The Goddess Jagaddhatri is the form of the Mahadevi that supports the World. Jagaddhatri is formed from the two Sanskrit roots - Jagad is the physical world, and dhatri is support. In modern day Hinduism, Jagaddhatri Devi is considered a name and form of the Goddess Durga. The formal difference between Durga and Jagaddhatri occurs in Mayatantra and Jagaddhatri is mentioned with reference to Durga in Krishnananda's Tantrasaar. The special puja of the goddess on the ninth lunar day of the light fortnight in the month of Kartick has been referred in Krityatattarnab by ...

Including:

• Jagaddhatri - Pauranik lore

Read more here: » Jagaddhatri: Encyclopedia - Jagaddhatri

Adi Da Samraj (born Franklin Albert Jones, November 3, 1939 in Jamaica, New York) is a highly controversial modern spiritual teacher and religious guru and the founder of the new religious movement known as Adidam. At various times, Adi Da has also used names such as Bubba Free John, Da Free John, and Da Love-Ananda, to correspond with changes in his work as a spiritual teacher (see the section on name changes below). For clarity, in this article he is referred to simply as Adi Da, as this is the name he is ...

Including:

• Adi Da - Life
• Adi Da - Teaching
• Adi Da - Response
• Adi Da - Complete Teaching Literature
• Adi Da - The Dawn Horse Testament
• Adi Da - The Five Books Of The Heart Of The Adidam Revelation
• Adi Da - The Seventeen Companions Of The True Dawn Horse
• Adi Da - Name changes
• Adi Da - Books by other authors

Read more here: » Adi Da: Encyclopedia - Adi Da

The Five Skandhas (Sanskrit: pañca-skandha, Pāli: pañca-khandha; literally: pañca, five; skandha, heap or bundle) are the five aggregates necessary to create an individual according to Buddhist phenomenology. In other words, a person is made up of the Five Skandhas, without which, there is no "self." The Five Skandhas are: "form" (sa., pi. rūpa): the body and the six sense organs and their objects - 18 Dhatus. rūpa is created by four components (sa ...

Read more here: » Skandha: Encyclopedia - Skandha

Critical thinking is a mental process of analyzing or evaluating information, particularly statements or propositions that are offered as true. It is a process of reflecting upon the meaning of statements, examining the offered evidence and reasoning, and forming judgments about the facts. Such information may be gathered from observation, experience, reasoning, or communication. Critical thinking has its basis in intellectual values that go beyond subject matter divisions and include: clarity, a ...

Including:

• Critical thinking - Overview
• Critical thinking - Methods of critical thinking
• Critical thinking - Overcoming bias
• Critical thinking - Reaching a conclusion

Read more here: » Critical thinking: Encyclopedia - Critical thinking

Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley (12 October 1875 - 1 December 1947) was an occultist, mystic, sexual revolutionary, and drug user (especially heroin). Aleister Crowley - Biography. Edward Alexander Crowley was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, between 11:00pm and 12 midnight on 12 October 1875. His father, Edward Crowley, once maintained a lucrative family brewery business and was retired at the time of Aleister's birth. His mother, Emily Bertha Bishop, drew ...

Including:

• Aleister Crowley - Biography
• Aleister Crowley - Chess
• Aleister Crowley - Mountaineering
• Aleister Crowley - Science magic and sexuality
• Aleister Crowley - Women as inspiration
• Aleister Crowley - Thelema
• Aleister Crowley - Writings
• Aleister Crowley - Miscellany and Rumours
• Aleister Crowley - Crowley in popular culture

Read more here: » Aleister Crowley: Encyclopedia - Aleister Crowley

Karate or karate-dō is a martial art of Okinawan origin. Karate is a synthesis of indigenous Okinawan fighting methods and Southern Chinese martial arts, possibly a version of [[Shaolin (martial arts)|Shaolin kung fu. It is primarily a striking art, featuring punching, kicking, knee/elbow strikes and open hand techniques; however, grappling, joint manipulations, locks, restraints, throws, and vital point striking are inherent in the finer points of the art. Karate is characterized by the use of the hips and stances to generate ...

Including:

• Karate - History
• Karate - Karate's Origins in Okinawa
• Karate - Karate in Japan
• Karate - Karate in Korea
• Karate - Karate in the United States
• Karate - Karate internationally
• Karate - What Isn’t Karate?
• Karate - Karate and Character

Read more here: » Karate: Encyclopedia - Karate

Buddhism, a religion and philosophy from ancient India, is based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, of the Shakyas. His lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 483 BCE; it spread throughout the Indian subcontinent in the five centuries following his death. Missionaries would carry Buddhism throughout Central Asia, Sri Lanka, Tibet, as well as East Asian countries such as China, Korea, and Japan in the following two millenia. Buddhism is classified as an Ārya dharma ("Noble religion") and is one ...

Including:

• Buddhism - What is a Buddha?
• Buddhism - Origins
• Buddhism - Principles of Buddhism
• Buddhism - The Three Marks of Existence
• Buddhism - The Four Noble Truths
• Buddhism - The Noble Eightfold Path
• Buddhism - Practices of Buddhism
• Buddhism - Refuge in The Three Jewels
• Buddhism - The Five Precepts
• Buddhism - Meditation
• Buddhism - Buddha-dhatu Buddha-Principle Buddha-nature
• Buddhism - Other principles and practices
• Buddhism - Vegetarianism
• Buddhism - Buddhist religious philosophy and branches
• Buddhism - Buddhism after the Buddha
• Buddhism - Principal schools of Buddhist philosophy
• Buddhism - Scriptures
• Buddhism - Relations with other Eastern faiths
• Buddhism - Buddhism in the modern world
• Buddhism - Buddhism and the West
• Buddhism - Buddhism
• Buddhism - Related systems and religions
• Buddhism - References and Links
• Buddhism - References
• Buddhism - Footnotes
• Buddhism - External links

Read more here: » Buddhism: Encyclopedia - Buddhism

There are believed to be four yogas (unions) or margs (paths) for the attainment of Moksha. They are the ways of selfless work, of self-dissolving love, of absolute discernment, and of 'royal' meditative immersion. Different schools of Hinduism place varying emphasis on one path or other, some of the most famous being the tantric and yogic practices developed in Hinduism. Today, the two major schools of thought are Advaita Vedanta and Bhakti branches. Bhakti sees the Self as God, most often a personified monotheistic conception ...

See also:

Moksha, Moksha - Means to achieve Moksha

Read more here: » Moksha: Encyclopedia II - Moksha - Means to achieve Moksha

Samadhi, or concentration of the mind, is the second of the three parts of the Buddha's teaching: sila or conduct, samadhi or samatha (concentration), and pañña (wisdom). It has been taught by the Buddha using 40 different objects of meditation, such as mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati) and loving kindness (metta). Upon development of samadhi, one's mind becomes purified of defilement, calm, tranquil, and luminous. Once the meditator achieves a strong and powerful concentration, his mind is ready to penetrate and ...

See also:

Samadhi, Samadhi - The Hindu tradition, Samadhi - The Buddhist tradition

Read more here: » Samadhi: Encyclopedia II - Samadhi - The Buddhist tradition

Samadhi (IPA: [sɑ ma dʰi] is Sanskrit term for the practice which produces complete meditation (among "normal" one). According to Vyasa, "yoga is samadhi" deciphered as complete control (samadhana) over the functions of consciousness (better is it so Higher control, that it it Release...). The exact meaning and usage of the term varies among the Indian religious traditions (such as Hinduism and Buddhism) but its meaning is from 'sam', with (into), together + 'a' towards + 'dha' to bring (to get, to hold). The result is various degrees of veridic ...

See also:

Samadhi, Samadhi - The Hindu tradition, Samadhi - The Buddhist tradition

Read more here: » Samadhi: Encyclopedia II - Samadhi - The Hindu tradition

karma marga:

the path of egoless action

(See also: karma marga, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

After Freud, a number of prominent psychoanalytic theorists began to elaborate on Freud's functionalist version of the ego. Extensive effort was put into detailing the ego's various functions and how they are impaired in psychopathology. Several central ego functions are reality-testing, impulse-control, judgment, affect tolerance, defense, and synthetic functioning. An important conceptual revision to Freud's structural theory was made when Heinz Hartmann argued that the healthy ego includes a sphere of autonomous ego functions that are ind ...

See also:

Ego superego and id, Ego superego and id - Freud's structural theory, Ego superego and id - Id, Ego superego and id - Ego, Ego superego and id - Superego, Ego superego and id - The ego psychologists, Ego superego and id - Defense analysis, Ego superego and id - Criticisms of ego psychology

Read more here: » Ego superego and id: Encyclopedia II - Ego superego and id - The ego psychologists

Ego superego and id - Id. The id (Latin, it in English, "Es" in the original German) represented primary process thinking — our most primitive, need-gratification impulses. It is organized around the primitive instinctual drives of sexuality and aggression. In the id, these drives require instant gratification or release. Freud borrowed the term Id from the "Book of the Id" by Georg Groddeck, a pathfinder of early psychosomatic ...

See also:

Ego superego and id, Ego superego and id - Freud's structural theory, Ego superego and id - Id, Ego superego and id - Ego, Ego superego and id - Superego, Ego superego and id - The ego psychologists, Ego superego and id - Defense analysis, Ego superego and id - Criticisms of ego psychology

Read more here: » Ego superego and id: Encyclopedia II - Ego superego and id - Freud's structural theory

love

1.    The essence of God, the universe, nature.

2.    Divine expression of compassion, mercy, affection and tenderness.

3.    Selfless or egoless state of consciousness.

4.    State of unconditional acceptance where only endless happiness and infinite freedom are experienced

(See also: Love, Body Mind and Soul)

nir-aham-kara:

nir-aham-kara (-aham-kaara). Egolessness.

(See also: nir-aham-kara, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

EGO -

1. self; feeling of I, me, mine.

2. subjective made of consciousness that differentiates itself from the objective world.

3. identity maker, giver of names and forms.

4. architect who identifies, between the primitive impulses of the id and the demands of society. (Freud).

5. Higher self, individuality, soul; that which bends every effort to quicken vibration and to force the off rebelling lower vehicle of personality to respond and measure up to rapidly increasing force. (Bailey)

6. futile effort to secure happiness and maintain itself in relation to something else watcher of egolessness (Trungpa)

7. veil between the self and God in Hinduism’s.

8. succession of confusions producing an illusory sense of self in Buddhism.

9. the evaluating and judging principle. (Joseph Campbell) (NAD)

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

Vira Saivism (Saiva): (Sanskrit) "Heroic Saivism." Made

prominent by Basavanna in the 12th century. Also called

Lingayat Saivism. Followers, called Lingayats,

Lingavantas or Sivasharanas, always wear a Sivalinga on

their person. Vira Saivites are proudly egalitarian and

emphasize the personal relationship with Siva, rather than

temple worship. Vira Saiva priests, jangamas, conduct

marriages and other domestic rites and also act as gurus or

teachers. Among the most central texts are Basavanna's

Vachanas, Allama Prabhu's Mantragopya,

Chennabasavanna's Karana Hasuge, and the collected

work called Shunya Sampadane. The monistic-theistic

doctrine of Vira Saivism is called Shakti Vishishtadvaita -

a version of qualified nondualism which accepts both difference and nondifference between soul and God, like

rays are to the sun. In brief, Siva and the cosmic force or

existence are one ("Siva are you; you shall return to

Siva."). Yet, Siva is beyond His creation, which is real,

not illusory. God is both efficient and material cause. In

Vira Saivism, Siva divides from His Absolute state into

Linga (Supreme Lord) and anga, individual soul, the two

eventually reuniting in undifferentiated oneness. There are

three aspects of Sivalinga. 1) Ishtalinga, personal form of

Siva, in which He fulfills desires and removes afflictions -

God as bliss or joy; 2) Bhavalinga, Siva beyond space and

time, the highest divine principle, knowable through

intuition; 3) Pranalinga, the reality of God which can be

apprehended by the mind. The soul merges with Siva by a

progressive, six-stage path called shatsthala, consisting of

bhakti (devotion), mahesha (charity and selfless service),

prasada (seeking Siva's grace), Pranalinga (experience of

all as Siva), sharana (egoless refuge in Siva) and aikya

(oneness with Siva). Today Vira Saivism is a vibrant faith,

particularly strong in its religious homeland of Karnataka,

South Central India. Roughly 40 million people live here,

of which perhaps 25% are members of the Vira Saiva

religion. Early on, they rejected brahminical authority, and

along with it the entire caste system and the Vedas. By

rejecting the Vedas, they continue to stand outside

mainstream Hinduism, but in their profound love of Siva

and acceptance of certain Saiva Agamas, as well as the

main truths of the Vedic wisdom, they have identified

themselves as a unique Saiva sect. Though they have

established their faith as a distinct and independent

religion in Indian courts of law, they are still widely

embraced as devout brothers and sisters of the Hindu

dharma.

See: Lingavanta, Saivism.

(See also: Vira Saivism, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

 Lord division of Self and World and the assumption that what is good  for the Self is all that matters. Good magic is based on the understanding  that Self and World are one. Therefore, what is good for the world is  automatically good for the Self. Intelligent though that sounds on the  surface, it's illogical and amounts to wishful thinking. Whats good for  the head isn't necessarily good for the feet and what's good for the world  isn't always good for the self. Exploiters of evil are quick to point out  the disadvantages of self-sacrifice and altruism.

The wicked prosper because Evil is ignorant and any development of the  ego, being an act of ignorance, automatically rides over doubt. Thus  egotism propels itself forward with confidence. Egolessness, on the other  hand, lacking self-assurance, falters and is exploited. So we come back to  words. Illusion, ignorance and darkness are just synonyms for the Ego,  whose main job is to protect the body from destruction. Enlightenment is a  synonym for the elimination of the ego and the relingquishment of its  protection. From a materialistic point of view, therefore, the functions  of Good and Evil are reversed. It is only the highly advanced spiritual  understanding that accepts death not merely as inevitable, but as a  strange paradox: the non-existence of existence. What we mean by advanced  spiritual understanding is the recognition that since death is also an  illusion, then there really is no separation of self from other.

We really are crucibles for the testing of character. If we maintain  our materialistic selfishness, we're heaped with worldly rewards. If we maintain our faith in self-denial, we earn injustice, if not crucifixion.  Good can triumph on earth only if the Self really does benefit more from  its connection to the world than from its separation. So we have to move  beyond Good and Evil, to the World beyond the world and to the Self  beyond the self, to the ultimate paradoxical truth: the only self that  matters is the individual, or that very idiosyncrasy which maintains the  strongest expression of self within the context of World or Other.

Self draws strength, in other words, not from identity, but from  contrast. This means that if we want to raise the self to a higher level,  we somehow have to raise the world first. Archimedes can do nothing in an  anthill. The materialist, on the other hand, being concerned only with his  isolation, sees the world in a parasitic fashion, strictly as his  life-support system. Thus Evil stands revealed as self-preoccupation at the expense of the world and Good as the Self striving to be an  enhancement of the world. More esoterically, we can define Positive  Evil as that which goes against the evolutionary current, Negative  Evil as the opposition of an interior momentum not yet overcome.

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

Although Adi Da has authored over 70 books on spirituality and the process of God-Realization over the last 35 years, his full and complete teaching argument is now contained in a 23 book canon, known as his "Source Texts". The texts comprising this body of work—the Dharma (or Scripture) of the Way of the Heart—are distinct from other general or introductory Adidam books. While such introductory books are merely about the process of Adidam, the Source Texts, in their study, are a necessary component of that process. Although these texts may be beneficially studied by anyone, th ...

See also:

Adi Da, Adi Da - Life, Adi Da - Teaching, Adi Da - Response, Adi Da - Complete Teaching Literature, Adi Da - The Dawn Horse Testament, Adi Da - The Five Books Of The Heart Of The Adidam Revelation, Adi Da - The Seventeen Companions Of The True Dawn Horse, Adi Da - Name changes, Adi Da - Books by other authors

Read more here: » Adi Da: Encyclopedia II - Adi Da - Complete Teaching Literature

Within the framework of skepticism, critical thinking is the process of acquiring information and evaluating it to reach a well-justified conclusion or answer. Part of critical thinking comprises informal logic. Increasingly, based on research in cognitive psychology, educators believe that schools should focus more on teaching their students critical thinking skills than on memorizing facts by rote-learning. The process of critical thinking responds to many subjects and situations, finding connections between them. It is, therefore, ...

See also:

Critical thinking, Critical thinking - Overview, Critical thinking - Methods of critical thinking, Critical thinking - Overcoming bias, Critical thinking - Reaching a conclusion

Read more here: » Critical thinking: Encyclopedia II - Critical thinking - Overview

Within the framework of skepticism, the process of critical thinking involves acquiring information and evaluating it to reach a well-justified conclusion or answer. Part of critical thinking comprises informal logic. Given research in cognitive psychology, educators increasingly believe that schools should focus more on teaching their students critical thinking skills than on memorizing facts by rote-learning. The process of critical thinking responds to many subjects and situations, finding connections between them. It forms, theref ...

See also:

Critical thinking, Critical thinking - Overview, Critical thinking - Methods of critical thinking, Critical thinking - Overcoming bias, Critical thinking - Reaching a conclusion, Critical thinking - Critical thinking in the classroom, Critical thinking - Quotation

Read more here: » Critical thinking: Encyclopedia II - Critical thinking - Overview