Kapha: ka=water and pha which refers to the process of biological evolution therefore kapha: “life-fluid”. It is the fertile water for the play of life. It produces connecting, nourishing, developing and fortifying functions; it promotes the well being of the body by its lubricating action. Thus it supplies the water for the roots of life. A dosha.

(See also: Kapha, Hinduism, Yoga, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Mahat: The Great Cause: the first stage of evolution for undifferentiated Prakriti. The cosmic ego sense; the first dawning of the differentiated ego sense. The first layer above our true self.

(See also: Mahat, Hinduism, Yoga, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Rasollasa (Sanskrit) [from rasa fluid, liquid + ud-las to come forth, appear]

Also rasollasa. "The first of the eight physical perfections, or Siddhis (phenomena), of the Hatha Yogis. Rasollasa is the prompt evolution at will of the juices of the body independently of any nutriment from without" (TG 276).

(See also: Rasollasa, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

ife force: 1. (elan vital) The vital force affirmed by French philosopher and Nobel Prize laureate Henri Bergson (1859-1941) as a source of evolution in nature. 2. Vital force. 3. (life potential) In Buddhism, the latent energy for a lifetime of a certain length.

(See also: Ife force, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Kneph or Knouphis (Egyptian) An alternative form of the deity Khnum or Khnemu, associated with Egyptian cosmogony. One of the gods of creative force:

"as Chnoumis-Kneph, who represents the Indian Narayana, the Spirit of God moving on the waters of space, as Eichton or Ether he holds in his mouth an Egg, the symbol of evolution; and as Av he is Siva, the Destroyer and the Regenerator; for as Deveria explains: 'His journey to the lower hemispheres appears to symbolize the evolutions of substances, which are born to die and to be reborn.' Esoterically, however, . . . Chnoumis-Kneph was pre-eminently the god of reincarnation" (TG 82-3). All these solar gods are the personification of the attributes of one god, representing various aspects of the phases of generation and impregnation.

(See also: Kneph, Knouphis, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Arc(s), Ascending and Descending Also Luminous and Shadowy Arcs. A cycle of development, such as that of a planetary chain, can be divided into two halves, the first from the first globe to the middle of the most material globe, and the other extending from this midpoint upwards to the last globe. The first half is the downward or shadowy arc; the second is the ascending or luminous arc. The descending arc represents an involution of spirit and a concurrent evolution of matter resulting in a progressive materialization of spirit and a continuous grossening or concretion of the texture of matter; the ascending arc represents an evolution of spirit and involution of matter, resulting in a progressive dematerialization, spiritualization, or refinement of matter as it increasingly manifests the qualities of spirit. Yet spirit and matter are fundamentally one essence at different stages of development.

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

Deva-sarga (Sanskrit) (from deva divine + sarga emanation, emission, creation)

Divine emanation or emission; the creation of the gods, the last of the first series of creations enumerated in the Vishnu-Purana. It "has a universal reference; namely, the Evolutions in general, not specifically to our Manvantara; but the latter begins with the same over and over again, showing that it refers to several distinct Kalpas.

 For it is said 'at the close of the past (Padma) Kalpa the divine Brahma awoke from his night of sleep and beheld the universe void.' Then Brahma is shown going once more over the 'seven creations' in the secondary stage of evolution, repeating the first three on the objective plane" (SD 1:454).

(See also: Deva-sarga, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Darwinism The school of scientific thought arising out of Charles Darwin's theory of the origin and propagation of species in the animal and plant kingdoms by natural selection, resulting in the survival of the fittest. It was popularized by Thomas Huxley and Ernst Haeckel in the 19th century, and in the 20th century Neo-Darwinism has incorporated knowledge of genetics and mutation into the Darwinian framework.

While Darwinism helped bring about the widespread acceptance of the concept of evolutionary development, theosophical writers often take exception to its exclusive emphasis on an uninterrupted, end-on evolution through the transformation of physical bodies, its reliance solely on chance and physical causes, and the absence of spirit or consciousness in the evolutionary process.

Darwinism holds that the simplest chemical compounds gradually through random physical processes eventually produce simple organic entities, and then these natural, material forces produce by accretion of environmental experience ever more complex and evolved structures forming a continuum of physical evolution, until consciousness results. By this method humankind has evolved most recently from the anthropoids.

By contrast, theosophy begins with the most spiritual, highly evolved entities working with the least evolved kingdoms at the opening of planetary manifestation to gradually build up the inner and outer vehicles necessary for the expression of the innate consciousness of the variety of entities making up the kingdoms of nature. The lower kingdoms find manifestation through the more evolved, so that the human kingdom is the root or origin of all the kingdoms of nature below it, which came to birth through the proto-human stock in earlier evolutionary periods.

Thus, theosophy holds that all evolution lies latent within the essence of each entity, "that the evolution of man and of the beings below him, and of the universe itself, cannot be logically and completely explained on accepted scientific lines, or by the alleged facts of science depending solely upon physical and chemical agencies. These are not the only factors working in the evolution of beings; and the main divergence . . . between the theosophical view of evolution and those theories hitherto current in the world, is that the latter refuse to admit a psycho-vital engine or motor behind and within the running physical machine -- or rather engineers, call them spiritual entities if you like" {MIE 103-4}.

See also ANTHROPOIDS; EVOLUTION

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

Definition and meaning of Thaisoi :

Thaisoi: An ancient Greek benevolent society which was a step in the evolution of Life and Health Insurance. (LI,H)

(Source: InsWeb)

Also see these pages: Thaisoi , Life Insurance, Life Insurance Sitemap,  Insurance, Insurance Sitemap, Insurance Dictionary - T

Stone Age According to current theories of human evolution, the comparatively recent time when man had found out how to make stone implements only, not having yet learnt the use of metals. Subdivided by scientific theorists into the Paleolithic and Neolithic (old and new stone ages).

Though people in all ages have used such implements and still do in some places -- which fact does not place us all today in the Stone Age -- it is evident that the use of stone implements by savage peoples in no wise tends to establish a theory of human evolution. Races branch out like the limbs of a tree, so that different people may be in various stages of their racial evolution at the same time; also a degenerating race may revert to the use of stone implements.

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

Superspiritual Those realms and spheres of the cosmic being and life which are the causal noumena even of the spirit; and hence we may speak of the superspiritual as being the divine, out of which the spiritual flows during the course of cosmic evolution.

The spheres of action of the combined forced of evolution and karma are the superspiritual or noumenal, the spiritual, the psychological, the astro-ethereal, the subastral, the vital, and the purely physical.

Man in the first round and first root-race on globe D was a highly ethereal being, nonintelligent in our sense, but spiritual, and the offspring of superspiritual monadic essences; and the same rule applied, but less forcibly, in the first root-race of the fourth round.

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

Theos, Theoi (Greek) [from theein to run, in reference to the planetary deities who perform the formative work in cosmic evolution; or cf Sanskrit deva, Latin deus (connected with Zeus or Dios) the bright or shining one]

God, gods; builders or cosmocratores. The two derivations are not antagonistic because the planets, stars, and suns are the bright and shining ones. Used in the triad of chaos, theos, cosmos -- three hypostases on the matter side of cosmic evolution -- meaning respectively the storehouse of cosmic seeds, the builders, and the universe built thereby.

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

Dictionaries usually describe God as the Supreme Being. Since we cannot put God on a table for a thorough investigation, God and his nature is still seen by some as belonging to a belief system.

Scholars, who believe in the theory of evolution, naturally think that this system of belief must also have undergone its own evolution. They say that ' animism ' (a belief in souls) slowly developed into ' polytheism ' (the belief in many Gods) and from there developed into a belief of one God.

(See also: Metaphysics, Metaphysical Principles, Definition of Metaphysics, Metaphysical Techniques, Miracles, Creating Miracles Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, Peace of Mind, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Definition of Metaphysics: Nature Of God

acharya: (Sanskrit) "Going toward;" "approaching." A highly respected teacher. The wise one who practices what he preaches. A title generally bestowed through diksha and spreading; advance, progress." See: evolution of the soul.

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

acharya: (Sanskrit) "Going toward;" "approaching." A highly respected teacher. The wise one who practices what he preaches. A title generally bestowed through diksha and spreading; advance, progress." See: evolution of the soul.

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

Moment of Choice The turning point in evolution, when the temporary balance between spirit and matter, or between upward and downward movements, has been reached. The evolving entity can then no longer remain neutral and undecided, but must choose definitely whether to continue upward or to enter upon a downward path.

When the movement towards pralaya prevails, all the classes of evolving beings gravitate to their appropriate sphere: spirit to spirit, matter to matter, manas to mahat. But this dividing of the ways occurs for self-conscious entities at every step of the path, so that in this sense the moment of choice is continuous.

Although this moment of choice is continuous for the individual, yet a point occurs in human evolution when the decision must definitely be made to follow the upward path or to follow the matter side of evolution. There is also the choice that must be made when the individual has reached the peak of human evolution on this globe, when the decision is finally to be made whether he will follow the path of the Buddhas of Compassion, or pursue the way of self and become a Pratyeka Buddha.

The human kingdom's moment of choice is that point in the evolutionary cycle reached on this globe in the fifth round when the monads not ready to continue their upward evolutionary journey must perforce wait for a future manvantara. The evolutionary moment of choice for the animal kingdom was that point in the cycle when the door to the human kingdom was closed, after which no monads can enter the human life-wave until the next manvantara. This occurred at the midpoint of the fourth round on globe D of the earth-chain, during the fourth root-race.

(See also: Moment of Choice, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Porphyrion (Greek) Lurid, fiery; a gigante or giant born of the blood (vitality) of Ouranos (heaven) falling upon the earth. These giants were more human than the titans, and continued the war against the Olympian gods, which symbolizes the struggles which took place during the descending arc of evolution, cosmically and among the races of mankind, between the lower material forces and the celestial powers from above. Porphyrion is slain by the gods with the help of Hercules and buried in the abysses of earth.

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

Pratisarga (Sanskrit) [from prati forwards, towards + the verbal root srij to flow forth, appear in manifestation]

In Sankhya philosophy, the intellectual evolution of the universe; the secondary or continued creation out of primordial matter. In abstract philosophy, also applied to the portion of a Purana which treats of the opposite phase of cosmic rhythm, the destruction as well as the renovation of the universe. Pratisarga thus may be used both as a creation or dissolution.

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

Pratyayasarga (Sanskrit) [from pratyaya understanding, discriminative comprehension, equivalent to buddhi + sarga that which is produced or brought forth, creation]

Used especially in Sankhya philosophy for the evolutionary formation or development from buddhi, commonly rendered as intellectual creation, equivalent to the eighth (or fifth) evolutional stage in development or creation in the Vishnu-Purana, called anugraha.

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

Pravritti pravrtti (Sanskrit) [from pra forth, forwards + the verbal root vrit to roll, turn, unfold]

Evolution or emanation; the process of unwrapping or unfolding-forth, as of spirit entities into matter or, conversely, of matter-lives back into spirit entities. It is usually restricted to the process by which spirit descends into matter or the passage of the monads down the shadowy arc.

See also NIVRITTI

(See also: Pravritti, pravrtti, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Gwynfyd, Clych y Gwynfyd

(Welsh) Bliss, the cycle of bliss. In Druidism, the worlds above the human, the second of the three cycles of being; that to which the soul attains after evolving beyond the Little World -- the human state -- and the cycle of Abred. From Gwynfyd the soul might elect to take on further incarnation in the Little World, moved by the desire to help forward human evolution.

(See also: Gwynfyd, Clych y Gwynfyd, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Liquor Amnii A serous liquid which appears early and freely in the development of the embryo. Concerning the analogy between the formation of the human body and that of a planet:

"This mysterious process of a nine-months' formation, the Kabalists call the completion of the 'individual cycle of evolution.' As the foetus develops amidst the liquor amnii in the womb, so the Earths germinate in the universal ether, or astral fluid, in the womb of the Universe" (SD 2:188).

(See also: Liquor Amnii, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)