Self Theosophical literature distinguishes between self and ego: self is a purely spiritual unit, divine in essence, the same in every being, expressed as "I am"; egos are many, different in different beings, and expressed as "I am I."

Egos are indirect or reflected consciousnesses, seeing themselves as apart from other egos, each having its own individualized characteristics. But the self or atman is the purest and strongest intuition of being as a universal principle and as the summit of the hierarchy called man. It is pure consciousness, the essential principle which gives to every person knowledge of selfhood. As it has no egoic consciousness, it seems to our reason to be unconsciousness. To become self-conscious, a vehicle is needed, so that the self may see itself reflected as in a mirror.

In humans what is called the personal self is a compound, in which the true selfhood or atmic ray shines dimly through many screens. This causes our various mental states to be regarded as pertaining to our own individuality, though they are actually influences which flow into and out of the mind, and to which we attribute a false sense of ownership, as when we say, "I am angry," instead of "I am experiencing anger." The path of liberation frees us progressively from these false selves; we abandon the heresy of separateness, and at last

See the true self within us as being identical with that self in all beings.

(See also: Self , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Concentration With meditation, an equivalent for certain parts of yoga, as found in samadhi, dharana; the removal or surmounting of distractions originating in the mind and centering the latter on the spiritual and intellectual objective to be attained, which in the best sense is union with the inner god, the divine monad -- a conscious identification of oneself with the universal through the individual's innate divinity.

The method of meditative concentration prescribed in the Bhagavad-Gita is to perform all the duties of life without either attachment or avoidance. The hindrances to concentration which are to be removed are those arising from anger, lust, vanity, fear, sloth, etc. Such obstacles are removed by lifting the mind above them or by deliberately ignoring them, since directly fighting with them serves to concentrate the mind on them, thus defeating the object aimed at; and by cultivating the spirit of impersonal love and the light of wisdom which it evokes. Thus the blending of the personal self with the impersonal self is achieved by an orderly process of self-directed evolution, first by unselfish work in the cause of humanity, continued in the various degrees of chelaship, culminating in initiation.

Concentration has often been perverted to mean a kind of personal self-culture, having for its aim the attainment of personal power or self-satisfaction. If unsuccessful, the attempt upsets the balance of the constitution, and if successful, it sows a bitter harvest of aroused personality for future reaping; for when yearning for sympathetic fellowship with our fellowmen we shall find our faculties counterworking us. True meditative concentration actually applies more to the heart than to the mind, and is not a forcible mental practice but a general although very positive and impersonal attitude towards life. It means the centering of our wishes, thoughts, and acts on the ideal of self-identification with the spiritual and universal.

See also DHYANA.

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

Higher Self. The Supreme Divine Spirit overshadowing man. The crown of the upper spiritual Triad in man - Atman.

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

Ethics In theosophy, a philosophy of moral conduct based on the inner structure and operations of the universe itself, not a mere code of conventional behavior. The grounds alleged for moral conduct depend on one's view of man and the universe.

Theosophy distinguishes between a person's real self and the illusive personal masks which are mistaken for that self. As with Kant, a sharp distinction is drawn between wish and inclination on the one hand, and the sense of moral obligation on the other; this latter is regarded as supervening upon the drama of self-interest and imposing a higher law.

Recognizing the essential oneness of the individual with the universe, not only spiritually but on all planes, the student of occultism strives for the subordination of the personal self as an individual to the common good of all mankind, and indeed of all things that are. With this training, the student in time comes keenly to realize that there is no longer a moral obligation lying upon him to subject his personal wish to the common good, but that this subordination becomes the first joyful duty of all his life. In this manner spiritual powers, faculties, and attributes are gained, as well as intellectual expansion that, when more or less complete, combine to make the full adept or initiate. A master of wisdom is one who has developed an individual consciousness of his oneness with the Boundless, and this is the very foundation of the ethics of theosophy.

The human ethical sense is a manifestation of one's awareness and willing cooperation with the inherent spiritual laws of the universe. No person can misconduct himself without injecting disharmony into the human hierarchy of which he is a part, and for this he must pay, though nature does not revenge or punish but readjusts or restores the disturbed harmony. Though these essential laws are eternal and changeless, the degree of their manifestation at any time or in any group vary; so that we may speak of ethics also in a relative sense. The world saviors and messengers from the Great Lodge, in obedience to cyclic necessity, strike for humanity the ethical keynote for each coming cycle.

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

Religion [from Latin religare to bind back, implying obligation; or from relegere to select, distinguish among various elements for the choosing of the best; ponder]

In theosophy individual religion of conduct means faith in his own essential divinity as a source of wisdom and an unerring and infallible guide in conduct; an ever-growing realization of that truth, an ever-growing consciousness of one's spiritual identity with the divine in nature; and constant devotion to the ideals thus inspired. Religion means a self-sacrificing devotion to truth, a resolve to live in harmony with all other lives, a sacrificing of the personal self to the greater self.

In theosophy there is no divorce between the devotional and speculative functions of the mind; science and philosophy do not conflict with the innate sense of rectitude. Ethics are not based on expediency, a social compact, or a special revelation, but are inherent in the laws of the universe.

The ancient wisdom is the quintessence of all religions, the universal parent-source of all faiths; and in proportion as each great world religion rises to the height of its own possibilities, so will the external divergences among the different faiths of mankind blend into the original fundamental unity.

(See also: Religion , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Physical Body [cf Sanskrit sthula-sarira, annamaya-kosa]

The most material sheath or instrument used by the forces manifesting as the human composite nature. This body is the evolutionary product of the inner man's experience during vast ages of time in and through all the kingdoms of nature. Thus the reimbodying ego, having acquired knowledge of the earth's manifesting forms and forces, combines or correlates the principles and products of the mineral and vegetal life-atoms in its animal body, while evolving through its human incarnations. The atoms of a person's body which are dispersed on earth at death, are karmically drawn to him again in the next life. As the quality of his own thought and feeling has been impressed upon these atoms, their automatic magnetic return to him insures the justice of his self-made physical heredity.

The continuous interchange of the physical material of the earth itself and that of everything upon it, provides for the body's nutrition, endurance, and renewal. The similarity of material, chemically and otherwise, in the earth and in man has prevailed from the time when the filmy presentments of early root-races appeared on the then condensing globe. When the earth reached its depth of materiality during the middle of the Atlantean or fourth root-race, the physical bodies of the Atlanteans were the grossest and coarsest of any before or after this long period. Since then, everything having begun the turn on the upward or luminous arc, matter and man are slowly radiating finer qualities of substance and of force. This progressive refinement of matter reflecting humanity's mental and spiritual evolution, will continue until, in the far distant future, the human encasement will be "relatively transparent, or diaphanous and luminous -- an ethereal body of actually condensed light" (ET 65).

The human body has "Manasic as well as Kamic organs," so that the cells answer to physical, mental, and spiritual impulses. The higher ego cannot act directly on the body, as its consciousness belongs to another plane of ideation; it has to act through its alter ego -- the personal self (BCW 12:368-9; or St in Oc 90-1). The inert physical body is built, cell for cell, upon the invisible substance of the astral model-body or linga-sarira. The latter contains the real organs of the senses and sensations, and it transmits the mental, emotional, and instinctual impulses to which the physical body reacts.

The lower mind acts upon the physical organs and their cells; but only the higher mind can influence the atoms in these cells, and arouse the brain to a mental conception of spiritual ideas. That is to say, ideal, mental, and physiological wholeness depend upon the dominance of the atomic, spiritual impulses over the desires of the selfish kama-manasic nature. The personal nature is limited in action to the material, molecular cell. This subtle but practical interplay of his physical and superphysical nature points to the natural unity of purpose in the trend of ethics and physiology.

With power to know good and evil, and free will to choose, man is responsible for refining and perfecting his material, personal nature into becoming a responsive and powerful medium for manifesting his spiritual and higher intellectual individuality. The inner man is ever acting with the cosmic evolutionary urge toward perfection of type. It is this reincarnating ego which directs the atomic life of the fertilized germ-cells in upbuilding the body according to pattern; this is the mysterious organizer which eludes all analyses of biological researchers. Likewise, the morally and intellectually irresponsible entities evolving in the lower kingdoms are impulsed, in addition to the urge of each individual entity's monad, by the instinctual phase of the universal mind which is directed by celestial beings acting with the so-called laws of nature.

The universe being a living organism functioning throughout consciously, has its analogy in the physiological operation of the human body. Hence, biological scientists who tamper with the natural arrangements of chromosomes or artificially combine different embryonic elements, instead of solving the problem of life, are only dealing with the matter which is manifesting the conscious creative powers of ideation.

(See also: Physical Body , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Sanskrit dictionary. From Advaita to Yoga.

Please note that all words in grey, like "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

Self-realization

New Agers use this as a synonym for God-realization. It refers to a personal recognition of one's divinity.

(See also: Self-realization , New Age, Body mind and Soul)

Vasana, Conditioning, Tendencies, Self-limitation:

Self-imposed limitations; the general idea is that your true self is unbounded and without attributes, yet most people generate their own bondage and subsequent suffering by faulty identification with that which is less than their true self. These limitations are in essence different forms of attachments, such as attachment to one's:

 · Personal history (memory)

 · Personal strengths and weaknesses

 · Predispositions

 · Likes and dislikes

 · Habits

 · Habitual outlook

 · Opinions

 In short all the things that go into building your individual sense of self or ego. The word vasana is usually translated as mental conditioning or subtle tendencies.

(See also: Vasana, Conditioning, Tendencies, Self-limitation , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

REINCARNATION

Advanced minds seem to take reincarnation for granted: Plato, Emerson, Edison, Shaw, Jung -- even Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. All life transmigrates -- indeed, not just life, but everything "returns." Many find the latter idea hard to take -- as though there must be not only no mice in the Afterworld, but no machines! Yet, obviously, if one thing evolves, then everything evolves. Molecules of steel and granite cling tenaciously, as do we, to permanence and the spider chooses her life, even as we choose ours, because spiderdom is the acme of her aspirations. Where the will exists, there return exists.

Even if the evolution of life out of the inanimate does not indicate mind apart from brain, even if it demonstrates only the "accidental" fact that things must mutate "upward" or else dissolve downward into entropy, then "mind" or "purpose" is synonymous with or implicit in "accidence" itself. The one apodictic truth is that life and complexification have prevailed, whatever else has not, including the "content" of entropy.

The universe is mind, as we've pointed out elsewhere. The purpose of mind is to know itself, and knowing can succeed only through particularization.

One way to understand metempsychosis is to imagine our poor sublunary lives as pressings onto phonograph records, on the Akasha's etheric record. When the Atma particle, or Oversoul, incarnates, it shuffles off its generalized shell and starts to particularize. In so doing it may, under certain rare and privileged circumstances, find itself able to examine previous akashic recordings in which it formed similar particularizations. The Oversoul itself, however, is made up of all these countless recorded souls. With each experience it grows in metamorphic complexity. In the Oversoul the Whole is greater that its parts -- although when it separates individually the part is naturally greater than the Whole.

The Buddhists hold that there is no "immutable soul." Therefore reincarnation is simply a way of expressing the rebirth of unenlightened mind. Rebirth is then merely like the same sand pouring into different vessels: bucket, goblet, urn, etc. If death is the abandonment of personal self, then the dividing walls between us crumble and memory has access to all former lives. Most people tend to remember only the former lives of the more interesting or arresting personalities: kings, queens, martyrs, monsters, etc. That's why there are so many former Napoleons and Cleopatras and so few kitchenmaids and village idiots.

Finally, we must detach ourselves from the encapsulating Xtian belief in literal "Resurrection." We must understand that the "raising of the dead" is a metaphorical version, not of reincarnation, but of renewal within life. To be reborn of the flesh, of fire, of water and the spirit -- these are its tetramorphic aspects, to be sure, but resurrection, reincarnation and being "born again" are all symbols of the birth or rebirth of the spirit within the "dead" soul of materialistic greed. Rebirth begins before physical death and proceeds post-mortem into actual reincarnation. Reincarnation per se, however, is not acceptable to orthodox Xtianity in the slightest because it neutralizes Salvation.

(See also: REINCARNATION , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

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

Selfishness Making the gratification of the personal self or ego the paramount aim in conduct; a disregard of the interests of others. While individualism is a necessary stage in evolution, yet humanity on the upward arc of evolution is on the road towards realization of the essential unity of all selves. Hence selfishness is our greatest obstacle in spiritual unfolding or development.

It is not its grosser manifestations that are most harmful, but the subtler forms in which it may wear the mask of the virtues. It is overcome by aspiration towards the source of our being, by recognizing the barrenness and futility of self-seeking and its destructive results, and by the cultivation of that primal instinct of altruism which is at the heart of every being.

What is here called selfishness corresponds in the minds of Buddhist philosophers and scholars to the ideas they disputed grouped about the word atman. They never intended to deny the fundamental meaning of atman or selfhood, and yet this misconception of ancient Buddhist teaching has brought about the false idea that Gautama Buddha and his followers taught that man has no essential self or selfhood. Because selfishness was popularly considered the permanent soulhood in man, the doctrine of anatma (in Pali, anatta) was strongly and continuously taught.

The deduction shows clearly that even in India at the time of the Buddha, selfhood in its popular sense of concentration on the lower self and its interests was as popular and widespread as today. It is a paradox that in selflessness is found the noblest and highest emanation of self-expression of the atman or spiritual self in man.

(See also: Selfishness , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Self:

Self: What is Self? see SSS-IV

(See also: Self , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Self: The nearest English equivalent of the Sanskrit word “Atman”, the essential Divinity of an individual.

(See also: Self , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

SELF: with a capital 'S' is reference to one's entirety of person, the spirit & soul, if you will.

(See also: SELF , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Trance [from Latin transpire to cross, pass over]

A state in which the soul seems to have passed out of the body into another state of being, a rapture, an ecstasy. In a general way, the entranced conditions thus defined are divided into varying degrees of a negative, unconscious state, and into progressive gradations of a positive, conscious, illumining condition. Examples of all degrees of these conditions have occurred among peoples in all ages, and the two conditions may exist coordinately, or either may exist as an active factor to the virtual exclusion of the other.

Although in both kinds of entranced cases there is a more or less temporary dissociation of the human soul -- a disruption of the normal relations of the personality -- the resulting psychological conditions in typical cases of the two classes are distinctly opposite. In the unconscious state, the person's mental-psychological or intermediate nature is in a subnormal and unnatural condition, even if he is seeing and reporting clairvoyant visions of unknown past events and of as yet unknown future. While his dislocated intermediate nature is thus functioning upon the chaotic astral plane, he is devoid of the judgment and will power of his higher mind, and is as helpless as in a nightmare or disorderly dream.

This subnormal state may result from self-psychologization or from the hypnotic or psychological influence of another person; the person may be the unconscious victim of primitive nature forces; or he may be controlled by some disembodied human elementary, as sometimes happens in cases of mediumship. In any one of the above unconscious "absences," no memory of the experience is self-consciously retained afterwards.

In cases of ecstasy, on the other hand -- or of the true seer -- there is supernormal activity of the mental-spiritual nature of the person whose human soul in being freed or absent from its kama-manasic desires and consciousness, becomes allied with his higher mind. Thus he becomes intellectually highly lucid, spiritually conscious, and illumined. His now quiescent personal self offers no bar to the reality of the light of truth flowing into him from his own higher nature. His condition, whether a spontaneous exaltation, a state self-induced, or invoked at will, is a direct contrast with the mediumistic state. He is vividly self-conscious of his experience, and he retains the memory of it. Such an exalted state of entrancement is only possible for those individuals who are prepared by great purity of life and a trained will, which are also prerequisites for the mystic rites of the higher initiations.

A person is entranced in various minor degrees when he is temporarily absent-minded, or is absorbed in a brown study, and even in a certain sense when he is asleep. Many persons of mediumistic or psychic constitution become negatively absent from their ordinary senses, or they cultivate such a state for the purpose of becoming conscious on the astral plane. These unfortunates, who yield to the psychic lure of the unknown, receive nothing but a confused and unreliable vision. Worse yet, they thus open their own natures to the invasion and possible possession by astral entities of all kinds, even by excarnate actively evil beings -- the elementaries -- seeking physical satisfaction of unexpended intense desires. Not a few of such victims become such from their craving to get out in the astral, and to cultivate powers for the controlling of others, as taught by various pseudo-occultists who brazenly advertise their appeals to selfish human nature.

Any phase of negative trance state is therefore unnatural and often highly dangerous, because the whole trend of nature is towards an ever greater self-consciousness and a stronger spiritual will and nobler intellectual activity.

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

Self-Applied Health Enhancement Methods (SAHEM): Variation of self-healing developed by Roger Jahnke, C.A., O.M.D., author of The Healer Within: The Four Essential Self-Care Techniques for Optimal Health (HarperSanFrancisco, 1999). The methods fall into four categories: gentle movements and postures (e.g., tai chi); self-massage (e.g., auricular reflexology); breathing exercises; and (d) relaxation practices.

(See also: Self-Applied Health Enhancement Methods , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Tanha (Pali) Thirst; in Buddhism the thirst or longing for material existence, the desire to return to the familiar scenes of earth-life. It is "the lower Ego, or personal Self . . . with its fierce Selfishness and animal desire to live a Senseless life (Tanha), which is 'the maker of the tabernacle,' as Buddha calls it in Dhammapada" (SD 2:110). This desire to live and the clinging to life on earth is the effectual cause producing rebirth. Equivalent to the Sanskrit trishna.

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

Higher Self The divine-spiritual essence or essential egoity overshadowing the human being, the atma-buddhi with the efflorescence of manas. The higher self is the god within, the source of all right motive, the fountain of intuition, and the voice of divine harmony seeking to control the individual's life and to transform or transmute all the voices of personal desire.

(See also: Higher Self , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

enlightenment: For Saiva monists, Self Realization, samadhi without seed (nirvikalpa samadhi); the ultimate attainment, sometimes referred to as Paramatma darshana, or as atma darshana, "Self vision" (a term which appears in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras).

Enlightenment is the experience-nonexperience resulting in the realization of one's transcendent Self-Parasiva -which exists beyond time, form and space. Each tradition has its own understanding of enlightenment, often indicated by unique terms.

See: God Realization, kundalini, nirvikalpa samadhi, Self Realization, jivanmukta, jnana..

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