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'''Buddha''' is a [[Sanskrit]] word that means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." [[H. P. Blavatsky]] defined it as follows:
'''Buddha''' (devanāgarī: बुद्ध) is a [[Sanskrit]] word that means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." [[H. P. Blavatsky]] defined it as follows:


<blockquote>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.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Theosophical Glossary'' (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 64-65.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>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.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Theosophical Glossary'' (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 64-65.</ref></blockquote>

Revision as of 14:58, 3 April 2012

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).


Notes

  1. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 64-65.
  2. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 56.