Kriya Yoga: The scientific process of soul culture and the royal path to self-realization

The fundamental thesis of Kriya Yoga is that we are a miniature version of the whole cosmos, a microcosm - an evolving universe within the macrocosmic world. The all-pervading supreme creator is hiding within us and activating every action through the breath - hence the name kriya; any work "kri," is being done by the power of the indwelling soul "ya." The various cosmic forces controlling ether, air, fire, water, and earth also control the kinds of work, namely, religious activities, relationship, food, progeny, and earning money performed by the human body. Yoga is the means of conjoining this correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm - realizing the truth behind the union of individual self and the Supreme Self.

Read more here: » Kriya Yoga: The scientific process of soul culture and the royal path to self-realization

In 1999, Bennie LeBeau of the Eastern Shoshone tribe began to experience a torrent of dreams and visions. The visions directed him to set in motion the plans for a massive Medicine Wheel Ceremony. The ceremony is set to take place at High Noon on Saturday, May 8, 2004 at more than 20 sacred sites in the American West, and at many other sacred sites elsewhere around the world, including Australia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and the Middle East.

Read more here: » Native American Spirituality: Native American Medicine Wheel Ceremony on May 8th 2004

Depending on what definition of "strongest" is used, many different muscles in the human body can be characterized as being the "strongest." In ordinary parlance, muscular "strength" usually refers to the ability to exert a force on an external object—for example, lifting a weight. By this definition, the masseter or jaw muscle is the strongest. The 1992 Guinness Book of Records records the achievement of a bite strength of 975 lbf (4337 N) for two seconds. What distinguishes the masseter is not anything special about the muscle itself, but its advantage in working ...

See also:

Muscle, Muscle - Types, Muscle - Anatomy, Muscle - Physiology, Muscle - Nervous control, Muscle - Efferent leg, Muscle - Afferent leg, Muscle - Role in health and disease, Muscle - Exercise, Muscle - Disease, Muscle - The strongest human muscle, Muscle - Efficiency, Muscle - Muscle evolution

Read more here: » Muscle: Encyclopedia II - Muscle - The strongest human muscle

Swiss scientists have recently discovered that sending a very weak current to the back of the right side of the brain triggered an out-of-body experience (OBE) for the patient.

This OBE could be produced at will whenever a particular part of the brain was stimulated by an electric current. OBE is also one of the major outcomes of yoga and is mentioned in the vibhuti pad of Patanjali's Yoga Darshan . Naturally a yogi has to practise years of tapasya or meditation before she can achieve an OBE and sense of levitation. Interestingly, technology seems to allow this pleasurable experience quite easily.

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

Read more here: » Out-of-body experience: Significant Gravity Of Deep Thought  

FLOWER ESSENCES: Elixir of Alchemy

Everyone knows how important flowers are -- for their beauty, their fragrance, their oils in Aromatherapy and perfumes, even sometimes in food. But the most important property of flowers is seldom mentioned: their vibrational essence, and their literal connection to the human electrical system.

This is the true meaning of alchemy: to transmute dross into gold -- to transform suffering into joy, pain into learning, dis-ease to health, and darkness into peace and light. Are flower essences capable of doing this? Yes, and more.

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

Read more here: » Indigo Children: Indigo Coach and Flower Essence Therapy

All known forms of life depend on water. Water is a vital part of many metabolic processes within the body. Significant quantities of water are used during the digestion of food. (Note however that some bacteria and plant seeds can enter a cryptobiotic state for an indefinite period when dehydrated, and come back to life when returned to a wet environment) About 72% of the fat free mass of the human body is made of water. To function properly the body requires between one and seven litres of water per day to avoid dehydration, the pre ...

See also:

Water, Water - Molecular properties, Water - Forms of water, Water - Water in biology and human civilization, Water - Astronomical position of Earth and impact on its water, Water - Human uses of water, Water - Water as a precious resource, Water - Regulating water distribution, Water - The impact of water on religion and philosophy

Read more here: » Water: Encyclopedia II - Water - Human uses of water

MASSAGE, BODYWORK AND SOMATIC THERAPIES

Massage, bodywork, and somatic therapies is the application of various techniques to the muscular structure and soft tissues of the human body.

The application of massage, bodywork, and somatic therapy techniques may include, but is not limited to, stroking, kneading, tapping, compression, vibration, rocking, friction, pressure, and those techniques based on manipulation or the application of pressure to the muscular structure or soft tissues of the human body.

This may also include non-forceful passive or active movement and/or application of techniques intended to affect the energetic systems of the body. The use of oils, lotions, powders, or other lubricants may also be included.

Massage, bodywork, and somatic therapies specifically exclude diagnosis, prescription, manipulation, or adjustments of the human skeletal structure, or any other service, procedure, or therapy that requires a license to practice orthopedics, physical therapy, podiatry, chiropractic, osteopathy, psychotherapy, acupuncture, or any other profession or branch of medicine.

(See also: MASSAGE , Alternative Health, Massage, Bodywork, Body Mind and Soul)

For more dictionary entries, see » Human Body Dictionary

The Tridoshas

The Tridoshas (tri meaning three and doshas being the basic physical energies) are the primary and essential factors of the human body that govern our entire physical structure and function. Derived from the Panchmahabhutas, each dosha – which like the elements cannot be detected with our senses but their qualities can be – is a combination of any two of the five bhutas with the predominance of one. Called Vata, Pitta and Kapha in Sanskrit, these three are responsible for all the physiological and psychological processes within the body and mind – dynamic forces that determine growth and decay. Every physical characteristic, mental capacity and the emotional tendency of a human being can therefore be explained in terms of the tridoshas.

Most of the physical phenomena ascribed to the nervous system by modern physiology for example, can be identified with Vata. Just as the entire chemical process operating in the human body can be attributed to Pitta, including enzymes, hormones and the complete nutritional system. And the activities of the skeletal and the anabolic system, actually the entire physical volume of an organism, can be considered as Kapha.

Each dosha thus shares a quality with another (although there remain slight differences in the nature of shared quality), the third having just the opposite quality. Also, each has an inherent ability to regulate and balance itself, coming from the antagonistic qualities that arise from the doshas constituent elements.

When the doshas are in balance i.e. in a state of equilibrium, we remain healthy. As Charaka, the great ayurvedic sage, explained: "Vata, pitta and kapha maintain the integrity of the living human organism in their normal state and combine so as to make the man a complete being with his indriyas (sense organs) possessed of strength, good complexion and assured of longevity." It is only when that there is imbalance within the three that disease is caused. And since it is the strongest dosha in the constitution that usually has the greatest tendency to increase, one is most susceptible to illnesses associated with an increase of the same.

It is important to realise that these three are forces and not substances. Kapha is not mucus; it is the force that causes mucus to arise. Similarly pitta is not bile; but that which causes bile to be produced. And they are called doshas – literally meaning `faults’ or `out of whack’- as they indicate the fault lines along which the system can become imbalanced.

It is equally important to understand that the three doshas within any person keep changing constantly, due to the doshic qualities of specific lifestyle and environment, such as time and season. And that these three are not separate energies but different aspects of the same energy, present together in an infinite variety of combinations, wherein their qualities overlap and interrelate.

Ayurveda however considers only three types of constitution – in monotypes just one dosha predominates, in duo types two have near similar strength, and in the very rarely found third type all three are equally powerful. Within this broad classification, there are in the first category various sub-types that are listed below for easier reference.

(See also: Tridoshas , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

For more dictionary entries, see » Human Body Dictionary

Amrita:

A sanskrit word meaning "nectar of immortality". The substance that gives the immortal life and purifies the human body in preparation for realization of the Immortal Body. Also called Soma. Amrita / Soma is secreted by the human glandular system.

(See also: Amrita , Body Mind and Soul)

For more dictionary entries, see » Human Body Dictionary

Mahabhutas (Sanskrit) (from maha great + bhuta element from the verbal root bhu to be, become)

Great or primordial element; the gross or vehicular cosmic elements in contradistinction from the subtle or causative cosmic elements (tanmatras) out of which the mahabhutas are evolved. Five are enumerated exoterically -- aether, fire, air, water, and earth -- but in the esoteric enumeration there are seven, ten, or twelve. Also an adjective meaning being great, or relating to the gross elements.

The mahabhutas are so called because they are the karmic fruits or resultants from the preceding cosmic manvantara, so that even these great cosmic elements begin their evolutionary courses in the new cosmic manvantara at the exact point in development which they had acquired when the preceding pralaya began.

The tanmatras are the inner vital cosmic principles, the causal rudiments, which evolve forth the mahabhutas. The distinction between them may be seen by an analogy drawn from the human constitution: the difference between sense as a faculty or power and sense organ as the vehicle of the sense faculty.

The five senses hitherto developed in the human being -- hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell -- have their five corresponding sense organs, the senses producing through evolution and time their respective organs. Similarly on the cosmic scale, the tanmatras correspond to the senses in the human constitution, while the mahabhutas correspond to the sense organs in the human body.

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Human Body Dictionary

 A widely held misconception regarding poltergeists is that the terms poltergeist and ghost are synonymous. Although there is some similarity between the two, there are several characteristics that set them apart. For example, poltergeist activity is known as a "disturbance," whereas ghost-like activity (fog, mist, transparent figures, etc.) is known as a "haunting." The reason for this difference in terminology is because poltergeists are heard but not seen, whereas ghosts are seen but seldom heard.

Read more here: » Poltergeists: The difference between Ghosts and Poltergeists

Chinese medicine (Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM): Ancient holistic system whose basics include herbology, nutrition, and the concepts of acupuncture meridians, the Five Elements (Five Phases), and yin and yang.

Traditional Chinese Medicine theory posits both Organs (the Triple Burner, for example) and Substances (such as Shen, or Spirit) for which scientific evidence is absent. Variations and hybrids of Chinese medicine include Korean medicine, Tibetan medicine, and Vietnamese traditional medicine.

Chinese medicine probably originated about 2,000 years ago, but it became dogmatic and stagnated for centuries; overall its development has been slow. It probably stems from shamanism. The basis of Chinese medicine is Taoism, a religion according to which spirits (shen) inhabit the human body and take care of its functions. The foundational text of Chinese medicine - known as the Classic of Internal Medicine, the Huangdi Neijing, the Inner Classic, the Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor, the Neiching, the Nei Jing, The Yellow Emperor's Classic, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, and the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon - was completed by the first century C.E.

(See also: Chinese medicine , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

For more dictionary entries, see » Human Body Dictionary

What raises us above other known sentient beings is our ability to be conscious of our own consciousness. But what does this mean, scientifically?

“It is now widely accepted that all knowledge, from the beginning of time, is available to each of us, an intelligence that is carried at the cellular, subatomic level. Highly evolved individuals who have touched the hem of the eternal and communed with the infinite through their higher consciousness, made that quantum leap but have been unable to transfer their understanding due to limitations imposed by language. Because language is incomplete and fragmentary, merely registering a stage in the average advance beyond the ape mentality. But all of us do have flashes of insight beyond meanings already stabilized in etymology and grammar.”

Read more here: » Consciousness: What is Consciousness?

Eve Hawwah (Hebrew) (from hawah to breathe, live)

Mystically the mother of all living, an allegorical yet actual figure in all archaic cosmogonies. Genesis describes three Eves:

1)    the archetypal Eve, the feminine aspect of the divine androgyne which is on the one hand `Adam Qadmon, and on the other hand Sephirah-Eve (ch. l);

2)    the Eve of the early third root-race, after the separation of the sexes but before the awakening of mind (ch. 2); and

3)    Eve the mother of Abel and of Seth, here beginning the course of human history after the awakening of mind.

The first Eve was no woman but, like the first Adam, the spiritual feminine aspect of an archetypal spiritual host; the second was no woman but womankind; while the third was woman and mother as now known. They companion and correspond to the three Adams: the first, the spiritual albeit masculine type of the archetypal host; the second, the mindless first human race; and the third, "the race that (had fully)

separated, whose eyes are opened" (SD 2:46n). Between the Eve of Genesis and Eve the mother of Seth (Genesis 4) passed long ages, involving millions of years during which the archetypal preparation of the globe for human habitation was followed by distinct root-races and three Edens, with millions of years between even these latter.

The original from which the Hebrew Genesis was later compiled is lost. Yet even as the latter has reached us -- first veiled, then probably remodeled by Ezra with shiftings that confuse the chronology -- despite important words and clauses mistranslated by European scholars, its resemblance to the esoteric account is unmistakable. For Jehovah, who gave the human body and (physical) breath of life, is the hyparxis of Saturn and an earthly, not a celestial, hierarchy.

The human mind and spirit are essentially emanations from the immortal spiritual monad coeval with the universe, and subsequent human evolutionary development was both from and aided by the elohim, a spiritual host. Adam and Eve, once mind appeared in them, enter the path of self-directed evolution, a reference to the second and third Eves mentioned above. The eating of the fruit of the tree is the awakening or lighting of mind in man. It shows Eve as consorting with spiritual, not demoniacal, forces and incidentally reconciles the two creation stories.

Like the serpent, the tree is an ancient and universal symbol of sacred and esoteric knowledge. To eat of its fruit is to acquire the knowledge that only the gods possess, and the possession confers immortality under the law.

There is neither relationship nor historic nor philosophic resemblance between Eve and Lilith, Adam's "first wife."

(See also: Eve, Hawwah , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

For more dictionary entries, see » Human Body Dictionary

aura: The luminous colorful field of subtle energy radiating within and around the human body, extending out from three to seven feet. The colors of the aura change constantly according to the ebb and flow of one's state of consciousness, thoughts, moods and emotions. Higher, benevolent feelings create bright pastels; base, negative feelings are darker in color. Thus, auras can be seen and "read" by clairvoyants.

The general nature of auras varies according to individual unfoldment. Great mystics have very bright auras, while instinctive persons are shrouded in dull shades. The aura consists of two aspects, the outer aura and the inner aura. The outer aura extends beyond the physical body and changes continuously, reflecting the individual's moment-to-moment panorama of thought and emotion. The inner aura is much more constant, as it reflects deep-seated subconscious patterns, desires, repressions and tendencies held in the sub-subconscious mind. Those colors which are regularly and habitually reflected in the outer aura are eventually recorded more permanently in the inner aura. The colors of the inner aura permeate out through the outer aura and either shade with sadness or brighten with happiness the normal experiences of daily life.

The inner aura hovers deep within the astral body in the chest and torso and looks much like certain "modern-art" paintings, with heavy strokes of solid colors here and there. In Sanskrit, the aura is called prabhamandala, "luminous circle," or diptachakra, "wheel of light."

See: mind (five states of mind), papa, punya.

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Human Body Dictionary

Kriya Yoga: The Breath of God Is Our Breath of Life

Kriya Yoga gives extreme importance to the breath. It teaches that breath control is self control, breath mastery is self mastery, it is deathlessness. If you take a very short breath and seek God in the fontanel and the pituitary, you will attain calmness and God realization. The Bhagavad Gita, verse 5:27, mentions this short breath: "We are to fix our attention in the pituitary, take a very short breath and touch Him in the pituitary and in the fontanel." The breath must be so short that if you place your finger in front of your nose, the outgoing breath will not touch the finger.

Read more here: » Kriya Yoga: The Breath of God Is Our Breath of Life

Body language is a broad term for several forms of communication using body movements or gestures, instead of, or as a complement to, sounds, verbal language, or other forms of communication. In turn, it is one category of paralanguage, which describes all forms of human communication that are not language. Paralanguage including body language has been extensively studied in social psychology. In everyday speech and popular psychology, the term is most often applied to body language that is thought to be involuntary, but in fac ...

Including:

• Body language - Voluntary body language
• Body language - Involuntary body language
• Body language - Origins of body language
• Body language - The importance of body language in groups
• Body language - Examples

Read more here: » Body language: Encyclopedia - Body language

Manusha (Manushya) Buddha manusa buddha (Sanskrit) [from manu man + buddha awakened one]

A human buddha, born in a human body for compassionate work among mankind, generally mahatmas of a high degree and great initiates. There are three forms in which, or planes upon which, the Wondrous Being of the planetary chain manifests itself: 1) adi-buddha in the dharmakaya; 2) dhyani-buddha in the sambhogakaya; and 3) manusha-buddha living at will or need as a nirmanakaya. The last is the lowest, yet in one sense the highest aspect -- highest on account of the immense, willing self-sacrifice involved in its incarnation in human flesh.

The manusha-buddhas are the eighth in the descending scale of the Hierarchy of Compassion. Each one of the seven root-races on this globe is ushered in by a manushya-buddha. Furthermore, preceding the racial cataclysm that ensues around the midpoint of each root-race, a manushya-buddha of less degree appears on earth. Hence, such a buddha is also termed a racial buddha. Gautama was such a manushya-buddha.

Every human being in his constitution contains elements and principles derivative from the universe ranging from the divine to the physical; consequently there is in every human being, expressed or as yet unexpressed, a manushya-buddha, who really is the spiritual-intellectual center of all the noblest impulses, intuitions, and energies active in the human constitution.

Evolution signifies the unfolding of already existing and fully active capacities, powers, functions, principles, and elements, latent in most men merely because the vehicle enabling them to manifest their transcendent powers in the ordinary human being has not yet been built up through evolutionary growth. Thus, the manushya-buddha is in every human being, though only in the rare evolutionary flowers of the human race coming at long intervals is a human being born who because of past striving is an imbodiment of the manushya-buddha within him. As the future brings forth what it has in store for the human race, all human beings living at the end of the seventh round will be human buddhas because already they will have become a dhyani-chohanic host.

(See also: Manusha Buddha, Manushya Buddha , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

For more dictionary entries, see » Human Body Dictionary

Thought is life. What you think, that you are. Your thoughts create your environment. Your thoughts constitute your world. If you entertain healthy thoughts, your can keep good health. If you hold on to sickly thoughts in the mind, you can never expect good health, beauty and harmony. The body is a product of the mind.

Read more here: » Power of Thought: Let Your Mind Rule Your Body

Kundalini Yoga

Thus far our soul psychotherapy has drawn from universal spiritual principles of gratitude, forgiveness, poignant impermanence, and the like, while remaining largely within the precincts of conventional developmental theory. In this chapter I broaden our scope more toward the body by delving into the farther reaches of human development as is becoming known in the West under the heading of kundalini yoga.

Read more here: » Kundalini Yoga: Kundalini Yoga and the Far Reaches of Human Development

In short, the group mind principle of Nature states that the resulting force generated from the combining of like minds is geometrically greater than the sum of its parts. In other words, minds that are focused together upon a common theme create a mutual force that is not merely additive, but vastly more powerful than any one individual or group of individuals.

Read more here: » Group Mind: The Group Mind Principle I