[NR] Soul Stuff - Chapter 744

The three of them, having laid out what they know, spent a couple of afternoons workshopping various ideas of what the stuff all means. Though the thing that kept the attention of Rosha and Courtney the most, was the fact that their souls actually connected to their bodies in NeoRealm.

Courtney, “Why doesn’t more transfer? Sure, as you went over, there are clearly measures in place to prevent bleedover. But what about our cultivation?”

Jason shrugs, that was easy enough to explain. “Early on, while cultivation isn’t an entirely physical thing, that doesn’t mean it is within the soul. Rather, it is connected to the metaphysical aspects of the body. Though my concepts seem to have some crossover going on.”

Rosha, “Fair, but I feel you’re both missing something. Our souls touch these bodies. These bodies have a hole to the world’s Energy. Do those two facts connect?”

Jason, “I didn’t check. Souls are a bit out of my wheelhouse.”

Rosha, “Okay, that just leaves one question, at least for me. Do you know any exercises to strengthen our souls?”

Jason shakes his head, “The soul itself is fine. It is everything around the soul and how tightly anchored it is, that can be worked on. It isn’t important this early, though I guess it can’t hurt, but part of proper mediation is organizing your soul space.

“Everything you learned is stacked on top of the soul and makes you who you are. Except, when you first learned to read, you didn’t even consider how to organize the language. At best, follow what the teacher said.

“And mediation techniques can be used to organize things. This can’t change who you are as it is all still there. However, there is a big difference between having learned a language in starts and stops compared to all at once. Vocabulary alone will be all over the place. Then you go in with mediation to gather what you know and have learned.”

Courtney, “So what? It allows you to be more naturally with other languages? Mind you, I can see how incredible what you are saying is. I just also don’t get why it relates to the soul. The effect you’re describing sounds more like using mental techniques to organize your mind and memories.”

Jason, “That is partly a side effect of using your mind to make the changes. However, I will admit I didn’t describe that the best I could have. After all, it isn’t like you learn any language all at once. Even your primary language is learned over years.

“What this does is make you more, for lack of a better word, Skilled. You don’t remember what you’ve forgotten, learn new things, or gain new insights. Rather, it consolidates what you do know so that it comes more naturally to you. So yes, if you learn a new language to the point that you have the vocabulary and whatnot down? You can turn that into being able to speak it fluently, if with one caveat. You will need to have heard people who are fluent, speak the language. Like I said, this isn’t magically imbuing you with knowledge, so you need something to work off of. I would compare it to turning technical knowledge of martial arts into muscle memory.”

Courtney, “Though it sounds like this would also work for martial arts?”

Jason shrugs, “Yeah, there isn’t really a good way to explain this because most languages don’t really delve into how the soul interacts with reality. Instead, using metaphors and analogies. It isn’t like how we can describe math. Though I will note, doing this for martial arts will not give you the muscle memory for it. This goes back to the three parts of a person. The body, mind, and soul.

“Train the body so you can flow through the moves. Train the mind so you can learn new moves and react to new situations. Train the soul so that the other two are in balance and what you have gained from them can be properly used.

“A good example of this in martial arts is the dichotomy between knowing the right thing to do and reacting with the right thing to do. If someone stabs at you? You should have an automatic response without having to think about it. However, you might have also learned a better move to use for this specific attack. React with the body and you block, but maybe still get hurt or end up in a bad situation. React with the mind and even if it is the perfect block, you’re slow to react and end up with a similar end result.

“Powerful people get around this against weaker opponents by simply being stronger or faster. A man who relies entirely on their body reacting bulls their way through the fight because even if they do end up worse off, their body reacts first to the new situation and so takes the momentum away. A man who relies on their mind will simply think faster than the opponent and so even if technically their body isn’t able to react fast enough, they’re playing chess with the physical stuff and so their first reaction is for the next move or the move after that.

“If you train the soul? Maybe you don’t have the fastest reaction or know the most moves. However, you get to the correct answer and connect the dots faster. Though of course the correct answer is to find your strong point, train in that, but also don’t let the other parts lag too far behind. Well, I guess you can become a glass cannon if you’re on a team that supports you? Even then, though, I would suggest a balanced approach. If only because you won’t ever be the strongest in your field. Better to be competent and able to support the rest of your team.”

Courtney, “That is interesting. So, how does this whole ‘soul meditation’ thing work?”

Jason shrugs, “Well, first you have to be able to sense your soul.”