Glossary-B

Free E-mail Search this Site Search the Web

Bardo (Tib):  The intermediate state between clinical death and rebirth.

Becoming:  Stands against "being;" constant change.

Be-ness: The one, secondless, undivided and indivisible ALL; the root of nature both visible and invisible, objective and subjective, comprehensible and never to be fully comprehended.

Bhagavat-Gita (Sans): "the Lord's song," a portion of the " Mahabharata," the great epic poem of India; Krishna and his chela, Arjuna, discuss the highest spiritual philosophy

Bhakti: devotion

Birth and Death:  See samsâra.

Black Magic: Sorcery; necromancy, or the raising of the dead and other selfish abuses of abnormal powers.

Bodhisattva (Sans):  Literally, "wisdom being;" a spiritually awakened individual who, having attained enlightenment, dedicates himself or herself to helping others do the same.

Brahm (Sans): The student must distinguish between the neuter Brahma and the male Creator of the Indian Pantheon, Brahma.  The former Brahma or Brahman is the impersonal, Supreme and uncognizable Soul of the Universe, from the essence of which all emanates, and into which all returns; which is incorporated, immaterial, unborn, external, beginningless and endless.  It is all-pervading, animating the highest god as well as the smallest mineral atom.  Brahma, on the other hand, the male and the alleged Creator, exists in his manifestation periodically only, and passes into Pralaya, i.e., disappears and is annihilated as periodically.

Brahma's Day: A period of 2,160,000,000 years, during which Brahma, having emerged out of his Golden Egg
(Hiranya Garbha), creates and fashions the material world (for he is simply the fertilizing and creative force in nature).  After this period the worlds, being destroyed in turn by fire and water, he vanishes with objective nature.

Brahma's Night: A period of 2,160,000,000 years, in which Brahma is said to be asleep.  An age of Brahma is composed of "days" and "nights" lasting 100 times 2,160,000,000 years each, after which Mahapralaya or Great Dissolution sets in which lasts an equal amount of time.

Buddha (Sans): Ultimate Truth or absolute Mind;  one awakened or enlightened to the true nature of existence; "The Enlightened."  Generally known as the title of Gautama Buddha, the Prince of Kapilavastu, the founder of modern Buddhism; the highest degree of knowledge and holiness.

Buddhi (Sans): Universal Soul or Mind; the Spiritual Soul in man, the vehicle of Atma

Buddhism: the way of the Buddha with two branches:  (1)  the Theravada,  (2) the Mahayana.

Buddhi-Taisaji (Sans): The human soul illuminated by the radiance of the divine soul, the human reason lit by the light of the Spirit or Divine Self-Consciousness.