Perfection, Perfectibility Absolute perfection is applicable, not to infinity, but to the Absolute of a universe, and theosophy teaches that all existences are tending through ever-growing evolutionary stages towards the relative perfection which all reach at the close of a manvantara; a state called paranishpanna in Sanskrit and yong-grub in Tibetan.

Paranirvana is described as a state of perfect rest insofar as activity in the lower manifested realms of a universe is concerned, but not perfect spiritual inactivity -- entirely to the contrary. In a larger view comprehending a galaxy of universes, or a super-galaxy of galaxies, any notion that human intelligence can entertain of perfection is relative, for we cannot assign ends to evolutionary progress, growth, or expansion.

(See also: Perfection, Perfectibility, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Khechara khecara (Sanskrit) (from kha blue ether, heaven, sky + chara wanderer, goer)

He who wanders in the spatial blue, or he who wanders along the roads of heaven. One who can leave his physical body and go to other places in his mayavi-rupa;

"the body of the Yogi becomes as one formed of the wind; as 'a cloud from which limbs have sprouted out,' after which -- 'he (the Yogi) beholds the things beyond the seas and stars; he hears the language of the Devas and comprehends it, and perceives what is passing in the mind of the ant' " (Jnanesvari q in VS 77). Equivalent to the Tibetan hpho-wa and Sanskrit khaga.

(See also: Khechara, khecara, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Chaos

1)    In Greek mythology, the total absence of time and space from which came all things - material and spiritual. In the Pelasgian creation myth, Eurynome rose out of Chaos and created all things. In theOlympianmyth, Gaea sprang from Chaos and was the mother of all things.

2)    The primordial state of disorder outofwhich the supreme being created the universe.

3)    New Age teaches that Chaos is that which cannot be comprehended. Chaos is equated with Nothing. It is Chaos (that which cannot be understood) that produced Logos (reason)

(See also: Chaos, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Unknowable In the procedures of human thought there always arrives a philosophical point beyond which the mind seems unable to penetrate, and this point is for that particular line of thought unknowable.

Therefore, there must be as many unknowables as there are beyonds in the processes of human thinking, and hence it becomes highly inadvisable to reduce the term unknowable to one specific meaning. It has been applied to the one ultimate cause of our universe, the rootless root of all within that specific universe, since this unknowable confessedly cannot be an object of cognition by mind.

However, it has been used by modern agnostics, in particular Herbert Spencer, to denote things which are not unknowable, but merely the noumenal which underlies the phenomenal, which limits the knowable world only to that which we can comprehend with our present physical faculties and the mental notions based on them. It is therefore but a convenient way of shelving all inquiries which seem to stand in the way of the formulation of a materialistic philosophy.

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

Be-ness. A term coined by Theosophists to render more accurately the essential meaning of the untranslatable word Sat. The latter word does not mean "Being" for it presupposes a sentient feeling or some consciousness of existence.

But, as the term Sat is applied solely to the absolute Principle, the universal, unknown, and ever unknowable Presence, which philosophical Pantheism postulates in Kosmos, calling it the basic root of Kosmos. and Kosmos itself -  "Being" was no fit word to express it. Indeed, the latter is not even, as translated by some Orientalists, "the incomprehensible Entity"; for it is no more an Entity than a non-Entity, but both.

It is, as said, absolute Be-ness, not Being, the one secondless, undivided, and indivisible All - the root of all Nature visible and invisible, objective and subjective, to be sensed by the highest spiritual intuition, but’ never to be fully comprehended.

(See also: Be-ness, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Sukshmopadhi suksmopadhi (Sanskrit) [from sukshma subtle, fine, ethereal + upadhi base, vehicle]

The subtle base or vehicle, in the human constitution the combined qualities of the higher manas, the lower manas, the kama-energy, and their astral veil or vehicle infilled with life. According to Taraka-Raja-Yoga there are three upadhis in the human constitution: karanopadhi, sukshmopadhi, and sthulopadhi.

The sukshmopadhi comprehends manas in its dual aspect in union with kama and the vital-astral portions in the theosophic sevenfold division of man, and likewise corresponds to the manomaya-kosa of the Vedantic classification. The state of consciousness known as the svapna or sleeping condition is connected causally with the sukshmopadhi.

This upadhi when developed and trained in the adept is the seat of a number of remarkable faculties or powers, among them spiritual clairvoyance and clairaudience. In the ordinary person, it is the lower portion of sukshopadhi which ordinarily acts automatically, producing flashes of unconscious clairvoyant vision, dreams of various kind, and other psychic phenomena.

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

That Translating the Sanskrit tat or tad, the nameless or ineffable. Beyond the utmost that can be defined must necessarily be postulated that which cannot be defined; beyond the utmost confines of the comprehensible must be placed that which cannot be comprehended: the All, symbolized by the circle without a central point. It is abstract space, and the point in the center is Aditi or potential space. It is the One, which is Brahman and pums (spirit) and pradhana (primordial matter), immutable because being abstract infinite space without attributes, preceding all manifestations, remaining after all manifestations have vanished in pralaya. Therefore it is nonbeing to us in the sense that it is Be-ness, abstract space and frontierless duration as one. The Qabbalistic equivalent, 'eyn soph (without bounds), is before all numbers, and is that from which all numbers proceed.

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

Head of all Heads (from Chaldean Reisha' dechol Reisha')

Qabbalistic term also referred to as the Ancient of Ancients (`Attiqa' De`Attiqin), the Concealed of the Concealed, or the Hid of the Hid.

"In that Atteekah (`Attiqa') nothing is revealed except the Head alone, because it is the Head of all Heads . . . The Wisdom above, which is the Head, is hidden in it, the Brain which is tranquil and quiet, and none knows it but Itself. . . . And this Hidden Wisdom . . . the Concealed of the Concealed, the Head of all Heads, a Head which is not a Head, nor does any one know, nor is it ever known, what is in that Head which Wisdom and Reason cannot comprehend" (Zohar iii 288a).

It corresponds to Brahman-pradhana, behind and within and above which is the ever-incomprehensible, parabrahman.

See also RE'SH HIWWAR

(See also: Head of all Heads, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mnevis (Greek) Ur-mer (Egyptian) The sacred bull of Heliopolis, described as the life of Ra, and connected with the sun. A bull with the disk of the sun and uraeus placed between his horns. Like Apis at Memphis, Mnevis was consecrated to Osiris -- although the former was associated with the moon.

The solar Mnevis, however, was often called the sun of Ptah whose animal symbol was a black bull. Thus Mnevis represents the "black," i.e., the abstract, occult, or hid cosmic power guided by cosmic wisdom or Ptah, and therefore comprehending in its thought the inclusive secret and hid cosmic powers, behind and working through the visible universe; while Apis represents the detailed manifested ray working in and through the world of matter of which the moon stands as a type, although more or less filled with Osirian or spiritual powers.

(See also: Mnevis, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Line Stages of evolutionary development in cosmic manifestation are sometimes symbolized by the geometrical forms point, line, plane, solid, corresponding to unit or monad, duad, triad, and quaternary.

Lines are therefore rays proceeding from an egoic center, and represent cosmic forces and, on the lower planes, the forces familiar in physics. These are dual, bipolar. In geometric symbols, lines may be combined, as for instance in the cross, where common agreement makes the vertical line masculine, the horizontal feminine; or in triangles, where the side lines and the base line each have its particular meaning.

A line drawn in physical space may be regarded as a symbol for a real line, but to comprehend what the latter is, we must abstract the idea from all notions of physical space.

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

Kayumars (Persian) Gayomard (Pahlavi) Gayo-maretan (Avestan) (from gayo life + maretan to become mortal and mutable)

The first legendary king of Shah-Nameh, Ferdausi of the Pishdadian Dynasty (from para-dhata primeval law), who was not aware of the existence of evil until his son Siamak was killed by Diev. This corresponds to the Biblical Adam before Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He is identified with 'Adam Qadmon or the aggregate logos comprehending within itself the ten classes of spiritual beings or Sephiroth; also the representative of the last individuals of the pitric dynasties on earth which preceded the truly human races.

His grandson Hushang (Arabic Ushhanj) is the king who discovers fire and brings civilization to man, becomes king of seven keshvars, and establishes the ancient religion, worshiping fire as the symbol of knowledge.

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

Ashta-vijnana (Sanskrit) (from ashta eight + vijnana function of consciousness, discernment)

Eight or eightfold faculties; used in mystical Mahayana Buddhist works to signify what in Hindu philosophy is called the jnanendriyas (organs of consciousness or of conscious existence in imbodied life). This group of inner faculties, functions, or powers of consciousness has direct reference to the skandhas of Brahmanical philosophy.

While the skandhas range from the highest down to and including those of the astral-vital-physical vehicle, nevertheless when closely grouped together the ashta-vijnana may be considered as a unitary vehicle, the field of action of the spiritual ego; hence "One must see with his spiritual eye, hear with his Dharmakayic ear, feel with the sensations of his Ashta-vijnyana (spiritual 'I') before he can comprehend this doctrine fully . . ." (ML 200).

(See also: Ashta-vijnana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Head of all Heads (from Chaldean Reisha' dechol Reisha')

Qabbalistic term also referred to as the Ancient of Ancients (`Attiqa' De`Attiqin), the Concealed of the Concealed, or the Hid of the Hid.

"In that Atteekah (`Attiqa') nothing is revealed except the Head alone, because it is the Head of all Heads . . . The Wisdom above, which is the Head, is hidden in it, the Brain which is tranquil and quiet, and none knows it but Itself. . . . And this Hidden Wisdom . . . the Concealed of the Concealed, the Head of all Heads, a Head which is not a Head, nor does any one know, nor is it ever known, what is in that Head which Wisdom and Reason cannot comprehend" (Zohar iii 288a).

It corresponds to Brahman-pradhana, behind and within and above which is the ever-incomprehensible, parabrahman.

See also RE'SH HIWWAR

(See also: Hea-bani, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Duck In the opening runes of the ancient Finnish epic, the Kalevala, the earth is represented as coming into being by means of a duck or teal; in other Finnish legends it is an eagle. The duck makes her nest upon the knees of Ilmatar, the great water-mother, and lays six golden eggs and a seventh of iron. When the eggs hatch, fire is enkindled within Ilmatar, which causes her to shake herself, and in doing so she shakes the eggs into the great waters.

The primeval duck is very similar in idea to kalahansa, the primeval goose of ancient Hindustan, and also the Egyptian goose and Seb "the great Cackler"; although this ancient Finnish epic preserves the ancient wisdom-teaching of the seven globes which comprise the earth planetary chain, and also on a larger field of action, the solar system itself in its various inner and outer planes, and the surrounding and comprehending universe or galaxy.

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

Ocean

It traditionally represents our great unconscious, memories, emotions, and individual soul and collective experiences. Look at all of the details in this dream. Is the water clear or murky? Is it calm or turbulent? Are you catching fish, or are you stranded and afraid? Look, listen, and try to comprehend the messages in this dream. No one is in a better position to give meaning to your dreams than you can. Concentrate and learn for yourself.

See also: Meaning of Dreams about Water)