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

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Eternal Security

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

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

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Eternal life

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

Eternal

A divine attribute; without beginning or end, unaffected by time, outside time. One of the names of God, i. e. The Eternal.

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

Hinduism (Hindu Dharma): (Sanskrit) India's indigenous religious and cultural system, followed today by nearly one billion adherents, mostly in India, but with large populations in many other countries. Also called Sanatana Dharma, "eternal religion" and Vaidika Dharma, "religion of the Vedas."

Hinduism is the world's most ancient religion and encompasses a broad spectrum of philosophies ranging from pluralistic theism to absolute monism.

It is a family of myriad faiths with four primary denominations:

• Saivism,
• Vaishnavism,
• Shaktism and
• Smartism.

These four hold such divergent beliefs that each is a complete and independent religion. Yet, they share a vast heritage of culture and belief:

• karma,
• dharma,
• reincarnation,
• all-pervasive Divinity,
• temple worship,
• sacraments,
• manifold Deities,
• the guru-shishya tradition and
• a reliance on the Vedas as scriptural authority.

From the rich soil of Hinduism long ago sprang various other traditions. Among these were Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, which rejected the Vedas and thus emerged as completely distinct religions, disassociated from Hinduism, while still sharing many philosophical insights and cultural values with their parent faith.

Though the genesis of the term is controversial, the consensus is that the term Hindu or Indu was used by the Persians to refer to the Indian peoples of the Indus Valley as early as 500 bce. Additionally, Indian scholars point to the appearance of the related term Sindhu in the ancient Rig Veda Samhita. Janaki Abhisheki writes (Religion as Knowledge: The Hindu Concept, p. 1): "Whereas today the word

Hindu connotes a particular faith and culture, in ancient times it was used to describe those belonging to a particular region. About 500 bce we find the Persians referring to 'Hapta Hindu.' This referred to the region of Northwest India and the Punjab (before partition).

The Rig Veda (the most ancient literature of the Hindus) uses the word Sapta Sindhu singly or in plural at least 200 times. Sindhu is the River Indus. Panini, the great Sanskrit grammarian, also uses the word Sindhu to denote the country or region.

While the Persians substituted h for s, the Greeks removed the h also and pronounced the word as 'Indoi.' Indian is derived from the Greek Indoi."

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan similarly observed,

"The Hindu civilization is so called since its original founders or earliest followers occupied the territory drained by the Sindhu (the Indus) River system corresponding to the Northwest Frontier Province and the Punjab. This is recorded in the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures, which give their name to this period of Indian history. The people on the Indian side of the Sindhu were called Hindus by the Persians and the later Western invaders. That is the genesis of the word Hindu" (The Hindu View of Life, p. 12).

See: Hindu.

(See also: Hinduism , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Eternal Buddha (dharmakaya): In Mahayana Buddhism's Triple Body (trikaya) theory, the Eternal Buddha is undifferientiated absolute existence behind all appearances, and functionally the same as nirvana, emptiness, Buddha-nature, and suchness.

 (See also: Eternal Buddha , Eastern Philosophy, Body Mind and Soul)

Eternal Pilgrim The divine monad of man during its cycle of incarnation, so termed because of its manifold peregrinations downwards and upwards through the seven, ten, or twelve cosmic planes. It is the source of the entire septenary constitution of manifesting entities; and through the various processes of emanation from within itself, it provides itself with the various sheaths, veils, or garments of consciousness, which in their aggregate form the fully manifested septenary.

(See also: Eternal Pilgrim , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Now A fundamental concept of the theosophical philosophy is the Eternal Now. The past lingers in the memory and the future is ever vanishing from the present into the past: only Now eternally exists.

In the case of man, at any given moment he is the result of what he has fashioned himself to be out of all preceding moments; his future will therefore be the working out of his previous thoughts and actions, and one by one these disappear into what to us is the past, and yet is always present. These philosophical reflections apply universally.

"The three periods -- the Present, the Past, and the Future -- are in the esoteric philosophy a compound time; for the three are a composite number only in relation to the phenomenal plane, but in the realm of noumena have no abstract validity" (SD 1:43).

"Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced; but 'lies asleep.' The present is only a mathematical line which divides that part of eternal duration which we call the future, from that part which we call the past. Nothing on earth has real duration, for nothing remains without change -- or the same -- for the billionth part of a second; and the sensation we have of the actuality of the division of 'time' known as the present, comes from the blurring of that momentary glimpse, or succession of glimpses, of things that our senses give us, as those things pass from the region of ideals which we call the future, to the region of memories that we name the past" (SD 1:37).

(See also: Now , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Eternal Now: Living in the moment, the now.

 (See also: Eternal Now , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Lotus (from Greek lotos)

A lily belonging to the genus Nymphaea, an ancient and universal symbol; in India spoken of innumerable times under its Sanskrit name padma.

"It is the flower sacred to nature and her Gods, and represents the abstract and the Concrete Universes, standing as the emblem of the productive powers of both spiritual and physical nature. It was held sacred from the remotest antiquity by the Aryan Hindus, the Egyptians, and the Buddhists after them; revered in China and Japan, and adopted as a Christian emblem by the Greek and Latin Churches, who made of it a messenger as the Christians do now, who replace it with the water lily. It had, and still has, its mystic meaning which is identical with every nation on the earth" (SD 1:379).

In relation to men, the lotus is the symbol of the self-producing soul which, during manifestation immersed in material life as the lotus seed is embedded in the mud of lake or pond, is wakened by the warm rays of the spiritual sun, and grows upward through the world of illusion (symbolized by water) to blossom in the free air and sunlight of truth.

Cosmically the lotus symbolizes the emanation of the objective from the subjective, the manifested effect or production of the eternal plan on which the invisible worlds are built by the formative logoi. This lies buried, until the time for its svabhava or production comes, in the bosom of eternal ideation -- as the lotus plant of visible nature exists in miniature in the seed.

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

Baddha-jiva - the conditioned soul who is bound by matter. With regard to the origin of the baddha-jiva this passage states that Bhagavan’s eternal associates in the spiritual world do not have any contact with and are completely unaffected by the material energy. Only some of the jivas that emanate from Maha-Visnu come into the material world. The original Bengali is as follows:

goloka-vrndavanastha evam paravyoma-stha baladeva o sankarsanaprakatita nitya-parsada jiva-sakala ananta; tanhara upasya-sevaya rasika; sarvada svarupartha-visista; upasya-sukhanvesi upasyera prati sarvada unmukha jiva saktite cit-saktite bala labha kariya tanhara sarvada balavan; mayara sahita tahandera kona sambandha nai; mayasakti baliya kona sakti achena, tahao tanhara avagata nana; ye hetu tanhara cit-mansala-madhyavarti evam maya tanhadera nikata haite aneka dure; tanhara sarvadai upasya-seva-sukhe magna; dukha, jasa-sukha o nija-sukha ity adi kakhani janena na. tanhara nitya-mukta premai tanhadera jivana; soka, marana au bhaya ye ki vastu, taha tanhara janena na.

karanabdha-sayi-maha-visnura mayara prati iksana-rupa kiranagata anu-caitanya-gana o ananta; tanhara maya-parsva-sthita baliya mayara vicitrata tanhadera darsana-patharusa-purve ye jivasadharanera laksana baliyachi, se samasta laksana tanhadera ache, tathapi atyanta anu-svabhava-prayukta sarvada tatastha-bhave citjagatera dike evam maya-jagatera dike drstipata karite thakena. e avasthaya jiva atyanta durbala, kenana, - justa va sevye-vastura krpalabha karatah cid-bala labha karena nai. inhadera madhye ye saba jiva maya-bhoga vasana karena, tanhara mayika-visaye abhinivista haiya mayate nitya-baddha. yanhara sevya-vastur cidanusilana karena, tanhara sevya-tattvena krpara sahita cid-bala labha karatah cid-dhame nita hana; baba! amara durbhaga, krsnera nityadasya bhuliya mayabhinivesa dvara mayabadha achi; ataeva svarupartha-hina haiyai amadera e durdasa.

(See also: Baddha-jiva , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

HANDFASTING:

1) the Wiccan, Pagan, & Gypsy wedding.

2) can also refer to a solemn betrothal. In some traditions, it is a permanent joining while in others it is only for as long as both partners agree to be joined.

3) This is the Rite of Pagan marriage, traditionally contracted for a specific period of time depending on ones tradition. It is renewed only if both parties agree. In Old Irish the word for handfasting is lanamnas.

4) Within the Druidic traditions this was usually an eternal vow taken with a soul mate.

5) There are 3 basic marriage handfasting: For a year & a day; For a lifetime; and For time & eternity. Unlike a marriage until 'death do you part', a handfasting will stop, if the love stops (usually).

(See also: HANDFASTING , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Land of the Eternal Sun From immemorial time mystics and occult philosophers have consistently taught of the existence of a land where the sunshine is perpetual, the abode of the gods whose particular function it is to oversee the destinies, not only of mankind, but of other hierarchical groups occupying the earth. Any attempt to fix a geographical locality as this land of the eternal sun has never been successful, for it is no geographical locality, but a region mystically said to be at the top of Mount Meru or the north pole of the earth.

There is a legend known in Tibet which places the mystical Sambhala not only on earth, but likewise upon Mount Meru, and again in the sun -- implying a hierarchy of divine or spiritual beings existing in a threefold order, each order having its own stage or place in this scheme.

(See also: Land of the Eternal Sun , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Buddha Nature

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

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

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

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

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

See also "Dharma Nature."

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

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

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Hell

See also: Hell , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Time Theosophy speaks of absolute undivided time or duration, and of manifested or divided time: the former as causal or noumenal, the latter as effectual or phenomenal, and therefore mayavi or illusional. "Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced; but 'lies asleep' " (SD 1:37). Duration is `olam (occult or hid) in the Qabbalah, signifying duration in eternity or endless perpetuity. Among the Greeks it was called Chronos and even Kronos, and sometimes referred to as Saturn among the Latins; yet its occult or eternally secret activities during periods of manifestation were at times referred to in Hindu philosophic thought as Rudra-Siva, or occasionally as Vishnu.

Theosophy divides boundless duration into unconditionally eternal and universal time, and a conditioned or periodic or "broken" one (SD 1:62). One is the abstraction or noumenon of infinite endless time (Kala); the other its phenomenon, appearing periodically. The symbol of causal or relatively boundless time, so far as the universe is concerned, is often given as a circle, which mathematically is a beginningless and endless line. A spiral line represents time returning upon itself in cycles, and yet transcending itself at each cyclic sweep, devouring its children, as Kronos among the Greeks is said to do; and the serpent with its tail in its mouth often stands for the same ideas. Time, meaning divided or phenomenal time, or manvantaric cycles, is often mentioned as an offspring of space, the latter considered as a container of manifestation. Mystically, theosophy looks upon present and past as well as future as being illusional effects of that beginningless and endless Now, eternal duration.

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

World Egg, Mundane Egg The virgin or eternal egg is chaos, which is fecundated by the ray from spirit, and yet remains immaculate. According to the Stanzas of Dzyan, "The ray shoots through the virgin egg; the ray causes the eternal egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal germ, which condenses into the world-egg" (SD 1:28). The non-eternal egg signifies the transitory worlds of manifestation and is often used for the universe in germ preceding its emanational unfolding. The first cause of a universe, its emanating spirit, was figurated as a bird which dropped an egg into chaos, the egg in course of aeons becomes the manifested universe.

According to the Laws of Manu, hiranyagarbha "is Brahma the first male formed by the undiscernible Causeless cause in a 'Golden Egg resplendent as the Sun,' " (SD 1:89). The Rig-Veda says that the incomprehensible divine germ of our universe, " 'the one Lord of all beings . . . the one animating principle of gods and man,' arose, in the beginning, in the Golden Womb, Hiranyagarbha -- which is the Mundane Egg or sphere of our Universe" (ibid.).

Ptah, the Egyptian god of creation, is represented as bringing forth beings from a lump of clay on a potter's wheel. This lump of clay represents the world egg, out of which all the beings creep. And the winged globe, so prominent in Egyptian symbology, is another symbol of the world egg.

See also EGG

(See also: World Egg, Mundane Egg , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Substitute Word According to Masonic ritual, the Master's Word was lost through the death of Hiram Abif; the other two Masters, King Solomon and King Hiram agree that the Word shall be used as a substitute for the Master's word, until such time as the true one is discovered. Among the Pythagoreans the ineffable Word "was considered the Seventh and highest of all, for there are six minor substitutes, each belongs to a degree of initiation" (IU 2:418). Among the Jews, 'Adonai is spoken as a substitute for the Tetragrammaton, incorrectly transliterated in the Bible as Jehovah, and always pronounced as Adonai.

"It was the secresy of the early kabalists, who were anxious to screen the real Mystery name of the 'Eternal' from profanation, and later the prudence which the mediaeval alchemists and occultists were compelled to adopt to save their lives, that caused the inextricable confusion of divine names. This is what led the people to accept the Jehovah of the Bible as the name of the 'One living God.' . . . Therefore, the biblical name of Jehovah may be considered simply as a substitute, which, as belonging to one of the 'powers,' got to be viewed as that of the 'Eternal." . . . the interdiction did not at all concern the name of the exoteric Jehovah, whose numerous other names could also be pronounced without nay penalty being incurred. . . . the 'Eternal' being something higher than the exoteric and personal 'Lord' " (IU 2:400-1).

Ancient names were always symbols or representations; thus all the names of the Eternal, the infinite and incomprehensible, are substitutes, merely names, attempts to define what is indefinable and unutterable. "The word Jehovah, if Masonry adheres to it, will ever remain as a substitute, never be identified with the lost mirific name" (IU 2:398).

See also INEFFABLE NAME; LOST WORD

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

Jiva - the eternal individual living entity who, in the conditioned state of material existence, assumes a material body in any of the innumerable species of life.

(See also: Jiva , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Dharma - from the verbal root dhr meaning ‘to sustain’; lit. that which sustains;

1) the natural, characteristic function of a thing; that which cannot be separated from its nature;

2) religion in general.

3) the socio-religious duties prescribed in sastra for different classes of persons in the varnasrama system; one’s fixed occupation in relation to the highest ideals known to man.

Dharma is aspired for by persons who not only desire enjoyment in this world, but who hanker for something more, like Svarga. For this it is necessary to follow the religious codes outlined in sastra. By following the religious duties prescribed according to varnasrama, one can enjoy happiness in this life and attain Svarga. The performance of dharmika duties is foremost for such people, and therefore their purusartha (goal of life) is known as dharma.

There are many types of dharma. Stri-dharma (a woman’s dharma) refers to the duties, behaviour etc., that sustain the proper nature of a woman. Similarly, dharmas such as purusa-dharma, brahmana-dharma, sudra-dharma; and sannyasa-dharma, are described in dharma-sastras. Ultimately, however, dharma means the natural attraction of the part for the whole, the jiva for Krsna. All of these other dharmas are only related to this temporary body, therefore, in the midst of performing them, one must cultivate atma-dharma, the soul’s eternal occupation as servant of Krsna, so that one can reach the point, either now or tomorrow, of sarva-dharman parityajya, giving up all secondary dharmas and taking full shelter of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna.

(See also: Dharma , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Abraxas, Abrasax (Gnostic) Mystical term used by the Gnostics to indicate the supreme entity of our cosmic hierarchy or its manifestation in the human being which they called the Christos. Abrasas has the value of 365, based on numerical equivalents of the Greek alphabet. Because 365 represents the cycle of one revolution of our planet around the sun, they held that in Abraxas were mystically contained the full number of families of entities composing a hierarchy. These entities received from their supreme illuminator, Abraxas, the streams of life and inspiration governing their existence. Thus in a sense Abraxas is the cosmic Oversoul, the creative or Third Logos, Brahma. The Basilidean Gnostics taught that from this supreme God was created nous (mind). Abraxas also was identified with the Hebrew 'Adonai, the Egyptian Horus, and the Hindu Prajapati.

Gnostic amulets known as Abraxas gems depicted the god as a pantheos (all-god), with the head of a cock, herald of the sun, representing foresight and vigilance; a human body clothed in armor, suggestive of guardian power; legs in the form of sacred asps. In his right hand is a scourge, emblem of authority; on his left arm a shield emblazoned with a word of power. This pantheos is invariably inscribed with his proper name IAO and his epithets Abraxas and Sabaoth, and often accompanied with invocations such as SEMES EILAM, the eternal sun (Gnostics and Their Remains 246), which Blavatsky equates with "the central spiritual sun" of the Qabbalists (SD 2:214). Though written in Greek characters, the words SEMES EILAM ABRASAX are probably Semitic in origin: shemesh sun; `olam secret, occult, hid, eternity, world; Abrasax Abraxas. Hence in combination the phrase may be rendered "the eternal sun Abraxax."

(See also: Abraxas, Abrasax , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)