Cosmic Consciousness:

A blissful experience in which the person becomes aware of the whole universe as a living being.

See also altered state of consciousness, mystical experience.

(See also: Cosmic Consciousness , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Cosmic Consciousness - N

A spiritual and mystical perception that all in the universe is "one." To attain cosmic con-sciousness is to see the universe as God and God as the universe.

(See also: Cosmic Consciousness , New Age, Body mind and Soul)

Consciousness: In Buddhism there are eight classes of consciousness. The first five are the senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing), the sixth is thought, the seventh is manas, and the eighth is alaya-vinana.

 (See also: Consciousness , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

A nonordinary state of consciousness that can range from states of light meditation and hypnosis to states of trance.

(See also: altered state of consciousness , Magic, Shamanism, Pagan Dictionary)

Christ Consciousness:

It means to constantly live the wonderful message of Jesus Christ, viz, "Empty thyself and I shall fill thee." The Spirit is not a quantity and it is opposed to all quantitative measurements and conceptions. "Blessed are the poor in spirit", is another suggestive statement of the Christ. We cannot understand what is meant to be poor. For us, to be poor is not to have money, grains and gold, not to have a field, a house and friends, and not to be recognized in society. That would be poverty, economically. We cannot think of poverty except in an economic, material and social sense. Likewise, the idea of emptying oneself, as far as our minds can understand, is a physical displacement of content. Far from this is the idea of the Spirit, which is implied in the above single-sentence message.

The Christ-Consciousness , and not the personality of Christ, is what is to be taken into account here in our understanding of this statement. There is a difference between Christ and Christ-Consciousness. The Christ himself in many of His declarations as recorded in the New Testament repeatedly emphasized this fact. He never regarded Himself as a person, nor did He ever indicate that a person was speaking when He spoke. He always referred to "Him that sent me". He was very much fond of referring to "Him that sent me". He said: "I am here to proclaim the Law of Him who sent me here. It is not my law that I am demonstrating or proclaiming to the world." The Spirit that spoke through Him was not a creature of time. (Also signifies the 'Third-eye'Chakra in Kundalini Yoga system.)

(See also: Christ Consciousness , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Consciousness:

The intelligent, supremely independent, divine Energy, which creates, pervades, and supports the entire universe.

(See also: Consciousness , Yoga, Yoga Dictionary, Siddha Yoga, Siddha Yoga Dictionary)

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

Four states of consciousness:

Ordinary consciousness is characterized by three states:

 1. The waking state

 2. The dreaming state

 3. The state of deep sleep However mystics claim that there is a fourth state, called turîya, which permeates and transcends the three states of ordinary consciousness. It is said to witness everything that occurs during the ordinary states (cf. Song of Solomon 5:2: I slept but my heart was awake). While the subject of ordinary consciousness is the ego, the witness of the fourth state is said to be the Absolute Subject. When the fourth state is experienced, the yogi is filled with the Light of the Essential Self (cf. Matt. 6:22).

(See also: Four states of consciousness , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

consciousness

1.    State of the mind, the senses and physical awareness allowing a person to know of his existence, sensitivities and relationship to environment.

2.    Spirit communication with the developing medium ultimately registers on the consciousness for the medium to know the message content and to be able to use mind and physical faculties for transmitting on to the intended receiver.

Consciousness originates in the physical and once formed it becomes what is really you. It enters the subconscious where it may become the consciousness of the inner spirit body

(See also: Consciousness , Body Mind and Soul)

CONSCIOUSNESS –

1. The created changing image and vibrational exchange moving between the poles of one infinity and the infinitesimal one; received in the form of waves given to all cells of the body like a TV station and interpreted into images including intention, well desire, thought; the capacity of all things, galaxies, people, animals and plants to interpret according to their quality, capacity and structure; changing according to yin and yang and governed by our environment and way of living, especially way of eating.(Michi Kushi)
2. awareness, wakefulness.
3. totality of one’s perceptions, thought and feelings.
4. state of illumination.
5. spectrum of mindfulness ranging from unconsciousness to dream consciousness to waking consciousness to enlightened consciousness.
6. one of the skandhas in Buddhism.
7. divine attribute manifesting with truth and bliss in Hinduism.
8. one of 89 mental states in Buddhism including the trances of the realm of the infinity of space, the infinity of consciousness, state of awareness, described in the Upanishads. (Sanskrit): jagrat - waking state svapna - sleep, dream, after-death shushupti - dreamless sleep turiya - at one moment with God... (NAD)

(See also: CONSCIOUSNESS , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Siva consciousness: Sivachaitanya.

A broad term naming the experience or state of being conscious of Siva in a multitude of ways, such as in the five expressed in the following meditation.

-       Vital Breath: prana. Experience the inbreath and outbreath as Siva's will within your body. Become attuned to the ever-present pulse of the universe, knowing that nothing moves but by His divine will.

-       All Pervasive Energy: shakti. Become conscious of the flow of life within your body. Realize that it is the same universal energy within every living thing. Practice seeing the life energy within another's eyes.

-       Manifest Sacred Form: darshana. Hold in your mind a sacred form, such as Nataraja, Sivalinga or your satguru - who is Sadasiva - and think of nothing else. See every form as a form of our God Siva.

-       Inner Light: jyoti. Observe the light that illumines your thoughts. Concentrate only on that light, as you might practice being more aware of the light on a TV screen than of its changing pictures.

-       Sacred Sound: nada. Listen to the constant high-pitched ee sounding in your head. It is like the tone of an electrical transformer, a hundred tamburas distantly playing or a humming swarm of bees.

These five constitute the "Sivachaitanya Panchatantra," five simple experiences that bring the Divine into the reach of each individual. Sivachaitanya, of course, applies to deeper states of meditation and contemplation as well.

See: jnana, mind (five states of mind), Sivasayujya.

(See also: Siva consciousness , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING - n or adj. inspiring radical ecological, women’s, gay or spiritual awareness in self or others. (NAD)

(See also: CONSCIOUSNESS , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Atman :

Atman

(Sanskrit) The root of atman is hardly known; its origin is uncertain, but the general meaning is that of "self." The highest part of man  - self, pure consciousness per se. The essential and radical power or faculty in man which gives to him, and indeed to every other entity or thing, its knowledge or sentient consciousness of selfhood. This is not the ego.

This principle (atman) is a universal one; but during incarnations its lowest parts take on attributes, because it is linked with the buddhi, as the buddhi is linked with the manas, as the manas is linked to the kama, and so on down the scale.

Atman is also sometimes used of the universal self or spirit which is called in the Sanskrit writings Brahman (neuter), and the Brahman or universal spirit is also called the paramatman.

Man is rooted in the kosmos surrounding him by three principles, which can hardly be said to be above the first or atman, but are, so to say, that same atman's highest and most glorious parts.

The inmost link with the Unutterable was called in ancient India by the term ``self,'' which has often been mistranslated "soul." The Sanskrit word is atman and applies, in psychology, to the human entity. The upper end of the link, so to speak, was called paramatman, or the ``self beyond,'' i.e., the permanent SELF  - words which describe neatly and clearly to those who have studied this wonderful philosophy, somewhat of the nature and essence of the being which man is, and the source from which, in beginningless and endless duration, he sprang. Child of earth and child of heaven, he contains both in himself.

We say that the atman is universal, and so it is. It is the universal selfhood, that feeling or consciousness of selfhood which is the same in every human being, and even in all the inferior beings of the hierarchy, even in those of the beast kingdom under us, and dimly perceptible in the plant world, and which is latent even in the minerals. This is the pure cognition, the abstract idea, of self. It differs not at all throughout the hierarchy, except in degree of self-recognition. Though universal, it belongs (so far as we are concerned in our present stage of evolution) to the fourth kosmic plane, though it is our seventh principle counting upwards.

See also: Atman , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

chakra: (Sanskrit) "Wheel."

Any of the nerve plexes or centers of force and consciousness located within the inner bodies of man. In the physical body there are corresponding nerve plexuses, ganglia and glands.

The seven principal chakras can be seen psychically as colorful, multi-petaled wheels or lotuses. They are situated along the spinal cord from the base to the cranial chamber.

Additionally, seven chakras, barely visible, exist below the spine. They are seats of instinctive consciousness, the origin of jealousy, hatred, envy, guilt, sorrow, etc. They constitute the lower or hellish world, called Naraka or patala. Thus, there are 14 major chakras in all.

The seven upper chakras, from lowest to highest, are:

1)    muladhara chakra (base of spine): memory, time and space;

2)    svadhishthana chakra (below navel): reason;

3)    manipura chakra (solar plexus): willpower;

4)    anahata chakra (heart center): direct cognition;

5)    vishuddha chakra (throat): divine love;

6)    ajna chakra (third eye): divine sight;

7)    sahasrara chakra (crown of head): illumination, Godliness.

The seven lower chakras, from highest to lowest, are

1)    atala chakra (hips): fear and lust;

2)    vitala chakra (thighs): raging anger;

3)    sutala chakra (knees): retaliatory jealousy;

4)    talatala chakra (calves): prolonged mental confusion;

5)    rasatala chakra (ankles): selfishness;

6)    mahatala chakra (feet): absence of conscience;

7)    patala chakra (located in the soles of the feet): murder and malice.

See: pradakshina, Naraka, chakra, chakras

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

consciousness: Chitta or chaitanya.

1)    A synonym for mind-stuff, chitta; or

2)    the condition or power of perception, awareness, apprehension.

There are myriad gradations of consciousness, from the simple sentience of inanimate matter to the consciousness of basic life forms, to the higher consciousness of human embodiment, to omniscient states of superconsciousness, leading to immersion in the One universal consciousness, Parashakti. Chaitanya and chitta can name both individual consciousness and universal consciousness.

Modifiers indicate the level of awareness, e.g.,

-       vyashti chaitanya, "individual consciousness;"

-       buddhi chitta, "intellectual consciousness;"

-       Sivachaitanya, "God consciousness."

Five classical "states" of awareness are discussed in scripture:

1)    wakefulness (jagrat),

2)    "dream" (svapna) or astral consciousness,

3)    "deep sleep" (sushupti) or subsuperconsciousness,

4)    the superconscious state beyond (turiya "fourth") and

5)    the utterly transcendent state called turiyatita ("beyond the fourth").

See: awareness, chitta, chaitanya, mind (all entries).

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

Kundalini Dictionary

Dictionary over terms related to kundalini and kundalini awakening. Please note that words in grey like " Kundalini " are links to archives with related articles.

Buddhism: Basic Buddhist Dictionary

A basic dictionary of Buddhism terms. Please note that all words in grey like " Buddhism " are links to an archive with related articles.

A Theosophical definition of Brahma :

Brahma

(Sanskrit) A word of which the root, brih, means "expansion." It stands for the spiritual energy-consciousness side of our solar universe, i.e., our solar system, and the Egg of Brahma is that solar system.

A Day of Brahma or a maha-manvantara is composed of seven rounds, a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years; this period is also called a kalpa. A Night of Brahma, the planetary rest period, which is also called the parinirvanic period, is of equal length.

Seven Days of Brahma make one solar kalpa; or, in other words, seven planetary cycles, each cycle consisting of seven rounds (or seven planetary manvantaras), form one solar manvantara.

One Year of Brahma consists of 360 Divine Days, each day being the duration of a planet's life, i.e., of a planetary chain of seven globes. The Life of Brahma (or the life of the universal system) consists of one hundred Divine Years, i.e., 4,320,000,000 years times 36,000 x 2.

The Life of Brahma is half ended: that is, fifty of his years are gone  - a period of 155,520,000,000,000 of our years have passed away since our solar system, with its sun, first began its manvantaric course. There remain, therefore, fifty more such Years of Brahma before the system sinks into rest or pralaya. As only half of the evolutionary journey is accomplished, we are, therefore, at the bottom of the kosmic cycle, i.e., on the lowest plane.

See also: Brahma , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Pure Consciousness:

See: Parashakti, Satchidananda, tattva.

(See also: Pure Consciousness , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

International Society for Krishna Consciousness

(See ISKCON)

(See also: International Society for Krishna Consciousness , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Consciousness :

Consciousness

In all its forms and protean manifestations, consciousness is spirit-matter  - force and matter, or spirit and substance, are one  - hence consciousness is the finest and loftiest form of energy, is the root of all things, and is coextensive with kosmic space. It is, therefore, the foundation and the essence of gods, of monads, and of atoms  - the three generalized degrees, kosmically speaking, of the universe.

A natural corollary from this is that the universe therefore is imbodied consciousness, or much more correctly we should call it a quasi-infinite aggregate of imbodied consciousnesses.

See also: Consciousness , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul