Thought I'd share this perspective:

"It is quite apparent to the seeing mind that a man's spirit is something very different from his physical body.

"The spirit is changeless, indestructible. The progress and development of the soul, the joy and sorrow of the soul, are independent of the physical body.

"If we are caused joy or pain by a friend, if a love prove true or false, it is the soul that is affected. If our dear ones are far from us--it is the soul that grieves, and the grief or trouble of the soul may react on the body.

"Thus, when the spirit is fed with holy virtues, then is the body joyous; if the soul falls into sin, the body is in torment!

"When we find truth, constancy, fidelity, and love, we are happy; but if we meet with lying, faithlessness, and deceit, we are miserable.

"These are all things pertaining to the soul, and are not bodily ills. Thus, it is apparent that the soul, even as the body, has its own individuality. But if the body undergoes a change, the spirit need not be touched. When you break a glass on which the sun shines, the glass is broken, but the sun still shines! If a cage containing a bird is destroyed, the bird is unharmed! If a lamp is broken, the flame can still burn bright!

"The same thing applies to the spirit of man. Though death destroy his body, it has no power over his spirit--this is eternal, everlasting, both birthless and deathless.

"As to the soul of man after death, it remains in the degree of purity to which it has evolved during life in the physical body, and after it is freed from the body it remains plunged in the ocean of God's Mercy.

"From the moment the soul leaves the body and arrives in the Heavenly World, its evolution is spiritual, and that evolution is: The approaching unto God."

--from Baha'i writings