Body Dictionary

Buddha Nature

The following terms refer to the same thing: Self-Nature, True Nature, Original Nature, Dharma Nature, True Mark, True Mind, True Emptiness, True Thusness, Dharma Body, Original Face, Emptiness, Prajna, Nirvana, etc.

According to the Mahayana view, (buddha-nature) is the true, immutable, and eternal nature of all beings. Since all beings possess buddha-nature, it is possible for them to attain enlightenment and become a buddha, regardless of what level of existence they occupy ...

The answer to the question whether buddha-nature is immanent in beings is an essential determining factor for the association of a given school with Theravada or Mahayana, the two great currents within Buddhism.

In Theravada this notion is unknown; here the potential to become a buddha is not ascribed to every being.

By contrast the Mahayana sees the attainment of buddhahood as the highest goal; it can be attained through the inherent buddha-nature of every being through appropriate spiritual practice. (The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen.)

See also "Dharma Nature."

 (See also: Buddha Nature , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Atom atomos (Greek) Indivisible, individual, a unit; among the Greek Atomists what in theosophy is called a monad. Atomic theories of the constitution of the universe or of matter are many and ancient. In modern physics the atom is a small particle once thought indivisible, but now resolved into component units. In some philosophies, as that of Leibniz, the atoms (which he calls monads) are psychological rather than physical units -- unitary beings of diverse kinds and grades, composing the universe.

In theosophy, atoms have to be considered in relation to monads; in The Secret Doctrine gods, monads, and atoms are a triad like spirit, soul, and body. A monad is a divine-spiritual life-atom, a living being, evolving on its own plane, and a life-atom is the vehicle of the monad which ensouls it, and in turn ensouls a physical atom. The ultimates of nature are atoms on the material side, monads on the energic side; monads are indivisible, atoms divisible (a departure from the etymological meaning). Thus there is a quaternary of gods, monads, life-atoms, and physical atoms. "An atom may be compared to (and is for the Occultist) the seventh principle of a body or rather of a molecule.

The physical or chemical molecule is composed of an infinity of finer molecules and these in their turn of innumerable and still finer molecules. Take for instance a molecule of iron and so resolve it that it becomes non-molecular; it is then, at once transformed into one of its seven principles, viz., its astral body; the seventh of these is the atom. The analogy between a molecule of iron, before it is broken up, and this same molecule after resolution, is the same as that between a physical body before and after death. The principle remains minus the body. Of course this is occult alchemy, not modern chemistry" (TBL 84).

(See also: Atom, atomos , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

mudras:

mudras - muscular contractions that include the bandhas

(See also: mudras , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Brahma Viraj. (Sanskrit) The same: Brahma separating his body into two halves, male and female, creates in them Vach and Viraj. In plainer terms and esotericlly Brahma the Universe, differentiating, produced thereby material nature, Viraj, and spiritual intelligent Nature, Vach - which is the Logos of Deity or the manifested expression of the eternal divine Ideation.

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

Srichakra sricakra (Sanskrit) [from sri light, radiance + chakra wheel, mystical center or plexus]

A magical diagram or circle, exoterically supposed to represent the circle of the earth. When applied to man, an astrological division of the body representing the uterine or pubic region. Subba Row writes: "The Sreechakram referred to in 'Isis Unveiled' is not the real esoteric Sreechakram of the ancient adepts of Aryavarta"; to which Blavatsky adds: "Very true. But who would be allowed to give out the 'real esoteric one'?" (5 Years of Theosophy 156-7)

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

acharya:

acharya - a religious teacher

(See also: acharya , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

pancha-prana:

pancha-prana (-praana). Five vital airs of the human body.

(See also: pancha-prana , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

aham:

aham - I

(See also: aham , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Calvary Cross. This form of cross does not date from Christianity. It was known and used for mystical purposes, thousands of years before our era.

It formed part and parcel of the various Rituals, in Egypt and Greece, in Babylon and India, as well as in China, Mexico, and Peru. It is a cosmic, as well as a physiological (or phallic) symbol. That it existed among all the "heathen" nations is testified to by Tertullian. "How doth the Athenian Minerva differ from the body of a cross?" he queries. "The origin of your gods is derived from figures moulded on a cross.

All those rows of images on your standards are the appendages of crosses; those hangings on your banners are the robes of crosses." And the fiery champion was right. The tau or T is the most ancient of all forms, and the cross or the tat (q.v.) as ancient. The crux ansata, the cross with a handle, is in the hands of almost every god, including Baal and the Phœnician Astarte.

The croix cramponnée is the Indian Swastica. It has been exhumed from the lowest foundations of the ancient site of Troy, and it appears on Etruscan and Chaldean relics of antiquity. As Mrs. Jamieson shows: "The ankh of Egypt was the crutch of St. Anthony and the cross of St. Philip. The Labarum of Constantine . . . was an emblem long before, in Etruria. Osiris had the Labarum for his sign; Horus appears sometimes with the long Latin cross. T

he Greek pectoral cross is Egyptian. It was called by the Fathers the devil’s invention before Christ . The crux ansata is upon the old coins of Tarsus, as the Maltese upon the breast of an Assyrian king ...The cross of Calvary, so common in Europe, occurs on the breasts of mummies. . . it was suspended round the necks of sacred Serpents in Egypt. . . . Strange Asiatic tribes bringing tribute in Egypt are noticed with garments studded with crosses, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson dates this picture B.C. 1500." Finally, "Typhon, the Evil One, is chained by a cross".

(Eg. Belief and Mod. Thought).

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

Ahan (Sanskrit). "Day";the Body of Brahma, in the Puranas.

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

Yehidah (Hebrew) [from masculine yahid the one, the only, the unique from the verbal root yahad oneness, union; cognant with the Hebrew 'ehad one]

In the Qabbalah, the highest human principle, as being the unique or single and indivisible individuality of the constitution, and therefore corresponding to the spiritual monad. Blavatsky places this term in context of the entire person, as presented in the Qabbalistic system: yehidah is

"esoterically, the highest individuality or Atma-Buddhi-Manas, when united in one. . . . At the time of the conception, the Holy 'sends a d'yook-nah, or the phantom of a shadow image' like the face of a man. It is designed and sculptured in the divine tzelem, i.e., the shadow image of the Elohim. 'Elohim created man in his (their) tzelem' or image, says Genesis (i. 27). It is the tzelem that awaits the child and receives it at the moment of its conception, and this tzelem is our linga sharira. 'The rua'h forms with the Nephesh the actual personality of the man,' and also his individuality, or, as expressed by the Kabbalist, the combination of the two is called, if he (man) deserves it, Yeheedah.

This combination is that which the Theosophist calls the dual Manas, the higher and the Lower Ego, united to Atma-Buddhi and become one. For as explained in the Zohar (i., 205b, 206a, Brody Ed.): 'Neshamah, soul (Buddhi), comprises three degrees, and therefore she has three names, like the mystery above: that is, Nephesh, Rua'h, Neshamah,' or the Lower Manas, the Higher Ego, and Buddhi, the Divine Soul. 'It is also to be noted that the Neshamah has three divisions'; says Myer's Qabbalah, 'the highest is the Ye-hee-dah' -- or Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the latter once more as a unit; 'the middle principle is Hay-yah' -- or Buddhi and the dual Manas; 'and the last and third, the Neshamah, properly speaking' -- or Soul in general. 'They manifest themselves in Ma'hshabah, thought, Tzelem, phantom of the image, Zurath, prototypes (mayavic forms, or rupas), and the D'yooknah, shadow of the phantom image. The D'mooth, likeness or similitude (physical body), is a lower manifestation' (p. 392)" (TG 377-8; cf SD 2:633).

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

Naga (Sanskrit). Literally "Serpent". The name in the Indian Pantheon of the Serpent or Dragon Spirits, and of the inhabitants of Patala, hell. But as Patala means the antipodes, and was the name given to America by the ancients, who knew and visited that continent before Europe had ever heard of it, the term is probably akin to the Mexican Nagals the (now) sorcerers and medicine men.

The Nagas are the Burmese Nats, serpent-gods, or "dragon demons". In Esotericism, however, and as already stated, this is a nick-name for the "wise men" or adepts in China and Tibet, the "Dragons." are regarded as the titulary deities of the world, and of various spots on the earth, and the word is explained as meaning adepts, yogis, and narjols. The term has simply reference to their great knowledge and wisdom. This is also proven in the ancient Sutras and Buddha’s biographies.

The Naga is ever a wise man, endowed with extraordinary magic powers, in South and Central America as in India, in Chaldea as also in ancient Egypt. In China the "worship" of the Nagas was widespread, and it has become still more pronounced since Nagarjuna (the "great Naga", the "great adept" literally), the fourteenth Buddhist patriarch, visited China.

The "Nagas" are regarded by the Celestials as "the tutelary Spirits or gods of the five regions or the four points of the compass and the centre, as the guardians of the five lakes and four oceans" (Eitel). This, traced to its origin and translated esoterically, means that the five continents and their five root-races had always been under the guardianship of "terrestrial deities", i.e., Wise Adepts. The tradition that Nagas washed Gautama Buddha at his birth, protected him and guarded the relics of his body when dead, points again to the Nagas being only wise men, Arhats, and no monsters or Dragons. This is also corroborated by the innumerable stories of the conversion of Nagas to Buddhism.

The Naga of a lake in a forest near Rajagriha and many other "Dragons" were thus converted by Buddha to the good Law.

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

Hair. Occult philosophy considers the hair (whether human or animal) as the natural receptacle and retainer of the vital essence which often escapes with other emanations from the body. It is closely connected with many of the brain functions - for instance memory.

With the ancient Israelites the cutting of the hair and beard was a sign of defilement, and "the Lord said unto Moses. . . They shall not make baldness upon their head", etc. (Lev. XX1., 1-5.) "Baldness", whether natural or artificial, was a sign of calamity, punishment, or grief, as when Isaiah (iii., 24) enumerates, "instead of well-set hair baldness", among the evils that are ready to befall the chosen people. And again, "On all their heads baldness and every beard cut" (Ibid. xv., 2). The Nazarite was ordered to let his hair and beard grow, and never to permit a razor to touch them. With the Egyptians and Buddhists it was only the initiated priest or ascetic to whom life is a burden, who shaved.

 The Egyptian priest was supposed to have become master of his body, and hence shaved his head for cleanliness; yet the Hierophants wore their hair long. The Buddhist still shaves his head to this day - as sign of scorn for life and health. Yet Buddha, after shaving his hair when he first became a mendicant, let it grow again and is always represented with the top-knot of a Yogi. The Hindu priests and Brahmins, and almost all the castes, shave the rest of the head but leave a long lock to grow from the centre of the crown. The ascetics of India wear their hair long, and so do the war-like Sikhs, and almost all the Mongolian peoples. At Byzantium and Rhodes the shaving of the beard was prohibited by law, and in Sparta the cutting of the beard was a mark of slavery and servitude.

Among the Scandinavians, we are told, it was considered a disgrace, "a mark of infamy", to cut off the hair. The whole population of the island of Ceylon (the Buddhist Singhalese) wear their hair long.

So do the Russian, Greek and Armenian clergy, and monks. Jesus and the Apostles are always represented with their hair long, but fashion in Christendom proved stronger than Christianity, the old ecclesiastical rules (Constit. Apost. lib. I. C. 3) enjoining the clergy "to wear their hair and beards long" (See Riddle’s Ecclesiastical Antiquities.)

The ‘Templars were commanded to wear their beards long. Samson wore his hair long, and the biblical allegory shows that health and strength and the very life are connected with the length of the hair. If a cat is shaved it will die in nine cases out of ten. A dog whose coat is not interfered with lives longer and is more intelligent than one whose coat is shaven.

Many old people as they lose their hair lose much of their memory and become weaker. While the life of the Yogis is proverbially long, the Buddhist priests (of Ceylon and elsewhere) are not generally long-lived. Mussulmen shave their heads but wear their beards; and as their head is always covered, the danger is less.

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

Temple [from Latin templum, tempulum a small division from Greek, Latin tem to cut off, mark out]

Templum was a spot marked off for sacred purposes by the augur with his staff, and might be on the ground or in the sky, where it was a region designated for the observation of omens. This connects the idea with that of the celestial mansions or zodiacal signs. From being a mere marked-off spot, it gradually evolved into elaborate edifices, and it has also a figurative use, as when the body is called the temple of God or the earth is described as a temple. When a temple in ancient days was constructed by adepts for specific purposes, it became a center or receptacle of spiritual energies attracted and focused there; and from this arose the merely exoteric ideas, true in their origin but absurdly untrue today, that a consecrated portion of a temple or church was the Holy of Holies or the Seat of God, etc.

The temple then is the shrine of the divine presence, and as such plays a predominant role in all cults, appearing as a Holy of Holies, a tabernacle, etc., and with many elaborations and accessories, such as special chambers, images, sacred vessels, and the like. The word becomes equivalent to all those signifying the receptive side of universal nature, such as moon, ark, and womb. The object of making inner understanding and inner vision seem more real to the mere man, by constructing edifices consecrated to divine worship and designed to draw down divine presences, is one that can readily be understood, and which may be either an assistance or a drawback according to whether the spirit of the worshiper is less or more materialistic.

There is a suggestive connection with temple and tempus (Latin "time," from the same root), divided time as opposed to duration or undivided time.

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

Pythia or Pythoness (Ancient Greek). Modern dictionaries inform us that the term means one who delivered the oracles at the temple of Delphi, and "any female supposed to have the spirit of divination in her - a witch" (Webster).

This is neither true, just nor correct. On the authority of Iamblichus, Plutarch and others, a Pythia was a priestess chosen among the sensitives of the poorer classes, and placed in a temple where oracular powers were exercised. There she had a room secluded from all but the chief Hierophant and Seer, and once admitted, was, like a nun, lost to the world. Sitting on a tripod of brass placed over a fissure in the ground, through which arose intoxicating vapours, these subterranean exhalations, penetrating her whole system, produced the prophetic mania, in which abnormal state she delivered oracles. Aristophanes in Vestas " I., reg. 28, calls the Pythia ventriloqua vates or the "ventriloquial prophetess", on account of her stomach-voice.

The ancients placed the soul of man (the lower Manas) or his personal self-consciousness, in the pit of his stomach. We find in the fourth verse of the second Nabhanedishta hymn of the Brahmans: "Hear, 0 sons of the gods, one who speaks through his name (nabha), for he hails you in your dwellings!" This is a modern somnambulic phenomenon.

The navel was regarded in antiquity as "the circle of the sun", the seat of divine internal light. Therefore was the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, the city of Delphus, the womb or abdomen - while the seat of the temple was called the omphalos, navel. As well-known, a number of mesmerized subjects can read letters, hear, smell and see through that part of their body. In India there exists to this day a belief (also among the Parsis) that adepts have flames in their navels, which enlighten for them all darkness and unveil the spiritual world. It is called with the Zoroastrians the lamp of Deshtur or the "High Priest"; and the light or radiance of the Dikshita (the initiate) with the Hindus.

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

Iaho. Though this name is more fully treated under the word"Yaho" and "Iao", a few words of explanation will not be found amiss. Diodorus mentions that the God of Moses was Iao; but as the latter name denotes a "mystery god", it cannot therefore be confused with Iaho or Yaho (q.v.). The Samaritans pronounced it Iabe, Yahva, and the Jews Yaho, and then Jehovah, by change of Masoretic vowels, an elastic scheme by which any change may be indulged in. But "Jehovah" is a later invention and invocation, as originally the name was Jah, or Iacchos (Bacchus). Aristotle shows the ancient Arabs representing Iach (Iacchos) by a horse, i.e., the horse of the Sun (Dionysus), which followed the chariot on which Ahura Mazda, the god of the Heavens, daily rode.

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

Pleroma (Ancient Greek). "Fulness", a Gnostic term adopted to signify the divine world or Universal Soul. Space, developed and divided into a series of eons. The abode of the invisible gods. It has three degrees.

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

antara:

antara - within

(See also: antara , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Upadhi (Sanskrit) Limitation, peculiarity, disguise, vehicle; in theosophy, " 'that which stands forth following a model or pattern,' as a canvas, so to say, upon which the light from a projecting lantern plays. An 'upadhi' therefore, mystically speaking, is like a play of shadow and form, when compared with the ultimate Reality, which is the cause of this play of shadow and form. Man may be considered as being composed of three (or even four) essential upadhis or bases" (OG 178).

According to the classification of the Taraka-Raja-Yoga philosophy, man is divided into three upadhis which are synthesized by, and are the vehicle of, the highest principle or atman. These three upadhis are: karanopadhi, the upadhi of the causal or spiritual mind; sukshmopadhi, the upadhi of the higher and lower manas plus the astral vehicle and the life-essence combined with kama; and the sthulopadhi, the physical body, which thus is the general vehicle or upadhi of the six principles composing the human constitution.

Mulaprakriti (primordial physical matter) in Hindu philosophy is the upadhi or vehicle of every phenomenon, whether physical, mental, or psychic. "Matter is Eternal. It is the Upadhi (the physical basis) for the One infinite Universal Mind to build thereon its ideations" (SD 1:280). An upadhi, then, is the vehicle, carrier, or means by which a higher or superior energy of whatever plane is enabled to manifest its characteristics and qualities on the lower plane, out of the substance of which lower plane the upadhi is built.

Sometimes upadhi is interchangeable with vahana (vehicle); thus manas is spoken of as the upadhi or vahana of buddhi. But the more frequent use of upadhi is as a foundation or base. For instance, Blavatsky speaks of hydrogen as the upadhi of both air and water; and of akasa as the upadhi of divine thought. "Cosmic Ideation focussed in a principle or upadhi (basis) results as the consciousness of the individual Ego. Its manifestation varies with the degree of upadhi, e.g., through that known as Manas it wells up as Mind-Consciousness; through the more finely differentiated fabric (sixth state of matter) of the Buddhi resting on the experience of Manas as its basis -- as a stream of spiritual intuition" (SD 1:329n).

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

adhisthana:

adhisthana - seat, abode

(See also: adhisthana , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Upanishads: Books (of varying lengths) of the philosophical teachings of the ancient sages of India on the knowledge of Absolute Reality. The upanishads contain two major themes: (1) the individual self (atman) and the Supreme Self (Paramatman) are one in essence, and (2) the goal of life is the realization/manifestation of this unity, the realization of God (Brahman). There are eleven principal upanishads: Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitaryeya, Chandogya, Brihadaranyaka, and Svetashvatara, all of which were commented on by Shankara, thus setting the seal of authenticity on them.

(See also: Upanishads , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)