Nefesh

Nefesh refers to soul but originally this word meant throat.  It is all about the Spirit.  The Spirit does not so much infuse the soul while bypassing the body, but rather each breath brings the Spirit to flood the throat and pass into the blood.  Originally Spirit is seen as animating the body/soul.  We are all one.  We can feel this sometimes after we mediatate.  We feel energized.  When religion got down on the body, the focus became Spirit going into Soul.  Bodies are just sources of sin and degradation.  Christians seemed to forget that the Incarnation was about God taking on a body.  One of the early heresies, one that had no use for the body, denied that God really took on a body since divinity and humanity could not mix.  We mix.  You are divine.  Too bad most of us don’t know this, much less enjoy the energy of it.  I have a friend who takes early morning bike rides to her meditation site.  Then she is the energizer bunny the rest of the day.  I meditate in the early morning too.  Then I need a nap.