Bodhyanga (Sanskrit) (from bodhi wisdom + anga limb, portion, division)

Limb or division of essential wisdom; often used collectively to signify the branches of esoteric knowledge or understanding, usually enumerated as seven:

1)    smriti (memory);

2)    dharma-pravichaya (investigation -- hence correct understanding or discrimination of the Law);

3)    virya (energy);

4)    priti (spiritual joy);

5)    prasrabdhi (confidence, tranquillity);

6)    samadhi (absorption of the consciousness in a high spiritual and intellectual objective); and

7)    upeksha (absolute indifference).

Esoterically these correspond to seven states of consciousness (TG 59).

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

Bod-lhas (Tibetan) (from bod (bo) Tibet + lha (hla) spirit, divine being (cf Sanskrit deva))

A name of the civil capital of Tibet, Lhasa (Tib lha-sa place of the gods)

.

(See also: Bod-lhas, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bod-pa (Tibetan) (from bod (bo) Tibet + pa a person connected with)

An inhabitant of Tibet.

(See also: Bod-pa, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Body. See PRINCIPLES, HUMAN; KOSA; STHULA-SARIRA; etc.

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

Jacob Boehme, Jakob Bohme (1575-1624). Great German mystic philosopher, one of those individuals who, showing unusual spiritual insight due to excellent past karma, are especially watched over by the Great Lodge in preparation for future work. A shepherd as a boy, he became a shoemaker after learning to read and write.

"He was a natural clairvoyant of most wonderful powers. With no education or acquaintance with science he wrote works which are now proved to be full of scientific truths; but then, as he says himself, what he wrote upon, he 'saw it as in a great Deep in the Eternal.' He had 'a thorough view of the universe, as in a chaos,' which yet 'opened itself in him, from time to time, as in a young plant.' He was a thorough born Mystic, and evidently of a constitution which is most rare; one of those fine natures whose material envelope impedes in no way the direct, even if only occasional, intercommunion between the intellectual and the spiritual Ego.

It is this Ego which Jacob Boehme, like so many other untrained mystics, mistook for God; 'Man must acknowledge,' he writes, 'that his knowledge is not his own, but from God, who manifests the Ideas of Wisdom to the Soul of Man, in what measure he pleases.' Had this great Theosophist mastered Eastern Occultism he might have expressed it otherwise. He would have known then that the 'god' who spoke through his poor uncultured and untrained brain, was his own divine Ego, the omniscient Deity within himself, and that what that Deity gave out was not in 'what measure he pleased,' but in the measure of the capacities of the mortal and temporary dwelling IT informed" {TG 60}.

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

Boethius, A. M. S. {SD 1:361}

(See also: Boethius, A, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bogaterey, Bogatiry Russian and Slavonic giants of folklore {SD 2:754-5}.

(See also: Bogaterey, Bogatiry, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Boustrophedon (Greek) Ox-turning; a method of writing found in some old inscriptions, such as Solon's Laws, which ran from left to right and then back from right to left, or vice versa, as in plowing.

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

Brachmins. See BRAHMANA

(See also: Brachmins, 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)

Brahm, Brahma. See BRAHMAN

(See also: Brahm, Brahma, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Brahma (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root brih to expand, grow, fructify)

The first god of the Hindu Trimurti or triad, consisting of Brahma, the emanator, evolver, and creator; Vishnu, the sustainer or preserver; and Siva, the regenerator or destroyer. Brahma is the vivifying expansive force of nature in its eternally periodic manvantaras. He stands for the spiritual evolving or developing energy-consciousness of a solar system which is also called the Egg of Brahma (brahmanda). Brahma is called the creator or Logos, but in the theosophic philosophy creator is simply an abstract term or idea, like army. In Burnouf's words:

"Having evolved himself from the soul of the world, once separated from the first cause, he evaporates with, and emanates all nature out of himself. He does not stand above it, but is mixed up with it; Brahma and the universe form one Being, each particle of which is in its essence Brahma himself, who proceeded out of himself" (q SD 1:380n). The Vishnu-Purana explains that created beings "although they are destroyed (in their individual forms) at the periods of dissolution, yet being affected by the good or evil acts of former existences, are never exempted from their consequences. And when Brahma produces the world anew, they are the progeny of his will . . ." (q SD 1:456n).

Brahman is both masculine and neuter, and therefore has two meanings. In the masculine (Brahma) it is the evolving energy of the cosmic egg, as distinguished from the neuter (Brahman). Brahma is the vehicle or sheath of Brahman. The Vishnu-Purana says that Brahma in its totality has essentially the aspect of prakriti, both evolved and unevolved (mulaprakriti), and also the aspects of spirit and of time. "Brahma, as 'the germ of unknown Darkness,' is the material from which all evolves and develops 'as the web from the spider, as foam from the water,' etc. This is only graphic and true, if Brahma the 'Creator' is, as a term, derived from the root brih, to increase or expand. Brahma 'expands' and becomes the Universe woven out of his own substance" (SD 1:83). Again,

"Here we find, as in all genuine philosophical systems, even the 'Egg' or the Circle (or Zero), boundless Infinity, referred to as It, and Brahma, the first unit only, referred to as the male god, i.e., the fructifying Principle. It is  or 10 (ten) the Decade. On the plane of the Septenary or our World only, it is called Brahma. On that of the Unified Decade in the realm of Reality, this male Brahma is an illusion" (SD 1:333).

According to the Aitareya-Brahmana, Brahma as Prajapati (lord of beings) manifests himself first of all as twelve bodies or attributes, which are represented by the twelve gods, symbolizing 1) fire; 2) the sun; 3) soma, which gives omniscience; 4) all living beings; 5) vayu, or ether; 6) death, or breath of destruction -- Siva; 7) earth; 8) heaven; 9) Agni, the immaterial fire; 10) Aditya, the immaterial and invisible sun; 11) mind; and 12) the great infinite cycle, "which is not to be stopped." Brahma in one of his phases therefore is the visible universe, every atom of which is essentially himself.

Brahma "symbolizes personally the collective creators of the World and Men -- the universe with all its numberless productions of things movable and (seemingly) immovable. He is collectively the Prajapatis, the Lords of Being; and the four bodies typify the four classes of creative powers or Dhyan Chohans . . ." (SD 2:60), these four bodies being ratri (night) associated with the creation of the asuras; ahan (day) associated with the gods; sandhya (evening twilight) associated with the pitris; and jyotsna (dawn or light) associated with the creation of men.

In the beginning Brahma was Purusha (spirit) and also prakriti (matter). It is later that he separated himself into two halves -- Brahma-Vach (female) and Brahma-Viraj (male). The term Brahma is not found in the Vedas. Blavatsky correlates Adam-Qadmon, Brahma, and Mars as symbols for primitive or initial generative and creative powers typifying water and earth; also all three are associated with the color red (cf SD 2:43, 124-5).

See also BRAHMA'S DAY

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

Brahma-bhashya. See SENZAR

(See also: Brahma-bhashya, 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)

Brahmacharya brahmacarya (Sanskrit) (from brahman cosmic spirit, divine wisdom + charya conduct, practicing from the verbal root car to perform, undergo)

Following a life of philosophic and religious training; because usually applicable to the first stage in the life of a Brahmin of ancient times, the state of an unmarried religious student of the Vedas.

(See also: Brahmacharya, brahmacarya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Brahmadanda (Sanskrit) Spinal column or sushumna; "the rod or stick of Brahma, . . . symbolized by the bamboo rod carried by ascetics, the seven-knotted wand of the Yogi. The seven knots are the seven Nadis along the spinal cord" (BCW 12:701). {BCW 12:616}.

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

Brahmadevas (Sanskrit) (from brahman cosmic spirit + deva god, spiritual being)

Spiritual beings who act as guardians of the human race, entities directly emanating from Brahman as spiritual-intellectual energies.

See also DHYANI-CHOHAN

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

Bordj. See BORJ

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

Boreas (Greek) The north wind in Greek mythology, connected with the Hyperborean continent of the first root-race.

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

Borhan Quatiu (Persian) Religious text {SD 2:366-7; see ref at Burham-i-Kati}

(See also: Borhan Quatiu, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Borj or Borz (Persian), Bereznaiti (Avestan) (from the verbal root baresa to grow upright)

The mystical mundane mountain holding relatively the same place in Persian theology and mythology that Mount Meru does in ancient Indian literature. In later mystic Persian literature Mount Ghaph (Kaf) takes the place of Borj or Alborz and becomes the abode of the Simorgh, the legendary bird of ancient knowledge and creative life-force.

See also MOUNTAIN, MUNDANE

(See also: Borj, Borz, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Borsippa. See BIRS-NIMRUD

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