Unknowable In the procedures of human thought there always arrives a philosophical point beyond which the mind seems unable to penetrate, and this point is for that particular line of thought unknowable.

Therefore, there must be as many unknowables as there are beyonds in the processes of human thinking, and hence it becomes highly inadvisable to reduce the term unknowable to one specific meaning. It has been applied to the one ultimate cause of our universe, the rootless root of all within that specific universe, since this unknowable confessedly cannot be an object of cognition by mind.

However, it has been used by modern agnostics, in particular Herbert Spencer, to denote things which are not unknowable, but merely the noumenal which underlies the phenomenal, which limits the knowable world only to that which we can comprehend with our present physical faculties and the mental notions based on them. It is therefore but a convenient way of shelving all inquiries which seem to stand in the way of the formulation of a materialistic philosophy.

(See also: Unknowable, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Sufi, Sufi, Sufism [from Arab suf wool; sufi he who wears woolen garments]

A school of thought that emphasizes the superiority of the soul as opposed to the body. A Sufi wears harsh, raw woolen garments constantly irritating his skin to remind him that the body is the part which prevents the soul from attaining higher goals. The first public pronouncement of mysticism in Moslem lands is attributed to Rabi`a, who lived in the 1st century of the Hejira (622 AD) and expounded the theory of divine love: God is love, and everything on earth must be sacrificed in order eventually to attain union with God. However even before the time of Mohammed there were two principal schools of Arabic thought: the Meshaiuns (the walkers), who later became the metaphysicians after the appearance of the Koran, and the Ishrachiuns (the contemplators) who became affiliated with the Sufis. The Sufis, in fact, put an esoteric interpretation on the Koran, as well as the collected saying of Mohammed, the Sufi movement representing an infiltration into the rigidity of Islamic doctrine of the pre-Islamic mystical or quasi-occult stream of thought, especially from Persia. Blavatsky states that the Sufis acquired their "proficient knowledge in astrology, medicine, and the esoteric doctrine of the ages" from the descendants of the Magi" (IU 2:306).

By the year 200 of the Hejira a definite sect of mystics had arisen, and following the instructions of a prominent member, Abu Said, his disciples forsook the world and entered the mystic life with a view of pursuing contemplation and meditation. These disciples wore a garment of wool, and from this received their name. Sufiism spread rapidly in Persia, and all Moslem philosophers were attracted to this sect, as great latitude in the beliefs of its followers was at first permitted, until in the reign of Moktadir, a Persian Sufi named Hallaj was tortured and put to death for teaching publicly that every man is God. After this the Sufis veiled their teachings, and especially in their poetry used amorous language and sang of the delights of the wine cup. In spite of the amorous trend of poetry followed by the Sufis, to the observing eye there appears a beauty and a spirituality of thought which has found many devotees. Ideas of pantheism abound, for God is held to be immanent in all things, expresses itself through all things, and is the transcendent essence of every human soul. For a person to know God is to see that God is immanent in himself.

There are three synonymous words in modern Persian often interchangeably used -- Sufi, Aref, and Darvish -- each with its own nuance. Sufi represents the most institutionalized Islamic mysticism, while Aref and Erfan (school of thought-cognition) conveys cognitive aspects of mystic teachings and are more philosophic; Dervish and Darvishi (state of being Dervish) conveys freedom from attachments to worldly possessions. Hafi (the most loved and best known of the mystic poets) often refers to Sufis as those who rigidly adhere more to religious teachings than cognitive aspects of truth. These differences occurred when the mystics, due to religious persecution, had to veil their ancient beliefs with religious teachings. This made their teachings appear ambiguous, as a result of which, some confused esoteric mysticism with esoteric religion.

(See also: Sufi, Sufi, Sufism, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Primary Creation Used in theosophy for the openings of the different dramas of life, as opposed to the secondary creation, their more or less present conditions and appearances. Yet primary creation in strict logic appertains to those primordial beginnings of manifested life which precede the operations of nature when it has once entered into its established habits due to past karma, these established habits or courses of action being the karmic results of precedaneous causes. For example, the creation of the hierarchies of the gods or dhyani-chohanic hosts, and of their various worlds and activities, belong to the so-called primary creation; and at the close of this creation opens the drama of established nature and of the hierarchies and their respective operations beneath those hierarchies of gods.

Ancient cosmogonies begin with the secondary creation in cosmic things; hence, before the creation of light, they postulated darkness. But this darkness is the eternal light shining through and guiding the primary cosmogonical creation, and it was called darkness only by contrast with the manifested light of the secondary creation.

In the beginning of the primary creation the world, and on a smaller scale the earth, was in the possession of the three elemental kingdoms, and its three elements were fire, air, and water. It is the evolution of worlds from primordial atoms and from the pre-primordial atom; yet in the subsequent portions of primordial creation came forth into active manifestation the various hierarchies called angelic or dhyani-chohanic. Mahat, called lord in the primary cosmogonical creation, is universal cognition, thought divine; but in the secondary creation that which was mahat becomes the vast range of hierarchical manases which construct, inhabit, develop, and even emanate, manifested worlds.

(See also: Primary Creation, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Intuition The working of the inner vision, instant and direct cognition of truth. This spiritual faculty, though not yet in any sense fully developed in the human race, yet occasionally shows itself as hunches. Every human being is born with at least the rudiment of this inner sense.

Plotinus taught that the secret gnosis has three degrees -- opinion, science or knowledge, and illumination -- and that the instrument of the third is intuition. To this, reason is subordinate, for intuition is absolute knowledge, founded on the identification of the mind with the object. Iamblichus wrote of intuition:

"There is a faculty of the human mind, which is superior to all which is born or begotten. Through it we are enabled to attain union with the superior intelligences, to be transported beyond the scenes of this world, and to partake of the higher life and peculiar powers of the heavenly ones."

From another point of view, intuition may be described as spiritual wisdom, gathered into the storehouse of the spirit-soul through experiences in past lives; but this form may be described as automatic intuition. The higher intuition is a filling of the functional human mind with a ray from the divinity within, furnishing the mind with illumination, perfect wisdom and, in its most developed form, virtual omniscience for our solar system. This is the full functioning of the buddhic faculty in the human being; and when this faculty is thus aroused and working, it produces the manushya or human buddha.

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

Anugraha, Anugrahana (Sanskrit) (from anu-grah to support, uphold, foster, treat kindly)

Favor, kindness, promoting or favoring a good object. In the Vishnu-Purana (1:5) applied to the eighth creation (in the Matsya and other Puranas to the fifth creation), the period of formative development "which possesses both the qualities of goodness and darkness." In Sankhya philosophy anugraha-sarga is the creation or formation of "the feelings or mental conditions."

Blavatsky calls the anugraha creation a blind, "for it refers to a purely mental process: the cognition of the 'ninth' creation, which, in its turn, is an effect, manifesting in the secondary of that which was a 'Creation' in the Primary (Prakrita) Creation. The Eighth, then, called Anugraha (the Pratyayasarga or the intellectual creation of the Sankhyas . . .), is 'that creation of which we have a perception' -- in its esoteric aspect -- and 'to which we give intellectual assent (Anugraha) in contradistinction to organic creation.' It is the correct perception of our relations to the whole range of 'gods' and especially of those we bear to the Kumaras -- the so-called 'Ninth Creation' -- which is in reality an aspect of or reflection of the sixth in our manvantara (the Vaivasvata)" (SD 1:456).

All theses various "creations" mentioned in the Puranas represent stages of evolutionary production, following each other in regular serial order, and thus unfolding into manifestation what lay originally latent in the seed out of which these various stages arise. Thus the reference in the Vishnu-Purana, for example, by analogical reasoning can apply either to a universe, solar system, planetary chain, or to the developmental history of earth and its inhabitants.

(See also: Anugraha, Anugrahana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Apperception Perception involving self-consciousness; cognition through the relating of new ideas to familiar ideas. Used by Leibniz to denote a stage higher or more subtle than perception.

The impressions received through perception are apprehended by the mind and are related to other impressions which the memory holds, so that complex ideas are formed. Apperception may be called perception accompanied by awareness and an interpretative power.

In contrast to the theory that the higher faculties of mind are built up synthetically from the lower, Leibniz's views support the theory that the intuitive or original inner powers are primary. "Nascent apperception, which is the Mahat of the lower kingdoms, especially developed in the third order of Elementals . . . (is) succeeded by the objective kingdom of minerals, in which latter that apperception is entirely latent, to re-develop only in the plants"; and "that which is meant by 'animals,' in primary Creation, is the germ of awakening consciousness or of apperception, that which is faintly traceable in some sensitive plants on Earth and more distinctly in the protistic monera. . . . Neither plant nor animal, but an existence between the two" (SD 1:454-5&n; cf ET 940).

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

Spirituality Considering spirit and matter as contrasted aspects in the evolutionary process, as opposite poles in the kosmos, this word applied to the higher or causal aspect. The course of evolution, the monad begins as an unself-conscious god-spark and ends its evolutionary career in any one universe as a self-conscious god.

The monads pass from spirit into matter, and then back again to spirit with the addition of evolved intellectual self-cognition or self-consciousness. So far as the rounds and races of our earth is concerned, the first two were characterized by direct but non-egoic spiritual qualities of consciousness, while in the third intellectuality and finally materiality began strongly to make their appearances, reaching the final evolutionary point for our planet in the fourth, when spirituality was nearly submerged by materiality. But these terms are relative, having varying meanings as applied to different planes and differing conditions of the rounds and races.

Absolute spirituality or perfection in its very nature implies the loftiest type of spiritual and intellectual activity, with the relative quiescence of the enshrouding sheaths of consciousness. The distinction is to a certain degree that drawn between absolute thought or the All as opposed to the ratiocinative activity of mental action, which involves limitations and matters (SD 2:490).

(See also: Spirituality, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Mithras (Greek) Mithra, Mitra (Avestan) [from Avestan Mithra from mith, myth light + ra subjective form]

Ancient Persian deity; Yusti translates Mithra as the medium between the two lights: the invisible and the visible. Therefore, Mithra means the latent potential ability of understanding and the developing force in nature. It is the hidden beingness, the mysterious force of growth and the invisible light; philosophically, the latent power of cognition; astrologically, the source of the light of the heavens; and mystically, the creative force of love.

Ahura-Mazda says: "I have created Mithra as worthy of sacrifice, as worthy of glorification, as I, Ahura Mazda, am myself." In late Persian times he became the god of the sun and of truth and faith. He punishes the Mithra-druj (he who lies to Mithra). He is represented as a judge in hell, in company with Rashnu (the true one, the god of truth) -- who is an aspect of Mithra in his moral character. The Sanskrit Mitra in the Vedas is the god of light and friendship.

As known to the Greeks and Romans, Mithras was the god of the sun, of purity, moral goodness, and knowledge, whose worship spread over the Roman world, especially during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

(See also: Mithras, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Logic An attempt to formulate the processes of the ratiocinative mind, connecting idea with idea in a causal sequence, leading from predicate to conclusion.

When the predicate consists of axioms, the species of logic is called deductive, or reasoning from the general to the particular; when the predicate is facts of experience, the logic is called inductive, or proceeding from particulars to generals. As a means of arriving at truth it alone is quite unreliable, as it is but a body of rules based on human experiences, and hence it is often rather a means of justifying conclusions after they have already been formed.

This unreliability arises both from the difficulty of applying the process with rigid precision, and also from the uncertainty of the predicates in both systems. A study of what is written on logic will show that there is no agreement as to what constitutes an axiom -- whether it is an intuitive perception of truth, or whether it is merely an inference from experience. The same uncertainty exists as to the validity of the assumptions from which inductive chains of reasoning are drawn.

The Greek Skeptics and Pyrrhonists demonstrate that rigid logic leads to contradictory conclusions (antinomies), a fact which led them to doubt the efficacy of the mentality as a means of ascertaining truth. A strictly logical system may be found in pure mathematics, where we lay down axioms and postulates, which are to be treated as not open to question; and then proceed by rigid rules to the inevitable conclusion. But what is possible in an ideal science is not possible in an actual world of infinite variety and fluidity.

Theosophy places the subject in a different light, because it recognizes the existence in man of powers of direct cognition by the awakened faculties of buddhi. Thus man has the means of a true deductive system; but even so, deduction must be considered together with induction, analogy, and other methods, as merely one of the various means by which we arrive at a knowledge of truth.

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

Absolute (from Latin ab away + solvere to loosen, dissolve)

Freed, released, absolved; parallel to the Sanskrit moksha, mukti (set free, released), also to the Buddhist nirvana (blown out), all three terms signifying one who has obtained freedom from the cycle of material existence.

Absolute, in European philosophy, is used somewhat loosely for the unconditional or boundless infinitude. On the other hand, Sir W. Hamilton (Disc 13n) considers the Absolute as "diametrically opposed to, . . . contradictory of, the Infinite," which is correct from the standpoint of both etymology and abstract philosophy. Blavatsky uses the term both ways: sometimes equating it with infinity, at other times with the first cause or one divine substance-principle.

Strictly speaking, absolute is a relative term. It is the philosophic One or cosmic originant, but not the mystic zero or infinitude. An absolute or a cosmic freed one is not That (infinity), for infinity has no attributes: it is neither absolute nor nonabsolute, conscious nor unconscious, because all attributes and qualities belong to manifested and therefore noninfinite beings and things (cf FSO 89-90). The boundless or infinite, in which exist innumerable absolutes, includes the cognizer, the cognized, and the cognition, and is both matter and spirit, subject and object; all egos and non-egos are included within it.

From the zero emanate an infinite number of cosmic Ones or monads. Every absolute is not only the hierarch of its own hierarchy, the One from which all subsequent differentiations emanate, but is also a cosmic jivanmukta, a released monad freed from the pull of the lower planes. Every monad at the threshold of paranirvana reassumes its primeval essence and becomes at one with the absolute of its own hierarchy once more. The absolute is thus the goal of evolution as well as the source, the highest divinity or Silent Watcher of the hierarchy of compassion, which forms the light side of a universe or cosmic hierarchy.

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

Color From darkness comes white light; from white light comes color. These correspond to the unmanifest Logos, the manifest Logos, and the seven rays, and this cosmogonical scheme is repeated throughout the universe.

White light is in the physical world resolvable into a spectrum or band of colors, and color is defined as a quality of visual perception depending on the wavelength of light. But according to theosophy we could see no color at all unless we had it in our mind from the first, and thus recognized the color outside because of its identity with what is within us.

Still less could we resolve the continuous band into seven colors, as even infants can do. The physical stimuli merely evokes what is already in us, the latter recognizing what is objective outside us, causing a phenomenon of cognition to pass along the plane of the physical senses. This becomes more evident when we remember that color sense is relative, depending largely on contrast. Colors are light or sight in its septenary aspect; and color, sight, and light are used almost interchangeably in speaking of the evolution of the senses and their corresponding planes of prakriti.

Colors and sounds have great potency in practical magic, as cosmic powers can be evoked by an understanding use of the proper colors and sounds. The seven colors correspond with other septenates, such as the notes of the musical octave, the sacred planets, and the seven primary elements. It is the universal septenate viewed from a visual aspect as manifested light.

Colors are one of the manifold manifestations of cosmic vitality, a septenary unity -- or a denary or duodenary unity, according to the manner of enumeration -- these cosmic forces are interchangeable, their incomprehensible aggregate being cosmic life; therefore, any form of this cosmic life has not only its particular keynote of sound, but likewise its particular keynote of color, etc.

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

Atman (Sanskrit) Self; the highest part a human being: pure consciousness, that cosmic self which is the same in every dweller on this globe and on every one of the planetary or stellar bodies in space. It is the feeling and knowledge of "I am," pure cognition, the abstract idea of self. It does not differ at all throughout the cosmos except in degree of self-recognition. Though universal it belongs, in our present stage of evolution, to the fourth cosmic plane, though it is our seventh principle counting upwards. It may also be considered as the First Logos in the human microcosm. During incarnation the lowest aspects of atman take on attributes, because it is linked with buddhi, as the buddhi is linked with manas, as the manas is linked with kama, etc.

Atman is for each individualized consciousness its laya-center or entrance way into cosmic manifestation. It is our self precisely because it is a link which connects us with the cosmic hierarch. Through this atmic laya-center stream the divine forces from above, which by their unfolding on the lower planes originate and become seven principles. "We say that the Spirit (the 'Father in secret' of Jesus), or Atman, is no individual property of any man, but is the Divine essence which has no body, no form, which is imponderable, invisible and indivisible, that which does not exist and yet is, as the Buddhists say of Nirvana. It only overshadows the mortal; that which enters into him and pervades the whole body being only its omnipresent rays, or light, radiated through Buddhi, its vehicle and direct emanation" (Key 101).

Atman is also sometimes used of the universal self or spirit, called in Sanskrit Brahman or paramatman. The individual is rooted in the surrounding kosmos by three superior principles, which are that atman's highest and most glorious parts. Atman is included among the human principles because it is the universal absolute essence of which buddhi, the soul-spirit, is the carrier, transmitting its rays to the remainder of the human constitution.

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

Definition and meaning of Modeling

Modeling/Imitation - [Psychology]

Modeling or imitation is one way people learn. Other types of learning include classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Psychologists use the term "information processing" to include all cognitive and mental activities related to learning. Learning involves three steps: input, processing, and output. Those who learn by modeling or imitation input the behavior, ideas, or thoughts of others through observation. They process the information by analyzing the outcome of such behavior and output by mimicking the behavior. There are three levels of modeling. In group situations, participants tend to engage in the same behavior. Giving a standing ovation for a stellar performance or saluting during the Pledge of Allegiance are examples. This behavior may already be known, and its use is reinforced. Observational learning or imitation is a second type of modeling in which an observer copies the behavior of another. Proper social behavior is often learned in this way, as is behavior which involves risk. Good behavior is more likely to be copied if bad behavior is punished, but if bad manners or disruptive behavior is condoned, then students may imitate the negative instead of the positive. Peer pressure influences imitation. Third, observers may decide to do something which they once feared because they watched someone else do it successfully. Observing a person handling a snake may help some overcome unnatural fears.

(Source: The Social Studies Center at Texas University )

Also see these pages:  Social Studies, Social Studies Sitemap, History, History Sitemap

Definition and meaning of Modeling

Modeling/Imitation - [Psychology]

Modeling or imitation is one way people learn. Other types of learning include classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Psychologists use the term "information processing" to include all cognitive and mental activities related to learning. Learning involves three steps: input, processing, and output. Those who learn by modeling or imitation input the behavior, ideas, or thoughts of others through observation. They process the information by analyzing the outcome of such behavior and output by mimicking the behavior. There are three levels of modeling. In group situations, participants tend to engage in the same behavior. Giving a standing ovation for a stellar performance or saluting during the Pledge of Allegiance are examples. This behavior may already be known, and its use is reinforced. Observational learning or imitation is a second type of modeling in which an observer copies the behavior of another. Proper social behavior is often learned in this way, as is behavior which involves risk. Good behavior is more likely to be copied if bad behavior is punished, but if bad manners or disruptive behavior is condoned, then students may imitate the negative instead of the positive. Peer pressure influences imitation. Third, observers may decide to do something which they once feared because they watched someone else do it successfully. Observing a person handling a snake may help some overcome unnatural fears.

(Source: The Social Studies Center at Texas University )

Also see these pages:  Social Studies, Social Studies Sitemap, History, History Sitemap

Sleep In sleep the ego becomes unconscious on the physical plane in its brain -- except in the cases of dreaming; the connection between the mind and the bodily senses is quiescent and there is no direct self-conscious cognition of physical objects and events.

In short, the ego is functioning on a different plane of consciousness. On awaking, we have confused recollections of experiences of the state of imperfect sleep which fringes the waking and sleeping states, but the sleeping state is not a single state. Many planes of consciousness are enumerated, of which what we call the waking state is one.

One Hindu system has a fourfold division of consciousness into

1)    jagrat, the waking state;

2)    svapna, the dream state;

3)    sushupti, the state of dreamless sleep; and, highest,

4)    the turiya, which is relatively complete egoic or spiritual consciousness on interior planes.

From this last state of perfect awakenment, the jagrat or physical waking state is the farthest removed; what is to us the dream state (svapna) is a closer approach; and sushupti, which to us is complete loss of physical brain-mind consciousness, is actually the closest approach to the complete consciousness experienced by the ego in turiya. Turiya is the complete oblivion to the outside world, for the ego is functioning in its spiritual vehicle of consciousness.

These four distinct states of consciousness into which the human egoic self can enter, are the manifestations during imbodiment of what takes place on a more profound and radical scale at death. Sleep is a small death, and death may be called a larger sleep: in both, the ego, liberated successively form various bonds, travels inwards and upwards through different grades of consciousness and reaches the experiences proper to those planes.

Sleep is also used figuratively, in contrast with waking, to denote a state of nonmanifestation, when there is no contrast between subject and object; the term so used is relative, and sleeping on one plane may coincide with waking on another.

(See also: Sleep, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Zoroaster, Zarathustra, Zarathushtra (Avestan) Zaradusht, Zartosht (Persian) [from Avestan zarat yellow or old cf Sanskrit jarat old + ushtra he who bears light, the intellect in the act of cognition from the verbal root ujsh light]

He who bears the ancient light; the great teacher and lawgiver of ancient Persia in the Avesta, founder of the Mazdean religion, preserved by the modern Parsis.

"Founder of the religion variously called Mazdaism, Magism, Parseeism, Fire-Worship, and Zoroastrianism. The age of the last Zoroaster (for it is a generic name) is not known, and perhaps for that very reason. Zanthus of Lydia, the earliest Greek writer who mentions this great lawgiver and religious reformer, places him about six hundred years before the Trojan War. But where is the historian who can now tell when the latter took place? Aristotle and also Eudoxus assign him a date of no less than 6,000 years before the days of Plato, and Aristotle was not one to make a statement without a good reason for it. Berosus makes him a king of Babylon some 2,200 years B.C.; but then, how can one tell what were the original figures of Berosus, before his MSS. passed through the hands of Eusebius, whose fingers were so deft at altering figures, whether in Egyptian synchronistic tables or in Chaldean chronology? Haug refers Zoroaster to at least 1,000 years B.C.; and Bunsen . . . finds that Zarathustra Spitama lived under the King Vistaspa about 3,000 years B.C., and describes him as 'one of the mightiest intellects and one of the greatest men of all time. . . . the Occult records claim to have the correct dates of each of the thirteen Zoroasters mentioned in the Dabistan. Their doctrines, and especially those of the last (divine) Zoroaster, spread from Bactria to the Medes; thence, under the name of Magism, incorporated by the Adept-Astronomers in Chaldea, they greatly influenced the mystic teachings of the Mosaic doctrines, even before, perhaps, they had culminated into what is now known as the modern religion of the Parsis. Like Manu and Vyasa in India, Zarathustra is a generic name for great reformers and law-givers. The hierarchy began with the divine Zarathustra in the Vendidad, and ended with the great, but mortal man, bearing that title, and now lost to history. . . . the last Zoroaster was the founder of the Fire-temple of Azareksh, many ages before the historical era. Had not Alexander destroyed so many sacred and precious works of the Mazdeans, truth and philosophy would have been more inclined to agree with history, in bestowing upon that Greek Vandal the title of 'the Great' " (TG 384-5).

Zoroaster, the son of Pourushaspa, is said to be the same as Br Abrahm (Abraham) who brought down the holy fire which had no smoke and could not injure because it had no burnable substance. He divided this fire into ten parts and placed each in a different location.

Also, the first created, the abstract light, active mind.

(See also: Zoroaster, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Maya (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root ma to measure, form]

Illusion, the non-eternal; in Brahmanical philosophy, the fabrication by the human mind of ideas derived from interior and exterior impressions, as it tries to interpret and understand the universe. While the exterior world exists -- or it could not be illusory -- we do not

See clearly and as they actually are that which our mind and senses present to us. A traditional Vedantic illustration says that at twilight a person sees a coiled rope on the ground and springs aside, thinking it is a snake; the rope is there, but no snake.

Thus maya means that our minds are blinded and perverted by our own preconceptions and imperfections, and so does not interpret the world as it is.

"Maya or illusion is an element which enters into all finite things, for everything that exists has only a relative, not an absolute, reality, since the appearance which the hidden noumenon assumes for any observer depends upon his power of cognition. . . . Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities. The existences belonging to every plane of being, up to the highest Dhyan-Chohans, are, in degree, of the nature of shadows cast by a magic lantern on a colourless screen; but all things are relatively real, for the cogniser is also a reflection, and the things cognised are therefore as real to him as himself.

Whatever reality things possess must be looked for in them before or after they have passed like a flash through the material world; but we cannot cognise any such existence directly, so long as we have sense-instruments which bring only material existence into the field of our consciousness. Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and the things belonging to that plane are, for the time being, our only realities. As we rise in the scale of development we perceive that during the stages through which we have passed we mistook shadows for realities, and the upward progress of the Ego is a series of progressive awakenings, each advance bringing with it the idea that now, at last, we have reached 'reality'; but only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from the delusions produced by Maya" (SD 1:39-40).

Though sometimes used as an equivalent for avidya, maya is properly applicable only to prakriti, which is doomed to disappear at the time of pralaya. It is thus prakriti and its productions or changes (vikaras) which, by reacting against the operations of the consciousness of a perceiving being, casts the perceiver into the bonds of illusions, out of which the deluded being has to strive in order to free himself from the maya with which he is surrounded.

"Just as milliards of bright sparks dance on the waters of an ocean above which one and the same moon is shining, so our evanescent personalities -- the illusive envelopes of the immortal monad-ego -- twinkle and dance on the waves of Maya. They last and appear, as the thousands of sparks produced by the moon-beams, only so long as the Queen of the Night radiates her lustre on the running waters of life: the period of a Manvantara; and then they disappear, the beams -- symbols of our eternal Spiritual Egos -- alone surviving, re-merged in, and being, as they were before, one with the Mother-Source" (SD 1:237).

(See also: Maya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Birds : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Various Bird Symbology:

Various Bird Symbology:

White Dove: well known symbol of peace; a symbol of the Holy Spirit descending on Christ, as depicted in many artistic works.  A pair of white doves is a common symbol of love and devotion.

Mourning Dove:  commonly thought of as a potential symbol of upcoming death to someone you know, but only if it is seen in unusual circumstances and not just eating at the bird feeder or sitting on a telephone line.

Eagle: Among the 7 mortal sins, depicts pride; among the 4 cardinal virtues, justice.  Symbol of John the Evangelist, depicting spiritual cognition, faith, healing and ascension.  Similar powerful symbol of the Great Spirit to the American Indians, who use it's feathers in many ceremonial dress & implements.

Goose: symbol of fidelity and loyalty.  Could also be a metaphor for

"being goosed" or "acting like a goose."

Ostrich:  closing eyes to unpleasant facts.  Just mentioning "Y2K" will make many ostriches out of you! <smile>  Also a symbol of meditation, since the Ostrich parent does not sit and hatch it's eggs, but lets the sun do it's work while it guards them vigilantly.

Owl: wisdom, as portrayed in so many children's stories and cartoons.

Peacock:  pride, vanity and showing off due to the male's proud strut; but the male does this as part of his mating ritual to get the attention of the female, so I would apply this as such.  It is used to symbolize the American CBS network, and a metaphor could be "showing your true colors."  The peacock also symbolizes joy in the afterlife.  True story:  my mother & I visited my grandmother's grave one afternoon to find a living, breathing peacock standing there staring at us.  When I found out that it symbolized "joy in the afterlife," you can imagine how special that was.   How often does one find a peacock standing on a grave?  Coincidence, my foot!

Nightingale:  symbolizes yearning and pain; in Christianity it

symbolizes the longing for heaven.

Raven: intelligence; oftentimes depicting things we really prefer not to hear.

Stork:  instantly recognizable in our culture as a symbol that a baby has been delivered or is due, possibly due to the young stork's habit of gratefully feeding it's parents when it becomes a fledgling; or due to the stork's return after winter migration, when nature begins anew.

Swan: transformation, as in from "ugly duckling" into a beautiful swan.  Also symbolizes loyalty and fidelity.

Turkey:  Is any American unfamiliar with the symbology of "Turkey Day?"  Also referred to as a metaphor often used to describe something as being silly, or an embarrassing failure or dud.

Vulture: impending death, or a metaphor for waiting to take advantage of someone in dire trouble, as in "the vultures are circling."

Egg: symbolizes primal beginnings from which all life springs forth;

also in Christianity this is a symbol of resurrection (ever wonder where the thought of Easter Eggs came from?), as in Christ breaking out of his tomb similar to a chick breaking free from it's egg.  Could also have metaphorical influence, such as the age-old question, "Which came first--the chicken or the egg?"  In this manner it could be saying, "Some questions can never be answered by mere humans, so quit agonizing over a problem without solutions and deal with what-is, as it is."

Other types of symbology involving birds:  metaphors such as

"bird-brain", "You eat like a bird", "birds of a feather flock

together," "that's for the birds", "A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the

bush", "feathered friends", etc.  Just apply the metaphor to the context of your dream to get the gist of what the symbology entails.  Also helpful is relating bird dream symbols to song lyrics.  Think of how many different songs mention birds in one way or another.

Courtesy to: http://www.readersdigest.ca

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation Birds, Dream Dictionary Birds)

SCHIZOPHRENIA

It has been defined as a cognitive handicap in which reason is limited to purely concrete processes and neither symbol nor abstraction can be used or understood. What we see, however, is not necessarily impairment, but misplacement. The schizophrenic demands exactitude because he needs firm guidelines in a world that is arbitrary, hostile and irrational. The world, however, believing itself to be sane, views such allergy as a disease, rather than as the simple, psychic defense that it obviously is.

Far from being despised as socially undesirable, schizophrenia should be hailed as one of mankind's invaluable resources. Functional schizophrenia is not madness but a focussing of consciousness that is simply not sanctioned by ordinary society, except in sleep. Animals also inhabit worlds of their own -- the elephant world, the eagle world, the rattlesnake world, etc. which society misunderstands and condemns. Both "incurable" schizophrenics and "untameable" wild animals, therefore, are systematically crowded out to make room for the breeding, conforming multitudes of homo sap.

Admittedly, the "afflicted" have little or no control over their mental state and often feel themselves to be drowning in raging psychic seas, but that is generally in reaction to the insanity of the consensual world and lack of special training in how to use these precious, divine talents. At any rate, our society's longing to "medicate" it totally out of existence is stupid. We can only wish that schizophrenes were better provided for, even pampered -- and very carefully educated -- so as to help them cast off the miserable and crippling paranoia which is its natural enough accompaniment, given the hostility of our world for anything it fails to understand. Most schizophrenes are as abysmally ill-educated as the rest of our society and so can't take advantage of their talent or defend themselves. Their "madness" is, more often than not, no more than the quite "logical" result of ignorance, confusion and fear. If anything, schizophrenics are superrational beings coping with enormous burdens of logic.

Marijuana produces a similar panic which has to be overcome. It too removes the filter that normally keeps us from experiencing the underlying, fundamental chaos of the world. From a functional (i.e., not physically diseased) standpoint, the paranoia resulting from schizophrenia is a normal and successfully adaptive reaction to an extreme and untenable situation, e.g., contemporary society in its habitually evil and mindless mode. And society, in failing to provide a place for these people, is doing all of us a great disservice.

It is as if we forced athletes to run in lead-soled, lumberjack boots and to keep their hands in their pockets at all times. It is as if we expected Rembrandt to content himself with a monochromatic spray-paint gun and an untagged bus.

Since schizophrenia bypasses the psychic censor, it affords tremendous insight into many metaphysical mysteries and considerably increases the level of extrasensory perception. Moreover, it is out of the same matrix that art, discovery, invention and genius evolve. Even "chemical" schizophrenia (whether naturally or artificially induced), can, to a moderate degree be a positive condition. But it is logic and reason, unhampered by any fawning to authority or family values, that most often lead the schizophrenic person into trouble. That is hardly an "illness" to be "cured." It's a line of inner resourcefulness, originality and survival.

Oddly enough, talk like that doesn't, as you might think, go right over my shrink's head. We both realize that he only nods to the establishment flakes in order to survive professionally.

(See also: SCHIZOPHRENIA, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

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Alternative Health Dictionary

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In religion and sociology, a cult is a cohesive group of people (often a relatively small and new religious movement) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be far outside the mainstream. Its marginal status may come about either due to its novel belief system or because of its idiosyncratic practices. In common usage, "cult" has a negative connotation, and is generally applied to a group by its opponents, for a variety of possible reasons. Cult - Definitions ...

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Cult - Cult NRM and the sociology and psychology of religion Cult - Christianity and Cults Cult - Cults and terrorism Cult - Theories about the reasons for joining a cult Cult - Cult leadership Cult - Development of cults Cult - Relationships with the outside world Cult - Cults: genuine concerns and exaggerations
Cult - Stigmatization and discrimination Cult - Leaving a cult Cult - Criticism by former members of purported cults Cult - Allegations made by scholars and skeptics Cult - Other allegations
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