Dream Dictionary perception

Skandha or Skhanda (Sanskrit). Lit., "bundles", or groups of attributes; everything finite, inapplicable

to the eternal and the absolute. There are five - esoterically, seven - attributes in every human living being, which are known as the Pancha Shandhas. These are

(1) form, rupa;

(2) perception, vidana;

(3) consciousness, sanjna;

(4) action, sanskara;

(5) knowledge, vidyana. These unite at the birth of man and constitute his personality. After the maturity of these Skandhas, they begin to separate and weaken,

and this is followed by jaramarana, or decrepitude and death.

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

Theopathy [from Greek theos god + pathos experience, feeling]

The seventh stage of initiation in the Mysteries, where the candidate becomes a selfless channel for communion with his inner god; the third and last stage of spiritual development -- the first being theophany, the second theopneusty. The sense of theopathy, originally used in the Greek Mysteries, was that the adept "suffered" the full influence of the god within him, becoming a selfless, consenting channel for the divine power pouring through him, in utter disregard of the personal self. Because of the immense personal renunciation involved, such an adept was said to suffer -- meaning to bear or carry the divinity within.

The second of these three initiatory grades, theopneusty, was the same as the third, but in less full degree, and signified that the initiate received the inspiration from above-within and, as it were, was breathed into from above, but did not carry the full load of the spiritual fire or inspirational flow. The first stage, theophany, was by comparison a temporary occurrence and signified the appearance of one's divinity to the initiant's self-conscious perception; the neophyte met his own inner god face to face, and the appearance or theophany lasted for a greater or less time depending upon various circumstances.

Such terms were held secret in the ancient Mysteries, although the words themselves, as time passed, slowly filtered outwards and often became misunderstood, as by Christian theologians.

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

Zen.

A major school of Mahayana Buddhism, with several branches.

One of its most popular techniques is meditation on koans, which leads to the generation of the Great Doubt. According to this method: The master gives the student a koan to think about, resolve, and then report back on to the master. Concentration intensifies as the student first tries to solve the koan intellectually. This initial effort proves impossible, however, for a koan cannot be solved rationally. Indeed, it is a kind of spoof on the human intellect.

Concentration and irrationality -- these two elements constitute the characteristic psychic situation that engulfs the student wrestling with a koan. As this persistent effort to concentrate intellectually becomes unbearable, anxiety sets in. The entirety of one's consciousness and psychic life is now filled with one thought. The exertion of the search is like wrestling with a deadly enemy or trying to make one's way through a ring of flames. Such assaults on the fortress of human reason inevitably give rise to a distrust of all rational perception.

This gnawing doubt (Great Doubt), combined with a futile search for a way out, creates a state of extreme and intense yearning for deliverance. The state may persist for days, weeks or even years; eventually the tension has to break. (Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, Vol. I, p.253.)

An interesting koan is the koan of Buddha Recitation. Unlike other koans, it works in two ways. First of all, if a cultivator succeeds in his meditation through this koan, he can achieve awakening as with other koans. However, if he does not succeed, and experience shows that many cultivators do not, then the meditation on the Buddha's narne helps him to achieve rebirth in the Pure Land.

This is so provided he believes (as most practitioners in Asia do) in Amitabha and the expedient Pure Land. Thus, the Buddha Recitation koan provides a safety net, and demonstrates the underlying unity of Zen and Pure Land.

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

I have taught many parents how to interpret their children's dreams. Knowing the language of mind gives you an invaluable window into your child's consciousness. When Briana was eleven I asked her parents, who are both dream interpreters, how often she remembered her dreams. Her mother, Teresa, said she remembered about four every week. Teresa also thought Bri had an idea of what her dreams meant. I encouraged her to listen to Briana's ideas and build upon them. When Teresa said sometimes it was like "pulling teeth to get her to express her thoughts," I suggested she encourage Bri to draw or even act out her dreams.

(See also: Indigo Children, What is Indigo Children, Parenting Indigo Children, Adult Indigo, Indigo Children Channeling)

Read more here: » Indigo Children: A Different Kind of Memory   What do Indigos Dream?  

Nebular Theory A theory of the origin of the solar system of Laplace, Herschel, and others, much in favor during the earlier part of the 19th century, but since fallen into disfavor. The hypothesis was devised to explain certain facts, especially that the planets all revolve in the same direction, that their satellites (except those of Uranus and Neptune) revolve around their primaries in this same direction, and that the planets so far as we know rotate in this same direction. The theory assumes the sun to have started as a very diffused, tenuous gas or nebula, extending much farther than its present volume.

The combined influence of gravitation and of contraction by cooling resulted, in accordance with dynamic laws, in the separation of parts of the mass into rings, and these rings afterwards coalesced severally into planets; and their motions of revolution and rotation are thus according to this theory explained.

Better knowledge of the dynamic principles concerned has discredited the theory in its details; it conflicts particularly with the principle of the conservation of the moment of inertia and with the kinetic theory of gases. Moreover, the solar system is now seen to be more complex than had been supposed, the planetoids for instance having very eccentric motions.

In The Secret Doctrine Blavatsky credits the theory's authors with a great intuitional perception of certain cosmogonical facts, and to a certain extent approves the theory in its broad outline but not in its details. Any theory which attempts to explain the universe on purely mechanical principles can be no more than one of a number of possible systems of graphic representation. The attempt to abstract the physical universe from the universe in general, while useful for special practical purposes, does not conduct us to the truth; and this is preeminently the case with such a subject as the origin of the solar system and the motions of its parts. Yet the nebular hypothesis in certain of its main elements is in accord with theosophic teachings, insofar, for instance, as it glimpses the gradual condensation of matter from a tenuous condition, in its segregation around centers, and in the essentially circular character of motion.

In the theosophic view, not only the galaxy itself is alive -- an animate organism -- but likewise each and every solar system comprised in it is likewise alive and therefore an organism. The term alive comprises mind or intelligence and spirit. Thus not only is the sun alive, because it is the body of a divinity, but likewise every one of the planets (excepting the moons) in the solar system is likewise an individual living entity, of which only the grossest or physical globe is apparent to our vision. The solar system, therefore, is a composite unit, formed of component individuals.

The nebular hypothesis was mainly rejected by the Masters and Blavatsky because of its typical materialistic and mechanical character. It is a fact that the solar system was originally formed from a vast nebula consolidating into the physical world from inner worlds -- astral matter becoming physical matter -- but guided by innate mind and life; and the various motions within the solar system arise from the innate vitality within it. Furthermore, although the planetary chains were originally born from this nebula, their respective life times are far shorter than that of the solar system itself, so that these planetary chains have their many reimbodiments during the life period of the solar system. Comets, if they survive, are usually destined to become planetary bodies in the solar system in their turn, running their life period, and then dying, to reappear as comets again after long ages of rest in inner worlds.

(See also: Nebular Theory , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Psychic and intuitive perception (what most people refer to as their “gut feeling”) is god given and natural to us when we are born. But what happens to these abilities as humans grow and develop? Children are generally taught to use them only in their most basic form and psychic abilities are often seen as superstition, imagination and other worldly experiences. How can we as parents support our children in awakening these innate abilities?

Read more here: » Spiritual Parenting: Childrens Psychic Abilities and Sense Perception

Psychics are not dealing with the "physical" universe as governed by known laws related to space and time, but are accessing non-physical information through non-physical senses. From a quantum physical perspective, there are no hard boundaries or limitations in the Universe, including those we generally perceive related to space and time. Our thoughts or conscious awareness can transcend the constructed "reality" of space/time in order to see into something at a "distance," or see into the future.

Read more here: » Psychic Perception: Psychic Perception - An Overview

 Above the rational mind and below the soul realm is an intermediary plane of consciousness that I call the intuitional. It is very difficult to characterize this realm, because it transcends mental concepts but is still not a realm of being like the soul. The intuitional plane is the "highest" or most subtle and universal part of the created worlds. Although God and souls are the truly creative agents of the universe, we could say that the process of creating begins with the intuition and then moves to concepts, feeling responses, images and shapes, and finally physical manifestation. Thus intuition is a key to initiating creativity.

Read more here: » Intuition: Psychic Perception, Spiritual Insight, and Inspiration

The Secret of Agni (Agni Rahasya):

In ancient Vedic thought, the individual soul was symbolized by fire. Our inner soul, hidden like a secret flame deep within our hearts, abides inextinguishable throughout all our states of consciousness of waking, dream and deep sleep. It endures as the witness through our every birth and death, through all the many sojourns in the various worlds and planes of existence of our soulÕs vast manifestation.

Read more here: » Agni: The Secret of Agni

A tremendous explosion in consciousness is occurring on our planet. This explosion is thrusting us into new dimensions that are beyond words and simple comprehension. We are being carried on a lucid thread of awakening to a potential that is new, yet as ancient as the stars. This new consciousness is full of love and light.

Read more here: » Indigo Children: Indigo Spirit for a cosmic Awakening

This very, very exciting article actually gives a scientific theory behind many spiritual viewpoints and spiritual experiences, including enlightenment and the perception of oneness encountered by many people that have had strong spiritual experiences.

It all started 1982 at the University of Paris. A research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. After this, it didn’t take long before the idea of a holographic universe was created. But the implications of this are truly mind boggling…

Read more here: » Spirituality and Science: The Holographic Universe

Break Your Mental Barriers

Most of us find ourselves trapped in our mortal ken because of our ingrained habit of linear and sequential thinking. We find it difficult to break this habit. The habit arises from our innate striving to discern patterns in our sensory perception of reality. Our mind interprets these perceptions by piecing together their constituent elements with other entities in our mental database of past experience. By systematically stringing these patterns together we have created the corpus of human knowledge.

Read more here: » Cosmic Consciousness: Break Your Mental Barriers

Compassion: Cultivating Positive Emotions

All major traditions in the world agree that negative emotions cause both physical and mental suffering. To be happy and free of suffering we need to cultivate positive attributes like compassion, generosity and loving-kindness. Buddhism acknowledges that outer circumstances are often beyond our control.

Read more here: » Compassion: Cultivating Positive Emotions

There are two types of knowledge, the knowledge you have and that your soul has. Similarly, there is the knowledge amnesia patients have about themselves and the knowledge they would like to remember. The knowledge you have does not assist you in knowing your true identity and what your soul has done. Likewise, the knowledge amnesia patients have about themselves does not help them to remember what they have forgotten.

Read more here: » Spiritual Growth: Raising your Consciousness

Dussehra marks the day when goddess Durga killed the buffalo-demon Mahishasura, who had a boon from Brahma that he would not be slain by gods, men, spirits or any aspect of nature. So he vanquished the gods and tyrannised the world.

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva combined the energies of their consorts, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Shakti and created a beautiful woman - the ten-armed Durga - to kill the demon, as Mahishasura had forgotten to mention women while asking for his boon. Durga fought Mahishasura for nine days, finally beheading him on the tenth day.

(See also: Dussehra , 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: » Dussehra: Slaying the Demon That's Within Us  

There are different types of knowledge. For example, the knowledge you have is not the same as what your soul has. Similarly, the knowledge amnesia patients have about themselves is different from the knowledge they are unable to remember. The knowledge you have about yourself does not assist you in knowing what your soul has done, or realizing your true identity. Likewise, the knowledge amnesia patients have about themselves does not help them to remember what they have forgotten.

Read more here: » Personal Growth,: Embracing Differences To Raise Your Consciousness

Jainism continues to be a living faith in India, with adherents living in nearly every state, but concentrated mainly in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Jainism has practically no following outside the country of its birth. The core of Jaina ethics is the doctrine of ahimsa or non-injury to any living creature. Jainism does not espouse belief in a creator but divides the universe into two independent, eternal categories: Jiva (life) and ajiva (non-life).

Read more here: » Jainism: Renewing Oneself Through Confession

Psychic ability is something we all possess to greater or lesser degrees, and it's something that can be consciously developed. Some people do have a an intuitive "gift," just as others may have gifts for art, mathematics, athletics, etc... Through focused desire and concentration, however, we can all enhance the abilities we were born with.

Read more here: » Psychic Ability: How to have Visions

But the moment logical, educated minds hear the word surrender, they will build forts around themselves.

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

Read more here: » Surrendering: Surrender, the Only Real Freedom

Yoga Philosophy explained thru the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. The roots of Yoga can be traced back roughly 5,000 years to the Indus Valley civilization, where seals depicting people performing asanas (yoga postures) were used in trade along the river. The word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word "Yuj" meaning to yoke, join or unite. It is the union of all aspects of an individual: body, mind and soul. Hence, Yoga reunites all opposites - mind and body, stillness and movement, masculine and feminine, sun and moon - in order to bring reconciliation between them. Yoga is one of the six branches in Indian philosophy and is referred to throughout the Vedas – the ancient scriptures of India. There is a legend that says that the knowledge of Yoga was first offered by Lord Shiva to his wife Parvati and then passed on to the world.

Read more here: » Patanjali: Yoga Philosophy and the Patanjali Yoga Sutras

Consciousness is beauty and Creation is an expression of consciousness. Beauty is present in all creation. Eastern philosophy believes beauty is the nature of things, while western thought sees it as perception. Perhaps beauty is both subjective and objective.

The East emphasises subjectivity; it sees beauty as the nature of existence - as Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram, an objective phenomenon.

In the West, where objectivity is emphasised, beauty is seen as a subjective phenomenon. But as the old proverb goes, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Beauty bridges the subject-object divide.

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

Read more here: » Soundarya Lahiri: Soundarya Lahiri And Inner Beauty

Deep breathing reduces stress, deepens insight, expands consciousness and increases intuitive perception. Men of wisdom fetch their breath up from deep inside and below, while others breathe with their voice box alone. Great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela often relied on mind-cleansing meditation combined with deep breathing Ñ to restore their flagging energy and create inner peace whenever stress built up in their lives.

Considering our breathing becomes more and more shallow and ineffective from birth onwards, this is a matter of utmost concern.

Read more here: » Breathing: Take a Deep Breath