Theosophical Society,
H
P Blavatsky
The
Key to Theosophy Glossary
By
H
P Blavatsky
A – D
A.
Absoluteness.
When predicated of the UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE, it denotes an abstraction, which is
more correct and logical than to apply the adjective “absolute” to that which
can have neither attributes nor limitations.
Adam Kadmon
(Heb.) “Archetypal man, Humanity. The “Heavenly man” not fallen into sin.
Kabalists refer it to the Ten Sephiroth on the plane of human perception.” In
the Kabala Adam Kadmon is the manifested Logos corresponding to our third
Logos, the unmanifested being the first paradigmic ideal man, and symbolizing
the universe in abscondito, or in its “privation” in the Aristotelean
sense. The first Logos is “the light of
the World,” the second and the third, its gradually deepening shadows.
Adept (Lat.
adeptus). In Occultism, one who has reached the stage of initiation and become
a master in the Science of Esoteric Philosophy.
Aether (Gr.)
With the Ancients, the Divine luminiferous substance which pervades the whole
universe; the “garment” of the Supreme Deity, Zeus, or Jupiter. With the
Moderns, Ether, for the meaning of which, in physics and chemistry, see
Webster’s Dictionary, or some other. In Esotericism, AEther is the third
principle of the Kosmic Septenary, matter (earth) being the lowest, and Akasa,
the highest.
Agathon (Gr.)
Plato’s Supreme Deity, lit. “the good.” Our ALAYA or the Soul of the World.
Agnostic. A word
first used by Professor Huxley, to indicate one who believes nothing which
cannot be demonstrated by the senses.
Ahankara (Sans.)
The conception of “I,” self-consciousness or self-identity; the “I,” or
egoistical and mayavic principle in man, due to our ignorance which separates
our “I” from the Universal ONE-Self. Personality, egoism also.
Ain-Soph (Heb.)
The “Boundless” or “Limitless” Deity emanating and extending. Ain-Soph is also written En-Soph and
Ain-Suph, for no one, not even the Rabbis, are quite sure of their vowels. In
the religious metaphysics of the old Hebrew philosophers, the ONE Principle was
an abstraction like Parabrahm, though modern Kabalists have succeeded by mere
dint of sophistry and paradoxes in making a “Supreme God” of it, and nothing
higher. But with the early Chaldean Kabalists Ain-Soph was “without form or
being” with “no likeness with anything else.” (Franck’s Die Kabbala, p. 126.)
That Ain-Soph has never been considered as the “Creator” is proved conclusively
by the fact that such an orthodox Jew as Philo calls “creator” the Logos, who
stands next the “Limitless One,” and is “the SECOND God.” “The Second God is in
its (Ain-Soph’s) wisdom,” says Philo in Quaest et Solut. Deity is NO-THING; it
is nameless, and therefore called Ain-Soph—the word Ain meaning nothing. (See
also Franck’s Kabbala, p. 153.)
Alchemy, in
Arabic Ul-Khemi, is as the name suggests, the chemistry of nature. Ul-Khemi or Al-Kimia, however, is really an
Arabianized word, taken from the Greek chemeia from chumos “juice,” extracted
from a plant. Alchemy deals with the finer forces of nature and the various
conditions of matter in which they are found to operate. Seeking under the veil
of language, more or less artificial, to convey to the uninitiated so much of
the Mysterium Magnum as is safe in the hands of a selfish world, the Alchemist
postulates as his first principle, the existence of a certain Universal Solvent
in the homogeneous substance from which the elements were evolved; which
substance he calls pure gold, or summum materiae. This solvent, also called
menstruum universale, possesses the power of removing all the seeds of disease
out of the human body, of renewing youth, and prolonging life. Such is the
lapis philosophorum (philosopher’s stone). Alchemy first penetrated into
These three
methods were typified under the three alchemical properties—sulphur, mercury,
and salt. Different writers have stated that these are three, seven, ten and
twelve processes respectively; but they are all agreed there is but one object
in Alchemy, which is to transmute gross metals into pure gold. But what that gold really is, very few people
understand correctly. No doubt there is such a thing in Nature as transmutation
of the baser metal into the nobler; but this is only one aspect of Alchemy, the
terrestrial, or purely material, for we see logically the same process taking
place in the bowels of the earth. Yet, besides and beyond this interpretation,
there is in Alchemy a symbolical meaning, purely psychic and spiritual. While
the Kabalist-Alchemist seeks for the realization of the former, the
Occultist-Alchemist, spurning the gold of the earth, gives all his attention to
and directs his efforts only towards the transmutation of the baser quaternary
into the divine upper trinity of man, which when finally blended, is one. The
spiritual, mental, psychic, and physical planes of human existence are in
Alchemy compared to the four elements -- fire, air, water, and earth, and are
each capable of a three-fold constitution, i. e., fixed, unstable, and
volatile. Little or nothing is known by the world concerning the origin of this
archaic branch of philosophy; but it is certain that it antedates the
construction of any known Zodiac, and as dealing with the personified forces of
nature, probably also any of the mythologies of the world. Nor is there any doubt
that the true secrets of transmutation (on the physical plane) were known in
the days of old, and lost before the dawn of the so-called historical period.
Modern chemistry owes its best fundamental discoveries to Alchemy, but
regardless of the undeniable truism of the latter, that there is but one
element in the universe, chemistry placed metals in the class of elements, and
is only now beginning to find out its gross mistake. Even some encyclopedists
are forced to confess that if most of the accounts of transmutation are fraud
or delusion, “yet some of them are accompanied by testimony which renders them
probable. By means of the galvanic battery even the alkalis have been
discovered to have a metallic basis. The possibility of obtaining metal from other
substances which contain the ingredients composing it, of changing one metal
into another . . . must therefore be left undecided. Nor are all Alchemists to
be considered impostors. Many have
laboured under the conviction of obtaining their object, with indefatigable
patience and purity of heart, which is soundly recommended by Alchemists as the
principal requisite for the success of their labours.” (Pop. Encyclop.)
Alexandrian
Philosophers (or School). This famous school arose in
Ammonius Saccas.
A great and good philosopher who lived in Alexandria between the 2nd
and 3rd centuries of our Era, the founder of the Neo-Platonic School
of the Philalethians or “lovers of truth.” He was of poor birth and born of
Christian parents, but endowed with such prominent, almost divine goodness as
to be called Theodidaktos, the “God-taught.” He honoured that which was good in
Christianity, but broke with it and the Churches at an early age, being unable
to find in Christianity any superiority over the old religions. Analogeticists. The disciples of Ammonius
Saccas (vide supra) so called because of their practice of interpreting all
sacred legends, myths, and mysteries by a principle of analogy and
correspondence, which rule is now found in the Kabalistic system, and
pre-eminently so in the schools of Esoteric philosophy in the East. (Vide “The
Twelve Signs of the Zodiac,” by T. Subba Row in “Five years of Theosophy.”)
Ananda (Sans.)
Bliss, joy, felicity, happiness. A name of a favourite disciple of Gautama, the
Lord Buddha.
Anaxagoras. A
famous Ionian philosopher, who lived 500 B. C., studied philosophy under
Anaximenes of
Miletus, and settled in the days of Pericles, at
Archelaus, and
other distinguished men and philosophers were among his disciples and pupils.
He was a most learned astronomer, and was one of the first to explain openly
that which was taught by Pythagoras secretly -- viz., the movements of the
planets, the eclipses of the sun and moon, etc. It was he who taught the theory
of chaos, on the principle that “nothing comes from nothing,” ex nihilo nihil
fit—and of atoms, as the underlying essence and substance of all bodies, “of
the same nature as the bodies which they formed.” These atoms, he taught, were
primarily put in motion by nous (universal intelligence, the Mahat of the
Hindus), which nous is an immaterial, eternal, spiritual entity; by this
combination the world was formed, the material gross bodies sinking down, and
the ethereal atoms (or fiery ether) rising and spreading in the upper celestial
regions. Ante-dating modern science by over 2,000 years, he taught that the
stars were of the same material as our earth, and the sun a glowing mass; that
the moon was a dark uninhabitable body, receiving its light from the sun; and
beyond the aforesaid science he confessed himself thoroughly convinced that the
real existence of things, perceived by our senses, could not be demonstrably
proved. He died in exile at Lampsacus, at the age of seventy-two.
Anima Mundi
(Lat.) The “Soul of the World,” the same as Alaya of the Northern Buddhists;
the divine Essence which pervades, permeates, animates, and informs all things,
from the smallest atom of matter to man and god. It is in a sense “the
seven-skinned Mother” of the stanzas in the Secret Doctrine; the essence of
seven planes of sentiency, consciousness, and differentiation, both moral and
physical. In its highest aspect it is Nirvana; in its lowest, the Astral
Light. It was feminine with the
Gnostics, the early Christians, and the Nazarenes; bisexual with other sects,
who considered it only in its four lower planes, of igneous and ethereal nature
in the objective world of forms, and divine and spiritual in its three higher
planes. When it is said that every human soul was born by detaching itself from
the Anima Mundi, it is meant, esoterically, that our higher Egos are of an
essence identical with It, and Mahat is a radiation of the ever unknown
Universal ABSOLUTE.
Anoia (Gr.) is
“want of understanding folly”; and is the name applied by Plato and others to
the lower Manas when too closely allied with
Anthropomorphism.
From the Greek Anthropos, man. The act of endowing God or the gods with a human
form and human attributes or qualities.
Anugita (Sans.) One of the Upanishads. A very occult treatise. (Vide
Clarendon Press series “The Sacred Books of the East.”)
Apollo
Apollonius of
Tyana. A wonderful philosopher born in
At Lesbos, the
priests of Orpheus got jealous of him, and refused to initiate him into their
peculiar mysteries, though they did so several years later. He preached to the
people of Athens and other States the purest and noblest ethics, and the
phenomena he produced were as wonderful as they were numerous, and well
authenticated. “How is it,” inquires Justin Martyr, in dismay, “how is it that
the talismans (telesmata) of Apollonius have power, for they prevent, as we
see, the fury of the waves, and the violence of the winds, and the attacks of
wild beasts; and whilst our Lord’s miracles are preserved by tradition alone,
those of Apollonius are most numerous, and actually manifested in present
facts?” (Quest. XXIV.) But an answer is easily found to this, in the fact that,
after crossing the Hindu Koosh, Apollonius had been directed by a king to the
abode of the Sages, whose abode it may be to this day, and who taught him their
unsurpassed knowledge. His dialogues, with the Corinthian Menippus, give to us
truly the esoteric catechism, and disclose (when understood) many an important
mystery of nature. Apollonius was the friend, correspondent, and guest of kings
and queens, and no wonderful or “magic” powers are better attested than
his. Towards the close of his long and
wonderful life he opened an esoteric school at Ephesus, and died at the ripe
old age of one hundred years.
Arhat (Sans.),
also pronounced and written Arahat, Arhan, Rahat, etc., “the worthy one”; a
perfected Arya, one exempt from reincarnation; “deserving Divine honours.” This
was the name first given to the Jain, and subsequently to the Buddhist holy men
initiated into the esoteric mysteries. The Arhat is one who has entered the
last and highest path, and is thus emancipated from rebirth. Arians. The followers of Arius, a presbyter
of the Church in
Aristobulus. An
Alexandrian writer, and an obscure philosopher. A Jew who tried to prove that
Aristotle explained the esoteric thoughts of Moses. Aryan (Sans.) Lit., “the holy”; those who had
mastered the Aryasatyani and entered the Aryamarga path to Nirvana or Moksha,
the great “fourfold” path. They were originally known as Rishis. But now the
name has become the epithet of a race, and our Orientalists, depriving the
Hindu Brahmans of their birthright, have made Aryans of all Europeans. Since,
in esotericism the four paths or stages can only be entered through great
spiritual development and “growth in holiness,” they are called the Aryamarga.
The degrees of Arhatship, called respectively Srotapatti, Sakridagamin,
Anagamin, and Arhat, or the four classes of Aryas, correspond to the four paths
and truths. Aspect. The form (rupa)
under which any principle in septenary man or nature manifests is called an
aspect of that principle in Theosophy.
Astral Body. The ethereal counterpart or double of any physical
body—Doppelganger.
Astrology. The
science which defines the action of celestial bodies upon mundane affairs, and
claims to foretell future events from the positions of the stars. Its antiquity is such as to place it among
the very earliest records of human learning. It remained for long ages a secret
science in the East, and its final expression remains so to this day, its
esoteric application only having been brought to any degree of perfection in
the West during the lapse of time since Varaha Mihira wrote his book on
Astrology, some 1400 years ago. Claudius Ptolemy, the famous geographer and
mathematician who founded the system of Astronomy known under his name, wrote
his Tetrabiblos, which is still the basis of modern Astrology, 135 A. D. The
science of Horoscopy is studied now chiefly under four heads, viz.: (1).
Mundane, in its application to meteorology, seismology, husbandry. (2). State
or Civic, in regard to the future of nations, Kings, and rulers. (3). Horary,
in reference to the solving of doubts arising in the mind upon any subject.
(4). Genethliacal, in connection with the future of individuals from birth unto
death. The Egyptians and the Chaldees were among the most ancient votaries of Astrology,
though their modes of reading the stars and the modern methods differ
considerably. The former claimed that Belus, the Bel or Elu of the Chaldees, a
scion of the Divine Dynasty, or the dynasty of the King-gods, had belonged to
the land of Chemi, and had left it to found a colony from Egypt on the banks of
the Euphrates, where a temple, ministered by priests in the service of the
“lords of the stars,” was built. As to the origin of the science, it is known
on the one hand that Thebes claimed the honour of the invention of Astrology;
whereas, on the other hand, all are agreed that it was the Chaldees who taught
that science to the other nations. Now Thebes antedated considerably, not only
“Ur of the Chaldees,” but also Nipur, where Bel was first worshipped—Sin, his
son (the moon), being the presiding deity of Ur, the land of the nativity of
Terah, the Sabean and Astrolater, and of Abram, his son, the great Astrologer
of Biblical tradition. All tends, therefore, to corroborate the Egyptian claim.
If later on the name of Astrologer fell into disrepute in Rome and elsewhere,
it was owing to the frauds of those who wanted to make money of that which was
part and parcel of the Sacred Science of the Mysteries, and who, ignorant of
the latter, evolved a system based entirely on mathematics, instead of
transcendental metaphysics with the physical celestial bodies as its upadhi or
material basis. Yet, all persecutions notwithstanding, the number of adherents
to Astrology among the most intellectual and scientific minds was always very
great. If Cardan and Kepler were among its ardent supporters, then later
votaries have nothing to blush for, even in its now imperfect and distorted
form. As said in Isis Unveiled (I., 259), “Astrology is to exact astronomy,
what psychology is to exact physiology. In astrology and psychology one has to
step beyond the visible world of matter and enter into the domain of
transcendent spirit.”
Athenagoras. A
Platonic Philosopher of Athens, who wrote an apology for the Christians in 177
A. D., addressed to Marcus Aurelius, to prove that the accusations brought
against them, viz., that they were incestuous and ate murdered children, were
untrue.
Atman, or Atma
(Sans.) The Universal Spirit, the divine monad, “the seventh Principle,” so called,
in the exoteric “septenary” classification of man. The Supreme Soul.
Aura (Gr. and
Lat.) A subtile invisible essence or fluid that emanates from human, animal,
and other bodies. It is a psychic effluvium partaking of both the mind and the
body, as there is both an electro-vital and at the same time an electro-mental
aura; called in Theosophy the Akasic or magnetic aura. In R. C. Martyrology, a Saint.
Avatara (Sans.)
Divine incarnation. The descent of a god or some exalted Being who has
progressed beyond the necessity for rebirth, into the body of a simple mortal.
B.
Beness. A term
coined by Theosophists to render more accurately the essential meaning of the
untranslatable word Sat. The latter word does not mean “Being,” for the term
“Being” presupposes a sentient consciousness of existence. But as the term Sat
is applied solely to the absolute principle, that universal, unknown, and ever
unknowable principle which philosophical Pantheism postulates, calling it the
basic root of Kosmos and Kosmos itself, it could not be translated by the
simple term “Being.” Sat, indeed, is not even, as translated by some
Orientalists, “the incomprehensible Entity”; for it is no more an “Entity” than
a non-entity, but both. It is as said absolute BENESS, not “Being”; the one, secondless,
undivided and indivisible ALL—the root of nature both visible and invisible,
objective and subjective, comprehensible and -- never to be fully comprehended.
Bhagavat-Gita
(Sans.) Lit., “the Lord’s Song,” a portion of the Mahabharata, the great epic
poem of
Boehme (Jacob).
A mystic and great philosopher, one of the most prominent Theosophists of the
mediaeval ages. He was born about 1575 at Old Diedenberg, some two miles from
Gorlitz (Silesia), and died in 1624, being nearly fifty years old. When a boy
he was a common shepherd, and, after learning to read and write in a village
school, became an apprentice to a poor shoemaker at Gorlitz. He was a natural clairvoyant of the most
wonderful power. With no education or acquaintance with science he wrote works
which are now proved to be full of scientific truths; but these, as he himself
says of what he wrote, he “saw as in a Great Deep in the Eternal.” He had “a
thorough view of the universe, as in chaos,” which yet opened itself in him,
from time to time, “as in a young planet,” he says. He was a thorough born
mystic, and evidently of a constitution which is most rare; one of those fine
natures whose material envelope impedes in no way the direct, even if only
occasional, intercommunication between the intellectual and spiritual Ego. It
is this Ego which Jacob Boehme, as so many other untrained mystics, mistook for
God. “Man must acknowledge,” he writes, “that his knowledge is not his own, but
from God, who manifests the Ideas of Wisdom to the Soul of Man in what measure
he pleases.” Had this great Theosophist been born 300 years later he might have
expressed it otherwise. He would have known that the “God” who spoke through
his poor uncultured and untrained brain was his own Divine Ego, the omniscient
Deity within himself, and that what that Deity gave out was not “what measure
he pleased,” but in the measure of the capacities of the mortal and temporary
dwelling IT informed. Book of the Keys.
An ancient Kabalistic work. The original is no longer extant, though there may
be spurious and disfigured copies and forgeries of it. Brahm (Sans.) The student must distinguish
between the neuter Brahma, and the male Creator of the Indian Pantheon, Brahma.
The former Brahma or Brahman is the impersonal, Supreme, and uncognizable Soul
of the Universe, from the essence of which all emanates, and into which all
returns; which is incorporeal, immaterial, unborn, eternal, beginningless and
endless. It is all-pervading, animating the highest god as well as the smallest
mineral atom. Brahma, on the other hand, the male and the alleged Creator,
exists in his manifestation periodically only, and passes into pralaya, i. e.,
disappears and is annihilated as periodically. (Vide infra.)
Brahma’s Day. A
period of 2,160,000,000 years, during which Brahma, having emerged out of his
Golden Egg (Hiranya Garbha), creates and fashions the material world (for he is
simply the fertilizing and creative force in Nature). After this period the worlds being destroyed
in turn by fire and water, he vanishes with objective nature; and then comes
Brahma’s Night. A period of equal duration, in which Brahma is said to be
asleep. Upon awakening he recommences the process, and this goes on for an AGE
of Brahma composed of alternate “Days” and “Nights,” and lasting for 100 years
of 2,160,000,000 each. It requires fifteen figures to express the duration of
such an age, after the expiration of which the Mahapralaya or Great Dissolution
sets in, and lasts in its turn for the same space of fifteen figures. Brahm-Vidya (Sans.) The knowledge or Esoteric
Science about the true nature of the two Brahmas.
Buddha (Sans.)
“The enlightened.” Generally known as the title of Gautama Buddha, the Prince
of Kapilavastu, the founder of modern Buddhism. The highest degree of knowledge
and holiness. To become a Buddha one has to break through the bondage of sense
and personality; to acquire a complete perception of the real Self, and learn
not to separate it from all the other Selves; to learn by experience the utter
unreality of all phenomena, foremost of all the visible Kosmos; to attain a
complete detachment from all that is evanescent and finite, and to live while
yet on earth only in the immortal and everlasting. Buddhi (Sans.) Universal Soul or Mind.
Mahabuddhi is a name of Mahat (q. v.); also the Spiritual Soul in man (the
sixth principle exoterically), the vehicle of Atma, the seventh, according to
the exoteric enumeration. Buddhism is
the religious philosophy taught by Gautama Buddha. It is now split into two
distinct churches: the Southern and Northern. The former is said to be the
purer, as having preserved more religiously the original teachings of the Lord
Buddha. The Northern Buddhism is confined to
Buddhi-Taijasi
(Sans.) A very mystic term, capable of several interpretations. In Occultism, however, and in relation to the
human “Principles” (exoterically), it is a term to express the state of our
dual Manas, when, reunited during a man’s life, it bathes in the radiance of
Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul. For “Taijasi” means the radiant, and Manas,
becoming radiant in consequence of its union with Buddhi, and being, so to
speak, merged into it, is identified with the latter; the trinity has become
one; and, as the element of Buddhi is the highest, it becomes Buddhi-Taijasi.
In short, it is the human soul illuminated by the radiance of the divine soul,
the human reason lit by the light of the Spirit or Divine SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
C.
Caste.
Originally the system of the four hereditary classes into which Indian
population was divided: Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shoodra -- (a)
descendants of Brahma; (b) warrior; (c) mercantile, and (d) the lowest or
agricultural Shoodra class. From these four, hundreds of divisions and minor
castes have sprung.
Causal Body.
This “body,” which is in reality no body at all, either objective or
subjective, but Buddhi the Spiritual Soul, is so-called because it is the
direct cause of the Sushupti state leading to the Turya state, the highest
state of Samadhi. It is called Karanopadhi, “the basis of the cause,” by the
“Taraka Raj” Yogis, and in the Vedanta System corresponds to both the
Vignanamaya and Anandamaya Kosha (the latter coming next to Atma, and therefore
being the vehicle of the Universal Spirit). Buddhi alone could not be called a
“Causal body,” but becomes one in conjunction with Manas, the incarnating
Entity or EGO.
Chela (Sans.) A
disciple. The pupil of a Guru or Sage, the follower of some Adept, or a school
of philosophy.
Chrestos (Gr.)
The early gnostic term for Christ. This technical term was used in the fifth
century B. C. by AEschylus, Herodotus and others. The Manteumata pythocresta,
or the “Oracles delivered by a Pythian God” through a pythoness, are mentioned
by the former (Cho. 901), and Pythocrestos is derived from chrao. Chresterion is not only “the test of an
oracle,” but an offering to, or for, the oracle. Chrestes is one who explains
oracles, a “prophet and soothsayer,” and Chresterios, one who serves an oracle
or a God. The earliest Christian writer, Justin Martyr, in his first Apology,
calls his co-religionists Chrestians. “It is only through ignorance that men
call themselves Christians, instead of Chrestians,” says Lactantius (lib. IV.,
cap. VII.). The terms Christ and Christians, spelt originally Chrest and
Chrestians, were borrowed from the
Christian
Scientist. A newly-coined term for denoting the practitioners of a healing art
by will. The name is a misnomer, since Buddhist or Jew, Hindu or Materialist
can practise this new form of Western Yoga with like success if he can only
guide and control his will with sufficient firmness. “Mental Scientists” is
another rival school. These work by a universal denial of every disease and
evil imaginable, and claim, syllogistically, that since Universal Spirit cannot
be subject to the ailings of flesh, and since every atom is Spirit and in
Spirit, and since, finally, they—the healers and the healed—are all absorbed in
this Spirit or Deity, there is not, nor can there be, such a thing as disease.
This prevents in nowise both Christian and Mental Scientists from succumbing to
disease and nursing chronic diseases for years in their own bodies just like
other ordinary mortals.
Clairaudience.
The faculty—whether innate or acquired by occult training—to hear things at
whatever distance.
Clairvoyance. A
faculty of seeing with the inner eye or spiritual sight. As now used, it is a
loose and flippant term, embracing under its meaning both a happy guess due to
natural shrewdness or intuition, and also that faculty which was so remarkably
exercised by Jacob Boehme and Swedenborg. Yet even these two great seers, since
they could never rise superior to the general spirit of the Jewish Bible and
Sectarian teachings, have sadly confused what they saw, and fallen far short of
true clairvoyance.
Clemens
Alexandrinus. A Church Father and voluminous writer, who had been a
Neo-Platonist and a disciple of Ammonius Saccas. He was one of the few
Christian philosophers between the second and third centuries of our era, at
D.
Deist. One who
admits the possibility of the existence of a God or gods, but claims to know
nothing of either, and denies revelation. An agnostic of olden times.
Deva (Sans.) A
god, a “resplendent” Deity, Deva-Deus, from the root div, “to shine.” A Deva is
a celestial being—whether good, bad or indifferent—which inhabits “the three
worlds,” or the three planes above us. There are 33 groups or millions of them.
Devachan (Sans.)
The “Dwelling of the Gods.” A state intermediate between two earth-lives, and
into which the Ego (Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or the Trinity made one) enters after
its separation from Kama Rupa, and the disintegration of the lower principles,
after the death of the body, on Earth.
Dhammapada (Sans.) A work containing various aphorisms from the Buddhist
Scriptures.
Dhyana (Sans.)
One of the six Paramitas of perfection. A state of abstraction which carries
the ascetic practising it far above the region of sensuous perception, and out
of the world of matter. Lit., “contemplation.” The six stages of Dhyan differ
only in the degrees of abstraction of the personal Ego from sensuous life.
Dhyan Chohans
(Sans.) Lit., “The Lords of Light.” The highest gods, answering to the Roman
Catholic Archangels. The divine Intelligences charged with the supervision of
Kosmos.
Double. The same
as the Astral body or “Doppelganger.”
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