Pratyeka-yana (Sanskrit) [from prati towards, for + eka one + yana vehicle, path]

The path of each one for himself, or the personal vehicle or ego, equivalent to the Pali pachcheka. Fully self-conscious being cannot ever be achieved by following the path for oneself, but solely by following the amrita-yana (immortal vehicle) or the path of self-consciousness in immortality, the spiritual path to a nirvana of high degree, the secret path as taught by the heart doctrine. The pratyeka-yana is the pathway of the personality, the vegetative or material path to a nirvana of a low degree, the open path, as taught by the eye doctrine. These two terms describe two kinds of advancement towards more spiritual things, and the two ultimate goals thereof: the amrita-yana of the Buddhas of Compassion, and the pratyeka-yana of the Pratyeka Buddhas.

Although advancing steadily in spirituality and upwards towards a lower nirvana, and therefore evolving on a path which is not only not harmful to humanity and others, but in a sense is even passively beneficial, the Pratyeka Buddha, precisely because his thoughts are involved in spiritual freedom and benefits for himself, is really enwrapped in a spiritual selfishness; and hence in the intuitive, albeit popular, consideration of Northern Buddhism is called by such names as the Solitary or the Rhinoceros -- applied in contrast to the Buddhas of Compassion, whose entire effort is to merge the individual into the universal, to expand their sympathies to include all that is, to follow the path of immortality (amrita), which is self-identification without loss of individuality with all that is.

When the sacrifice of the lower personal and inferior self, with all its hoard of selfish thought and impulses, for the sake of bringing into full and unfettered activity the ineffable glorious faculties and powers and functions of the higher nature -- not for the purpose of selfish personal advancement, but in order to become a helper of all that is -- the consequence is that as time passes, the disciple so living and dedicating himself finds himself becoming the very incarnation of his inner divinity. He becomes, as it were, a man-god on earth. This, however, is not the objective, for holding such an objective as the goal to be attained would be in itself a proof that selfishness still abides in the nature.

Abstractly, of course, pratyeka-yana can be used for sorcerers and the path of the Brothers of the Shadow, but such is not usual. Obviously the path of sorcery is a pratyeka path in the strictly logical sense. The path of the sorcerers is called the left-hand path, the path of darkness or of the shadows, the downward path, and is sometimes described by the term pratyeka-yana.

Actually, the path of the shadows and the path towards the light stretch in opposite directions; yet the ultimate goal of both is a nirvana. The path upwards, whether of the amrita or of the pratyeka, leads to the nirvana of spirit -- the amrita ultimately being far higher than that of the pratyeka; whereas the downward path of the Brothers of the Shadow leads also to a nirvana, but to enchainment in the avichi-nirvana of absolute matter for that hierarchy.

(See also: Pratyeka-yana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Capricornus (Latin) The 10th sign of the Zodiac (Makara in Sanskrit), considered, on account of its hidden meaning, the most important among the constellations of the mysterious Zodiac. it is fully described in the Secret Doctrine, and therefore needs but a few words more.

Whether, agreeably with exoteric statements, Capricornus was related in any way to the wet-nurse Amalthea who fed Jupiter with her milk, or whether it was the god Pan who changed himself into a goat and left his impress upon the sidereal records, matters little. Each of the fables has its significance.

Everything in Nature is intimately correlated to the rest, and therefore the students of ancient lore will not be too much surprised when told that even the seven steps taken in the direction of every one of the four points of the compass, or  - 28 steps - taken by the new-born infant Buddha, are closely related to the 28 stars of the constellation of Capricornus.

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

Treatise on the Treasure Vehicle of Buddhahood, The

(Skt.: Ratnagotravibhaga-mahayanottaratantra-shastra; Chin.: Chiu-ching-i-ch'eng-pao-hsing-lun; Jpn.: Kukyo-ichijo-hosho-ron)

A work by Saramati, a Mahayana scholar of India, translated into Chinese in the sixth century by Ratnamati. It asserts that all beings possess the "matrix of the Thus Come One" (Skt tathagata-garbha, also called the matrix of the Tathagata) or the Buddha nature, and that even icchantikas, persons of incorrigible disbelief, can attain Buddhahood eventually. This treatise is generally thought to have been written sometime around the end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century. Tibetan tradition attributes the verses of this work to Maitreya and commentaries on them to Asanga. Maitreya and Asanga were also Mahayana scholars.

(See also: Treatise on the Treasure Vehicle of Buddhahood, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Ten-brel Chug-nyi rTen-hBrel hchu-gnis (Tibetan) In philosophy, the twelve interdependent contributories to the origination of all phenomena, equivalent to the Sanskrit nidanas. As each one of these twelve originants or causes is dependent upon its predecessor, from which it is emanated, owing to a process of reaction the predecessor is karmically also dependent for its manifestation on its successor, and thus the twelve are not simultaneous in origination but occur in a certain regular sequence; because of this inseparable interdependence they also of necessity coordinate in action.

They are rendered in the Pratitya-samutpada as: 1) ma-rig-pa (Sanskrit avidya) nonwisdom; 2) hDu-bYed (Sanskrit samskara) aggregative forces; 3) rNam-Ches (Sanskrit vijnana) will, consciousness; 4) rMin-gZugs (Sanskrit nama-rupa) name-form; 5) Skye-mched (Sanskrit shadayatana) the six sense organs; 6) sparsa (Sanskrit sparsa) contact (for mind or senses); 7) tShor-ba (Sanskrit vedana) feeling; 8) sRed-pa (Sanskrit trishna) desire, thirst; 9) len-pa (Sanskrit upadana) sensual enthrallment; 10) sird-pa (Sanskrit bhava) being; 11) che-ba (Sanskrit jati) birth; and 12) rGa (Sanskrit jaramarana) old age and death.

Ten-brel chung-nyi is the Tibetan expression of the causal relations inherent in and affecting peregrinating monads, which bring about manifestation in successive imbodiments; this Buddhist teaching shows a somewhat more elaborate philosophical development in the Tibetan doctrine than elsewhere. Freedom from the entangling relations affecting consciousness is to be found by an earnest and strict following of the Four Noble Truths leading into the Noble Eightfold Path; yet the essence of the religion of the buddhas is in the words of Gautama Buddha: "To cease from all evil or wrong doing; to become enamored of virtue; to cleanse one's own heart or nature -- here is the religion of the Buddhas."

See also NIDANA

(See also: Ten-brel Chug-nyi, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

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)

Trees of Life. From the highest antiquity trees were connected with the gods and mystical forces in nature.

Every nation had its sacred tree, with its peculiar characteristics and attributes based on natural, and also occasionally on occult properties, as expounded in the esoteric teachings. Thus the peepul or Ashvattha of India, the abode of Pitris (elementals in fact) of a lower order, became the Bo-tree or ficus religiosa of the Buddhists the world over, since Gautama Buddha reached the highest knowledge and Nirvana under such a tree. The ash tree, Yggdrasil, is the world-tree of the Norsemen or Scandinavians.

The banyan tree is the symbol of spirit and matter, descending to the earth, striking root, and then re-ascending heavenward again. The triple-leaved palasa is a symbol of the triple essence in the Universe - Spirit, Soul, Matter.

The dark cypress was the world-tree of Mexico, and is now with the Christians and Mahomedans the emblem of death, of peace and rest. The fir was held sacred in Egypt, and its cone was carried in religious processions, though now it has almost disappeared from the land of the mummies; so also was the sycamore, the tamarisk, the palm and the vine.

The sycamore was the Tree of Life in Egypt, and also in Assyria. It was sacred to Hathor at Heliopolis; and is now sacred in the same place to the Virgin Mary. Its juice was precious by virtue of its occult powers, as the Soma is with Brahmans, and Haoma with the Parsis. " The fruit and sap of the Tree of Life bestow immortality." A large volume might be written upon these sacred trees of antiquity, the reverence for some of which has survived to this day, without exhausting the subject.

(See also: Trees of Life, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Seven The fundamental number of manifestation, frequently found in the different cosmogonies as well as in many religious dogmas and observances of the different ancient peoples.

Although ten was called one of the perfect numbers by the Pythagoreans, seven was unique in their series of numbers because it has all the "perfection of the Unit -- the number of numbers. For as absolute unity is uncreated, and impartite (hence number-less) and no number can produce it, so is the seven: no digit contained within the decade can beget or produce it" (SD 2:582). Seven is the number of the manifested universe, while ten or twelve is the number of the unmanifested universe.

Pythagoras taught that seven was composed of the numbers three and four, explaining that "on the plane of the noumenal world, the triangle was, as the first conception of the manifested Deity, its image: 'Father-Mother-Son'; and the Quaternary, the perfect number, was the noumenal, ideal root of all numbers and things on the physical plane" (ibid.). Further, seven was called by the Pythogoreans the vehicle of life for it consisted of body and spirit: the body was held to consist of four principal elements, while the spirit was in manifestation triple, comprising the monad, intellect or essential reason, and mind.

There are innumerable instances of sevening -- the seven days of the week, the seven colors of the spectrum, the seven notes of the musical scale -- while special emphasis is placed upon the seven human and cosmic principles; the seven senses (five senses now in manifestation and two more to be attained in the future through evolutionary unfolding); the seven cosmic elements; the seven root-races and seven subraces; the seven kingdoms, human and below; the seven rounds; the seven lokas and talas; the seven manifested globes of the planetary chain; the seven sacred planets; the seven racial buddhas; the seven dhyani-bodhisattvas and -buddhas; the seven Logoi; etc.

Man as well as nature is called saptaparna (seven-leaved plant), symbolized by the triangle above the square {illust}. While the senary was applied to man in all ranges from the physical to the spiritual, when completed by the atman, thus making the septenary, the latter signified the entire range of the constitution, whether of man or nature, crowned by the immortal spirit.

In Hindu literature the number seven continually appears: the saptarshis (the seven sages), the seven superior and inferior worlds, the seven hosts of deities, the seven holy cities, the seven holy islands, seas, or mountains, the seven deserts, the seven sacred trees, etc. In Greece seven was often connected with the gods and goddesses: Mars had seven attendants, seven was sacred to Pallas Athene and to Phoebus Apollo -- the latter with his seven-stringed lyre playing hymns to septenary nature as well as to the seven-rayed sun; Niobe's seven sons and seven daughters, etc.

Apart from mythological considerations, in physical life manifestations of the number seven occur continuously: "if the mysterious Septenary Cycle is a law in nature, and it is one, as proven; if it is found controlling the evolution and involution (or death) in the realms of entomology, ichthyology and ornithology, as in the Kingdoms of the Animal, mammalia and man -- why cannot it be present and acting in Kosmos, in general, in its natural (though occult) divisions of time, races, and mental development?" (SD 2:623n).

Seven is indeed the sacred number of life, and with the circle and the cross it forms a triad of primordial symbols of the ancient wisdom.

(See also: Seven, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Cosmocratores Kosmokratores (Greek) (from kosmos world + kratores lords)

World lords; it occurs in Orphic literature, and in the New Testament Paul uses it of evil powers. In theosophy it is applied to the planetary regents who fabricated the solar system and who were hierarchically superior to the ones who fabricated our material earth (SD 2:23).

The word is especially used in reference to three principal groups, corresponding to similar groups of dhyan-chohans and lipikas. The first group rebuilds worlds after pralaya, the second builds our planetary chain, and the third are the progenitors of humanity.

Collectively they are the formative Logos, grouped under various names among different peoples, such as Osiris, Brahma-prajapati, Elohim, Adam-Qadmon, and Ormuzd. Again, "the Ases of Scandinavia, the rulers of the world which preceded ours, whose name means literally the 'pillars of the world,' its 'supports,' are thus identical with the Greek Cosmocratores, the 'Seven Workmen or Rectors' of Pymander, the seven Rishis and Pitris of India, the seven Chaldean gods and seven evil spirits, the seven Kabalistic Sephiroth synthesized by the upper triad, and even the seven Planetary Spirits of the Christian mystics" (SD 2:97). Following the plan of divine ideation they fashion systems out of primordial material, called aether, ilus, protyle, etc.

The cosmocratores, as the Masons of the World, work in the vehicular or matter side of nature and receive the impress for their work from the hierarchy that works in the spirit side, the dhyani-buddhas or architects.

In another aspect the cosmocratores relate to the genii or rectors of the seven sacred planets, and stand as the world-builders of the earth planetary chain.

(See also: Cosmocratores, Kosmokratores, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bacchus (Greek) Used by both Greeks and Romans, also called Dionysos by the Greeks, Liber by the Romans, Zagreus in the Orphic mysteries, Sabazius in Phrygia and Thrace; the same as Iacchus (connected with Iao and Jehovah).

Generally represented as the son of Zeus and Semele, he is spoken of sometimes as a solar and sometimes as a lunar deity; for, like many other personifications of cosmic powers, he has both a solar and lunar (masculine or feminine) aspect. As a solar deity he has a serpent for his symbol and is a man-savior, parallel with Adonis, Osiris, Krishna, Buddha, and Christos. He is often called the god of wine, natural fertility, etc.

The original, pure Bacchic rites pertained to high initiation, in which the candidate becomes conscious of his oneness with divinity. Thus Bacchus, with his symbolic serpent and wine, stands for divine inspiration. But when the keys of the sacred science were lost and symbols were interpreted literally, the rites degenerated and often became profligate.

Bacchus-Dionysos also figures as the inspirer of dramatic and representative art, inspiring the individual with the divine afflatus or mystic frenzy. Originally this meant the inner communion of the candidate with his own inner god and the consequent inspiration; on a lower plane it signifies the fleeting inspiration of poet and artist, and finally it degenerated into hysteria and morbid psychic states.

(See also: Bacchus, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Tulku sprul sku (Tibetan) [short for sprul pa'i sku (tul-pe-ku) from sprul pa phantom, disembodied spirit; cf Sanskrit nirmanakaya body of magical transformation]

Applied to a lama of high rank, often to the head abbot of a monastery; specifically, to those lamas who have proved their ability of remembering their office and standing in a former incarnation, e.g., by selecting articles belonging previously to themselves, describing details of a former life, surroundings, etc. The two most important tulkus in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy are the Tashi and Dalai Lamas. Tulku is often referred to as an incarnation but, outside of the many varieties of an incarnating or imbodying power or energy, incarnation in popular usage is the direct continuance of a previous imbodiment. These so-called living buddhas of Tibet are one kind of tulku -- the transmission of a spiritual power or energy from one Buddha-lama of a Tibetan monastery when he dies, to a child or adult successor. If the transmission is successful, the result is tulku.

Tulku is of many different kinds and very closely parallels the Hindu doctrine of avatara. Taking Jesus as an example: here was a life-long tulku, a ray from a divinity; a tulku of that divinity so far as that ray goes, a divine manifestation, and hence a true avatara in the Brahmanical sense. Again, Gautama Buddha was tulku of his own inner buddha or inner god. The average person, however, is merely overshadowed occasionally, if he really aspires, by a touch of the divine flame from within the higher parts of his own constitution, and yet even for these fugitive instants such person is tulku. But when Gautama attained buddhahood, he was relatively infilled with his own inner buddha, and therefore was that god's human tulku. That was for Siddhartha the man, nirvana; he then entered dharmakaya and this portion of him was then known of men no more: that portion of him was a man become divine.

Another kind of tulku is where a human mahatma will send a ray from himself, or a part of himself, to take imbodiment, perhaps only temporarily, perhaps almost for a lifetime, in a neophyte-messenger that this mahatma is sending out into the world to teach. The messenger in this instance acts as a transmitter of the spiritual and divine powers of the mahatma. Blavatsky was such a tulku, imbodying frequently the very life of, and hence guided by, her own teacher. While this incarnation of the teacher's higher essence lasted, she was tulku. When for one reason or another the influence or ray was withdrawn for a longer or shorter period, tulku then and there became nonexistent.

Still another aspect of the tulku doctrine is illustrated by the case of Blavatsky. Where is she now? Blavatsky has not yet again reincarnated -- she has not yet been born as a child -- but she has at certain times, and for one certain individual, with that individual's consent, organized as it were tulku for that individual. For the time being, therefore, we can say that Blavatsky has partially imbodied in that chosen individual for the purpose of special transmission. In all cases of tulku, they are incarnations or appearances. If Blavatsky, for instance, were to make tulku of a person for a month or a year, for the time being that person would be tulku, but when that particular work was done, the influence would be withdrawn and tulku would stop.

There is again another kind of avataric incarnation or tulku, a temporary physical appearance of an adept in the mayavi-rupa. Certain Tibetan lamas are known to be able to perform this feat, and thus they too have been properly called tulkus, which is the type of tulku that certain Orientalists have referred to as "an appearance."

Another type of tulku of an opposite and essentially evil character is that brought about by a hypnotist who temporarily displaces the psychological nature of his entranced subject through psychologization or even hypnosis plus mesmerism. This, however, is more often than not an act of black magic and fraught with grave dangers, both to the hypnotist and the one entranced. Every clever hypnotist actually makes a tulku of his victim in a black magic sense. When he puts an idea into the brain of his victim, that one week from now at three o'clock in the afternoon he is going to do some essentially foolish or undignified act -- for the time being that hypnotist is working a black magic tulku on that victim, and every psychologist and hypnotist knows the possibility of this fact, though the scientific explanation of the term may be strange to him. A key example of black magic tulku was what the medieval Europeans used to call werewolves. This doctrine of the tulku, however, is at heart beautiful and sublime, and hence highly reverenced by the Tibetans.

(See also: Tulku, sprul sku, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Predestination The doctrine that God has foreordained everything; specifically, that God has foreordained what people shall be saved and what damned. Reprobation is used in reference to those foreordained to be damned, and election is used for those who are to be saved.

Endless sectarian disputes have prevailed as to whether or not the salvation offered by Christ provides a way of escape from the doom of reprobation; and the eternal dilemma as to free will has never ceased to perplex the minds of theologians. How to permit free will to enter into the picture without derogating from the authority of God, how to attribute plenary power to God without destroying free will; how to find a modus vivendi or ingenious sophism by which the contraries may be reconciled -- these matters may be found discussed in theological treatises on the subject.

The problem of cosmic law or processes in connection with the existence of human free will arises in the form of the apparent antagonism of free will with law, but in the theosophical view, free will is an intrinsic example of cosmic law in the particular, and hence there is no possibility of alleging any antagonism with one part of nature, man, with another part of nature, the remainder to the universe, for the twain are throughout but one. What rules the whole must necessarily rule the part; and what the part contains as an individual in nature must be found likewise in nature.

If one bear in mind the hierarchical system on which nature is constructed -- one life, one intelligence, and hence one plan ruling throughout all the hierarchical branches, and yet every hierarchical branch containing in its inmost essence all free action within the confines of its field -- one sees that there is no reconciliation needed between free will of individuals in any part of boundless nature and the common life, vitality, or intelligence which permeate the All. The difficulty arises in exoteric theological systems which from the beginning envisage a will in man wrongly supposed to be disjunct or different from the spiritual cosmic laws founded in the cosmic intelligence. A person uses his free will as much in refraining as acting -- in other words, we cannot help using our free will. Neither can we help acting in accordance with the laws of our own nature and the laws of the universe in which we find ourselves.

The difficulty lies in the misuse of the adjective free, which is apparently understood to mean a will free from the cosmic unity, and all too often envisaged as running more or less wild if not contrary to the cosmic structure. Man is but a child of the universe, and is so in all his parts, but precisely because the part must contain everything that exists in the whole, therefore there is in man and in every other entity, an inseparable union with the cosmic root.

Reluctance by man to acknowledge and to perform in his life the silent mandates of cosmic law induces the varieties of evil, disharmony, and even disease with which human life is all too often cursed; and the way to freedom, spiritual peace, wisdom, and love is by subordinating the individual human will to harmony with the divine. In such cases man becomes a Buddha or Christ, a conscious and willing instrument of divinity.

(See also: Predestination, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Red Caps, Red Hats, Red Hoods Often applied, especially by Europeans to the adherents of the Unreformed Buddhist sects, called in Tibet the Ning-ma-pas, who wear red robes and hoods.

This sect was founded in Tibet in the latter part of the 8th century during the reign of the Tibetan king Ti-song De-tsen, who was so impressed with the precepts of Buddhism that he summoned Padmasambhava from Udyayana in Northwest India to spread the religion of the Buddha in Tibet. But by this time the Buddhism of Northwest India and Nepal had become infected with tantric practices, and these practices predominated in Tibet until the great reformer Tsong-kha-pa (born 1358) founded the order of the Gelukpas or Yellow Caps.

Padmasambhava, called in Tibet Guru Rimpoche or Padma-jungne, is even today one of the patron saints of Tibet and the chief guru of the Red Caps -- his image occupying the place of honor on all the altars of this sect, which he founded in 749.

Mme. David-Neel writes: "the Lamas who belong to the Yellow Cap Sects acknowledge the superiority of their brethren in the various Red Cap Sects in all questions more or less connected with magic and occult science" (My Journey to Lhasa 181). This is a misinterpretation; there has always been a traditional antagonism between the reformed and unreformed sects, each sect having more or less contempt for the beliefs and practices of the other; yet each sect nevertheless holding the other in some respect and paying such deference as is in either case properly due. The Red Cap sects are very largely given over to tantric and other magical practices often partaking of sorcery.

The tantric element predominating in this sect is wholly foreign to the pure teachings of Gautama Buddha. It is the higher, more educated, and the initiates of the Yellow Cap body who condemn these practices, although acknowledging their existence and efficacy in use: yet, it is the reformed body which is the true exponent of genuine occult sayings and spiritual magic, in no wise verging upon sorcery, necromancy, or similar modes of thought. Mme. David-Neel's acquaintance was very largely among the frontier tribes and sects, where she would naturally have a better acquaintance with the practices of the Red Cap body than with those of the extremely reserved and reticent Yellow Caps.

See also GELUKPAS

(See also: Red Caps, Red Hats, Red Hoods, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

LIFE -

1. energetic property of all living beings including mountains, rivers and valleys.

2. the passage of energy through changing forms.

3. consciousness awareness, the eternal play of freely creating and erasing images. (Michio Kushi)

4. infinitely amusing and wonderful adventure with awareness of absolute justice. (George Ohsawa)

5. the capacity for self-motion.

6. living system characterized by a comprehensive unity, incessant activity, the capacity to grow and develop its own parts increasing differentiation through time, the power of regeneration and repair, the ability to transform other materials into itself, the initiation of natural action from within and the ability to reproduce itself.

7 a self-organizing system characterized by an actively sustain low entropy and things bounded by walls, membranes, skin or waxy coverings; using energy directly from the sun and indirectly from food, incessantly acting to maintain their identity and integrity; even as they grow, change and reproduce and which do not lose their visibility, recognizable entities. (Lovelock)

8. sorrow (Buddha)

9. the ability to move upstream against the flow of time. (Schrodinger)

10. carbon fresh activated maintained by a genetic code. (modern view) (NAD)

(See also: LIFE, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Shadows Everything on earth is the shadow or reflection of its prototype in superior and inner spheres; more generally, matter is the shadow of spirit; our sun is the central sun's shadow. The human linga-sarira (model-body) is called the shadow-body, and similarly the astral light is called the shadow of cosmic substance, both representing the nether pole of their respective higher counterparts.

The Gnostics, speaking of good and evil, said that shadow is what enables light to manifest itself by giving to light objective reality; it is the necessary corollary which completes light or good -- their creator on earth. Every deity has its accompanying dark aspect of shadow, frequently called its veil, sheath, of vehicle.

In the plural, used of the first root-race, a chhaya (shadow), reflection, or vehicle of the as yet latent indwelling monad, and hence this race is called amanasa (mindless), and sons of the self-born; they were the shadows in the sense that their spiritual progenitors, the first dhyanis whose evolutionary duty it was to form mankind in their own image, emanated forth or evolved their "shadows" for nature spirits to work upon. These shadows were later endowed with mind by dhyanis of a more highly evolved grade, manasaputras or intelligences.

Also used for the bodhisattvas of the celestial realms who are the shadows or spiritual living and self-conscious projections emanated by the dhyani-buddhas.

(See also: Shadows, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

World of cause-awakened ones

(Jpn.: engaku-kai)

Also, realm of cause-awakened ones or world of realization. The eighth of the Ten Worlds and one of the four noble worlds. Cause-awakened ones (Skt pratyekabuddha ) are those who awaken to the impermanence of all phenomena by perceiving the twelve-linked chain of causation or by observing natural phenomena. While they seek personal emancipation, they tend not to share it with others. For this reason, various sutras describe them as being reprimanded by Shakyamuni Buddha.

When viewed as a state of life, the world of cause-awakened ones is a condition in which one perceives the transience of all things and strives to free oneself from the sufferings of the six paths, seeking to learn the way to self-improve-ment through personal effort and direct observation of the world. In this world, a sense of the impermanence of all things causes one to aspire for something eternal and unchanging. The world of cause-awakened ones and that of voice-hearers constitute the two vehicles. In The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind, Nichiren states: "The fact that all things in this world are transient is perfectly clear to us. Is this not because the worlds of the two vehicles are present in the human world?".

(See also: World of cause-awakened ones, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Spiritual Powers Generally used in contradistinction to psychic powers; for while psychic powers pertain to the intermediate, psychomental part of human nature, the spiritual powers pertain to the higher part. Hence the psychic powers, precisely because intermediaries, may become the instrument either of our higher or of our lower nature, being vehicular products in themselves and subject to influx from above or below.

The spiritual powers cannot be used for selfish and personal ends because their svabhava is universality and impersonality, attributes which link man with the surrounding universe. They emanate from the spiritual monad, atma-buddhi. We are able to use spiritual powers when our manas acts in conjunction with the spiritual monad. Such powers cannot be evoked by personal ambition or any form of acquisitiveness, because they do not rise above the intermediate or psychic nature and make no appeal to the spirit above; in fact, spiritual powers are the fruit of renunciation, of the replacing of the personal with the universal, the resigning of the limited for the virtually limitless, the giving up of the small for the great. Spiritual powers consist in a clear intuition of the truth, leading to right conduct, an ability to help and teach others -- the powers which we attribute to a Buddha or Christ.

The eye of Siva or Dangma, with its all-penetrating vision, must be included among spiritual powers; the siddhis and saktis given in various enumerations comprise some that are spiritual -- in fact the ones of permanent value are all spiritual. Since psychic powers are in themselves intermediaries, veils of what is within and behind them, they should become adjuncts to spiritual powers. Sharp lines of demarcation cannot be drawn in a universe whose very structure involves virtually infinite variety, and interblending, of interacting life and lives.

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

Dhyani-chohans (Sanskrit-Tibetan) (from Sanskrit dhyani contemplation + Tibetan chohan lord)

Lords of meditation. In theosophical literature, dhyani-buddhas are the intellectual architects, the higher and more spiritual beings of the god-world. Dhyani-chohans, as a generalizing term, includes both the higher classes which take a self-conscious, active part in the architectural ideation of the universe, and the lower classes, some of which are self-conscious, but in their lower representations progressively less on on a descending scale.

The lowest of these builders are little more than merely conscious or semi-conscious beings following almost servilely the ideation of the cosmic spirit transmitted to them by the higher class of the architects.

Dhyani-chohan is likewise synonymous in one sense with the Sanskrit manu. The seven principal classes of dhyani-chohans are intimately connected, each to each, respectively, with the seven sacred planets of our solar system, and likewise with the globes of the earth planetary chain. Furthermore, there is a class of dhyani-chohans at the head of every department of nature in our solar system.

These dhyani-chohans, as the summit of the Hierarchy of Light, imbody in themselves as individuals the ideation of the cosmic Logos, thus forming the laws according to which nature exists and works. These laws, therefore, are really the automatic spiritual activities of the highest classes of the dhyani-chohans.

The dhyani-chohans have their bodhisattvas, intellectual offspring, or representatives on and in each descending cosmic plane, so that every being has as its highest portion one such dhyani-chohan as its egoic individuality. Hence, "the dhyani-chohans are actually in one most important sense our own selves. We were born from them; we were the monads, we were the atoms, the souls, projected, sent forth, emanated, by the dhyanis . . ." (Fund 407).

(See also: Dhyani-chohans, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Buddhi (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root budh to awaken, enlighten, know)

The spiritual soul, the faculty of discriminating, the channel through which streams divine inspiration from the atman to the ego, and therefore that faculty which enables us to discern between good and evil -- spiritual conscience. The qualities of the buddhic principle when awakened are higher judgment, instant understanding, discrimination, intuition, love that has no bounds, and consequent universal forgiveness.

In the theosophical scheme, it is the sixth principle counting upwards in the human constitution: the vehicle of pure, universal spirit, hence an inseparable garment or vehicle of atman. In its essence of the highest plane of akasa or alaya, buddhi stands in the same relation to atman as, on the cosmic scale, mulaprakriti does to parabrahman.

Buddhi uses manas as its garment, and in the former are likewise stored the fruitages of the many incarnations on earth; hence buddhi is often called both the seed and flower of manas. Buddhi is truly the center of spiritual consciousness and therefore its qualities are enduring. The purer and higher part of manas must awaken, by rising to it, this essential energy that inherently resides in buddhi so that the latter may become active in a person's life. Buddha and Christ are examples of sages who had become human imbodiments of the usually latent qualities of buddhi. Buddhi becomes more or less conscious on this plane by the flowerings it draws from manas after every incarnation of the ego. "Buddhi would remain only an impersonal spirit without this element which it borrows from the human soul, which conditions and makes of it, in this illusive Universe, as it were something separate from the universal soul for the whole period of the cycle of incarnation" (Key 159-60).

"No purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle, -- or the over-soul, -- has (a) passed through every elemental form of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha)" (SD 1:17).

In the human constitution buddhi is a ray from the cosmic principle mahabuddhi or adi-buddhi, a synonym for alaya, pradhana, or the Second Logos, while akasa in its higher reaches is identic with alaya.

(See also: Buddhi, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

NAME

Nomen est numen. No name ever does justice to the person or thing designated by it and so, in the strictest sense, to call anything by its name is to blaspheme it.

The Egyptians -- certainly Ra and Isis -- insisted that the names of the Gods were even more powerful than the Gods themselves. Everything has a secret name which is its real name. "To be" and "to name" are the same thing in the Babylonian language. Amongst the Dogon so means "real" language as distinct from the howling of beasts or the gibberish of foreign tongues.

It was because the ancient Egyptians believed so strongly in the vitality of names that a person's name (ren) was considered one of his "bodies." All magicians experiment with assuming different names because our names determine the nature of the events that gravitate toward us. We must never forget, however, that no one is his name. To identify totally with any name is to turn to stone.

Names are also like clothes -- they can become you or you can become them. Along with all the other bodies we inhabit, the Egyptians also had the renpit ("name" body), an extra post-life soul. "John" or "Mary" are actually manifestations of you. We can assume these masks as we need them -- or not, if we don't. Those who have been disfigured and must undergo plastic surgery and skin grafts must dwell in the lowest circle of their own private hell. They actually become the horrible demon, Yog-Sothoth, God of Infernal Transitions and Lord of the Abyss, with the bulging eyes, tentacles, etc. But what such patients become is really only the renpit body of the monster, so they identify with it only long enough to draw on its hideous strength. Otherwise they wouldn't have anything to hold onto. It is in this way that the ugliest devils and most dangerous dragons can also serve as resources for us. Later on, with a bit of effort, supposedly, we can return to being the Buddha or Odin or Apollo.

Note: To disguise the true nature of a thing, just give it a new name!

NEBUCHADNEZZAR

Jehovah punished this king of Babylon for the hubris of presuming himself to be divine, by causing him to behave like an animal and eat grass.

(See also: NAME, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Self-directed Evolution That all evolution is caused by, and consists in the self-expression of the svabhava (essential characteristics) combined with the will of the monad dwelling within the form; in contradistinction to the doctrine that external circumstances are the determining evolutionary factor. The expression applies to every evolving entity, from the life-atom upwards, but has a special significance when applied to man, because he is endowed with the power to blend his personal consciousness with that of the monad within-above; so that what in the animal or unawakened person is an unconscious process becomes in the awakened person a process in which his mind and will acquiesce:

"no purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle -- or the OVERSOUL -- has (a) passed through every elemental form of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha)" (SD 1:17).

The sooner the individual realizes that he should take himself in hand, and govern or control his life by the highest within him, instead of being the slave of impulses arising from his lower nature, the more quickly will he reach the higher phases of his evolutionary progress, which humanity as a whole may take eons to attain through the slow procedures of the cosmic drive.

The phrase does not mean that each person should follow the bent of his own personal inclinations, but that he should follow the path of duty, which is the path of evolution, as revealed to him by intuition and purity of aspiration. He should become the master of his destiny, spiritually willing his future through self-devised training and efforts upwards.

(See also: Self-directed Evolution, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Mary The Christian ecclesiastical teachings as to Mary's perpetual virginity, her absolute sinlessness, and the role of intercessor were unknown during the ministry of Jesus and the immediately succeeding beliefs of the primitive Christians; although these three ideas in connection with the cosmic Virgin-Mother were familiar to exoteric and mythologic thought worldwide for ages preceding their adoption by Christian theologians some time after primitive Christianity. As to the idea of the perpetual virgin, as early as the latter part of the 2nd century Clement of Alexandria mentions it, but without accepting it, and not until the 4th century did it become a doctrine of the Church. Absolute sinlessness as a dogma seems to have been accepted as reluctantly as the former idea. Both Augustine and Anselm state their view that Mary the mother "was conceived in iniquity," and born "in original sin." The dogma of the intercession was not recognized by the Church until the 3rd century, when a wave of popular emotion initiated feast and holy days that are still observed.

The month of May was made sacred to Mary by the Christians, copying an ancient Greco-Latin view and practice, for the same month had been sacred to the Greek Maia or the Latin Vesta.

Blavatsky associates Mary with the Egyptian Isis and the Hindu Devaki (mother of Krishna) -- both of whom are represented as suckling an infant; with Maya, the mother of Gautama Buddha, there is an interesting association of both similarity in name and idea. By Southern European mariners after the Christian era Mary has been associated with Mare, the Latin word for the sea -- there being here again an early pagan teaching of the sea of space, or the representation of the cosmic Virgin-Mother. In another distinctly mystical sense the sea, like the Sanskrit Maya (illusion), symbolizes the illusory nature of all phenomenal life -- illusory because noneternal and yet the womb or matrix in and from which universes are born; and in the case of individual human beings, the birth of wisdom from experience in the illusions of life.

Thus the Christian Mary became clothed with various religio-mystical ideas and teachings associated from immemorial time with both cosmic events and with human experiences in life and initiation. The Christ in man is born as a child of the virgin-mother spirit, man's own higher consciousness -- a mother which remains perpetually virginal, by its nature intrinsically sinless, and which functions between the personal man of flesh and the god within us as the intercessor, as indeed the inner Christ itself is.

See also ANA; ANAITIA

(See also: Mary, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Odin (Icelandic, Scandinavian) [from Wodan from odr cosmic mind; cf Greek nous, Sanskrit mahat]

As a god, foremost of the aesir in Norse mythology; as a human being, the founder of the ancient Norse religion. Odin is the Great Sacrifice of our world system, hung or mounted on the Tree of Life throughout its duration, seeking runes of wisdom in the material worlds, "raising them with song" and at the end of time falling once more from the tree. He is said to have given one eye as forfeit to the matter-giant Mimer for the privilege of partaking of Mimer's well of wisdom: experience in material life. Thus matter receives a part of divine vision during the god's imbodiment.

As creative spirit Odin and his brother creators, Vili and Vi (will and awe), give rise to the worlds in manifestation. At the creation of humanity, Odin again participates with two creative energies on a lower level, Honer and Lodur (water and fire). Odin gives the breath of spirit, Honer mind, and Lodur vitality to the incipient humans.

In the myths Odin rides the eight-legged steed Sleipnir, wears a blue fur coat, and is the owner of a marvelous ring, Draupnir, from which eight more drip every ninth night, symbolizing proliferating cycles of every kind. His spear is named Gungnir (swaying), perhaps an allusion to the pendulum swing between life and death which is nature's eternal way. Odin has two wolf hounds (the animal nature), Gere (greedy) and Freke (gluttonous); he feeds them, but himself subsists on wine or mead (wisdom) alone. His two ravens, Hugin (mind) and Munin (memory), fly daily over the battlefield Vigridsslatten (plain of consecration, earth), and report back to Allfather by night.

Odin's hall is named Valhalla (hall of the chosen), where his heroes are brought by the Valkyries (crowners of the chosen) to feast with Yggjung (the ever-young, Odin).

As a planetary deity Odin is connected with Mercury, and his day is Wednesday (Woden's day). He has many names, each fitting the role he has to play. At the beginning of a life cycle he is named Ofner (opener), while at the end he is called Svafner (closer). Blavatsky refers to the human Odin as "one of these thirty-five Buddhas; one of the earliest, indeed, for the continent to which he and his race belonged, is also one of the earliest" (SD 2:423).

(See also: Odin, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)