Pantheism - Hinduism. In Hindu theology Moksha and achieving godness is the ultimate, both transcendent and immanent, the absolute infinite existence, the sum total of all that ever is, was, or ever shall be. As the sun has rays of light which emanate from the same source, the same holds true for the multifaceted aspects of God emanating from Brahman, like many colors of the same prism. This concept of God is of one unity, with the individual personal Gods being aspects of the One; thus, different deities are seen by different adherents as particularly well suited to their worship. Pan ...

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism

Pantheism - Panentheism. Pantheism has features in common with panentheism, such as the idea that the universe is part of God. Technically, the two are separate, inasmuch as pantheism finds God synonymous with nature, and panentheism finds God to be greater than nature alone. Some find this distinction unhelpful, while others see it as a significant point of division. Many of the major faiths described as pantheistic could also be described as panentheistic, whereas naturalistic pantheism cannot (not seeing God a ...

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Related concepts

Pantheism (Greek: pan = all and Theos = God) literally means "God is All" and "All is God". It is the view that everything is of an all-encompassing immanent God; or that the universe, or nature, and God are equivalent. More detailed definitions tend to emphasize the idea that natural law, existence, and/or the universe (the sum total of all that is, was, and shall be) is represented or personified in the theological principle of 'God'. Pantheism - History. The term "pantheist" — of which th ...

Including:

• Pantheism - History
• Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism
• Pantheism - Methods of explanation
• Pantheism - Debate
• Pantheism - Related concepts
• Pantheism - Panentheism
• Pantheism - Cosmotheism
• Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion
• Pantheism - Hinduism
• Pantheism - Ayyavazhi
• Pantheism - Judaism
• Pantheism - Christian
• Pantheism - Islam
• Pantheism - Other religions
• Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia - Pantheism

Deity or God. Intelligence and will superior to the human, forming the intelligent and vital governing essence of the universe, whether this universe be large or small.

The principal views as to the nature of deity may be classed as

1)    pantheistic,

2)    polytheistic,

3)    henotheistic, and

4)    monotheistic.

Pantheism, which views the divine as immanent in all nature and yet transcendent in its higher parts, is characteristic of certain Occidental philosophical systems and of all Oriental systems.

Polytheism implies the recognition of an indefinite number of deific powers in the universe, the plural manifestations of the ever immanent, ever perduring, and manifest-unmanifest One. Polytheism is thus a logical development of pantheism.

Henotheism is the belief in one god, but not the exclusion of others, such as is found in the Jewish scriptures, where the ancient Hebrews frankly worshiped a tribal deity and fully recognized the existence of other tribal deities.

Monotheism is the belief in only one god, as is found in Christianity and Islam. These religions, in inheriting the Jewish tradition, have confounded this merely personal and local conception with the First Cause of the universe, which in theosophy would be called the formative cosmic Third Logos, thus producing an inconsistent idea of a God who is both infinite, delimited, and personal in character, with an intuition, however, of the necessarily impersonal cosmic intelligent root of all.

In theosophical philosophy, the cosmic divine in the hierarchical sense is both transcendent and immanent, during manifestation breaking as it were into innumerable rays which produce the various deific powers in inner and outer nature; each such immanent divinity, however, itself emanating from the all-encompassing and forever unmanifest Rootless Root or parabrahman.

The various universes, sometimes referred to as sparks of eternity, spring from parabrahman at periodic intervals called manvantaras, and then resolve back into the pre-manvantaric condition or pralaya, only to issue forth again when the pralaya of whatever magnitude has run its course. Therefore, at one and the same time divinity is transcendent and immanent, eternal and unmanifest, while its rays or cosmic sparks of whatever magnitude are periodic and manifested. Hence from each such manifested One or cosmic hierarch proceed the multiple rays, to which in various theogonies are given names and attributes of superior deities. Thus the words god and deity become generic, and the general definition may be applied to the core of the core of any being, great or small, cosmic or human, for all are sparks of the cosmic flame of life.

The word deity, in the sense of beings which are more spiritual than the human being of today, may be applied to the divine rulers of human races before the times of the demigods and heroes; or more generally to an indefinite range of nonphysical beings, spiritual or ethereal in character, including among the latter the so-called "spirits of the elements."

See also GOD; GOD(S)

(See also: Deity, God, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Islamic Sufism is regarded by some as being influenced by eastern philosophies (Indian and Persian) and has Pantheistic doctrines within its many varieties. Pantheism - Other religions. There are elements of pantheism in Theosophy, some forms of Buddhism, and Taoism along with many varying denominations and individuals within and without denominations. Many Unitarian Universali ...

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Islam

Some critics argue that pantheism is little more than a redefinition of the word "God" to mean "existence" "life"or "reality". Many pantheists reply that even if this is so, such a shift in the way we think about these ideas can serve to create both a new and a potentially far more insightful conception of both existence and God. Perhaps the most significant debate within the pantheistic community is about the nature of God. Classical pantheism believes in a personal, conscious, and omniscient God, and sees this God as uniting all tru ...

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Debate

An oft-cited feature of pantheism is that each individual human, being part of the universe or nature, is part of God. One issue discussed by pantheists is how, if this is so, humans can have free will. In answer, the following analogy is sometimes given (particularly by classical pantheists): "you are to God, as an individual blood cell in your vein is to you." The analogy further maintains that while a cell may be aware of its own environs, and even has some choices (free will) between right and wrong (killing a bacterium, becoming maligna ...

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Methods of explanation