Universal Laws Dictionary

The world is regulated by universal laws. One of the laws is constancy or eternality. Anything true is constant or eternal. The second law of the world is changeability or variability. Anything true is variable. The world has changed or transformed and will continue to change on the basis of this law. Therefore, something changes and something becomes the cause of change.

Read more here: » Universal Laws: The Universal Laws of Cosmos

Karma (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root kri to do, make, denoting action)

Action, the causes and consequences of action; that which produces change. One of the primary postulates of every comprehensive system of philosophy, described as a universal law, unceasingly active throughout universal nature and rooted in cosmic harmony, in its operations existing from eternity, inevitable, inherent in the very nature of things. It is action, absolute harmony, the adjuster; it preserves equilibrium by compensating and adjusting all actions, excessive or defective.

Hence it is called the law of retribution, implying neither reward nor punishment, based on nature's own urge of harmonious equilibrium. As such it has been personalized as Nemesis and by many other names, a practice which lends itself to popular imagining of avenging deities, such as God or Gods, Furies, Fates, Destiny, etc. As there are no such things as inanimate beings in the universe, it is not surprising to hear of karmic agents and of scribes or lipika who record karma. Karma must necessarily be transmitted by living beings of one grade or another, because there is no other means possible, and universal nature is but a vast, virtually frontierless being whose entire structure, laws, and operations are the innumerable hierarchies of beings in all-various grades, which thus not only condition nature, but are in fact universal nature itself. By our acts we create living beings which act upon other people and ultimately react upon ourselves. These beings, then, are agents of karma on one plane; on higher planes other orders of beings are such agents.

"An Occultist or a philosopher will not speak of the goodness or cruelty of Providence; but, identifying it with Karma-Nemesis, he will teach that nevertheless it guards the good and watches over them in this, as in future lives; and that it punishes the evil-doer -- aye, even to his seventh rebirth. So long, in short, as the effect of his having thrown into perturbation even the smallest atom in the Infinite World of harmony, has not been finally readjusted. For the only decree of Karma -- an eternal and immutable decree -- is absolute Harmony in the world of matter as it is in the world of Spirit. It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we, who reward or punish ourselves according to whether we work with, through and along with nature, abiding by the laws on which that Harmony depends, or -- break them.

"Nor would the ways of Karma be inscrutable were men to work in union and harmony, instead of disunion and strife. For our ignorance of those ways -- which one portion of mankind calls the ways of Providence, dark and intricate; while another sees in them the action of blind Fatalism; and a third, simple chance, with neither gods nor devils to guide them -- would surely disappear, if we would but attribute all these to their correct cause. With right knowledge, or at any rate with a confident conviction that our neighbours will no more work to hurt us than we would think of harming them, the two-thirds of the World's evil would vanish into thin air. Were no man to hurt his brother, Karma-Nemesis would have neither cause to work for, nor weapons to act through. . . . We stand bewildered before the mystery of our own making, and the riddles of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of devouring us. But verily there is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day, or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another life" (SD 1:643-4).

The effect of karma on human beings is merely the natural reaction from their actions, which may be described as only half-actions, for they are not completed until the reaction has ensued. Since the consequences of acts do not necessarily ensue immediately, it follows that at any stage of our career we may experience the results of actions performed a long time in the past.

Karma does not obviate free will or imply fatalism or mechanistic determinism. It is not merely a mechanical or mechanistic chain of linked cause and effect, by which every act is predetermined by some previous act and by no other cause. Man is a divine spark expressing itself through a series of vehicles, forming by means of these vehicles a series of egos, each conscious and operative on its own plane. Through his contract with higher planes, he has the power of bringing new forces into operation, so he is not inexorably bound in a mechanistic sense by his karma. On the other hand, to speak of an absolutely free will is meaningless; the will becomes more and more emancipated from conditions as we penetrate deeper into the recesses of our nature; but it must always be actuated by motive of some kind, and hence, being conditioned by motive, it comes under the operation of the universal law of karma.

There are many types of karma, such as human, racial, national, family, individual, etc. A chain of causation, stretched out in time, will be intersected by any given present moment; so that in speaking of a person, we may say he sums up in himself both his past and his future, he is his own karma. Since the whole universe and all the beings which compose it are linked and blended together, it follows that no person can have exclusive interests and that the karma of all beings is linked and, in a profound sense, identical. Karma in its moral aspect is cosmic justice. It should not interfere in any way with helping others, nor does it render futile the exercise of compassion, for we incur as much responsibility by refraining from action as by acting.

"Sow kindly acts and thou shalt reap their fruition. Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes an action in a deadly sin" (VS 31).

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

Karma (Sanskrit). Physically, action: metaphysically, the LAW OF RETRIBUTION, the Law of cause and effect or Ethical Causation. Nemesis, only in one sense, that of bad Karma.

It is the eleventh Nidana in the concatenation of causes and effects in orthodox Buddhism ; yet it is the power that controls all things, the resultant of moral action, the meta physical Samskara, or the moral effect of an act committed for the attainment of something which gratifies a personal desire.

There is the Karma of merit and the Karma of demerit. Karma neither punishes nor rewards, it is simply the one Universal LAW which guides unerringly, and, so to say, blindly, all other laws productive of certain effects along the grooves of their respective causations.

When Buddhism teaches that "Karma is that moral kernel (of any being) which alone survives death and continues in transmigration ‘ or reincarnation, it simply means that there remains nought after each Personality but the causes produced by it ; causes which are undying, i.e., which cannot be eliminated from the Universe until replaced by their legitimate effects, and wiped out by them, so to speak, and such causes - unless compensated during the life of the person who produced them with adequate effects, will follow the reincarnated Ego, and reach it in its subsequent reincarnation until a harmony between effects and causes is fully reestablished. No "personality" - a mere bundle of material atoms and of instinctual and mental characteristics - can of course continue, as such, in the world of pure Spirit.

Only that which is immortal in its very nature and divine in its essence, namely, the Ego, can exist for ever. And as it is that Ego which chooses the personality it will inform, after each Devachan, and which receives through these personalities the effects of the Karmic causes produced, it is therefore the Ego, that self which is the "moral kernel" referred to and embodied karma, "which alone survives death."

(See also: Karma , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

A person's state of mind determines his or her experience. Unless you and I have done the work, cleaned up our thoughts, words and actions, we cannot experience other than where we are now.

Read more here: » Manifestation: Laws of Manifestation (Lesson 1)

universal law

An underlying principle found within everything necessary for the scheme of things, that cannot be altered, worn out, or ended; often explained as God working within us

(See also: Universal law , Body Mind and Soul)

dharma: (Sanskrit) "Righteousness." From dhri, "to sustain; carry, hold."

Hence dharma is "that which contains or upholds the cosmos." Dharma, religion, is a complex and all-inclusive term with many meanings, including: divine law, law of being, way of righteousness, religion, ethics, duty, responsibility, virtue, justice, goodness and truth. Essentially, dharma is the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature or destiny. Relating to the soul, it is the mode of conduct most conducive to spiritual advancement, the right and righteous path.

(See also: Dharma , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Resurrection A rising again, implying a previous descent; a rebirth after death. In its widest sense, the universal law of cyclic renewal manifested in cosmic, solar, terrestrial, and human phenomena, applying to manvantaras, and to reawakenings of the earth and of man -- whether humanity as a whole, races, or individuals.

In the last case it means regeneration, the second birth, initiation, symbolized by the resurrection of the mystic Christ enacted in the Mysteries, when the candidate rose from that cruciform couch which he had undergone the experiences of death. In Christianity this has become an actual physical or bodily resurrection of Jesus, supported by the stories of the empty tomb and the appearances to the disciples.

The dogma of the resurrection of the body, however, is pointedly related to the teaching of the migration of the life-atoms, whereby the reincarnating entity draws together the elements which it had previously discarded. There is an Arabic legend of the bone Luz, said to be one of the bones at the bottom of the spinal column, the os coccygis, as indestructible and forming the nucleus of the resurrection body.

In the adytum or Holy of Holies of ancient temples was found a sarcophagus symbolizing the universal process of resurrection, but in degenerate times it was occasionally turned by ignorance into a symbol of physical procreation. Other emblems of resurrection are the frog, phoenix, and egg.

(See also: Resurrection , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Wheel Perpetual gyratory motion; a vortex, a center of revolving force. Matter is not only motion itself in low ranges of the cosmos, but has likewise many modes of motion, although not in the sense in which this phrase was used in the 19th century.

Lord Kelvin's vortex-atoms illustrate the point, for he showed that many of the properties attributed to atoms could be represented by regarding atoms as vortices in a frictionless, incompressible fluid. More recent analysis of the atom has failed to resolve it into anything more than electric particles whose properties are functions of their motions. "Atoms are called 'Vibrations' in Occultism . . . " (SD 2:633). Fohat traces spiral lines and forms wheels or centers of force around which primordial cosmic matter expands and contracts and passes through stages of consolidation ending in globes, and later through stages of etherealization. Vortical motion is a universal law, as seen in the stellar universe and in the electronic constitution of the physical atom, giving a fuller meaning to the word cycle.

Wheel, cycle, globes, and revolutions all pertain to the same fundamental conception of whirling, revolving, or gyratory motion of beings and substances; and as no motion can take place except in matter, space, and time, the whirlings and revolutions of beings and things include likewise the time periods or cyclic returns of beings and events throughout duration. Wherever there is a whirling or turning, whether of matter or of an event in time, it is because it is a being or thing which is active in reproducing itself in cyclic events (cf Ezekiel 1:15-21). This is one of the archaic ways of understanding what is now called the principle of Relativity. Indeed, so intimate and entangled are the actor and the act -- the being and its movements in time -- that it is not always easy to distinguish the actor inherent and moving from the effects in space and time of such movement; so that when we speak of a cycle of time we are perforce obliged to conceive of a moving entity producing the cycle, albeit the moving entity may not be visible to us and indeed may be incomprehensible. Hence, the frequent and often perplexing usage of wheel or wheelings found in ancient occult writings.

See also WINGED WHEEL; GLOBE, WINGED

(See also: Wheel , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

What would you say if I told you that you single-handedly have the power to end poverty on this planet? Well... you do. One commonly known axiom of love says, "It is in giving that we receive." Many have come to understand this universal truth through the Law of Karma: "As you sow, so shall you reap tenfold."
What is not known is that, because humanity lives in a consciousness of separation, most universal truths have been both taught and understood either as half-truths or as distorted truths. As applied here, what has for so long been understood as the primary Law of Creation: As you sow, so do you reap tenfold is actually only half of the Law of Creation.
The second half of the Law of Creation states: "As you reap, so do you return to Source one-tenth." This part is called the Law of Tithing, a law that few understand and even fewer practice in the manner which God ordained.

Read more here: » Law of Tithing: The power of giving and the Law of Creation

We cannot discuss reincarnation sensibly without talking about the Laws of Karma. Karma is nothing other than the Universal law of cause and effect. It is a law that is embedded in this Universe and is not present in the same way that you in third dimension experience in the higher dimensions or the multi-dimensional realities.

Read more here: » Reincarnation Karma: The Relation Between Reincarnation

Solar System Commonly, the Sun with the nine principal planets -- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto -- their satellites, and the minor planets, comets, and meteors; in theosophy, however, the solar system is a far more complex entity, for many of its worlds manifest on planes of being invisible to our senses.

The planets are individual manifestations of conscious intelligences, their distances from the sun being generally in rhythmical progression and their motions directed by mind and volition, as Kepler declared in his doctrine of Rectors, following the ancient teachings. The nebular hypothesis, once so popular in European scientific thought and now more or less rejected, was first suggested by Swedish seer Swedenborg and German philosopher Kant, and around the beginning of the 19th century was worked out in mathematical detail by the Frenchman Laplace. Though the nebular hypothesis as scientifically presented was unacceptable to theosophical thinkers, it nevertheless was based upon facts of cosmic evolution accepted by the ancient wisdom-religion and approximated somewhat more closely to what theosophy teaches as the facts of cosmogony than do the later tidal or planetesimal theories.

In theosophy the universe is the product of cosmic mind or intelligence, whose all-permeant activities manifest on our material plane as the laws of nature. The universe and all in it, proceeding from cosmic consciousness, is imbued throughout with the qualities and attributes of its divine originators; and as there is but one primordial fundamental life -- and therefore one fundamental law -- energizing and guiding all, the ancient teaching of analogy is the master key to understanding universal nature.

Calling the primordial origins of every being and thing by the term monads, as Leibniz did following Pythagoras, these monads may be looked upon as the seeds of cosmic life, life-centers or energy points, and in such case naught in the universe is the product of chance, but is the offspring of mind. Thus the solar system itself sprang from such a cosmic seed or monad; and the same holds true for the planets, nebulae, comets, and all other individually enduring cosmic bodies.

Comets are coordinated with earlier and later stages of nebular evolution, playing an activating part in the formation of individual celestial bodies. The planets did not emerge from the sun, but the sun is their "co-uterine brother" with the same nebular origin. The sun is the great distributor of light and other radiations, including vital energy, throughout the solar system, and is itself a member of a hierarchy of solar beings.

The ancient wisdom speaks of seven sacred planets which are especially connected with the earth, as indeed our own earth is likewise especially connected with various planetary chains, which mutually assisted in the formation of the seven or twelve globes of the planetary chains. These sacred planets are: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn -- the Sun and Moon being substitutes for esoteric and invisible planets. The complete number of the planets of a solar system is twelve, which is the number of globes composing a planetary chain. These twelve sacred planets are closely linked with the twelve houses of the zodiac, these links of unity being the energic coordinates tying our solar system in with the life and structure of the galaxy.

Theosophy makes a distinction between the solar system and the universal solar system -- the former has especial reference to the twelve sacred planets, while the universal solar system refers to all bodies belonging to and revolving around a master- or king-sun (raja-sun) and within the latter's far-flung realm on seven or more planes of being. It therefore contains planets and suns invisible to our present range of sense perception. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are said not to belong to the solar system (nor are they included among the twelve sacred planets), but are members of the universal solar system.

In the Brahmanical system the solar system was regarded as an Egg of Brahma (brahmanda), the prakritic or prithivi-form of Brahma, so that its life span is equivalent to the length of Brahma's manifested life. A Day of Brahma for a planetary chain consists of a planetary manvantara -- seven rounds of the various life-waves around that chain -- a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years. The ensuing pralaya or Night of Brahma is of an equivalent length, together equaling 8,640,000,000 terrestrial years. Forty-nine such planetary Days and Nights equal one solar manvantara, equivalent to a Year of Brahma; and each such year of Brahma is figured as being 360 of his Days; and 100 such Years of Brahma equal Brahma's Life, a period of 311,040,000,000,000 terrestrial years -- including in this vast time period the various twilights and dawns. Theosophic philosophy states that one-half of Brahma's Life has been spent, or 50 Years of Brahma. At the end of Brahma's Life, the final consummation of the solar system, so far as the planetary chain is concerned, will occur, and everything within the bounds of this system will vanish, and the succeeding solar pralaya will commence.

(See also: Solar System , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

rita: "Universal law." The inherent order of the cosmos. The laws of being and nature that contain and govern all forms, functions and processes, from galaxy clusters to the power of mental thought and perception.

(See also: Rita , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Christian Definition of True Reality

How does one define reality from the perspective of faith? St Anselm defines theology as "faith seeking understanding".

St Augustine, citing Plato, argued for the necessity of eternal, universal spiritual principles and laws on which our contingent and temporal realm of existence is based. For Augustine, God is the author and overseer of these principles and laws.

Making this Platonic distinction between the spiritual and material, early mediaeval Christianity came to value the spiritual realm of life far more than the material. The attendant dualistic anthropology led to an overvaluation of the development of the soul, in comparison to the body.

Read more here: » Christian Faith: Christian Definition of True Reality

Ah-hi (Senzar) A group or class of celestial or spiritual beings known in different countries under various names: dhyani-chohans, angels or angelic hosts, 'elohim, the Greek minor logoi, etc. Vehicles for the manifestation of cosmic mind and will, they are "the collective hosts of spiritual beings" through which the universal mind comes into action.

"They are the Intelligent Forces that give to and enact in Nature her 'laws,' while themselves acting according to laws imposed upon them in a similar manner by still higher Powers; but they are not 'the personifications' of the power of Nature, as erroneously thought" (SD 1:38). During pralaya "Universal Mind was not, for there were no Ah-hi to contain it," no celestial beings to manifest mind (Stanzas of Dzyan 1:3).

Commenting on this, Blavatsky describes the Ah-hi as entities who "being on the highest plane, reflect the universal mind collectively at the first flutter of Manvantara. After which they begin the work of evolution of all the lower forces throughout the seven planes, down to the lowest -- our own. The Ah-hi are the primordial seven rays, or Logoi, emanated from the first Logos, triple, yet one in its essence. . . .

"Like all other Hierarchies, on the highest plane they are arupa, i.e., formless, bodiless, without any substance, mere breaths. On the second plane, they first approach to Rupa, or form. On the third, they become Manasa-putras, those who became incarnated in men. With every plane they reach they are called by different names . . ." (TBL 17, 20-21).

(See also: Ah-hi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Vision is the ability to see beyond the present; to be able to chart a map of the future. Is such a vision possible for a universal religion? When all technologies and knowledge in the world are converging, why should humanity have different religions?

One basic question has haunted us for long: Are the many religions of the world opposed to each other? If their common goal is universal welfare, why do we need so many religions? All religions echo the need for righteous conduct, truth and non-violence. But they differ in their rituals, which are unfortunately being projected today as their core. Dress, mode of worship and language of rituals have come to symbolise purity of faith.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Universal Faith for World Harmony

Reiki: While there are many paths to wholeness, Reiki complements them all. Reiki is not so much a pathway to love and wholeness in and of itself, rather it reveals patterns of wholeness and love to us.

Read more here: » Reiki and the path to wholeness

This is a brief overview of the fourth dimension and how the spiritual realms are governed by laws as well as this physical world.

Read more here: » Astrology: Planet & Souls

Embryo In general, the vitalized germ of an organism in its earlier stages, and sometimes applied to it until it leaves the egg or womb covering. The fertilization of the germ-cell in plant or animal is an everyday working of the universal law by which spirit incubates matter for the purpose of differentiating on the objective planes, in order to manifest the subjective monadic life. Thus the reincarnating ego, in beginning to make a new body for itself, with the division of the fertilized microscopic egg cell, is analogous to the world-germ awakening in a laya-center to begin another galactic, solar, or planetary existence.

"This desire for a sentient life shows itself in everything, from an atom to a sun, and is a reflection of the Divine Thought propelled into objective existence" (SD 1:44).

In the unfolding marvel of the embryonic germ-cell, both in the human and subhuman kingdoms, each kind manifests its own essential selfhood or svabhava, and its own degree of evolution. In the unfolding growth of the human embryo it rapidly epitomizes the aeon-long history of the imbodiments of the race, as it also repeats its individual course through all the forms of matter -- a process often referred to as recapitulation. It goes back to past manvantaras of manifestation in mineral form, for "the cell-germinating substance (the cytoblastema) and the mother-lye from which crystals originate, are one and the same essence, save in differentiation for purposes" (SD 2:256n).

Back of all the orderly unfolding of the embryonic cells -- usually ascribed to nature -- is the subconscious directing influence of the monadic ego born from and bathing in the cosmic intelligence. In human beings the reincarnating ego is a ray of a spiritual monad, whose self-consciousness and activity takes in the solar system. This monad is karmically bound to oversee the evolving career of the human ego; and this celestial parentage in the cosmic hierarchy makes humans literally children of the sun. Here, then, is the solution of the biological mystery of unfolding purpose which is so harmoniously worked out by the reproductive material of a single cell. This intelligent influence acts upon the embryo through the directive power of "the astral fluid, working through and in conjunction with the vital capacities and potentialities of the cell . . ." (MIE 217-8).

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

Androgyne (from Greek androgynos man-woman)

Hermaphrodite; applied to a dual principle containing both the active and passive powers of nature, as the androgyne ray, the Second Logos, Purusha-prakriti, spirit-matter; to a race, such as the second root-race, whose members are physiologically of both sexes; and in biology to certain animals which have dual sex. Bipolarity, the contrast and interaction between the energic and formative sides of nature, is universally prevalent.

Sex is merely a particular and, evolutionally speaking, passing phase of this universal law, and its terms are often used in a purely symbolic sense to define these two sides of nature. We should be careful not to take the symbols literally and ascribe physiological attributes to higher powers.

When androgynous or hermaphrodite is used in philosophy, it does not mean physically or ethereally double-sexed -- except when physical dual-sexed beings are distinctly referred to -- but means the dual characteristic of nature in manifestation. Very often this duality is separated into "masculine" and "feminine," using the words familiar to human life, although this duality is perhaps more accurately described by the words positive and negative, or by spirit and matter, or again by consciousness and vehicle. Here we have the reason for the separation of the deities in ancient pantheons into gods and goddesses, although occasionally in the mythological tales deities are represented as dual sexed.

This androgynous or dual character of all the manifested worlds commenced with cosmic buddhi, or mahabuddhi, although the first more defined manifestations of individualized duality began on the plane of cosmic kama where fohat especially works. Above that the two rays from the One ascend again to reunite.

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

SPIRITUAL COUNSELING

Is practiced by those who are well connected to their intuitive nature, insight and an awareness of universal laws, together with the precepts of Universal Love and Compassion.

(See also: SPIRITUAL COUNSELING , Alternative Health, Holistic Health, Body Mind and Soul)