Physicists, and Taoist before them, would say that there are two worlds:

Manifestations (All Matter)
Mystery (Energy)

Energy can never be destroyed but only changes forms. Sound suspiciously like cultures definition of the spirit ehh. Nothing can exist w/o energy of some sort in the universe, yet energy must have a mass to attach itself to. The main split from the western religion's definition is that if you consider energy the "spirit" the universe, you would then have to accept that rocks have spirits,birds have spirits,heathens have spirits, as all these carbon forms contain some form of energy.