Spirit

:For other uses of the term spirit, see Spirit (disambiguation).

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The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning breath. In religion and spirituality, the respiration of the human being has for obvious reasons been strongly linked with the very occurrence of life. A similar significance has been attributed to human blood. Spirit has thus evolved to denote that which separates a living body from a corpse, but can be used metaphorically (she performed the piece with spirit or she put up a spirited defence) where it is a synonym for such words as 'vivacity'.

Related Topics:
Latin - Religion - Spirituality - Respiration - Blood

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In its religious context it has attained a number of meanings:

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• a ghost, daemon or sprite
• The nature and essential substance of human souls, through which each is connected to all others, and by the experience of such connection is a primary basis for spiritual belief. In theological terms, a "spirit" (singular lowercase) is the deepest part of the soul of man, and the transmitting organ by which human beings can contact God.
• "The Spirit" (singular uppercase) refers to the concept that all connected "spirits" form or are a part of a greater unity, which has both an identity separate from its elements and a consciousness and intellect greater than its elements.

In Western theology, it is referred to as the Holy Spirit, referring to a Triune God (Trinity): "The result of God reaching to man by the Father as the source, the Son as the course ("the Way"), and through the Spirit as the transmission."

Related Topics:
Theology - Holy Spirit - Triune God - Trinity - The Father - The Son - The Way

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In more general spiritualistic terms, it refers to an ultimate, unified, non-dual awareness or force of life combining or transcending all individual souls or individual units of consciousness.

Related Topics:
Spiritualistic - Force - Life

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The term spirit has been used in this sense by at least Anthroposophy, Aurobindo, A Course In Miracles, Hegel, and Ken Wilber. In this use, the term is conceptually identical to Plotinus's "One" and Friedrich Schelling's "Absolute." Similar to Greek pneuma and Sanskrit akasha. See soul for a more detailed description.

Related Topics:
Anthroposophy - Aurobindo - A Course In Miracles - Hegel - Ken Wilber - Plotinus's - Friedrich Schelling's - Akasha - Soul

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Spirit: God as Spirit, or spirit as part of God? ►