History Of Karma Yoga Dictionary

Book of the Dead

Also Egyptian Book of the Dead (known to the ancient Egyptians as The Book of Coming Forth by Day.

A collection of ancient Egyptian religious and magical texts, hymns and formulas concerned with the ensuring the safe passage of the soul (Ka) through Amenti (the Egyptian afterworld).

The Egyptians believed that knowledge of these formulas, hymns, and prayers enabled the soul to ward off demons attempting to impede its progress, and to pass the tests set by the 42 judges in the hall of Osiris, god of the underworld. The soul passing these tests was allowed to mingle with the gods. If it failed the tests, it was devoured by a monster that was part hippopotamus, part crocodile, and part lion.

The texts of the Book of the Dead also indicated that happiness in the afterlife was dependent on the deceased's having led a virtuous life on earth. Part of the Book of the Dead is believed to have originated in the predynastic period of Egyptian history. In the 5th and 6th dynasties the Book of the Dead was inscribed on the sarcophagi in the pyramids of the kings and therefore became known as the Pyramid Texts. By the 18th Dynasty it was inscribed on papyri, which were frequently from 50 to 100 feet long and illustrated in color. These papyri were placed in or near the coffins of the dead and were sometimes called Coffin Texts.

(See also: Book of the Dead , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Adhiyajna (Sanskrit) (from adhi above, paramount + the verbal root yaj to consecrate, offer, sacrifice)

Paramount sacrifice or sacrifice from above; synonymous with the cosmic Logos which, by coming into manifestation, "sacrifices" itself for the benefit of all sentient beings, thereby giving an opportunity to the waiting hosts of monads to undergo their own evolutionary course as they live and move and have their being within the Logos.

Every avatara repeats in the small the primordial history of the cosmic Logos: the divinity sacrificing itself for the sake of all the hierarchies within it. This is the sacrifice which took place "before the beginning of the world," the core of the mythologic story of the Christos, the Logos or cosmic Word incarnate as man.

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

Ashvaghosha: (Sanskrit) Buddhist scholar, pantheist philosopher (ca 80 bce150 ce), and one of the great poets of Indian history. A principal architect of the Mahayana school. See: pantheism.

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

Acervulus Cerebri Brain-sand; minute particles of a yellowish, semi-transparent, hard, brilliant substance found in the pineal gland in the human brain. Its exceptional absence occurs in congenital idiots, in young children, and in the senile aged. The physiologists report that this "sand" is composed of alkaline phosphates and carbonates and some animal matter, but they fail to account for its presence or purpose.

The fact that this brain-sand is of mineral rather than of osseous character is in keeping with the occult history of the once external, active third eye of early humanity. The ancients knew that, with the racial evolutionary descent into gross matter, this spiritual eye, gradually becoming atrophied and petrified, retreated deeply within the developing brain when its course was run (SD 2:294&n). The pineal gland being the chief organ of spirituality in the human brain at present, this mysterious sand is the result of the work of mental electricity upon the surrounding matter. This is based on the ancient idea that every atom of matter is only a concretion of crystallized spirit or akasa, the universal soul.

See also PINEAL GLAND.

(See also: Acervulus Cerebri , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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