[Lucy Fleetwood]

I find this thread very interesting. I am a Buddhist (Tibetan), and in Buddhism there is not a belief in a soul. Rather the view is that life in samsara has various realms that we cycle through until we awake to the true nature of reality, often called buddha nature or dharmakaya, which is beyond conceptualisation or elaboration. I have also studied Ayurveda, and in an incredibly small way, I’m aware of the Vedic view that we are making our journey back to source (if anyone knows more and I have got this wrong please correct me). I don’t have a good understanding of this, and don’t know if the Vedic pathway has a belief in soul. For Tibetan Buddhism, the Vedic Gods are still part of Samsara (cyclic existence based on karma and dependant origination), all the 6 realms of Samsaric existence are viewed as states of mind, but not a mind that belongs to a ‘person’, rather a mind stream. I am interested in the words we use in different traditions, to frame our journey of understanding through life.