Soul and consciousness
QUESTION: Masters as far as I understand, my Higher Self is limitless, unmanifested Consciousness. Living with this body, mind and limited senses is like living in the prison. Why is that? What is the difference between Soul and Consciousness? ~Kaarina, Finland
ANSWER: A definition of “consciousness” has been the life work of many philosophers, theologians, and spiritualists. They all tend to agree that it denotes a type of awareness, but on an awareness of what, and in what state, they diverge. This is another case where we have been asked to use your limited Earthly language to describe something that transcends physical oral communications and can mean different things in different arenas.
To the human being, consciousness can mean an awakeness of the functioning body as opposed to a comatose state. This involves the physical aspects of self only. Philosophically, it extends to the mental faculties as used in thought and feeling, but here again, that is in the physical realm. In a spiritual sense, it generally connotes an awareness of the nonphysical essence of self, or the soul. This goes beyond the physical body and includes everything that the body and soul are and can be.
As for the term “soul,” most would agree that it refers to the energetic essence that broke off, and was individualized, from Source for the purpose of gaining wisdom. The soul is nonphysical in and of itself but has the ability to inhabit a physical shell or body. “Higher self” is the term many apply to the amount of the soul’s essence that is within the human body, communicates with both the physical and nonphysical aspects, and has access to the universal consciousness.
The human aspects of the soul’s Earth journey are restrictive and limiting because humans generally can access and utilize only the amount of knowledge or awareness that they have self-experienced during the present lifetime. But this limitation is actually the reason that human existence can permit the gathering of wisdom through mastering life lessons.
When one becomes conscious of their essence, they tap into all the knowledge they have gathered over many lifetimes. They understand the nature of a soul and yearn for the freedom that escape from the restrictive body can allow. This is the stage in which you find yourself – you understand the possibilities of existing as your true self.