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The Greek "λόγος" or Logos means " word".
Logos was used by Heraclitus, one of the more eminent Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, to describe human knowledge and the inherent order in the universe, a background to the essential change which characterizes day-to-day life. Logos as the inherent rationality of the universe is also something of a precursor to the concept of the collective unconscious described Carl Jung, as this fragment from Heraclitus suggests:
By the time of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, Logos was the term used to describe the faculty of human reason and the knowledge men had of the world and of each other. Plato (who had many mystical tendencies) engaged in the conceit of describing Logos as a living being in some of his dialogues. Aristotle, who studied under Plato and who was much more of a practical thinker, first developed the concept of logic as a depiction of the rules of human rationality.
The Stoics understood Logos as the animating power of the universe, which further influenced how this word was understood later on (e.g. in 20th century psychology).
In early Christianity, from its use in the Gospel of John (especially the opening paragraphs of this gospel), Logos has come to be understood as another name of Jesus Christ which defines his nature. See ChristologyChristology is that part of Christian theology that studies and defines who Jesus Christ is. It is generally less concerned with the minor details of his life; rather it deals with who he was, the incarnation, and the major events of his life (his birth,. Some translations of the Gospel of John into Chinese have used the word " Tao ()For other uses of the words "tao" and "dao", see Tao (disambiguation) and Dao (disambiguation). Taoism or Daoism is usually described as an Asian philosophy and religion, although it is also said to be neither but rather an aspect of Chinese wisdom. The T" to translate the word "Logos" into that language.
Hindu cosmology has a similar concept called the AumAum (also Om is the most sacred syllable in Hinduism, in which Vedic tradition it originated. The syllable is sometimes referred to as, "the Udgitha or "pranava mantra" (primordial mantra). As a seed syllable bija , it is also considered holy in Esoteric.