Theos-Talk Archives (January 2011 Message tt00163)

There has been some discussions on Fohat at theosophy.net. David Reigle,
a well known theosophist and researcher in original Samskrit and Tibetan has
some contributions there.

On Sat, Jan 15, 2011 at 10:19 PM, John W <JohnWW@7bZ06DklnA6KxxAtrrfLsktdSOuWmYs8AHeo4QrdKytvStSjnBddDL4T-X5R7Ht0dOA8Lxiw4yKsI1r6.yahoo.invalid> wrote:

>
>
> Thanks for the info re "fohat". The complete pages of Taylor's "Blavatsky
> And Buddhism" (1999, University of California Berkeley) can be downloaded as
> a series of linked HTML pages, from the links on this main URL:
> http://www.blavatsky.net/forum/taylor/tibetanSources1.htm .
> However, it has not yet been made into a PDF or CHM or DOC file.
>
> John W.
>
> --- On Sun, 16/1/11, M. Sufilight <global-theosophy@YFOALVN0NpQw1U2ptLtyCddTbEj3NRUmJWE5SKGh2qo3nYTdRfHaliSZilGaUQGjKOZin3YK1fzTybhbNkGqdFsWkH3c6w.yahoo.invalid<global-theosophy%40stofanet.dk>>
> wrote:
> From: M. Sufilight <global-theosophy@YFOALVN0NpQw1U2ptLtyCddTbEj3NRUmJWE5SKGh2qo3nYTdRfHaliSZilGaUQGjKOZin3YK1fzTybhbNkGqdFsWkH3c6w.yahoo.invalid<global-theosophy%40stofanet.dk>
> >
> Subject: theos-talk FOHAT in Tibetan Dictonaries - by Richard P. Taylor
> To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com <theos-talk%40yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Sunday, 16, January, 2011, 12:12 PM
>
>
>
>
> Dear friends
>
> My views are:
>
> The following page by Taylor written in 1999 might be of interest to some
> Seekers after truth and altruism:
>
> Blavatsky and Buddhism
>
> Chapter Two: Blavatsky and 'Esoteric Buddhism'
>
> "Fohat
>
> Blavatsky first writes of this term in 1885 while discussing the several
> souls in Chinese philosophy: "At death the hwan [hun] or spiritual soul
> wanders away, ascending, and the pho [p'o] (the root of the Tibetan word
> Pho-hat) descends and is changed into a ghostly shade (the shell)." (32)
> Afterwards, however, she consistently spells the term as Fohat. In her
> posthumous Theosophical Glossary, (1892) HPB writes,
>
> Fohat (Tib.) A term used to represent the active (male) potency of the
> Sakti (female reproductive power) in nature. The essence of cosmic
> electricity. An occult Tibetan term for Daiviprakriti, primordial light; and
> in the universe of manifestation the ever-present electrical energy and
> ceaseless destructive and formative power.(33)
>
> Of course there is no mention of a Sanskrit Daiviprakriti in any Sanskrit
> texts, even today-another mystery term. But the connection between Fohat and
> primordial light is an important one to keep in mind. In her occult
> cosmogony, The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky elaborates,
>
> He is, metaphysically, the objectivised thought of the gods; the "Word made
> flesh," on a lower scale, and the messenger of Cosmic and human ideations:
> the active force in Universal Life.â In India, Fohat is connected with
> Vishnu and Surya in the early character of the (first) God; for Vishnu is
> not a high god in the Rig Veda. The name Vishnu is from the root vish, "to
> pervade," and Fohat is called the "Pervader" and the Manufacturer, because
> he shapes the atoms from crude material..(34)
>
> The spelling of this 'Fohat' misled Theosophists for over a century, but I
> have now identified it as the Tibetan verb '2ÃâÃ3 ('phro-wa) and/or the noun
> form cuâ/Ã (spros-pa). These two terms are listed in JÃschke's Tibetan
> English Dictionary (1881) but with inadequate translations. For the verb
> form 'phro-wa, JÃschke gives "to proceed, issue, emanate from, to spread, in
> most cases from rays of light â"(35) while for the noun spros-pa he gives
> "business, employment, activity."(36) JÃschke's definition of the verb
> certainly corresponds well with one sense of HPB's definition, that of
> "pervading" like Vishnu, but leaves untouched the mental and creative
> aspects of the term. But a comprehensive search of 20th century Tibetan
> dictionaries, word lists and Sanskrit translations has turned up a wealth of
> information that would appear to validate HPB's understanding of a cosmic,
> psycho-creative force. Most importantly, Lokesh Chandra in his
> Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary, gives for spros-pa several Sanskrit
> equivalents, including 1. sarga 2. prapaÃca. According to the most
> authoritative Sanskrit dictionary, that of Monier-Williams, Sarga is defined
> as "Emission or creation of matter, primary creation â creation of the world
> (as opposed to its pralaya, 'dissolution,' and sthiti, 'maintainence in
> existence')."(37) From the same source, we find PrapaÃca: "Expansion,
> development, manifestations (MÃË?Âkya Upani?ad) â (in philosophy) the
> expansion of the universe, the visible world (cited in Upani?ads; Kapila's
> SÃÂkhya-pravacana; SarvardarÃana-saÂgraha)." But in Buddhist philosophy,
> prapaÃca is much more than this: it is the mental fabrication of dualistic
> consciousness which literally creates the world as the non-enlightened
> perceiver experiences it. In seeing the activity of dualistic consciousness
> on a cosmic scale, HPB sees prapaÃca as many Tantric texts do. This
> 'Tantric'
> worldview will be investigated more fully in chapter three."
>
> http://www.blavatsky.net/forum/taylor/tibetanSources9.htm
>
> M. Sufilight
>
>
>
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>
>  
>


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