Two questions answered in Quora
Is soul different from consciousness?
I agree with the responders here that equate both concepts – soul and consciousness – which in themselves are just pointers to what is real/reality. Reality can only be one, not multiple; thus, to make a distinction between soul and consciousness, or between spirit and matter, God and the world (or ‘I’), experience and knowledge – or between Brahman and Atman – is either provisional (an intermediate doctrine or teaching) or confusing and limiting.
Another polarity which is ultimately unreal (only verbal or conceptual) from an unitary or metaphysical perspective is singularity/multiplicity. Language has its rights, but in this rarefied realm I would also equate spirituality with metaphysics, knowing full well the risks or misunderstandings that it can lead to.
This is a leading question, expecting, that is, that one will tend to agree with the questioner… ‘True, life is so hard…’ Before calling such question, or statement in question form, a platitude, one would wonder what his/her age is in order to help in assessing the sincerity and opportunity of the question – very young, mature, old?
Many of the answers given may or may not satisfy the questioner, but, before I might attempt an answer myself, I would have to ask a number of questions – apart from the age – so as to avoid embarking in a long essay on such complicated or difficult question – not something in black or white, yes or no. For example, what is the life-experience and/or background of the person asking, or what is it that motivated such question. None of the responders could object to what I just wrote… did they all forget to ask these elementary questions prior to attempting an answer?
Unanimous Tradition / Tradición Unánime 