ideation

Group-souls The idea that there are entities which express themselves through the collectivity of the individuals of a race or nation, or other similar group, somewhat as the soul of a person may express itself through the collectivity of the living units which compose his organism.

However, the living units of our body do not of themselves engender a unitary entity but, having been drawn together by similarity of karma and by the vital magnetism of the imbodied soul, form the vehicle for the expression of the entity of a higher order. The individuals of a race or nation, though drawn by similarity of karma and character into the same race or nation, do not thereby constitute a vehicle for the manifestation of any entity of a higher order which is the predominant and almost exclusive factor in the case.

There are, nonetheless, such things as the national genius, which can be metaphysically explained by calling it a minor ray from the logos, to which belong the already relatively highly evolved individual units of the group thus overenlightened. Such a national or racial aggregation of individuals of like karma and character likewise create a vital atmosphere, a manifestation of the genius, which exists in the creative ideation of the planetary spirit, both as an imbodied idea and as an abstract spiritual entity. It is in this sense that such expressions were used in ancient Greek and other mythologies when speaking of nature spirits, genii loci, or denoting families and races by an eponym, ancestor, or the name of a god.

A misunderstanding of certain teachings has also given rise in some minds to the idea that animals, when they die, become merged in a group-soul, which is entirely erroneous when connected with the implication that they lose their individuality and do not reappear as the same partially egoic individuals. Every animal, as also every organism down to an atom, has its monad or permanent individuality, which is on the path of evolution just as human monads are, though at a lower stage.

This individuality cannot be lost. Yet the manifested quality of individuality is so little developed in the animals, as compared with human beings, that their monads to our minds, although not in themselves, are much more alike than are human monads, so that they seem to us to fall together more readily into a group. But the word group here is a collective noun and denotes an entity, but of an extremely abstract -- to us -- type.

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

Brahmanda (Sanskrit) (from Brahma cosmic spirit + anda egg)

Egg of Brahma; the imbodiment of Brahma, particularly the solar system, physical, psychological, and spiritual. The ancient Hindus "called Brahma . . . the kosmic atom. The idea is that this kosmic atom is 'Brahma's Egg,' from which the universe shall spring into manifested being, as from the egg the chick comes forth, in its turn to lay another egg.

Each of these kosmic eggs or universes gives birth, after its rest period has ended, to its own offspring, each of the former derived in similar manner from its own former manvantaric egg" (Fund 494). This cosmic egg was sometimes said to be dropped by the mystic bird kalahamsa, the swan of eternity; or to be the result of Brahman's ideation {FSO 97}.

See also HIRANYAGARBA

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

Will. In metaphysics and occult philosophy, Will is that which governs the manifested universes in eternity. Will is the one and sole principle of abstract eternal MOTION, or its ensouling essence. " The will", says Van Helmont, "is the first of all powers. . . . The will is the property of all spiritual beings and displays itself in them the more actively the more they are freed from matter." And Paracelsus teaches that "determined will is the beginning of all magical operations. It is because men do not perfectly imagine and believe the result, that the (occult) arts are so uncertain, while they might he perfectly certain." Like all the rest, the Will is septenary in its degrees of manifestation. Emanating from the one, eternal, abstract and purely quiescent Will (Atma in Layam), it becomes Buddhi in its Alaya state, descends lower as Mahat (Manas), and runs down the ladder of degrees until the divine Eros becomes, in its lower, animal manifestation, erotic desire. Will as an eternal principle is neither spirit nor substance but everlasting ideation. As well expressed by Schopenhauer in his Parerga, " in sober reality there is neither matter nor spirit. The tendency to gravitation in a stone is as unexplainable as thought in the human brain. . . If matter can - no one knows why -  - fall to the ground, then it can also - no one knows why - -think. . . . As soon, even in mechanics, as we trespass beyond the purely mathematical, as soon as we reach the inscrutable adhesion, gravitation, and so on, we are faced by phenomena which are to our senses as mysterious as the WILL."

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

Sankalpa or Samkalpa (Sanskrit) [from sam-klrip to be brought into existence, wish, produce]

A conception or idea formed in the mind or heart; thought, ideation, desire. The Vedas say that the whole universe is evolved through sankalpa -- the ceaselessly acting impulsions of karma driven by cosmic kama -- and hence it is only through sankalpa that the universe retains its karmic structure, appearances, and continuance.

(See also: Sankalpa, Samkalpa , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Five Skandhas

The five groups of elements (Dharmas) into which all existences are classified in early Buddhism.

The five are:

• Rupa (matter),
• Vedana (feeling),
• Sanjna (ideation);
• Samskara (forces or drives)
• Vijnana (consciousness or sensation).

Group, heap, aggregate; the five constituents of the personality; form, feeling, perception, impulses, consciousness; the five factors constituting the individual person.

 (See also: Five Skandhas , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Grand Architect of the Universe Masonic term for the maker of the universe:

"the Greeks gave this Third or formative Logos the title Demiourgos, a word mystically signifying the supreme cosmic Architect of the universe. This same idea always has been held by the Christians as well as by modern speculative Freemasonry . . ." (FSO 183) Theosophically this Grand Architect is a collective way of presenting the forces of nature, the cosmocratores or cosmic builders, acting on the ideation laid down by still higher beings -- dhyani-buddhas, referred to collectively mahat or cosmic mind -- rather than a personal god or entity:

"but now the modern Masons make of their G. A. O. T. U. a personal and singular Deity" (TBL 40).

See also MASTERS, THE THREE ANCIENT GREAT. ()

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

Dianoia (Greek) (from dianoia thought)

Used by Plato and Aristotle often in contrast with soma (body); synonymous with logos, it is divine ideation and the root of all thought.

See also ENNOINA

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

sa-vikalpa:

sa-vikalpa. With differentiated ideation, thoughts of difference.

(See also: sa-vikalpa , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

nir-vikalpa-mounam:

nir-vikalpa-mounam. Silence without agitation or ideation.

(See also: nir-vikalpa-mounam , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Jnana-sakti (Sanskrit) (from jnana knowledge, wisdom + sakti power, energy)

Wisdom-power, the power of pure intellect which is a ray from the Logos, and therefore is the consciousness of the higher manas. Each of the saktis -- whether jnana-sakti, ajnana-sakti, ichchha-sakti, or kriya-sakti -- manifesting in the universe or in an individual being, is the expression of a force of nature; and therefore as each such force of nature is the emanation from a cosmic entity, each one of them has its own svabhava (individuality or essential characteristic) which differentiates it sharply from all other forces of nature.

Jnana-sakti has the power or intrinsic faculty of movement of intelligence in the universe, which likewise expresses itself in man, a child of that universe; consequently it acts according to its own peculiarities or characteristics. The adept, knowing this through the power of his spiritual monad, can at any time select any one of these saktis of his constitution and use it alone or in combination with others to produce both interior or exterior phenomena. He does so by an expenditure of one or the other of the saktis that he is using, which are concentrated so to speak in his constitution. Hence their use is always followed by a corresponding reaction, much after the fashion of an electrical discharge; and a certain time is always required for the constitution to reestablish its normal equilibrium. Such equilibrium is a condition of health.

Thus when an adept for some noble object purposes to use his inner powers, it is rare indeed that a single one of these saktis is employed alone. First there may be an evocation from his constitution of the sakti of ideation or high mentation giving the picture of what must be done, thus directing the flow of the will; then follows the evocation of ichchha-sakti or desire to perform the object in view. This combines with kriya-sakti or mental power guiding the desire and the will along the proper path to the end desired. Other saktis may or may not be called into function as needed. The saktis most commonly having a phenomenal effect or repercussion on the physical plane are ichchha-sakti, combining with kriya-sakti, guided by jnana-sakti.

(See also: Jnana-sakti , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Buddhakshetra buddhakshetra (Sanskrit) (from buddha awakened + kshetra field, sphere of action)

The sphere of action of an enlightened one. According to theosophy, there are four (or seven) buddhakshetras or fields in which the buddhas manifest and do their sublime work of benevolence which, counting from above, are: 1) the realms in which the dhyani-buddhas live and work; 2) the realms in which the dhyani-bodhisttvas live and work, called by Blavatsky "the domain of ideation"; 3) the realms of the manushya-buddhas, in which these work as nirmanakayas; and 4) the field of action in which the human buddhas work, the ordinary human world -- our physical globe.

Every incarnate buddha lives and works in the fourth or lowest buddhakshetra, as Gautama Buddha did; but at the same time, and more particularly when he has laid aside the physical body, he can live and work at will in the next higher buddhakshetra as a nirmanakaya; again as a dhyani-bodhisattva in his higher intermediate spiritual-psychological principle, he can at will function in the next higher buddhakshetra; while last, the dhyani-buddha within him lives and does its own sublime labor on the highest buddhakshetras as a dhyani-buddha. Here lies the true explanation of the many apparently conflicting statements made about the various kinds of buddhas and their various duties or functions, as found in the Buddhist scriptures, especially in the Mahayana writings of Central and Northern Asia.

Each one of the trikaya (three bodies or vehicles) -- the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya -- has its respective place and function on and in the three highest of the buddhakshetra: the dharmakaya is the luminous or spiritual body or vehicle in which the dhyani-buddha lives and works on the first and highest buddhakshetra; the dhyani-bodhisattva similarly lives and works in the spiritual-intellectual body or vehicle called the sambhogakaya, on the second of the buddhakshetras; while the manushya-buddha, when working in the third buddhakshetras, does so in his nirmanakaya vesture or robe, vehicle, or body. The lowest buddhakshetra is the one in which the human buddha is found clothed in his body of flesh as an incarnate being.

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

A Theosophical definition of Vach :

Vach

(Sanskrit) A term which means "speech" or "word"; and by the same procedure of mystical thought which is seen in ancient Greek mysticism, wherein the Logos is not merely the speech or word of the Divinity, but also the divine reason, so Vach has come to mean really more than merely word or speech. The esoteric Vach is the subjective creative intelligent force which, emanating from the subjective universe, becomes the manifested or concrete expression of ideation, hence Word or Logos. Mystically, therefore, Vach may be said to be the feminine or vehicular aspect of the Logos, or the power of the Logos when enshrined within its vehicle or sheath of action. Vach in India is often called Sata-rupa, "the hundred-formed." Cosmologically in one sense daiviprakriti may be said to be a manifestation or form of Vach

See also: Vach , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Cosmic ideation (Occult.) Eternal thought, impressed on substance or spirit-matter, in the eternity ; thought which becomes active at the beginning of every new life-cycle.

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

Cosmic Ideation Another name for divine thought, out of which springs the activity of universal mind -- the collective aggregate of all individualized dhyani-chohanic consciousnesses everywhere.

Theosophy postulates the appearance and disappearance of worlds, whether visible or invisible, as a continuous process, each world being a link in an endless chain of interlocking cosmic hierarchies. As one of these comes into manifested existence it is likened to an outbreathing of the divine breath, each such outbreathing being a thought of the cosmic ideation, this thought becoming a world.

This divine breath, then, may be assumed to be cosmic ideation entering into the activity of manvantara; and cosmic ideation is the root again of all individual consciousness everywhere. Just as precosmic ideation is regarded as the root of consciousness, so precosmic substance is the spiritual substratum of matter. Thus manvantara is produced by means of the interlocking and interacting motion of cosmic ideation with primordial cosmic substance. Further, fohat is the intelligent energy behind this interlocking activity, which during manvantara joins these two together.

Cosmic ideation and cosmic substance are one in their primordial character, yet as the reawakening of the universal mind into manvantara needs the appropriate cosmic fields of action, cosmic substance may be said to be the manvantaric vehicle of cosmic ideation. Conversely, during cosmic pralaya, all the varied differentiations of cosmic substance are resolved back or indrawn once again into cosmic unity, a subjective condition, and hence during the cosmic pralaya cosmic ideation can no longer be called active, but passive.

(See also: Cosmic Ideation , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ideation is the process of forming and relating ideas. It is important in creativity, innovation and concept development. This concept is about opening ourselves up to creative communication skills, sharing our brainstorms, and allowing this to produce new collaborations and developments. The sharing of ideas has been a positive concept in the history of our growth and development as a society. see Huineng 3rd patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism on ideation ...

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