A Wisdom Archive on Filling

Virtually all modern current computer video displays translate vector representations of an image to a raster format. The raster image, containing a value for every pixel on the screen, is stored in memory and the entire screen is repainted 30 or more times per second. Starting in the earliest days of computing in the 1950s and into the 1980s, a different type of display, the vector graphics system, was used. In these systems the electron beam of the CRT display monitor was steered directly to trace out the shapes required, lin ...

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Orgelmir (Scandianvian Norse). Lit., "seething clay". The same as Ymir, the giant, the unruly, turbulent, erratic being, the type of primordial matter, out of whose body, after killing him, the sons of Bor created a new earth. He is also the cause of the Deluge in the Scandinavian Lays, for he flung his body into Ginnungagap, the yawning abyss; the latter being filled with it, the blood flowed over and produced a great flood in which all the Hrimthurses, the frost giants, were drowned; one of them only the cunning Bergelmir saves himself and wife in a boat and became the father of a new race of giants. " And there were giants on the earth in those days."

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

Triyana (Sanskrit). "The three vehicles" across Sansara - the ocean of births, deaths, and rebirths - are the vehicles called Sravaka, Pratyeka Buddha and Bodhisattva, or the three degrees of Yogaship.
 
The term Triyana is also used to denote the three schools of mysticism - the Mahayana, Madhyimayana and Hinayana schools; of which the first is the "Greater", the second the " Middle", and the last the "Lesser" Vehicle. All and every system between the Greater and the Lesser Vehicles are considered "useless". Therefore the Pratyeka Buddha is made to correspond with the Madhyimayana. For, as explained, "this (the Pratyeka Buddha state) refers to him who lives all for himself and very little for others, occupying the middle of the vehicle, filling it all and leaving no room for others ". Such is the selfish candidate for Nirvana.

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

The word riyaz has its origins in r iyazat, which implies ibadat, bandagi, bhakti or devotion. If riyaz is performed with a spirit of devotion, the exercise becomes ibadat. But while r iyaz is rather mechanically equated with practice or exercise, the all-important difference is one of spirit. Riyaz is to achieve that which has not been achieved so far. For that, the student has to struggle with faith.
 
In the initial stages one might be less than sure whether one is correct in what one is doing. But that is the struggle! In the absence of faith, one's riyaz will be filled with doubt. Faith is of great importance in r iyaz . Practice with a doubt-ridden mind will achieve little.

 
(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Divine Music Springs From the Soul

Tsimtsum (Chaldean) [from the verbal root tsaman to contract, press together]
 
Contraction; a Qabbalistic term containing the philosophical idea of a previous expansion -- otherwise there could have been no subsequent contraction. Hence, tsimtsum is used to designate centrifugal and centripetal motion, expansion and contraction, which under the direction of the supreme of the Sephiroth brought forth and maintains the universe.
 
"The Unknown Absolute, above all number, manifested Itself through an emanation in which it was immanent yet as to which it was transcendental. It first withdrew Itself into Itself, to form an infinite Space, the Abyss; which It then filled with a modified and gradually diminishing Light or Vitalization, first appearing in the Abyss, as the centre of a mathematical point which gradually spread Its Life-giving energy or force throughout all Space. This concentration or contraction and its expansion, being the centripetal and centrifugal energies of creation and existence, the Qabbalists called Tzimtzum. The Will of Ain Soph then manifests Itself through the Ideal Perfect Model or Vitalizing Form, first principle and perfect prototype in idea, of all the to be created, whether spiritual or material. This is the Mikrokosm to the Ain Soph, the Makrokosm as to all the created. It is called the Son of Elohim, i.e., God, and the Adam Illa-ah or Adam Qadmon, the Man of the East or Heavenly Adam" (Myer, Qabbalah p. 231).
 
This idea is analogous to the Hindu inbreathing and outbreathing of Brahma.
 
Tsimtsum is stated to be particularly active in the third `olam or lowest triad of the Sephirothal Cosmic Tree -- each Sephirothal Tree is divided into a set of three triads, called respectively 1) intelligible or intellectual world; 2) formative or paradigmatic world; and 3) the natural world. It is in this last triad of Sephiroth, called `olam ham-Muteba`, where tsimtsum is specifically active.

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

Trinity The divine powers at the head of every theogony. In the Christian Trinity, the original idea of a triune divinity is preserved but has become confused and adapted to theological speculation. If the Holy Ghost is regarded as feminine, as it was in primitive Christianity, we have the trinity of Father-Mother-Son.
 
The present manner of the procession of the Holy Ghost in the Occident is due to the early theological quarrels which was one of the main causes of the final rupture between the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches -- the filioque ("and from the son") controversy. The Orthodox held with the original procession of Father, Holy Ghost, and Son, while in the West the Holy Ghost or Spirit has become a kind of emanation from the Father or Son, or both of them, and is scarcely distinguishable in its attributes from the Son; while the place of Mother has been filled in the Roman Catholic Church by Mary who, though the mother of Jesus, nevertheless is not a member of the Trinity.
 
But there is another trinity besides that of Father-Mother-Son, that of the one divine root and its dual aspects -- a conception altogether lost in Christianity. The Christian God is at best but a Demiourgos or inferior creative power, and his necessary attributes clash irreconcilably with those pertaining to the supreme hierarch of our universe; but in many of the sayings of Jesus and in the Epistles of Paul is clear evidence of the true teachings as to the Trinity and the relation of the Father and the Son.
 
In the orthodox Christian view of its theological Trinity the three persons of the Godhead are not three gods but one God, and yet three Persons or individuals. So that we have one Godhead who is three-in-one, and yet one-in-three, which is not three gods, nor yet one God, but both. Moslems aver that the Christian Trinity is not one God in three aspects, but actually three gods manifesting as one, and the strict monotheism of Islam refuses to admit the logical monstrosity. The Christian Churches lost sight of the mystical origin of its own trinity out of the neo-Pythagorean and Neoplatonic mysticism.
 
All the great religious and philosophical systems of antiquity contained a divine or spiritual triadic unity as the cosmic source and focus of all beings and things, out of which emanate the universe and all that is in it. Examples are the Osiris-Isis-Horus of Egypt or the Brahma-Vishnu-Siva of India; yet these triads of gods are emanated reflections or representatives on lower planes of the still more sublime and ineffable triadic mystery above and beyond them.

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

Sarcophagus (Ancient Greek). A stone tomb, a receptacle for the dead; sarc = flesh, and phagein = to eat. Lapis assius, the stone of which the sarcophagi were made, is found in Lycia, and has the property of consuming the bodies in a very few weeks.
 
In Egypt sarcophagi were made of various other stones, of black basalt, red granite, alabaster and other materials, as they served only as outward receptacles for the wooden coffins containing the mummies.
 
The epitaphs on some of them are as remarkable as they are highly ethical, and no Christian could wish for anything better. One epitaph, dating thousands of years before the year one of our modern era, reads: - " I have given water to him who was thirsty, and clothing to him who was naked. I have done harm to no man." Another: "I have done actions desired by men and those which are commanded by the gods". The beauty of some of these tombs may be judged by the alabaster sarcophagus of Oimenephthah I., at Sir John Soane’s Museum, Lincoln’s Inn. "It was cut out of a single block of fine alabaster stone, and is 9 ft. 4 in.. long, by 22 to 24 in. in width, and 27 to 32 in. in height. . . . Engraved dots, etc., outside were once filled with blue copper to represent the heavens.
 
To attempt a description of the wonderful figures inside and out is beyond the scope of this work. Much of our knowledge of the mythology of the people is derived from this precious monument, with its hundreds of figures to illustrate the last judgment, and the life beyond the grave. Gods, men, serpents, symbolical animals and plants are there most beautifully carved." (Funeral Rites of the Egyptians.)

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

Soma-drink. Made from a rare mountain plant by initiated Brahmans. This Hindu sacred beverage answers to the Greek ambrosia or nectar, quaffed by the gods of Olympus. A cup of Kykeon was also quaffed by the Mystes at the Eleusinian initiation. He who drinks it easily reaches Bradhna, or the place of splendour (Heaven).
 
 The Soma-drink known to Europeans is not the genuine beverage, but its substitute; for the initiated priests alone can taste of the real Soma; and even kings and Rajas, when sacrificing, receive the substitute. Haug, by his own confession, shows in his Aitareya Brahmana, that it was not the Soma that he tasted and found nasty, but the juice from the roots of the Nyagradha, a plant or bush which grows on the hills of Poona. We were positively informed that the majority of the sacrificial priests of the Dekkan have lost the secret of the true Soma. It can be found neither in the ritual books nor through oral information. The true followers of the primitive Vedic religion are very few; these are the alleged descendants of the Rishis, the real Agnihotris, the initiates of the great Mysteries. The Soma drink is also commemorated in the Hindu Pantheon, for it is called King-Soma.
 
He who drinks thereof is made to participate in the heavenly king; he becomes filled with his essence, as the Christian apostles and their converts were. filled with the Holy Ghost, and purified of their sins. The Soma makes a new man of the initiate; he is reborn and transformed, and his spiritual nature overcomes the physical; it bestows the divine power of inspiration, and develops the clairvoyant faculty to the utmost. According to the exoteric explanation the soma is a plant, but at the same time it is an angel. It forcibly connects the inner, highest " spirit" of man, which spirit is an angel like the mystical Soma, with his "irrational soul ", or astral body, and thus united by the power of the magic drink, they soar together above physical nature and participate during life in the beatitude and ineffable glories of Heaven, Thus the Hindu Soma is mystically and in all respects the same that the Eucharist supper is to the Christian. The idea is similar. By means of the sacrificial prayers - the mantras - this liquor is supposed to be immediately transformed into the real Soma, or the angel, and even into Brahma himself. Some missionaries have expressed themselves with much indignation about this ceremony, the more so, seeing that the Brahmans generally use a kind of spirituous liquor as a substitute.
 
But do the Christians believe less fervently in the transubstantiation of the communion wine into the blood of Christ, because this wine happens to be more or less spirituous? Is not the idea of the symbol attached to it the same? But the missionaries say that this hour of soma-drinking is the golden hour of Satan, who lurks at the bottom of the Hindu sacrificial cup. (Isis Unveiled.)

 
(See also: Soma-drink, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

Vacuum Emptiness, the necessary correlative of plenum or fullness: the two being one of those pairs of opposites which the mind is bound to postulate as a basis of reasoning. It stands for the spiritual condition of a cosmic hierarchy before it emanates its streams of manifestation -- "the symbol of the absolute Deity or Boundless Space, esoterically" (TG 357).
 
Democritus taught that the first principles are atoms and a vacuum, which is equivalent to the manifest and the unmanifest, deity latent and deity patent, but the atoms of Democritus, being spiritual indivisibles, are not the atoms of science but what in theosophy are called monads, and likewise the vacuum of void of Democritus is the equivalent of the archaic Buddhist sunyata or the ancient Buddhist or Brahmanic arupa (formless) spheres.
 
The atomo-mechanical theory of physics starts with atoms and a vacuum and then tries to fill the vacuum; here the notion of emptiness has become confused with spatial extension, giving rise to the idea that there can be an extended and measurable void, and raising the difficulty of the transmission of influence across it.
 
The word is used relatively to signify the absence of something, as the absence of physical matter in an evacuated bulb. But another form of matter is still present, for we can transmit light as well as many other forms of radiation. Thus proceeding by successive steps we come to the logical limit in the conception of the cosmic void -- which nevertheless from the spiritual viewpoint is a pleroma or utter fullness. The physical vacuum of the laboratory has become confused with the scientific and mystical void of the archaic philosophy.

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

Mastaba (Egypt, Egyptian). The upper portion of an Egyptian tomb, which, say the Egyptologists, consisted always of three parts: namely
(1) the Mastaba or memorial chapel above ground,
(2) a Pit from twenty to ninety feet in depth, which led by a passage, to
(3) the Burial Chamber, where stood the Sarcophagus, containing the mummy sleeping its sleep of long ages. Once the latter interred, the pit was filled up and the entrance to it concealed.
 
Thus say the Orientalists, who divide the last resting place of the mummy on almost the same principles as theologians do man - into body, soul, and spirit or mind. The fact is, that these tombs of the ancients were symbolical like the rest of their sacred edifices, and that this symbology points directly to the septenary division of man.
 
But in death the order is reversed; and while the Mastaba with its scenes of daily life painted on the walls, its table of offerings, to the Larva, the ghost, or "Linga Sarira", was a memorial raised to the two Principles and Life which had quitted that which was a lower trio on earth; the Pit, the Passage, the Burial Chambers and the mummy in the Sarcophagus, were the objective symbols raised to the two perishable "principles", the personal mind and Kama, and the three imperishable, the higher Triad, now merged into one. This "One" was the Spirit of the Blessed now resting in the Happy Circle of Aanroo.

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

Triyana (Sanskrit) [from tri three + yana vehicle, way]
 
The three vehicles, ways, conditions, or degrees by which the neophyte, and later adept, crosses the ocean of births, deaths, and rebirths or samsara. The three vehicles are likewise three degrees of yoga known as sravaka, pratyeka-buddha, and bodhisattva.
 
"The term Triyana is also used to denote the three schools of mysticism [in India] -- the Mahayana, the Madhyimayana and Hinayana schools; of which the first is the ''Greater,'' and the second the ''Middle,'' and the last the ''Lesser'' Vehicle. All and every system between the Greater and the Lesser Vehicles are considered ''useless.''
 
Therefore the Pratyeka Buddha is made to correspond with the Madhyimayana. For, as explained, ''this (the Pratyeka Buddha state) refers to him who lives all for himself and very little for others, occupying the middle of the vehicle, filling it all and leaving no room for others.'' Such is the selfish candidate for Nirvana" (TG 344-5).

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