The Paradox of the Common Soul

A Word About The Common Soul

We live in a dual world.  Not many will deny that.  Everywhere you look outside there are opposites and polarity.  Up and down, hot and cold, in and out, love and hate and the list goes on.   In fact of the many things out there, it’s hard not to find an opposite in something else.  It’s simply how our world works out there.  As long as you’re working in that world out there you’re in the garden of good an evil.  But even in this world of opposites there are clues to the one-ness that is our soul’s connection to the common, universal soul.  

Paradoxes are everywhere in life.  Paradoxes are these subtle clues in the world to wake us out of the dream or illusion that everything is black and white duality.  A paradox is when you’ve got two things that seem to conflict, but could possibly both be true at the same time.  You see what this does?  It breaks down the dual nature of something.  One of the most famous paradoxes is that old riddle: “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”  I remember my aunts and uncles teasing me with this as a child and it was a big laugh, but it’s designed to cause you to question your own origins and what you’re doing here.  

Paradox is everywhere.  Another great way to look at it is that a paradox is like a “Catch-22.”  This amazing phrase that made it’s way into our language because of Joseph Heller’s 1961 war novel of the same name.  In it, he referred to an Air Force rule whereby a pilot continuing to fly combat missions without asking for relief is regarded as insane, but he’s considered sane enough to keep flying if he is actually able to make such a request.  A catch-22 is a seemingly impossible or illogical situation.  Likewise the idea that we all share one universal, common soul is a catch-22 or paradox.  How can we as individual beings, apparently separate from everything else out there, share the same soul?  How can we be one with everything else?  

Science—quantum physics, string theory and other nuclear physics theories have essentially proved it and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand it.  Science has discovered that when you break energy down into its smallest components, even smaller than protons, neutrons and electrons; there are these tiny sub-atomic particles, which are the basic units of energy.  They have funny names like quarks and bosons and others, but the point is, that these particles of energy make up all matter—your house, that rock outside, everything you see is made up of these basic units of energy.  Now it’s gone even further with string theory and M theory—that these particles are actually microcosmic strings vibrating and theorizes that there are actually the possibility of eleven different dimensions!  

The only thing that differentiates a rock from a piece of iron is that the two are vibrating at different frequencies.  Even we, our physical bodies, are made up of the same stuff.  We are all these basic units of energy and the only thing that makes us individual and different is that we’re all vibrating at different frequencies also.  Just as each and every snowflake is unique, so is each and every being on this earth.  This can be a real mind-bender and it is supposed to be thus.  You have to take this all on faith.  You can read about quantum physics and string theory and all that stuff and you’ll find out what I just told you… we’re all the same stuff.  But at some point you have to jump off and take a philosophical leap and start seeing things as all coming from the same place and that’s when a paradox or catch-22 opens your mind and gives you a taste of the power of your soul.  

I’ve just outlined the greatest paradox of them all—we’re all made up of the same basic energy but we’re still as unique as snowflakes.  The ego hates this because the ego is limited.  For simplicity purposes let’s just say the ego is what keeps your reality in place—the life you see before you with your eyes.  The ego is limited because the life you live is limited.  You’re born, you have some experiences and you die.  The very nature of life is limited by virtue of this fact.  But the mind is unlimited because it’s connected to the common soul.  The reality you experience in every day life is a projection of the mind.  Your thoughts are things.  They’re electric.  Your brain sends electrical impulses to the nerves and the muscles in the body and it makes the whole thing go.  So your energy follows your thought.  You think something, you do it and the sum of the things you do becomes the life you experience.  

The problem is between the mind and ego.  The mind is unlimited because it’s connected with the common soul and the whole ball of wax.  Yogi Bhajan, the great Master of Kundalini Yoga has told us that each time you blink your eyes, the mind releases a thousand thoughts.  So the mind has these unlimited thoughts while the ego is limited to what it can see and classify.  That’s what the ego does, it classifies everything to keep things manageable.  The mind is like an ambassador between the ego and the common soul and because the mind is connected with the common soul, it knows that we’re all one.  What happens then, is that the mind becomes torn between the ultimate truth of the soul and the limited outside world of the ego.  

Now in most of us, especially in the western hemisphere, the ego is in charge and runs the whole show.  Because of this, it wants to go back to classifying everything as black and white duality.  Every time you’re hit with a paradox in your life, it puts you at a crossroads where you have to make a choice-- Duality of the ego or Universality of the soul.  Every time you take that leap of faith and choose Universality and work on the assumption that we’re one common soul, you open the mind more and access that unlimited power that is the energy that is in all things.   The ego resists this with everything it’s got because Universality is like death to the ego and it becomes threatened with annihilation.  The ego wants to manage, maintain, and run things.    However, we are all given will power or free will.  If your will is strong enough, then you are able to leverage the mind open more and more.  With practice, the mind opens to the soul and then the ego ends up working for the mind and what results is a balanced individual who creates a life of bliss guided by the soul.  

Whenever you come across a paradox or catch-22 in your life, it’s the Common Soul knocking on the door of your mind, inviting you to open it more.  Connecting the common soul allows you to develop a relationship to the soul and allows you to live out your destiny.  

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