What's the difference between "soul" and "spirit"?

Tagged:

Words intending to describe spiritual concepts don’t have absolute meanings. You have to define the words before you can really use them for the purpose of a discussion. I can tell you what I think of when I see these words, but I can’t give you any universals.

I think of the soul as that which connects a person to their counterpart in a realm that I call the Unmanifest. The counterpart could also be called a soul. It could also be called a Higher Self. Point is, in order to enable reincarnation, something has to tie a person’s being from body to body. That thing is a soul.

I generally disbelieve in non-physical beings. Not that they can’t exist, just that even if they did, they’re easy to ignore. They’re immaterial, in more ways than one. Spirit to me is a kind of energy. We all have access to God-energy, some people like to call that spirit. It has a neat little ring to it. I just call it energy and leave it at that.

The self is a weird one, which I generally spend the most time on of the three. Trying to put a boundary on the concept is tricky. Wants, wishes, desires, level of spiritual growth, identity, consciousness, mind, all of these things belong in the concept. Keep thinking and you’ll find more. Inside the subconcepts themselves there’s a lot of stuff to think about. One’s soul and spirit can also be considered part. What about the Higher Self? Different ways to look at it.