A Wisdom Archive on Action

World of Action.
 
See `ASIYYAH

 
(See also: World of Action, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

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Altruism (Latin). From alter = other. A quality opposed to egoism. Actions tending to do good to others, regardless of self.

 
(See also: Altruism, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

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Upadana-karana (Sanskrit) [from upadana material cause + karana causative action]
 
Causes arising into action because of upadana; in Vedantic philosophy, a proximate or a close cause. As explained by Subba Row, Brahman should not be regarded as upadana-karana in the sense that one may regard earth and water as the proximate cause of a pillar.

 
(See also: Upadana-karana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

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Rhetoric (from Greek ρήτωρ, rhêtôr, "orator") is one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar) in Western culture. In ancient and medieval times, grammar concerned itself with correct language use through the study and criticism of literary models, dialectic concerned itself with the testing and invention of new knowledge through a process of question and answer, and rhetoric concerned itself with persuasion in public and political settings such as assemblies and c ... Including:

• Rhetoric - History
• Rhetoric - Introduction
• Rhetoric - Ancient Greece
• Rhetoric - Roman rhetoricians
• Rhetoric - Rhetoric from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment
• Rhetoric - Modern developments
• Rhetoric - Current state of rhetorical study
• Rhetoric - Rhetorical remedies

Read more here: » Rhetoric: Encyclopedia - Rhetoric

Ulysses (Latin) Odysseus (Greek) Homeric hero who, because of his shrewdness and canny actions, has become a stock literary figure typifying cunning. His ten-year journey home from the Trojan War to Ithaca is told in the Odyssey. The story of his putting out the eye of the Cyclops is an esoteric allegory of the triumph of the oncoming fourth root-race, whose greater brain-mind cunning caused the atrophy of the third eye of the third root-race as typified by Polyphemus.

 
(See also: Ulysses, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

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Yana (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root ya to go]
 
Path, road, vehicle; there are two recognized paths of action in nature, the pratyeka-yana (the path of each one for himself) and the amrita-yana (the immortal vehicle or path of immortality). There are also two schools of philosophy in India using this term: the Hinayana (the lesser, inferior, or defective vehicle) and the Mahayana (the greater or superior vehicle).
 
This contrast is an exoteric rather than an esoteric one. It is a recognition of the fact that the religion of Gautama Buddha has separated into two general paths of action; but both the Hinayana and the Mahayana are recognized because known to possess each one its own particular value in training. The combination of the two is what one might call the esoteric path.
 
The Hinayana is that portion of the esoteric path in which the mystic traveler takes the lower passional and elemental sides of himself into strict discipline and self-control, the while following certain simple rules of day-to-day procedure; whereas the Mahayana aspect includes rather the training of the spiritual, intellectual, and higher psychic parts of the human constitution, such as is brought about by a profound study of philosophy, of the truths of nature, the mystical side of religion, and the higher parts of kosmic philosophy -- all these collected together around the heart of the Mahayana which is mystical study and aspiration.

 
(See also: Yana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

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Vicarious Atonement In Christian theology, the idea that God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as a substitution for the guilt incurred by man at the Fall, and that mankind will consequently escape punishment, provided that they accept by faith Jesus Christ''s sacrifice. The idea that by an atoning for evil done or sin committed, one undoes the past -- broadened by Christian theology to include the doctrine of the vicarious atonement by some great spiritual being for the sins of others -- is a theory rejected by the theosophic philosophy. To those who believe the Christian doctrine that every person was born into this world burdened with inevitable doom through Adam''s sin, such a compensatory doctrine seems to be necessary; but it discourages people''s faith in their own innate divinity and in their power thereby to effect their own spiritual and moral salvation, and violates our sense of justice by offering a way of avoiding the consequences of our own bad actions -- which avoidance of sin already incurred is distinctly denied in several places in the New Testament where the ancient theosophical doctrine of karma is taught that as a man sows, that (and not something else) must he invariably reap. Vicarious atonement may be a distorted doctrine of reconciliation, in Christian notion reconciliation between God and man; also of the idea that the spiritual monad in man takes on itself the consequences for actions or "sins" committed by the less evolved human monad. Every human being is raised by the sacrifice made by the Christos within himself, so that whoever believes in and conforms his acts to his own spiritual nature, is "saved."
 
See also AT-ONE-MENT

 
(See also: Vicarious Atonement, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

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