Dark Night of the Soul – A phrase used by St. John of the Cross to describe a period of spiritual difficulty which can include a sense of despair, diminished hope and faith, loss of connection to Spirit, feelings of spiritual failure, loss of meaning, acute sense of imperfections, and similar challenges. St. John identified two forms of the dark night – the dark night of the senses and of the spirit. Of these he says “The one night or purgation will be sensory, by which the senses are purged and accommodated to the spirit, and the other night or purgation will be spiritual, by which the spirit (inner being) is purged and denuded as well as accommodated and prepared for union with God through love.” The ‘dark night’ is essentially a death preceding a rebirth, and so in some traditions such as Zen has been referred to by such terms as the ‘Great Death’. In the view of the Trans-Himalayan tradition (and various other traditions) these major death and rebirth cycles are several and are related to a being’s passage through the initiations of the soul – the death of identification with the physical body, the emotional self, the mind, the personality as a whole, then the release of the essential monadic being from the intuitive self or soul. Each of these involves a corresponding ‘dark night’, culminating in the initiatory experience itself, which progressively liberates and empowers the essential being. See also St. John of the Cross, Self-realization, Initiation.

Deity – In Trans-Himalayan occultism, a term usually referring to a God or ensouling being of some system of manifestation. The human monad might be described as a deity, for instance, as might a planetary, solar, cosmic, galactic or universal Logos. Such deities typically have specific defining characteristics such as compassion, power or wisdom, according to their primary Ray type. Alternatively, the term can refer to the various facets of God or Divinity in personified terms. Such deities need not have bodies or forms, but do, as described in various traditions, have specific spiritual qualities and powers. Included in the category of ‘Deities’ would be Archangels, Devas, Dhyani-Buddhas and Gods and Goddesses. Examples of various types of Deities include Ishvara, Adi-Buddha, Isis, Kali, Tara, Kuan Yin, Shiva and Vishnu. In some definitions of Deity, not all Deities are enlightened or fully enlightened. Yet in their corresponding traditions, all of the Deities mentioned above are usually considered fully enlightened beings. Some teachings understand Deities as usually being great enlightened Presences who were human at some point in their history, somewhere, and are now a type of higher order master who have progressed in spiritual evolution into having a more universal scope of expression. Some cosmologies view one or more Deities as being ‘Creators’ in the sense of being responsible for the existence of the universe. Non-dual cosmology (such as Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism and third phase Trans-Himalayan occultism) does not see any Deity as an ‘Absolute Creator’, that is, an ultimate source of the universe, but rather recognize various forms of Deities as having relative creativity (such as the various classes of Logoi, or the Archangels of the Elements) or as being more like universal teachers or saviors. See also Deity Yoga, Adi-Buddha, Logos, God, Archangel, Form, Ajata-vada.

Deity Yoga – A form of devotional spiritual practice involving some form of focus on, or worship of, a Deity, which Deity is normally understood to be the embodiment of some spiritual principle of archetype. Used commonly within such traditions as Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism, Deity Yoga typically makes use of sound (as in prayer and mantra) and visualization (such as with mandalas and yantras) to invoke and commune with a Deity. Advanced forms of Deity Yoga concern the process of ‘transforming’ oneself into the Deity, thereby gaining profound enlightenment and the various qualities of the Deity through identification and, therefore, direct transmission. See also Deity, Tibetan Buddhism, Yantra, Mantra, Yoga.

Deva – From the Sanskrit root div, ‘to shine’, Devas are ‘the shining ones’. In Hinduism, the terms deva (masculine) and devi (feminine) are used to describe both the universal enlightened Deities such as Shiva, Tara, Kali and Vishnu, as well as the Nature deities that are essentially the same as some of the orders of the Archangels of the Judeo-Christian tradition. In the Trans-Himalayan tradition, the term ‘deva’ is most often used in a way synonymous with Nature Archangel. Furthermore, the deva kingdom is said to be a line of planetary evolution that runs occultly parallel to the human evolution, with the devas both composing the physical and subtle forms through which the human monadic spirit manifests, and being possible to division into two classes. The first class are those that are pre self-conscious in their evolutionary unfoldment, and these are the countless elemental beings that compose the physical and subtle forms of the physical, astral-emotional and mental realms. The second class are those angelic beings that are post self-consciousness in their evolutionary unfoldment, with these beings embodying the subtle substance and fields of transmission of the higher planes through which cosmic energies pass and holding, alongside those spirits who have achieved liberation through the human line of evolution, some of the most prominent and enlightened positions on the planetary Hierarchy. See also Archangel, Elements, Nature, Hierarchy, Deity.

Dharma – A Sanskrit word with various meanings, used in numerous traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. One of the ways it is used in Hinduism is in its name. The Hindus did not traditionally called themselves ‘Hindus’, nor their religion ‘Hinduism’, just as the Native Americans did not traditionally call themselves ‘Native Americans’. The Hindu name for their own tradition is the Santana-Dharma, which can be translated as ‘The Ageless Wisdom’ or ‘The Eternal Teachings’. So in both Hinduism and Buddhism, one meaning of the term Dharma (often capitalized) is ‘The Teachings’ or ‘The True Way’. So sometimes when we use the term Dharma, especially when phrased ‘the Dharma’, it means the teachings of the Ageless or Primordial Wisdom Tradition. All authentic spiritual teachings are manifestations of ‘the Dharma’, although some may be more profound or complete than others, while none begin to exhaust vast richness of the Dharma. 
Another meaning of ‘dharma’ (usually not capitalized) is ‘righteousness’ or ‘virtue’. This is related to the first meaning but is limited to its outer significance. Yet another meaning is as someone’s duty or role in life. In this sense, a person’s dharma refers to their nature, their natural place in life, dictated by their karma, their level of evolution and so on. This is related to the notion of having a ‘life purpose’, or a ‘calling’ or ‘mission’. But this ‘dharma’ need not be a special or glamorous role. Everyone’s essential dharma or calling is to pursue the path to Self-realization, which may or may not involve fulfilling a role such as being a teacher, healer, leader, etc.
 See also Divine Will, Dharma Yoga.

Dharma Yoga – A term used in Agni Yoga teachings to refer to the path (or an aspect of a broader approach) which concerns the development of a sense of one’s essential or spiritual purpose or direction, especially regarding the field of action. In this light, dharma yoga may be considered an aspect or form of karma yoga, the path of spiritual action. The word ‘dharma’ is used here with its meaning of one’s role or duty in life, which can be applied to cultivating action in each moment that is in harmony with one’s true nature, and also the sense of having an experience of a general ‘calling’ or life-work, and also to more specific instances of the experience of inspiration arising from a higher or divine will. 
A common element of dharma yoga can therefore involve the experience of the alignment of the individual will with a deeper, more profound source of direction, meaning or purpose – the Divine Will, the Tao, the universal Dharma, one’s divine self, or other sources of transcended guidance, inspiration and empowerment. Dharma yoga is particularly a path concerned with exploring the relationship between one’s individual will and some source of more universal direction or purpose. There are a variety of approaches to dharma yoga, which reflect differences of style, stages of development as well as differing sources of higher will with which one is aligning, cooperating or surrendering. See also Karma Yoga, Dharma, Divine Will.

Divine Power, Will and Purpose – This is understood, in the Trans-Himalayan tradition, as one of the primary qualities of divinity, alongside Divine Love-Wisdom, Divine Creative Intelligence, and Divine Being and Presence, as they expresses on every level of cosmic evolution in the manifest universe. Divine Will and Power are described as primary qualities of the monadic, or 1st aspect of the human being, which could itself be considered as both an embodiment and reservoir of the essential Life energy of the planetary Logos; with Love-Wisdom understood as the primary quality of the soul or consciousness aspect, and creative intelligence (eventually realized as and in divine activity) the primary quality of the personality or form aspect. On a planetary level, the seat of planetary Power, Will and Purpose is known in the Trans-Himalayan teachings as Shamballa – the planetary crown chakra, with Hierarchy, the planetary heart chakra primarily expressing Love-Wisdom and humanity, the planetary throat chakra expressing Creative Intelligent Activity. It is understood that planetary Purpose, which is the silent and still coherence of the essential dynamic Beingness of the planetary Logos of the Earth, is held in reservoir in Shamballa, and that when this energy becomes active it takes the form of divine Will. This process of stepping down planetary Purpose into the Great Plan, is engaged by the liberated Masters and Bodhisattvas of Hierarchy who are able to contact the reality of Shamballa, and it involves their translation of the Great Purpose at the heart of the entire Being of Earth, into however much of that Purpose can be expressed during that particular cycle. This Plan is then stepped down into the various Ray Ashrams of Hierarchy, the planetary heart chakra, where it is engaged into a program of unfoldment through all fields of human and non-human endeavour. Humanity’s evolution and progressive awakening are both the result of this process, and the cause of its continued advancement, as the three planetary chakras, Humanity, Hierarchy and Shamballa, become progressively interrelated. These reservoirs of divine Power and Purpose are found at all levels of the universe, with Uranus playing the same role in the solar system, the Great Bear on a stellar level, and the supermassive black hole at the core of each galaxy on a galactic level.

In other traditions, such as the Indian Tantric tradition, Divine Power and Will are sometimes understood as enlightened Shakti, or the feminine energetic power-expression of the masculine, dynamic, still and silent Source. In Islam and Christianity, Divine Will also plays a central role, though often according to an understanding of more ethnocentric stages of consciousness development.

Contact with divine Power, Purpose and Will occurs through identification with the monadic depth of identity, which is ever identified with the One Life of which it is the expression (planetary, solar, galactic or universal). The result of that identification is both the transference of identity into that single Reality of Being, but also an empowerment to move with power as the One in the service of planetary awakening. This is how the members of Hierarchy are understood to work, as are those beings composing Shamballa, though on much more mysterious and cosmically inclined levels. See also Shamballa, Monad, Hierarchy, Black Hole, Uranus, God, Purpose, Plan, Shakti.

Djwhal Khul, Master – The Tibetan master whose teachings, through and with Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Bruce Lyon, have constituted the most comprehensive body of transmissions in the Trans-Himalayan tradition. While Blavatsky is understood to have met him in person a number of times, his transmissions to Alice Bailey and Bruce Lyon occurred on subtle levels. Djwhal Khul has described himself as a Tibetan master who resides as the abbot of a Vajrayana lamasery in Northern India, and by Theosophical writers, it is understood that he incarnated previously as the Buddhist sage, Aryasangha. Owing to the body of his teaching having such an extensive basis in the various energies and beings of the cosmos, and because of the similarity in content, a number of Trans-Himalayan scholars have suggested that Djwhal Khul may be a master of the Kalachakra Tantra teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. During his work with Alice Bailey, he is understood to have been a 5th degree initiate, yet he notes in his recent work with Bruce Lyon that he has now passed through the 6th initiation. He is understood to be the most advanced student of the Master Koot Humi, and is now understood to have assumed the position of head of the Second Ray Ashram, and with the masters Morya and Rakozci, he holds a transmission point for the Ashram of Synthesis. See also Alice Bailey, Bruce Lyon, Helena Blavatsky, Trans-Himalayan tradition, Ashram of Synthesis, Trans-Himalayan School, Master, Guru.

Duhkha – Sanskrit word (Pali: dukkha) meaning ‘suffering’ or ‘discontentedness’. A term used in both Hindu and Buddhist teachings to describe an unavoidable characteristic of the experience of being a separate self, and the desires and attachments that arise from that misunderstanding. Duhkha names the fact that suffering is the constant companion of ordinary life, the fact that no matter how much temporary happiness we achieve, it is always tainted by limitation, and will always pass. Profound insight into the truth of duhkha is that deep and profound realization that separative existence is inherently limited, painful, discouraging and disappointing. Insight into the truth of duhkha is the sobering realization that the ego-centric mode of existence that keeps us bound to samsara, and in fact is the very basis of the existence of samsara, is not working and is not what we really want. It is a waking up to realizing we are addicted to a narcotic, one that seems to give us what we want, or at least the hope of achieving it, but that this is an illusion because it can never deliver what it promises. Even when we get what we think we want, we will eventually loose it. And the very mode of seeking happiness through attaining something we perceive as separate from us always carries with it suffering, because unless we transcend the experience of separation permanently, we will continue to suffer, because suffering is intrinsic to the experience of separation. 
Duhkha is the insight into the fact that our addiction to ego and desire is unsatisfactory. The complimentary insight to duhkha is the realization that there is another mode of being beyond samsara, beyond ego, which is in fact our true nature. In order to fully enter this mode of being (nirvana, the Tao, Christ Consciousness) we must become fully disillusioned with samsaric existence. These two insights grow together as we gradually awaken – disillusionment with the old, and emergence into the new. See also Impermanence, Nirvana, Ego, Samsara, Separation, Suffering.

Dhyana – Sanskrit term for deep meditation, which is past the stage of basic concentration, but short of the stage of samadhi. See also Samadhi, Attunement, Meditation.

Dzogchen – A spiritual transmission held within the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism after having been received by Garab Dorje (said to have been transmitted to him from the Adi-Buddha via Vajrasattva), and the Oral Transmission class of teachings in Tibetan Bon via its founding buddha, Tonpa Shenrab. Dzogchen migrated to Tibet from Central Asia where it merged with, and continues to be transmitted by, aspects of both the Bon and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Dzogchen, which means ‘Great Perfection’, is essentially a non-dual transmission emphasizing the awakening of the individual, after appropriate preparation, to rigpa or non-dual Presence by direct transmission from master to student. The heart of Dzogchen takes the form of two primary practices (trekcho and togal) used to ‘cut through’ into direct, non-dual awareness, and then to integrate this awareness into daily life. The practices of Dzogchen tend to emphasise the integration of non-dual realization and vision. Dzogchen is transmitted through both the Nyingmapa Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, and in a virtually identical form through Tibetan Bon, and in both it is coupled with traditional and tantric practices used to prepare one for the advanced non-dual practices that are the essence of Dzogchen. Dzogchen is also characterized by an emphasis on ‘the Great Transfer’ as the culmination and expression of the highest realization or ‘attainment’. The Great Transfer, also known as the ‘Body of Light’, is the experience of culminating one’s incarnation by so fully realizing non-dual presence or enlightenment within one’s physical body that the body and its elements are resolved into their light essence, prior to death, causing the body to disappear from the physical world (leaving only the hair and nails behind). A realization nearly as advanced as the Great Transfer is called the ‘Rainbow Body’, wherein the body is gradually dissolved into light over the course of several days just after death. Garab Dorje, Padmasambhava and many other Dzogchen masters up until our times have achieved these consummating stages of realization, including a North American who apparently achieved the Great Transfer while training in the Himalayas in recent years. See also Rigpa, Non-dualism, Ati Yoga.

Ego – From the Latin meaning ‘I’. In a spiritual context the term ‘ego’ is used to refer to the essential experience of ‘I-ness’, of individual separate existence in the gross realm of personality, though in the Trans-Himalayan teachings, the term is sometimes used to refer to the incarnating spiritual self, or soul. According to the first definition, the sense of ego arises with subject-object dualism, that is, the experience of being an individual looking out at an ‘other’ – that is, other beings and the world at large. Arising from this sense of being a separate self comes a sense of incompleteness, since our true nature is non-dual and intrinsically complete. With the illusion of being a separate self we also feel deep within our experience a sense of loss, of incompleteness, and a desire for ‘something’ to fill that lack. This gives rise to the unfoldment of various conceptions of what will fulfill us, and the various desires that are then formed. Yet the traditions suggest that only the realization of our natural state of underlying wholeness or Buddha Nature, our union with God, or our non-dual Self, will fully eliminate this sense of lack and the feelings of craving, imperfection, loneliness and suffering that must come with it.
 Ego has various levels of expression. There is unconscious ego, normal human ego and spiritual ego. Spiritual ego can take the form of making spirituality a way to prolong the ego rather than transcend it. But there is also a mature form or ‘spiritual ego’ that is the ‘selfhood’ that aspires to enlightenment and self-transcendence or Self-fulfillment. See also Soul, Separation, Personality, Self, Hindrances, Permanent Personality, Self-realization.

Elements – According to some of the esoteric traditions, the elements are fundamental aspects of experience. They are not mental concepts, but rather can be directly perceived by ‘bare attention’ – pure intuitive awareness. Experiences like noticing an airplane overhead, an emotional state like grief, or the choice to buy a loaf of bread – these types of experiences are conditioned by mental concepts. The elements are more fundamental components of experience, and can be directly perceived with intuition, beyond intellect and concepts. The following are the seven primordial elements or building blocks of all experience:

1st Element Self – The Knower, Atman/Purusha

2nd Element Consciousness – Knowing Mind, Essence, Prajna, Intuition

3rd Element Akasha – Space, The Known Prakriti, Root Substance

4th Element Air or Wind – Vibration, Movement, Motion, Vitality

5th Element Fire – Heat and Cold, Light and Color, Radiation,

6th Element Water – Fluidity, Cohesion

7th Element Earth – Hardness, Solidity, Firmness

The Elements may be grouped into two categories – the first three, the essential Trinity, and the other four, the Quaternary. The Buddha referred to the first three elements (which he also called paramattha dharmas or ‘ultimate realities’) as the ‘mind elements or dharmas’, and the last four as ‘material elements or dharmas’, because they have form. The seven principles or rays may be understood as different ways of experiencing these essential elements. Each element also reflects within it all the other elements, so there are also 49 ‘sub-elements’, and so on. All beings, forms and states on every plane of the universe, manifest and unmanifest, are made up of various combinations of these elements. These elements or essences are the building blocks of Relativity. Beyond all seven elements or rays is the unconditioned, non-dual reality – the Absolute. See also Elementals, Principles, Rays.