A Wisdom Archive on Birth

Modern Christianity is divided on how much authority the Bible has in determining the life and belief of its adherents. Some Christians view the Bible as the only authoritative source of truth (a common view among Protestants), whereas others emphasise the tradition of the Church as also authoritative (particularly Roman Catholics and Orthodox). However, the tradition of the Church (e.g. the Nicene Creed), and the New Testament proclaim a belief in the Resurrection of the dead, which most liberal Christians would view as antithetical to noti ...

Read more here: » Bible and reincarnation: Encyclopedia II - Bible and reincarnation - Differences between conservative and liberal Christian views

Virgin Birth Often applied to any kind of reproduction which is not sexual, including that of human races before the separation of the sexes. In a mystical sense, it applies to some of the rites of initiation, where the candidate has to go through by an anticipatory process the experiences which mankind will live through in the course of the next two root-races. Among these was the experience of the mystical virgin birth. The corresponding fact concerning mankind of the future is, that there will be in due course of evolutionary time no more sexual birth, which will then have run its course and will have disappeared, but instead, reproduction will be by the power of kriyasakti: by thought and will.
 
The mystic Christ, by whatever name, is said to be virgin-born, as emanating from the higher nature of the individual, not engendered by the terrestrial nature. The symbol has often been materialized, so that the divine quickening or overshadowing of a human virgin, whether man or woman, is spoken of as being a virgin-born.

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

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Asava Samkhaya (Pali). The "finality of the stream", one of the six "Abhijnas" (q.v.). A phenomenal knowledge of the finality of the stream of life and the series of re-births.

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

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Apavarga (Sanskrit). Emancipation from repeated births.

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

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Upadana (Sanskrit) [from upa-ada to receive]
 
The act to taking or appropriating for oneself: in philosophy, the act of withdrawal, or receiving into the inner being, of the organs of sense from the outer world. In Buddhist literature the term is enlarged to signify the grasping at or clinging to existence caused by trishna (desire, thirst) causing bhava (new births); likewise the fourth of the twelve nidanas (bond, causes of existence), the chain of causation. In Vedantic philosophy, a cause, motive, or material cause of any kind; thus, when analyzed, the meaning is the same in Vedantic and Buddhist philosophies.

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

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Nazar (Hebrew, Jewish). One "set apart"; a temporary monastic class of celibates spoken of in the Old Testament, who married not, nor did they use wine during the time of their vow, and who wore their hair long, cutting it only at their initiation.
 
Paul must have belonged to this class of Initiates, for he himself tells the Galatians (i. x5) that he was separated or "set apart" from the moment of his birth ; and that he had his hair cut at Cenchrea, because "he had a vow" (Acts xviii.18), i.e., had been initiated as a Nazar; after which he became a " master-builder" (i Corinth. iii.10). Joseph is styled a Nazar (Gen. xlix. 26). Samson and Samuel were also Nazars, and many more.

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

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Tyndareus A king in Lacedaemon, expelled and received by King Thestios of Aetolia, by whose daughter Leda he becomes father of the Dioscuri or Tyndaridae, Castor and Pollux. In some accounts both these children are the offspring of Zeus, in others Pollux only, and in still others both are sons of Tyndareus. Most commonly Leda is considered the bride of both Zeus and Tyndareus, and the result of this double union was the birth of Polydeuces (or Pollux) and Helena, later Helen of Troy, who were the children of Zeus, and of Castor and Clytemnestra, the children of Tyndareus.
 
See also DIOSCURI

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Birth Dictionary