Etymologically, the word, "human" (adj.) is of the mid 15th century, humain, humaigne, "human," from Old French humain, umain (adj.) "of or belonging to man" (12c.), from Latin humanus "of man, human," also "humane, philanthropic, kind, gentle, polite; learned, refined, civilized."
Beyond the biological connection with the universe around us, there is something we need to discover about “being human.”
“Human” can be considered a composite word and creature whose constituent parts are “Hu” and “Man.” We therefore need to determine the meaning of the two constituent words.
“Hu”
‘Hu’ is the term for the fundamental forces of nature in various ancient civilisations and languages:
1. In ancient Egyptian mythology, ‘Hu’ or ‘Huh’ (“hw”) (pronounced ‘Hhooo’) is the deification and personification of the first word of creation exclaimed by Atum/Aten/Amen, according to Egyptian Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts 251 and 697. This is considered the original and Creative Utterance or Vibration and thus the “Word” of Power or Glory in ancient Egypt and that was always reverently whispered to those of “eager intellect, worthy of an unimpeachable character and made prepared.”
"The word Hu is the (breath) of all sounds and of all words, and is hidden within them all, as the (breath) in the body. It does not belong to any language, but no language can help belonging to it. This alone is the true name of the (deity), a name that no people and no religion can claim as their own. This word is not only uttered by human beings, but is repeated by animals and birds."
The ‘Papyrus of Ani,’ a manuscript created in the 19th dynasty of the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt (c. 1,250 BCE), states that it signifies eternity and is the personification of the profound utterance, vibration and authority of the spoken word and the first breath in ancient Egypt as creation is considered an act of communication and manifestation of an essence.
The ‘Papyrus of Ani,’ a manuscript created in the 19th dynasty of the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt (c. 1,250 BCE), states that it signifies eternity and is the personification of the profound utterance, vibration and authority of the spoken word and the first breath in ancient Egypt as creation is considered an act of communication and manifestation of an essence.
Plutarch says, “The end of the Egyptian rites and mysteries was the knowledge of the One, who is the Lord of all things, and to be discerned only of the soul. Their theosophy had two meanings — the one holy and symbolical, and the other popular and literal. The figures of animals which abounded in their temples, and which they were supposed to worship, were only so many hieroglyphics to represent the divine qualities.”
In the ancient language of India, Sanskrit, the same word is the Great Word of Invocation and it was adopted by ‘Eckankar,’ a religious movement founded in the USA in 1965, which focuses on exercises enabling practitioners to experience what its followers call "the Light and Sound of the Divine."
The companion and counterpart of “Hu/Huh” (the creative utterance) is “Sia” which means wisdom or consciousness or awareness. “Sia” is the reverse of “ais,” the ancient Egyptian word for brain.
2. In Hinduism, the primeval word which is the basic mantra (an invocation and affirmation), the Great ‘OM’ written with three letters, ‘A-U-M’ which stands for the threefold totality and potency of the liveable universe – sky, atmosphere and earth; or intuitive, mental and physical. The Hindu trinity consists of the philosophical expression – Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Happiness), while humanoidly presented as the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The three stand for Principles of Creation and Truth; all pervading transformative Light; and Destruction and Regeneration, respectively. This represents the triune or threefold nature of life.
Brahma is the “energy-consciousness” and the egg of Brahma is the solar system. In Hinduism, it is also considered the immortality and eternity in nature. In Svetasvatara Upanishad of ancient India, an anonymous sage wrote: “There is a (Breath) who is hidden in all things, as cream is hidden in milk and who is the source of self-knowledge and self-sacrifice. This is Brahman, the Spirit (Breath) Supreme.”
"Brahman is the one, indivisible, silent basis that is all-existent, ever-aware consciousness. Because of its all-pervasive presence it is wholly complete and its fullness is always abiding as a silent presence." - Jane Cleary, "OM: Its Purpose and Meaning," Quest 100.1 (Winter 2012): 21-24.
“The Sanskrit term is derived from a root “brh,” which means “to expand or grow,” so brahman is that which expands or grows into the universe.” - John Algeo, ‘The Bhagavad Gita: A Study Course’ (The Theosophical Society in America, 2000).
Etymologically, the term means "that which expands or grows" (brhati) and "which causes to expand or grow" (brhmayati).
As a mantra, ‘AUM’ (‘OM’) centers the mind on the thought “I am manifestation of supreme consciousness.” It is considered the primordial ‘Word’ of power, glory, strength, firmness, solidity and truth; and a sound or vibration of creation. Its figurative is found on top of every Hindu temple and is always reverently whispered under the most solemnity. The letter 'A' is the beginning of alphabets of various languages. It is the commencement of the word and expresses the beginning and is pronounced without the help of the teeth or tongue. The letter 'M' ends in a nasal sound, a sound that signifies life.
"All three powers, creation, preservation and destruction/regeneration, are manifest at all times. They are inseparable. Creation and destruction are like two sides of a coin. And preservation is an integral part of the processes of creation and destruction. For example, morning dies to give birth to noon. Noon dies when night is born. In this chain of birth and death the day is preserved. To indicate that these three processes are one and the same the three gods are combined in one form of Dattatreya." “Whenever the Law declines and the purpose of life is forgotten, I manifest myself on earth. I am born in every age to protect the good, to destroy evil, and to re-establish the Law. – Hinduism, ‘Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita’ 4.7-8.
In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the ‘A-U-M’ represents different aspects of the trinity of the Buddha or an enlightened being: the Body, Mind and Speech, respectively. It also symbolises the formula of life: Visualization (Thought) + Vocalization (Word) + Manifestation (Action).
In all schools of Buddhism, adherents are taught that the ‘Three Jewels/Treasures/Gems’ are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
The ‘Buddha’ represents Enlightenment/Awakened, arising from the word ‘Buddh’ means “light” and ‘Buddha’ means “the enlightened or the highest potential that exists in all beings.” The ‘Dharma’ are the enduring perennial and self-evident Truths. The ‘Sangha’ is the community of those who have attained enlightenment or simply a fraternity of practicing Buddhists.
"The letters AUM also stand for the Latin Artifex Universus Mundi, which means the Great Architect of the World and has the numerical cipher sum of 33. While the sacred word of the Brahmins is AUM, the Buddhists use O-mi-to and the Druids OIW. Plato identified the Tetragrammaton: Tell me of the (Divine) of On, which was, is, and shall be." - The Alchemy Key.
3. ‘Hua’ means ‘He is’ in Rabbinical Judaism, based on the transliteration of Deuteronomy 6:4 and also related to the three upper emanations of the divine (‘Kether-Chokmah-Binah’ representing the triune of ‘Will-Wisdom-Understanding’) and the ‘Absolute Infinity Light’ (‘Ain Soph Aur’) in esoteric or theosophical Judaism. “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. – Matthew 5.17-18.
4. ‘Huwa’ in Sufism (esoteric Islam) added to Allah to mean, ‘He is Allah’ (Sura Al-Ikhlas 112:1) while "Hur" in Arabic means the beauties of heavens or the expression of heavenly beauty. "Zahur" in Arabic means manifestation, especially that of the impersonal force of life in nature. In Sufism, the “Hur” is considered to be the highest vibratory mantra that can be sounded.
The word "huma" in the Persian language stands for a fabulous bird. There is a belief that if the "huma" bird sits for a moment on someone's head it is a sign that he will become a king. Its true meaning is that when a person's thoughts so evolve that they break all limitation, then he becomes as a king. It is the limitation of language that it can only describe the Most High as something like a king. It is said in the old traditions that Zoroaster was born of a "huma" tree. This explains the words in the Scriptures, "Except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of the divine" (John 3:5).
In the word "huma", "hu" represents breath and the word "mah" in Arabic means water. - Hazrat Inayat Kahn, ‘The Music of Life’ (Omega Publications, 1998).
5. ‘Heu/Hu’ is the seed or essence and the creative principle throughout nature and the impersonal fundamental forces of nature, and of Light in ancient Irish or Western Celtic mythology.
“Man”
Etymologically, the word ‘Man’ is either considered to be derived from Proto-Germanic ‘mannaz’ meaning person or Sanskrit words, ‘Manu’ (‘Mena’ in ancient Egypt) and ‘Manas.’
In Sanskrit, the root of the 'man’ is 'manas,' which means, "mind, the thinker or the thinking principle in a human being.” It is that which makes a being intelligent, have a sense of discernment and links one to own causative power.
So a 'human being' is a creature above an animal because of a Mind that thinks beyond the physical limitations and is imaginative, perceptive and aspirational.
The word "animal" comes from Latin, "animale" meaning a living being or creature, which breathes. In Latin, to breath or a current of air is called "anima." In Greek, wind is "anemos" and in Latin, “ane” means "to breathe or blow."
"Ane" is related to Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian creator sky-feminine cosmic power, An, the consort of Anu, the creator sky-masculine cosmic power. In Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian creation mythology, Anu was the King of the divinities before Enlil, who is the cosmic power of the Wind or Air also. The masculine cosmic power Anu and feminine power An are considered to have given birth to all life.
Therefore, the Mind as a thinking principle exists in a male or female body, alike. In the strictest sense of the word, a "human being" is an animal or creature with the capacity to be rational; discern about what is right or wrong, and good or bad; and an agent of causation.
‘Manas’ in Sanskrit means, "to think," "to cogitate," "to reflect," actions all considered as mental activities. The word is derived from Hindu mythology, ‘Manu’ who was filled with great wisdom and intensely keen to virtue, became the representative name of the progenitor of humanity and the very first Brahman king to rule this earth, who saved humankind from the universal flood and the alleged author of the “Laws of Manu.”
In Sanskrit, the “father-mother” of ‘Manas’ is ‘Mahat,’ and this means a universal principle. “Mahat” is the root of the Indian name, “Mahatma” derived from Mahatman, Sanskrit for "Great Self" derived from 'Maha,' "Great" and 'Atman,' "Higher Self."
As a human principle, ‘manas’ or mental faculty is “the coordinating organ of intelligence, thought, understanding, perception and will.” Accordingly, human moral excellence resides in the "active life of the rational element" (Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics).
‘Manas’ has a dual nature – Lower and Higher Manas. The conditioned Lower Manas is the thinking faculty that gravitates towards the uncontrolled malevolence or beastly cognition, desires and passions of the physical senses; while the unconditioned Higher Manas gravitate towards sublime qualities (prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice, altruism, humility, sincerity, insight and aspirations) to make “future possibilities infinitely greater than its present attainments.”
Cannot you see why the Mind is the slayer of the real? Of course the word 'slayer' is but a figure of speech. You might phrase it otherwise and say the Mind filled with its tramping, useless, fugitive, silly thoughts keeps out all higher intuitions, all higher thoughts, all higher things. In other words, there is no room for them." - G. dePurucker,
In Indian Vedic times, ‘manas’ meant the individual interiority and the basis of speech.
The three states of the Mind are inertia (unconscious), activity (conscious) and harmony (subconscious).
‘Manas’ is the rational faculty of the mind, with both active and passive functions. Actively, it is responsible for the production of feelings and wishes; and passively, it is a sense-data instrument and thus receives, orders and interprets data through the five physical senses. Passively, it is a function of social conditioning, habits and traditions and can be modified through self-knowledge. - John Bowker, ‘The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions’ (New York, Oxford University Press, 1997).
The Mind is "the spark of self-consciousness" and is “used to step down or transfer the energies of the principles above it to those below it. Mind can be thought of as the link between the two higher principles above and the four principles below, and is influenced by these principles. The Mind thus has two aspects. The higher aspect is susceptible to the influences of the higher principles of (the enlightened Self). It is thus intuitional and does not depend on reason. The lower aspect is purely intellectual and logical and can be cold if not influenced by (the enlightened Self).” - Marilyn O'Day, 'The Seven Principles of Man,' (2000).
“According to Indian psychology, we have eleven senses. Five are senses through which the outside world affects us: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell; five are senses through which we affect the outside world: speech, handling, movement, excretion, and generation; the eleventh is the mind, which is the greatest of all.” - John Algeo, ‘The Bhagavad Gita: A Study Course’ (The Theosophical Society in America, 2000).
According to Justice Thomas Troward, the word ‘man’ can also be said to be derived from Latin ‘mens,’ "the faculty which compares things and estimates them accordingly." Therefore, a ‘human’ is a measurer.
"Man is the measure of all things: of those that are, that they are; and of those that are not, that they are not." - Protagoras (481-420 BCE).
The periodical phases of the moon provide the standard measurement of time. This led to the creation of a calendar leading to what we call months. The word “months” is derived from “moons.” Biologically, the moon measures the life of a ‘human’ while its monthly movements are related to female fertility.
Humanity’ is a “spark of a unique manifestation of life." This Greek is “entheos” i.e. "having the creative power within," which the words enthusiasm and inspiration came from. ‘Entheos’ is formed from en, "in, within," and theos, "the divine."
Related to “entheos” is “apotheosis,” which means “humanity realising that it is the divine within” or that a human being is “an infinite power manifesting and expressing itself through the physical body.”
The glass container with the water from the sea is not ‘the’ sea but it carries the water that has the exact Essence and attributes with the water in the sea. From an esoteric point of view, at birth, all human beings are born with the same impersonal fundamental forces of nature, veiled in physical form and awaiting discovery, actualisation and manifestation. We have a powerful element in ourselves because the origin of our own primal being is itself evolutionary.
Benedict Spinoza asserted, “Each of us is but a very small part of (the fundamental forces of nature), yet each of us equally an important…in (the fundamental forces of nature) we live.”
Due to willful ignorance, irrationality and fear, we make our own lower natures or beastly character to rule over us. To discover and realise our own agency as the higher nature, we have to go through painful and trying processes of liberating ourselves from the lower or beastly nature (greed, anger, envy, sloth, avarice, lust and intemperance). When we have done so, we become masters of our own lower selves, the vehicle of "pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow."
If the innermost depth of our own agency is distorted and intoxicated, then our sense of being is equally vulgarised and disrupted.
Therefore, a ‘human’ is the Creator-Mind (‘Hu-Manas’). This makes a human being an external reflection of his/her own “lowest depths of ignorance” or “the greatest heights of intelligence.”
The fundamental force of nature (‘Chi/Qi’ in Chinese or ‘Prana’ in Sanskrit) is individualised in each human being as agency in a latent or active state awaiting discovery and actualisation.
The omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent fundamental forces in nature (gravitational forcem electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear forces) is the creator (Masculine Principle), preserver/sustainer (Feminine Principle) and regenerator/transformer (complimentary union of the other two, the Child).
The religious have presented this force of nature as "an anthropomorphic figure, an almighty being in human form and with human tendencies...regarded as susceptible of propitiation.. bestowing favours on some and withholding them from others,...distant in a far off place called heaven…”
The innermost aspirational Self “is like a seed, in that it contains the potentiality of the parent plant."
“This seed is “sown” or born on Earth, puts forth shoots, stems and leaves, and eventually it flowers. The resultant human individuality in its four vehicles is strengthened by the winds of adversity, purified and refined by the rain of sorrow, beautified and expanded by the sunshine of happiness and love, and ultimately reaches the fully flowered state.
“Just as in seeds all parental powers are inherent, so in (the primal absolute aspect,) the Monads, of human beings all causative powers are potentially present from the beginning. The experiences of life, combined with the interior evolutionary impulse, bring these inherent causative powers to increasing fullness and perfection of expression… Indeed, there is nothing to be saved from, nowhere to be lost, for (the force of life), as the enfolding and indwelling life of the universe, is omnipresent. Human beings need only to be on guard against the defects of their own character and the transgressions to which they lead, for all sufferings arise from such transgressions.” – Geoffrey Hodson, “Hidden Wisdom in the Holy Bible” (Quest Books, 1993).
What is the height of such accomplishment? It is to evolve and recover our citizenship through the razor’s edged path (Katha Upanishad 1-III-14. Arise, awake, and learn by approaching the exalted ones, for that path is sharp as a razor’s edge, impassable, and hard to go by, say the wise"), the Eightfold Noble Path of Buddhism or “narrow way” (“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, what and few there be that find it” - Matthew 7:13-14) for a Nirvana or Edenic life based on the law of cause and effect.
This means a human has a direct and internal relationship with the impersonal fundamental forces in nature.
A human being is “the exact reflection of that particular stage which he (or she) has reached in the perception of the (aspirational) nature and of his (or her) own relation to it” because "power can only work in terms of the instrument it works through."
"As a thought of a building is generated by a man gradually takes form within his mind, and as he puts his plans upon paper and straightway procures material wherewith the building is to be erected…" - Augusta Foss Heindel.
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