Brothers of the Sun. See RIGHT-HAND PATH

(See also: Brothers of the Sun, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bruno, Giordano (1548-1600) {BCW, IU}.

(See also: Bruno, Giordano, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bubastis, Bubaste. See BAST

(See also: Bubastis, Bubaste, 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)

Buddhachchhaya Buddhacchaya (Sanskrit) (from buddha awakened one + chchhaya shadow)

The shadow of the Buddha; during certain commemorative Buddhist celebrations, an image said to have appeared in the temples and in a certain cave visited by Hiuen-Tsang (629-645){?}, the famous Chinese traveler (IU 1:600-01).

(See also: Buddhachchhaya, Buddhacchaya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Buddha Gautama. See GAUTAMA

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

Buddhakshetra buddhakshetra (Sanskrit) (from buddha awakened + kshetra field, sphere of action)

The sphere of action of an enlightened one. According to theosophy, there are four (or seven) buddhakshetras or fields in which the buddhas manifest and do their sublime work of benevolence which, counting from above, are: 1) the realms in which the dhyani-buddhas live and work; 2) the realms in which the dhyani-bodhisttvas live and work, called by Blavatsky "the domain of ideation"; 3) the realms of the manushya-buddhas, in which these work as nirmanakayas; and 4) the field of action in which the human buddhas work, the ordinary human world -- our physical globe.

Every incarnate buddha lives and works in the fourth or lowest buddhakshetra, as Gautama Buddha did; but at the same time, and more particularly when he has laid aside the physical body, he can live and work at will in the next higher buddhakshetra as a nirmanakaya; again as a dhyani-bodhisattva in his higher intermediate spiritual-psychological principle, he can at will function in the next higher buddhakshetra; while last, the dhyani-buddha within him lives and does its own sublime labor on the highest buddhakshetras as a dhyani-buddha. Here lies the true explanation of the many apparently conflicting statements made about the various kinds of buddhas and their various duties or functions, as found in the Buddhist scriptures, especially in the Mahayana writings of Central and Northern Asia.

Each one of the trikaya (three bodies or vehicles) -- the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya -- has its respective place and function on and in the three highest of the buddhakshetra: the dharmakaya is the luminous or spiritual body or vehicle in which the dhyani-buddha lives and works on the first and highest buddhakshetra; the dhyani-bodhisattva similarly lives and works in the spiritual-intellectual body or vehicle called the sambhogakaya, on the second of the buddhakshetras; while the manushya-buddha, when working in the third buddhakshetras, does so in his nirmanakaya vesture or robe, vehicle, or body. The lowest buddhakshetra is the one in which the human buddha is found clothed in his body of flesh as an incarnate being.

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

Buddhangums buddhanga (Sanskrit) (from buddha enlightened + anga limb, science)

Buddha-science or the essence of occult wisdom and knowledge.

(See also: Buddhangums, buddhanga, 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)

Boha-eddin Chief disciple of Druse founder; also Boha-eddin, Mokshatana {BCW 3:183-4, 186-7, 177n}.

(See also: Boha-eddin, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bohme, Jakob. See BOEHME, JACOB

(See also: Bohme, Jakob, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Boker, Boqer. See SANDHI; DAWN

(See also: Boker, Boqer, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bon (Tibetan) (possible variation of bod Tibet, or an ancient word meaning invoker)

Also pon and bhon. The Tibetan religion before the introduction of Buddhism in the latter half of the 8th century. The priest and adherents of Bon are called Bonpos (bon po), the ancient invokers for the pre-Buddhist and non-Buddhist kings and nobles of Tibet.

The Bon religion, which survives today, seems based on at least four sources:

1)    the ancient folk religions of the Tibetan people;

2)    the tradition of the ancient "invokers";

3)    a conscious competition with Buddhism in terms of doctrine, texts, institutions, pantheon, and ritual; and

4)    a number of non-Tibetan influences, including Hindu, Iranian, Central Asian, and other elements.

Bon has been influenced by Buddhism to the extent that it has its own Kanjur and Tanjur, its own monks and monasteries, and its own "Buddha," Shen-rab (gshen rab). All existing Bon literature was produced after the introduction of Buddhism, and shows the influence of and competition with Buddhism. Bon has also influenced Tibetan Buddhism, especially the Nyingmapa and Kargyupa sects.

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

Bona Dea A Roman divinity called Fauna, Fatua, and Oma: the sister, wife, or daughter of Faunus. Reverenced as chaste and prophetic, revealing her oracles to women only (as Faunus did to men), her festival being on the first of May and no male person being allowed to be present.

A goddess of agriculture and shepherds, she revealed certain truths of nature to those approaching her in a harmonious, synchronizing state of mind. In general Bona Dea is the goddess of fecundity and productivity, the generative spirit of motherhood.

Because she was considered to be the great producer holding the seeds of all things in her mighty womb, she was frequently identified with Ops, the goddess of plenty, fertility, and riches. The ideas regarding her are intimately related with Saturnus or Saturn.

(See also: Bona Dea, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Boneless Race. See ROOT-RACE, SECOND

(See also: Boneless Race, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bones The hard tissues that constitute the framework or skeleton of the physical body. They have an organic matrix for the inorganic mineral salts, which go through cycles of dissolution, changed location, crystallization, and reconstruction.

Mineral molecules dissolving in their matrix and re-forming themselves anew occurs at that zero-point of transition between the living mineral matter and that of the live animal tissue. This transformation of the mineral atom through crystallization is "the same function, and bears the same relation to its inorganic (so-called) upadhi (or basis) as the formation of cells to their organic nuclei, through plant, insect and animal into man" (SD 2:255).

The bones also furnish blood cells and mineral content to the blood stream. In the embryonic resume of racial imbodiments, the process of ossification appears after the progressive stages of its protoplasmic, gelatinous, and cartilaginous frames, analogous to those forms through which nascent humanity passed in the first two and one-half root-races.

With the deposit of bones in the fetal framework, and its functional relation to the blood, and with the development of the placenta and of the organs in the mesoderm, the conditions review the gradual physicalization of the gelatinous androgynes of the early third root-race into the bisexual humanity with organized functions like the present mammalian type.

The functions, physiological and other, that the bones play in the human body are really far more than acting as the skeletal framework. There are vital, psychomagnetic, and even electromagnetic currents passing in life through the entire bone structure of the body, and hence a constant interchange, not only by osmosis but also by action and reaction, between the bony structure of the body and the soft compact of flesh, nerves, veins, etc.

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

Bon-po. See BON

(See also: Bon-po, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Boodhasp (Chaldean) "An alleged Chaldean; but in esoteric teaching a Buddhist (a Bodhisattva), from the East, who was the founder of the esoteric school of Neo-Sabeism, and whose secret rite of baptism passed bodily into the Christian rite of the same name. For almost three centuries before our era, Buddhist monks overran the whole country of Syria, made their way into the Mesopotamian valley and visited even Ireland" (TG 61).

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

Book of Changes. See I CHING

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

Bodhisattva (Sanskrit) (from bodhi wisdom + sattva essence)

He whose essence has become intelligence; exoterically, one who in one or a few more incarnations will become a buddha. Occultly, when

"a human being, has reached the state where his ego becomes conscious, fully so, of its inner divinity, becomes clothed with the buddhic ray; where, so to say, the personal man has put on the garments of inner immortality in actuality, on this earth, here and now -- that man is a Bodhisattva. His higher principles have nearly reached Nirvana. When they do so finally, such a man is a Buddha, a human Buddha, a Manushya-Buddha.

Obviously, if such a Bodhisattva were to reincarnate, in the next incarnation or in a very few future incarnations thereafter, he would be a Manushya-Buddha. A Buddha, in the esoteric teaching, is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more. They have reached Nirvana and remain there; but the spiritually awakened personal man, the Bodhisattva, the person made semi-divine to use popular language, instead of choosing his reward in the Nirvana of a less degree, remains on earth out of pity and compassion for inferior beings, and becomes what is called a Nirmanakaya . . . a Bodhisattva is the representative on earth of a Dhyani-Buddha or Celestial Buddha -- in other words one who has become an incarnation or expression of his own Divine Monad" (OG 19).

The dhyani-buddhas who each watch over one of the rounds and the great root-races on the different globes of our planetary chain, are said to send their bodhisattvas, their spiritual or human correspondents, during every round and race.

"These Dhyani Buddhas emanate, or create from themselves, by virtue of Dhyana, celestial Selves -- the super-human Bodhisattvas. These incarnating at the beginning of every human cycle on earth as mortal men, become occasionally, owing to their personal merit, Bodhisattvas among the Sons of Humanity, after which they may re-appear as Manushi (human) Buddhas" (SD 1:571).

"The exoteric teaching which says that every Dhyani-Buddha has the faculty of creating from himself, an equally celestial son -- a Dhyani-Bodhisattva -- who, after the decease of the Manushi (human) Buddha, has to carry out the work of the latter, rests on the fact that owing to the highest initiation performed by one overshadowed by the 'Spirit of Buddha' . . . a candidate becomes virtually a Bodhisattva, created such by the High Initiator" (SD 1:109).

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

Bodhisatwa. See BODHISATTVA

(See also: Bodhisatwa, 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)