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Adi (Sanskrit) First, beginning; used in compound words to signify original, prime, e.g., adi-buddhi, adi-sanat.
Aditi (Sanskrit) Unbounded, free; as a noun, infinite and shoreless expanse. In the Vedas, Aditi is devamatri (mother of the gods) as from and in her cosmic matrix all the heavenly bodies were born. As the celestial virgin and mother of every existing form and being, the synthesis of all things, she is highest akasa.
Advaita
Non-duality; a school of Vedanta philosophy teaching the oneness of God, soul, and universe, whose chief exponent was Sankaracharya.
Ahamkara
Ego or "I-consciousness." The 'I' maker.
Agni a Hindu deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire"
Ah-hi (Sanskrit), or Serpents. Dhyan Chohans. "Wise Serpents" or Dragons of Wisdom.
Akasa
The first of the five material elements that constitute the universe; often translated as "space" or "ether". The four other elements are vayu (air), agni (fire), ap (water), and prithivi (earth).
Alaya Universal soul or self of all things. That from which consciousness grows and to which it returns. The universal soul; the basis or root or fountain of all beings and things.
Amrita
A sanskrit word meaning "nectar of immortality". The substance that gives the immortal life and purifies the human body in preparation for realization of the Immortal Body. Also called Soma.
Ananda A sanskrit word meaning "supreme bliss", "unending joy".
Anupadaka (Sanskrit). Anupapadaka, also Aupapaduka; means parentless", "self-existing", born without any parents or progenitors. A term applied to certain self-created gods, and the Dhyani Buddhas.
Aour
(Chald.). The synthesis of the two aspects of astro-etheric light; and the od - the life-giving, and the ob - the death-giving light. Equivalent to the astral light
secondary meanings: dawn, daybreak, lightning; the light of life; mystically light in the sense of instruction, knowledge, hence doctrine. Metaphorically, happiness, prosperity, guidance, and a teacher.
Ap
(Sanskrit) "water", in the plural, apas
Arhat
(Sanskrit) An adept in Theravada Buddhism. A Buddhist saint who has attained liberation from the cycle of Birth and Death, generally through living a monastic life in accordance with the Buddhas' teachings.
Arupa (Sanskrit) A compound word meaning "formless," but this word formless is not to be taken so strictly as to mean that there is no form of any kind whatsoever; it merely means that the forms in the spiritual worlds (the arupa-lokas) are of a spiritual type or character, and of course far more ethereal than are the forms of the rupa-lokas. "Bodiless", formless, as opposed to rupa, "body", or form.
Atma The real Self, one's divinity, the spark of God within. The Atma is unchanging and immortal; It does not die. The essential Divinity, or light of consciousness, in each individual; often translated into English as “Self”.
Avalokitesvara (Avaloki, the "on-looker"), the Higher Self having many incarnations on earth, the spiritual guide. "Protector against Evil", "the Universal Saviour of all beings".
Avastha - a state of the mind
Avatar, avatara (Hinduism) incarnation of a god or goddess into a human or animal form. One who incarnates a particular truth or path on earth. Incarnation of a God who comes to Earth in bodily form (Krishna, Rama, Jesus)
Avidya Ignorance.
Be-ness (Be-ness, Becoming, Being) Be-ness always is, that Becoming always is, that Being always is. Be-ness does not become; Be-ness IS. Becoming always is -- it does not begin or end.
Bhuta (Bhutas)
(Sanskrit) The past participle of the verb-root bhu, meaning "to be," or "to become"; hence bhutas literally means "has beens" - entities that have lived and passed on. The bhutas are "shells" from which all that is spiritual and intellectual has fled: all that was the real entity has fled from this shell, and naught is left but a decaying astral corpse. The bhutas are the spooks, ghosts, simulacra, reliquiae, of dead men; in other words, the astral dregs and remnants of human beings. They are the "shades" of the ancients, the pale and ghostly phantoms living in the astral world, or the astral copies of the men that were; and the distinction between the bhuta and the kama-rupa is very slight.
Bereft of all that pertains to the real entity, the genuine man, the bhuta is as much a corpse in the astral realms as is the decaying physical body left behind at physical death; and consequently, astral or psychical intercourse of any kind with these shells is productive only of evil. The bhutas, although belonging in the astral world, are magnetically attracted to physical localities similar in type to the remnants of impulses still inhering in them. The bhuta of a drunkard is attracted to wine cellars and taverns; the bhuta of one who has lived a lewd life is attracted to localities sympathetic to it; the thin and tenuous bhuta of a good man is similarly attracted to less obnoxious and evil places. All over the ancient world and throughout most of even the modern world these eidola or "images" of dead men have been feared and dreaded, and relations of any kind with them have been consistently and universally avoided.
Bodhisattva A being who has supposedly earned the right to enter into Nirvana or into illumination, but instead voluntarily turns back from that state in order to aid humanity in attaining the same goal. The Christ is said to be a Bodhisattva.
Brahma (Sanskrit) The first god of the Hindu Trimurti or triad, consisting of Brahma, the emanator, evolver, and creator; Vishnu, the sustainer or preserver; and Siva, the regenerator or destroyer. Brahma is the vivifying expansive force of nature in its eternally periodic manvantaras. The collective creators of the World and Men — the universe with all its numberless productions of things movable and (seemingly) immovable. In the theosophic philosophy creator is simply an abstract term or idea, like army. Brahma is called the creator or Logos. Brahma and the universe form one Being.
Brahmanas One of the two main sections of the Vedas.
Buddhi In the theosophical scheme, it is the sixth principle counting upwards in the human constitution: the vehicle of pure, universal spirit, hence an inseparable garment or vehicle of atman. In its essence of the highest plane of akasa or alaya, buddhi stands in the same relation to atman as, on the cosmic scale, mulaprakriti does to parabrahman. Buddhi uses manas as its garment, and in the former are likewise stored the fruitages of the many incarnations on earth; hence buddhi is often called both the seed and flower of manas. Buddhi is truly the center of spiritual consciousness and therefore its qualities are enduring. The purer and higher part of manas must awaken, by rising to it, this essential energy that inherently resides in buddhi so that the latter may become active in a person's life.
Chaitanya (Sanskrit) Absolute consciousness.
Chit (Sanskrit) consciousness, knowledge or awareness.
Crore [from Hindi karor 10 millions; cf Sanskrit koti] Numeral adjective 10 millions; 10?.
Devamatri (Sanskrit). Lit., "the mother of the gods".
Dhyani-buddhas There are seven dhyani-buddhas so that for each round of a septenary planetary chain there is a presiding dhyani-buddha or causal buddha. Our present fourth round is under the care and supervision of the dhyani-buddha belonging to the fourth degree of this celestial hierarchy. The dhyani-bodhisattvas who watch over the globes of the planetary chain in each round are rays from the dhyani-buddha of the round.
Dis (Sanskrit) A direction or point of space, a cardinal point or quarter; the four cardinal points: east; south; west; and north. The noun disa likewise means direction, region, quarter, or point of space. Used as a philosophical term, dis means space.
Dangma (Sanskrit) In Esotericism a purified Soul. A Seer and an Initiate; one who has attained full wisdom.
Devamatri (Sanskrit). Lit., "the mother of the gods".
Fohat (Sanskrit for subtlest fiery energy of creation) Called by science atomic energy.
1) In Theosophy, a term used to represent the active (male) potency of the Sakti (female reproductive power) in nature. The essence of cosmic electricity.
2) An occult Tibetan term for Daiviprakriti, primordial light: and in the universe of manifestation the ever-present electrical energy and ceaseless destructive and formative power.
3) Esoterically, it is the same, Fohat being the universal propelling Vital Force, at once the propeller and the resultant.
Hiranyagarbha (Sanskrit) [from hiranya imperishable substance, golden + garbha womb, embryo, fetus, also the interior of anything, hence a temple] Meaning the golden womb, it is the source of the creation of the universe; the matrix of imperishable substance. 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; 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. Brahma divided the golden egg 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.
In abscondito in secret, secretly.
Iswara (Sanskrit). The "Lord" or the personal god - divine Spirit in man. Lit., sovereign (independent) existence. A title given to Siva and other gods in India. Siva is also called Iswaradeva, or sovereign deva.
Jagat "That which is always going". The phenomenal world.
Jivatma the individual soul, individual consciousness. The personality.
Kalpa Periodic manifestations and dissolutions of universes which go on eternally. Great kalpas consist of four asamkhiya kalpas corresponding to childhood. maturity, old age and the death of the universe.
Kwan-yin (Chin.). The female logos, the "Mother of Mercy". The Chinese Buddhist goddess of compassion.
Kwan-yin-tien (Chin.). The heaven where Kwan-yin and the other logoi dwell.
Laya Dissolution. Laya is the state of mind when one forgets all the objects of senses and gets absorbed in the object of meditation. The fluctuations of the mind stop.
Lha (Tibetan) God, deity, equivalent to the Sanskrit deva. A term used for the highest spirits. Saints and yogins are sometimes respectfully addressed as "lhas". The higher beings derivative from the spiritual side of our sun (Solar Lhas) who endowed the human monads of our planetary chain with the spirit of life.
Lipika (Lipikas) (Sanskrit) This word comes from the verb-root lip, meaning "to write"; hence the word lipikas means the "scribes." Mystically, they are the celestial recorders, and are intimately connected with the working of karma, of which they are the agents. They are the karmic "Recorders or Annalists, who impress on the (to us) invisible tablets of the Astral Light, 'the great picture-gallery of eternity,' a faithful record of every act, and even thought, of man [and indeed of all other entities and things], of all that was, is, or ever will be, in the phenomenal Universe"
Loka (Sanskrit) location, world, habitat, realm, or plane of existence.
Logos
We are familiar with the terms Spirit (Father), Matter (Mother), and Universal Mind (Son) to describe the beginning of our universe. There is another term with the same general idea - Logos. Here are the equivalents in meaning.
· First Logos = Father
· Second Logos = Father-Mother
· Third Logos = Son
A look at the origin of the word Logos.
"The term comes from the Greek, derived from the verbal root lege in, meaning to speak; thus logos originally signified the 'word' by which the inward thought is expressed; the inward thought itself. Thus the philosophical concept in associating the term with the coming into being of a cosmos, or a system, is this: there must be a reason for the coming into being of a system, hence divine thought is instrumental in the process. With the formulation of the idea there must also be a means of expressing it, that is, carrying out of the idea. The same thing is present in the utterance of a word. Before the word may be produced as sound, there must be the ideation or thought of it; there must also be the desire of sufficient potency to produce the sound of it. When the idea is transmitted by means of the sound, the resultant effect is the word - the Logos.
Loka (Sanskrit) location, world, habitat, realm, or plane of existence.
Mahat
cosmic consciousness. Holy Spirit (feminine); that spiritual power residing in matter which responds to the charge of fohat (masculine), resulting in creative energy. Corresponds on the cosmic level to manas or mind in Man.
Manas (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root man to think] The seat of mentation and egoic consciousness; the third principle in the descending scale of the sevenfold human constitution. Manas is the human person, the reincarnating ego, immortal in essence, enduring in its higher aspects through the entire manvantara. When imbodied, manas is dual, gravitating toward buddhi in its higher aspects and in its lower aspects toward kama. The first is intuitive mind, the second the animal, ratiocinative consciousness, the lower mentality and passions of the personality.
Maya derived from the Sanskrit roots ma ("not") and ya, generally translated as an indicative article meaning "that". Literally means "that which is not. "No mind-object can be identified as absolute truth. The phenomenal Universe of perceived duality. The limited, purely physical and mental reality in which our everyday consciousness has become entangled. The appearance of phenomena.
Maya is not false. It is true in itself but untrue in comparison with the absolute truth. Maya has two principal functions: one is to veil Brahman and obscure and conceal it from our consciousness; the other is to present and promulgate the material world and the veil of duality instead of Brahman.
In the twilight, one may easily mistake a rope for a snake. In so doing, we feel fear. Hence fear and other emotions may often be based on illusion, an incorrect perception of reality.
Maya is the veritable fabric of duality. Under the influence of the three gunas, the soul is (1) misled by matter, and (2) subsequently entangled and entrapped. This tendency is termed maya (illusion). "All that glitters is not gold."
Mukta
and Mukti (Sanskrit). Liberation from sentient life; one beatified or liberated; a candidate for Moksha, freedom from flesh and matter, or life on this earth.
Mulaprakriti (Sanskrit). The Parabrahmic root, the abstract deific feminine principle - undifferentiated substance. Akasa. Literally, "the root of Nature" (Prakriti) or Matter. Undifferentiated primordial substance. Substance is the keyword. Matter.
Nidana (Sanskrit) That which binds, to earth or to existence, philosophically speaking. Originally meaning bond, rope, halter -- that which binds. From this arose the implication of binding cause, or bonds of causation, and hence in Buddhist philosophy it signifies cause of existence, the concatenation of cause and effect.
(birth)(decrepitude) This is the fundamental dogma of Buddhist thought.
Nirvana A blissful state associated with having achieved unity with the Divine. Annihilation of desire, passion, and ego; Liberation, characterized by freedom and bliss. Liberation from earthly things; paradise.
Noumenon
(Ancient Greek). The true essential nature of being as distinguished from the illusive objects of sense. Compare phenomenon.
Oeaohoo A very ancient form of the sacred and mystical holy name as it occurs in the Stanzas of Dzyan. These seven letters stand for seven vowels, and according to the method of pronunciation the name may be given "as one, three, or even seven syllables by adding an e after the letter o". Each letter of the seven referring to one of the kosmic principles or elements.
Parabrahm or Parabrahman - the Supreme Infinite Brahma. That which is beyond Brahman; the self-enduring, eternal, self-sufficient cause of all, the one essence of everything in the kosmos. It is before all things in the kosmos, and is the one sole limitless life-consciousness-substance from which starts into existence a center of force which may be called the Logos. In the Vedic cycle of writing it is referred to as tat (that) as opposed to the world of manifestation called idam (this). Para means 'above'.
Paramartha the highest truth; spiritual knowledge; the highest object of attainment.
Absolute existence.
Paramarthika - that which relates to the supreme spiritual truth or ultimate reality; real, essential, true; that which relates to a higher object.
Paranishpanna The state of having gone forwards beyond; philosophically, the absolute perfection to which all existences attain at the close of a great period of activity (the mahamanvantara). It is identical in meaning with paranirvana, and corresponds to the Tibetan yond-grub.
Parikalpita (Sanskrit) That which is limited, error, the fruit of illusion. Parakalpita is spoken of as one of the great enemies of absolute knowledge. What is homogeneous breaks up into the heterogeneous; in this sense becomes parikalpita, and heterogeneity is the nursery or womb of illusion.
Paratantra (Sanskrit). That which has no existence of, or by itself, but only through a dependent or causal connection.
Prabhavapyaya
(Sanskrit). That whence all originates and into which all things resolve at the end of the life-cycle. See pg. 46 S.D.
Peripatetic
Greek - to pace to and fro. 1. itinerant 2. of or relating to the teachings of the Greek philosopher Aristotle who used to teach philosophy while walking about the Lyceum in ancient Athens.
Phallic
In an impersonal and abstract manner of representation the ancients symbolized the formative, creative, or procreative forces or energies of nature under appropriate emblems drawn from the animal kingdom, and most commonly from man himself. Thus it was that the phallus in Classical antiquity stood as the emblem of the abstract creative forces of the universe, as well as the solar system, and even of earth.
Pradhana
Material nature in its primordial undifferentiated state.
Prakriti (Nature), made up of the three qualities (Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas), is the material cause of all beings. The primordial Nature (prakriti) gives birth to Brahma, who creates all beings.
Prithivi The earth element, the seventh and lowest in the descending scale of the seven cosmic bhutas of nature. This cosmic element has its corresponding analog in the human physical body, being in either case the general carrier of all the inner or hid substances and principles, whether of the universe or of any manifested entity therein. From the esoteric standpoint the physical universe or prithivi-bhuta is not larger in any sense than are the invisible planes or elements of being, but the opposite. The idea behind the term calls attention to the fact that prithivibhuta appears through its illusory effect upon our senses to be the universe of expanded or extended substances.
Protogenos The primeval gods or "Protogenoi" of Greek mythology were the basic components of the universe which emerged at creation. They included Earth, Air, Sea, Sky, Fresh Water, Underworld, Darkness, Night, Light, Day, Procreation and Time. The first born of the immortals, who formed the very fabric of the universe. They were, for the most part, purely elemental beings.
Protyle [from Greek protos first + hyle matter] Used by the English chemist Crookes (1832-1919) for a then hypothetical substance of which he believed the chemical elements to be differentiations; used in this sense by Blavatsky and also in a general sense for rudimentary, primordial, or undifferentiated matter. The first homogeneous, primordial substance.
Ring-pass-not The limit in spiritual, intellectual, or psychological power or
consciousness, beyond which an individual is unable to pass until he evokes from within the strength and the vision to carry him forwards and over the circumscribing limits set by that individual's own karma. In the Stanzas of Dzyan, the lipikas are said to circumscribe the triangle, the first one, the cube, the second one, and the pentacle within the egg, which is the ring called pass not for those who descend and ascend and for those who are progressing toward the great Day Be-With-Us.
Sankaracharya
(Sanskrit) The beneficent teacher; one of the greatest initiates of India. The Upanishads, Gautama Buddha, and Sankaracharya are considered by many to be the three lights of the wisdom of India. In a very mystical way Sankaracharya was Buddha's esoteric successor. He was an avatara,
Sat (Sanskrit) "the ideal; pure and true essence (nature)" of an entity or existence in the Vedanta. It can thus be concluded as "the self-existent or Universal Spirit, Brahman". Sat is truth. As such it is the destroyer of falsehood, delusion, deceit and illusion. It leads us from the unreal to the real, out of the veil and into clarity and consciousness of our true state.
Sat-Chit-Ananda Sat is truth. As such it is the destroyer of falsehood, delusion, deceit and illusion. It leads us from the unreal to the real, out of the veil and into clarity and consciousness of our true state. Sat restores us from a limited, constricted, and separate states of stasis, to our authentic boundless and natural state of unobstructed beingness. This leads to the merger of pure beingness and absolute subjective experience with pure consciousness and absolute objectivity. Chit is consciousness. It is thus one of the integral ingredients toward waking up out of slumber and forgetfulness and into our true nature, our uncontrived/unconditioned true and natural self. Ananda is absolute bliss. Here all tension, stress, obstruction, bias, distortion perturbation, conflict, and disturbances have been let go of, surrendered, removed, and purified.
Sattva The principle of balance or righteousness. Harmony. One of the three Gunas.
Satya is a Sanskrit word that loosely translates into English as "Truth." "Unchangeable", "that which has no distortion."
Sanat Eternal, always
Sapta (Sanskrit) The numerical adjective seven.
Saptaparna (Sanskrit) Seven-leaves, sevenfold; the man-plant, sevenfold man, or seven-principled human being.
Silent Watcher Highly advanced spiritual entities, each the summit of a spiritual-psychological hierarchy composed of beings working under their direct inspiration and guidance. Every hierarchy, high or low, has a Silent Watcher as its own supreme head. There are human 'Silent Watchers,' and there is a 'Silent Watcher' for every globe of our Planetary Chain. There is likewise a Silent Watcher of the solar system of vastly loftier state or stage . . ." He is "one who through evolution having practically gained omniscience or perfect knowledge of all that he can learn in any one sphere of the kosmos, instead of pursuing his evolutionary path forwards to still higher realms, remains in order to help the multitudes and hosts of less progressed entities trailing behind him.
Soma Nectar of Ecstasy. Lunar deity. Any of 24 types of psychoactive plants given in the Vedas. The juice of a sacred plant, offered in the more elaborate Vedic sacrifices to the principal demigods. The performers of these sacrifices who are entitled to drink the soma juice gain elevation to heaven.
Swabhavat That which becomes itself, self-existent, self-becoming, that which develops from within outwardly its essential self by emanation or evolution. Svabhavat is the essence of cosmic world-stuff. A state or condition of cosmic consciousness-substance, where spirit and matter, which are fundamentally one, no longer are dual as in manifestation, but one: that which is neither manifested matter, nor manifested spirit, alone, but both are the primeval Unity; spiritual Akasa; where matter merges into spirit, and both now being really one, are called 'Father-Mother' -- spirit-substance. Swabhavat never descends from its own state or condition, or from its own plane, but is the cosmic reservoir of Being, as well as of beings, therefore of consciousness, of intellectual light, of life.
Svabhavika (Sanskrit) The Svabhavika school, perhaps the oldest existing school of Buddhism, is one of the principal Buddhist philosophical system and is still prevalent in Nepal. Its teachings are highly mystical, and when properly understood may be said to have remained faithful in large degree to the esoteric teachings of Gautama Buddha. The Svabhavika philosophers teach the becoming or unfolding of the self by inner impulse or evolution of the inherent seeds of individuality lying latent in every monad or jiva.
Upadana (Sanskrit) In Buddhist literature the term is enlarged to signify the grasping at or clinging to existence caused by trishna (desire, thirst) causing bhava (new births); likewise the fourth of the twelve nidanas (bond, causes of existence), the chain of causation. In Vedantic philosophy, a cause, motive, or material cause of any kind. The act to taking or appropriating for oneself. Interaction of the organs of sense with the outer world. Vaishnava (Sanskrit) A follower of the Hindu god Vishnu.
Upadhi The vehicle, carrier or bearer of something less material than itself: as the human body is the upâdhi of its spirit, ether the upâdhi of light, etc., etc.; a mould; a defining or limiting substance." (Blavatsky's Theosophical Glossary)
Vahana is a vehicle or the carrier of something immaterial and formless.
Vaivasvata (Sanskrit) Solar, coming from the sun. Corresponds to Xisuthrus, Deukalion, Noah, etc. -- all head-figures or eponyms of races inaugurating a "new" humanity after a deluge. The root-manu of our present fourth round.
Vayu
air; The God of wind.
Vedanta (Lit., the conclusion of the Vedas) A system of philosophy ascribed to Vyasa, discussed mainly in the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita and the Brahma Sutras
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