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VOS Glossary

Jul 25, 1996 06:16 PM
by Alan


 From HTML Document : "Voice of the Silence Part One Glossary"
=============================================================

(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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