Spirit
The English word spirit (from Latin spiritus "breath") has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance. It is distinguished from Latin anima, "soul." In Greek, this distinction exists between pneuma (πνευμα), "breath, motile air, spirit," and psyche (psykhē, ψυχη), "soul."
In the Theosophical view, spirit is a manifestation of the One Principle beyond the range and reach of thought, the Absolute. Spirit, as well as matter, are just aspects of this Principle, though they appear to our perception as being different. In one of his letters, Mahatma K.H. wrote to A. O. Hume:
The conception of matter and spirit as entirely distinct, and both eternal could certainly never have entered my head, however little I may know of them, for it is one of the elementary and fundamental doctrines of Occultism that the two are one, and are distinct but in their respective manifestations, and only in the limited perceptions of the world of senses.[1]
General description
In the Theosophical literature "spirit" usually refers to ātman or sometimes to the dual Monad ātma-buddhi and less frequently even the higher triad ātma-buddhi-manas. Below, some definitions:
Spirit (in the sense of the Absolute, and therefore, indivisible ALL), or Atma. As this can neither be located nor limited in philosophy, being simply that which is in Eternity, and which cannot be absent from even the tiniest geometrical or mathematical point of the universe of matter or substance, it ought not to be called, in truth, a "human" principle at all. Rather, and at best, it is in Metaphysics, that point in space which the human Monad and its vehicle man occupy for the period of every life. Now that point is as imaginary as man himself, and in reality is an illusion, a maya.[2]
Spirit or LIFE is indivisible. And when we speak of the seventh principle it is neither quality nor quantity nor yet form that are meant, but rather the space occupied in that ocean of spirit.[3]
Difference between Soul and Spirit
According to Master K. H., Mme. Blavatsky was the first one in modern times to point out the difference between Soul and Spirit. He wrote to A. P. Sinnett:
[At the beginning of the Theosophical Society] neither Christians nor Spiritualists ever thought of, let alone mentioned, more than two principles in man — body and Soul, which they called Spirit. If you had time to refer to the spiritualistic literature of that day, you would find that with the phenomenalists as with the Christians, Soul and Spirit were synonymous. It was H.P.B., who, acting under the orders of Atrya (one whom you do not know) was the first to explain in the Spiritualist the difference there was between psyche and nous, nefesh and ruach — Soul and Spirit. She had to bring the whole arsenal of proofs with her, quotations from Paul and Plato, from Plutarch and James, etc. before the Spiritualists admitted that the theosophists were right.[4]
Online resources
Articles
- Spirit at Theosopedia
Notes
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 90 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), ???.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy, (London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1987), 119.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 44 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 121.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 81 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 246.