Some consider Pythagoras the pupil of Anaximander and some ancient sources tell of his visiting, in his twenties, the philosopher Thales, just before the death of the latter. No account exists of the specifics of the meeting, other than the report that Thales recommended that Pythagoras travel to Egypt in order to further his philosophical and mathematical training. In astronomy, the Pythagoreans were well aware of the periodic numerical relations of the planets, moon, and sun. The celestial spheres of the planets were thought to prod ...

See also:

Pythagoras, Pythagoras - Biography, Pythagoras - Pythagoreans, Pythagoras - Literary works, Pythagoras - Scientific contributions

Read more here: » Pythagoras: Encyclopedia II - Pythagoras - Scientific contributions

Celestial Training: Program that includes the Awareness Release Technique.

(See also: Celestial Training, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chhanda-riddhi-pada chanda-riddhi-pada (Sanskrit) (from chhanda desire + riddhi supernormal power + pada step, ray, beam)

Pleasure-power-training; one of the steps enumerated in raja yoga: "the final renunciation of all desire as a sine qua non condition of phenomenal powers, and entrance on the direct path of Nirvana" (TG 324). The compound itself points out that by abandoning the lower desires and pleasures, one enters upon the path of obtaining the celestial joys and vast expansion of faculty and its spiritual use, although even this last is finally abandoned for a still higher stage.

(See also: Chhanda-riddhi-pada, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Powers In theosophical literature, usually those endowments and abilities (Sanskrit siddhis) which are said to be dormant in present mankind as a whole. It would be more accurate to say that mankind itself is at present dormant, while the powers themselves are not dormant but simply without ability to express themselves through the constitution of the present relatively sleeping mankind.

Thus it is that by evolutionary advancement or initiatory training the neophyte does not rouse these powers into activity, but instead raises his human nature into the planes where these powers respectively already exist in full function. Thus, intellect is not dormant in mankind at present, but it is the human unevolved side of us which is as yet so imperfectly developed as to form a veil around the already fully evolved intellectual or manasaputric power within us. Thus, in a blind person, it is not the light which is latent or unawakened, but merely the blind person's incapacity to see: the glorious sunlight is always there. Very often the word is employed with a qualifying adjective, such as spiritual powers, occult powers, man's inner powers, etc.

Also, the sixth order of angels in the celestial hierarchy as enumerated by pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, ranking last in the second triad of Dominions, Virtues, and Powers. It translates the Greek exousiai; Latin, potestates (Eph 1:21; Col 1:16). In the ancient Syrian scheme, the Powers had governance over the sphere of the sun.

See also PRINCIPALITIES

(See also: Powers, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mystery Schools Adopted in theosophical literature from Classical writings, to designate centers which were consecrated to the teaching of the truths of cosmic Being to those who were found fit and ready for their reception; and this body of teaching or instruction and training is imbodied in the ancient wisdom which is the heritage of humanity.

This wisdom was originally given to mankind during the infancy of the human race by celestial teachers. "The mysteries of Heaven and Earth, revealed to the Third Race by their celestial teachers in the days of their purity, became a great focus of light, the rays from which became necessarily weakened as they were diffused and shed upon an uncongenial, because too material soil. With the masses they degenerated into Sorcery, taking later on the shape of exoteric religions, of idolatry full of superstitions, and man-, or hero-worship" (SD 2:281).

Despite this almost universal degeneration of the original wisdom into dogmatic religious or philosophical forms, the heart of the teaching has always been preserved on earth, and the guardians of this heart have from that immemorial age kept the ancient wisdom whole and undefiled. From this heart esoteric centers were during the ages instituted from time to time in different parts of the earth where the holy truths were taught by hierophants, to use the Greek expression. "Alone a handful of primitive men -- in whom the spark of divine Wisdom burnt bright, and only strengthened in its intensity as it got dimmer and dimmer with every age in those who turned it to bad purposes -- remained the elect custodians of the Mysteries revealed to mankind by the divine Teachers. There were those among them, who remained in their Kumaric condition from the beginning; and tradition whispers, what the secret teachings affirm, namely, that these Elect were the germ of a Hierarchy which never died since that period" (ibid.).

Thus was formed the Great Brotherhood or Great White Lodge, which has remained on earth to this day in its secret retreat, known in Hindu legends as Sambhala. From time to time messengers are sent forth from this Brotherhood into the world, and these emissaries impart the holy doctrine of which they are the carriers to those who prove themselves ready, fit, and worthy to receive it. Such centers of esoteric training and communication have always been called the Mysteries, or Mystery schools; and the emissaries establish new centers or Mystery schools when and where it is found proper to do so.

Every race and nation has had its teachers and their esoteric centers; the one fundamental doctrine of the heart was taught alike in them all, albeit after different manners, in different languages, and by different approaches, according to the psychological readiness and the needs of the people to whom these emissaries came. In later times, when these Mystery schools had to a greater or less degree lost the original impress and inspiration of the first communication, they were called sacerdotal colleges, or even temple-colleges or in ancient Greece the Mysteries. Such esoteric centers, where the original and archaic doctrine is taught, exist even today.

(See also: Mystery Schools, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Mountains, Mundane or Holy Mountains in a generic sense mean high places, whether in the physical world, the kosmos, or in man; the meeting place of immortals and mortals, the former descending, the latter ascending. Moses went up Sinai to confer with Jehovah; on Parnassus, the home of Apollo and the Muses, the rites of Bacchus were celebrated. Olympus or Meru, Atlas or Sinai, may be actual mountains, but also signify much more. Sacred mountains are found in ancient cultures, for when there was less of artificial separation between the celestial and the material, between sacred and secular, the kinship between what is above and what is below was more than a mere analogy: it was a unity.

Many of the great mystical religions refer to mundane mountains or world-mountains, whether of cosmic or terrestrial character. These myths are always extremely recondite because connected with the spiritual and psychological forces continuously at work in the solar system. They are bound up with the teachings of the other globes of the earth planetary chain, and with the relations of such globes to the solar system. Also they refer to the north pole of the earth which was the situation of the first continent on our globe when manifestation began in the fourth round.

This continent, the Sacred Imperishable Land, was likewise the seat of the first race of beings who through evolution became the human and superior races. It has been called sacred and imperishable because as a land mass or massif it endures from the beginning of the fourth round to its end, without finding a final watery grave as do succeeding continental massifs. The polar land does not remain unchanged, as there is constant change through the ages involving minor subsidences and elevations and inroads of the arctic seas into the land masses, so that there is a constant shifting in topographical outline. The meaning is that as a land mass, whatever its minor changes, it remains throughout the entire globe-manvantara.

Whereas temples or fanes of initiation were found among all peoples, as much on the plains as in the mountains, it was almost invariably the custom for centers of occult training, especially the higher branches, to be found on the lofty plateaus of mountain chains, and not solely because of the need of separation from the hurly-burly of human life as found in populated districts and their cities. An important reason why mountains or secluded spots are invariably chosen for secret training centers is that the currents and waves of the astral light become quieter and more peaceful the higher one ascends above the surface of the earth.

(See also: Mundane Mountains, Holy Mountains, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Oannes. (Ancient Greek). Musarus Oannes, the Annedotus, known in the Chaldean "legends", transmitted through Berosus and other ancient writers, as Dag or Dagon, the "man-fish".

Oannes came to the early Babylonians as a reformer and an instructor. Appearing from the Erythrean Sea, he brought to them civilisation, letters and sciences, law, astronomy and religion, teaching them agriculture, geometry and the arts in general. There were Annedoti who came after him, five in number (our race being the fifth ) - "all like Oannes inform and teaching the same"; but Musarus Oannes was the first to appear, and this he did during the reign of Ammenon, the third of the ten antediluvian Kings whose dynasty ended with Xisuthrus, the Chaldean Noah (See "Xisuthrus").

Oannes was "an animal endowed with reason whose body was that of a fish, but who had a human head under the fish’s with feet also below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish’s tail, and whose voice and language too were articulate and human" (Polyhistor and Apollodorus). This gives the key to the allegory. It points out Oannes, as a man and a "priest", an Initiate. Layard showed long ago (See Nineveh) that the "fish’s head" was simply a head gear, the mitre worn by priests and gods, made in the form of a fish’s head, and which in a very little modified form is what we see even now on the heads of high Lamas and Romish Bishops. Osiris had such a mitre. The fish’s tail is simply the train of a long stiff mantle as depicted on some Assyrian tablets, the form being seen reproduced in the sacerdotal gold cloth garment worn during service by the modern Greek priests.

This allegory of Oannes, the Annedotus, reminds us of the "Dragon" and "Snake-Kings "; the Nagas who in Buddhist legends instruct people in wisdom on lakes and rivers, and end by becoming converts to the good Law and Arhats. The meaning is evident. The " fish" is an old and very suggestive symbol in the Mystery-language, as is also "water". Ea or Hea was the god of the sea and Wisdom, and the sea serpent was one of his emblems, his priests being "serpents " or Initiates. Thus one sees why Occultism places Oannes and the other Annedoti in the group of those ancient "adepts" who were called "marine" or "water dragons" - Nagas. Water typified their human origin (as it is a symbol of earth and matter and also of purification), in distinction to the "fire Nagas" or the immaterial, Spiritual Beings, whether celestial Bodhisattvas or Planetary Dhyanis, also regarded as the instructors of mankind.

The hidden meaning becomes clear to the Occultist, once he is told that "this being (Oannes) was accustomed to pass the day among men, teaching; and when the Sun had set, he retired again into the sea, passing the night in the deep, "for he was amphibious", i.e., he belonged to two planes: the spiritual and the physical. For the Greek word amphibios means simply "life on two planes", from amphi, "on both sides", and bios, "life". The word was often applied in antiquity to those men who, though still wearing a human form, had made themselves almost divine through knowledge, and lived as much in the spiritual supersensuous regions as on earth. Oannes is dimly reflected in Jonah, and even in John, the Precursor, both connected with Fish and Water.

(See also: Oannes, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Attraction and Repulsion Two forces ever in operation during periods of manifested activity, called by Empedocles love and hate. In physics attraction is an effect, whose cause cannot be mechanically explained without circular reasoning, and which must therefore be assumed. Newton in speaking of gravitational attraction treats it mathematically as an effect and does not dogmatize on its real nature. These two aspects of the manifestation of universal unity arise out of the polarity inherent in cosmic manifestation as between spirit and matter generally, between the higher hierarchies and the lower. Physical attraction is a manifestation of a cosmic principle which has manifestations on all planes, spiritual, mental, and psychic, so that its influence is seen in our thoughts and feelings.

In The Secret Doctrine (1:103), three great universal causes of manifestation are named in connection with intelligent cosmic motion, namely the breath, love or attraction, and hate or repulsion, the latter being merely polar antitheses of the same underlying cosmic energy. Through the interaction of these three, universes and worlds come into being, have their periods of manvantaric growth, and finally decay and disappear, only to reappear after a period of rest or pralaya. Herbert Spencer intuitively refers to manvantara and pralaya, and what takes place within each: "the universally co-existent forces of attraction and repulsion which, as we have seen, necessitate rhythm in all minor changes throughout the Universe, also necessitate rhythm in the totality of its changes -- produce now an immeasurable period during which the attracting forces predominating, cause universal concentration, and then an immeasurable period, during which the repulsive forces predominating, causes universal diffusion -- alternate eras of Evolution and dissolution" (SD 1:12).

A capital mistake made by modern science and philosophy, producing momentous consequences in theory, has been the arbitrary division of natural forces into disjunct and unrelated energies. All forces of nature originally spring from a common source, a cosmic spiritual unit, which is the heart of nature itself, and hence it is no more possible to divorce attraction from its alter ego repulsion than it would be to have a stick which has only one end. This principle applies directly to such forces as gravitation, which is bipolar exactly as electricity is recognized to be, its two forms being attraction and repulsion, though the last has been ignored in scientific experimentation and deduction. Just as human beings, because of the bipolarity in their vital auras feel attracted to, repelled by, or both from other human beings, producing the strong sympathies and antipathies which are so well known, so does gravity operate. Celestial bodies are not only strongly or weakly attracted to each other, but are likewise strongly or weakly repelled by each other.

The universal life principle which manifests everywhere in nature, and which under one of its forms is called kundalini-sakti, of necessity includes the two great forces of attraction and repulsion. Attraction and repulsion being of cosmic origin are therefore of necessity likewise manifest in the manifold conditions of human life; but this does not imply that the individual should passively or negatively accept disturbances caused by inharmony when it is within his power as an offspring of the higher divinities to restore it -- insofar as his energies and knowledge permit -- to the harmony or cosmic unity from which these cosmic energies themselves spring. Hence the teaching of the greatest sages and seers of history has been to rise above the elements of personal attraction or repulsion, and to blend the two into the compassionate mastery which the indomitable human will, when trained and practiced, can acquire over not merely moods but all conditions in life. Thus he becomes a friend to all, and an enemy to none, repelling evil and attracting good, until these by association may themselves blend or marry into that mystic unity which is the achievement or culmination of evolution, whether human or cosmic.

(See also: Attraction and Repulsion, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

yajna: (Sanskrit) "Worship; sacrifice."

One of the most central Hindu concepts - sacrifice and surrender through acts of worship, inner and outer.

1) A form of ritual worship especially prevalent in Vedic times, in which oblations - ghee, grains, spices and exotic woods - are offered into a fire according to scriptural injunctions while special mantras are chanted.

-       The element fire, Agni, is revered as the divine messenger who carries offerings and prayers to the Gods.

-       The ancient Veda Brahmanas and the Shrauta Shastras describe various types of yajna rites, some so elaborate as to require hundreds of priests, whose powerful chanting resounds for miles. These major yajnas are performed in large, open-air structures called yagashala.

-       Domestic yajnas, prescribed in the Grihya Shastras, are performed in the family compound or courtyard. Yajna requires four components, none of which may be omitted: dravya, sacrificial substances; tyaga, the spirit of sacrificing all to God; devata, the celestial beings who receive the sacrifice; and mantra, the empowering word or chant.

-       While puja (worship in temples with water, lights and flowers) has largely replaced the yajna, this ancient rite still continues, and its specialized priestly training is carried on in schools in India.

-       Yajnas of a grand scale are performed for special occasions, beseeching the Gods for rain during drought, or for peace during bloody civil war. Even in temples, yajna has its Agamic equivalent in the agnikaraka, the homa or havana ceremony, held in a fire pit (homakunda) in an outer mandapa of a temple as part of elaborate puja rites.

-        

2) Personal acts of worship or sacrifice. Life itself is a jivayajna.

-       The Upanishads suggest that one can make "inner yajnas" by offering up bits of the little self into the fires of sadhana and tapas until the greater Self shines forth.

The five daily yajnas, pancha mahayajna, of the householder (outlined in the Dharma Shastras) ensure offerings to rishis, ancestors, Gods, creatures and men. They are as follows.

-       brahma yajna: (also called Veda yajna or rishi yajna) "Homage to the seers." Accomplished through studying and teaching the Vedas.

-       deva yajna: "Homage to Gods and elementals." Recognizing the debt due to those who guide nature, and the feeding of them by offering ghee and uncooked grains into the fire. This is the homa sacrifice.

-       pitri yajna: "Homage to ancestors." Offering of cakes (pinda) and water to the family line and the progenitors of mankind.

-       bhuta yajna: "Homage to beings." Placing food-offerings, bali, on the ground, intended for animals, birds, insects, wandering outcastes and beings of the invisible worlds. ("Let him gently place on the ground [food] for dogs, outcastes, svapachas, those diseased from sins, crows and insects" Manu Dharma Shastras 3.92).

-       manushya yajna: "Homage to men." Feeding guests and the poor, the homeless and the student. Manushya yajna includes all acts of philanthropy, such as tithing and charity. The Vedic study is performed in the morning.

The other four yajnas are performed just before taking one's noon meal. Manu Dharma Shastras (3.80) states, "Let him worship, according to the rule, the rishis with Veda study, the devas with homa, the pitris with shraddha, men with food, and the bhutas with bali."

Mystics warn that all offerings must be tempered in the fires of kundalini through the power of inner yajna to be true and valuable, just as the fire of awareness is needed to indelibly imprint ideas and concepts on one's own akashic window.

See: dharma, havana, homa, puja, sacrifice.

(See also: Yajna, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

This is a sitemap for Alternative Health - C . Click on a link and you will find multiple definitions and articles related to the word.

 Cam, Candle Gazing, Candle magick, Candles, Cathiodermie, Cayce Approach to Health and Healing, Cayce diet, Cayce reilly massage, Cayce-reilly Massage, Celestial soul Clearing, Celestial training, Cell salt therapy - tissue salt therapy, Cellular theta Breath, Celtic magic, Chair Massage, Chakra & cellular memory healing, Chakra Armor release of Emotions, Chakra balancing and energizing, Chakra breathing, Chakra Energy Massage, Chakra healing, Chakra healing & light energy implantations, Chakra Innertuning therapy, Chakra system, Chakra yoga, Chakral pranic healing, Chakras, Champissage, Chan Mi gong, Channelling - Mediumship, Characteristics Of Body types, Chelation therapy, Chelation therapy, Chen style, Cherokee healing, Chi Gong, Chi Healing, Chi Kung, Chi Kung / Chi Kong / qigong, Chi Kung Empowerment, Chi Kung Meditations, Chi Lel, Chi Nei tsang, Chi Nei tsang II, Chi self-Massage, Chi Weight Lifting, Chi yoga, Chi-gong, Chinese aromatic qigong, Chinese auricular therapy, Chinese Chikwando, Chinese Diet for Weight Loss, Chinese dietotherapy, Chinese Energetic Healing, Chinese Energetic technique, Chinese hand analysis, Chinese herbal medicine, Chinese Herbalism, Chinese herbalism, Chinese Massage, Chinese Medicine, Chinese medicine, Chinese physiognomy, Chinese qigong massage, Chinese system of Food Cures, Chinese traditional food therapy, Chinese traditional Medicine, Chinese Wushu, Ching Lo, Chirognomy, Chiropractic Manipulation, Chiropractic Network, Chiropractic practice, Chi-therapy, Chitshakti:, Chocolate therapy, CHOI KWANG DO, Choice Of partner, Choice Of pet, Christian counseling, Christian hypnotherapy, Christian positive thinking, Christian psychology, Christian science, Christian yoga, Christopher Method, Chronic Fatigue syndrome, Chu Chong, Chuan, Chun Do sun Bup Energy Healing, Circuit training, Clairvoyant diagnosis, Classical Five Element Acupuncture, Classical homeopathy, Classical Indian medicine, Cleanliness, Clean-Me-Out program, Clear Certainty rundown, Clinical Kinesiology, Clothing, Club spa, Coaching, Co-Centering, Co-Creative Healing, Collagen Facial, Colon Hydrotherapy, Colon therapy, Colonic Hydrotherapy, Colonic therapy, Color breathing, Color imagination, Color Meditation, Color pranic healing, Color projection, Color psychology, Color synergy, Color therapy, Color therapy, Color zone therapy, Colored Light MindBody Healing, Colorology, Colorpuncture, Colour therapy, Combination therapy, Combine spirituality and psychotherapy, Comfortable Medicine, Complementary Medicine, Complementary therapies, Complex homeopathy, Compression Wrap, Concept-therapy, Confluent somatic therapy, Connective tissue Massage, Connective tissue therapy, Conscious Bodywork, Consciousness and thought diagnosis, Consciousness Development program, Consciousness therapy, Contact healing, Contact reflex Analysis, Contact reflex Communication, Contact yoga, Contemporary homeopathy, Continuum, Contouring, Conversation power, Cooperative healing, Core Energetics, Core energetics, Core structural Integrative therapy, Core transformation, Cosmetic aromatherapy, Cosmetic mercury-free dentistry, Cosmic energy chi kung, Cosmo-biological birth control, Coyote Medicine, Crainosacral therapy, Cranial Balancing, Cranial Facial Balancing, Cranial Osteopathy, Cranialsacral therapy, Craniosacral therapy, Craniosacral therapy, Cranio-sacral therapy, Craniosacral-visceral Balancing, Craniosomatic therapy, Creative Concentration, Creative Dance therapy, Creative Force techniques, Creative Kinesiology, Creative meditation, Creative visualization, Creator force geometric healing methods, Cross-Over exercise, Crude herb moxibustion, Cruise ship spa, Cryotherapy, Crystal Healing, Crystal healing, Crystal therapeutics, Crystal therapy, Crystledyne therapy, Cupping, Curanderismo, Curative eurhythmy, Cuy ritual, Cybex, Cymatic therapy, Cymatics,

More sitemaps here:

Alternative Health Dictionary

Alternative Health Dictionary - A, Alternative Health Dictionary - B, Alternative Health Dictionary - C, Alternative Health Dictionary - D, Alternative Health Dictionary - E, Alternative Health Dictionary - F, Alternative Health Dictionary - G,Alternative Health Dictionary - H, Alternative Health Dictionary - I, Alternative Health Dictionary - J,Alternative Health Dictionary - K, Alternative Health Dictionary - L, Alternative Health Dictionary - M, Alternative Health Dictionary - N, Alternative Health Dictionary - O, Alternative Health Dictionary - P, Alternative Health Dictionary - Q, Alternative Health Dictionary - R, Alternative Health Dictionary - S, Alternative Health Dictionary - T, Alternative Health Dictionary - U, Alternative Health Dictionary - V, Alternative Health Dictionary - W, Alternative Health Dictionary - X, Alternative Health Dictionary - Y, Alternative Health Dictionary - Z,

Also see these pages:

Sanskrit Dictionary , Theosophy Dictionary , Hinduism Dictionary , Spiritual Dictionary, Mysticism Dictionary .

Read more here: » Alternative Health Sitemap I - C