Claim. The spirit self has its own sungsang and hyungsang (spirit mind and spirit body) made of spiritual elements, has the same appearance as the physical self, develops its sensibilities through relationship with the physical self during earthly life, and continues eternally in the spirit-world after the physical self is discarded.
Elaboration. Lee gives a compact but doctrinally dense account of the spirit self (A. Sungsang and Hyungsang). Three claims are bundled. (1) Substance dualism with formal resemblance: the spirit self is made of spiritual elements imperceptible to physical senses, yet ‘has an appearance no different from that of the physical self’ — a strong claim that the postmortem person is recognizably the same individual.
(2) Earth-life-as-formation: ‘the sensibilities of the spirit self develop on the basis of the physical self.’ The physical body is not merely a temporary container but the necessary substrate for the spirit self’s growth. This means earthly action has irreversible formative consequences. An individual who ‘practiced God’s love during life on earth’ enjoys a life of joy in the spirit world; one who committed evil acts ‘can not but experience a life of suffering after death.’ Postmortem state is determined by earthly cultivation, not by a forensic last-moment decision.
(3) Death as discarding: when the physical self dies, the spirit self ‘discards it — in much the same way as when we discard an article of clothing when it is old and worn out.’ The simile is significant: the physical self is instrument, not essence, but its prior contribution is already encoded in the now-mature spirit self.
This account collides with both materialist (no spirit self exists) and traditional Christian (resurrection of the body) positions. The UT view is closer to a Platonic/Pauline dualism in which earthly life is formative for an eternal spiritual subject. Critics typically engage on what ‘spiritual elements’ could mean ontologically and how the spirit self’s appearance is individuated without physical substrate.
See also. ut-layered-structure-of-sungsang-hyungsang, human-as-united-being-of-spirit-mind-and-physical-mind, spirit-world-cooperation-in-developing-talent