A Christian theological definition of Eternal life according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

"

Eternal life

See also: Eternal life , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

A Christian theological definition of Blasphemy according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

"

Blasphemy

See also: Blasphemy , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

A Christian theological definition of Born Again according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

"

Born Again

See also: Born Again , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Vishnu-Purana Visnu-Purana (Sanskrit) One of the most celebrated of the 18 principal Puranas, conforming more than any other to the definition of pancha-lakshana (five distinguishing marks) assigned as being the character of a complete Purana by Amara-Simha, an ancient Sanskrit lexicographer. It consists of six books: the first treats of the creation of the universe from cosmic prakriti, and the peopling of the world by the prajapatis or spiritual ancestors; the second book gives a list of kings with many geographical and astronomical details; the third treats of the Vedas and caste; the fourth continues the chronicle of dynasties; the fifth gives the life of Krishna; and the sixth book describes the dissolution of the world, and the future re-issuing of the world after pralaya.

(See also: Vishnu-Purana, Visnu-Purana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

M - The thirteenth letter of the Hebrew and of the English alphabets, and the twenty-fourth of the Arabic. As a Roman numeral, this letter stands for 1,000, and with a dash on it (M) signifies one million.

In the Hebrew alphabet Mem symbolized water, and as a numeral is equivalent to 40. The Sanskrit ma is equivalent to number 5, and is also connected with water through the sign of the Zodiac, called Makara (q.v.).

Moreover, in the Hebrew and Latin numerals the m, stands "as the definite numeral for an indeterminate number"(Mackenzie’s Mason. Cyc.), and "the Hebrew sacred name of God app]ied to this letter is Meborach, Benedictus." With the Esotericists the M is the symbol of the Higher Ego - Manas, Mind.

(See also: M - Letter M, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Spermatic Logos The Stoics taught that things do not exist solely or originally by reason of some definite end to which they are tending, but because of something living and acting within and through them, the essential law of evolutionary growth.

This inner power they called the logos spermatikos (Greek for spermatic or seed-logos), the monad of individuality in living and evolving beings. It is the unfolding by such a logos spermatikos of its inherent or characteristic qualities, powers, and functions which bring about the evolutionary growth of the vehicles of consciousness in and through which the logos lives and works.

It corresponds to the particular monad of each entity which contains its svabhava, and hence determines all its subsequent destiny, particularized individualizations, and forms.

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

Ray [from Latin radius rod, staff, beam, ray]

An indefinitely small thread of light or other form of radiant energy, whether undulatory or emissive, considered as propagated in a straight line and with a definite velocity. The figurative use of the word must not blind us to the fact that everything physical has its prototypes on planes above.

As our sun sheds rays of a great number of kinds, and interchanges of radiation take place throughout our solar system and locally on each planet, so rays are emanated throughout the universe on all its visible and invisible planes, and represent the spiritual, intellectual, and fohatic and life-giving forces -- mystically in each case a Mercury on his winged way bearing the messages of the gods.

(See also: Ray, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Plane Used figuratively for "the range or extent of some state of consciousness, or of the perceptive power of a particular set of senses, or the action of a particular force, or the state of matter corresponding to any of the above" (TG 255).

Though the cosmic planes are different from one another, they are not separated by gaps, just as the spectral colors are distinct and characteristic yet merge imperceptibly into each other. Nor can it be supposed that at all stages of evolution the scheme of planes was the same as now: we hear of a physico-astral stage of humanity and of other beings which now no longer exist on earth, in much the same way as we find the fossils of types intermediate between existing types but now extinct.

No hard and fast enumeration can be made as to the number of planes in the kosmos. The number assigned depends on the particular purpose for which the definition is made. The septenary classification is often used, as in the seven planes of prakriti or the seven states of consciousness pertaining to each. But other enumerations may equally be made, and any plane is subdivided into subplanes.

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

Hermas The Pastor of Hermas or The Shepherd of Hermas is an early Christian book, attributed to Hermas because that name occurs several times in it, though the authorship is doubtful. It was widely known in the East and regarded as inspired, receiving a respect approximating that paid to the canonical New Testament. It had wide vogue as early as the 2nd century. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen quote it as scripture; and Origen identifies the author with the Hermas mentioned in Romans. Though it is impossible to assign to it a definite date of composition, conjecture points to the time of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius (117-161 AD). Full of legends and allegories, it presents in suggestive forms the gospel of love, but the name of Jesus Christ does not occur. It was thought by some to be Jewish in origin and contains passages from the Zohar. It has come down to us in several Latin translations, but only fragments of the Greek manuscript have yet come to hand.

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

Kinnara (Sanskrit) (from kim what + nara man)

Also Kim-nara.

"What sort of a man?" -- a mythical being supposed to have a human figure with the head of a horse; or sometimes a horse's body having the head of a man. In later times, like the naras, they are reckoned with the gandharvas (celestial choristers), and are likewise frequently connected with the kimpurushas. Some accounts say that they sprang from the toe of Brahma; but they were the product of the earth at the commencement of the kalpa, the early attempts of formation of quasi-conscious beings leading to self-conscious beings.

In a larger sense, the kinnaras, kimpurushas, etc., are entities belonging to our planetary chain who partake partly of the nature of matter or form, and partly of spirit. They have a definite place in the economy of the planetary chain and perform their functions very much as the human hierarchy does. They are more advanced that the mere nature sprites or elementals, but yet are inferior to humankind, and are to be classed generally with the hosts of quasi-astral beings.

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

Incubus (Latin) (from in upon + cub lie)

The nightmare, regarded as an astral goblin which lies upon the sleeper. Modern medicine regards it as a subjective impression produced by physiological disorders, but we must take into account as well the lower strata of the astral light, teeming with soulless elementals as well as astral vampires or elementaries, ready to take advantage of unguarded and disordered conditions.

Also a goblin which, in medieval belief, holds sexual intercourse with human beings, a belief found elsewhere, as in India, where the term used is pisacha. Incubi are sometimes spoken of as of either sex, but properly succuba is used for the female.

They are "Ghools, Vampires, and soulless Elementals; formless centres of Life, devoid of sense; in short, subjective protoplasms when left alone, but called into a definite being and form by the creative and diseased imagination of certain mortals" (TG 154). Thus it is the lustful imagination and vitality of the victim that gives these beings their power upon him; without that, they are powerless and not to be feared.

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

Eternity (from Latin aeternus, aeviternus from aevum an age)

Originally eternity signified time divided into endless cycles stretching from the indefinite past through the present into the indefinite future, comprised within encompassing frontierless duration. Eternity therefore is the abstract sum total of endlessly cyclical time periods.

As used in The Secret Doctrine, eternity often means a kosmic mahakalpa or manifestation period; thus the seven eternities means seven kosmic periods equivalent to 100 Years of Brahma or 311,040,000,000,000 human years. Even in the Hindu Vishnu-Purana, immortality, which is given as a definition of eternity, means merely "existence to the end of the Kalpa" (2:8). Occasionally used as a synonym for duration.

The emblem of eternity is the serpent in the form of a circle, biting with its active head its passive tail, and from its emanations spring worlds, beings, and things.

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

Hermas The Pastor of Hermas or The Shepherd of Hermas is an early Christian book, attributed to Hermas because that name occurs several times in it, though the authorship is doubtful. It was widely known in the East and regarded as inspired, receiving a respect approximating that paid to the canonical New Testament. It had wide vogue as early as the 2nd century. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen quote it as scripture; and Origen identifies the author with the Hermas mentioned in Romans. Though it is impossible to assign to it a definite date of composition, conjecture points to the time of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius (117-161 AD). Full of legends and allegories, it presents in suggestive forms the gospel of love, but the name of Jesus Christ does not occur. It was thought by some to be Jewish in origin and contains passages from the Zohar. It has come down to us in several Latin translations, but only fragments of the Greek manuscript have yet come to hand.

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

A Theosophical definition of Dharmakaya :

Dharmakaya

(Sanskrit) This is a compound of two words meaning the "continuance body," sometimes translated equally well (or ill) the "body of the Law"  - both very inadequate expressions, for the difficulty in translating these extremely mystical terms is very great. A mere correct dictionary-translation often misses the esoteric meaning entirely, and just here is where Occidental scholars make such ludicrous errors at times.

The first word comes from the root dhri, meaning "to support," "to sustain," "to carry," "to bear," hence "to continue"; also human laws are the agencies supposed to carry, support, sustain, civilization; the second element, kaya, means "body." The noun thus formed may be rendered the "body of the Law," but this phrase does not give the idea at all. It is that spiritual body or state of a high spiritual being in which the restricted sense of soulship and egoity has vanished into a universal (hierarchical) sense, and remains only in the seed, latent  - if even so much. It is pure consciousness, pure bliss, pure intelligence, freed from all personalizing thought.

In the Buddhism of Central Asia, the dharmakaya is the third and highest of the trikaya. The trikaya consists of (1) nirmanakaya, (2) sambhogakaya, and (3) dharmakaya. We may look upon these three states, all of them lofty and sublime, as being three vestures in which the consciousness of the entity clothes itself. In the dharmakaya vesture the initiate is already on the threshold of nirvana, if not indeed already in the nirvanic state. (See also Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya)

See also: Dharmakaya , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Theosophy :

Theosophy

A compound Greek word: theos, a "divine being," a "god"; sophia, "wisdom"; hence divine wisdom. Theosophy is the majestic wisdom-religion of the archaic ages and is as old as thinking man. It was delivered to the first human protoplasts, the first thinking human beings on this earth, by highly intelligent spiritual entities from superior spheres. This ancient doctrine, this esoteric system, has been passed down from guardians to guardians to guardians through innumerable generations until our own time. Furthermore, portions of this original and majestic system have been given out at various periods of time to various races in various parts of the world by those guardians when humanity stood in need of such extension and elaboration of spiritual and intellectual thought.

Theosophy is not a syncretistic philosophy-religion-science, a system of thought or belief which has been put together piecemeal and consisting of parts or portions taken by some great mind from other various religions or philosophies. This idea is false. On the contrary, theosophy is that single system or systematic formulation of the facts of visible and invisible nature which, as expressed through the illuminated human mind, takes the apparently separate forms of science and of philosophy and of religion. We may likewise describe theosophy to be the formulation in human language of the nature, structure, origin, destiny, and operations of the kosmical universe and of the multitudes of beings which infill it.

It might be added that theosophy, in the language of H. P. Blavatsky (Theosophical Glossary, p. 328), is "the sub-stratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies, taught and practiced by a few elect ever since man became a thinking being. In its practical bearing, Theosophy is purely divine ethics; the definitions in dictionaries are pure nonsense, based on religious prejudice and ignorance." (See also Universal Brotherhood)

See also: Theosophy , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Christian theological definition of Hypostatic Union according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

"

Hypostatic Union

See also: Hypostatic Union , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

A Christian theological definition of Atonement according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

"

Atonement

See also: Atonement , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

PATAPHYSICS

The invention of late 19th Century French humorist, Alfred Jarry, which he defined as follows:

"Pataphysics, whose etymological spelling should be epi (meta) ta  physika and actual orthography 'pataphysics, preceded by an apostrophe so as  to avoid a simple pun (patte… physique), is the science of that which is  superinduced upon metaphysics, where within or beyond the latter's  limitations, extending as far beyond metaphysics as the latter extends beyond  physics. Ex: an epiphenomenon being often accidental, pataphysics will be,  above all, the science of the particular, despite the common opinion that the  only science is that of the general."

According to Jarry, Pataphysics is the science of exceptions, and explains the universe beyond this one, or imagined to lie beyond this one, dealing entirely with accidental data comprising no "rule." Jarry's exact definition of pataphysics is: "The science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments."

Jarry proposes, for instance, that we should think of a vacuum as a "unit of non-density" rising outward, rather than of an object falling to the center. He observes that the shape of a watch is not any more round that it is rectangular (in profile). This is obviously typical 19th Century "objectivism" carried to an absurd extreme.

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

A Christian theological definition of Incarnation according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

"

Incarnation

See also: Incarnation , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

In addition to a conventional definition of anti-Semitism ("hostility toward Jews as a religious or racial minority group, often accompanied by social, political or economic discrimination"), the unabridged edition of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, originally published in 1961 and reprinted in 2002, gives a controversial second and third definition to anti-Semitism, defining the word as "opposition to Zionism" and "sympathy for the opponents of Israel". (The modern college editions based on Webster's Third all omit the second definition of "anti-Semitism.") The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination ...

See also:

Anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Defining anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Anti-Zionism dictionary definitions, Anti-Zionism - Types of anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Jewish anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Arab anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Islamist anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Western anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Soviet anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - International anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism - Anti-Zionism and Post-Zionism

In addition to a conventional definition of anti-Semitism ("hostility toward Jews as a religious or racial minority group, often accompanied by social, political or economic discrimination"), the unabridged edition of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, originally published in 1961 and reprinted in 2002, gives a controversial second and third definition to anti-Semitism, defining the word as "opposition to Zionism" and "sympathy for the opponents of Israel". (The modern college editions based on Webster's Third all omit the second definition of "anti-Semitism.") The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination ...

See also:

Anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Defining anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Anti-Zionism dictionary definitions, Anti-Zionism - Types of anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Jewish anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Socialist Bolshevik Anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Arab anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Islamist anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Western anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Soviet anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - International anti-Zionism, Anti-Zionism - Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism - Anti-Zionism and Post-Zionism

In religion and sociology, a cult is a cohesive group of people (often a relatively small and new religious movement) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be far outside the mainstream. Its marginal status may come about either due to its novel belief system or because of its idiosyncratic practices. In common usage, "cult" has a negative connotation, and is generally applied to a group by its opponents, for a variety of possible reasons. Cult - Definitions ...

Including:

Cult - Definitions of cult
Cult - Definition of cult in dictionaries Cult - Definition by the Christian countercult movement Cult - Definition by secular cult opposition Cult - Points of view regarding definitions
Cult - Cult NRM and the sociology and psychology of religion Cult - Christianity and Cults Cult - Cults and terrorism Cult - Theories about the reasons for joining a cult Cult - Cult leadership Cult - Development of cults Cult - Relationships with the outside world Cult - Cults: genuine concerns and exaggerations
Cult - Stigmatization and discrimination Cult - Leaving a cult Cult - Criticism by former members of purported cults Cult - Allegations made by scholars and skeptics Cult - Other allegations
Cult - Prevalence of purported cults Cult - Cults and governments Cult - Bibliography
Cult - Books Cult - Articles

Read more here: » Cult: Encyclopedia - Cult