Brotherhood Human beings, in common with all other entities in the universe, are inseparable members of a spiritual unity; and the illusion of eternally separate selves, and therefore equally permanent individual and diverse interests, is due to an ignorance of fundamental facts in nature. "If the action of one reacts on the lives of all, and this is the true scientific idea, then it is only by all men becoming brothers and all women sisters, and by all practising in their daily lives true brotherhood and true sisterhood, that the real human solidarity, which lies at the root of the elevation of the race, can ever be attained" (Key 234).

Theosophical Society has always insisted on the formation of a nucleus of a universal brotherhood as its prime objective; and the teachings which it promulgates are aids subsidiary to this purpose. As one of Blavatsky's teachers wrote: "The Chiefs want a 'Brotherhood of Humanity,' a real Universal Fraternity started; an institution which would make itself known throughout the world and arrest the attention of the highest minds" (ML 24). Again, "It is he alone who has the love of humanity at heart, who is capable of grasping thoroughly the idea of a regenerating practical Brotherhood who is entitled to the possession of our secrets. He alone, such a man -- will never misuse his powers, as there will be no fear that he should turn them to selfish ends" (ML 252).

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

Buddhindriyas (Sanskrit) In Hindu philosophy, one of the three main divisions of the human being according to the indriyas (instruments, organs); the "organs or means of spiritual consciousness, apperception, sense and action" {FSO 275}.

See also INDRIYA

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

Buddha (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root budh to perceive, awaken, recover consciousness)

Awakened, enlightened; one who is spiritually awakened, who has become one with the supreme self (paramatman).

"To become a Buddha one has to break through the bondage of sense and personality; to acquire a complete perception of the real self and learn not to separate it from all other selves; to learn by experience the utter unreality of all phenomena of the visible Kosmos foremost of all; to reach a complete detachment from all that is evanescent and finite, and live while yet on Earth in the immortal and the everlasting alone, in a supreme state of holiness" (TG 64-5).

"A Buddha in the esoteric teaching is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more in this manvantara; they have reached Nirvana and remain there. This does not mean, however, that the lower centers of consciousness of a Buddha are in Nirvana, for the contrary is true; and it is this fact that enables a Buddha of Compassion to remain in the lower realms of being as mankind's supreme Guide and Instructor, living usually as a Nirmanakaya" (OG 33-4).

See also GAUTAMA

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

Buddha of Compassion One who, having gained the right to nirvana, renounces it to return to help all living beings. "They are men who have raised themselves from humanity into quasi-divinity; and this is done by letting the light imprisoned within, the light of the inner god, pour forth and manifest itself through the humanity of the man, through the human soul of the man. Through sacrifice and abandoning of all that is mean and wrong, ignoble and paltry and selfish: through opening up the inner nature so that the god within may shine forth; in other words, through self-directed evolution, they have raised themselves from mere manhood into becoming god-men, man-gods -- human divinities.

"They are called 'Buddhas of Compassion' because they feel their unity with all that is, and therefore feel intimate magnetic sympathy with all that is, and this is more and more the case as they evolve, until finally their consciousness blends with that of the universe and lives eternally and immortally, because it is at one with the universe. 'The dewdrop slips into the shining sea' -- its origin. . . . The Buddhas of Compassion, existing in their various degrees of evolution, form a sublime hierarchy extending from the Silent Watcher on our planet downwards through these various degrees unto themselves, and even beyond themselves to their chelas or disciples" (OG 23-4).

They are in contrast to the Pratyeka Buddhas, whose goal is to win spiritual liberation for themselves alone and who do not renounce nirvana.

(See also: Buddha of Compassion, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bodhi Tree or Bo Tree The tree of wisdom or knowledge; the tree (Pippala or Ficus religiosa) "under which Sakyamuni meditated for seven years and then reached Buddhaship. It was originally 400 feet high, it is claimed; but when Hiouen-Tsang saw it, about the year 640 of our era, it was only 50 feet high. Its cuttings have been carried all over the Buddhist world and are planted in front of almost every Vihara or temple of fame in China, Siam, Ceylon, and Tibet" (TG 59).

This legend of the enormous height attained by the fig tree under which the Buddha obtained enlightenment, illustrates how soon the spiritual vision of the real meaning of the bodhi tree became involved in mythologic wonder.

While the historical legend of the Buddha obtaining omniscience under the bodhi tree may be correct historically, it is also a usage of the mystical language of the Mysteries -- Gautama attaining supreme wisdom and knowledge under the "wisdom tree" is but another way of saying that through initiation into the highest grades of the Mysteries, he reached the stage of buddhahood because he was already a buddha through inner evolution. Again, in India adepts of both the right- and left-hand were often referred to as trees, the path indicated by whether the tree named was beneficent or maleficent.

See also ASVATTHA

(See also: Bodhi Tree, Bo Tree, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bragi (Icelandic) (from bragr best)

One of the twelve aesir, gods of the Norse Eddas. Representing poetic inspiration of the highest order, he is called the divine singer. It is said he lay sleeping on the ship of the dwarfs (kingdoms of the elements -- earth, water, air, fire, aether), and when the vessel crossed the threshold of death, he awoke and sang the worlds into life. The sound of his joyfilled song and golden harp reverberates through the nine worlds awakening the music of all the spheres.

Bragi is synonymous with spiritual intuition which, united with the mind (Loki), is the means of human liberation. His consort, the goddess Idun, daily gives the gods the apples of immortality.

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

Brahmacharin brahmacarin (Sanskrit) (from brahman cosmic spirit, divine spiritual wisdom + charin one practicing or performing)

One who is devoted to the student life of a religious devotee involved in sacred study; a young Brahmin in the first period of life as observed in ancient times. The name likewise is given to one who practices rigorous self-control, abstinence, chastity, etc.

(See also: Brahmacharin, brahmacarin, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Brahma-prakriti (Sanskrit) (from brahman cosmic spirit + prakriti nature)

The material or vehicular aspect of Brahma's nature in contradistinction to Brahma-Purusha, his spiritual aspect.

(See also: Brahma-prakriti, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Brahma-Purusha, Brahma-Purusa (Sanskrit) The spiritual aspect of Brahma's nature in contradistinction to Brahma-prakriti, the material aspect.

(See also: Brahma-Purusha, Brahma-Purusa, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Brain The anatomy of the brain is very complex, and the organ as a whole can be considered under two main aspects:

1)    in relation to consciousness, thought, and memory; and

2)    in relation to functional activities stimulated by nerve currents to the various organs, muscles, etc.

It is in reference to consciousness that Blavatsky states that "Occultism tells us that every atom, like the monad of Leibnitz, is a little universe in itself; and that every organ and cell in the human body is endowed with a brain of its own, with memory, therefore, experience and discriminative powers" (Studies in Occultism 100; BCW 12:134).

Pirogoff, Liebig, and others are quoted in support of the view that memory is related to the bodily organs in general and not wholly to the brain. The brain is the registering organ of memory, not memory itself. The memories of terrestrial experiences -- those pertaining to the lower mind -- arise in the bodily organs pertaining to it, and are transmitted to the structure of the brain, where they are registered in the kama-manasic consciousness.

But the finer particles of the brain cannot be so reached, for the brain in this sense is the organ of a higher noetic mind. The higher mind does not act directly on the bodily organs, but through the mediation of the lower mind. Thus it is the personal ego "catches occasional glimpses of that which is beyond the senses of man, and transmits them to certain brain cells (unknown to science in their functions), thus making of man a Seer, a soothsayer, and a prophet . . ." (Studies in Occultism 89; BCW 12:367). The brain and heart are special organs through which the higher mind acting through the personal mind can stimulate the finer particles of the body to a representation of spiritual ideas.

More particularly the brain may be described as the organ of the lower manasic activities through the manasic fluid flowing forth from the inner constitution; whereas the heart is the organ -- as yet only slightly evolved to its high purposes -- for the buddhic or buddhi-manasic parts of the invisible human constitution. Thus when the brain is trained to receive the inflow of the current arising in the higher portion of the fluid which bathes the heart, then the individual lives for the time at least in the highest portions of his constitution, and temporarily becomes a demigod on earth.

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

Brain-mind Used by theosophists for the astral mind of the personal ego, the pale and too often distorted reflection of the intellection of the reincarnating ego. It is, in fact, the representative in the physical world of kama-manas, mind conditioned by materiality.

The lower mind or psycho-nervous effluvia of the brain acts through the nervous ganglia in the kamic centers, such as the liver, stomach, and spleen, though the central ganglia of this nervous system are situated in the base of the skull. The brain, and with it the heart, however, are likewise the organs of spiritual and intellectual powers far higher than those represented by the merely human personality working through the brain-mind; hence the higher forms of thought, supersensuous, superconscious, correlate with the cerebral and cardiac centers.

The body in general and the brain in particular are compact of finer and grosser elements, the former responsive only to the breath of divine wisdom, out of reach of the winds from the passion-laden lower mind, whose function is to act on and arouse the grosser elements of the nervous system.

The brain, therefore, is a kind of reflector of thought-currents and emotional tides which arise in the kamic centers of the inner self, and are distributed through the nervous ganglia in the skull to the physical kamic reflection centers in the trunk. Thus we scarcely use at all the brain itself in the true sense, or at any rate only in its lowest aspects or functions; and it is only in rare moments that the brain tissues are suffused with the glory emanating directly from the higher nature and working through the pineal and pituitary glands in the skull and through the secret center in the heart.

(See also: Brain-mind, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Book of Dzyan (probably from Sanskrit dhyana intense spiritual meditation, wisdom, divine knowledge)

An archaic work of enormous antiquity upon which Blavatsky based her Secret Doctrine. Dzyan has been variously spelled or transliterated, and under this form is a derivative of the Tibetan. Dzyan, dzen, or ch'an is the general term for the esoteric schools and their literature.

Blavatsky describes the Book of Dzyan, saying: "An Archaic Manuscript -- a collection of palm leaves made impermeable to water, fire, and air, by some specific unknown process -- is before the writer's eye. On the first page is an immaculate white disk within a dull black ground. On the following page, the same disk, but with a central point" (SD 1:1).

"The 'very old Book' is the original work from which the many volumes of Kiu-ti were complied. Not only this latter and the Siphrah Dzeniouta but even the Sepher Jezirah, the work attributed by the Hebrew Kabbalists to their Patriarch Abraham (!), the book of Shu-king, China's primitive Bible, the sacred volumes of the Egyptian Thoth-Hermes, the Puranas in India, and the Chaldean Book of Numbers and the Pentateuch itself, are all derived from that one small parent volume.

Tradition says, that it was taken down in Senzar, the secret sacerdotal tongue, from the words of the Divine Beings, who dictated it to the sons of Light, in Central Asia, at the very beginning of the 5th (our) race; for there was a time when its language (the Sen-zar) was known to the Initiates of every nation, when the forefathers of the Toltec understood it as easily as the inhabitants of the lost Atlantis, who inherited it, in their turn, from the sages of the 3rd Race, the Manushis, who learnt it direct from the Devas of the 2nd and 1st Races. . . . The old book, having described Cosmic Evolution and explained the origin of everything on earth, including physical man, after giving the true history of the races from the First down to the Fifth (our) race, goes no further" (SD 1:xliii).

See also STANZAS OF DZYAN.

(See also: Book of Dzyan, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Brahmadikas (Sanskrit) The earliest emanations from Brahman; also a general name for the higher solar pitris or dhyani-chohans, whether of the solar system, planetary chain, or even individual globes, who take charge of their respective spheres for the course of its life cycle. As spiritual prajapatis, producers or emanators of hierarchical classes or families, they in a sense are identified with the manus. {Check Brahmadicas (SD 2:142) and Brahmandika (SD 1:442) to see if they are the same or different from this and each other}

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

Brahmajnana (Sanskrit) (from Brahman cosmic spirit + jnana knowledge from the verbal root jna to know)

Divine, sacred, or esoteric knowledge concerning the cosmic Brahman as taught, for instance, in Vedantic philosophy; also spiritual wisdom per se.

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

Brahmajnanin (Sanskrit) (from brahman cosmic spirit + jnanin knower from the verbal root jna to know)

One who possesses sacred knowledge; spiritually wise or holy.

(See also: Brahmajnanin, 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)

Bhagavad-Gita (Sanskrit) (from bhagavat illustrious, sacred, holy, lord (one of Krishna's titles) + gita song)

The noble song, the Lord's song; a portion of the Bhagavad-Gita Parvan, one subsection of the Bhishma Parvan, itself one of the principle sections of the Mahabharata. The Bhagavad-Gita consists of a dialogue in which Krishna and Arjuna have a discussion upon the highest spiritual philosophy. Krishna in this instance is the inner instructor or monitor, the higher self, advising the human self or Arjuna.

(See also: Bhagavad-Gita, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bhakti Yoga (Sanskrit) (from bhakti devotion + yoga union from the verbal root yuj to join)

The form of yoga practice of attaining at-one-ment or union with the spiritual-divine essence within by means of devotion, faith, and love.

(See also: Bhakti Yoga, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Beri'ah (Hebrew) (from bara to create, shape)

The beri'atic world or `olam hab-beri'ah is "world or sphere of creation"; second of the four worlds ('olamim) which according to the Qabbalah are emanated during the period of world manifestation. It is considered to contain pure or spiritual forms and originant ideas, for in this 'olam creation commences. This sphere is a continuation of the emanation of the first ('olam 'atstsiloth) and contains likewise, as do each of the 'olamim, a complete tenfold Sephirothal Tree, though on 'olam hab-beri'ah certain ones only of the ten Sephiroth find their especial field of action. The substance of the beri'atic world is still of a highly ethereal or quasi-spiritaual type. Just as the Prototype (Diyyuqna') occupies the first world, so Metatron occupies the second -- also named Kursyai' (the Throne). From this world is emanated the third world, 'olam hay-yetsirah.

Interestingly, when written without Massoretic points, beri'ah comprises the same letters -- BRH -- found in the Sanskrit the verbal root brih (to expand) from which is derived Brahma, the first Hindu creator.

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

Boar One of the avataras of Vishnu or Brahma as Prajapati; in Hindu symbology the boar "which plunges into the 'waters' of space and lifts up the earth upon his tusks, and so bears it for the remainder of the manvantara, signifies not only the fourth-plane physical vitality, but likewise the cosmical vitality which infills and sustains the earth, rooted as this vitality is in the spiritual life of the god of our solar system" {FSO 493}.

See also AVATARA

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

Bodhi (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root budh to acquire understanding, awaken)

Perfect wisdom or enlightenment; true divine wisdom. A state of consciousness in which one has so emptied the mind that it is filled only with the selfless selfhood of the eternal. In this state one realizes the ineffable visions of reality and of pure truth. Bodhi is a name for the enlightened intellect of buddha. " 'Bodhi' is likewise the name of a particular state of trance condition, called Samadhi, during which the subject reaches the culmination of spiritual knowledge" (SD 1:xix). The bodhi state is called a buddha, and the organ in and by which it is manifested is termed buddhi.

Bodhi is also a name for the mystical tree under which legend says Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment, known as the sacred fig tree of India.

See also Asvattha

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