What is the difference between soul and spirit?

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(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!

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