What is the human spirit. What is the difference between spirit and soul. Different types of souls. "Emptying the Mind" and the Holy Spirit

In many situations, “spirit” and “soul” turn out to be synonymous, but despite this, the concepts represent different components of one person’s personality. For this reason, it is advisable to understand what the difference is.

The concepts of “soul” and “spirit”

The soul is an immaterial entity that must be contained in the human body. In each case, the soul is assumed to govern the life and actions of the individual. It is required not only for life, but also for understanding the world around us. If there is no soul, there will be no life.

Spirit is highest degree the nature of any person, which paves the way to the Lord. The spirit allows a person to be placed above everyone else in the hierarchy of living beings.

Soul and spirit: comparison of concepts

What is the difference between soul and spirit?

The soul is the main vector of any person’s life, because it is she who connects the individual and the world around him, allowing desires and feelings to manifest. The actions of the soul can be feeling, desirable and thinking, but in each case the emergence of a thought process, emotionality, and a desire to achieve any goal is assumed.

Spirit is a vertical guide, which allows a person to strive for God. Actions depend on the fear of God, thirst for Him and conscience.

Any animated object can have a soul, but a person cannot possess a spirit. Life begins only because the soul allows the spirit to penetrate the physical forms of life, and then go through the process of improvement. The soul can be received at conception or birth (opinions regarding the moment of its appearance vary among theologians). The Spirit can only be received after passing numerous tests and the onset of sincere repentance.

The soul must animate human body, penetrating it to the fullest. Thus, a person must have a soul and a body, the soul being the essence. During whole life the body continues to be animated. However, after death, a person cannot see, feel, or speak, despite the fact that he still has all the senses. The absence of a soul leads to the inactivity of all senses, as a result of which life ceases and knowledge of the world around us turns out to be an impossible process.

The spirit cannot belong to a person by his natural nature. For this reason, he is able to leave the body and then return. The spirit can revive the soul, contribute to the active development of any person, but cannot signal human death.

The soul can be sick even if physical health is complete. This happens if a person’s desires and circumstances are not aligned. The spirit is always deprived of any sensations, therefore it cannot feel or experience any emotions.

The spirit is only the immaterial component of any person, but at the same time a close connection with the soul is assumed, since it is he who represents the highest side of the development of each person. The soul can be not only immaterial, but also material, because it has close contact with the knowledge of the world, the actions of the body, emotions and desires.

Among the sensory spheres of any person’s life is a strong craving for sin. The soul may obey the body, resulting in a sad encounter with sin. The spirit must personify only Divine beauty and lay the foundation for the development of the soul, purification of thoughts, the emergence of selflessness in character, sincerity in feelings. The soul cannot have any influence on the human spirit.

What is the difference between soul and spirit: theses

The soul presupposes a person’s connection with the world around him, the spirit presupposes aspiration to God.
Any living creature can have a soul, including pets, wild animals, birds and reptiles. Only man can have the spirit.
The soul must revive the human body and provide the opportunity to understand the world around us and the possibility of active activity. The spirit must be personified by the soul.
The soul is always given at the birth of a person or other living being. The Spirit can only be received through sincere repentance.
The spirit is responsible for the mind, the soul is responsible for the feelings and emotional component of a person.
The soul may experience physical suffering, the spirit is not ready for any sensory, emotional sensations or experiences.
The spirit is immaterial, therefore only contact with the soul is assumed. At the same time, the soul can be connected with the spirit and body of a person.
A person can control the soul, but any power over the spirit is completely absent.
The soul faces the risk of encountering sin. The spirit must contain Divine grace, therefore any contact with sin is successfully prevented.

Levels of soul development

A young soul can be compared to an animal: a person is controlled by instinct and finds himself absorbed in the struggle for life. There is no mental, cultural development, or the ability to evaluate oneself.
The educational class of the soul is represented by people of not very high culture, but with certain interests.
At the next level, the desire for culture and art, spiritual development, deepening of morality, and the emergence of morality is manifested.
At the highest level of the soul there is the possibility of working for evolution and profound influence on the history of all mankind.

By developing the soul, each person becomes a full-fledged personality.

Everything in the world is a manifestation of the divine triune principle. Spirit, soul and body are three unified elements of all things: be it a plant, an animal, a person or a cosmic body.

Energy, in contact with matter, gives rise to interaction, the essence of which is life. All living things are alive only by this constant movement. Metabolic processes occur non-stop in cells. Electrons revolve around atomic nuclei. Planets move around their suns. It is impossible to imagine life without this movement, just as it is impossible to imagine that the movement would suddenly stop.

Spirit

The entire Universe was created by spiritual creative energy. And this spiritual energy is the love of the Creator. As St. Luke wrote in his time:

“Love cannot be contained within itself, for its main property is the need to be poured out on someone and something, and this need led to God’s creation of the world.”
Luka Voino-Yasenetsky

Spirit is the divine fire pouring out from the Primary Source and breathing life into a frozen form. And just as energy cannot exist at rest, so the nature of the spirit is eternal movement. The spirit is immortal, just as energy is immortal.

Energy is converted into matter, matter is converted into energy. Energy never disappears, but only changes its form. Therefore, the divine spirit is everywhere and in everything. It is not without reason that in many traditions God has been likened to the Sun, which gives life to everything on earth. Plants use the energy of photons emitted by the Sun to build their own chemical bonds. Using the example of the plant world, we clearly see how energy, merging with material form, gives birth to life. The same energy of light, undergoing multiple transformations, passes through the entire hierarchical chain of the natural world, creating on its way a riotous variety of species. And in everything, absolutely everything, movement does not stop for a moment. This is how presence of mind manifests itself.

A photon of light can be absorbed by an electron, changing the state of the latter - bringing it to a new energy level. But one day, the electron will return to its original position and release the captured photon. The death of a physical form is not the end at all, but only another transformation of life-giving energy, when the spirit leaves its temporary container and returns to the original world of light. The body will one day return to where it came from - into the bosom of nature, and the spirit, which is energy, will again gain freedom and freely flow to where a new incarnation awaits it.

When the spirit leaves the body, matter crumbles into bricks: atoms and quanta. Only presence of mind can unite these bricks into a single system. The system is observed in everything: both in the Micro- and Macrocosm. An atom, a cell, an organism, a solar system—all these are systems. different levels reality. Together they form a hierarchy of worlds.

Spirit is present on all levels. Movement is a sign of presence of mind. In the world of physics there is such a movement. expressed by the energy of the quantum. In a free state, energy manifests itself, for example, as a stream of photons of light. In the “captured” state, the quantum transfers its energy to the electron, forming a magnetic field around an even denser nucleus. The death of the physical means the release of quantum energy in the form of photons of light or an electromagnetic field.

Graphic representation of an atom: the nucleus inside and the electromagnetic field around

Soul

The soul is born at the meeting of the divine spark and the material form - spirit and body. She moves as nonstop as all living things. And its path is by default directed towards development and evolution. The souls of living beings, step by step, go through a long path of rebirth, so that each time they become more complex and improved, one day they will be born in human form.

Yes, everything has a soul. But only the human soul, as the pinnacle of evolution of the biological world, is endowed with complete freedom to choose its path. Choice is the highest gift of the Creator. And it is precisely the possibility of self-determination that makes us like God.

If a person had no choice, there would be no evil, suffering and lies. But then there would be no individuality and creativity. For for everyone there would be only one way. Life would be like a strict algorithm of actions. Such a life would have no meaning and would be similar to the life of biorobots who do not ask themselves questions, do not think, do not feel, do not analyze, but simply do what is set by someone’s built-in program.

In truth, the above is already quite similar to the modern world. After all, many people do not use their opportunity to choose. But despite this, everyone has a multidimensional structure called a soul. And everyone has the power to direct their soul towards the path of evolution.

Symbolic representation of the subtle structure of the soul

Body

The body is only a temporary container for the finer structures of the human essence. Some classify it as a mortal body of the soul, while others call it only an instrument of the soul on the path of evolution. Both are true. But at the same time, it is worth remembering that spirit, soul and body are inseparable as long as a person is a person. Without a body, we will not be able to interact with the material world. But without spirit and soul, the body turns to dust.

Yes, the physical form is only a reflection of the soul, and it is not eternal. But those who belittle the importance of preserving the bodily shell throughout life are wrong. The body was given to us by Mother Earth so that we have the opportunity to gain experience in her world, necessary for the evolution of our soul. And a careless attitude towards your body is the same violation as a carelessness towards the subtle world. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with taking care of your body. On the contrary, it is important and necessary. You should keep him clean, give him proper rest and listen to his wishes. After all, many desires come from instincts that are given to us for the purpose of survival in the world of matter. Ignoring instincts can lead to undesirable consequences, just like following too much instinctual impulses alone. Remember, life is a constant search for the golden mean. And our incarnation in the world of matter is a training ground where souls, through trial and error, learn to find their middle path.

Physical form is a reflection of the soul, the extreme degree of materialization of the subtle in the dense.

Spirit, soul and body make up every individual unit of the world: be it an atom, an animal, a person or a planet. All living things are consciousness. Some units of consciousness have gone further in their development, some less. After all, from the level of the planet, it may seem that a person is like a microparticle with electrons rotating around the nucleus.

Only these three elements of the universe together organize the movement of life, manifested in development and improvement. One would not exist without the other. After all, light is visible only when it has something to reflect from.

Tatiana asks
Answered by Alexandra Lanz, 02/21/2013

Question: “You say that when a person dies, he sleeps until the second coming, where is his SPIRIT, does he also die if the body is dead?
If body-soul = spirit"

Peace to you, Tatyana!

Please be careful with the words, otherwise there will be confusion.

When we think about man (and not about other thinking creatures of God), we see this picture:

breath from God - this is spirit person . When a person dies, breathing, i.e. ability to live, act, think, feel, be indignant, love, hate... returns to God.

The Spirit of God created me, and the breath of the Almighty gave me life.
And Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of life; and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him.
Who can challenge me? For I will soon fall silent and give up the ghost.
Do not trust in princes, in the son of man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, and he returns to his land: on that day his thoughts disappear
Man has no power over the spirit to hold the spirit, and he has no power over the day of death
And the dust will return to the earth as it was; and the spirit returned to God, who gave it.
Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up the ghost.
Suddenly she fell at his feet and gave up the ghost. And the young men entered and found her dead, and carried her out and buried her next to her husband.

Breath, or the human spirit, is like the wind, like the energy of life. This is NOT a person's personality, but simply the God-given ability of the heart to pump blood through the veins, the ability of the diaphragm to rise and fall as we inhale and exhale, and the ability of the physical body to function, feeling, thinking, making decisions.

Many places in the Bible where the word "spirit" is used in relation to a person, it is easily replaced by the phrase “ability to live.”

Sincerely,

Sasha.

Read more on the topic “Interpretation of Scripture”:

The human personality is holistic and consists of body, soul and spirit. These components are united and interpenetrating. The Bible clearly distinguishes between the concepts of “spirit” and “soul.” However, this one of the most important theological questions remains closed to the common man. Even in religious literature, the concepts of “spirit” and “soul” are often confused, which leads to many perplexities and ambiguities.

Definition

Soul- the intangible essence of a person contained in his body, the vital motor. The body begins to live with it, and through it it learns about the world around it. No soul - no life.

Spirit- the highest degree of human nature, attracting and leading a person to God. It is the presence of spirit that places a person above all in the hierarchy of living beings.

Comparison

The soul is a horizontal vector human life, the connection of the individual with the world, the area of lusts and feelings. Its actions are divided into three directions: feeling, desirable and thinking. These are all thoughts, feelings, emotions, the desire to achieve something, strive for something, make a choice between antagonistic concepts, everything that a person lives with. The spirit is a vertical guideline, a desire for God. The actions of the spirit are aimed exclusively at things above: the fear of God, His thirst and conscience.

All inspired objects have a soul. Man does not own the spirit. The soul helps the spirit to penetrate physical forms of life in order to improve them. A person is endowed with a soul at birth or, as some theologians believe, at conception. The spirit is sent at the moment of repentance.

The soul animates the body. How does blood penetrate into all cells? human body, so the soul permeates the whole body. That is, a person possesses it, just as he possesses a body. She is his essence. While a person is alive, the soul does not leave the body. When he dies, he no longer sees, feels, or speaks, although he has all the senses, but they are inactive because there is no soul.

The spirit does not belong to man by nature. He can leave it and return. His departure does not mean the death of a person. The Spirit gives life to the soul.

The soul is what hurts when there is no reason for physical pain (the body is healthy). This happens when a person’s desires run counter to circumstances. The spirit is deprived of such sensory sensations.

Spirit is an exclusively immaterial part of a person. But it is inextricably linked with the soul. According to the holy fathers, the spirit constitutes its highest side. However, the soul also refers to the material part of a person, since it is inextricably linked with the body.

One of the sensory spheres of human life is the craving for sin. While obeying the body, the soul may be stained with sin. The spirit knows the beauty of the Divine. Acting on the soul, it directs it towards ideality: it purifies thoughts, awakens the desire for selflessness, and attracts feelings to elegance. The soul is not able to influence the spirit.

Conclusions website

The soul connects a person with the world, the spirit directs him to God.
All living beings have a soul; only humans have a spirit.
The soul animates the body, the spirit – the soul.
The soul is sent at the moment of birth, the spirit - at the time of repentance.
The spirit is responsible for the mind, the soul for the feelings.
Man has a soul, but does not have power over the spirit.
The soul can experience physical suffering, the spirit is deprived of sensory sensations.
The spirit is immaterial, it is connected only with the soul. The soul is inextricably linked with both the spirit and the body.
The soul can be stained by sin. The Spirit contains Divine grace and does not come into contact with sin.

In philosophy, spirit is understood as an ideal unifying principle that imparts integrity, inner strength, and creative potential to the spiritual world of a person or any community of people (for example, the “spirit of the people”). According to N. Berdyaev, the spirit is the Divine principle in man, expressed in love, justice, duty, freedom, creativity. Soul is the deep inner world of a person, connected with his body, spiritualizing his bodily potency. According to Plato, D. contains three unequal components: the highest - the rational principle, the middle - the volitional and the lower, most of all committed to the body - the lustful.

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

SPIRIT and SOUL

religious and philosophical concepts meaning immaterial principles, in contrast to the material. Man relatively easily cognizes the material shell of created nature, but he does not have easy external access to the essences of spirit and soul, which often causes, for example, among materialists and positivists, the temptation to deny the existence of these hidden worlds. What is more valuable is what is less accessible, material needs are sooner or later satisfied, but a person is never satiated with spiritual quests, and therefore tends to become a universal being. Ancient ideas about the spirit (atman, pneuma, spiritus, ruch) and soul (prana, psyche, anime, nefse) were associated with the process of breathing; the soul was associated with inhalation, and spirit with exhalation. It was believed that each thing has its own soul, capable of moving in space and entering other bodies and influencing them; The doctrines of eidos, ideas, images, and the reflection of the world by man go back to this view.

The philosophical ontology of soul and spirit operates with the following significant differences. The soul is connected with a specific whole (body), be it a separate creature or the corporeality of all nature (world soul), and after the death of the body the soul remains in a particularly light body - in the “soma pneumaticus”, “astral body”, etc. The spirit free from specific incarnations and omnipresent, easily penetrates everywhere and just as easily goes beyond any border; therefore, he is capable of reaching the heights of the universe (i.e., being perfect), creating any ultimate integrity and introducing into each individual existing being the experience of participation (meaning) in any other being. The soul retains the project and internal form of its body, its systemic properties, only sometimes (according to some teachings) leaving its abode for a short time. The spirit is always restless, changeable, lingers in few places and creates more and more new definitions. The soul is imperfect and limited, but the spirit is perfect and unlimited. The soul is created by the spirit, but the spirit is eternal and uncreated. True, Christians believe that the ranks of ministering spirits were created by the Absolute Spirit, God. At the same time, the soul and spirit have common features: they are identical in their absolute nature, are divided into lower and higher categories, and are not observable “from the outside.” The spirit is usually spoken of as “being” (unconditional, open, free, without boundaries, the abyss of being); the connected existence of the soul is expressed by the concept of existence, that is, “being-between” flesh and spirit. Without receiving life-giving impulses of the spirit for a long time, the soul withers and falls out of the general structure of being; on the contrary, being fertilized by the spirit, the soul blossoms, opens and improves. Thus, the relationship between the existence of the spirit and the existence of the soul can be specified by the concepts of spirituality and lack of spirituality of the soul. Spirituality is the fertilization of the soul with spirit and a constant craving for the heights of existence. Lack of spirituality is the separation of the soul from the spirit, the closure of the soul’s abilities on the activities of servicing its bodily shell and preserving the achieved life form. Lack of spirituality can be associated either with the underdevelopment of the soul’s craving for spiritual existence, or with fatigue in overcoming the inertia of existence and egoism. Alternative judgments about the mortality and immortality of the soul go back to the same archetypal idea that with the death of the body the soul loses its function of ensuring the integrity of the individual: a) either the death of the body causes a qualitative reorientation of the soul to stay in the “soma pneumaticus”, b) or the loss The main function of servicing the body is the death of the soul. The teachings about the mortality of the soul are based on attributing only a bodily function to the soul, while the teachings about the immortality of the soul recognize the bodily and spiritual functions and interpret the soul as a moment of the Absolute Spirit temporarily bound by the flesh. The currently reviving hylozoistic views on the structure of the soul (“there are mineral, vegetable, sensitive and rational souls”) actualize the problem of the simplicity and complexity of the soul. If the soul is simple, has no parts, then it has nothing to disintegrate into, it is immortal and can disappear only by the will of God. But in this case, it cannot become more complicated and improved, and almost nothing can be said about its attributes. If the soul is complex, then its structure is consonant with the structure of the corresponding bodies. For example, the human body is made up of atoms and molecules, cells and organs, a nervous system and a brain; These parts are associated with mineral, plant, sensitive and rational soulfulness. Ideas about the complexity of the soul are generalized in two concepts of the human soul - the concept of the hierarchy of the mineral, plant, animal and rational levels of the soul and the concept of the human soul as an emergent, i.e., a unique new quality that arose from the mutual understanding of all these levels.

In accordance with the first concept, the human soul differs from the souls of minerals, plants and animals only in its highest (reasonable) level. According to the second concept, the human soul is simple as a single quality and has only the properties (facets, but not levels) of reflection, irritability, sensitivity and rationality.

Pagan beliefs about four souls within each person are the archetype of modern teachings about the evolution of forms of reflection and the posthumous fate of the soul. If the soul is complex, then after the death of the flesh, the integrity of which it exercised, it gradually and consistently disintegrates, and the previous connection between its levels or facets is destroyed: the mineral soul goes along with the dust into the kingdom of minerals, the plant and animal souls remain close to plants and animals or inhabit them, and the rational soul ascends to God. This process is calculated in time frames: “after the third day,” “ninth day,” “fortieth day.” So, judgments about the immortality and mortality of the soul, its reincarnation and purification from lower components, about the uniqueness and plurality of its parts only outwardly exclude each other, because they have different logical foundations; Essentially, these judgments are variations on the same theme about the quantity and relationship of the properties and functions of the soul. Likewise, the idea of reincarnation of the soul and the idea of improving the unique soul of each person are not mutually exclusive. In both cases, we are talking about a change in the soul and its bodily shell: a) in the same body, the “I” (soul) improves or degrades, b) the “I” remains identical to itself in periodically changing flesh. The cells of our body are periodically renewed; the individual lives first in the womb, then, dying for intrauterine life, is born as an independent organism and, finally, dies as such in order to be born in the corporeality “soma pneumaticus”, transparent to other souls; the reincarnation of the soul in the forms of plants, animals or other people is obliged (according to Hinduism and Buddhism) to the law of retribution - all these interpretations of the idea of reincarnation (reincarnation, metempsychosis) are variants of judgment about the variability of the soul and flesh.

The soul is described either as devoid of metrics, or as residing in the heart, brain, blood, lungs (breathing), or living in all the nooks and crannies of the body (i.e., as a total attribute of the body). From the differences in these descriptions follow differences in the understanding of the nature of the cohesion of the soul and flesh into a single whole (the body). From one point of view, the soul is weakly connected with the flesh, is easily vulnerable, fearful, “withdraws into itself,” it can be stolen, lost, etc. From another point of view, the soul is the principle of the body and not for a moment ceases to perform its vital function; it does not “rush out” and does not leave the body throughout the individual’s earthly life. The problem of harmony between soul and flesh inside the body has the following basic solutions: a) the flesh owns the soul, b) the soul owns the flesh as its weapon, c) the soul and flesh are symmetrically interconnected in the body. The question about the posthumous presence of the soul is answered in different ways: “that light” is far away - overseas, on an island, under water, underground, in heaven, in heaven or hell, in the world of extra-spatial absolute ideas or in the sphere of the “abyss of spiritual existence” .

The Absolute Spirit creates the ranks of service spirits. Spirits exude energy, and, thanks to their actions, the universe is not a dead mechanism, but an infinite living organism with a world soul. Good and supportive spirits are called angels, ascended saints, great bodhisattvas, kami, etc., even house spirits. Fallen angels, or evil spirits, like good spirits, have their own hierarchy, can harm a person and often appear before people under the guise of good angels. Secular medicine arose from the cult of expelling evil spirits from sick people. Not every spirit deserves trust and expresses the true fullness of being, goodness and goodness. Therefore, spirituality (i.e., the presence of one or another spirit in a person’s soul) can be true or false, good or evil. It is wrong to admire “spirituality in general” and always put only a positive meaning into this concept. For example, possession by an evil spirit is not lack of spirituality, but an ugly, false and evil spirituality, replacing love of God with attraction to a false ideal of the fullness of being or substance. Some spirits are described as making mistakes, pursuing selfish goals, deceitful and misleading people. Many Scriptures therefore condemn occult practice, that is, obtaining knowledge from mediums, sorcerers, witches, astrologers and other people who penetrate into the world of ministering spirits - after all, it may happen that these people entered into communication with the spirits of the underworld and were deceived, mistaking them for spirits of goodness. Christianity and Islam teach that spirits must be tested by comparing one's own desires and actions with the requirements of the Revealed Scriptures.

There are two main models of the connection between soul and spirit in the human body: a) a person consists of soul and flesh; b) man is threefold, spirit, soul and flesh are linked in him. Proponents of the first model bring together the concepts of spirit and soul, interpreting spirit as the rational part of the human soul. Those who separate spirit and soul contrast the “spiritual man” with the “spiritual (carnal) man.” According to the first model, developed spirituality is the ability to acquire empirical information, control the body, engage in intellectual activity and possess the skills of speculation; spirituality is developed soulfulness. At the same time, not everyone agrees with the convergence of the intellect and the spirit and proposes to distinguish between the spiritual and the spiritual in religion, art, science, philosophy and other forms of relationship with the world. According to the second model, human soulfulness is ensured by such forms as bodily sensuality, emotionality, will and intellect; spirituality is associated with the development of conscience, intuition and the ability to mystically dwell in certain layers of spiritual existence. Al. Paul, who most fully substantiated the triadic model of man, taught that often the development of a person’s sensory, will and reason, conditioned by the carnal function of the soul, prevents the formation in the same individual " spiritual person". Flesh is the house and mirror of the soul, and the soul is the house and mirror of the spirit. The soul without the gift of the spirit is incapable of intuition, mystical co-presence, remorse, because it is focused on bodily functions. Bodily death occurs from the severing of the connection between the soul and the flesh, spiritual death - from the cessation of the connection between soul and spirit; a person can be alive spiritually, but dead spiritually because of the sin that separates him from God.

Incomplete definition ↓