Pramantha (Sanskrit) [from pra-math to stir about violently]

The upper stick used by the ancient Brahmins to kindle fire. By rubbing it against the arani or under stick, the friction produced the heat and subsequent flame. It would be wide of the inner significance of the pramantha and arani to concentrate attention upon their supposed phallic or sexual significance as these are described both pragmatically and mystically in ancient Hindu works, although unquestionably the language used is at times suggestive.

Mystically, the pramantha stands for the will in man, whirling and unceasingly active in and upon the passive portion of the human constitution, arousing the latter into corresponding activity, bringing about there the fire and flame of animate life. When the will is stilled the being is dormant; when the will acts all portions of the constitution touched by the whirling activity of the will react and spring themselves into corresponding motion.

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

Chokmah: In Chokmah is a cloud-like grey which containeth various colours and is mixed with them, like a transparent pearl-hued mist, yet radiating withal, as if behind it there was a brilliant glory. And the Sphere of its influence is in Masloth, the Starry Heaven, wherein it disposeth the forms of things. And Yah is the Divine Ideal Wisdom, and its Archangel is Ratziel, the Prince or Princes of the knowledge of hidden and concealed things, and the name of its Order of Angels is Auphanim, the Wheels or the Whirling Forces which are also called the Order of Kerubim.

(See also: Chokmah, Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Kavyas or Kavyas (Sanskrit) (from kavi intelligent, wise)

A class of pitris, the descendants of Kavi, closely connected with Sukra, regent of the planet Venus. Connected intimately with the manasaputras or solar pitris, monads of intrinsically spiritual-intellectual type or descent, as opposed to the barhishads or lunar pitris, the lower human ancestors. As the various descents of mind governed by cyclic law are connected with the manasaputras, we see the reason the kavyas are often represented as intimately connected with the whirling cycles of evolutionary time, and as residing over these cycles.

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

Crore (from Hindi karor 10 millions; cf Sanskrit koti)

Numeral adjective 10 millions; in India, 100 lakhs -- a lakh being 100,000. Used with graphic force in the Stanzas of Dzyan: "The Wheel whirled for thirty crores" (SD 2:15) -- 300 million years or three occult ages.

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

Sufism

Ancient Persian mystical religious system which has been absorbed by Islam. Rather than focusing on the Five Pillars of Islam, Sufis seek ultimate religious experience through mystic trances or altered states of consciousness, often induced through twirling dances (the “whirling dervish”). Although the Qur'an is considered scripture, many practitioners have more in common with the New Age movement than with classic forms of Islam.

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

Definition and meaning of Tornado :

Tornado: A whirling wind over land, accompanied by a funnel-shaped cloud. It is usually very violent and destructive in a narrow path, often for many miles.

(Source: The Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary )

Also see these pages: Tornado , Insurance Business, Insurance Business Sitemap,  Insurance, Insurance Sitemap, Insurance Dictionary - T

For more dictionary entries, see » Whirling 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)

Gilgulim (Hebrew) (from the verbal root galal to roll, revolve; cf gilgula')

Wheels; cycling, whether of things or of periods of time; a whirlwind, and things driven by a whirlwind. In the Qabbalah, used to express the doctrine of the revolution, whirling, or cycling of souls in both space and time:

"All the souls go up into the gil-gool-ah (gilgula'), i.e. revolutions or turnings . . . How many Gilgoolem and how many hidden things, the Holy does with them? . . . And how many worlds turn around with them, and how the world turns around in so many hidden wonders? And the children of man do not know and do not comprehend, how the souls revolve like a stone which is thrown from a sling" (Zohar ii 99b).

Orthodox Qabbalists maintain that after death the soul goes through a series of whirlings or cyclings, finding no rest until the "immortal particle" reaches Palestine (the promised land).

"The process was supposed to be accomplished by a kind of metempsychosis, the psychic spark being conveyed through bird, beast, fish, and the most minute insect. . . . The Allegory relates to the atoms of the body, which have each to pass through every form before all reach the final state, which is the first starting point of the departure of every atom -- its primitive laya State. But the primitive meaning of Gilgoolem, or 'Revolution of Souls,' was the idea of the re-incarnating Souls or Egos" (SD 1:568n).

The lowest of the four `olams (worlds or spheres) named `Asiyyah is also called the world of the gilgulim. A further reference to gilgulim is in the representation of the Sephirothal scheme of the ten spheres, the first being called re'shith hag-gilgulim -- the commencement of whirling motions from and under the primum mobile.

One of the treatises usually included in the Zohar, "The Book of the Revolutions of Souls," is considered to be an explanation of Rabbi Loria's ideas contained in Beth 'Elohim -- also part of the Zohar.

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

Kuklos Anagkes, Kuklos Anankes (Greek) The circle or wheel of necessity; may stand for the journey of the disimbodied entity to the state of devachan and back to earth, which was at times symbolized by the serpent-mounds, the serpent swallowing his tail, and other emblems of the dragon, all of which among other things denote cyclic time. In the subterranean crypts of Thebes and Memphis were celebrated the sacred Mysteries of kuklos anankes, in which the candidates for initiation were given actual instructions in the inexorable laws traced for every disimbodied soul.

In addition, the circle of necessity refers to the wheel of time in its many intricate cyclings or whirlings, and to the peregrination or rounding through both the visible and invisible spheres of the hosts of monads during a cosmic manvantara, these taking place not only upwards and downwards, so to speak, but likewise having a distinct reference to the growth through unfolding by the monads of what is latent within them.

(See also: Kuklos Anagkes, Kuklos Anankes, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Avaivartika (Sanskrit) (from a not + vi-vrit to turn around, revolve)

Non-revolving, nontransmigrating; in the case of a reimbodying entity, one who is advanced so far on the evolutionary path that he is no longer enslaved by, or enchained in, the whirling waves of samsara. Hence also translated "one who does not revolve any more," applied to seventh round human beings, and therefore strictly referable to one who has reached nirvana. Also applied to every buddha "who turns no more back; who goes straight to Nirvana" (TG 44), for whether nirvana is entered as in the case of the Pratyeka Buddhas, or whether the avaivartika renounces that lofty state and remains in the nirmanakaya as a Buddha of Compassion, both classes of buddhas have passed beyond the necessity of "revolving" any more in this round.

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

Manvantara (Sanskrit) [from manu + antara between]

Between two manus; a period of activity or manifestation. Manu is the entities collectively aggregated into a unity which appear first at the beginning of manifestation and from which, like a cosmic tree, everything is derived or born. A manvantara, therefore, is the period of activity between any two manus, on any plane, since in any such period there is a root-manu at the beginning of evolution and a seed-manu at its close, preceding a pralaya.

One has to gather from context what the meaning of the manvantara referred to is, remembering that what is applicable to a lesser period applied also to a greater, and conversely. When speaking of a manvantara of our planet, a period of one round of the planetary chain is usually meant. There is also the manvantara of any globe of the planetary chain. Seven rounds of the planetary chain make a mahamanvantara of a planet, a Day of Brahma. A solar manvantara is a period of seven Days of Brahma. The Life of Brahma is a mahamanvantara or mahakalpa of the solar system. A minor or globe manvantara is the duration of the seven root-races on any particular globe of the planetary chain. Even a root-race is sometimes called a manvantara because there is a root-manu and seed-manu to each race. The period of a human life is sometimes called a paurusha manvantara; the period of a planet's life, a bhaumika manvantara; the life period of the solar system, a saurya manvantara, the life period of the universe, a prakritika manvantara, which last can become synonymous with the saurya manvantara.

When the time arrives for the re-opening of a planetary manvantara, the planet

"descends again into manifestation through the inner divine planetary thirst for active life and is directed to the same solar system, and to the same spot, relatively speaking, that its predecessor (its former self) had, attracted thither by magnetic and other forces on the lower planes. It forms, in the beginning of its course or journey downwards, a planetary nebula; after many aeons it becomes a comet, following ultimately an elliptical orbit around the sun of our solar system, thus being 'captured,' as our scientists wrongly say, by the sun; and finally condenses into a planet in its earliest physical condition. The comets of short periodic time are on their way to rebecoming planets in our solar system, provided they successfully elude the many dangers that beset such ethereal bodies before condensation and hardening of their matter shield them from destruction" (Fund 63).

In a similar manner at the re-opening of a solar manvantara, a cosmic nebula is gradually formed of the principles of the former cosmos with its sun and planets, etc. Then

"this cosmic nebula drifts from the place where it first was evolved, the guiding impulse of karma directing here and directing there, this luminous nebulosity moving circularly, and contracting, passing through other phases of nebular evolution, such as the spiral stage and the annular, until it becomes spherical, or rather a nebular series of concentric spheres. The nebula in space, as just said, takes often a spiral form, and from the core, the center, there stream forth branches, spiral branches, and they look like whirling wheels within wheels, and they whirl during many ages. When the time has come -- when the whirling has developed pari passu with the indwelling lives and intelligences within the cosmic nebula -- then the annular form appears, a form like a ring or concentric rings, with a heart in the center, and after long aeons, the central heart becomes the sun or central body of the new solar system, and the rings the planets. These rings condense into other bodies, and these other bodies are the planets circulating around their elder brother, the sun; elder, because he was the first to condense into a sphere" (Fund 61-2).

In the first half of a manvantara (planetary as well as human) there is the descent of spirit into matter, and in the second half an ascent of spirit at the expense of matter. A manvantara or period of material manifestation is a temporary spiritual death, whereas the dawn of the succeeding pralaya is spiritual birth.

(See also: Manvantara, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Dervish. A Mussulman - Turkish or Persian - ascetic. A nomadic and wandering monk. Dervishes, however, sometimes live in communities. They are often called the "whirling charmers".

Apart from his austerities of life, prayer and contemplation, the Turkish, Egyptian, or Arabic devotee presents but little similarity with the Hindu fakir, who is also a Mussulman. The latter may become a saint and holy mendicant the former will never reach beyond his second class of occult manifestations.

The dervish may also be a strong mesmerizer, but he will never voluntarily submit to the abominable and almost incredible self-punishment which the fakir invents for himself with an ever-increasing avidity, until nature succumbs and he dies in slow and excruciating tortures.

The most dreadful operations, such as flaying the limbs alive; cutting off the toes, feet, and legs ; tearing out the eyes and causing one’s self to be buried alive up to the chin in the earth, and passing whole months in this posture, seem child’s play to them. The Dervish must not be confused with the Hindu sanyasi or yogi. (See "Fakir").

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

Comet (from Greek komet long-haired, alluding to the cometary tail)

A stage in the formation of globes from the primordial world-stuff, following the state known as the comic curds and preceding the formation of suns and planets. "What does Science know of Comets, their genesis, growth, and ultimate behaviour? Nothing . . .

And what is there so impossible that a laya centre -- a lump of cosmic protoplasm, homogeneous and latent, when suddenly animated or fired up -- should rush from its bed in Space and whirl throughout the abysmal depths in order to strengthen its homogeneous organism by an accumulation and addition of differentiated elements? And why should not such a comet settle in life, live, and become an inhabited globe!" (SD 1:204). They are called wanderers, and some of them become suns, others planets.

Some become attracted to solar systems and pursue closed orbits because they are reimbodying planets; others have not yet assumed periodic form; more are either broken up or absorbed by the influence of neighboring suns or globes. The matter of which they are composed, though on the same plane albeit in its higher portions, as our senses (otherwise they would not be visible to us), is not of the same kind as our terrestrial matter, but they are on their way towards it during their ages of condensation.

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

Waking State The state of human consciousness when perceiving the physical world, conscious of other people and things. Termed the jagrat state in Hindu philosophy, it is the lowest of the four states into which human consciousness is divided: jagrat, svapna, sushupti, and turiya.

The reason we cannot remain continuously in the waking state, but must seek another aspect of consciousness during sleep, is that "our senses are all dual, and act according to the plane of consciousness on which the thinking entity energizes. Physical sleep affords the greatest facility for its action on the various planes; at the same time it is a necessity, in order that the senses may recuperate and obtain a new lease of life for the Jagrata, or waking state, from the Svapna and Sushupti. . . . As a man exhausted by one state of the life fluid seeks another; as, for example, when exhausted by the hot air he refreshes himself with cool water; so sleep is the shady nook in the sunlit valley of life. Sleep is a sign that waking life has become too strong for the physical organism, and that the force of the life current must be broken by changing the waking for the sleeping state. Ask a good clairvoyant to describe the aura of a person just refreshed by sleep, and that of another just before going to sleep. The former will be seen bathed in rhythmical vibrations of life currents -- golden, blue, and rosy; these are the electrical waves of Life. The latter is, as it were, in a mist of intense golden-orange hue, composed of atoms whirling with an almost incredible spasmodic rapidity, showing that the person begins to be too strongly saturated with Life; the life essence is too strong for his physical organs, and he must seek relief in the shadowy side of that essence, which side is the dream element, or physical sleep, one of the states of consciousness" (TBL 58).

Human beings, animals, and plants die not because of a lack of life, but because their vehicles become finally worn out, precisely because the life-currents within have become too strong, and the building power of the vehicles less able to repair the damages of the life-force. Paradoxically, it is the life-force which itself brings about both sleep and death, and thus life repairs its own damage, both building and destroying.

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

Dervish (Persian) Driyosh (Pahlavi) Drighu (Avestan) (from Pers darvish seeking doors from dar a door; i.e., those who seek from door to door, beggars)

Poor one; an Islamic devotee, used in mystic Persian literature for one who shows his spiritual grandeur by turning away from the common norms of society and material wealth. Originally a mendicant, but now it generally indicates a member of a religious fraternity, whether mendicant or not, cloistered or lay. In Turkey and Persia it indicates a wandering, begging religious, called in Arabic-speaking countries a fakir. Those whose faith is so great that they have miraculous powers are termed walis.

The dervishes are the practical expounders of Islam. As with the fakirs and sufis, the origin of the dervish fraternities is assigned to either Ali or Abu Bekr. They are divided into two great classes, the ba-Shara (with the law), who govern their conduct according to the principles of Islam; and the be-Shara (without the law), who do not rule their lives according to the formal principles of any religious creed, although they call themselves Moslems. The sufis belong principally to the latter class.

There are reckoned 32 different fraternities of dervishes, with innumerable suborders, but the two principal ones known in the West are the Mevlevits (whirling or dancing dervishes), an order founded by Jelal ud-Din ar-Rumi, author of the great Persian mystical poem the Mathnawi; and the Rifa'ites (howling dervishes), who in ecstasy cut themselves with knives, eat live coals and glass, handle red-hot iron, and devour serpents.

In the symbolism of Hafiz (14th-century mystic Persian poet) dervish is one who has reached the highest degree of spirituality by giving up worldly possessions and in a beggar-like appearance holds the secret of alchemy. In later times, people who did not understand the subtleties of mysticism took the symbolic rejection of the material world too literally and the attitude of certain dervishes also contributed to this misconception, particularly during the Safavids, who were themselves dervishes, followers of the Sharia or Shariat (the outward rituals of religion).

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

Serpent One of the most fundamental and prolific symbols of the mystery-language. Its most basic meaning is of the eternal, alternating, cyclic motion during cosmic manifestation.

For motion, which to the physicist and the philosopher alike seems an abstraction, is for the ancient wisdom a primordial principle or axiom, of the same order as space and time, existing per se. Never does motion cease utterly even during kosmic pralaya. And motion is essentially circular: where physics would derive circular motion from a composition of rectilinear motions, the opposite procedure would be that of the ancient wisdom. This circular motion, compounding itself into spirals, helixes, and vortices, is the builder of worlds, bringing together the scattered elements of chaos; motion per se is essential cosmic intelligence. This circular motion, returning upon itself like a serpent swallowing its tail, represents the cycles of time.

This conscious energy in spirals whirls through all the planes of cosmos as fohat and his innumerable sons -- the cosmic energies and forces, fundamentally intelligent, operating in every scale or grade of matter. The caduceus of Hermes, twin serpents wound about a staff, represents cosmically the mighty drama of evolution, in its twin aspects, the staff or tree standing for the structural aspect, the serpent for the fohatic forces that animate the structure.

The serpent is characteristically a dual symbol. In the beginnings of creation two poles were emanated, spirit and matter; and forthwith began interaction between the downward forces of the one and the upward forces of the other. Hermes, Mercury, intelligence, may represent a sage or a thief; the serpentine wisdom may work in every plane of materiality. The perverse will of man may turn natural forces to evil purposes, and thus we speak of the good serpent and the bad, of Agathodaemon and Kakodaemon, of Ophis and Ophiomorphos. A serpent can be a sage or a sorcerer.

The dragon is the eternally vigilant one, guardian of the sacred treasures; but he is the ruthless destroyer of him who attempts to gain by force the riches to which he has not won a title. To gain knowledge, we must know how to tame the serpent which rules the nether worlds, as the Christ refuses to make obeisance to Satan.

The seven sacred planets, or again the seven human principles, form a serpent, often collocated with the sun and moon as making a triad. One form of this spiraling conscious energy, when manifesting in man, is kundalini-sakti, the serpentine power, which in the ordinary person today lies relatively sleeping and performing merely automatic vital functions; but when aroused can ether waft to sublime heights of vision and power or blast like a lightning-stroke.

The power which a serpent has of casting its old skin is analogous to what the earth does at the commencement of each round, and to the clothing of the human jiva with a new body when it enters the womb. Again, the astral light is called a serpent; its lowest strata are dangerous and deceptive, while it extends through all planes up to the highest akasa, the vehicle of divine wisdom.

In early Christianity there arose more than one Gnostic sect using the snake as a symbol, such as the Ophites, which in the vision of certain ecclesiastic Fathers was designated devil worship, or by other uncomplimentary names.

See also NAGA; WORLD-SERPENT

(See also: Serpent, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Polarity The property of having poles; duality throughout nature. Poles are antithetical in quality and yet interdependent; each presupposes the other, as without the other neither can exist. Similar poles repel, dissimilar attract. As long as they are apart, there is force; when they coalesce, they are said to neutralize each other -- the force becomes latent.

The most fundamental polarity is that of spirit and matter, which may also be called positive and negative, active and passive, etc. This is repeated endlessly on every plane and subplane. When the One becomes Two, it becomes polar; when the Two rebecomes the One, it ceases to be polar. The expansive and contractive forces (in themselves constituting a polarity) are seen everywhere in evolution and involution.

The polarity of right and left is hard to define absolutely, but gains significance when we consider the right-handed and left-handed groupings of atoms in the molecules of such compounds as dextrose and levulose -- a contrast of similarities. In magnetism, electricity, and chemistry, we have familiar instances of polarity, in which the above general laws are illustrated. In the germinal cell, the One becomes the Two by the extrusion of the polar bodies. The human body is polar; Reichenbach discovered polarity in plants and minerals, as shown by the colors seen by his sensitives.

Benjamin Franklin invented the terms positive and negative to describe the two qualities or attributes of electricity as understood in his day. It has become customary to speak of things which are masculine, expansive, dispersive, etc., as being positive, and to speak of things which are centripetal, contractive, etc., as being negative, with perhaps an unconscious bias of thought in the direction of looking upon the positive as being the active, and the negative as being inactive or passive. Such usage is illogical and misleading, for it is well known that in both magnetism and electricity -- as examples of fields of nature where polarity is native and studied -- the negative can be as "positive" in its action as the so-called positive itself; and that furthermore action and reaction in these fields are equal and equivalent. Furthermore, a thing may be positive on one plane and negative on another plane or in another direction, or again positive at one moment and negative at the next moment -- here using positive and negative according to their common significances.

Adopting such common parlance, it is not uncustomary to speak of the realms of spirit as being negative and the realms of manifestation as being positive; but in nature the masculine is no stronger or weaker than the feminine: they are coequal, reciprocal, interacting, always conjoined during manifestation, and paradoxically during manifestation continuously separate, but always in action and reaction, the one upon the other. Polarity is sometimes defined by the terms male and female; but, while using these symbolically, we must refrain from qualifying them by ideas drawn from merely physiological sex. Hence we

See why it is to be regretted that these two terms have become so fixed in the language, and how much better had it been had the simple term polar been adopted.

However, if it be considered advisable to keep these terms, then one perhaps in the light of the theosophical philosophy, may be driven to say that the north pole of the earth, electrically and magnetically, is the negative pole, and the south pole is positive or dispersive; that spirit is negative and that matter is positive; though it is obvious that these allocations are arbitrary, so far as the words themselves are concerned, but correct enough as regards the facts.

Were we living in the realms of spirit rather than in the realms of material manifestation, we should probably be driven by the logic of circumstance to invert our usage of these terms, and declare the spiritual realms of our domain to be the positive ones, and the material realms to be the negative.

We are thus compelled to see that polarity reigns throughout nature, beginning with manifestation and closing with the beginning of pralaya, where polarity for the time ceases to exist; for polarity is one of the phenomenal products of manifested life. However, in the manifested universe, envisaging now the great cosmic planes, there is a relative homogeneity or vanishing of polarity at the apex or summit of any cosmic plane, that all intermediate parts of that cosmic plane showing polarity merge again into relative homogeneity, and the vanishing of polarity, at the extreme bottom of the said cosmic plane.

In The Secret Doctrine it is stated that fohat, in bringing worlds into being, makes whirls or gyrations in opposite directions, thus starting polarity; and of this we have an illustration in right-handed and left-handed helical or screw motions. Fohat or cosmic electricity, thus inducing polarity into the opening drama of manvantaric life, does so because the polarity unrolls from within fohat itself; fohat thus being instrumental in reproducing the many from out the One, being the steed ridden by cosmic mind.

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

Free Will The inherent power or capacity of choice, divine in its origin, which every being in the kosmos exercises in some degree as, consciously or unself-consciously, it evolves forth its essential self. Every thing and being has its own essential characteristic or svabhava and, the universal urge being towards self-expression and self-consciousness, of necessity each has its relative share of inherent free will with which to work out its destiny. Since evolution is a coming forth of the involved monadic essence, the unfolding of inner capacities and attributes, it cannot be produced, however stimulated, by something outside of itself. The one divine will is the force behind evolution on all planes of manifestation throughout the kosmos. Hence, each entity, as a unit of the divine All, has its portion of free choice and power to bring forth what is within itself.

Free will is manifesting, however feebly, in vegetative or automatic action in the whirling electrons of the atom; also in characteristic actions of matter, such as cohesion, polarity, and electricity; in the varied growths of vegetation; in the range of animal activities; in the evolving human being, and in the perfected humans called gods; and so forth up the scales of being. It acts in the urge which brings the monad to cast off its former garments in the minerals in order to assume new ones in the vegetable kingdom, from which again, after casting off these latter, it progresses to the animal kingdom; and from this again, the monad rejects beast forms and assumes the human shape where it gains in range and momentum because now acting self-consciously in greater or less degree.

The karma which brings to a person conditions which he does not choose or wish for in his present life, is yet consistent with his free will because he is the result of all his previous actions, now expressing themselves in results. These reactions of causes which he set in motion in this or in former lives, being the result which was inherent in his previous choices, is a self-imposed destiny; but it is not fatalism, because he is now free to decide again how he will meet the results of what he previously had chosen for himself. Karma is mathematically exact, both physically and metaphysically, but it is so constantly involved with new elements of choice and of proportion that its effects of necessity are measured on a sliding scale of being, so to say.

There is an automatic phase of free will in the purposeful instinct which marks the various activities of even minute and lowly forms of life. The unself-conscious beasts are protected, and therefore guided, by the wills of celestial beings who make the so-called laws of nature, yet even the beasts instinctively choose to run true to their own inner types or svabhava. They unconsciously will to be themselves and to copy no other. They have free will exactly in proportion to their consciousness, just as any person has it in the higher degrees of his intelligence and more active intuition.

Thus human beings have the power to work out their evolution, for the kingdom of heaven is taken by strength. The gods have gone ahead on the pathway towards omniscience -- so far as our universe is concerned -- by their own individual efforts consciously to act with an ever-enlarging measure of harmony with the one divine will. Thus the volume or power of free will is in strict proportion with the degree in which the entity has brought forth the central spark of divine willing fire which animates all that is. Nevertheless no single being or entity has completely unfettered and perfectly irresponsible free will, because of its relative imperfection and because of its inescapable subordination to greater wills, each such entity ever evolving from its stage of imperfection as it ascends along the scales of being: those on the higher rungs of the hierarchical ladder consciously willing in ever-enlarging degree to follow the greater divine will which holds all in its keeping.

(See also: Free Will, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Meditation like yoga originated in Vedic Hinduism many centuries ago, it was much later adopted into a wide variety of practices of religious and non-religious formats which emphasize mental activity or quiesscence. The English word comes from the Latin meditatio, which originally indicated every type of physical or intellectual exercise, but which later could perhaps be better translated as "contemplation." This usage is found in Christian spirituality, for example, when one "meditates" on the sufferings of Christ; as w ...

Including:

• Meditation - Overview
• Meditation - Types of meditation
• Meditation - Meditation in context
• Meditation - Physical postures
• Meditation - Frequency and duration
• Meditation - Purposes and effects of meditation
• Meditation - Metta meditation: the practice of loving-kindness
• Meditation - Health applications and clinical studies of meditation
• Meditation - Meditation and the brain
• Meditation - Meditation and EEG's
• Meditation - Adverse effects
• Meditation - Meditation and drugs

Read more here: » Meditation: Encyclopedia - Meditation

In the recent years there has been a growing interest within the medical community to study the physiological effects of meditation (Venkatesh et al., 1997; Peng et al., 1999; Lazar et al., 2000; Carlson et.al, 2001). Many concepts of meditation have been applied to clinical settings in order to measure its effect on somatic motor function as well as cardiovascular and respiratory function. Also the hermeneutic and phenomenological aspects of meditation are areas of growing interest. Meditation has entered the mainstream of health care as a ...

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Meditation, Meditation - Overview, Meditation - Types of meditation, Meditation - Meditation in context, Meditation - Physical postures, Meditation - Frequency and duration, Meditation - Purposes and effects of meditation, Meditation - Metta meditation: the practice of loving-kindness, Meditation - Health applications and clinical studies of meditation, Meditation - Meditation and the brain, Meditation - Meditation and EEG's, Meditation - Adverse effects, Meditation - Meditation and drugs

Read more here: » Meditation: Encyclopedia II - Meditation - Health applications and clinical studies of meditation

Different spiritual traditions, and different teachers within those traditions, prescribe or suggest different physical postures for meditation. Most famous are the several cross-legged postures, including the so-called Lotus Position. For example, the Dalai Lama recommends the Seven Points of Vairocana in which the legs are crossed in either the Lotus Positon (here called the vajra position) or the other way, "Indian" or "tailor" fashion (here called the bodhisattva position) the eyes are kept open (thus affi ...

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Meditation, Meditation - Overview, Meditation - Types of meditation, Meditation - Meditation in context, Meditation - Physical postures, Meditation - Frequency and duration, Meditation - Purposes and effects of meditation, Meditation - Metta meditation: the practice of loving-kindness, Meditation - Health applications and clinical studies of meditation, Meditation - Meditation and the brain, Meditation - Meditation and EEG's, Meditation - Adverse effects, Meditation - Meditation and drugs

Read more here: » Meditation: Encyclopedia II - Meditation - Physical postures

These vary so much that it is difficult to venture any general comments. On one extreme there exist monks and nuns whose whole lives are ordered around meditation; on the other hand, one-minute meditations are not out of the question. Twenty or thirty minutes is probably a typical duration. Experienced meditators often find their sessions growing in length of their own accord. Observing the advice and instructions of one's spiritual teacher is generally held to be most beneficial. Many traditions stress regular practice. Accordingly, many meditators experience guilt or frustration upon failing to do so. Poss ...

See also:

Meditation, Meditation - Overview, Meditation - Types of meditation, Meditation - Meditation in context, Meditation - Physical postures, Meditation - Frequency and duration, Meditation - Purposes and effects of meditation, Meditation - Metta meditation: the practice of loving-kindness, Meditation - Health applications and clinical studies of meditation, Meditation - Meditation and the brain, Meditation - Meditation and EEG's, Meditation - Adverse effects, Meditation - Meditation and drugs

Read more here: » Meditation: Encyclopedia II - Meditation - Frequency and duration