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Acharya - Acharya (Sanskrit). Spiritual teacher, Guru; as Sankar-acharya, lit., a "teacher of ethics". A name generally given to Initiates, etc., and meaning "Master".
Akasa - Akasa (Sanskrit). The subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which pervades all space; the primordial substance erroneously identified with Ether. But it is to Ether what Spirit is to Matter, or Atma to Kama-rupa.
It is, in fact, the Universal Space in which lies inherent the eternal Ideation of the Universe in its ever-changing aspects on the planes of matter and objectivity, and from which radiates the First Logos, or expressed thought. This is why it is stated in the Puranas that Akasa has but one attribute, namely sound, for sound is but the translated symbol of Logos - "Speech" in its mystic sense. In the same sacrifice (the Jyotishtoma Agnishtoma) it is called the "God Akasa". In these sacrificial mysteries Akasa is the all-directing ‘and omnipotent Deva who plays the part of Sadasya, the superintendent over the magical effects of the religious performance, and it had its own appointed Hotri (priest) in days of old, who took its name.
The Akasa is the indispensable agent of every Kritya (magical performance) religious or profane. The expression "to stir up the Brahma", means to stir up the power which lies latent at the bottom of every magical operation, Vedic sacrifices being in fact nothing if not ceremonial magic.
This power is the Akasa - in another aspect, Kundalini - occult electricity, the alkahest of the alchemists in one sense, or the universal solvent, the same anima mundi on the higher plane as the astral light is on the lower. "At the moment of the sacrifice the priest becomes imbued with the spirit of Brahma, is, for the time being, Brahma himself". (Isis Unveiled).
Akasha - The all-pervading spiritual *ether*.
Akasha Spirit - The fifth element, the omnipresent spiritual power that permeates the universe.
Anandamayakosa - Anandamayakosa (Sanskrit) (from ananda bliss, joy + maya built of, formed of from the verbal root ma to measure, form + kosa sheath)
Bliss-built sheath; in the Vedantic classification, the first of the panchakosa (five sheaths) of the human constitution which enclose the divine monad (atman); it corresponds to the spiritual soul (buddhi). Anandamayakosa is sometimes mystically referred to as the sheath of the sun.
See also KOSA
Architects - Architects (from Greek architektones master-builders)
Among groups of the creators such as the cosmocratores, demiourgoi, and dhyani-chohans, architect applies to the designers, those possessing and using the ideational faculties, and the term builder applies to the workmen or those who execute the general design. "The architects form the higher or more spiritual side, and actually form the line of the luminous arc; and the builders or constructors form, on the other hand, the shadowy arc" (Fund 507-8).
The architects are the dhyani-buddhas, the principle creators, the elohim, synthesized by demiourgus; they follow the plan of the inherent divine thought.
Archon - On the mundane plane, a temporal ruler. Each magician has his own dimension over which he is its Archon. In Gnosticism, the Archons were planetary rulers - the planets representing as they did spiritual worlds which the soul, as in Ancient Egypt, passed after death. In order to pass from one sphere to the next, the soul has to bew able to recite the proper password, or give the "name" (i.e., the understanding) of the corresponding Archon. This is the "sacred knowledge" that Gnosis comprised. Archons, however, are rulers of the earth and universe, which are the evil, inferior realms composed of souls imprisoned in matter - that's why special or privileged knowledge is necessary to get past them.
Chiti - Chiti citi (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root chit to think)
Understanding; "that by which the effects and consequences of actions and kinds of knowledge are selected for the use of the soul," or "conscience the inner Voice in man" (SD 1:288n).
Some yogis consider chiti as a synonym of mahat, but theosophic philosophy considers mahat the root and base as well as the germ of chiti. Chiti is manas functioning under the illumination of buddhi, and therefore becomes discriminative or intuitive understanding, an organic activity as contrasted with abstract or pure thought or consciousness.
This function when developed makes of the human intermediate nature an entity virtually identic with a manasaputra, and thus attracts by spiritual affinity guardian spirits or chitkalas, synonymous themselves with manasaputras.
Chorea - Chorea (from Greek choreia dancing)
A disorder of the nervous system, characterized by a peculiar convulsive and irregular action of the voluntary muscles, especially those of the face and extremities. It has been called insanity of the muscles, since their action is without harmony or purpose, and each seems to have a will of its own. It is most common in the impressionable years of childhood and adolescence, though appearing at different ages and associated with other diseases which, as a rule, are free from choreic movements.
All types have significant common features. First, that many cases are free from organic disease shows that this is a purely functional one; when it complicates other diseases, it retains the typical movements of essential chorea. Whether it develops after some infectious or exhausting condition or polluting experience, or after some mental or psychological strain or shock, like fright or fear, the choreiform reaction indicates the occurrence of an unstable balance between the physical and astral bodies and the inner and higher manasic in man. Persons who develop chorea share a common psychic susceptibility which marks those who are subject to disturbances like hysteria, mediumship, epilepsy, and other phases of obsession.
In addition, there are similar signs of a besieging influence at first, as when the child grows peevish, capricious, and restless, wants improper food, is listless at school, suffers with disturbed sleep and night-terrors; and later begin the convulsive movements in the muscles which are naturally under the control of the conscious will.
The individual will thus weakened and, in some cases, psychic changes like hallucinations and somnambulism, point to the characteristic action of some astral influence. Further evidence of this is seen in the danger of chorea developing into more serious nervous disorders; whereas, with proper mental, moral, and physical care, cure results when the spiritual will regains its rightful place in controlling the course of life.
Dorjechang Rdo Rje Chang - Dorjechang rdo rje 'chang (Tibetan) Equivalent of the Sanskrit vajradhara (wielder of the thunderbolt). The supreme buddha or adi-buddha; also the title of a buddha having reference to his highest or most spiritual part.
Fravashi - Fravashi (Avestan) Fravahr (Pahlavi), Fravati (old Persian) (from fra before + var to grow upright, incline upward, be true)
Sometimes Farvarshi. Primeval truth; the alter ego or spiritual counterpart of every entity.
"The Fravashi is the inner power in every being that maintains it and makes it grow and subsist. Originally the Favashis were the same as the Pitris of the Hindus or the Manes of the Latins, that is to say, the everlasting and deified souls of the dead; but in course of time they gained a wider domain, and not only men, but gods and even physical objects, like the sky and the earth, etc., had each a Fravashi" (Darmesteter, Farvardin Yasht 179).
In Yasna 26 five different faculties for understanding or five stages of consciousness are mentioned: Ahu, Daena, Baudha, Urvan, and Fravashi (the need of upright growth). In the Bundahish (ch 1), Ahura-Mazda produces a preparatory creation of embryonic and immaterial existences, the prototypes, fravashis, spiritual counterparts of the guardian angels of the spiritual and material creatures afterwards produced.
Ahura-Mazda, previous to the material creation, consults with the Fravashis of men (the sons of light) and these guardian spirits of men choose to fight the adversary, Ahirman, in a bodily form.
Cosmically it is the celestial double of lower celestial beings, the cosmic Christos or universal spirit (SD 2:478).
Meditation - The emptying of the mind of thoughts, or concentration of the mind on just one thing in order to aid mental or spiritual development, contemplation, or relaxation. Although the practice originated in India, it is common to many religions. Hatha yoga is a form of meditation.
Odr - Odr (Icelandic) Mind, wit, soul, sense; in Norse mythology, cosmic mind, corresponding to the Sanskrit mahat. The name Odin is derived from it when Odin represents the Allfather. In one legend reminiscent of the Egyptian tale of Isis, Odr is the husband of Frigga, who weeps golden tears as she searches the worlds for him.
Here he may stand for one of the divine ancestors of the human race, and his long journeys are the peregrinations made by the monad, Odr's spiritual aspect, through the worlds of form and matter. Odr is used for song or poetry in many compound words such as odar-smidr (song smith), odar-ar (speech oar, the tongue), odraerir (inspirer of wisdom, the vessel containing the blood of Kvasir: inspiration brought to the gods from higher gods).
Path - Spiritual and/or moral beliefs.
Pothos - Pothos (Greek) Desire; the divine love felt by spirit for its own principles (Chaos), thus the root of eros and cupido. Just as is the case with the various meanings given to the Sanskrit kama, so with pothos. Abstract kama is identic with abstract pothos, pothos itself; and as from abstract kama, spiritual divine love, springs forth the lower kama of the manifested worlds, just so from pothos mystically spring forth first eros, cosmic attraction on all planes, and then on a still lower and more material series of planes was born cupido, or attraction and yearning.
Pratyagatman - Pratyagatman (Sanskrit) [from pratyak interior, inner + atman self]
Jivatman or the spiritual monad; sometimes equivalent to the Logos.
Prayer - Prayer As usually understood in the West, prayer implies the existence -- whether actually so in nature or not -- of a divine entity, such as God, Christ, an angel or saint, to whom petitions may be addressed and by whose favor benefits may be obtained, a view of prayer held in nearly all exoteric religious systems. Yet even among those who believe in personal divinities, some take a higher view of prayer than that of asking for special favors, rather looking upon it as an act of resignation to the divine will: "Not my will, but thine, be done."
Theosophy speaks of this as the endeavor of the aspiring human mind to establish individual communion between the personal man and his spiritual counterpart or inner god, the true meaning of the injunction to pray to our Father which is in secret. Thus prayer takes the form of aspiration combined with deep meditation, as has been the case with mystics, Eastern and Western. This involves a laying aside of personal wishes and a conscious desire for intuitive perception of the truth and for the power to follow it.
If a personal wish is present, precisely because all personal wishes in the last analysis are restricted, and hence either physically or spiritually selfish, the act becomes one of black magic, for the person is seeking to evoke interior powers in furtherance of his own purposes, which in such cases are usually founded in self-seeking of some kind. Also, a well-intentioned person, praying on behalf of another, may unwittingly exercise on that other an interference with the latter's will, similar in many respects to that of hypnotism.
The absurdity of warring nations praying to the same God for victory over each other is often commented on; and the practice of many people combining together to pray for the conversion of people of another sect, or even for worse objects, is equally open to reprobation. This kind of prayer is merely a survival of one of the lower magic arts, where religious practice consists mainly in the invocation of tribal and local deities.
Sani - Sani (Sanskrit) The planet Saturn or its regent; in the Hindu pantheon, the son of Surya (the sun) and of either Sanjna (spiritual consciousness), the daughter of Visvakarman, or Chhaya (shadow), the spiritual shadow thrown off or left behind by Sanjna.
Sani is almost invariably represented as a black individual clothed in black, and his titles include Saptarchi (seven-rayed one) and Asita (dark or obscure). The influence of Saturn, spiritually and astrologically, is enormous, and though commonly considered the great malefic in astrology, this is but a one-sided view, for Saturn's influence often is as helpful as it is dangerous upon occasions.
Senses - Senses In general, gateways of communication between the perceiving function of the ego and the corresponding elements of the plane where it is functioning. The physical senses appeared in serial evolution in the order of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. These senses were not developed out of nothing but are expressions or reflection on the physical plane of previous latent, inner causal functions residing in the structure of the inner person.
The five physiological senses are modifications or specializations of a general perceptiveness which has different modifications in different animal species where the organs are different, especially in the insects. Sensitives and clairvoyants may be able to receive visual, auditory, or other impressions without the use of the physical organ, or the usual functions of a sense organ may be transferred to another part of the body.
The human senses are actually seven including, besides the usual five already developed, the organ or function of manas (mind) and of buddhi (understanding). These latter two are not senses in the physical significance pertaining to the bodily senses, but the emphasis is laid on organic and functional activities, both being inner and spiritual-intellectual. At the present stage of evolution man has not developed the power of manifesting the sixth and seventh sense functions and organs, but in the fifth round the development of ether will bring forth into relatively full evolution the manasic sense organ with the beginnings of the buddhic.
In exoteric mythologies the bodily senses and functions are said to have their presiding deities, so that there are two septenary sets: the causal spiritual, and their material reflections as effects. The cycles of septenary evolution bring forth the spiritual or divine; intellectual and higher psychological; the lower psychological, including the passional, and the instinctual; and the semi-corporeal and purely physical natures. The senses belong to the last two groups. The astral-vital-physical nature furnishes sensory organs, through which the inner senses can act, thus causing the functioning of the physical senses. These physiological senses develop pari passu with the physicalization of humanity.
In the first human protoplasts, the senses were nonexistent in the sense of being non-functional although latent; as evolution unfolded innate capacity and attribute, the functions and organs followed suit, and appeared in the evolving physical vehicle.
The senses belong to the third of seven creations mentioned in the Puranas, the first three constituting a group known as the prakrita creations:
mahat-tattva creation;
bhuta or bhutasarga; and
indriya or aindriyaka.
These three are not so much senses as the three first or elemental prakrita creations of the cosmos, representing the first three stages of the development of manifestation after a solar pralaya. Nevertheless, as analogy is nature's rule throughout, these creations are equally applicable to the human senses, applying to the generalized development of sense function and sense apparatus more than to the sense organs themselves. The last of the three is, in its human application, a modified form of ahankara, the conception of the egoistic and mayavi "I" in man, the reflection of the spiritual ego or monad; and this third creation is also termed the organic creation or creation of the senses.
Spirit - Spirit. The lack of any mutual agreement between writers in the use of this word has resulted in dire confusion.
It is commonly made synonymous with soul; and the lexicographers countenance the usage. In Theosophical teachings. the term "Spirit" is applied solely to that which belongs directly to Universal Consciousness, and which is its homogeneous and unadulterated emanation. Thus, the higher Mind in Man or his Ego (Manas) is, when linked indissolubly with Buddhi, a spirit; while the term "Soul", human or even animal (the lower Manas acting in animals as instinct), is applied only to Kama-Manas, and qualified as the living soul.
This is nephesh, in Hebrew, the "breath of life". Spirit is formless and immaterial, being, when individualised, of the highest spiritual substance - Suddasatwa, the divine essence, of which the body of the manifesting highest Dhyanis are formed. Therefore, the Theosophists reject the appellation " Spirits" for those phantoms which appear in the phenomenal manifestations of the Spiritualists, and call them "shells", and various other names. (See "Sukshma Sarira".)
Spirit, in short, is no entity in the sense of having form ; for, as Buddhist philosophy has it, where there is a form, there is a cause for pain and suffering. But each individual spirit - this individuality lasting only throughout the manvantaric life-cycle - may be described as a centre of consciousness, a self-sentient and self-conscious centre; a state, not a conditioned individual.
This is why there is such a wealth of words in Sanskrit to express the different States of Being, Beings and Entities, each appellation showing the philosophical difference, the plane to which such unit belongs, and the degree of its spirituality or materiality. Unfortunately these terms are almost untranslatable into our Western tongues.
Spirit Guide - A spiritual entity who provides information of "guidance," often through a medium or channeled. The spirit provides guidance only after the channeled relinquishes his perceptual and cognitive capacities into its control.
Suddhasattva - Suddhasattva (Sanskrit) [from suddha pure + sattva goodness]
Pure goodness, reality per se; a state of conscious spiritual egoity or egoship, and at the same time pure spiritual essence. Considered from the substance viewpoint, it is a supermaterial or ultramaterial essence or substance which to us is invisible, yet on its own plane luminous if not indeed light itself. Of this stuff or essence the bodies of the highest dhyanis and the gods are formed. It is spiritual substance without adulteration of the differentiated matters of the lower cosmic planes.
Tantra - Tantra (noun) refers to a Hindu or Buddhist spiritual Sadhana, that is performed using Yantra, Mantra, and specific rituals. One of the ways in which Tantra is explained is : Tanu trayate itii Tantra (which liberates from the limitations of the body). From point-of-view of spiritual practice, Tantra means :
Yantra ku Mantrare Bhediba hiin Tantra (Oriya), i.e. To pierce through an Yantra by applying a Mantra is Tantra.
One who practises Tantra is a Tantrik (also Tantric).
Tantra is infact the best way of Spiritual practice to attain Siddhis. In the times of Guru Matsyendranath, Guru Gorakhnath, Guru Viswamitra etc., tantra was a much respected and evolved science. However, with time, tantra became a Taboo, partly because of misuse-of-capabilites by certain Greedy individuals, and partly because the real knowledge was made very confined due to the fear of misuse and slowly got extinct. In recent times, the word has been associated with a variety of strange things, by people with orientation-less or poor imagination, which has nothing really to do with Tantra.
Tantra is a vast Science, with many different ways, Siddhis, rituals and know-hows of six-abilites: Shanti, (peace), Vashikaran (hypnotism and control), Stambhan (paralyze someone), Vidveshana (create conflict between persons), Uchhatan (driving away), and Maarana (destroy or kill someone). It is the misuse of such capabilities that led to extinction of the divine knowledge, however, these are never the main aims of tantra. The fear of tantra-practising is unfounded.
The construction of the Jagannath temple at Puri is based on the principle of Tantra. The temple is constructed in the form of Shri-Yantra and the deities are placed on Maha-Vairabh Yantra which was designed using 100000 special black stones (saalagrama).
The word dates back from the 7th century (at least) or earlier and the origin is from Sanskrit (from tan 'stretch'). [The word is accepted in New English Oxford Dictionary].€€€
Vajrasattva - Vajrasattva (Sanskrit) [from vajra diamond + sattva essence, reality]
Diamond-heart, diamond-essence; a title given to mahatmas of the highest grade, or to bodhisattvas whose whole personality as a living essence is merged in their compound sixth and seventh principles (atman-buddhi). Vajra here expresses the spiritual adamantine quality of the inner natures of these glorious beings. Vajrasattva is a manifestation of the heart of vajradhara, the First Logos or adi-buddha; hence vajrasattva is "the second logos of creation, from whom emanate the seven (in the exoteric blind the five) Dhyani Buddhas, called the Anupadaka, 'the parentless,' " (SD 1:571). Dorjesempa is the Tibetan equivalent.
Vajrasattva is often used for celestial beings, entities belonging to the hierarchy of light or compassion. The vajrasattva quality is likewise one which can be possessed in less degree by any human being, depending upon his degree of advancement.
Yoga - (lit., union) The spiritual practices and disciplines that lead a seeker to evenness of mind, to the severing of the union with pain, and through detachment, to skill in action. Ultimately, the path of yoga leads to the constant experience of the Self.
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