Human Kingdom One of the great kingdoms or divisions of monads on earth. Below it are the animal, plant, mineral, and also three elemental kingdoms; above are kingdoms of dhyanis or highly evolved human beings and gods. One of the critical points in evolution, at which self-consciousness is attained, although by no means fully developed. Here the spiritual and the material meet: the spiritual self finds its house in the organism built up of lower elements, and the two-natured human being of earth is thus formed. See MAN; ROOT-RACES

(See also: Human Kingdom , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Animal Kingdom One of the main divisions or life-waves of entities on earth, separated from the human kingdom by its lack of the emanated or evolved self-conscious mind, a faculty which can be acquired only by the aid of beings already having it -- the manasaputras.

The entities now pursuing their evolution in the animal kingdom will in a future imbodiment of the planetary chain become human in the same way, although a certain number of the highest animal stocks now living, such as the apes and possibly some of the monkeys, may attain incipient humanity before the end of the seventh round in the present planetary manvantara.

The mammals in this fourth round came later in time than man, having arisen from germinal cells thrown off from the bodies of the individuals of the human racial stem millions and millions of years ago, when nature still allowed such a procedure. These early mammals have since become highly specialized.

The animals below the mammals originated from the human stock in the preceding third round, and hence their ancestors or sishtas were on earth and provided the origins of the later widely disseminated sub-mammalian stocks in this round, even before the human sishtas felt the incoming human life-wave and multiplied over the earth.

(See also: Animal Kingdom , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Kingdom(s) In natural history, a large group, department, or domain, marked off from others by characteristic qualities, three being generally recognized: animal, vegetable, and mineral, with mankind at the summit of the animal kingdom. Ancient thought as a whole, however, took account of vast spheres of cosmic inner space and inner consciousness inhabited by numerous hierarchies of all-various evolving, intelligent, and semi-intelligent beings.

Hence it is that mankind was a separate kingdom; and, if we consider human nature as a whole, humanity is more sharply distinguished from the lower kingdoms than they are from each other. To these four in theosophy are added three kingdoms below the mineral called elemental kingdoms, thus making a septenate. Above the human may be enumerated three dhyani-chohanic or god kingdoms, but the word "man" has often been used so as to include these kingdoms. These divisions correspond to the other septenary and denary divisions in the cosmos.

The more highly each kingdom is specialized along its peculiar lines, the more sharply is it differentiated from the other kingdoms; but the distinction tends to disappear and merge into a continuity when the entities in the different kingdoms are in an elementary or germinal stage. The entities in any kingdom higher than the lowest must pass in brief recapitulation through all the stages represented by the preceding kingdoms, before they can develop the features characteristic of their own kingdom.

In another sense, kingdom is sometimes used in theosophy to signify the life-waves circling around a planetary chain, or the various individualized hierarchies in universal nature, each one comprising the kingdom or domain of its own characteristic species, topped by its hierarch.

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

Door to the Human Kingdom Theosophical term expressing the idea that no more entities below the human stage will evolve into human beings in this round. The reason for this is that

"when Globe A of the new chain is ready, the first class or Hierarchy of Monads from the Lunar chain incarnate upon it in the lowest kingdom, and so on successively. The result of this is, that it is only the first class of Monads which attains the human state of development during the first Round, since the second class, on each planet, arriving later, has not time to reach that stage.

Thus the Monads of Class 2 reach the incipient human stage only in the Second Round, and so on up to the middle of the Fourth Round. But at this point -- and on this Fourth Round in which the human stage will be fully developed -- the 'Door' into the human kingdom closes; and henceforward the number of 'human' Monads, i.e., Monads in the human stage of development, is complete. For the Monads which had not reached the human stage by this point will, owing to the evolution of humanity itself, find themselves so far behind that they will reach the human stage only at the close of the seventh and last Round" (SD 1:173).

The "door" was closed into the human kingdom in the middle of the fourth round because the turning point had been reached between the monadic evolution of matter, or descent into matter on the downward arc, and the reverse process of involution, which automatically replaced it on the upward arc of the great light cycle.

Thus, as we are now past the middle of the fourth round, none of the monads now working in and through the animal kingdom can enter the human kingdom during the remainder of this round; with one probably exception, however: that of the anthropoid apes.

(See also: Door to the Human Kingdom , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Animal Kingdom

The third natural kingdom of evolution. In the animal kingdom the monads have principally physical and emotional consciousness.

Between incarnations they are enclosed in common envelopes of mental matter, so-called group-souls. The higher up the scale of evolution an animal is, the fewer are the monads that go to its group.

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

Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of God In the New Testament, used by John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Paul; it indicates a state of relative spiritual completion and attainment, not merely the afterdeath state of the "righteous" or "saved," as seen in the statement, "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). Blavatsky interprets the answer in the Gospel of the Egyptians as to when the kingdom of heaven will come -- "When the Two has been made One, and the Outward has become as the Inward, and the Male with the Female neither Male nor Female" -- as signifying among other things, 1) the union of lower manas with the higher manas, the self-conscious raising of the personality to the individuality; and 2) the return of humankind to the androgynous state in future root-races.

"Thus this Kingdom may be attained by individuals now, and by mankind in Races to come" (BCW 13:48-9; 14:55; ET).

(See also: Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of God , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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

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Kingdom of God

See also: Kingdom of God , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Vegetable Kingdom In the vegetable stage of the monad's evolution, the faculty of apperception begins to be clearly manifested, which differs from mere perception in that it is accompanied with a certain amount of awareness of results to be achieved.

This is shown in the many ways in which plants can care for themselves, as in sending out rootlets for water or providing for fertilization. In the list of seven creations (cf SD 1:450), the fourth is there called the mukhya or primary because it begins the following system of the four subsequent creations; and the Hindu systems place vegetable bodies in this fourth emanation because they possess individualized lives. All the seven kingdoms or life-waves are manifestations of different groups or life-waves of monads in various degrees of emanational self-manifestation.

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

A beautiful assembly of poems and prayers on the theme of LOVE and TRANSCENDENCE.

“We will read them during the transit tomorrow on the most sacred places on the Isle of Wight.
We invite you to pray for World peace and love during the Transit of Venus at 11am GMT on 8th June 2004 for fifteen minutes. This will be the biggest global mass prayer meeting in the history of the World. You will find some multifaith prayers and poems, and a list of goddess names for your use on this page. Or make up your own prayer in accordance with your own faith or lack thereof. Or, do what thou wilt.”

Read more here: » Venus Transit: Multifaith prayers and poems, and a list of goddess names

Fourth Round The circling of each life-wave around the globes of a planetary chain for the fourth time is its fourth round. The midpoint of the fourth round is the turning point for this planetary manvantara. Before this point the monadic hosts pursue their gyrations downwards on the descending arc, karmically evolving material vestures from within the womb of spirit. During the fourth round on globe D, during the fourth root-race, the midway point of this manvantara is reached, for the lowest point in the descent of the life-waves then takes place, and thereafter the monads begin evolving upwards on the ascending arc: the involution or matter and evolution of spirit.

What are termed the geologic eras are the product of nature's evolutionary forces at work during our present fourth round; and every one of the globes of the chain, including globe D, was of characteristically somewhat different aspect and consistency during each of the three previous rounds. Each round develops a cosmic principle, and the fourth principle, earth, is in process of developing during the fourth round (the three previous rounds having developed fire, air, and water) -- these elements are not to be understood in their popular meaning, but in the sense in which they are used in archaic philosophy. Thus the fourth round "transformed the gaseous fluids and plastic form of our globe into the hard, crusted, grossly material sphere we are living on" (SD 1:260).

Naturally the geologic changes which the globe underwent up to our own time, took many, many millions of years; for example, sedimentation on globe D in this round began more than 320 million years ago. Sedimentation refers to the appearance of the mineral life-wave on globe D after preliminary work during the fourth round had been accomplished by the three preceding elemental kingdoms. After the mineral kingdom had run through its septenary cycling, then its surplus of life passed to the succeeding globe E, and the life-wave of the vegetable kingdom made its appearance on globe D; after the vegetable life-wave came the animal; and after the animal appeared the human, which in its turn will be followed by the life-waves of the three dhyani-chohanic kingdoms.

At the beginning of the human stage of the fourth round on globe D, the lunar pitris or human monads projected their astral doubles from the bodies which these pitris had evolved during the third round, and "it is this subtle, finer form, which serves as the model round which Nature builds physical man" (SD 1:180). The human life-wave has completed its fourth root-race on this globe and has now reached the midpoint of its fifth root-race. The point of man's grossest physical development has already been passed and his body henceforth will evolve along the lines of increasing refinements and ethereality.

During the fourth round the fourth principle kama (desire) will be fully developed, both in man and in the world. Man became truly human with the intellectual enlightenment of early mankind in this round through the descent of the manasaputras. This great event occurred during the third root-race.

In regard to the beast kingdom, at the midway point in the manvantara, the "door" to the human kingdom automatically closed, for then began the ascending arc: i.e., all monads not reaching the evolutionary status where they were able to pursue their evolution by entering the human kingdom must thereafter remain in the lower kingdoms for the three and one-half rounds still to come. The mammalian beasts all appeared in this round, but the first mammal on this globe was man himself, as the mammalian beasts were very early off-throwings or specializations from offthrowings originating in the human stock.

As to the vegetable kingdom, vegetation began in its ethereal form before what is termed the Primordial Epoch, continuing on through the Primary Era, during which it condensed, to our own time. It reached its fullest physical efflorescence in the early part of the Secondary, and probably even during the middle and later Primary, where the great coal deposits are now found.

(See also: Fourth Round , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Atman :

Atman

(Sanskrit) The root of atman is hardly known; its origin is uncertain, but the general meaning is that of "self." The highest part of man  - self, pure consciousness per se. The essential and radical power or faculty in man which gives to him, and indeed to every other entity or thing, its knowledge or sentient consciousness of selfhood. This is not the ego.

This principle (atman) is a universal one; but during incarnations its lowest parts take on attributes, because it is linked with the buddhi, as the buddhi is linked with the manas, as the manas is linked to the kama, and so on down the scale.

Atman is also sometimes used of the universal self or spirit which is called in the Sanskrit writings Brahman (neuter), and the Brahman or universal spirit is also called the paramatman.

Man is rooted in the kosmos surrounding him by three principles, which can hardly be said to be above the first or atman, but are, so to say, that same atman's highest and most glorious parts.

The inmost link with the Unutterable was called in ancient India by the term ``self,'' which has often been mistranslated "soul." The Sanskrit word is atman and applies, in psychology, to the human entity. The upper end of the link, so to speak, was called paramatman, or the ``self beyond,'' i.e., the permanent SELF  - words which describe neatly and clearly to those who have studied this wonderful philosophy, somewhat of the nature and essence of the being which man is, and the source from which, in beginningless and endless duration, he sprang. Child of earth and child of heaven, he contains both in himself.

We say that the atman is universal, and so it is. It is the universal selfhood, that feeling or consciousness of selfhood which is the same in every human being, and even in all the inferior beings of the hierarchy, even in those of the beast kingdom under us, and dimly perceptible in the plant world, and which is latent even in the minerals. This is the pure cognition, the abstract idea, of self. It differs not at all throughout the hierarchy, except in degree of self-recognition. Though universal, it belongs (so far as we are concerned in our present stage of evolution) to the fourth kosmic plane, though it is our seventh principle counting upwards.

See also: Atman , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Human Monad In the human constitution, the fourth monadic focus or center on the descending scale of individualizing consciousness. It is the basis or root of the human ego from which emanates the human soul -- a temporary or periodic appearance enduring for one incarnation, having for its range of consciousness the ordinary human consciousness of daily life.

At death the essence of the human soul is united to the human ego, which in its turn at the second death is reunited with the upper duad (atma-buddhi); and the human ego thereupon enters into the state of consciousness called devachan.

Having become at one with its spiritual parent, at least for the duration of devachan, the ego rests and digests its garnered store of wisdom, knowledge, and experience, and upon the completion of this period of devachanic recuperation it issues forth again when the karmic hour strikes, once more to become the human ego at its succeeding birth.

(See also: Human Kingdom , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Judaism

World religion founded approximately 1500 BC by the prophet Moses (Thothmoses - prince and high-priest of Egypt)

The foundation of Judaism is the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy), which is said to have been written by Moses. The Israelites returned to the promised land of Canaan and became a small but powerful nation there under the rule of King David and his son Solomon.

After Solomon's death the kingdom split into a northern kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah (the name of David's tribe). The northern kingdom was conquered and decimated by the Assyrians in 722 BC, after which the term Judeans, or Jews, gradually came into use to refer to all Israelites.

The Jews suffered conquests by a succession of foreign powers - the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and finally the Romans in the first century BC. Throughout this period the Jews developed a strong sense of national identity, identification with the Promised Land, and anticipation of a coming Messiah (ÒAnointed PrinceÓ).

There are three main branches of modern Judaism: Orthodox (traditional, literal adherence to the Torah as interpreted by the Talmud), Conservative (a middle position advocating traditional beliefs and practices up to a point), and Reform (liberal, non-literal stance on the Torah and Talmud; often non-religious or secular with emphasis on Jewish culture).

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

Mineral Kingdom {SD, Fund, etc.}

(See also: Mineral Kingdom , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Kingdom of God

1) Originally, the Hebrew kingdom as established by God.

2) A future divine kingdom to be ruled over by Christ.

3) The heavenly kingdom of God.

(See also: Kingdom of God , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Fifth kingdom

(of Souls) A new state of collective consciousness not yet manifested, although the model has been created as a divine potential by the Masters. When enough humans can sustain the collective energy the initiation will be granted and a leap forward in consciousness will be gained by many now in preparation. (The other four kingdoms are the mineral, the plant, the animal, the human.)

(See also: Fifth kingdom , Body Mind and Soul)

Anthropoids The larger or manlike apes. During the period when the fourth root-race of mankind in this fourth round on globe D (our earth) was passing its climax, certain humans as yet only partially conscious miscegenated with the then existing types of simians or monkeys, which were themselves the offspring of an earlier similar miscegenation of the third root-race.

That the anthropoids are a product descended partly from the human stem, and not forms ascending towards man in the sense of earlier Darwinism, is shown by a study of the structural and functional differences and resemblances between anthropoids and man (cf MIE 94-116, 305-12). S

ince the middle of the fourth root-race, no monads from the animal kingdom could any longer enter the human kingdom because from that time the earth started on its ascending arc of evolution. Nevertheless, the monads imbodied in the anthropoids will enter the very lowest and least evolved branchlets of the human kingdom during the fifth round. The monads now in anthropoid bodies will disappear from incarnation during the present fifth root-race to enter their inter-round paranirvana, remaining as astral monads until the next (fifth) round.

A relatively few individuals among the anthropoids, because of having attained the most advanced degree of evolution in the anthropoid stock, will reach quasi-human status, although still in anthropoid bodies, before the fifth root-race has reached its end. Even these exceptional anthropoids will probably have died out before the fifth root-race is ended or by the early sixth root-race -- a period several million years from now.

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

Gullinbursti (Icelandic) (from gullin golden + bursti bristles, mane)

In Norse mythology, a golden boar which draws the chariot of Frey, god of the terrestrial world. He received it as a gift from the two dwarfs Brock (mineral kingdom) and Sindri (vegetable kingdom), sons of Ivalde, the moon.

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

A Theosophical definition of Sishta (Sishtas) :

Sishta (Sishtas)

(Sista, Sanskrit) This is a word meaning "remainders," or "remains," or "residuals"  - anything that is left or remains behind. In the especial application in which this word is used in the ancient wisdom, the sishtas are those superior classes  - each of its own kind and kingdom  - left behind on a planet when it goes into obscuration, in order to serve as the seeds of life for the inflow of the next incoming life-wave when the dawn of the new manvantara takes place on that planet.

When each kingdom passes on to its next globe, each one leaves behind its sishtas, its lives representing the very highest point of evolution arrived at by that kingdom in that round, but leaves them sleeping as it were: dormant, relatively motionless, including life-atoms among them. Not without life, however, for everything is as much alive as ever, and there is no "dead" matter anywhere; but the sishtas considered aggregatively as the remnants or residuals of the life-wave which has passed on are sleeping, dormant, resting. These sishtas await the incoming of the life-waves on the next round, and then they re-awaken to a new cycle of activity as the seeds of the new kingdom or kingdoms  - be it the three elemental kingdoms or the mineral or vegetable or the beast or the next humanity.

In a more restricted and still more specific sense, the sishtas are the great elect, or sages, left behind after every obscuration.

See also: Sishta (Sishtas) , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Buddha Skt., Pali, lit., Òawakened one.Ó

 1. A person who has achieved the enlightenment that leads to release from the cycle of existence (samsara) and has thereby attained complete liberation (nirvana). The content of his teaching, which is based on the experience of enlightenment, is the four noble truths. A buddha has overcome every kind of craving (trishna); although even he also has pleasant and unpleasant sensations, he is not ruled by them and remains innerly untouched by them. After his death he is not reborn again.

 Two kinds of buddhas are distinguished: the pratyeka-buddha, who is completely enlight ened but does not expound the teaching; and the samyak-sambuddha, who expounds for the wel fare of all beings the teaching that he has discov ered anew. A samyak-sambuddha is omniscient (sarvajnata) and possesses the ten powers of a buddha (dashabala) and the four certainties. The buddha of our age is Shakyamuni. (See also Buddha 2.)

 Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, is not the first and only buddha. Already in the early Hinayana texts, six buddhas who preceded him in earlier epochs are mentioned: Vipashyin (Pali, Vipassi), Shikin (Sikhi), Vishvabhu (Vessabhu), Krakuchchanda (Kakusandha), Konagamana, and Kashyapa (Kassapa). The buddha who will follow Sh?kyamuni in a future age and renew the dharma is Maitreya. Be yond these, one finds indications in the litera ture of thirteen further buddhas, of which the most important is Dipamkara, whose disci ple Shakyamuni was in his previous existence as the ascetic Sumedha. The stories of these leg endary buddhas are contained in the Buddhavamsa, a work from the Khuddaka nikaya.

 2. The historical Buddha. He was born in 563 BCE, the son of a prince of the Shakyas, whose small kingdom in the foothills of the Himalayas lies in present-day Nepal. His first name was Siddhartha, his family name Gauta ma. Hence he is also called Gautama Buddha. (For the story of his life, see Siddhartha Gauta ma.) During his life as a wandering ascetic, he was known as Shakyamuni, the ÒSilent Sage of the Shakyas.Ó In order to distinguish the historical Buddha from the transcendent buddhas (see buddha 3), he is generally called Shakyamuni Buddha or Buddha Shakyamuni.

 3. The Òbuddha principle,Ó which manifests itself in the most various forms. Whereas in Hinayana only the existence of one buddha in every age is accepted (in which case the Buddha is considered an earthly being who teaches hu mans), for the Mahayana there are countless transcendent buddhas. According to the Mahayana teaching of the trikaya, the buddha principle manifests itself in three principal forms, the so-called three bodies (trikaya). In this sense the transcendent buddhas represent embodiments of various aspects of the buddha principle.

 4. A synonym for the absolute, ultimate reality devoid of form, color, and all other propertiesÑbuddha-nature.

From The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen,

By Michael S. Diener, Franz-Karl Erhard, Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber

Translated by Michael H. Kohn

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