Buddha
Buddha (devanāgarī: बुद्ध) is a Sanskrit word that means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." H. P. Blavatsky defined it as follows:
Buddha (Sk.). Lit., “The Enlightened”. The highest degree of knowledge. To become a Buddha one has to break through the bondage of sense and personality; to acquire a complete perception of the REAL SELF and learn not to separate it from all otherselves; to learn by experience the utter unreality of all phenomena of the visible Kosmos foremost of all; to reach a complete detachment from all that is evanescent and finite, and live while yet on Earth in the immortal and the everlasting alone, in a supreme state of holiness.[1]
In the Theosophical view a Buddha appears regularly with each Root-Race:
Esoteric philosophy teaches us that every Root-race has its chief Buddha or Reformer, who appears also in the seven sub-races as a Bodhisattva (q.v.). Gautama Sakyamuni was the fourth, and also the fifth Buddha: the fifth, because we are the fifth root-race; the fourth, as the chief Buddha in this fourth Round.[2]
The current Buddha, Siddhârta Gautama, is said to be the fourth Buddha to appear on Earth in this Round, corresponding to the fifth Root-Race (the beginning of first Root-Race having a Planetary Spirit incarnated instead of a Buddha).
Manushi-Buddhas
Known as Terrestrial Buddhas, they are Human Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, or incarnated Dhyan Chohans.[3]
Dhyani-Buddhas
Known as "Celestial Buddhas", they are "the eternal prototypes of the Buddhas who appear on this earth,"<> the Manushi-Buddhas
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 64-65.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 56.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 206.