A Theosophical definition of Jiva :

Jiva

(Sanskrit) This is a word meaning essentially a living being per se, apart from any attributes or qualities that such living being may have or possess. It therefore is the exactly proper equivalent of the theosophical term monad. In one sense, therefore, jiva could be also used for a life-atom, provided that the emphasis be laid on the word life, or rather life-entity  - not an "atom of life," but a being whose essence is pure living individuality. Monad in its divine-spiritual essence, and life-atom in its pranic-astral-physical being  - such is a jiva; and between these two extremes are the numerous planes or sheaths on and in which the individualized consciousness works.

See also: Jiva , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Nous :

Nous

(Greek) This is a term frequently used by Plato for what in modern theosophical literature is usually called the higher manas or higher mind or spiritual soul, the union and characteristics of the buddhi-manas in man overshadowed by the atman.

The distinction to be drawn between the nous on the one hand, and the animal soul or psyche and its workings on the other hand, is very sharp, and the two must not be confused. In occultism the kosmic nous is the third Logos, and in the case of man's own constitution, or in human pneumatology, the nous is the buddhi-manas or higher manas or spiritual monad.

See also: Nous , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Sarira :

Sarira

(Sanskrit) From a root which can best be translated by saying that it means what is easily dissolved, easily worn away; the idea being something transitory, foam-like, full of holes, as it were. Note the meaning hid in this  - it is very important. A term which is of common usage in the philosophy of Hindustan, and of very frequent usage in modern theosophical philosophy. A general meaning is a composite body or vehicle of impermanent character in and through which an ethereal entity lives and works. (See also Linga-Sarira; Sthula-Sarira)

See also: Sarira , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

The Universal Brotherhood is a term used in theosophical writings. It refers to the theosophical conception that all human beings are members of a spiritual unity. Universal Brotherhood - Quotations. "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" (Mahatma Letters 24) ...

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Universal Brotherhood - Quotations

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A Theosophical definition of Vidya :

Vidya

(Sanskrit) The word (derived from the same verbal root vid from which comes the noun Veda) for "knowledge," "philosophy," "science." This is a term very generally used in theosophical philosophy, having in a general way the three meanings just stated. It is frequently compounded with other words, such as: atma-vidya  - "knowledge of atman" or the essential Self; Brahma-vidya  - "knowledge of Brahman," knowledge of the universe, a term virtually equivalent to theosophy; or, again, guhya-vidya  - signifying the "secret knowledge" or the esoteric wisdom. Using the word in a collective but nevertheless specific sense, vidya is a general term for occult science.

See also: Vidya , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Mahat :

Mahat

(Sanskrit) This word means "great." Mahat is a technical term in the Brahmanic system, and is the "father-mother" of manas; it is the "mother" of the manasaputras or sons of mind, or that element from which they spring, that element which they breathe and of which they are the children. In the Sankhya philosophy  - one of the six darsanas or "visions," i.e., systems of philosophical visioning of ancient India  - mahat is a term that corresponds to kosmic buddhi, but more accurately perhaps to maha-buddhi.

See also: Mahat , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Nature :

Nature

The consciousness side of nature is composed of vast hierarchies of gods, developed cosmical spirits, spiritual entities, cosmic graduates in the university of life.

The material side of nature is the heterogeneous matter, the material world in its many various planes, in all stages of imperfection  - but all these stages filled with armies of entities evolving and growing.

The proper term for nature in modern theosophical usage is prakriti or still more accurately mulaprakriti  - the ever-living kosmic producer, the eternally fecund mother, of the universe. When a theosophist speaks of nature, unless he limits the term to the physical world, he never means the physical world alone, but the vast reaches of universal kosmos and more particularly the inner realms, the causal factors of the boundless All.

Hence, a growing understanding of nature in this sense  - which is another way of saying an understanding of reality  - obviously provides the only basis of a religion founded on the changeless realities.

See also: Nature , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Ekagrata or Ekagratva :

Ekagrata - Ekagratva

(Sanskrit) A term signifying "onepointedness" or "absolute intentness" in the mental contemplation of an object of meditation. The perfect concentration of the percipient mind on a single point of thought, and the holding of it there.

See also: Ekagrata or Ekagratva , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Bodhi :

Bodhi

(Sanskrit) This word comes from the root budh, meaning "to awaken." It is the state when man has so emptied his mind that it is filled only with the self itself, with the selfless selfhood of the eternal. Then he realizes the ineffable visions of reality, of pure truth. The man who reaches this state is called a buddha, and the organ in and by which it is manifested, is termed buddhi.

See also: Bodhi , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Asat :

Asat

(Sanskrit) A term meaning the "unreal" or the manifested universe; in contrast with sat , the real. In another and even more mystical sense, asat means even beyond or higher than sat, and therefore asat  - "not sat." In this significance, which is profoundly occult and deeply mystical, asat really signifies the unevolved or rather unmanifested nature of parabrahman  - far higher than sat, which is the reality of manifested existence.

See also: Asat , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Rebirth :

Rebirth

One of the several aspects or branches of the general doctrine of reimbodiment. A word of large and generalized significance. Signifying merely a succession of rebirths, the definition becomes generalized, excluding specific explanations as to the type or kind of reimbodiment. The likeness between the idea comprised in this word and that belonging to the term reincarnation is very close, yet the two ideas are quite distinct. (For this difference see Reincarnation; also Preexistence, Metempsychosis, Transmigration, etc.)

See also: Rebirth , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Absolute :

Absolute

A term which unfortunately is much abused and often misused even in theosophical writings. It is a convenient word in Occidental philosophy by which is described the utterly unconditioned; but it is a practice which violates both the etymology of the word and even the usage of some keen and careful thinkers as, for instance, Sir William Hamilton in his Discussions (3rd edition, p.13n), who apparently uses the word absolute in the exactly correct sense in which theosophists should use it as meaning "finished," "perfected," "completed." As Hamilton observes: "The Absolute is diametrically opposed to, is contradictory of, the Infinite." This last statement is correct, and in careful theosophical writings the word Absolute should be used in Hamilton's sense, as meaning that which is freed, unloosed, perfected, completed.

Absolute is from the Latin absolutum, meaning "freed," "unloosed," and is, therefore, an exact English parallel of the Sanskrit philosophical term moksha or mukti, and more mystically of the Sanskrit term so commonly found in Buddhist writings especially, nirvana  - an extremely profound and mystical thought.

Hence, to speak of parabrahman as being the Absolute may be a convenient usage for Occidentals who understand neither the significance of the term parabrahman nor the etymology, origin, and proper usage of the English word Absolute  - "proper" outside of a common and familiar employment.

In strict accuracy, therefore, the student should use the word Absolute only when he means what the Hindu philosopher means when he speaks of moksha or mukti or of a mukta  - i.e., one who has obtained mukti or freedom, one who has arrived at the acme or summit of all evolution possible in any one hierarchy, although as compared with hierarchies still more sublime, such jivanmukta is but a mere beginner. The Silent Watcher in theosophical philosophy is an outstanding example of one who can be said to be absolute in the fully accurate meaning of the word. It is obvious that the Silent Watcher is not parabrahman. (See also Moksha, Relativity)

See also: Absolute , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Sat :

Sat

(Sanskrit) A word meaning the real, the enduring fundamental essence of the world. In the ancient Brahmanical teachings the terms sat, chit, ananda, were used to signify the state of what one may call the Absolute: sat meaning "pure being"; chit, "pure thought"; ananda, "bliss," and these three words were compounded as sachchidananda. (See also Asat)

See also: Sat , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Infinite :

Infinite

A term meaning that which is not finite. The expression is used sometimes with almost absurd inaccuracy, and is one which in all probability representing as it does imperfect understanding could never be found in any of the great religious or philosophical systems of the ancients. Occidental writers of the past and present often use the word infinite as applying to beings or entities, such as in the expression "an infinite personal deity"  - a ludicrous joining of contradictory and disparate words. The ancients rejected the phantom idea that this term involves, and used instead expressions such as the Boundless, or the Frontierless, or the Endless, whether speaking of abstract space or abstract time  - the latter more properly called unending duration. (See also Absolute)

See also: Infinite , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Ladder of Life :

Ladder of Life

A term frequently found in theosophical literature, briefly and neatly expressing the ascending grades or stages of manifested existences in the universe. In one sense the term ladder of life is interchangeable with the other terms, the Hermetic Chain or the Golden Chain.

The universe is imbodied consciousnesses; and these imbodied consciousnesses exist in a practically infinite gradation of varying degrees of perfection  - a real ladder of life, or stair of life, stretching endlessly in either direction, for our imagination can conceive of no limits except a hierarchical one; and such hierarchical limitation is but spacial and not actual, qualitative and formal. This ladder of life is marked at certain intervals by landing places, so to say, which are what theosophists call the different planes of being  - the different spheres of consciousness, to put the thought in another manner.

See also: Ladder of Life , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Preexistence :

Preexistence

This term means that the human soul did not first come into being or existence with its present birth on earth; in other words, that it preexisted before it was born on earth.

This doctrine of preexistence is by no means typically theosophical, for it likewise was a part of the early teachings of Christianity, as is evidenced in the writings that remain to us of Origen, the great Alexandrian Church Father, and of his school.

The theosophical student should be very careful in distinguishing the technical meanings that pertain to several words which in popular and mistaken usage are often employed interchangeably, as for example preexistence, metempsychosis, transmigration, reincarnation, reimbodiment, rebirth, metensomatosis, palingenesis.

Each one of these words has a specific meaning typically its own, and describes or sets forth one phase of the destiny of a reimbodying and migrating entity. In popular usage, several of these words are used as synonyms, and this usage is wrong. Preexistence, for instance, does not necessarily signify the transmigration of an entity from plane to plane nor, indeed, does it signify as does reincarnation that a migrating monad reinfleshes or reincarnates itself through its ray on earth. Preexistence signifies only that a soul, be it human or other, preexisted before its birth on earth.

The doctrine of the great Origen, as found in his works that remain to us, was that the human soul preexisted in the spiritual world, or within the influence or range of the divine essence or "God," before it began a series of reincarnations on earth. It is obvious that Origen's manner of expressing his views is a more or less faithful but distorted reflection of the teaching of the esoteric philosophy. The teaching of preexistence as outlined by Origen and his school and followers, with others of his mystical quasi-theosophical doctrines, was formally condemned and anathematized at the Home Synod held under Mennas at Constantinople about 543 of the Christian era. Thus passed out of orthodox Christian theology as a "newly discovered heresy" what was a most important and mystical body of teaching of the early centuries of the new Christian religion  - to the latter's great loss, spiritual and intellectual. The doctrines of Origen and his school may be said to have formed an important part of original Christian theosophy, a form of universal theosophy of Christianized character. (See under their respective heads the various correlated doctrines mentioned above.)

See also: Preexistence , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Dhyana :

Dhyana

(Sanskrit) A term signifying profound spiritualintellectual contemplation with utter detachment from all objects of a sensuous and lower mental character. In Buddhism it is one of the six paramitas of perfection.

One who is adept or expert in the practice of dhyana, which by the way is a wonderful spiritual exercise if the proper idea of it be grasped, is carried in thought entirely out of all relations with the material and merely psychological spheres of being and of consciousness, and into lofty spiritual planes. Instead of dhyana being a subtraction from the elements of consciousness, it is rather a throwing off or casting aside of the crippling sheaths of ethereal matter which surround the consciousness, thus allowing the dhyanin, or practicer of this form of true yoga, to enter into the highest parts of his own constitution and temporarily to become at one with and, therefore, to commune with the gods.

It is a temporary becoming at one with the upper triad of man considered as a septenary, in other words, with his monadic essence. Man's consciousness in this state or condition becomes purely buddhi, or rather buddhic, with the highest parts of the manas acting as upadhi or vehicle for the retention of what the consciousness therein experiences. From this term is drawn the phrase dhyani-chohans or dhyani-buddhas  - words so frequently used in theosophical literature and so frequently misconceived as to their real meaning. (See also Samadhi)

See also: Dhyana , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Isvara :

Isvara

(Sanskrit) Isvara means "lord," and is a term which is frequently applied in Hindu mythology not only to kosmic divinities, but to the expression of the cosmic spirit in the human being. Consequently, when reference is had to the individual human being, Isvara is the divine individualized spirit in man  - man's own personal god. It may be otherwise described as the divine ego, the child of the divine monad in a man, and in view of this fact also could be used with reference to the dhyani-buddha or to the immanent Christ in a man. In India it is a title frequently given to Siva and other gods of the Hindu pantheon.

See also: Isvara , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Jivanmukta :

Jivanmukta

(Sanskrit) A highly mystical and philosophical word which means "a freed jiva," signifying a human being, or an entity equivalent in evolutionary development to a human being, who has attained freedom or release as an individualized monad from the enthralling chains and attractions of the material spheres.

A jivanmukta is not necessarily without body; and, as a matter of fact, the term is very frequently employed to signify the loftiest class of initiates or Adepts who through evolution have risen above the binding attractions or magnetism of the material spheres.

The term is frequently used for a mahatma, whether imbodied or disimbodied, and also occasionally as a descriptive term for a nirvani  - one who has reached nirvana during life. Were the nirvani "without body," the mystical and technical meaning of jivanmukta would hardly apply. Consequently, jivanmukta may briefly be said to be a human being who lives in the highest portions of his constitution in full consciousness and power even during earth-life.

See also: Jivanmukta , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Psychology :

Psychology

This word is ordinarily used to signify in our days, and in the seats of learning in the Occident, a study mostly beclouded with doubts and hypotheses, and often actual guesswork, meaning little more than a kind of mental physiology, practically nothing more than the working of the brain-mind in the lowest astral-psychical apparatus of the human constitution.

But in the theosophical philosophy, the word psychology is used to mean something very different and of a far nobler character: we might call it pneumatology, or the science or the study of spirit and its rays, because all the inner faculties and powers of man ultimately spring from his spiritual nature. The term psychology ought really to connote the study of the inner intermediate economy of man, and the interconnection of his principles and elements or centers of energy or force  - what the man really is inwardly.

In days of the far bygone past, psychology was indeed what the word signifies: "the science of soul"; and upon this science was securely based the collateral and subordinate science of genuine physiology. Today, however, it is physiology which serves as the basis for psychology because of a mistaken view of man's constitution. It is a case of hysteron proteron  - putting the cart before the horse.

See also: Psychology , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul