Instructions Dictionary

A Yoga Dictionary from Asanas to Zerosis

Note that all words in grey (like the following examples; Yoga, Kundalini, Enlightenment) in the dictionary are links to archives with articles related to that word or expression.

From "Easy Steps to Yoga" by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Jin Shin Jyutsu (jin shin jitsu): Subject of The Touch of Healing: Energizing Body, Mind, and Spirit with the Art of Jin Shin Jyutsu (Bantam Books, 1997).

Jin Shin Jyutsu is a non-massage form of shiatsu developed by Jiro Murai in Japan. It uses only 26 pressure points, termed energy locks. According to its theory, fatigue, tension, or illness can trap energy in these safety energy locks.

The design of Jin Shin Jyutsu is to harmonize the flow of energy through the body. Jin Shin Jyutsu involves either:

(a)           prolonged, gentle, manual pressing of these points; or

(b)           movements of the practitioner's hands over such areas without contact. The practitioner's hands function like booster cables. Jin shin jyutsu literally means the creator's art through knowing and compassionate man.

(See also: Jin Shin Jyutsu , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

guided imagery (guided visualization): A method akin to creative visualization and led meditation. Its design is to promote physical healing or attitudinal or behavioral changes. Practitioners act as prompters and orally outline scenes and/or give instructions on using imagery for self-help.

(See also: Guided imagery , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

etheric touch: manual means of directing human and spiritual energies to initiate and boost self-healing. It is a form of chakra healing and channeling whose principle is that, through the hands, one can:

(a)           sense imbalances in the subtle energy fields of an individual; and

(b)           project healing vibrations (universal energy), which are augmentable with divine force. It does not require touch.

(See also: Etheric touch , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Ki-Shiatsu/Oriental Bodywork (Ki-Shiatsu, Ki-Shiatsu/Oriental Bodywork Therapy, shiatsu oriental bodywork): Healing art encompassing manual and breathing techniques that balance-nurture the whole person.

(See also: Ki-Shiatsu/Oriental Bodywork , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chinese aromatic Qigong: Mode of manual exercise that generates various aromatic fragrances.

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

ACUPRESSURE

Acupressure is an ancient healing art that uses the fingers to press key points on the surface of the skin to stimulate the body’s natural self-curative abilities. When these points are pressed, they release muscular tension and promote the circulation of blood and the body’s life force (sometimes known as qi or chi) to aid healing.

Acupuncture and acupressure use the same points, but acupuncture employs needles, while acupressure uses the gentle, but firm pressure of hands (and even feet). There is a large amount of scientific data demonstrating why and how acupuncture is effective. But acupressure, the older of the two traditions, was neglected after the Chinese developed more technical methods for stimulating points with needles and electricity.

Acupressure, however, continues to be the most effective method for self-treatment of tension-related ailments by using the power and sensitivity of the human hand. Foremost among the advantages of acupressure’s healing touch is that it is safe to do on yourself and others - even if you’ve never done it before - so long as you follow the instructions and pay attention to the cautions. The only pieces of equipment needed are your own two hands. You can practice acupressure therapy anytime, anywhere.

Acupressure can be effective in helping relieve headaches, eye strain, sinus problems, neck pain, backaches, arthritis, muscle aches, tension due to stress, ulcer pain, menstrual cramps, lower backaches, constipation, and indigestion. Self-acupressure can also be used to relieve anxiety and get better sleep at night. There are also great advantages to using acupressure as a way to balance the body and maintain good health.

The healing touch of acupressure reduces tension, increases circulation, and enables the body to relax deeply. By relieving stress, acupressure strengthens resistance to disease and promotes wellness. In acupressure, local symptoms are considered an expression of the condition of the body as a whole. A tension headache, for instance, may be rooted in the shoulder and neck area. Thus, acupressure focuses on relieving pain and discomfort, as well as responding to tension, before it develops into a disease - before the constrictions and imbalances can do further damage.

The origins of acupressure are as ancient as the instinctive impulse to hold your forehead or temples when you have a headache. Everyone at one time or another has used their hands spontaneously to hold tense or painful places on the body. More than 5,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered that pressing certain points on the body relieved pain where it occurred and also benefited other parts of the body more remote from the pain and the pressure point. Gradually, they found other locations that not only alleviated pain, but also influenced the functioning of certain internal organs. (Definition in part from the book Acupressure’s Potent Points, by Michael Reed Gach, director of the Acupressure Institute.)

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

A Yoga Dictionary from Abhyasa to Yukti.

From "Kundalini Yoga" by Sri Swami Sivananda

facilitated communication (FC, Facilitated Communication therapy, facilitated communication training [FCT]): A means of helping persons with severe communication deficits (e.g., due to autism or cerebral palsy) to communicate. Rosemary Crossley, Ph.D. - the author of Facilitated Communication Training (Teachers College Press, 1994) and Speechless: Facilitating Communication for People Without Voices and the coauthor of Annie's Coming Out - originated FC in Australia in the 1970s.

The facilitated communication practitioner, called a facilitator, maintains physical (typically manual or digital) contact with a hand, wrist, arm, or shoulder of his or her disabled partner while the latter person's index finger is applied to a communication aid, such as the keyboard of a computer.

(See also: Facilitated communication , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Focusing (Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy, Focusing-Oriented Therapy, Focusing Process, Focusing Therapy): Natural stepwise system of personal growth based on the work of psychology professor Eugene (Gene) T. Gendlin, Ph.D., author of Focusing (1981), Let the Body Interpret Your Dreams (1986), and Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy: A Manual of the Experimental Method (Guilford Publications, Inc., 1996).

Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy involves dreamwork and inner child work. The effects of Focusing include: direct contact with the wisdom of one's body (prenatal bodily meaning), which is palpable; the flowing of life's energy in new ways of being; discovery of one's genuine self; and an increase in personal whole[ness].

(See also: Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

muscle testing (manual muscle testing, Muscle Response Testing (M.R.T.) technique, Muscle Response Test technique, M.R.T., M.R.T. system, M.R.T. technique, muscle-testing procedure): Variety of procedures used with the aim of tapping the body's innate intelligence and determining thereby the energy levels of life forces that control the body. Muscle testing is a component of every form of kinesiology (see above) and a means of discovering imbalances.

(See also: Muscle testing , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE

The Alexander Technique is movement education in which the student is taught to sit, stand, and move in ways that reduce physical stress on the body.

Alexander Technique teachers use gentle manual guidance and verbal cues to improve students’ posture and movement patterns. A lesson or group class typically involves basic movements such as sitting, standing, walking, bending, reaching, carrying, and lying down. It may also involve more specialized activities such as playing a musical instrument, working at a computer, etc. T

he teacher’s manual guidance stresses the adjustment of the head, neck, and torso relationship. In beginning lessons, the teacher closely monitors the student. Later, the student learns to monitor herself, ultimately learning a unique self-management process - an understanding of balance and dynamic postural control. F. M. Alexander, an Australian actor, developed the technique in the late 1800s as a result of attempting to solve his own physical problem of losing his voice on stage.

He discovered that misuse of the neuromuscular activity of the head, neck, and spine caused maladaptive functioning and that this movement could be corrected. As he began to teach his technique, he found that his students’ overall health improved and that the technique could be used to address a wide array of problems.

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

Gheranda Samhita: i (Sanskrit) A Vaishnava manual on hatha yoga (ca 1675), still influential today, presented as a dialog between Sage Gheranda and a disciple.

See: hatha yoga.

(See also: Gheranda Samhita , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

A Course in Miracles: Form of spiritual psychotherapy based on A Course in Miracles, whose three volumes - The Text, Workbook for Students, and Manual for Teachers - comprise well over a thousand pages. The Course originated in 1965, was completed in 1972, and was first published (as a photocopy of typescript) in 1975. It is the fruit of channeling from Jesus Christ to Helen Cohen Schucman (1909-1981), a research psychologist at Columbia University.

(See also: A Course in Miracles , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

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)

Aithihya (Sanskrit) (from iti thus, in this manner + ha emphatic particle)

Thus indeed it was; traditional instructions, tradition. Closely similar to itihasa, a name applied to semi-legendary and epic accounts; also to the Mahabharata and Ramayana. As the instructors of certain schools in handing on teaching (especially oral teaching delivered with "mouth to ear") invariably commenced an installment with the phrase "iti maya srutam" or "iti ha maya srutam" (truly thus have I heard), such instruction came to be called aitihya or aitiha. The adjectival form aitihasika also means what is communicated or derived from tradition, ancient legend, or heroic history.

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

Bodywork: A general term used to describe any type of manual, manipulative healing modality that aims to restore health of body mind and spirit. Some examples include massage, craniosacral therapy, acupressure and yoga therapy.

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

Esoteric (from Greek esoterikos pertaining to the inner)

Applied to the advanced instructions given to qualified candidates in Mysteries or schools of philosophy, first used popularly in Greece by Aristotle. Jesus in the Bible had teachings for his disciples in private, and others for the public, precisely as all other ancient religious and philosophical teachers always had.

Esoteric teachings both were and are such as could not be understood or profitably received by those not previously prepared by study and probation. Exoteric or outer teachings were often given in symbolic language which revealed the esoteric meaning only to those who were in possession of the keys to interpretation.

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

sound: Shabda. As the darshana, or "seeing," of the Divine is a central article of faith for Hindus, similarly, hearing the Divine is spiritually indispensable. The ears are a center of many nadis connected to inner organs of perception. Gurus may when imparting initiation whisper in the ear of disciples to stimulate these centers and give a greater effect to their instructions.

During temple puja, bells ring loudly, drums resound, conches and woodwinds blare to awaken worshipers from routine states of consciousness.

Meditation on inner sound, called nada-anusandhana, is an essential yoga practice. Listening to the Vedas or other scripture is a mystical process. Traditional music is revered as the nectar of the Divine.

See: Aum, nada, Siva consciousness.

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

Massage therapy: General term for a range of manual approaches to enhance relaxation, elevate mood, reduce blood pressure, decrease pain and heighten immune responses. It involves the practice of kneading or otherwise manipulating a person’s muscles and other soft or connective tissue.

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