Virtues

Positive magickal properties of objects like herbs, stones, and creatures

(See also: Virtues , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Ten Pythagorean Virtues. Virtues of Initiation, &c., necessary before admission.

(See " Pythagoras ".) They are identical with those prescribed by Manu, and the Buddhist Paramitas

of Perfection.

(See also: Ten Pythagorean Virtues , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Cardinal Virtues

Also known as natural virtues, in Christian tradition, they are prudence, justice, temperance, and courage. Roman Catholicism places great emphasis on the cardinal virtues, while Protestantism stresses the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

(See also: Cardinal Virtues , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Virtues One degree in the celestial hierarchy of Dionysius the pseudo-Areopagite, whose doctrines, arising about the 4th or 5th century, have exercised a great influence on Christian thought. He divides the heavenly host into three triads: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; Dominations, Virtues, Powers; Principalities, Archangels, Angels. As a hierarchy of emanating powers, this system is allied to, and in large part derivative from, Neoplatonic teachings of the time, as well as having strong elements of Pythagorean thought. The Virtues correspond to the planet Mars, according to the hierarchical scheme of the Syrians.

See also ANGELOLOGY

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

Four Virtues

The four Nirvanic virtues:

(1)  Eternity or permanence;

(2)  Joy;

(3)  Personality;

(4)  Purity.

These four important virtues are affirmed by the sutra in the transcendental or nirvana-realm.

 (See also: Four Virtues , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Virtues: Magical properties of objects like herbs, stones, and creatures as was assigned to them during their divine creation.

(See also: Virtues , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

The Samanya Dharmas must be practised by all, irrespective of distinctions of Varna and Asrama, creed or colour. Goodness is not the property of any one class, creed, sect or community. Every man should possess this virtue.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Dharma: Fundamentals Of Dharma

Tiruvalluvar: (Tamil) "Holy weaver."

Tamil weaver and householder saint (ca 200 bce) who wrote the classic Saivite ethical scripture Tirukural. He lived with his wife Vasuki, famed for her remarkable loyalty and virtues, near modern-day Chennai. There a memorial park, the Valluvar Kottam, enshrines his extraordinary verses in marble.

See: Tirukural.

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

Merit and Virtue

These two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. However, there is a crucial difference:

• merits are the blessings (wealth, intelligence, etc.) of the human and celestial realms; therefore, they are temporary and subject to Birth and Death.
• Virtues, on the other hand, transcend Birth and Death and lead to Buddhahood.

Four virtues are mentioned in Pure Land Buddhism: eternity; happiness; True Self; purity.

An identical action (e.g., charity) can lead either to merit or virtue, depending on the mind of the practitioner, that is, on whether he is seeking mundane rewards (merit) or transcendence (virtue).

Thus, the Pure Land cultivator should not seek merits for by doing so, he would, in effect, be choosing to remain within samsara. This would be counter to his very wish to escape Birth and Death.

 (See also: Merit and Virtue , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

 Instructions on Meditation.

From "Easy Steps to Yoga" by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » Meditation: Special Instructions on Meditation

The four main spiritual paths for God-realisation are Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Jnana Yoga. Karma Yoga is suitable for a man of active temperament, Bhakti Yoga for a man of devotional temperament, Raja Yoga for a man of mystic temperament, and Jnana Yoga for a man of rational and philosophical temperament, or a man of enquiry.

Mantra Yoga, Laya Yoga or Kundalini Yoga, Lambika Yoga and Hatha Yoga, are other Yogas. Yoga, really, means union with God. The practice of Yoga leads to communion with the Lord. Whatever may be the starting point, the end reached is the same.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Hindu Yoga: The Four Paths of Hindu Yoga

Charity or almsgiving, the first Paramitas.

There are three kinds of charity in terms of goods, teaching (Dharma) and courage (fearlessness). Out of the three, the merits and virtues of the teaching of the Buddha Dharma is the most surpassing.

Charity done for no reward here and hereafter is called pure or unsullied, while the sullied charity is done for the purpose of personal benefits. In Buddhism, the merits and virtues of pure charity is the best.

 (See also: Charity , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Shang (Chinese) In the I Ching, the constant virtues -- benevolence, laws, and rites of social life, righteousness, and correctness -- constituting the tao of man. "If the man of eminent virtue cultivates those four virtues, he is first and principal, all-pervading, beneficent, and immutably correct" (Wen yen 1).

(See also: Shang , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

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)

Ten Virtues The virtuous modes of behavior, which are the positive counterparts to the Five Precepts.

 (See also: Ten Virtues , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Abraxas or Abrasax (Gn.). Mystic words which have been traced as far back as Basilides, the Pythagorean, of Alexandria, AD. 90. He uses Abraxas as a title for Divinity, the supreme of Seven, and as having 365 virtues. In Greek numeration, a. 1, b. 2, r. 100, a. I, x 60, a. I, s. 200 = 365 days of the year, solar year, a cycle of divine action. C. W. King, author of The Gnostics, considers the word similar to the Hebrew Shemhamphorasch, a holy word, the extended name of God. An Abraxas Gem usually shows a man’s body with the head of a cock, one arm with a shield, the other with a whip.

Abraxas is the counterpart of the Hindu Abhimanim (q.v.) and Brahma combined. It is these compound and mystic qualities which caused Oliver, the great Masonic authority, to connect the name of Abraxas with that of Abraham. This was unwarrantable ; the virtues and attributes of Abraxas, which are 365 in number, ought to have shown him that the deity was connected with the Sun and solar division of the year -  - nay, that Abraxas is the antitype, and the Sun, the type.

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

Stone, Stones There is available numerous testimony as to animated stones, speaking stones, etc. There is the Christ-stone, which followed the Israelites; the Jupiter Lapis swallowed by Saturn; the testimony of Pausanias as to the Grecian worship of stones; the Ophites and Siderites, serpent-stones and star-stones, the former being alleged to have the gift of speech; the baituloi or alleged animated stones mentioned by Sanchoniathon and Philo Byblius; the liafail or speaking stone of Westminster; Pliny's stones which ran away when a hand approached them; the importance attached to stone monuments and rocking stones; etc. (SD 2:341 et seq). Again, we have the vast subject of talismans and of gems with potent properties.

A stone is an organism enshrining a divine spark or monad. The difference between the stone and the man consists largely in the fact that what is expressed in man is latent in the stone. Why then should not the hierophants of genuine magic or occult science have been able to evoke from the stone its latent potencies? Why should not particular stones, like particular plants, animals, or men, possess particular virtues?

Unless modern science is prepared to make of the physical atom a primordial existence, it must seek the origin elsewhere. Physical matter is a concretion of universal light or radiation; but it needs the eye of a seer to perceive what starry virtue lies sleeping in the gem or the talisman; the skill of the magician to known what can be done by placing stones in a particular grouping, perhaps with certain ceremonies, etc.

The word has symbolic uses, as in the white stone with a new name inscribed in it, which is given to him that overcomes in Revelations; the stone that the builders rejected; stones in the Guardian Wall; etc.

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

Thrones An angelic group in the Christian celestial hierarchy, as outlined by the pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The Thrones rank third in the ninefold scheme, being preceded by the Seraphim and Cherubim; the second and intermediate triad is formed of Dominions, Virtues, and Powers; while the third triad is formed of Principalities, Archangels, and Angels.

This scheme was derived from Hebrew angelology, which comes from the Chaldean; although this Christian angelic scheme has been philosophically powerfully affected by Neoplatonic and neo-Pythagorean thought. "They who are called in Theology 'the Thrones,' and are the 'Seat of God,' must be the first incarnated men on Earth" (SD 2:80). The Zohar states that the Benei 'Elohim (sons of god) belong to the tenth subdivision of the Thrones. The ancient Syrians defined their world of Rulers similarly to the Chaldeans: the lowest world was the sublunary, our earth, ruled by Angels; then Mercury, Archangels; Venus, Principalities; Sun, Powers; Mars, Virtues; Jupiter, Dominions; and Saturn, Thrones.

The pseudo-Dionysius was a Christian writer of unknown date; the first authentic mention in extant early Christian literature of his writings is found in the records of the Council held at Constantinople, 532 AD, under Emperor Justinian.

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

A Theosophical definition of Ethics :

Ethics

The theosophical teachings are essentially and wholly ethical. It is impossible to understand the sublime wisdom of the gods, the archaic wisdom-religion of the ancients, without the keenest realization of the fact that ethics run like golden threads throughout the entire system or fabric of doctrine and thought of the esoteric philosophy. Genuine occultism, divorced from ethics, is simply unthinkable because impossible. There is no genuine occultism which does not include the loftiest ethics that the moral sense of mankind can comprehend, and one cannot weigh with too strong an emphasis upon this great fact.

Ethics in the theosophical philosophy are not merely the products of human thought existing as a formulation of conventional rules proper for human conduct. They are founded on the very structure and character of the universe itself. The heart of the universe is wisdom-love, and these are intrinsically ethical, for there can be no wisdom without ethics, nor can love be without ethics, nor can there be ethics deprived of either love or wisdom.

The philosophic reason why the ancients set so much store by what was commonly known as virtus among the Latins, from which we have our modern word "virtue," is because by means of the teaching originating in the great Mystery schools, they knew that virtues, ethics, were the offspring of the moral instinct in human beings, who derived them in their turn from the heart of the universe  - from the kosmic harmony. It is high time that the Occidental world should cast forever into the limbo of exploded superstitions the idea that ethics is merely conventional morality, a convenience invented by man to smooth the asperities and dangers of human intercourse.

Of course every scholar knows that the words morals and ethics come from the Latin and Greek respectively, as signifying the customs or habits which it is proper to follow in civilized communities. But this fact itself, which is unquestionable, is in a sense disgraceful, for it would almost seem that we had not yet brought forth a word adequately describing the instinct for right and truth and troth and justice and honor and wisdom and love which we today so feebly express by the words ethics or morals. "Theosophist is who Theosophy does," wrote H. P. Blavatsky, and wiser and nobler words she never wrote. No one can be a theosophist who does not feel ethic-ally and think ethically and live ethically in the real sense that is hereinbefore described. (See also Morals)

See also: Ethics , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Dana

The practice of generosity or charity: one of the Paramitas as well as one of the All- Embracing Virtues, where it means, in the latter, giving others what they want just to lead them towards the truth.

 (See also: Dana , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)