Having a soul doesn't preclude living in the now. It means not letting material attachment get in the way of the real purpose of human existence, beyond the Plato's cave shadow play of nature, imo
Now that's what Jesus was talking about, imo, the 'letting-go' about mammon.
I live in Southern England where small-Christianity once abounded, now less so. Many years ago I surveyed property for a large security company which received orders from the Diocesan Board of the Church of England. I was sent to an ancient property where a church dignitary's family lived, and the riches within were just breath-taking, a long cabinet holding several pairs of shotguns made by Purdy, Holland&Holland, etc any pair of which could buy a house back then or today. And the hard ruthlessness of the woman who received me.......... material attachment.
And I'm not just poking at the Christianity that is here...... I don't know many folks who are not strung up about status, class, materialism, the whole package of sadness, and it's not longer Christianity because there isn't that much around here anymore.
If you have left all that mammon stuff behind then you are a rich person
It is with me all the time. Closer than breathing. It is my centre.
It is the same Great Spirit spoken of in all cultures
In a sacred manner I live
To the heavens I gazed
In a sacred manner I live
My horses are many
(Old Sioux Song)
That Sioux knew about the great spirit, he lived in the heart of the Great Spirit each moment, he knew about Mother Nature....or that is my proposal.
And I'll bet that as and when he took life (for whatever reason) or ate food, he would speak to it, explaining that he too would be taken for a better purpose. I'll bet that his way was not so different from the ancient peoples here, before the Romans brought their mammon. Now I could listen to such as him, they are just a bit hard to find around here.
I really like that concept, but for me it is here, in the weather, the sun and moon, the sends of the seasons and surges of the migrations. I can see that.