Tulku sprul sku (Tibetan) [short for sprul pa'i sku (tul-pe-ku) from sprul pa phantom, disembodied spirit; cf Sanskrit nirmanakaya body of magical transformation]

Applied to a lama of high rank, often to the head abbot of a monastery; specifically, to those lamas who have proved their ability of remembering their office and standing in a former incarnation, e.g., by selecting articles belonging previously to themselves, describing details of a former life, surroundings, etc. The two most important tulkus in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy are the Tashi and Dalai Lamas. Tulku is often referred to as an incarnation but, outside of the many varieties of an incarnating or imbodying power or energy, incarnation in popular usage is the direct continuance of a previous imbodiment. These so-called living buddhas of Tibet are one kind of tulku -- the transmission of a spiritual power or energy from one Buddha-lama of a Tibetan monastery when he dies, to a child or adult successor. If the transmission is successful, the result is tulku.

Tulku is of many different kinds and very closely parallels the Hindu doctrine of avatara. Taking Jesus as an example: here was a life-long tulku, a ray from a divinity; a tulku of that divinity so far as that ray goes, a divine manifestation, and hence a true avatara in the Brahmanical sense. Again, Gautama Buddha was tulku of his own inner buddha or inner god. The average person, however, is merely overshadowed occasionally, if he really aspires, by a touch of the divine flame from within the higher parts of his own constitution, and yet even for these fugitive instants such person is tulku. But when Gautama attained buddhahood, he was relatively infilled with his own inner buddha, and therefore was that god's human tulku. That was for Siddhartha the man, nirvana; he then entered dharmakaya and this portion of him was then known of men no more: that portion of him was a man become divine.

Another kind of tulku is where a human mahatma will send a ray from himself, or a part of himself, to take imbodiment, perhaps only temporarily, perhaps almost for a lifetime, in a neophyte-messenger that this mahatma is sending out into the world to teach. The messenger in this instance acts as a transmitter of the spiritual and divine powers of the mahatma. Blavatsky was such a tulku, imbodying frequently the very life of, and hence guided by, her own teacher. While this incarnation of the teacher's higher essence lasted, she was tulku. When for one reason or another the influence or ray was withdrawn for a longer or shorter period, tulku then and there became nonexistent.

Still another aspect of the tulku doctrine is illustrated by the case of Blavatsky. Where is she now? Blavatsky has not yet again reincarnated -- she has not yet been born as a child -- but she has at certain times, and for one certain individual, with that individual's consent, organized as it were tulku for that individual. For the time being, therefore, we can say that Blavatsky has partially imbodied in that chosen individual for the purpose of special transmission. In all cases of tulku, they are incarnations or appearances. If Blavatsky, for instance, were to make tulku of a person for a month or a year, for the time being that person would be tulku, but when that particular work was done, the influence would be withdrawn and tulku would stop.

There is again another kind of avataric incarnation or tulku, a temporary physical appearance of an adept in the mayavi-rupa. Certain Tibetan lamas are known to be able to perform this feat, and thus they too have been properly called tulkus, which is the type of tulku that certain Orientalists have referred to as "an appearance."

Another type of tulku of an opposite and essentially evil character is that brought about by a hypnotist who temporarily displaces the psychological nature of his entranced subject through psychologization or even hypnosis plus mesmerism. This, however, is more often than not an act of black magic and fraught with grave dangers, both to the hypnotist and the one entranced. Every clever hypnotist actually makes a tulku of his victim in a black magic sense. When he puts an idea into the brain of his victim, that one week from now at three o'clock in the afternoon he is going to do some essentially foolish or undignified act -- for the time being that hypnotist is working a black magic tulku on that victim, and every psychologist and hypnotist knows the possibility of this fact, though the scientific explanation of the term may be strange to him. A key example of black magic tulku was what the medieval Europeans used to call werewolves. This doctrine of the tulku, however, is at heart beautiful and sublime, and hence highly reverenced by the Tibetans.

(See also: Tulku, sprul sku , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

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Lipika (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root lip to write)

A scribe; divine beings connected with karma, recorders who impress on the astral light a record of every act and thought, great or small, in the phenomenal universe. The lipika are active cosmic karmic intelligences, the highest class of architects, which lay down from manvantara to manvantara the tracks of karmic evolution to be followed by all evolving entities within the manvantara about to begin; and these tracks are rigidly begun, and their direction controlled, by the endpoint of the paths of karmic achievement in the preceding manvantara.

They "project into objectivity from the passive Universal Mind the ideal plan of the universe, upon which the 'Builders' reconstruct the Kosmos after every Pralaya, . . . it is they who are the direct amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation -- or, as called by Plato, the 'Divine Thought' " (SD 1:104). The lipika thus are in every sense the agents of karmic destiny, for they are both the vehicles of divine ideation in their work, and yet the expressions of karmic law arising in the past and projected on the background of the future. Their intelligence and vitality permeate their particular universe and all the beings in it, so that the lipikas are stamped with whatever takes place.

The lipikas are among the very highest classes of dhyani-chohans or cosmic spirits in the universe; as entities, they may be thought of as acting from the highest plane of our chain of globes. In a sense they connect, karmically, the planes of pure spirit with those of matter, the cosmically vast with the manifested. These recorders of and in the karmic ledger of the solar system mark the distinctive barrier between the personal ego and the impersonal self, which latter is the noumenon and parent-source of the former. Hence the allegory that they circumscribe the manifested world of matter within the Ring-pass-not -- a mystical way of saying that they karmically circumscribe the limits of manifestation of the worlds of matter within the limits of karmic achievement for the evolving beings, and these limits form the Ring-pass-not.

Because of their lofty position, they are identified with the universal intelligence, as its immediate vehicles or channels. Thus they are not only the channels but the imbodiments of karma, and therefore not only the interpreters or agents of karma, but the recorders or scribes upwards into cosmic ideation of whatever takes place on lower planes. Their function is thus dual: imbodiments, channels, or interpreters of karma to be worked out in the universe in which the lipikas function, and thus agents of cosmic ideation; and second, as the scribes or recorders of the innumerably multitudinous karmic records of the beings below themselves.

The lipikas correspond to the Egyptian forty Assessors of Amenti, to the four Recording Angels of the Qabbalah, the Hindu four Maharajas and chitra-gupta, the Christian seven Angels of the Presence, and to the Book of Life of Revelations. They are directly connected with karma, with the Day of Judgment, or the Day-Be-With-Us, when everything becomes one, all individualities becoming one, yet each knowing itself.

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Divine Dictionary

This article have much info about the upcomning Venus Transit and it also includes actual prayers you can use at the Venus Transit.

Read more here: » Venus Transit: Opening the doorway to the Heart of Venus

Seraphim (Hebrew) [from the verbal root saraph to burn]

Plural of saraph. Fiery, burning, venomous, poisonous. The word came to have the significance of serpents, referring to those beings described in Isaiah 6:2 as possessing six wings, guarding the divine throne, and endowed with a voice with which they praise the deity; "they are the symbols of Jehovah, and of all the other Demiurgi who produce out of themselves six sons or likenesses -- Seven with their Creator" (SD 2:387n). In later Jewish writings they are associated with the Cherubim and 'Ophannim (wheels) of Ezekiel.

They parallel the Hindu nagas -- semi-divine beings of serpent character. "The Seraphim are the fiery Serpents of Heaven which we find in a passage describing Mount Meru as: 'the exalted mass of glory, the venerable haunt of gods and heavenly choristers . . . . not to be reached by sinful men . . . . because guarded by Serpents.' They are called the Avengers, and the 'Winged Wheels' " (SD 1:126) -- avengers in the sense of being the agents of karma. They are the Flames, a class of dhyani-chohans who dried the "turbid dark waters" with which the earth was covered in an early stage of its development (SD 2:16).

In the Qabbalistic hierarchy of angels, the Seraphim correspond to the fifth Sephirah, Geburah. In the ancient Syrian system they are equivalent to the sphere of the nebulae and comets. The celestial hierarchy adopted by Dionysius the pseudo-Aeropagite ranks them first.

In the hierarchy of emanations proceeding from the cosmic monad, the Seraphim precede the cherubim in emanational order, because in the hierarchical scheme the Seraphim stand for the formative or creative fires, the spiritual archetypes, whereas the cherubim are the builders of forms and hence are of the rupa class themselves. Thus the Seraphim belong to the arupa class which works through and in the Cherubim or rupa class. Thus the Seraphim, whose color is the spiritual red or spiritual fire, precede both in time and in hierarchical dignity the Cherubim whose color is blue -- the idea being that before manifestation of both mind and of forms can take place there must be in the cosmic monad the awakening of divine desire, signified as fiery or flamy color, spiritual red. As the Veda has it: "desire first arose in It."

(See also: Seraphim , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

For more dictionary entries, see » Divine Dictionary

Breaking Past Life Vows and Pacts

Many of us have had past lives in monastic environments, religious orders, secret sects and so on. Some of us will have made strong vows in the name of God with much emotion and determination, believing that they were right, and perhaps they were for us at that time. A vow made with strong intent carries over into other lifetimes unless a time limit is specified, which is usually not the case. We may have made vows of chastity, celibacy, poverty, silence, suffering, cleanliness, purity, everlasting love or of vengeance against someone who hurt or tricked us. All these prior vows are limitations that can constrict our souls and restrict our freedom.

Read more here: » Past Lives: Breaking Past Life Vows and Pacts

Paduka (pronounced 'paadukaa') Sahasram means one thousand verses on the sandals, is in praise of the sacred sandals on which the Lord’s lotus feet rest. The whole work is a monument for supreme devotion and superb poetry, all in one night’s intuition, - an overnight miracle of one thousand verses! It was done by him just as a fulfillment of a competition committed to as a challenge by his disciples who were provoked by members of the tenkalai school. All this was composed by Desika (as he puts it, by the Grace of the paduka of th ...

See also:

Vedanta Desika, Vedanta Desika - Life, Vedanta Desika - Works, Vedanta Desika - Desika means Vedanta Desika, Vedanta Desika - Greatness of Desika’s Writings, Vedanta Desika - The eight-lettered mantra, Vedanta Desika - Transcendence and Immanence of God, Vedanta Desika - Prapatti, Vedanta Desika - Paduka-Sahasram A Magnum Opus, Vedanta Desika - Eulogy of Divine Sandals, Vedanta Desika - '''Sri Sthuthi''

Read more here: » Vedanta Desika: Encyclopedia II - Vedanta Desika - Paduka-Sahasram A Magnum Opus

Orphism, Orphic Mysteries [from Greek orphikos]

Orphism originally taught of the Causeless Cause on which all speculation is impossible; the periodical appearance and disappearance of all things, from atom to universe; reimbodiment; cyclic law; the essential divinity of all beings and things; and the duality in manifestation of the universe. It postulated seven emanations from the Boundless: aether (spirit) and chaos (matter), from which two spring the world egg, out of which is born Phanes, the First Logos; then Uranus (and Gaia) the Second Logos, with Kronos (and Rhea, mother of the Olympian gods) a later phase of the Second Logos; and Zeus, the Third Logos or Demiurge -- who starts a minor sevenfold hierarchy of emanation by begetting Zagreus-Dionysos the god-man, the divine son.

Characteristic of Orphic cosmogony is the important place given to the number seven. "The rise of the Orphic worship of Dionysos is the most important fact in the history of Greek religion, and marks a great spiritual awakening. Its three great ideas are (1) a belief in the essential Divinity of humanity and the complete immortality or eternity of the soul, its pre-existence and its post-existence; (2) the necessity for individual responsibility and righteousness; and (3) the regeneration or redemption of man's lower nature by his own higher Self" (F. S. Darrow).

The Orphic teachings were kept intact by the Golden or Hermetic Chain of Succession down to the days of the Neoplatonists after which (as symbolically told in the archaic story of Eurydice) they were killed -- obscured or lost, so far as the public was concerned. Their keynote was consecration to the mandates of the god within: perfect purity, perfect impersonal love, perfect understanding, and devotion to the interests of humanity.

The three Orphic mystery-gods were Zeus, the divine All-father; Demeter-Kore, the earth goddess as both mother and maid; and Zagreus-Dionysos, the divine son. This trinity finds its counterpart in Egyptian, Indian, Chaldean, Christian, and other religions. There were two forms of baptism, one purification by water, later adopted into the Christian ritual; and the other a ceremony in which the face of the neophyte was cleansed with a mixture of earth and bran, symbolizing the washing away of stains from the soul.

The ceremony of the Eucharist was also adopted by the Christians and as Orphic ritual forbade the use of wine (substituting for it a mead of honey and milk), in the rite as adopted by the primitive Christians the neophyte drank not only wine but also milk and honey. Under Orphism, the honey symbolized not only purification and preservation, or endless life and bliss, but the secret knowledge obtained during initiation. Bees, the gatherers of honey, were emblems of the reincarnating soul, as was the butterfly; and as the bees gathered the nectar from flowers and made it into honey, so the human soul in its various peregrinations gathers from the beings and things of life the mystic experience and stores it away in the chambers of the soul. Milk symbolized knowledge, which fed the inner man, as a child of eternity, just as milk feeds the human child.

Orphism flourished from before the 14th until the 6th century BC, and again, after some five centuries of obscuration, during the first four centuries of the Christian era. Plato, Empedocles, the Pythagorean teachings, some of the Greek dramatists and poets are our main source material for the earlier period, as well as the various Orphic fragments including the Orphic Tablets.

These Tablets, with the Orphic Hymns, consist of eight gold plates containing inscriptions, dating from about the 4th century BC. They consist of instructions given to the soul for its journey through the afterdeath worlds or states very reminiscent of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The keynote is spoken by the soul: "I am a child of earth and of starry Heaven, but my race is of Heaven (alone). . . . Lo, I am parched with thirst . . ." For the later period we have the writings of the Neoplatonists and their opponents, the early Christian Fathers.

That the entire Orphic mythogony is intentionally allegorical does not invalidate that a great prehistoric religious reformer named Orpheus lived, worked, taught, and founded a religion as the outgrowth of a genuine Mystery school.

(See also: Orphism, Orphic Mysteries , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

For more dictionary entries, see » Divine Dictionary

1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. 1988 - Events. January 1 - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is established, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. January 2 - Georgia celebrates its bicentennial statehood. January 9 - Connecticut celebrates its bicentennial statehood. January 26 - Australia celebrates its bicentennial. 1988 - February. ...

Including:

• 1988 - Events
• 1988 - February
• 1988 - March
• 1988 - April
• 1988 - May
• 1988 - June
• 1988 - July
• 1988 - August
• 1988 - September
• 1988 - October
• 1988 - November
• 1988 - December
• 1988 - Environmental change
• 1988 - Unknown dates
• 1988 - Births
• 1988 - Deaths
• 1988 - January to March
• 1988 - April to June
• 1988 - July to September
• 1988 - October to December
• 1988 - Nobel Prizes
• 1988 - Templeton Prize
• 1988 - Right Livelihood Award
• 1988 - Fictional references

Read more here: » 1988: Encyclopedia - 1988

In Hinduism, Ganesha (Sanskrit: गणेश or श्रीगणेश (when used to distinguish lordly status) (or "lord of the hosts," also spelled as Ganesa and Ganesh, sometimes also referred to as Ganapati) is a son of Shiva and Parvati, and the husband of Bharati, Riddhi and Siddhi. He is also called Vinayaka in Marathi,Malayalam and Kannada. Vinayagar (in Tamil) and Vinayakudu in Telugu. 'Ga' symbolizes Buddhi (intellect) and 'Na' symbolizes Vijanana (wisdom). Ganesha is thus considered as the master of i ...

Including:

• Ganesha - Overview
• Ganesha - Iconography
• Ganesha - Some incidents related to Ganesha
• Ganesha - Birth of Ganesha
• Ganesha - Ganesha's reverence for his parents
• Ganesha - Ganesha and Vyasa
• Ganesha - Ganesha and the Moon
• Ganesha - Ganesha as a brahmachari
• Ganesha - Festivals and Worship of Ganesha
• Ganesha - Vehicle of Ganesh
• Ganesha - Popularity Of Ganesh
• Ganesha - Other names for Ganesha
• Ganesha - Other Media

Read more here: » Ganesha: Encyclopedia - Ganesha

Yoga Nidra, which literally means "sleep of the yogis", is used to prepare both mentally and physically prior to seeking deeper levels of consciousness and awareness through meditation. However Yoga Nidra is also regularly practiced on its own as a daily relaxation technique. Adherents claim that half an hour of Yoga Nidra can replace up to three hours of normal sleep, although its regular use as a sleep substitute is not recommended as the body and mind still ...

Including:

• Yoga Nidra - History
• Yoga Nidra - External link

Read more here: » Yoga Nidra: Encyclopedia - Yoga Nidra

Ein Sof (Hebrew: "without end" denoting "boundlessness"), also known as "Divine Being", is the name for God, within the Kabbalah of Judaism, as he is unknown, or the mysterious and ultimate source of all existence. All other existence flows, or emanates from the Ein Sof. According to the Zohar, the ten Sefirot (the Divine "emanations") as found in the Adam Kadmon (the original "primal man" created by God) emanate from Ein Sof. En Sof manifested himself to the Jewish mystics under ten different aspects or sefiroth (“numerations”) of the divine reality which had emanat ...

Including:

• Ein Sof Kabbalah - Ten aspects

Read more here: » Ein Sof Kabbalah: Encyclopedia - Ein Sof Kabbalah

Trinity The divine powers at the head of every theogony. In the Christian Trinity, the original idea of a triune divinity is preserved but has become confused and adapted to theological speculation. If the Holy Ghost is regarded as feminine, as it was in primitive Christianity, we have the trinity of Father-Mother-Son.

The present manner of the procession of the Holy Ghost in the Occident is due to the early theological quarrels which was one of the main causes of the final rupture between the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches -- the filioque ("and from the son") controversy. The Orthodox held with the original procession of Father, Holy Ghost, and Son, while in the West the Holy Ghost or Spirit has become a kind of emanation from the Father or Son, or both of them, and is scarcely distinguishable in its attributes from the Son; while the place of Mother has been filled in the Roman Catholic Church by Mary who, though the mother of Jesus, nevertheless is not a member of the Trinity.

But there is another trinity besides that of Father-Mother-Son, that of the one divine root and its dual aspects -- a conception altogether lost in Christianity. The Christian God is at best but a Demiourgos or inferior creative power, and his necessary attributes clash irreconcilably with those pertaining to the supreme hierarch of our universe; but in many of the sayings of Jesus and in the Epistles of Paul is clear evidence of the true teachings as to the Trinity and the relation of the Father and the Son.

In the orthodox Christian view of its theological Trinity the three persons of the Godhead are not three gods but one God, and yet three Persons or individuals. So that we have one Godhead who is three-in-one, and yet one-in-three, which is not three gods, nor yet one God, but both. Moslems aver that the Christian Trinity is not one God in three aspects, but actually three gods manifesting as one, and the strict monotheism of Islam refuses to admit the logical monstrosity. The Christian Churches lost sight of the mystical origin of its own trinity out of the neo-Pythagorean and Neoplatonic mysticism.

All the great religious and philosophical systems of antiquity contained a divine or spiritual triadic unity as the cosmic source and focus of all beings and things, out of which emanate the universe and all that is in it. Examples are the Osiris-Isis-Horus of Egypt or the Brahma-Vishnu-Siva of India; yet these triads of gods are emanated reflections or representatives on lower planes of the still more sublime and ineffable triadic mystery above and beyond them.

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Divine Dictionary

Suryayog is a dynamic spiritual yoga which brings us in tune with nature and the inner self. We are drawn towards eternal light, from saguna swaroop to nirguna swaroop - from the human to the Supreme.

Suryayog is a meaningful way of life taught by Himalayan Masters and practised by yogis who survive without food and sustenance for days. They draw power from Surya or the Sun, whose vibrant energy transforms and changes the bio-electric powers in all beings, fusing body, prana, mind and soul into a divine experience of cosmic consciousness.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Suryayog: Surya, The Healer And Energiser

Word In religious and philosophical usage, a translation of the Greek logos or Latin verbum. Its meaning here is that of reason manifested, employed mainly in a cosmogonic sense. "The esoteric meaning of the word Logos (speech or word, Verbum) is the rendering in objective expression, as in a photograph, of the concealed thought. The Logos is the mirror reflecting divine mind, and the Universe is the mirror of the Logos, though the latter is the esse of that Universe. As the Logos reflects all in the Universe of Pleroma, so man reflects in himself all that he sees and finds in his Universe, the Earth" (SD 2:25). This word was chosen because human thought, or immanent conscious intelligence or mind, manifests itself through words. It is familiar to Christians through the opening verse of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (1:1, 14). In the former quotation the meaning is entirely cosmogonic; in the latter, it has been diminished to signify the innate Word or divinity in man, which when in full control of the human adept can, by a stretch of metaphor, mean that the innate Christ, Buddha, or god in man so controls the human personality as to have become the latter, and thus to manifest among men.

Cosmogonically, theosophy considers the universe and all in it, from its first divine appearance to its last material modification, as being in toto as well as in all manifested details an emanation from the universal mind. This emanation takes place at the beginning of a manvantara in three separate stages or degrees: the First or unmanifest Logos; the Second or manifest-unmanifest Logos; and finally the Third or manifest Logos. Logos is applicable to these three stages because each is the manifesting of the wisdom in its divine predecessor, each stage carrying within itself, on the principle of the emanational scheme, the attributes or qualities of its predecessors. The Second Logos has invariably been considered feminine, and the Third Logos is regarded as the creative power.

Corresponding to the three Logoi in the Hindu scheme are Brahman, Brahma, and Isvara emanating originally from parabrahman-mulaprakriti. In the highly philosophical visioning of Mahayana Buddhism is adi-buddha, mahabuddhi, and the celestial buddha, occasionally indirectly called dharmakaya. On a scale of less magnitude, Hindu thought has developed the triad Brahma, the emanator or original emanation; Vishnu, the supporter or sustainer, a feminine characteristic nevertheless; and Siva at once the regenerator and producer in the sense of destroying but to regenerate. Still a third Hindu scheme is found in the series of paramatman, mahabuddhi or alaya, and mahat or cosmic creative mind.

A somewhat similar usage in the Qabbalah is Meimra, or 'imrah (word, particularly from divinity) [both from Hebrew verbal root amar to say, speak, use words]. One of the Stanzas of Dzyan refers to the Army of the Voice, which is explained to be "the prototype of the 'Host of the Logos,' or the 'word' of the Sepher Jezirah, called in the Secret Doctrine 'the One Number issued from No-Number' -- the One Eternal Principle" (SD 1:94).

See also LOGOS

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Divine Dictionary

The best form of visualisation is when you try and affirm your oneness with the Divine Spirit. Sit, relaxed and comfortable, in a chair with your spine straight, or on a mattress in the meditative/cross-legged posture. Focus your gaze on the area of the third eye in between your eyebrows.

This in yogic terms is the seat of concentration and will power. Fill your heart and your mind with the joy of God or any other happy feeling that you are able to relate with. Know yourself to be a being of light. Forget the heaviness of the body. See yourself surrounded by this ball of light. It is immersing you in its warmth and permeates you into the space around. This light is the presence and consciousness of God.

(See also: Meditation and Visualisation , Meditation, Meditation for Beginners, Meditation Techniques)

Read more here: » Meditation and Visualisation: Visualisation - Visualising exercise

Ridvan is a garden chosen by Baha'u'llah for announcing his divine mission. The Festival of Ridvan is celebrated over 12 days from April 21 to May 2. The first, ninth and twelfth days are consecrated for special worship and service.

The Baha'is believe that the events in the Garden of Ridvan are of tremendous significance for the regeneration of humankind. So the festival is celebrated with great joy and fellowship.

(See also: Festival of Ridvan , Indian Festivals, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Festival of Ridvan: Festival of Paradise, The Baha'i Ridvan  

As a provider of milk, and due to cows careful tending of their calves, the cow was a universal symbol of motherhood, and so Hathor became goddess of motherhood, gaining titles such as The Great Cow Who Protects Her Child and Mistress of the Sanctuary of Women. Because of the aspect of motherhood, her priests were oracles, predicting the fate of the newborn, and midwives delivering them. As a mother, since she enclosed the sky, she was seen as the mother of Horus. Symbolically she became the divine mother of the pharaoh, ...

See also:

Hathor, Hathor - The divine waterway, Hathor - Goddess of Motherhood, Hathor - Fertility goddess, Hathor - Musician, Hathor - Bloodthirsty warrior, Hathor - Wife of Thoth, Hathor - Later years, Hathor - Hathor outside the Nile, Hathor - Other spellings

Read more here: » Hathor: Encyclopedia II - Hathor - Goddess of Motherhood

Everybody speaks: - This is right, that is wrong; you are right, he is wrong; - but he cannot tell you exactly what he means by right and wrong.

What is the criterion by which we judge an action to be right or wrong, and good or bad? - Right and wrong - and - good and bad - are relative terms. Right and wrong refer to the moral standard, as law. Good and bad refer to it, as end. You will have to adjust your conduct according to this moral standard. That which is in accordance with a rule is right. That which is worthy of achievement is good.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Hindu Ethics: Philosophy Of Right And Wrong

See also: 1983 in music, other events of 1984, 1985 in music, 1980s in music and the list of 'years in music' 1984 in music - Events. January 27 - singer Michael Jackson's hair catches fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial. February 14 - Elton John marries studio engineer Renate Blauel. February 16 - Jerry Lee Lewis surrenders to federal authorities on charges of income tax evasion. Lewis is later acquitted. February 29 - KMFDM's first live performance. Marc ...

Including:

• 1984 in music - Events
• 1984 in music - Albums released
• 1984 in music - Top hits
• 1984 in music - Christmas songs
• 1984 in music - Published popular music
• 1984 in music - Classical music
• 1984 in music - Opera
• 1984 in music - Musical theater
• 1984 in music - Musical films
• 1984 in music - Births
• 1984 in music - Deaths
• 1984 in music - Awards
• 1984 in music - Grammy Awards
• 1984 in music - Country Music Association Awards
• 1984 in music - Eurovision Song Contest
• 1984 in music - Charts
• 1984 in music - List of No. 1 Hits
• 1984 in music - KROQ

Read more here: » 1984 in music: Encyclopedia - 1984 in music

Quietism is a term with multiple meanings and definitions. Quietism is a Christian philosophy that swept through France, Italy and Spain during the 17th century, but it had much earlier origins. The mystics known as Quietists insist with more or less emphasis on intellectual stillness and interior passivity as essential conditions of perfection; and all have been officially proscribed as heresy in very explicit terms by the Roman Catholic Church. Quietism, according to Schopenhauer ...

Including:

• Quietism - Christian philosophy
• Quietism - Origins of Christian philosophy
• Quietism - Theology
• Quietism - Schopenhauer

Read more here: » Quietism: Encyclopedia - Quietism

Nārāyana Guru (नारायण गुरु) (1856 - 1928) was a great sage and social reformer of India. Born in Ezhava/Thiyya community (a Backward Community in today's parlance), he demonstrated a path to social emancipation without invoking the dualism of the opressed and the opressor. In contrast to certain other reformers who critized Brahmins and "upper caste" Hindus for the conditions of the "lower castes", Nārāyana Guru stressed on the upliftment of the community through its own efforts by the establishme ...

Including:

• Narayana Guru - Early Life
• Narayana Guru - Transformation as Master Yogi and Seeker of Truth
• Narayana Guru - Enlightenment and its Poetic Expression
• Narayana Guru - Consecration of Siva Lingam at Aruvippuram
• Narayana Guru - Nārāyana Guru’s Philosophy
• Narayana Guru - Nārāyana Guru Rationalism and Atheism
• Narayana Guru - Works by Nārāyana Guru
• Narayana Guru - In Malayalam
• Narayana Guru - In Sanskrit
• Narayana Guru - Notes
• Narayana Guru - Bibiliography/Reference

Read more here: » Narayana Guru: Encyclopedia - Narayana Guru

Theosophy is a body of ideas which holds that all religions are attempts by man to ascertain "the Divine," and as such each religion has a portion of the truth. Theosophy, as a coherent system of thought, developed from the writings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (also Hélène). Together with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge, and others she founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. A more formal definition from the Concise Oxford Dictionary describes Theosophy as "any of various philosophies professing to achieve a ...

Including:

• Theosophy - Basic Theosophical beliefs
• Theosophy - Consciousness is universal and individual
• Theosophy - Man is provisionally immortal
• Theosophy - Reincarnation is universal
• Theosophy - Karma
• Theosophy - Universal brotherhood
• Theosophy - Evolution
• Theosophy - The Septenary
• Theosophy - A brief history of Theosophy
• Theosophy - Music
• Theosophy - Early 20th-century literary references to Theosophy
• Theosophy - Notes

Read more here: » Theosophy: Encyclopedia - Theosophy