Body and soul

Anonymous

In class we have been discussing the roles of the body and the soul in the Hebrew Bible. Essentially one should transcend the wants of the body to become more attuned with the spiritual world above rather than the greed of the Earthly world. The people within the context of the stories that we have read have experienced absolutely terrible hardship while maintaining their identity and simultaneously ignoring the agony of the body. When I was little I remember thinking whenever I stubbed my toe on the kitchen table that I could ignore pain if I put my mind over matter so to speak. I really do not think this tactic ever worked. Islam discusses departing from the inner ego, which seems like a very similar idea to ignoring earthly desires. Because I have no experience with the graphic instances in the reading and my attempts to coerce pain away with positive thoughts failed miserably, the approach to ego seems to be my best bet. Ever since hearing about it in my Islam class, I have thought about what it means to have no ego and be attuned with other people through consistent and intentional interactions. Humility is huge for me, sometimes to my detriment. I desperately try to not take myself too seriously but often end up giving myself the short end of the stick. Confidence is important, having too much is what gets people into trouble. I have also working to be compassionate to everyone I meet. When I was working summer camps I learned about the term agape, meaning unconditional love for all people. This sense of appreciation has change my life because I have realized with this in conjunction to my travels that everyone is essentially the same, but on the outside illustrates similarities through cultural differences. Everyone deserves to be treated equally because we are all people, and I think that is what transcending ego and bodily wants really means to me. An attempt should be made for equal interaction for the sake of community across the globe, ignoring race and gender barriers for humanity. The soul is not defined by skin tone and nationality but I think more flavored by it. We are defined by our ideologies and the best way to understand our own is by opening a dialogue with others.