Buddhi 100613 206007587 2008-04-16T12:48:37Z DaGizza 260097 Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/222.165.158.113|222.165.158.113]] ([[User talk:222.165.158.113|talk]]) to last version by RussBot '''Buddhi''' is a feminine [[Sanskrit]] noun derived from the same root (''budh'' – to be awake; to understand; to know) as its more familiar masculine form [[Buddha (general)|Buddha]]. The word signifies a [[transpersonal]] faculty of [[mind]] higher than the rational mind that might be translated as ‘intuitive intelligence’ or simply ‘higher mind’. It is ‘that which knows’, ie, able to discern truth from falsehood. Buddhi constitutes the first level of individuation of the infinitely cognoscent formless [[Brahman]] into manifest phenomenal reality; the formation (differentiation) of the [[atman (Hinduism)|jivatman]] from the [[paramatman]]. It makes its first scriptural appearance in the Katha [[Katha Upanishad|Upanisad]] (I,3) where it is compared in a famous simile to the driver of a horse and carriage, where the reins held by the driver represent the lower mind ([[manas]]); the horses represent the five senses and the carriage itself - the body. [[ontology|Ontologically]], buddhi is equivalent to [[hiranyagarbha]] and is to individual living souls - [[jiva]]s - as hiranyagarbha is to the insentient phenomena of the universe. Buddhi is the gateway between the phenomenal and the eternal. It may, on the one hand, through identification and desire cause the incarnation of Brahman into material existence as an individual soul or it may through wisdom ([[prajña]]) lead an already incarnate soul to dissolve identification with material phenomena (with cessation of corresponding worldly desires) and become [[moksha|liberated]]. In [[Hindu mythology]], '''[[Consorts of Ganesha#Buddhi (Wisdom)|Buddhi]]''' is one of the wives of [[Ganesha]]. ==External links== * [http://www.swamij.com/mind-map.htm An interactive map of the Yogic conception of mind]. {{HinduMythology}} [[Category:Hindu goddesses]] [[Category:Mother goddesses]] {{Hindu-myth-stub}} [[de:Buddhi]] [[it:Buddhi]]