their respective fields being subject to rebirth as a consequence of this attachment. 

The road to our eventual freedom is one that is transcendent that can only be accomplished by the refinement of intuition which leaps beyond the six senses, the sixth being the most difficult which is our bondage to thoughts (manas) and all this implies (yes, even imaginary thoughts). 

You could even say we have two souls.  One is conditioned, for example, the five aggregates (skandha).  The other is spiritual which transcends all things including the five aggregates.  It is unconditioned.  This soul is also the Buddha-nature 佛性.

Comments

[t]

It can only be from the point of view of the Unconditioned that all conditioned phenomena can be recognized as empty.

Therefore, is not clear how one can be anything, ultimately, other than the Unconditioned.

[Dharma]

Nirvana is peace. Mind free of delusion and oppressive thinking. Your basic nature.

[TheZennist]

Clyde:

The atman is the Tathagatagarbha. All beings possess a Buddha Nature: this is what the atman is. This atman, from the start, is always covered by innumerable passions (klesha): this is why beings are unable to see it. — Mahaparinirvana-sutra (Etienne Lamotte, The Teaching of Vimalakirti, Eng. trans. by Sara Boin, London: The Pali Text Society, 1976, Introduction, p. lxxvii.)

[clyde]

“You could even say we have two souls.” Really?! Two souls?

Not even one. The Buddha taught that there is an Unconditioned, but he did not teach that you are/have/share the Unconditioned. There is no *you* that is/has/shares, you are an empty dharma. We are empty dharmas.

Stay safe and be well.