Avidya klesha:

Avidya klesha: ignorance, lack of spiritual knowledge, the root cause of all afflictions

(See also: Avidya klesha , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Raga (Sanskrit). One of the five Kleshas (afflictions) in Patanjali’s Yoga philosophy. In Sankhya Karika, it is the "obstruction" called love and desire in the physical or terrestrial sense. The five Kleshas are: Avidya, or ignorance; Asmita, selfishness, or "I-am-ness" ; Raga, love; Dwesha, hatred; and Abhinivesa, dread of suffering.

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

Light Light ranges from the arcana of cosmic being to the physical light that turns the vanes of some scientific mill.

As the opposite of darkness, evil, ignorance, sleep, and death, it signifies wisdom, goodness, and life. In one sense it is a permutation of mulaprakriti, and as such is that root-substance which can never become objective to mortals in this race or round. It is objective only in relation to that Darkness which is absolute Light. Otherwise it includes both spirit and matter.

Three kinds are enumerated: the abstract and absolute, which is darkness; the light of the unmanifest-manifest or Second Logos; and the latter reflected in the dhyani-chohans, minor logoi, and thence shed upon the lower and more objective planes. In a high aspect, it is daiviprakriti or the light of the Logos, the synthesis of the seven cosmic forces; descending through the planes of manifestation, it condenses into forms; physical matter itself is a condensation of light. Through light everything is thus brought into being. Being a root of mental self, it also therefore is the root of physical self (SD 1:430).

Light does not necessarily imply heat, as heat is one of the effects produced by the action of light on matter. The term cool radiance has its physical application in the light of phosphorescence. Light becomes relative on manifested planes, its correlative being darkness, which to other beings may be light, while our light may be their darkness. Again, what is light to beings on a higher plane of perception, may be darkness to us, because it does not impress our senses.

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

Ajnana:

Ajnana: ignorance.

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

Law of Interdependent Causation

It states that all phenomena arise depending upon a number of casual factors.

In other word, a phenomenon exists in condition that the other exist; it has in condition that others have; it extinguishes in condition that others extinguish; it has not in condition that others have not.

For existence, there are twelve links in the chain:

• Ignorance is the condition for karmic activity;
• Karmic activity is the condition for consciousness;
• Consciousness is the condition for the name and form;
• Name and form is the condition for the six sense organs;
• Six sense organs are the condition for contact;
• Contact is the condition for feeling;
• Feeling is the condition for emotional love/craving;
• Emotional love/craving is the condition for grasping
• Grasping is the condition for existing;
• Existing is the condition for birth;
• Birth is the condition for old age and death;
• Old age and death is the condition for ignorance; and so on.

 (See also: Law of Interdependent Causation , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

BLACK MAGIC

Sorcery or Goetia. Eliphas Lévi said it was but the shadow of white magic and that, in greater wisdom, we can see that the light and the dark are the same thing. On the simplest level, White Magic is the work of the conscious mind, with Black Magic the work of the unconscious. Or, as Jung put it, white magic serves the self and black magic the ego. For Alice Bailey, on more complicated levels, white magic deals with the soul, the positive electrical energies, transmutation through radiation and the self-induced development of the Central Self. Black magic deals with the outer form, negative electrical energy, reduction of the human sphere.

But in popular belief black magic frankly isnt just simply intended to harm others more than that, its the worship and glorification of the negative. Said Crowley in a 1933 newspaper article quoted by Grant (The Magical Revival): "To practice black magic you have to violate every principle of science, decency and intelligence. You must be obsessed with an insane idea of the importance of the petty object or your wretched and selfish desires ... I despise the thing to such an extent that I can hardly believe in the existence of people so debased and idiotic as to practise it."

Historians insist that the idea of black magic derives originally from a word in the Arabian version of magic, from a confusion of fehm, black, with fehm, understanding or wisdom. In general, the idea of black or forbidden magic simply arose as a designation for the unofficial or unorthodox. In our predominantly masculine culture, black magic is that which relates to the feminine principle.

HPB designates the symbols of black magic to be the Moon and the inverted pentagram as opposed to white magics sun symbol and point-uppermost star. Black magic, she tells us, is concerned with form and matter, whereas white magic seeks the life and spirit within the form. Black magic uses the astral light to deceive, to seduce and to serve the purposes of involution, whereas white magic uses the same light to instruct others and to aid evolution. For HPB, black magic, furthermore, sought to degrade sex, whereas white magic sought to transmute it to higher creative thought.

Remember that magic is a completely different path from religion or science. Its sometimes called the Middle Pillar. It matters little where you choose to begin. The vodounist, for instance, who thinks he'll just drop in for a lesson in where to stick the pins into the doll will soon discover that sorcery is clumsy and ineffective according to its distance from higher principles of responsibility and inter-relationship with all consciousness, both higher and lower. The person who is merely curious will soon discover that he has a genuine thirst for understanding and his curiosity will blossom into a consuming passion for enlightenment. Consider the life of Tibetan yogi Milarepa, who started out as an evil black magician only to become, eventually, a great saint!

Since the proper goal of magic is to deliver the world from its infernal condition, there is a tendency to view any magic but one's own as black or evil. However, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as black magic. All paths are sacred. The initiate does not distinguish between self and other. Rather than calling white the magic of charity and black the magic of self, we would do better to think of all magic as that which seeks wisdom and designate as leading to evil, sorcery, only that which acts in ignorance. By that definition, most contemporary religion is black magic.

The dark path, Vama Marg or left-hand path, is merely one side of the caduceus, in contrast to the other, and as light is brought into darkness, it ceases to be dark. The phrase, Lux in tenebris, can refer to the light being brought to the darkness, or to the darkness itself acting as light. Like the scientist, the true magician does not shrink from exploring all avenues of the manifest and the unmanifest. Some magicians say that we are actually unable to choose anything but white magic (or enlightenment), since in order for any magical operation to work, one has to refine one's understanding and purify one's vision. In practice, however, the followers of Satanism supposedly align themselves to the development of the individual ego for the sake of personal power. In order to strengthen the ego, detachment is learned through controversial rites. One of the preoccupations of magic is to enlist gods, spirits, elementals, etc. to do one's bidding and to release their power to the practitioner. But the black magician seeks unlimited power, not to borrow, but to appropriate for himself not in order to better the world or himself, but to satisfy his personal greed and to establish his ambitious tyranny. Moreover, real magicians know better than to wallow in close-minded ignorance and self-perpetuating superstition. They certainly arent going to go to all the trouble of throwing out Jesus just so that he can sneak in through the back door wearing the cloak of Satanism.

Serious magicians consider true Satanism (mere Devil Worship, that is) to be shallow and ultimately self-defeating. Power and freedom accrue in direct proportion to the shedding of the ego, not to its inflation. Initiates see Satanism as a pathetic rebellion that merely exalts the other side of the coin of Xtianity. In any case, Satanism is more in the nature of a religion than a magical system, since it is based upon belief and worship. Seeing that Xtianity tars all variance from itself with the same brush, it has become necessary to discourage the childish triflers by labeling dark that which is most holy.

Finally, for the last word on the subject, here is a graffito copied from a San Francisco sidewalk, circa 1987: White witchcraft which fools condemn. Turns to black and crushes them.

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

Ajnana:

Ajnana: To speak of it (the one) as different is to reveal one's ignorance (BV-1), (BV-36), (BV).

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

AJNANA: ignorance

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

Maya:

Maya: The tangle of ignorance, the veil of illusion, (BV-1), (RRV-1), power to delude, (RRV-4) delusion, (BV-32) the Deluding Urge, the mother of all the worlds, (BV-33), taking the appearance as real (RRV-7b).

 - Avidyamaya: The Maya named Avidya is very vicious; she causes boundless misery. Those drawn by it will sink into the depths of flux, the eternal tangle of joy and grief (RRV2-2).

 - Vidyamaya: The Maya known as Vidya has created the Cosmos, under the prompting of the Lord. For, she has no innate force of her own. Only while in the Presence of the Lord can she create the three-stranded Cosmos (Prapancha) (RRV2-2).

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

vidya: (Sanskrit) "Knowledge, learning, science." The

power of understanding gained through study and

meditation. Contrasted with avidya, ignorance.

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

Guna: Quality, attribute, or characteristic arising from nature (Prakriti) itself; a mode of energy behavior. As a rule, when "guna" is used it is in reference to the three qualities of Prakriti, the three modes of energy behavior that are the basic qualities of nature, and which determine the inherent characteristics of all created things.

They are:

1)   sattwa-purity, light, harmony;

2)   rajas-activity, passion; and

3)   tamas-dullness, inertia, and ignorance.

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

Karttikeya: (Sanskrit) Child of the Pleiades, from Krittika, "Pleiades." Second son of Siva, the brother of Ganesha. A great Mahadeva worshiped in all parts of India and the world. Also known as Murugan, Kumara, Skanda, Shanmukhanatha, Subramanya and more, He is the God who guides that part of evolution which is religion, the transformation of the instinctive into a divine wisdom through the practice of yoga. He holds the holy vel of jnana shakti, which is His Power to vanquish darkness or ignorance.

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

 Tamas:

darkness, inertia, ignorance

(See also:  Tamas , Body Mind and Soul)

Zen Buddhism: Zen Buddhist Dictionary

A dictionary of Zen Buddhism terms. Please note that all words in grey like " Buddhism " are links to an archive with related articles.

 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,)

Tatastha-sakti - the marginal or jiva potency of Sri Bhagavan. Because the jiva-sakti is included neither within the svarupa-sakti nor within maya-sakti, it is known as tatastha-sakti, the marginal potency.

The word tata means a shore or bank, like the shoreline of an ocean; and the verbal root stha means to be situated. The shore is not part of the ocean, yet it is not part of the land which borders the ocean. One situated on the shoreline is known as tatastha. He is situated neither within the ocean, nor on the land.

In his Paramatma-sandarbha, Jiva Gosvami has described the tatastha-sakti as follows: "The jiva-sakti is known as tatastha-sakti for two reasons. First of all it cannot be included within mayasakti for it is beyond maya-sakti. Secondly, although jiva-sakti is overcome by ignorance, the defect of being overcome in this way cannot touch the Paramatma situated in his heart. This is understood by the following analogy. We see that some portion of the sun’s rays can be covered by shade or clouds, but the sun itself cannot be covered.

Similarly, the individual soul, who is vibhinnamsa, a separated part of Him, can be covered by maya, but Krsna Himself can never be covered. "From this it may be understood that the jiva-sakti is separate from the svarupa-sakti also for the following reason. Svarupa-sakti is present in the Paramatma. If the jiva-sakti were included within the svarupa-sakti, then the defect of the jivas being overcome by ignorance would be transposed upon the svarupa-sakti situated within the Paramatma as well, and ultimately upon the Paramatma Himself. Since that is not the case, it is evident that the jiva-sakti is not included within svarupa-sakti. Consequently, because the jiva-sakti is included neither within svarupa-sakti nor within mayasakti, it is known as tatastha-sakti.”

(See also: Tatastha-sakti , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

tamas:

tamas - darkness, inertia, ignorance

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

avidya:

ignorance

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

Avidya (Sanskrit). Opposed to Vidya, Knowledge. Ignorance which proceeds from, and is produced by the illusion of the Senses or Viparyaya.

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

Hari:

Literally means 'thief', but is actually used as a name for Krishna or god in much of India, as god takes away ignorance and misconception and gives eternal, blissful life full of knowledge.

(See also: Hari , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

evil: That which is bad, morally wrong, causing harm, pain, misery. In Western religions, evil is often thought of as a moral antagonism to God. This force is the source of sin and is attached to the soul from its inception.

Whereas, for Hindus, evil is not a conscious, dark force, such as Satan. It is situational rather than ontological, meaning it has its basis in relative conditions, not in ultimate reality. Evil (badness, corruption) springs from ignorance (avidya) and immaturity. Nor is one fighting with God when he is evil, and God is not standing in judgment. Within each soul, and not external to it, resides the principle of judgment of instinctive-intellectual actions. God, who is ever compassionate, blesses even the worst sinner, the most depraved asura, knowing that individual will one day emerge from lower consciousness into the light of love and understanding.

Hindus hold that evil, known in Sanskrit as papa, papman or dushta, is the result of unvirtuous acts (papa or adharma) caused by the instinctive-intellectual mind dominating and obscuring deeper, spiritual intelligence. (Note: both papa and papman are used as nouns and adjectives.) The evil-doer is viewed as a young soul, ignorant of the value of right thought, speech and action, unable to live in the world without becoming entangled in maya. -

intrinsic evil: Inherent, inborn badness. Some philosophies hold that man and the world are by nature imperfect, corrupt or evil. Hinduism holds, on the contrary, that there is no intrinsic evil, and the real nature of man is his divine, soul nature, which is goodness.

See: hell, karma, papa, Satan, sin.

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

avidya: (Sanskrit) Spiritual "ignorance." Wrongful understanding of the nature of reality. Mistaking the impermanent for the everlasting.

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