Esoteric
Glossary
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D – E
Death Death is an act of the intuition transmitted by the soul to
the personality and then acted upon in conformity to the divine will by the
individual wll' the will-to-harmonization; is
undertaken at the direction of the Ego, no matter how unaware a human being may
be of that direction; it is the call of the soul too strong to resist; a work
or act of restitution; a process of at-one-ment (see
Principle of Liberation)
Desire The
force of the form nature; the reflection or distortion of love; attachment in
some degree or another; a generic term covering the outgoing tendency of the
spirit towards form life.
Detachment
The freeing of the soul from the thralldom of the form life, and the
subordination of the personality to the higher impulses.
Deva (Angel) An angel; a god; a celestila
being, whether good, bad, or indifferent. Devas are
divided into many groups and are called not only angels and arcangels,
but lesser and greater builders; the builders of the system; Devas are on the evolutionary path, on the upward way,; the
building devas are the Universal Mind. They not only
embody the Divine Thought but are that through which it manifests, and its
actuating activity. They are essentially motion. The lesser builders are more
particularly the material form which is actuated, and in their cohorts are the
substance of matter, considering substance as that which lies back of matter.
In sanskrit, a resplendent deity. Responsible for
building all forms, from nature to the solar system, which consciousness uses
as a vehicle - from a flower, to a human being, to a planet.
Devachan A
state of consciousness, reflecting, in the life of the personality, that higher
state which we call nirvanic consciousness, and which
is brought about by egoic action; consisting of
mental matter, might be regarded as a centre, or heart of peace, within the
periphery of the sphere of influence of the mental unit within the causal body.
Dharma That
which one must fulfill as an incarnate Being. One's duty as an understanding of
the Law. Divine law, ethical doctrine - justice, harmony, virtue.
Dhyani
Buddhas The 5 Buddhas - Vairocana, Aksobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha and Amoghasiddhi. Same
as Kumaras. See "Kumara".
Disciple One
who is pledged to serve humanity, who is beginnng to
comprehend group work; who realizes the Life or force side of nature; who is
transferring his consciousness out of the personal into the impersonal; who
realizes his responsibility to all units who come under his influence and to
the Whole. (see Reality)
Disciple
(Function of) The function of a disciple is to focus a stream of energy of some
special kind upon the physical plane where it can become an attractive center
of force and draw to itself similar types of ideas and thought currents which
are not strong enough to live by themselves or to make a sufficiently strong
impact upon the human consciousness.
Disciples
Initiated disciples have no interest in anything but the vision, the Plan and
its direction and materializing on earth. Accepted disciples are learning this
and in the meantime have to react to the vision in what might be called a
second hand manner; they are occupied with the Plan and with the distribution
of the forces which will materialize it. A disciple becomes an Accepted
Disciple when he starts climbing towards the vision, towards the mountaintop;
he can also register consciously what he has seen and then begin to do
something towards materializing it. Newly accepted disciples (who are only
learning to cooperate) are valuable as "agents for experiment."
According to their reaction to the imparted truths and Plan, according to their
ability to sense the need and to bring the need and the medium of release into
relation and according to their capacity to work with the world disciples (who
are definitely responsible to the master of the Ashram for some aspect of the
Plan) will be the success of the effort in the outer world.
Discrimination
The process of differentiating between the form and the Life, between the soul
and the body, between the sumtotal of the lower
manifestation (physical, astral and mental) and the real self, the cause of the
lower manifestation; that faculty whereby the self recognizes its own essence
in and under all forms; one of the highest faculties in man.
Dispassion
The attainment of that state of consciousness where balance is seen, and
neither pleasure or pain dominates.
Dual life A
life of outer activity and of inner sensitivity.
Dweller on
the Threshold The "shadow" or unredeemed aspect of the personality
that is built up over lifetimes - it can assume the shape of a grotesque thoughtform; the sumtotal of
forces of the lower nature as expressed in the personality prior to
illumination, to inspiration and to initiation; all that the individual is, apart
from the higher spiritual self. Humanity today is the Dweller while the
Hierarchy of Souls is the Angel and behind the Angel stands the Presence of
Divinity Itself, intuited by the Hierarchy and dimly sensed by humanity but
providing in this manner the threefold synthesis which is divine manifestation
in form. The Soul goes into battle with the Dweller at a critical stage of its
evolution, and eventually emerges triumphant. This process may take several
lives.
Ego The soul
as an individualised unit of consciousness within the
greater ocean of consciousness.
Egoic Groups The "causal" bodies of
individual men and women, as they exist on the mental plane, as an expression
of the Ego. They congregate in groups according to ray colouring.
Egoic Lotus The 3 tiers of petals (knowledge, love and
sacrifice) that are opened over the immense period of time that is the Soul's
journey. Eventually the three petals of the central bud (the jewel in the
lotus) are opened when the individual achieves "Liberation".
Elementals
The spirits of the elements of earth, water, fire and air. They are the lesser
"devas" or "builders". They can
inhabit the residual etheric/astral bodies of humans that are still breaking
down after death, much like a hermit crab inhabits a shell.
Esoteric That
which is hidden or veiled. It is subjective wisdom that can only be perceived
with the developed subtle senses.
Energies
Subjective energies are forces pouring from the soul (on soul levels) into the form
nature upon its own level of awareness.
Energy A
potency of life fluid circulating through the entire body of the Logos and
vivifying even the tiniest atom in that whole. The Tibetan uses the word
"energy" in reference to the spiritual expression, and the word
"force" to indicated the uses which are made of spiritual energy.
(see Forces)
Etheric body
The subtle part of the physical body. The physical plane is divided into 7 subplanes (as are all planes). The lower 3 subplanes represent the physical body, and the higher 4 subplanes represent the etheric body.
Evocation A
response to invocative appeal. (see Invocation)
Evolution -
The unfolding of a continually increasing power to respond, the rpocess which unfolds the life within all units, the developing
urge which eventually merges all units and all groups until you have the
manifestation of what can be called nature, or God, and which is the aggregate
of all states of consciousness; ordered change and constant mutation, and
ever-increasing power to respond to vibration, a steadily increasing
sensitivity to light and illumination.
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