Here is an analysis of the poll question ‘Do you believe you have a soulmate?’ As of today, the results are:
53% : Yes
30% : No
17% : Don’t know
According to Wikipedia, “‘Soulmate’ is a term sometimes used to designate someone with whom one has a feeling of deep and natural affinity, love, intimacy, sexuality, spirituality, and/or compatibility. A related concept is that of the twin flame or twin soul – which is thought to be the ultimate soulmate, the one and only other half of one’s soul, for which all souls are driven to find and join. However, not everyone who uses these terms intends them to carry such mystical connotations.”
As such, what makes a soulmate one is ambiguous and up to personal definition and usage of the term, while Buddhism neither teaches that there is any ‘soul’ (as all beings change), nor that there definitely someone ‘predestined’ in an ideal way for everyone, though there will always be karmic encounters with many kinds of people (in positive, negative and neutral ways, with varying intensities subject to change by our present attitude). The analysis is proposed to be done in an open-ended way with these reflective questions.
1. Why ‘must’ the ‘soulmate’ we imagine to have be of a preferred gender and appearance?
2. Why ‘must’ it be possible to literally mate with this ‘soulmate’?
3. Why ‘must’ our relationship with our ‘soulmate’ be both worldly and spiritual?
4. Is the above so because we wish to have the best of both worlds?
5. Is the above a reflection of worldly greed mixed with spiritual aspiration?
6. Does the above clash ideologically or can they be reconciled harmoniously?
7. Why do we not consider the Buddha our soulmate?
Whether we believe we have a ‘soulmate’ or not, it is our karma that decides whether we meet or deserve the ‘best’ partner we have in mind or not. Romantically linked or not, the most important relationship is spiritual friendship, which all kinds of relationships should work towards. (In a way, my full answer to the poll question is summarised in the first link below.
Related Articles:
Do You Have a ‘Soulmate’ Out There Waiting for You? (An Karmic Analysis)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thedailyenlightenment-realisation/message/215
Why Was There Tension ‘When Harry Met Sally’?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thedailyenlightenment-realisation/message/360
Ladies & Gentlemen!
https://moonpointer.com/new/2009/01/translation-ladies-gentlemen