VOS Glossary
Jul 25, 1996 06:16 PM
by Alan
From HTML Document : "Voice of the Silence Part One Glossary"
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(It is not possible to reproduce the HTM file exactly - A.B.)
GLOSSARY TO PART I.
The Voice of the Silence.
[1]
(1) The Pali word Iddhi is the synonym of the Sanskrit Siddhis, or
psychic faculties, the abnormal powers in man. There are two
kinds of Siddhis. One group which embraces the lower, coarse,
psychic and mental energies; the other is one which exacts the
highest training of Spiritual powers. Says Krishna in Shrimad
Bhagavat [Bhagavad Gita]: "He who is engaged in the performance
of Yoga, who has subdued his senses and who has concentrated his
mind in me (Krishna), such Yogis all the Siddhis stand ready to
serve."
(2) The "Soundless Voice", or the "Voice of the Silence". Literally
perhaps this would read "Voice in the Spiritual Sound" as Nada
is the equivalent word in Sanskrit for the Senzar term.
(3) Dharana is the intense and perfect concentration of the mind
upon some one interior object, accompanied by complete
abstraction from everything pertaining to the external Universe,
or the world of the senses.
[3]
(4) The "great Master" is the term used by Lanoos or Chelas to
indicate the HIGHER SELF. It is the equivalent of
Avalokitesvara, and the same as Adi-Budha with the Buddhist
Occultists, ATMA the "Self" (the Higher Self) with the Brahmans,
and CHRISTOS with the ancient Gnostics.
(5) Soul is used here for the Human Ego or Manas, that which is
referred to in our Occult septenary division as the "Human Soul"
in contradistinction to the Spiritual and Animal Souls.
[4]
(6) Maha-Maya, "Great Illusion", the objective Universe.
(7) Sakkayaditthi, "delusion" of personality.
(8) Attavada, the heresy of the belief in Soul, or rather in the
separateness of Soul or Self from the One Universal, Infinite
SELF.
[5]
(9) The Tattvajnyani is the "knower" or discriminator of the
principles in nature and in man; and Atmajnyani is the knower of
ATMA, or the Universal ONESELF.
(10) Kala Hansa, the "Bird" or Swan. Says the Nadavindupanishad
(Rig Veda) translated by the Kumbakonam Theosophical Society -
"The syllable A is considered to be its (the bird Hansa's) right
wing, U, its left, M, its tail, and the Ardha-matra (half metre)
is said to be its head".
(11) Eternity with the Orientals has quite another signification
than it has with us. It stands generally for the 100 years or
"age" of Brahma, the duration of a Maha-Kalpa or a period of
311,040,000,000,000 years.
(12) Says the same Nadavindu, "A Yogi who bestrides the Hansa (thus
contemplates on AUM) is not affected by Karmic influences or
crores of sins."
(13) Give up the life of physical personality if you would live in
spirit.
[6]
(14) The three states of consciousness, which are Jagrat, the
waking; Svapna, the dreaming; and Sushupti, the deep sleeping
state. These three Yogi conditions lead to the fourth, or -
(15) The Turiya , that beyond the dreamless state, the one above
all, a state of high spiritual consciousness.
(16) Some Oriental Mystics locate seven planes of being, the seven
spiritual lokas or worlds within the body of Kala Hansa, the
Swan out of Time and Space, convertible into the Swan in Time,
when it becomes Brahma instead of Brahman.
(17) The phenomenal world of senses and of terrestrial
consciousness - only.
(18) The astral region, the psychic world of supersensuous
perceptions and of deceptive sights - the world of mediums. It
is the great "Astral Serpent" of Eliphas Levi. No blossom
plucked in those regions has ever yet been brought down on earth
without its serpent coiled around the stem. It is the world of
the GreatIllusion.
[7]
(19) The region of the full Spiritual Consciousness, beyond which
there is no longer danger for him who has reached it.
(20) The Initiate, who leads the disciple, through the Knowledge
given to him, to his spiritual or second birth, is called the
Father, Guru or Master.
[8]
(21) Ajnyana is ignorance or non-wisdom, the opposite of Knowledge,
Jnyana.
(22) Mara is in exoteric religions a demon, an Asura, but in
Esoteric Philosophy it is personified temptation through men's
vices, and translated literally means "that which kills" the
Soul. It is represented as a King (of the Maras) with a crown in
which shines a jewel of such lustre that it blinds those who
look at it, this lustre referring, of course, to the fascination
exercised by vice upon certain natures.
[9]
(23) The inner chamber of the Heart, called in Sanskrit
Brahma-pura. The "fiery power" is Kundalini.
(24) The "Power" and the "World-Mother" are names given to
Kundalini - one of the mystic "Yogi powers". It is Buddhi
considered as an active instead of a passive principle (which it
is generally, when regarded only as the vehicle or casket of the
Supreme Spirit ATMA). It is an electro-spiritual force, a
creative power which when aroused into action can as easily kill
as it can create.
[10]
(25) Keshara or "sky-walker" or "goer." As explained in the sixth
Adhyaya of that king of mystic works the Dnyaneshvari - the body
of the Yogi becomes as one formed of the wind; as "a cloud from
which limbs have sprouted out", after which "he (the Yogi)
beholds the things beyond the seas and stars; he hears the
language of the Devas and comprehends it, and perceives what is
passing in the mind of the ant."
[11]
(26) Vina is an Indian stringed instrument like a lute.
(27) The six principles; meaning when the lower personality is
destroyed and the inner individuality is merged into and lost in
the Seventh or Spirit.
(28) The disciple is one with Brahma or ATMA.
(29) The astral form produced by the Kamic principle, the
Kama-rupa, or body of desire.
(30) Manasa-rupa. The first refers to the astral or personal Self;
the second to the individuality, or the reincarnating Ego, whose
consciousness on our plane, or the lower Manas, has to be
paralyzed.
[12]
(31) Kundalini is called the "Serpentine" or annular power on
account of its spiral-like working or progress in the body of
the ascetic developing the power in himself. It is an electric
fiery occult or Fohatic power, the great pristine force, which
underlies all organic and inorganic matter.
(32) This "Path" is mentioned in all the Mystic Works. As Krishna
says in the Dnyaneshvari: "When this Path is beheld... whether
one sets out to the bloom of the east or to the chambers of the
west, without moving, O holder of the bow, is the travelling in
this road. In this path, to whatever place one would go, that
place one's own self becomes". "Thou art the Path", is said to
the Adept Guru, and by the latter to the disciple, after
initiation. "I am the way and the Path", says another MASTER.
[14]
(33) Adeptship -- the "blossom of Bodhisattva".
(34) Tanha-- "the will to live", the fear of death and love for
life, that force or energy which causes rebirth.
[18]
(35) The mystic sounds, or the melody, heard by the ascetic at the
beginning of his cycle of meditation, called Anahad-shabd by the
Yogis.
[19]
(36) This means that in the sixth stage of development which, in
the Occult system, is Dharana, every sense as an individual
faculty has to be "killed" or paralyzed on this plane, passing
into and merging with the Seventh sense, the most spiritual.
(37) See page 1, footnote No. 3.
(38) Every stage of development in Raja-Yoga is symbolised by a
geometrical figure. This one is the sacred Triangle and precedes
Dharana. The is the sign of the high Chelas, while another kind
of triangle is that of high Initiates. It is the symbol "I"
discoursed upon by Buddha and used by him as a symbol of the
embodied form of Tathagata when released from the three methods
of the Prajna. Once the preliminary and lower stages passed, the
disciple sees no more the but the -- the abbreviation of the --,
the full Septenary. Its true form is not given here, as it is
almost sure to be pounced upon by some charlatans and--
desecrated in its use for fraudulent purposes.
[20]
(39) The star that burns overhead is "the star of initiation". The
caste-mark of Shaivas, or devotees of the sect of Shiva, the
great patron of all Yogis, is a black round spot, the symbol of
the Sun now, perhaps, but that of the star of initiation, in
Occultism, in days of old.
(40) The basis, upadhi, of the ever unreachable FLAME, so long as
the ascetic is still in this life.
(41) Dhyana is the last stage before the final on this Earth,
unless one becomes a full MAHATMA. As said already, in this
state the Raj Yogi is yet spiritually conscious of Self, and the
working of his higher principles. One step more, and he will be
on the plane beyond the Seventh, the fourth according to some
Schools.These, after the practice of Pratyehara-- a preliminary
training, in order to control one's mind and thoughts--count
Dhasena, Dhyana and Samadhiand embrace the three under the
generic name of SANNYAMA.
(42) Samadhi is the state in which the ascetic loses the
consciousness of every individuality, including his own. He
becomes-- the ALL.
[21]
(43) The "four modes of truth" are, in Northern Buddhism: Ku,
"suffering or misery"; Tu, the assembling of temptations; Mu,
"their destructions"; and Tau, the "path". The "five
impediments" are the knowledge of misery, truth about human
frailty, oppressive restraints, and the absolute necessity of
separation from all the ties of passion, and even of desires.
The "Path of Salvation" is the last one.
(44) At the portal of the "asssembling", the King of the Maras, the
Maha-Mara, stands trying to blind the candidate by the radiance
of his "Jewel".
[22]
(45) This is the fourth "Path" out of the five paths of rebirth
which lead and toss all human beings into perpetual states of
sorrow and joy. These "Paths" are but sub-divisions of the One,
the Path followed by Karma.
---------
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