Buddhi
Buddhi (devanāgarī: बुद्धि) from the root budh (to be awake; to understand; to know) is a feminine Sanskrit noun derived from the same root as the masculine form buddha. In Hinduism it refers to the intellect, the faculty of discrimination. It is the aspect of the mind that knows, discriminates, judges, and decides. It is frequently regarded as the higher mind, which can determine the wiser of two courses of action if it functions clearly and if manas will accept its guidance. In Hinduism buddhi is one of the four parts that form the antaḥkaraṇa (the "inner organ") the other three being manas (the mind), citta (the memory) and ahamkāra (the ego).
In Theosophy buddhi is not the mind (manas) although it can work in close relationship with it, furnishing manas with spiritual illumination. In the septenary constitution of human beings buddhi is the sixth principle. It is regarded to be the vehicle of ātman, and in this function it is frequently called spiritual soul. Per se, this Principle is said to be irrational, "in the sense that as a pure emanation of the Universal mind it can have no individual reason of its own on this plane of matter, but like the Moon, who borrows her light from the Sun and her life from the Earth, so Buddhi, receiving its light of Wisdom from Atma, gets its rational qualities from Manas. Per se, as something homogeneous, it is devoid of attributes".[1] When united to manas buddhi is usually called spiritual ego. H. P. Blavatsky wrote:
The sixth principle in man—Buddhi. The latter per se is a passive and latent principle, the spiritual vehicle of Atman, inseparable from the manifested Universal Soul. It is only in union and in conjunction with Self-consciousness that Buddhi becomes the Higher Self and the divine, discriminating Soul.[2]
In one of his letters, Master K.H. stated that the "remorse of conscience" proceeds "always from the 6th principle".[3] However, we must keep in mind that in the letters the sixth principle frequently refers to buddhi-manas.
In some of Mme. Blavatsky's writings there are some references to this principle forming a body:
In the normal or natural state, the sensations are transmitted from the lowest physical to the highest spiritual body, i.e., from the first to the 6th principle (the 7th being no organized or conditioned body, but an infinite, hence unconditioned principle or state).[4]
Online resources
Articles
- Buddhi at Theosopedia
- The Intuition: Knowledge by Fusion by Shirley Nicholson
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy (London: Theosophical Publishing House, [1987]), ???.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), fn. 231.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 85B (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 264.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. IV (Wheaton, Ill: Theosophical Publishing House, 1991), 101.