The issue of the difference between soul and spirit applies to all religions. From the point of view of Christianity, man is threefold. It consists of body, soul and spirit. As for the function of the first, everything is clear with him. But not every priest is capable of explaining the difference between spirit and soul. Nevertheless, in general, the majority agree that the spirit in us is from God, and the soul is what constitutes the human personality that dwells in the body.
What do the Vedantist and Buddhist doctrines say about this?
Agreeing on substance, but not on name, Vedantist and Buddhist doctrines postulate that the statement about the dwelling of the soul in the body will be incorrect. It would be more correct to say about a certain interaction of three natures: physical, mental and spiritual.
You should try to realize this deeply. Speaking of the incarnation or descent of the spirit, one should not take these phrases literally and endow the terms with ontological status. There is no "descent" of the spirit into the body in three-dimensional space-time! Each nature exists in its own conditions and on its own plane. A fish cannot breathe air, and a person cannot live under water. Likewise, a spirit cannot leave its plane of existence. He dwells only on his own plane and in his sphere and, moreover, does not go anywhere, but simply changes his state. This change occurs through interaction with two other natures, which are similarly in their realms. The physical body dwells on the physical plane and nowhere else, except for it, can have conditions for existence. The same is true for the psychic plane.
So, the immortal spirit, which is a wanderer in Eternity, gradually individualizes into an independent spiritual being, which, together with the Universe, has phases of day and night. The same individual night comes for a spiritual entity after each birth in the dense world. She reaps the quintessence of the accumulated experience gained during the incarnation. This period is a dream before a new "day" - incarnation.
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What happens when the Higher Ego is about to be born?
The Higher Ego cannot be literally born. It leads its existence on the spiritual plane and belongs to this plane by its nature. The physical body is not a bottle to bottle the spirit into. The Higher Ego only changes its State, and not the plane of existence! This is the first thing that must be realized in order to move from popular ideas about this topic to a deeper understanding.
The Higher Ego is too pure and divine to directly influence the physical body. The distance between the plans is too great to act without an intermediary. It is precisely such a mediator that psychic nature, or what is commonly called "soul", is. The soul perceives the influence of the spirit and directly affects the body. Unfortunately, this influence is not always positive.
With gratitude to read, Andrey Vl.
