Delusion Dictionary

delusion: Moha. False belief, misconception.

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

Delusion (Ignorance)

"Delusion refers to belief in something that contradicts reality. In Buddhism, delusion is ... a lack of awareness of the true nature or Buddha nature of things, or of the true meaning of existence. "

According to the Buddhist outlook, we are deluded by our senses-- among which intellect (discriminating, discursive thought) is included as a sixth sense.

Consciousness, attached to the senses, leads us into error by causing us to take the world of appearances for the world of reality, whereas in fact it is only a limited and fleeting aspect of reality." (The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen.)

 (See also: Delusion (Ignorance) , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Non-duality of delusion and enlightenment

(Jpn.: meigo-funi or meigo-ittai)

See: oneness of delusion and enlightenment

(See also: Non-duality of delusion and enlightenment , Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Oneness of delusion and enlightenment

(Jpn.: meigo-funi or meigo-ittai)

Also, non-duality of delusion and enlightenment. The principle that delusion and enlightenment are, though different in aspect, one and the same in their essential nature. A bad cause or influence gives rise to delusion, and a good cause or influence, to enlightenment. Delusion and enlightenment are two different workings, but both arise from the essential nature of life. This Mahayana concept contrasts with the Hinayana view that enlightenment and delusion, or enlightenment and earthly desires, are mutually exclusive and incompatible.

(See also: Oneness of delusion and enlightenment , Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Five Fundamental Conditions of Passions and Delusions

1. Wrong views which are common to triloka;
2. Clinging or attachment in the desire realm;
3. Clinging or attachment in the form realm:
4. Clinging or attachment in the formless realm which is still mortal;
5. The state of unenlightenment which is the rootcause of all distressful delusion.

 (See also: Five Fundamental Conditions of Passions and Delusions , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Demons

Evil influences which hinder cultivation. These can take an infinite number of forms, including evil beings or hallucinations. Disease and death, as well as the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion are also equated to demons, as they disturb the mind.

The Nirvana Sutra lists four types of demon:

i)               greed, anger and delusion;

ii)             ii) the five skandas, or obstructions caused by physical and mental functions;

iii)            iii) death;

iv)            iv) the demon of the Sixth Heaven (Realm of Desire).

The Self-Nature has been described in Mahayana sutras as a house full of gold and jewelry. To preserve the riches, i.e., to keep the mind calm, empty and still, we should shut the doors to the three thieves of greed, anger and delusion.

Letting the mind wander opens the house to "demons," that is, hallucinations and harm. Thus, Zen practitioners are taught that, while in meditation, "Encountering demons, kill the demons, encountering Buddhas, kill the Buddhas." Both demons and Buddhas are mind-made, Mind-Only.

For a detailed discussion of demons, see Master Thich Thien Tam, Buddhism of Wisdom and' Faith, sect. 51.

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

Dream FAQ Dictionary: How can I tell actual paranormal experiences from self-delusion?

How can I tell actual paranormal experiences from self-delusion?

A. If you plan to prove actual paranormal experiences, most importantis that you are honest towards yourself. All efforts to match dreamsagainst real occurrences are moot if they are reported after the fact,since then it can't be proven any more that you actually dreamed this,and are vulnerable to the argument that the recall of the dream isjust a self-delusion. So the most important thing is to write down allof your dreams immediately. Make sure that no obvious external sourcesof information have had influence on your dreams (i.e. don't sleepwith the radio on if you want to match dreams against news items.)Don't interpret too much into your dreams in the moment you write themdown, log only what you really remember. When matching the dream logagainst other things use only the log, not anything you think youwould remember from that particular dream. Remember that recall of adream gets worse with the time, not better. If you want to documentshared dream experiences, all people involved should follow thesestrict standards. (Cf. question 7.3.) Refer to the sci.skeptic FAQ forobvious traps you should not get caught in.

Source: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dreams-faq

(See also: Paranormal experiences , Dream Interpretation FAQ, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams)

bhranti-darshana:

bhranti-darshana - a delusion

(See also: bhranti-darshana , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Ring-Pass-Not :

Ring-Pass-Not

A profoundly mystical and suggestive term signifying the circle or bounds or frontiers within which is contained the consciousness of those who are still under the sway of the delusion of separateness  - and this applies whether the ring be large or small. It does not signify any one especial occasion or condition, but is a general term applicable to any state in which an entity, having reached a certain stage of evolutionary growth of the unfolding of consciousness, finds itself unable to pass into a still higher state because of some delusion under which the consciousness is laboring, be that delusion mental or spiritual. There is consciously a ring-pass-not for every globe of the planetary chain, a ring-pass-not for the planetary chain itself, a ring-pass-not for the solar system, and so forth. It is the entities who labor under the delusion who therefore actually create their own rings-pass-not, for these are not actual entitative material frontiers, but boundaries of consciousness.

A ring-pass-not furthermore may perhaps be said with great truth to be somewhat of the nature of a spiritual laya-center or point of transmission between plane and plane of consciousness.

The rings-pass-not as above said, however, have to do with phases or states of consciousness only. For instance, the ring-pass-not for the beasts is self-consciousness, i.e., the beasts have not yet been enabled to develop forth their consciousness to the point of self-consciousness or reflective consciousness except in minor degree. A dog, for example, located in a room which it desires to leave, will run to a door out of which it is accustomed to go and will sit there whining for the door to be opened. Its consciousness recognizes the point of egress, but it has not developed the self-conscious mental activity to open the door.

A general ring-pass-not for humanity is their inability to self-consciously participate in spiritual self-consciousness.

See also: Ring-Pass-Not , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

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 dictionary with common spiritual words from Hinduism and Sanskrit. Also see these links: Hinduism, Spirituality, Enlightenment, Spiritual Dictionary and Hinduism Dictionary.

Dream Dictionary including the meaning of dreams about: Dagger, Dahlia, Dairy, Daisy, Damask Rose, Damson, Dance, Dancing Master, Dandelion, Danger, Dark, Dates, Daughter, Daughter-in-law, David, Day, Daybreak, Dead, Death, Debt, December, Deck, Decorate, Deed, Deer, Delay,

Dream Dictionary Index including links to 10.000 dream interpretations: Dream Dictionary Index

For more dream interpretation, see: Meaning of Dreams or Dream Dictionary

For articles about dreams, see: Dreams

A dictionary Of Commonly Used Sanskrit terms. From A to Crore.

Please note that all words in grey, like "yoga", "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

A dictionary Of Siddha Yoga Terminology. From Abhanga to Yogini.

Please note that all words in grey, like "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

Dead, Dead People, Dead Father, Dead Mother, Dead Relative, Dead Relatives

• To dream of the dead, is usually a dream of warning. If you see and talk with your father, some unlucky transaction is about to be made by you. Be careful how you enter into contracts, enemies are around you. Men and women are warned to look to their reputations after this dream.
• To see your mother, warns you to control your inclination to cultivate morbidness and ill will towards your fellow creatures. A brother, or other relatives or friends, denotes that you may be called on for charity or aid within a short time.
• To dream of seeing the dead, living and happy, signifies you are letting wrong influences into your life, which will bring material loss if not corrected by the assumption of your own will force.
• To dream that you are conversing with a dead relative, and that relative endeavors to extract a promise from you, warns you of coming distress, unless you follow the advice given you. Disastrous consequences could often be averted if minds could grasp the inner workings and sight of the higher or spiritual self. The voice of relatives is only that higher self taking form to approach more distinctly the mind that lives near the material plane. There is so little congeniality between common or material natures that persons should depend upon their own subjectivity for true contentment and pleasure.
• [52] Paracelsus says on this subject: ``It may happen that the soul of persons who have died perhaps fifty years ago may appear to us in a dream, and if it speaks to us we should pay special attention to what it says, for such a vision is not an illusion or delusion, and it is possible that a man is as much able to use his reason during the sleep of his body as when the latter is awake; and if in such a case such a soul appears to him and he asks questions, he will then hear that which is true. Through these solicitous souls we may obtain a great deal of knowledge to good or to evil things if we ask them to reveal them to us. Many persons have had such prayers granted to them. Some people that were sick have been informed during their sleep what remedies they should use, and after using the remedies, they became cured, and such things have happened not only to Christians, but also to Jews, Persians, and heathens, to good and to bad persons.''
• The writer does not hold that such knowledge is obtained from external or excarnate spirits, but rather through the personal Spirit Glimpses that is in man.--AUTHOR.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Dead , Dreams - Meaning of Dream about Dead , Dream Interpretation Dead )

Buddhism: The religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha (ca 624544 bce). He refuted the idea of man's having an immortal soul and did not preach of any Supreme Deity. Instead he taught that man should seek to overcome greed, hatred and delusion and attain enlightenment through realizing the Four Noble Truths and following the Eightfold Path.

Prominent among its holy books is the Dhammapada. Buddhism arose out of Hinduism as an inspired reform movement which rejected the caste system and the sanctity of the Vedas. It is thus classed as nastika, "unbeliever," and is not part of Hinduism. Buddhism eventually migrated out of India, the country of its origin, and now enjoys a following of over 350 million, mostly in Asia.

See: Buddha.

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

A dictionary Of Commonly Used Sanskrit terms. From Lac to Omkarasana.

Please note that all words in grey, like "yoga", "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

Alchemy ; in Arabic Ul-Khemi, is, as the name suggests, the chemistry of nature. Ui-Khemi or Al-Kimia, however, is only an Arabianized word, taken from the Greek chemeia, (chemeia) from cumoz -  "juice", sap extracted from a plant.

Says Dr. Wynn Westcott: "The earliest use of the actual term ‘alchemy’ is found in the works of Julius Firmicus Maternus, who lived in the days of Constantine the Great. The Imperial Library in Paris contains the oldest-extant alchemic treatise known in Europe;it was written by Zosimus the Panopolite about 400 A.D. in the Greek language, the next oldest is by Eneas Gazeus, 480 A.D."

It deals with the finer forces of nature and the various conditions in which they are found to operate. Seeking under the veil of language, more or less artificial, to convey to the uninitiated so much of the mysterium magnum as is safe in the hands of a selfish world, the alchemist postulates as his first principle the existence of a certain Universal Solvent by which all composite bodies are resolved into the homogeneous substance from which they are evolved, which substance he calls pure gold, or summa materia. This solvent, also called menstvuum universale, possesses the power of removing all the seeds of disease from the human body, of renewing youth and prolonging life. Such is the lapis philosophorum (philosopher’s stone).

Alchemy first penetrated into Europe through Geber, the great Arabian sage and philosopher, in the eighth century of our era; but it was known and practised long ages ago in China and in Egypt, numerous papyri on alchemy and other proofs of its being the favourite study of kings and priests having been exhumed and preserved under the generic name of Hermetic treatises. (See "Tabula Smaragdina"). Alchemy is studied under three distinct aspects, which admit of many different interpretations, viz.: the Cosmic, Human, and Terrestrial. These three methods were typified under the three alchemical properties - sulphur, mercury, and salt.

Different writers have stated that there are three, seven, ten, and twelve processes respectively; but they are all agreed that there is but one object in alchemy, which is to transmute gross metals into pure gold. What that gold, however, really is, very few people understand correctly. No doubt that there is such a thing in nature as transmutation of the baser metals into the nobler, or gold. But this is only one aspect of alchemy, the terrestrial or purely material, for we sense logically the same process taking place in the bowels of the earth. Yet, besides and beyond this interpretation, there is in alchemy a symbolical meaning, purely psychic and spiritual.

While the Kabbalist-Alchemist seeks for the realization of the former, the Occultist-Alchemist, spurning the gold of the mines, gives all his attention and directs his efforts only towards the transmutation of the baser quaternary into the divine upper trinity of man, which when finally blended are one. The spiritual, mental, psychic, and physical planes of human existence are in alchemy compared to the four elements, fire, air, water and earth, and are each capable of a threefold constitution, i.e., fixed, mutable and volatile.

Little or nothing is known by the word concerning the origin of this archaic branch of philosophy; but it is certain that it antedates the construction of any known Zodiac, and, as dealing with the personified forces of nature, probably also any of the mythologies of the world; nor is there any doubt that the true secret of transmutation (on the physical plane) was known in days of old, and lost before the dawn of the so-called historical period. Modern chemistry owes its best fundamental discoveries to alchemy, but regardless of the undeniable truism of the latter that there is but one element in the universe, chemistry has placed metals in the class of elements and is only now beginning to find out its gross mistake.

Even sonic Encyclopedists are now forced to confess that if most of the accounts of transmutations are fraud or delusion, "yet some of them are accompanied by testimony which renders them probable. . . By means of the galvanic battery even the alkalis have been discovered to have a metallic base.

The possibility of obtaining metal from other substances which contain the ingredients composing it, and of changing one metal into another . . . must therefore be left undecided. Nor are all alchemists to be considered impostors. Many have laboured under the conviction of obtaining their object, with indefatigable patience and purity of heart, which is earnestly recommended by sound alchemists as the principal requisite for the success of their labours."

(Pop. Encyclop.)

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

tattva: (Sanskrit) "That-ness" or "essential nature." Tattvas are the primary principles, elements, states or categories of existence, the building blocks of the universe. Lord Siva constantly creates, sustains the form of and absorbs back into Himself His creations. Rishis describe this emanational process as the unfoldment of tattvas, stages or evolutes of manifestation, descending from subtle to gross. At mahapralaya, cosmic dissolution, they enfold into their respective sources, with only the first two tattvas surviving the great dissolution.

The first and subtlest form - the pure consciousness and source of all other evolutes of manifestation - is called Siva tattva, or Parashakti-nada. But beyond Siva tattva lies Parasiva - the utterly transcendent, Absolute Reality, called attava. That is Siva's first perfection.

The Sankhya system discusses 25 tattvas. Saivism recognizes these same 25 plus 11 beyond them, making 36 tattvas in all. These are divided into three groups:

1)    First are the five shuddha tattvas (shuddha = pure). These constitute the realm of shuddha maya.

2)    Next are the seven shuddha-ashuddha tattvas(shuddha-ashuddha = pure-impure). These constitute the realm of shuddhashuddha maya.

3)    3The third group comprises the 24 ashuddha tattvas (ashuddha = impure). These constitute the realm of ashuddha maya.

See: atattva, antahkarana, guna, kosha,

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

deha-bhranthi:

deha-bhranthi (dheha-bhraanthi). Mistaken identification of self with the body, body delusion.

(See also: deha-bhranthi , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)