My girlfriend has said that believing in a soul is like believing in a flat Earth. It just doesn't jive with modern knowledge. For example, how would a soul experience sensory input without a nervous system? How would a soul have thoughts and memories without a brain?
Given my own experience with meditation, I would say that physical and mental processes are purely mechanical. Thus they do not represent the true Self. So what is the Self?
If it exists at all, I think the Self is not a soul, it's simply being. That's what spiritual emptiness means. It's not annihilation of the Self, it's the Self as distinct from thoughts and desires, distinct from all mechanical processes - an emptiness of everything that is not the Self.
