Mahat-tattva (Sanskrit) The first of the seven creations or emanations, the primordial self-evolution of that which had to become manifested cosmic mahat, the universal mind or infinite intellect -- the collective hosts and aggregates of spiritual intelligences such as Brahma, the manus, the dhyani-chohans, etc. The Puranas enumerate the other six creations as 2) bhutasarga; 3) indriya or aindriyaka; 4) mukhya; 5) tairyagyonya or tiryaksrotas; 6) urdhvasrotas; and 7) arvaksrotas.

(See also: Mahat-tattva, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Radiance Movement Therapy: Form of movement work developed by university professor Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., and dance therapist Kathlyn Hendricks, Ph.D. (who obtained her doctorate from a nonaccredited institute).

It is a means of dialoguing directly with one's inner self and an access to the innate intelligence of the body.

(See also: Radiance Movement Therapy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Ho'oponopono (Ho'oponopono process): variation of an ancient Hawaiian process.

Its theory posits a Divine Creator. Ho'oponopono: releases problems and blocks that cause imbalance, stress, and dis-ease in the self; brings peace and balance through a physical, mental, and spiritual cleansing that involves repentance and transmutation; and creates balance, freedom, love, peace, and wisdom within individuals, other social entities, the world, and the Universe.

(See also: Ho'oponopono, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Kwan-shai-yin, Kuan-shi-yin (Chinese) Equivalent to the Sanskrit Avalokitesvara, both being the seventh kosmic principle. Mystically, the kosmic Logos or Word, and in common with all the logoi referred to as a kosmic Dragon of Wisdom; the first universal manus or kosmic dhyan-chohans.

Kwan-shai-yin is often confused with Kwan-yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion, the feminine Logos and counterpart of Kwan-shai-yin; but "Kwan-shai-yin -- or the universally manifested voice 'is active -- male; and must not be confounded with Kwan-yin, or Buddhi the Spiritual Soul (the sixth Pr.) and the vehicle of its "Lord." ' It is Kwan-yin that is the female principle or the manifested passive, manifesting itself 'to every creature in the universe, in order to deliver all men from the consequences of sin'. . . while Kwan-shai-yin, 'the Son identical with his Father' is the absolute activity, hence -- having no direct relation to objects of sense is -- Passivity" (ML 344).

Kwan-shai-yin, the Voice or Logos, is "the germ point of manifested activity; -- hence -- in the phraseology of the Christian Kabalists 'the Son of the Father and Mother,' and agreeably to ours -- 'the Self manifested in Self -- Yih-sin, the 'one form of existence,' the child of Dharmakaya (the universally diffused Essence), both male and female" (ML 346).

In man it is the atman when working through -- as it always does during imbodiment -- its veil buddhi, thus enabling the atman to send down and distribute the atmic rays throughout the other five principles of the human constitution.

(See also: Kwan-shai-yin, Kuan-shi-yin, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bhairava:

Bhairava is the God Shiva in one of his most fearsome, terrifying aspects. In this aspect, He is said to destroy the false self. When referring to the non-differentiated essential form of Bhairava or the non-differentiated Self, tantric writers emphasize the utterly transcendent, uncreated aspect of God. In this aspect God cannot be known intellectually. He is the eternal, witnessing Subject that can never be an object of thought. Although He is the source of those attributes, which characterize created objects, He himself cannot be characterized.

 The word, Bhairava, can be derived etymologically in two different ways:

1. The syllables of the name represent the initial syllables of the Sanskrit words for projecting, maintaining, and withdrawing. In other words, the name Bhairava characterizes God's relationship with the created universe. First He projects it, then He maintains it, and finally He withdraws it back into Himself.

 2. Alternatively, the name may also be derived from two Sanskrit words, which have been joined together, i.e. the Sanskrit words for light and comprehends. According to Jaideva Singh, this derivation suggests that Bhairava is the Light of consciousness which comprehends the entire universe in His very Self.

(See also: Bhairava, Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Rootless Root The cosmic origin or womb of all, itself therefore necessarily without origin except itself -- self-born, parentless. The name is applied to parabrahman, be-ness rather than being. "The One reality is Mulaprakriti (undifferentiated Substance) -- the 'Rootless root' " (ML 347).

From the Rootless Root spring forth into manifestation in ever succeeding and unending cosmic periods, the universes which are scattered like seeds over the limitless fields of space; but in and through this womb there is the ever living and working hiranyagarbha (golden germ or egg), signifying for each such manifesting universe its divine monad -- its divine consciousness and intelligence.

See also BOUNDLESS

(See also: Rootless Root, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Alkahest First used by Paracelsus to denote the Menstruum or universal solvent which, according to Paracelsus and Van Helmont, can reduce all bodies, simple or compound, to the primum ens. In one sense it is akasa, which in its lower form is the anima mundi or astral light.

Van Helmont believed that such a general solvent is obtainable by chemical means, so far as it applies to physical things. But psychologically it signifies that the multiform and changing elements which rule our actions can be brought under control of the enlightened will by reducing them to the essence from which they all spring.

The alkahest from its metaphysical, psychological, and mystical aspect is therefore the higher self which by its intrinsic energies, working upon matter or "lead," produces in time the "pure gold," or in other words brings the entire human constitution into perfect harmony and spiritual sympathy with the alkahest, monadic essence, or higher self.

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

Concentration With meditation, an equivalent for certain parts of yoga, as found in samadhi, dharana; the removal or surmounting of distractions originating in the mind and centering the latter on the spiritual and intellectual objective to be attained, which in the best sense is union with the inner god, the divine monad -- a conscious identification of oneself with the universal through the individual's innate divinity.

The method of meditative concentration prescribed in the Bhagavad-Gita is to perform all the duties of life without either attachment or avoidance. The hindrances to concentration which are to be removed are those arising from anger, lust, vanity, fear, sloth, etc. Such obstacles are removed by lifting the mind above them or by deliberately ignoring them, since directly fighting with them serves to concentrate the mind on them, thus defeating the object aimed at; and by cultivating the spirit of impersonal love and the light of wisdom which it evokes. Thus the blending of the personal self with the impersonal self is achieved by an orderly process of self-directed evolution, first by unselfish work in the cause of humanity, continued in the various degrees of chelaship, culminating in initiation.

Concentration has often been perverted to mean a kind of personal self-culture, having for its aim the attainment of personal power or self-satisfaction. If unsuccessful, the attempt upsets the balance of the constitution, and if successful, it sows a bitter harvest of aroused personality for future reaping; for when yearning for sympathetic fellowship with our fellowmen we shall find our faculties counterworking us. True meditative concentration actually applies more to the heart than to the mind, and is not a forcible mental practice but a general although very positive and impersonal attitude towards life. It means the centering of our wishes, thoughts, and acts on the ideal of self-identification with the spiritual and universal.

See also DHYANA.

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

Transpersonal Psychology:

The study of experiences, beliefs and practices that suggest that the sense of self can extend beyond our personal or individual reality. The subject matter of transpersonal psychology overlaps to some extent with parapsychology, but the two disciplines tend to have different approaches and emphases.

Parapsychology is primarily concerned to investigate evidence for and against the reality of paranormal phenomena. Transpersonal psychology, on the other hand, is more interested in investigating the transpersonal significance of such phenomena (i.e., the ways in which they may give people a sense of connectedness with a larger, more universal or spiritual reality).

See also Mysticism .

(See also: Transpersonal Psychology, Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Dattatraya Dattatreya (Sanskrit) The universal lord; popularly, "the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, incarnate in an Avatara -- of course as a triple essence. The esoteric, and true meaning is the adept's own trinity of body, soul, and spirit; the three being all realized by him as real, existent, and potential.

By Yoga training, the body becomes pure as a crystal casket, the soul purged of all its grossness, and the spirit which, before the beginning of his course of self-purification and development, was to him but a dream, has now become a reality -- the man has become a demi-god" {BCW 2:160}.

(See also: Dattatraya, Dattatreya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Compassion (from Latin com with + pati to bear, suffer)

Sympathetic understanding; the feeling of one's unity with all that is, resulting in an "intimate magnetic sympathy with all that is." (OG)

"Canst thou destroy divine compassion? . . . Compassion is no attribute. It is the LAW of laws -- eternal Harmony, Alaya's SELF; a shoreless universal essence, the light of everlasting Right, and fitness of all things, the law of love eternal.

"The more thou dost become at one with it, thy being melted in its BEING, the more thy Soul unites with that which IS, the more thou wilt become Compassion Absolute.

"Such is the Arya Path, Path of the Buddhas of perfection" (VS 69-70).

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

Fourfold Classification There are many different ways of dividing the constitution of the universe or of any integral entity within it, such as a human being. Several philosophical and religious systems employ a fourfold division, as is found in certain Hindu systems. Subba Row, a Vedantist as well as a theosophist, pointed out that the fourfold classification of the human principles in some Hindu systems is not only applicable to man, but likewise to the universe and solar system. The Taraka-Raja-Yoga system -- perhaps the most subtlety philosophical of the Brahmanical yoga schools -- divides the human constitution into three upadhis (bases) plus the atman or essential self, as follows: atman, karanopadhi, sukshmopadhi, and sthulopadhi.

Subba Row's fourfold classification follows:

Universe -- Solar System -- Man

Parabrahman -- Brahman, Paramatman -- Atman

Beyond Brahman -- Cosmic Monad -- Essential Self

Mulaprakriti -- Sutratman -- Karana-sarira

Primordial Thread-Self -- Causal Vehicle or Root-Substance -- Essential Egoity

Isvara -- Hiranyagarbha -- Sukshma-sarira

The Logos -- Golden Egg -- Subtle Vehicle or Personal Monad

Daiviprakriti -- Visvanara -- Sthula-sarira

Light of the Logos -- Subtle Essence of Physical Vehicle -- Manifested Universe

In these three columns there are correspondences reading right to left which apply to three vastly differing scales of magnitude both in quality and in explanation. Thus the last term in the first column is daiviprakriti, which really means spirit-matter in manifestation, and therefore is a gross body of the universe, although in the human case this is equivalent to the sthula-sarira or gross physical body.

It is likewise to be noted that the Vedantist classification of the principles, whether of a universe or an individual, is six in number: the essential self or atman, and five kosas emanating from it; the main reason for the Taraka-Raja-Yoga fourfold division lies in the fact that the atman of a person may be used in any one of the three upadhis independently as it were of the others, without the person's running the risk of killing himself. In this way they form a natural division of the human being.

Comparing this fourfold classification of the human constitution with the sevenfold division commonly set forth in theosophical literature: atman (the essential principle of selfhood and therefore the highest) is the same in both; karana-sarira is equivalent to buddhi and the higher manas; sukshma-sarira comprises manas and kama; while sthula-sarira takes in the three lower principles -- prana, linga-sarira, and sthula-sarira. The reason for the two classifications is that Subba Row fastened "attention on the monads, looking upon the universe as a vast aggregate of individualities; while H. P. B. for that time of the world's history saw the need to give to the inquiring Western mind . . . some real explanation of what the composition of the universe is as an entity -- what its 'stuff' is, and what man is as an integral part of it. Now the seven principles are the seven kinds of 'stuff' of the universe. . . . (however)

we must not have our minds confused with the idea that the seven principles are one thing, and the monads are something else which work through the principles as disjunct from them" (FSO 443-4).

See also PRINCIPLES.

(See also: Fourfold Classification, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Allfather; Alfadir (Icelandic) (from al all + fadir father)

Odin, father of gods and men. As Allfather, Odin occurs on many levels: as the indwelling divinity in a universe and in every part of the universe. He is also, together with his two brother-gods, the creative power of life on each level of existence. Odin (divine intelligence, Sanskrit mahat), Vile (will), and Vi or Ve (awe, sanctity) comprise the cosmic creative trinity. They spring from Bur, the quasi-manifest or Second Logos, which in turn emanated from Buri, the legendary king of cold. Buri was immersed in the ice of non-being until the cow Audhumla, symbol of fertility, uncovered his head when licking the ice blocks for salt.

On the next level Odin is again instrumental in creation. Here his brother creators are named Honir and Lodur. The gods of this second trinity correspond to the Hindu tattvas: Odin stands for air (breath, spirit), Honir for water (fluidity, intelligence), and Lodur for fire (energy, will and vital heat). They found on the earth "Ask (ash) and Embla (alder), indeterminate," and gave to these vegetative life forms out of their own nature the properties needed to complete the human constitution.

In his capacity as Allfather, Odin "hung nine nights in the windtorn tree pierced by a spear," in order to "raise runes of wisdom" from the nether worlds: the cosmic spirit sacrificed "my self to my Self above me in the tree" to gain universal experience.

(See also: Allfather, Alfadir, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ethics In theosophy, a philosophy of moral conduct based on the inner structure and operations of the universe itself, not a mere code of conventional behavior. The grounds alleged for moral conduct depend on one's view of man and the universe.

Theosophy distinguishes between a person's real self and the illusive personal masks which are mistaken for that self. As with Kant, a sharp distinction is drawn between wish and inclination on the one hand, and the sense of moral obligation on the other; this latter is regarded as supervening upon the drama of self-interest and imposing a higher law.

Recognizing the essential oneness of the individual with the universe, not only spiritually but on all planes, the student of occultism strives for the subordination of the personal self as an individual to the common good of all mankind, and indeed of all things that are. With this training, the student in time comes keenly to realize that there is no longer a moral obligation lying upon him to subject his personal wish to the common good, but that this subordination becomes the first joyful duty of all his life. In this manner spiritual powers, faculties, and attributes are gained, as well as intellectual expansion that, when more or less complete, combine to make the full adept or initiate. A master of wisdom is one who has developed an individual consciousness of his oneness with the Boundless, and this is the very foundation of the ethics of theosophy.

The human ethical sense is a manifestation of one's awareness and willing cooperation with the inherent spiritual laws of the universe. No person can misconduct himself without injecting disharmony into the human hierarchy of which he is a part, and for this he must pay, though nature does not revenge or punish but readjusts or restores the disturbed harmony. Though these essential laws are eternal and changeless, the degree of their manifestation at any time or in any group vary; so that we may speak of ethics also in a relative sense. The world saviors and messengers from the Great Lodge, in obedience to cyclic necessity, strike for humanity the ethical keynote for each coming cycle.

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

Aupapaduka (Sanskrit) Pali opapatika. Self-produced, spontaneously generated (research shows that anupapadaka, as found in Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, is a misreading of aupapaduka. Cf. Franklin Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1953, 2:162). One who does not go or come (as others do): parentless, having no material parent.

One who is self-born by reason of his own intrinsic energy, without parents or predecessors from which his existence or activities are derived, as is the usual case in line descent; applied therefore to certain self-evolving gods. In Buddhism, used with particular reference to the dhyani-buddhas, who issue forth from adi-buddha without intermediary agency.

"The term Anupadaka, 'parentless,' or without progenitors, is a mystical designation having several meanings in the philosophy. By this name celestial beings, the Dhyan-Chohans or Dhyani-Buddhas, are generally meant. But as these correspond mystically to the human Buddhas and Bodhisattwas, known as the 'Manushi (or human) Buddhas,' the latter are also designated 'Anupadaka,' once that their whole personality is merged in their compound sixth and seventh principles -- or Atma-Buddhi, and that they have become the 'diamond-souled' (Vajra-sattvas), the full Mahatmas. . . . The mystery in the hierarchy of the Anupadaka is great, its apex being the universal Spirit-Soul, and the lower rung the Manushi-Buddha; and even every Soul-endowed man is an Anupadaka in a latent state. Hence, when speaking of the Universe in its formless, eternal, or absolute condition, before it was fashioned by the 'Builders' -- the expression, 'the Universe was Anupadaka' " (SD 1:52).

Indeed, not only are there aupapaduka divinities of the solar system, but also of every organic entity, because the core of any such entity is aupapaduka -- a mystical way of stating the doctrine of the inner god (cf OG 5-6; also FSO 487-91, 532).

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

Sutratman (Sanskrit) [from sutra thread + atman self]

The thread-self; the golden thread of self-conscious individuality, the stream of egoic self-consciousness, on which all the substance-principles are strung like pearls on a golden chain. It is this sutratman, or stream of egoic consciousness-life, "which is the fundamental Selfhood in all beings, and which, reflected in and through the several intermediate vehicles or veils or sheaths or garments of the invisible constitution of man, or of any other being in which the Monad enshrouds itself, produces the egoic enters of self-conscious existence.

"The Sutratman, therefore, is rooted in the Monad, the monadic essence, but its stream is colored by the individuality of the Reincarnating Ego hitherto sleeping in the bosom of the Monad, which now after Reincarnation is awakened into self-conscious activity; and this 'colored stream' working through the appropriate vehicles of man's inner constitution, in other words, through his mind and through his emotions, his aspirations, his intellect and so forth, produces the individual consciousness which man recognises in himself" ("H. B. P.: The Mystery," Theosophical Path, October 1930, p. 329). Vedanta philosophy also teaches that atman passes like a thread through the five subtle bodies or kosas, and therefore is called sutratman.

In a more relative sense the sutratman is the egoic pilgrim, the immortal individuality, or that thread of being which animates a person and passes through all the countless personalities which he uses during the course of his manvantara-long evolutionary progress. "In each of us that golden thread of continuous life -- periodically broken into active and passive cycles of sensuous existence on Earth, and super-sensuous in Devachan -- is from the beginning of our appearance upon this earth. It is the Sutratma, the luminous thread of immortal impersonal monadship, on which our earth lives or evanescent Egos are strung as so many beads . . ." (SD 2:513).

In the latter sense sutratman is a synonym of the reincarnating ego, manas conjoined with buddhi which absorbs the manasic recollections of all and each of our preceding lives. It is so called, because, like the pearls on a thread, so is the long series of human lives strung together on that one thread-stream of self-conscious being. The cosmic sutratman bears the same relation to the universe that ours does to the human constitution, being the cosmic hierarch of a galaxy, solar system, or planetary chain.

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

Hiranyagarbha (Sanskrit) (from hiranya imperishable substance, golden + garbha womb, embryo, fetus, also the interior of anything, hence a temple)

Golden egg or womb; the matrix of imperishable substance.

"The luminous 'fire mist' or ethereal stuff from which the Universe was formed" (TG 142); applied to Brahma, described in the Rig-Veda as born from a golden egg formed out of the seed deposited in the waters when they were produced as the first vikaras of the Self-existent; according to Manu (1:9) this seed became a golden egg, resplendent as the sun, in which the self-existent Brahman while remaining transcendent in its higher parts, evolved into Brahma the Creator, who is therefore regarded as a manifestation of the Self-existent. Having continued a year in the egg, Brahma divided it into two parts by his mere thought, and with these two he formed the heavens and the earth; and in the middle he placed the sky, the eight regions, and the eternal abode of the waters.

"The 'Mundane Egg' is, perhaps, one of the most universally adopted symbols, highly suggestive as it is, equally in the spiritual, physiological, and cosmological sense. . . . The mystery of apparent self-generation and evolution through its own creative power repeating in miniature the process of Cosmic evolution in the egg, both being due to heat and moisture under the efflux of the unseen creative spirit, justified fully the selection of this graphic symbol. The 'Virgin Egg' is the microcosmic symbol of the macrocosmic prototype -- the 'Virgin Mother' -- Chaos or the Primeval Deep. The male Creator (under whatever name) springs forth from the Virgin female, the immaculate root fructified by the Ray. Who, if versed in astronomy and natural sciences, can fail to see its suggestiveness? Cosmos as receptive Nature is an Egg fructified -- yet left immaculate; once regarded as boundless, it could have no other representation than a spheroid. The Golden Egg was surrounded by seven natural elements (ether, fire, air, water), 'four ready, three secret'" (SD 1:65).

In Vedantic philosophy, used somewhat equivalently to sutratman, atman invested with the sukshma-sarira, as well as with the other sariras flowing forth from this and permeating and infilling them all as the thread-self.

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

Hiranyagarbha (Sanskrit) (from hiranya imperishable substance, golden + garbha womb, embryo, fetus, also the interior of anything, hence a temple)

Golden egg or womb; the matrix of imperishable substance.

"The luminous 'fire mist' or ethereal stuff from which the Universe was formed" (TG 142); applied to Brahma, described in the Rig-Veda as born from a golden egg formed out of the seed deposited in the waters when they were produced as the first vikaras of the Self-existent; according to Manu (1:9) this seed became a golden egg, resplendent as the sun, in which the self-existent Brahman while remaining transcendent in its higher parts, evolved into Brahma the Creator, who is therefore regarded as a manifestation of the Self-existent. Having continued a year in the egg, Brahma divided it into two parts by his mere thought, and with these two he formed the heavens and the earth; and in the middle he placed the sky, the eight regions, and the eternal abode of the waters.

"The 'Mundane Egg' is, perhaps, one of the most universally adopted symbols, highly suggestive as it is, equally in the spiritual, physiological, and cosmological sense. . . . The mystery of apparent self-generation and evolution through its own creative power repeating in miniature the process of Cosmic evolution in the egg, both being due to heat and moisture under the efflux of the unseen creative spirit, justified fully the selection of this graphic symbol. The 'Virgin Egg' is the microcosmic symbol of the macrocosmic prototype -- the 'Virgin Mother' -- Chaos or the Primeval Deep. The male Creator (under whatever name) springs forth from the Virgin female, the immaculate root fructified by the Ray. Who, if versed in astronomy and natural sciences, can fail to see its suggestiveness? Cosmos as receptive Nature is an Egg fructified -- yet left immaculate; once regarded as boundless, it could have no other representation than a spheroid. The Golden Egg was surrounded by seven natural elements (ether, fire, air, water), 'four ready, three secret'" (SD 1:65).

In Vedantic philosophy, used somewhat equivalently to sutratman, atman invested with the sukshma-sarira, as well as with the other sariras flowing forth from this and permeating and infilling them all as the thread-self.

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

Vaisvanara, Vaisvana (Sanskrit) [from visva all + nara man]

Relating to or belonging to all men; omnipresent, universal. In Hindu philosophy, it represents one of the four states of Brahma, and hence is a manifestation of Brahma in and through prakriti. Cosmically it is the astral light, or "in another sense, the living magnetic fire that pervades the manifested solar system. It is the most objective . . . and ever present aspect of the One Life, for it is the Vital Principle" (SD 2:311).

In the human being it is represented in the Anu-gita as a sevenfold fire which blazes up in the midst of the five pranas (life-streams) which circulate in the body, and a commentary on this work says that Vaisvanara is often used to denote the self. Blavatsky remarks: "In the astronomical and cosmical key, Vaisvanara is Agni, son of the Sun, or Viswanaras, but in the psycho-metaphysical symbolism it is the Self, in the sense of non-separateness, i.e., both divine and human" (SD 2:568n).

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

Om Mani Padme Hum (Sanskrit) Om! the jewel in the lotus, hum! One of the most sacred Buddhist mantras or verbal formulas; used very frequently in Tibet and in surrounding countries of the Far East. Not only is every syllable said to have a secret power of producing a definite result, but the whole invocation has a number of meanings.

When properly pronounced or changed, it produces different results, differing from the others according to the intonation and will given to the formula and its syllables. This mystic sentence above all refers to the indissoluble union between man and the universe, and thus conveys "I am in thee and thou art in me." Each of us has within himself the jewel in the lotus or the divine self within. When understood in a kosmic sense, it signifies the divine kosmic self within, inspiring all beings within the range of that kosmic divinity.

(See also: Om Mani Padme Hum, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Isvara (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root is to rule, be master)

Lord; the supreme self or hierarch of any universe, large or small, likewise the divine spirit in man. Also a title for many gods in the Hindu pantheon, such as Vishnu and Siva.

In the Bhagavad-Gita Isvara is that which "dwelleth in the heart of every creature" and which "causeth all things and creatures to revolve mounted upon the universal wheel of time" (chs 43; 6l). It is the essence of the spiritual monad in any individualized evolving being, the spiritual root, the god within, and the source of the spiritual and vital streams in any being which bring about its unfolding in evolution and its peregrinations through the fields of experience.

Equivalent to the Father in Heaven of Jesus, and hence the source of the inner Christos or Buddha. Thus in one sense it is the individualized dhyani-buddha of every being.

See also LOGOS

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

Alaya (Sanskrit) (from a not + laya dissolution from the verbal root li to dissolve)

Nondissolution; the indissoluble; used in Buddhism for the universal soul or higher portions of anima mundi, the source of all beings and things. Mystically identical with akasa in the latter's highest elements and with mahabuddhi; also with mulaprakriti as root-producer or root-nature (OG 5).

With Mahayana Buddhists alaya is both the universal soul and the spiritual self of an advanced sage. Aryasamgha taught that "he who is strong in the Yoga can introduce at will his Alaya by means of meditation into the true Nature of Existence" (cf SD 1:49-51; also FSO 98n).

The Secret Doctrine (1:49) mentions Alaya in the Yogachara system, most probably referring to alaya-vijnana, but adds that with the "Esoteric 'Buddhists' . . . 'Alaya' has a double and even a triple meaning."

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