Theosophy Wales:- Esoteric Glossary D- E

THEOSOPHY

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Esoteric

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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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