Existence (from Latin exsisto standing forth, emerging)

Although often used interchangeably with being, in theosophy being refers to abstract continuity in spirit, while existence means the phenomenal manifestation of an entity in the phenomenal worlds. Therefore being is the noumenon and existence is the phenomenon. Hence one can speak of the causes of existence (nidanas), or of all existences being dissolved. The Absolute, a cosmic hierarch, is defined with equal appropriateness as absolute existence and as non-existence.

Non-existence is described as absolute being, existence, and consciousness (SD 1:39). Fichte makes a proper distinction between being (Seyn) and existence (Daseyn), the former being the noumenal One, and the latter the phenomenal manifold through which the One is known.

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

A personal reflection on God by Yana Gupta. ”I don't believe in God. Why do I need to believe in something I feel so strong about? When you feel angry, you don't say: "I believe I'm angry.'' When you are in love, you don't say: "I believe I'm in love.'' You know you are in love, because the feeling is so strong, that you can hardly think of anything else than the person you love. ”

Read more here: » Spiritual Inspiration: God and I by Yana Gupta

Tantra: Literally a loom or warp. Tantra refers to a group of religious writings written over a period of 300 years, starting in the eighth century. The texts deal mainly with folk magic and rituals. The Tantras are in the form of a dialogue between Shiva and Shatki, and are best known for their blending of sensuality and religious practice.

(See also: Tantra ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

A dictionary Of Commonly Used Sanskrit terms. From Lac to Omkarasana.

Please note that all words in grey, like "yoga", "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

Baba: A term of affection and respect for a saint or holy man.

(See also: Baba ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Bhuja: Arm or shoulder.

(See also: Bhuja ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Brahmacharya: Literally means practicing conduct that leads one to God. Mostly it is used to describe self-restraint, especially over sexual desire, the first stage in the fourfold Hindu life cycle.

(See also: Brahmacharya ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Atmiyata: The feeling of oneness.

(See also: Atmiyata ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Bhagwan: One endowed with spiritual power, righteousness, knowledge, and renunciation. A term and title of great honor.

(See also: Bhagwan ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Ayurveda: A division of the Vedic literature that deals with health, literally "knowledge of the totality of life". Originated in India approximately 3,000 years ago.  It is still a favored form of health care in India. Ayurvedic medicine is both preventive and curative. The preventive part emphasizes the need for a strict code of personal and social hygiene. The curative aspect of Ayurvedic medicine involves the use of herbal medicines, Yoga, and diet.

(See also: Ayurveda ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Sarasvati, Saraswati (Sanskrit) The ethereal, the elegant one; the divine consort or wife of Brahma, his feminine alter ego, a later form or aspect of Vach (voice or the Word), a title of the Third Logos in Greece as well as in India.

This parallels the Bath Qol (daughter of the voice, daughter of the Word) of mystical Hebrew thought, which can be taken either as the feminine aspect of the Logos itself, or as its daughter -- the inspiration flowing forth from, or the feminine or vehicular side of, the Logos. The goddess of hidden learning and esoteric wisdom, Sarasvati is usually shown riding on a peacock with its tail spread. She is similar to the Gnostic Sophia, to the Sephirah of the Hebrew Qabbalah, and to the Holy Ghost of the Christians.

Sarasvati is also a sacred river spoken of in the Vedas, and as a river goddess she was often invoked to bestow vitality, renown, and riches; elsewhere she is described as moving along a golden path and as destroying the monster-demon Vritra.

(See also: Sarasvati, Saraswati , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Saint

Dreaming about saints usually has spiritual implications. You may have traveled to another plain and are having a wonderful, very meaningful spiritual experience. For those that can not accept this possibility, your unconscious may be relaying some feelings of pressure or possibly the need to sacrifice on some level in your daily life.

See also: Meaning of Dreams about Priest, God.

Source: Dream Lover Incorporated, http://www.dreamloverinc.com

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Saint , Meaning of Dreams about Saint , Dream Interpretation Saint )

Asthi: One of the seven bodily constituents, mainly bone and bone metabolism.

(See also: Asthi ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Prana (Sanskrit) [from pra before + the verbal root an to breathe, live]

In theosophy, the breath of life; the third principle in the ascending scale of the sevenfold human constitution. This life or prana works on, in, and around us, pulsating unceasingly during the term of physical existence. Prana is "the radiating force or Energy of Atma -- as the Universal Life and the One Self, -- Its lower or rather (in its effects) more physical, because manifesting, aspect. Prana or Life permeates the whole being of the objective Universe; and is called a 'principle' only because it is an indispensable factor and the deus ex machina of the living man" (Key 176).

In working upon the physical body, prana automatically uses the linga-sarira (model-body) as its vehicle of expression during earth-life. Prana may be said to be the psychoelectric veil or field manifesting in the individual as vitality. The life-atoms of prana fly instantly back, at the moment of physical dissolution, to the natural pranic reservoirs of the planet.

Further, occultism teaches that "(a) the life-atoms of our (Prana) life-principle are never entirely lost when a man dies. That the atoms best impregnated with the life-principle (an independent, eternal, conscious factor) are partially transmitted from father to son by heredity, and partially are drawn once more together and become the animating principle of the new body in every new incarnation of the Monads. Because (b), as the individual Soul is even the same, so are the atoms of the lower principles (body, its astral, or life double, etc.), drawn as they are by affinity and Karmic law always to the same individuality in a series of various bodies, etc. . . ." (SD 2:671-2).

In Sanskrit it refers to the life currents or vital fluids, variously numbered as three, five, seven, twelve, and thirteen. The five life-winds mentioned are samana, vyana, prana, apana, and udana. In this classification prana represents the expirational breath.

Jiva is sometimes used similarly to prana, but strictly prana means outbreathing and jiva means life per se. There is a universal or cosmic jiva or life principle, just as there are innumerable hosts of individualized jivas, which are the atoms of the former, drops in the ocean of cosmic life. These individualized jivas are relatively eternal, and correspond exactly to the term monad. Jiva, without qualification, is of general application; when considered as individualized, these jivas are used in the sense of individual monads; contrariwise, prana is applied to the life-fluid or jivic aura when manifesting in the lower triad of the human constitution as prana-lingasarira-sthulasarira. Hence Blavatsky said that jiva becomes prana when the child is born and begins to breathe.

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

Sanskrit: The classical literary language of India. All the words relating to Yoga come from Sanskrit, the ancient Indo European language of Hinduism, the Vedas and other sacred texts.

(See also: Sanskrit ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Thought In The Secret Doctrine, used in senses quite different from the ordinary: abstract absolute thought, of which mind is a concrete manifestation, or of which voice or the Logos is a manifestation. Pymander is quoted as saying that passive or unconscious mind generates active idea -- and active idea here is the same as the activity of the Logos. Thought, impressed on the astral light, exists in eternity, whether active or passive.

Kriyasakti, one of the innate human powers, is the power which thought has of expressing itself analogically in action. Thoughts are imbodied elemental energies. The human brain does not create them, it only transmits them, because the human brain is but the vehicle transmitting intellectual, mental, and emotional energy from the monadic center within, and this monadic center itself originates thought.

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

Cabiri, Cabeiri. See KABIRI

(See also: Cabiri, Cabeiri , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

superconscious

(psychosynthesis) Higher unconscious", realm of altruistic love, joy, intuition, inspiration, contemplative and spiritual energies

(See also: Superconscious , Body Mind and Soul)

Sanskrit (Sanskrit). The classical language of the Brahmans, never known nor spoken in its true systematized form (given later approximately by Panini), except by the initiated Brahmans, as it was

pre-eminently "a mystery language". It has now degenerated into the so-called Prakrita.

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

Manifestation.

See MANVANTARA

(See also: Manifestation , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Vajradhara (Sanskrit) Diamond-holder; the First Logos, supreme buddha, or adi-buddha, equivalent to the Tibetan dorjechang. "As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot manifest, but sends into the world of manifestation his heart -- the 'diamond heart,' Vajrasattva (Dorjesempa)" (SD 1:571). Vajra here expresses the indestructibility and spiritually adamantine quality of this "One unknown, without beginning or end" -- unknown to the average worldly person, but recognized by full initiates as the source of their divine inspiration and intuitions.

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

A Theosophical definition of Brahma :

Brahma

(Sanskrit) A word of which the root, brih, means "expansion." It stands for the spiritual energy-consciousness side of our solar universe, i.e., our solar system, and the Egg of Brahma is that solar system.

A Day of Brahma or a maha-manvantara is composed of seven rounds, a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years; this period is also called a kalpa. A Night of Brahma, the planetary rest period, which is also called the parinirvanic period, is of equal length.

Seven Days of Brahma make one solar kalpa; or, in other words, seven planetary cycles, each cycle consisting of seven rounds (or seven planetary manvantaras), form one solar manvantara.

One Year of Brahma consists of 360 Divine Days, each day being the duration of a planet's life, i.e., of a planetary chain of seven globes. The Life of Brahma (or the life of the universal system) consists of one hundred Divine Years, i.e., 4,320,000,000 years times 36,000 x 2.

The Life of Brahma is half ended: that is, fifty of his years are gone  - a period of 155,520,000,000,000 of our years have passed away since our solar system, with its sun, first began its manvantaric course. There remain, therefore, fifty more such Years of Brahma before the system sinks into rest or pralaya. As only half of the evolutionary journey is accomplished, we are, therefore, at the bottom of the kosmic cycle, i.e., on the lowest plane.

See also: Brahma , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul