Body, Mind, and Spirit?

The more I investigate the concept of spirit in Western civilization, the more I learn how confused we Westerners are about spirit.

We're not confused about what our body is. We're not confused about what our mind is. I'm not saying that we know all there is to know about our body and mind. Far from it. We have much more to learn.

I'm saying something less or perhaps more profound, depending on how we look at it. I'm saying that in general we Westerners know what we're referring to when we use the words "body" and "mind." However, we do not know what we're referring to when we use the word "spirit." We have no general consensus on the meaning of the word "spirit." We're confused.

Why is that? What does it say about us Westerners that we know what we're referring to when we use the words "body" and "mind" but not when we use the word "spirit?"

Could it be that our lack of a general consensus on what the word "spirit" means is a symptom of how little we value spirit? We value our body and mind. We know what "body" and "mind" refer to. We have accumulated a significant amount of knowledge about our body over millennia. Over the last hundred years or so we have also learned a lot about our minds. 

What about our spirit? Does it not make sense that if we valued our spirit, we would have a general consensus on the meaning of the word? Does it not make sense that if we truly valued our spirit we would know at least as much about it as we do our mind?

I value the spirit and humans and all living beings. I believe others do too. It is time to attend to our spirit. It is time to do the hard work of creating a general consensus about the meaning of the word "spirit", and to devote ourselves to learning all we can about it.