What is the difference between the mind and the spirit?

Personally, I've always just made the habit of associating the two--they've always been one and the same to me. I don't hold this as a conviction, but haven't been able to walk myself through other possibilities.

So, I'm curious. Do you see the mind and spirit as being separate? Why? Why not? I'd like to know what you guys think. Thanks

I see it as one on the same. The mind is the action of that spirit. When we die the body dies bit, we carry the popular belief that the spirit lives on in our case The Force. The mind is in our mind is our state of consciousness in whay we call life. The spirit is merely the mind after death the only thing we can truly hold on. However I often wonder why we do not remember past lives, ECT. But, we've heard of people claiming to have remembered.

For example my brother at 3 or 4 years old used to tell my mom and I "when I was big" and her tell us of things he'd done when he was big. My mom used to tell him, "Zachary...your a little boy that's not possible." But, he would insist he was and give us discrete details bit as he aged he begun to forget...it was odd.

When people speak of the "spirit" in any literal sense, I for one do not know what they are talking about and neither, it seems, do they. We already know there is no ghost in the machine, no kind of soul that both does what we'd expect of one and is actually real in any meaningful sense.
Personally, I don't quite understand what people mean by mind either, if they try and stress that it is separable from the body that produces it. In some usages it is a kind of umbrella term for a number of macroscopic behaviours of our brains, but why anyone assumes that it is anything more than that is a far greater mystery to me than its nature itself. By their own metric, their computer can - and often does - have a mind, and not just in a jestful sense of it seeming to disobey an inexperienced user, but exactly in the sense in which they'd say humans have minds. If those who fascinate themselves with that mystery insist that there is still a line that can be sensibly drawn between man and machine, that is the instance when they start talking of magical essences of the self that can potentially survive the death of the physical body whilst retaining some of its characteristics, to live on in some other form. We know that's nonsense. Not just as a matter of faith it is. It is rather a consequence of the single most robust non-analytic piece of knowledge we have ever thus far acquired.

Eleven wrote: For example my brother at 3 or 4 years old used to tell my mom and I "when I was big" and her tell us of things he'd done when he was big. My mom used to tell him, "Zachary...your a little boy that's not possible." But, he would insist he was and give us discrete details bit as he aged he begun to forget...it was odd.

That is indeed rather odd. I do still remember pretending to be a dolphin or a butterfly back when I was that age. Maybe, in contradiction to the single best understanding of nature we are likely to ever achieve, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, I did have past lives and was both of those things and my magical ghost now lives on in my human body. Or maybe I was just a little boy with an active fantasy who used to read and be read tales, watched cartoons, and just played around because he was a child. Who knows...

Are you more of a realistic person Glis? I'm curious to as of what you believe.

This is from my own practice and my own belief. Every one may differ. Probably will!
My mind is the vessel in which my spirit can dwell. My mind is often times the reason or the hard evidence of things in my life. Cold facts or stored info like for actual instance - what do other believe and how they believe. What is their fav color or how they take their tea. My spirit would be my actions or the link between knowledge and application. They why of things at times and the frequency’s of things. My mind is where I store things. My spirit is where some times my feelings come from. Each of us uses things differently and that’s understandable. This is just the tip of a large idea. I could give a definition or a googled post but nahhh as I learn I apply as I apply- I learn. My spirit and mind can be separate or at times one. Kinna strange how some times I can’t even tell where some ideas or feelings come from some days and some I can
Pin point to the exact moment and place. The mind and the soul are very much a part of the human - “seek” for years and years so ... there are lists and lists of books and lectures and ideas and ways to help guide one in any direction. What do you think?!

I would say, the mind might simply refer to the phenomenon of human consciousness and perception. Spirit, I think, refers to the combined resulting state of mental, physical and emotional being as influenced by our responses to our surroundings and circumstances. As in "He is in high spirits today, after having finished his marathon.", or "She is not in the spirit to celebrate her graduation since her mother has passed away". Not something we necessarily "possess" but simply something that describes an accumulated condition at any given time.

Gist hit the nail on the head here. Before any of us can really talk about mind or spirit those things really need to be defined. What do you mean, exactly, by mind and spirit? How do you define them?

To make a point to what Carlos said in mind is where you store things and spirit is where feelings come from. Where are those places? Are they physical or not physical and if they are simply physical then we just call that brain and body also possessing the colloquial terms mind and spirit. But those things did not exist before our conception and they will not exist after our death. Meaning they carry no such thing as "past lives" and they do not travel to some supernatural "place" after the body dies.

If such things exist I would ask, how do they interact with the physical world? If these things are immaterial and not "things" by what mechanism do they manipulate the physical body? It seems much more likely that mind is simply a perceived emergent property of brain and that spirit is a perceived emergent property of body and that's all they are... simply interpretation of experience.

This is from my OWN practice and I can not speak for any one but myself.

To make a point to what Carlos said in mind is where you store things and spirit is where feelings come from. Where are those places?
Are they physical or not physical and if they are simply physical then we just call that brain and body also possessing the colloquial terms mind and spirit. But those things did not exist before our conception and they will not exist after our death. Meaning they carry no such thing as "past lives" and they do not travel to some supernatural "place" after the body dies.


I believe in my mind and my spirit.

I believe they exist.

I have take the time and effort to meditate and review and find and define theses things for myself. It’s still an ongoing process till I die and figure it all out in whole and probably even then - I’ll just be just as confused and still in the dark to those mysteries. I’m fine with that.

If such things exist I would ask, how do they interact with the physical world? If these things are immaterial and not "things" by what mechanism do they manipulate the physical body?

Are you asking for your yourself ? Do you have an answer for your own practice and path?


It seems much more likely that mind is simply a perceived emergent property of brain and that spirit is a perceived emergent property of body and that's all they are... simply interpretation of experience.

That’s kinna neat. A formulation of the brain? A result of a common category?

Carlos.Martinez3 wrote:
If such things exist I would ask, how do they interact with the physical world? If these things are immaterial and not "things" by what mechanism do they manipulate the physical body?

Are you asking for your yourself ? Do you have an answer for your own practice and path?

No, I was actually asking you what you believe, or anyone else for that matter, that is interested in this discussion.

I would say that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain and that spirit (the experience of life) is an emergent property of body. In this sense mind cannot exist without brain and spirit cannot exist without body. All energy needs something to ground itself. It just does not float free. Now granted some forms of energy are mass less but that is also an understood property of quantum mechanics still based in a carrier particle. So I see no means for that which is ME, being capable of continuing on after physical death nor do I see any means by which some esoteric so called energy field, called mind or spirit or The Force, that has no detectable physical component, could interact with the physical reality of our universe.

Eleven wrote: Are you more of a realistic person Glis [sic]? I'm curious to as of what you believe.

What do you mean by "realistic" here? I have tried to express what I believe with regard to the question posed here in post #338183 above, with more detailed and elaborate expositions of my stance in other moderately recent threads on similar questions (specifically one about souls comes to mind). Perhaps if you would narrow your inquiry down somewhat I could provide a more satisfactory answer. If it'd be veering too far off topic and you'd rather open a new thread for it, I will try and respond to it. If you wish for my answer in particular rather than a public discussion, do feel free to PM me as well...