(Half-Bell)
(Bell)
(FRENCH) What is the difference between the soul and the spirit?
What is the difference between the soul and the spirit?
People have different ways of understanding.
The soul - (French) "la âme"
seems to be bigger than the spirit.
That is a feeling only
it may not be the truth
but when we hear the world soul - "la âme"
we feel that it is bigger
and a bit heavier than (French) "l'èsprit" - the spirit.
In Vietnamese we have two words,
not in Buddhism, but in Vietnamese,
we have two words:
"hồn" and "via"
"hồn" is the soul
and the Vietnamese believe there are three kinds of soul.
Three souls - "loại hồn"
Three kinds of soul.
It is very interesting because
in Buddhist psychology we have up to eight souls.
Eight consciousnesses.
The largest, the one on top is
is the store consciousness.
Then comes the seventh,
which is something like the self,
the awareness of the self,
and then comes the mind-consciousness,
and then ear, nose, tongue,
body consciousness, and so on.
Eight kinds of consciousness.
In Vietnam we believe, that there are
three souls.
And we have - seven (Vietnamese) "via"
"bảy hồn" - "bảy via"
For ladies they have nine "via" -
For gentlemen they have only seven "via"
You see like a vegetative soul
Very close to the body
And when someone dies, the three "hồn"
the three souls - they cease to exist
and then the seven "via" will slowly
come to a stand still.
"bảy hồn" - "bảy via"
And the via has a more vegetative nature,
closer to the body.
So the same may be true
with soul and spirit.
Spirit is lighter
and soul has more of a vegetative
element in it.
But usually we say that soul, or spirit
they are not the body.
And there is also a distinction
between body and soul.
Where the soul, or the spirit,
are not the body.
That is a dualistic way of looking
at the mind and body.
So we fall into the same kind of trap.
So it is not very useful to discuss,
the differences between the soul
and the spirit.
But it is important to notice that there
also is the notion that the body
and the soul are different,
body is different from soul
and body is different from spirit.
That approach is not close to the truth.
Because we are stil caught in the idea
that mind and body are two different things
that can be separated
from each other.
Very difficult questions!
(Half-bell)
(Bell)