Yi-shu-lu-chia-lun (Chinese) The Chinese translation of the Ekasloka-sastra of Nagarjuna (Lung-shu).

See also YU

(See also: Yi-shu-lu-chia-lun , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

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Tao (Chinese) The way, road, path; the Chinese treat of tao in two aspects: the tao of man (jen tao); and the tao of the universe -- which is again divided into two aspects, the tao of heaven (t'ien tao) and the tao of earth (t'i tao). There is no supreme god in this system of philosophy, no Demiurge or maker of the cosmos: the yearly renovation of nature is due to the spontaneity of tao. As explained in the I Ching, tao brings about the revolving mutations of the yin and yang: "there is in the system of mutations [of nature] the Most Ultimate which produced the two Regulating Powers [the yin and yang], which produce the four shapes [the seasons]" (Hi-tsze).

"Tao is the ultimate reality in which all attributes are united, it is heavy as a stone, light as a feather; it is the unity underlying plurality. It is that by losing of which men die; by getting of which men live. Whatever is done without it fails; whatever is done by means of it, succeeds. It has neither root nor stalk, leaf nor flower. Yet upon it depends the generation and the growth of the ten thousand things [the cosmos], each after its kind" (Kuan tzu, 49).

The Sanskrit svabhavat is an equivalent, also the deep akasic abysses of the highest reaches of the cosmic anima mundi, manifesting periodically.

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O-mi-to Fo, Amita Fo (Chinese) The Chinese form of Amita Buddha (Sanskrit, "boundless buddja") a title given to the cosmic manifested buddhi or mahabuddhi, equivalent to the Second Logos, which is resident in the essence of every entity in the universe as its inspiring and guiding spiritual light.

(See also: O-mi-to Fo, Amita Fo , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

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Yu (Chinese) Being; according to the Yi-shu-lu-chia-lun (translation of Nagarjuna's Ekasloka-sastra), " 'the Substance giving substance to itself,' also explain . . . as meaning 'without action and with action,' 'the nature which has no nature of its own' " (SD 1:61). Chinese mystics have made it the synonym of svabhavat or Father-Mother, corresponding to the Second Logos of theosophy.

Yu evidently refers to the primordial spiritual substance of the universe, which is at once intelligence and spiritual matter, life and consciousness, from which all proceeds as a fountain or source, and into which all will ultimately return when the great cosmic world period or manvantara reaches its end, and the cosmic pralaya begins.

Yet this is not the highest in the cosmic hierarchical scale, because over, in, and throughout yu is the super-essential cosmic primordial abstract being, which the Pythagoreans spoke of as the all-embracing cosmic monad.

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

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Lung (Chinese) Dragon; the being who excels in intelligence. Dragons of Wisdom was the name given by the Chinese to the first disciples of the primitive adepts of the third root-race, and later of the fourth and fifth root-races. The dragon was described as:

"gifted with an accepted form, which he has the supernatural power of casting off for the assumption of others, he has the power of influencing the weather, producing droughts or fertilizing rains at pleasure, of raising tempests and allaying them" (Mythical Monsters 212).

Confucius spoke of the dragon as one who "feeds in the pure water of Wisdom and sports in the clear waters of Life"; while the Twan-ying-tu says of the yellow dragon, "His wisdom and virtue are unfathomable . . . he does not go in company and does not live in herds (he is an ascetic). He wanders in the wilds beyond the heavens. He goes and comes, fulfilling the decree (Karma); at the proper seasons if there is perfection he comes forth, if not he remains (invisible)" (SD 2:365).

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

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I Ching (Chinese) Also Yi King. The Book of Changes; also Holy Book of Mutations, these mutations being the manifestations of tao.

The text of the original treatise is from a system of eight trigrams and 64 hexagrams, composed of whole and broken lines, thus: (illust) which, by altering the positions of the whole and broken lines form the changes in the diagrams. This has been assigned by scholars to Fu-Hsi (30th century BC). The first extant commentary on it is assigned to Ching Wen, founder of the Chou dynasty in 1122 BC, and his son.

There have been many explanations offered regarding this work, called by many the Qabbalah of China: some see in it only a system of divination, a lunar calendar, phallic worship, or again the vocabulary of a tribe whose very existence had to be postulated for this purpose. Both Taoists and Confucianists regard the I Ching as the holiest of books; Confucius declared that he would like to give another 50 years of his life to its study, while the only Chinese commentator who is said to have understood it was Chu Hsi (1130-1200).

In the Hi-ts'ze (or so-called Appendices to the work) the universe is described as a living organism called T'ai-ch'i (the supreme being, or most ultimate). The processes of birth and rebirth, or the production of life, are due to the manifestations of tao by means of the yang and yin.

"To Yang belong the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9; to Yin belong the numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. There are then five celestial and five terrestrial numbers; these rows of five operate upon each other, and each number has one with which it corresponds. The sum of the celestial numbers is twenty-five. It is in accordance with these factors that the processes of the Universe are effected, and the kwei and the shen do their work" (Hi-ts'ze).

Speaking of the I Ching, Blavatsky says:

"the Stanzas given in our text . . . represent precisely the same idea. The old archaic map of Cosmogony is full of lines in the Confucian style, of concentric circles and dots. Yet all these represent the most abstract and philosophical conceptions of the Cosmogony of our Universe" (SD 1:441).

(See also: I Ching , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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Kuen-lun-shan (Chinese) One of the sacred mountains in China, situated in the southwest between China and Tibet in the Keun-lun range which divides Tibet on the south from Eastern Turkestan. Every three years Buddhists assembled there, their observances climaxed by religious marvels produced by the hierophant (styled Foh-chu, "buddha-teacher") under the Tree of Knowledge and Life (Sung-ming-shu).

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Houen (Chinese) The lower portion of the human soul, corresponding to kama. The other human aspect is the ling, the higher ling corresponding to buddhi and the lower ling to manas (BCW 7:202). The houen after death becomes the kama-rupa or astral elementary. Chinese used to evoke houen in cases of murder to receive information on the case (BCW 7:205).

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Houen (Chinese) The lower portion of the human soul, corresponding to kama. The other human aspect is the ling, the higher ling corresponding to buddhi and the lower ling to manas (BCW 7:202). The houen after death becomes the kama-rupa or astral elementary. Chinese used to evoke houen in cases of murder to receive information on the case (BCW 7:205).

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

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Kwan, Kuan (Chinese) Taoist term equivalent to the Sanskrit dhyana (meditation).

"Kuan means originally to 'watch' for omens, and in the dictionaries it is defined as 'looking at unusual things,' as opposed to ordinary seeing or looking. Hence, in accordance with the general 'inward-turning' of Chinese thought and vocabulary, it comes to mean 'what one sees when one in is an abnormal state'; and in Taoist literature it is often practically equivalent to our own mystic world 'Vision.'

The root from which dhyana comes has however nothing to do with 'seeing' but means simply 'pondering, meditating'; and it was only because kuan already possessed a technical sense closely akin to that of dhyana that it was chosen as an equivalent, in preference to some such word as nien, or ssu, which are the natural equivalents" (Waley, The Way and Its Power 119-20).

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Ching-fa-yin-Tsang (Chinese) The mystery of the eye of the good doctrine; in Chinese Buddhism, the esoteric teaching or interpretation of Gautama Buddha. However, "To any student of Buddhist Esotericism the term, 'the Mystery of the 'Eye,' would show the absence of any Esotericism" (BCW 444).

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Shin-sieu (Chinese) A sage and seer; the sixth Buddhist Patriarch of North China who taught the esoteric doctrine of bodhidharma, one of whose sayings appears in The Voice of the Silence: "For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects. It needs the gentle breezes of Soul Wisdom to brush away the dust of our illusions. Seek, O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and Soul"; "The human mind is like a mirror which attracts and reflects every atom of dust, and has to be, like that mirror, watched over and dusted every day" (VS 26, 83).

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Smriti smrti (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root smri to remember]

What is remembered; unwritten teachings handed down by word of mouth, distinguished from srutis or teachings handed down in traditional writings. The Hebrew word qabbalah has a literally identical meaning.

The smritis were a system of oral teaching, passing from one generation of recipients to the succeeding generation, as was the case with the Brahmanical books before they were imbodied in manuscript. The Smartava-Brahmanas are, for this reason, considered by many to be esoterically superior to the Srauta-Brahmanas. In its widest application, the smritis include the Vedangas, the Sutras, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas, the Dharma-sastras, especially the works of Manu, Yajnavalkya, and other inspired lawgivers, and the ethical writing or Niti-sastras; whereas the typical example of the sruti are the Vedas themselves considered as revelations.

Sruti means that which is "heard" or received as direct oral revelation from a superior being, considered by orthodox Hindus to be equally holy to smriti; yet in ancient times the most sacred and secret teachings were never committed to writing but were invariably passed on from teacher to pupil with "mouth at ear" and at "low breath," whether among the Egyptians, Persians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Romans, Druids, Chinese, or Hindus.

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DRAGON (lung, Chinese, rong, Vietnamese, ryu, Japanese, naga, Sanskrit) -

1. great beneficent being in Far East mythology which guards hidden treasures and heavenly mansions, presides over the weather and bestows rewards on deserving persons; traditionally represented with the horns of a deer, the head of a camel or horse, the eyes of a prawn or devil, the neck of a snake, the belly of a giant clam, the scales of a fish, the claws of an eagle, the feet of a tiger and the ears of a cow; symbol of Heaven, yang, energy, fortune, the Tao, virtue.

2. symbol of the defender of the Dharma in Buddhism.

3. one of an superhuman race of serpents in Hinduism.

4. dreadful beastie in Western mythology, which is forever carrying off maidens or laying waste the countryside, as in the tales of St. George, Perseus, Jason, Siegfried.

5. symbol of wisdom in the hermetic tradition and alchemy.

6. symbol of that which encloses and turns the psyche in on itself. (Joseph Campbell) (NAD)

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

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Lotus Sutra

Or Saddharma-pundarika, Dharma Flower, or "The Lotus of the True Law." The sutra is the basis for the Lotus sect (T'ien-t'ai in Chinese). Among the sutras of the Mahayana canon. One of the earliest and most richly descriptive of the Mahayana sutras of Indian origin.

It became important for the shaping of the Buddhist tradition in East Asia, in particular because of its teaching of the One Vehicle under which are subsumed the usual Hinayana (Theravada) and Mahayana divisions. It is the main text of the Tendai (T'ien T'ai) school. (Joji Okazaki.)

This School has a historically close relationship with the Pure Land School. Thus, Master T'ai Hsu taught that the Lotus Sutra and the Amitabha Sutras were closely connected, differing only in length.

 (See also: Lotus Sutra , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

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Yu Emperor of China, called "the Great" and considered a national hero. Founder of the Hsia dynasty, his reign has been assigned by scholars to the years 2205-2198 BC; he is one of the three so-called Good Emperors of the Shu Ching; son of Kun, his labors and feats are extolled in the Confucian account known as the Yu-kung (tribute to Yu).

Blavatsky mentions him as being "a pious mystic and great adept," said "to have obtained his knowledge from the 'great teachers of the Snowy Range' in Si-dzang" (Hsi Tsang or Tibet), these great teachers being called "brothers of the Sun in the Chinese records" (SD 1:271n).

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Abhayagiri (Sanskrit). Lit., "Mount Fearless" in Ceylon. It has an ancient Vihara or Monastery in which the well-known Chinese traveller Fa-hien found 5,000 Buddhist priests and ascetics in the year 400 of our era, and a School called Abhayagiri Vasinah,, "School of the Secret Forest".

This philosophical school was regarded as heretical, as the ascetics studied the doctrines of both the "greater" and the "smaller" vehicles -  or the Mahayana and the Hinayana systems and Triyana or the three successive degrees of Yoga; just as a certain Brotherhood does now beyond the Himalayas. This proves that the "disciples of Katyayana were and are as unsectarian as their humble admirers the Theosophists are now. (See "Sthavirah" School.)

This was the most mystical of all the schools, and renowned for the number of Arhats it produced. The Brotherhood of Abhayagiri called themselves the disciples of Katyayana, the favourite Chela of Gautama, the Buddha. Tradition says that owing to bigoted intolerance and persecution, they left Ceylon and passed beyond the Himalayas, where they have remained ever since.

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

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Jen-nang (Chinese) In Chinese mythology, the divine man (SD 2:365, see ref at Chim-nang).

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Kwan-shai-yin, Kuan-shi-yin (Chinese) Equivalent to the Sanskrit Avalokitesvara, both being the seventh kosmic principle. Mystically, the kosmic Logos or Word, and in common with all the logoi referred to as a kosmic Dragon of Wisdom; the first universal manus or kosmic dhyan-chohans.

Kwan-shai-yin is often confused with Kwan-yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion, the feminine Logos and counterpart of Kwan-shai-yin; but "Kwan-shai-yin -- or the universally manifested voice 'is active -- male; and must not be confounded with Kwan-yin, or Buddhi the Spiritual Soul (the sixth Pr.) and the vehicle of its "Lord." ' It is Kwan-yin that is the female principle or the manifested passive, manifesting itself 'to every creature in the universe, in order to deliver all men from the consequences of sin'. . . while Kwan-shai-yin, 'the Son identical with his Father' is the absolute activity, hence -- having no direct relation to objects of sense is -- Passivity" (ML 344).

Kwan-shai-yin, the Voice or Logos, is "the germ point of manifested activity; -- hence -- in the phraseology of the Christian Kabalists 'the Son of the Father and Mother,' and agreeably to ours -- 'the Self manifested in Self -- Yih-sin, the 'one form of existence,' the child of Dharmakaya (the universally diffused Essence), both male and female" (ML 346).

In man it is the atman when working through -- as it always does during imbodiment -- its veil buddhi, thus enabling the atman to send down and distribute the atmic rays throughout the other five principles of the human constitution.

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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)

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Yao (Chinese) One of the ancient legends of China tells of a flood and of a hero, Yao, who escapes the deluge in a vessel. He carries with him seven figures, which he proceeds to animate when he lands, using them for human seeds. This is a version of the worldwide deluge tales, such as those of Noah and Xisuthrus.

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Malvin Artley gives an exciting mythological background to Venus in connection to the forthcoming Venus Transits of 2004 and 2012. A must read if you are interested in the significance of the Venus Transit.

Read more here: » Venus Transit: The Venus Conjunction June 8 2004