Metaphors to illustrate the nature of our true self — the Soul

Using Metaphors and Analogies

Metaphors and analogies are a very effective way to illustrate truths because they help us begin to feel, experience or conceive truth in our consciousness. It’s almost like they turn on lights, or help us get a taste of truth, or that they are like a pickaxe breaking the surface so that light or truth starts to bubble up to the surface wafting through our conscious awareness. Remember, truth is already an inherent part of our deeper nature, we only need to allow it to be manifested or expressed in our conscious awareness so that we begin to know it on a conscious level. The following are several metaphors to help us understand the nature of our true self — the Soul.

Metaphor of "The Wave and The Ocean"

Visualize an ocean with waves rising upon it. Even though the waves seem to have a separate identity from the ocean, they are in reality part of the ocean, and one with it. They are made of the ocean, and therefore share all the qualities and attributes of the ocean.

Our minds are incapable of grasping infinity and eternity, because it’s beyond the scope of our minds to do so. But let’s do our best. Imagine another ocean. This time it’s an ocean of consciousness. This Ocean of Consciousness has no beginning or end. It’s infinite, eternal, boundless, and timeless. The nature, or qualities of this Infinite Ocean of Consciousness are joy, love, truth, light, peace, wisdom, compassion, creativity and allness of good. Your Heart or Soul, the true and deepest consciousness of your being, is like a wave on this ocean of consciousness. Like the wave on the regular ocean, the wave of your consciousness is one with, made of, and shares the attributes and qualities of the Ocean of Infinite Consciousness.

"The Metaphor of The Sun"

Where can you go where there is only light? The answer is the Sun. The Sun is the source of light. Therefore, everywhere on the Sun, in and throughout the Sun, there exists only light. Light is the only reality of the Sun.

Similarly, the nature of our true self, the Soul, is pure, infinite and eternal love, joy, truth, light, peace, compassion and allness of good, because our Soul is a wave arising out of the Ocean of God’s Consciousness, and we share those qualities with God’s infinite and eternal consciousness. Therefore, just as light is the only reality of the Sun, because the Sun is the source of light, those attributes and qualities of our Soul are the only reality of our being, because God is the source, substance and the only reality of our being, life and consciousness.

When we surrender into the conscious experience of our Soul in Dhyana (meditation), we know this truth, because truth is embodied in, or is an inherent part of, our Soul. This experience is referred to as knowing truth through the omniscience, or intuition of the Soul. Truth known in this way is called Jnana. Therefore, the deepest and most correct understanding of the word Jnana is: truth that is intuitively realized, or known, through the omniscience of the Soul, by the conscious experience of our selves as Soul.

Through the truths expressed in the metaphors above, it also follows, that when we experience ourselves as Soul, we also automatically experience, know and are in communion with God — because Soul and God are one. In my humble opinion, this truth, or reality, is the essence of, and the ultimate purpose of our sadhana (spiritual practices), and therefore our lives.

You can consciously know (experience) your Soul - your true Self - by meditation. And when you know your self as Soul, you will have discovered the presence of God within you (as you)
- Paramahansa Yogananda

You’re not a human being having a spiritual experience; you’re a spiritual being having a human experience
– Wayne Dyer

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