Towards the Truth

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the process of retribution after death with the reward of eternal happiness
or a punishment of everlasting fire. These instances, which
could easily be multiplied, will suffice to show how without revelation
the trinity-idea has grown and developed naturally in such
distant countries as Palestine, India and Australia.
Finally there are three things which are so closely connected that
we have to speak of them at the same time: soul, sin and salvation.
I do not think that my reverend opponent has used in his address
the word “soul”, but he spoke of an “indestructible life-principle”.
And that makes it much clearer to all of us, for it is exactly that
permanent entity which we reject in the Buddhist teaching of soullessness
(anatta). The soul then is said to be the “principle of life”,
i.e. the “essence and the totality of the functions of a living being”
(Aristotle). That means that if an axe would be a living being, its
essence would be to cut, and that faculty would be its soul. But as
it happens that an axe has no life, it can cut without a soul. A man
is not such a simple affair, because he is alive and therefore he has a
soul which is his indestructible life-principle. The essence of man is
his rationality, and therefore he has a rational soul, except of course
if he falls in love, for then he ceases to be rational and he loses his
soul together with his heart.
All this is quite clear and does not offer any difficulty. But the
real problem begins with my dog who, when I come home, gives
full evidence of being alive. He must have therefore a life-principle,
which most probably is situated in his tail, as that is the organ with
which he laughs.
The difference between a rational soul and an animal soul according
to the theologians is that the rational soul is spiritual, indestructible
and hence eternal, while the animal soul is material and
will dissolve into nothing at the moment of death. According to
the same theologians there are also material souls in plants, which
therefore contain the essence of vegetable life; something like Marmite,
I suppose. But I leave those alone, for the moment, not to