Although we do not choose our souls or the way they reveal themselves, all of us are capable of discovering more noble elements within ourselves.
There is inner work to be done, however, and this is important.
We must access the higher levels of our souls and cause them to manifest within our active consciousness.
All of the levels of the soul exist within every person.
By accessing the higher levels, we are able to liberate ourselves from the assumptions of a particular culture, or the assumptions of the point in history we happen to be living in.
The vehicle through which our souls are manifest is usually an epiphany of some kind, beyond time, place, culture, or level of the soul.
An epiphany can be thought of as a sudden insight of great importance that seems to come out of the blue.
But not all epiphanies are the same.
They differ in nature and effect from person to person.
They can also differ within the lifetime of a single person.
Most of us achieve some awareness, even if faint, of the existence of our souls.
This awareness usually arrives through the simple recognition that beyond the Self, there is something deep within us that we cannot name.
For most people who experience them, epiphanies of the soul appear intermittently – whether for a short time or a longer period – and then vanish.
These spontaneous bursts of light that some experience cause a sense of spiritual elevation.
They do not always involve a feeling of happiness, but they always involve a clarity of vision.
We can compare it to the feeling you might have if you stand for a moment at the summit of a mountain, momentarily seeing, breathing, and even feeling differently, perhaps experiencing a sense of liberation.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz