Mental Dictionary

A Theosophical definition of Samadhi :

Samadhi

(Sanskrit) A compound word formed of sam, meaning "with" or "together"; a, meaning "towards"; and the verbal root dha, signifying "to place," or "to bring"; hence samadhi, meaning "to direct towards," generally signifies to combine the faculties of the mind with a direction towards an object. Hence, intense contemplation or profound meditation, with the consciousness directed to the spiritual. It is the highest form of self-possession, in the sense of collecting all the faculties of the constitution towards reaching union or quasi-union, long or short in time as the case may be, with the divine-spiritual. One who possesses and is accustomed to use this power has complete, absolute control over all his faculties, and is, therefore, said to be "completely self- possessed." It is the highest state of yoga or "union."

Samadhi, therefore, is a word of exceedingly mystical and profound significance implying the complete abstraction of the percipient consciousness from all worldly or exterior or even mental concerns or attributes, and its absorption into or, perhaps better, its becoming the pure unadulterate, undilute superconsciousness of the god within. In other words, samadhi is self-conscious union with the spiritual monad of the human constitution. Samadhi is the eighth or final stage of genuine occult yoga, and can be attained at any time by the initiate without conscious recourse to the other phases or practices of yoga enumerated in Oriental works, and which other and inferior practices are often misleading, in some cases distinctly injurious, and at the best mere props or aids in the attaining of complete mental abstraction from worldly concerns.

The eight stages of yoga usually enumerated are the following:

(1)  yama, signifying "restraint" or "forbearance";

(2)  niyama, religious observances of various kinds, such as watchings or fastings, prayings, penances, etc.;

(3)  asana (q.v.), postures of various kinds;

(4)  pranayama, various methods of regulating the breath; (5) pratyahara, a word signifying "withdrawal," but technically and esoterically the "withdrawal" of the consciousness from sensual or sensuous concerns, or from external objects;

(5)  dharana (q.v.), firmness or steadiness or resolution in holding the mind set or concentrated on a topic or object of thought, mental concentration;

(6)  dhyana (q.v.), abstract contemplation or meditation when freed from exterior distractions; and finally,

(7)  samadhi, complete collection of the consciousness and of its faculties into oneness or union with the monadic essence.

It may be observed, and should be carefully taken note of by the student, that when the initiate has attained samadhi he becomes practically omniscient for the solar universe in which he dwells, because his consciousness is functioning at the time in the spiritual-causal worlds. All knowledge is then to him like an open page because he is self-consciously conscious, to use a rather awkward phrase, of nature's inner and spiritual realms, the reason being that his consciousness has become kosmic in its reaches.

See also: Samadhi , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Samadhi (Sanskrit) [from sam with, together + a towards + the verbal root dha to place, bring]

To direct towards; to combine the mental faculties towards an object. Self-consciousness union with the spiritual monad by intense and profound spiritual contemplation or meditation.

It implies "the complete abstraction of the percipient consciousness from all worldly, or exterior, or even mental concerns or attributes, and its . . . becoming the pure unadulterate, undilute super-consciousness of the god within. . . . Samadhi is the eighth or final stage of genuine occult Yoga, and can be attained at any time by the initiate without conscious recourse to the other phases or practices of Yoga enumerated in Oriental works, and which other and inferior practices are often misleading, in some cases distinctly injurious, and at the best mere props or aids in the attaining of complete mental abstraction from worldly concerns" (OG 150-1). The seeker on attaining samadhi becomes practically omniscient for his solar universe because his consciousness is functioning in the cosmic spiritual and causal worlds.

Bodhi (enlightenment) is a particular state of samadhi, during which the subject reaches the culmination of spiritual knowledge. Samadhi is the highest state on earth that can be reached while in the body; its highest stage or degree is called turiya. To attain beyond this, the initiate must have become a nirmanakaya.

(See also: Samadhi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Panchakarma Basic Principles

Panchakarma consists of medicated emesis (vamana) to remove excess kapha, therapeutic purgation (viracana) to clear excess pitta, medicated enema (vasti) to eject excess vata, nasal drops or snuffs (nasya) for diseases of the head & neck and bloodletting (raktamokshana) in case of blood disorders. Five purification procedures for removing accumulated toxins and other waste material in the body.

As the humors and tissues are related closely to each other, this discharge procedure affects the tissues indirectly by the strong elimination of related humor. For example, the pronounced elimination of kapha by herb induced emesis causes an effect on the nutrient tissue fluid pool, containing water and electrolytes, plasma, muscle, fat. Or the large release of pitta by selective purgation similarly causes an indirect effect on the total colouring material in the body or blood. Vasti is somewhat different, as it is meant to nullify excess vata and contains warm oleation substances. During its long contact with the membrane of the large intestine, it separates layers of faecal matter and thus enhances better absorption, which is responsible for the ultimate nourishment of all tissues. Nasya in turn cleans the sinus and thereby improves the function of sense organs.

Physical and mental diseases occur due to the vitation of somatic doshas vata, pitta and kapha and due to mental doshas Rajas and Tamas. Volitional transgression, effect of time and senses are the three primary causes responsible for vitation of biological and mental doshas. Food, drinks & environmental factors with similar properties to the doshas vitiates them and cause disease. Panchakarma's purificatory therapies balance out the three doshas, acting both as a curative and a preventive measure.

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

Psychic Powers Powers pertaining to the lower intermediate human nature -- i.e, between the mental-emotional and the physical -- including powers of perception such as astral vision, the lower clairvoyance and clairaudience, the lower psychometry and seership, etc.; and lower biases or tendencies such as hypnotism, the power to produce minor occult phenomena of many kinds, and in connection with the power of automatic astral projection.

In their nature they are morally neutral, being susceptible of use or misuse just as are physical powers. If used with an evil or selfish purpose, the action is black magic; and even if used without such motive or with good intention, they may prove confusing and therefore misleading for one who ventures to use them.

The existence of such powers should be recognized and we should hope some day to be able to avail ourselves properly of them, but a prime requisite in discipleship is equal and harmonious development. We may attain psychic powers by observing the conditions under which they may safely and profitably be allowed to develop.

The presence of vanity, ambition, self-assertion, egoism, and similar qualities prove a bar, and the aspirant who is sincerely desirous of eliminating these defects will not willingly adopt a course likely to enhance them. There is no hard-and-fast division of powers into psychic, physical, mental, etc.: we may contemplate the gradual development of our mental faculties without defining a point where we have stepped out of the ordinary into the occult; and our perceptions may become refined by gradual stages without any sudden jump from one plane to another.

Theosophy enjoins students to let psychic powers alone, until they develop normally and naturally in the progress of the student along the path of wisdom and self-mastery. The craze for psychic powers and attempts in their cultivation arise almost invariably out of ignorance of the existence in ourselves of far higher and more powerful forces which can always be employed with safety, and even profit, to the individual.

These greater powers are those classed as spiritual and intellectual-aspirational -- powers which ennoble and dignify man, containing in themselves capacities for amazing effects. Their use is always safe once they are understood and studied. By their side the psychic powers, attributes, and faculties are like the puny efforts of children to copy adults.

(See also: Psychic Powers , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

DEATH

"Mental materiality". Life becomes more and more "mental" until death (even as death becomes more and more physical until birth).

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

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jhana (jhaana; Skt. dhyana): Mental absorption. A state of strong concentration focused on a single physical sensation (resulting in rupa jhana) or mental notion (resulting in arupa jhana). Development of jhana arises from the temporary suspension of the five hindrances (see nivarana) through the development of five mental factors:

á      vitakka (directed thought),

á      vicara (evaluation),

á      piti (rapture),

á      sukha (pleasure), and

á      ekaggatarammana (singleness of preoccupation).

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

light: In an ordinary sense, a form of energy which makes physical objects visible to the eye. In a religious-mystical sense, light also illumines inner objects (i.e., mental images).

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

Earthquakes Physical phenomena such as earthquakes are generally the end-products of a chain of causation operating not only on the physical plane but also on other cosmic planes.

A study of the geology of the earth's crust as regards the lie of the rocks, the position of faults, the presence of volcanic activities, etc., may indicate the places most likely to be affected, and the relation between earthquakes and the positions of the heavenly bodies is now receiving some consideration from scientists; but they still do not recognize any connection between the cause of earthquakes and events on the mental plane of the earth.

"But when they understand that there is no such thing as accident in the universe, that every event which appears to us as accident, is the effect of a force on the mental plane, then they will be able to understand why the superstitious Hindus look upon earthquakes as the effect of accumulated sins committed by men." (Damodar)

The more subtle forms of force-matter or astral light form the links between the physical earth and the mental state of the living beings upon it; and rapid and more or less violent physical cataclysms may be regarded as the final effects of a sudden release of tension in those higher realms. That unusual psychic conditions perceptible to animals and even to humans precede earthquakes many hours before a shock, and long before the seismographs show the smallest tremor, is well-authenticated.

"It is absolutely false, and but an additional demonstration of the great conceit of our age, to assert (as men of science do) that all the great geological changes and terrible convulsions have been produced by ordinary and known physical forces. For these forces were but the tools and final means for the accomplishment of certain purposes, acting periodically, and apparently mechanically, through an inward impulse mixed up with, but beyond their material nature. There is a purpose in every important act of Nature, whose acts are all cyclic and periodical. But spiritual Forces having been usually confused with the purely physical, the former are denied by, and therefore have to remain unknown to Science, because left unexamined" (SD 1:640).

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

Seven The fundamental number of manifestation, frequently found in the different cosmogonies as well as in many religious dogmas and observances of the different ancient peoples.

Although ten was called one of the perfect numbers by the Pythagoreans, seven was unique in their series of numbers because it has all the "perfection of the Unit -- the number of numbers. For as absolute unity is uncreated, and impartite (hence number-less) and no number can produce it, so is the seven: no digit contained within the decade can beget or produce it" (SD 2:582). Seven is the number of the manifested universe, while ten or twelve is the number of the unmanifested universe.

Pythagoras taught that seven was composed of the numbers three and four, explaining that "on the plane of the noumenal world, the triangle was, as the first conception of the manifested Deity, its image: 'Father-Mother-Son'; and the Quaternary, the perfect number, was the noumenal, ideal root of all numbers and things on the physical plane" (ibid.). Further, seven was called by the Pythogoreans the vehicle of life for it consisted of body and spirit: the body was held to consist of four principal elements, while the spirit was in manifestation triple, comprising the monad, intellect or essential reason, and mind.

There are innumerable instances of sevening -- the seven days of the week, the seven colors of the spectrum, the seven notes of the musical scale -- while special emphasis is placed upon the seven human and cosmic principles; the seven senses (five senses now in manifestation and two more to be attained in the future through evolutionary unfolding); the seven cosmic elements; the seven root-races and seven subraces; the seven kingdoms, human and below; the seven rounds; the seven lokas and talas; the seven manifested globes of the planetary chain; the seven sacred planets; the seven racial buddhas; the seven dhyani-bodhisattvas and -buddhas; the seven Logoi; etc.

Man as well as nature is called saptaparna (seven-leaved plant), symbolized by the triangle above the square {illust}. While the senary was applied to man in all ranges from the physical to the spiritual, when completed by the atman, thus making the septenary, the latter signified the entire range of the constitution, whether of man or nature, crowned by the immortal spirit.

In Hindu literature the number seven continually appears: the saptarshis (the seven sages), the seven superior and inferior worlds, the seven hosts of deities, the seven holy cities, the seven holy islands, seas, or mountains, the seven deserts, the seven sacred trees, etc. In Greece seven was often connected with the gods and goddesses: Mars had seven attendants, seven was sacred to Pallas Athene and to Phoebus Apollo -- the latter with his seven-stringed lyre playing hymns to septenary nature as well as to the seven-rayed sun; Niobe's seven sons and seven daughters, etc.

Apart from mythological considerations, in physical life manifestations of the number seven occur continuously: "if the mysterious Septenary Cycle is a law in nature, and it is one, as proven; if it is found controlling the evolution and involution (or death) in the realms of entomology, ichthyology and ornithology, as in the Kingdoms of the Animal, mammalia and man -- why cannot it be present and acting in Kosmos, in general, in its natural (though occult) divisions of time, races, and mental development?" (SD 2:623n).

Seven is indeed the sacred number of life, and with the circle and the cross it forms a triad of primordial symbols of the ancient wisdom.

(See also: Seven , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

REALITY

"Reality" is illusion only in the sense that there is more than one version. You can alter this aeon's reality, but there are several million separate Kalpic realities that are also primed for re-adjustment.

Reality does not exist apart from you and me. Although it seems to retain a changeless nature, that is merely the illusory consensus which our society clings to. And of course, our perceptions define reality, as do history and tradition, but we can also alter reality by physical, mental & arcane means. There are the perceptionless reality systems, after all (see below). The psychedelics have also played a tremendous role in changing collective reality, that despite the built-in limitation that all psychedelics can do is restructure ephemeral, subjective consciousness on society's lowest, least influential levels.

Ordinary, right-eyed, aeonic reality depends on our senses, but there are realities interwoven through this consensus that do not derive from the bodily senses, in which (as far as our waking minds are concerned) we act unconsciously -- but deliberately. Sense reality, for all its unreliability, is not very flexible, hence it serves as the final testing field (as well as rubbish heap) of substance. Usually our work in the separate realities is more important than our work in "this" one. As for using one's mental expectations as a reality-set, that would apply strictly to the superzeroeth R-Levels.

Reality is "Non-being," and according to Grant: "...withdraws as the Principle of Consciousness recedes and returns to the point of original absence."

Gurdjieff describes the following while under the influence of an anomalous substance: "I perceived directly now that everything in the universe was directly connected, and that moreover these forms were all connected just because they were all one and the same, repeated to provide the illusion of complexity. When presented with such a multiplicity of images, one can infuse them with differences sufficient to completely deceive oneself even though behind it all, one knows and understands the truth." And then, as the ground began to give way under him, he thought, "Everything, as soon as it is formed, flows into infinity in which it is transformed into the void and reformed as a new formation, which in turn is instantly swallowed."

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

nama (naama): Mental phenomena. This term refers to the mental components of the five khandhas, and includes: vedana (feeling), sanna (perception), sankhara (mental fashionings), and vinnana (consciousness). Compare rupa.

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

inner (innermost): Located within. Of the depths of our being.

• inner advancement (or unfoldment): Progress of an individual at the soul level rather than in external life.
• inner bodies: The subtle bodies of man within the physical body.
• inner discovery: Learning from inside oneself, experiential revelation; one of the benefits of inner life.
• inner form (or nature) of the guru: The deeper levels of the guru's being that the disciple strives to attune himself to and emulate.
• inner law: The principles or mechanism underlying every action or experience, often hidden. Karma is one such law.
• inner life: The life we live inside ourselves, at the emotional, mental and spiritual levels, as distinguished from outer life.
• inner light: A moonlight-like glow that can be seen inside the head or throughout the body when the vrittis, mental fluctuations, have been sufficiently quieted. To be able to see and bask in the inner light is a milestone on the path.
• See: vritti.
• inner mind: The mind in its deeper, intuitive functions and capacities- the subsuperconscious and superconscious.
• innermost body: The soul body.
• inner planes: Inner worlds or regions of existence.
• inner self: The real, deep Self; the essence of the soul, rather than the outer self with which we usually identify.
• inner sky: The area of the mind which is clear inner space, free of mental images, feelings, identifications, etc. Tranquility itself. The superconscious mind, Satchidananda.

See: akasha. -

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

RELIGION

The word "religion" derives from the Latin prefix, re (an intensive) + ligio, "to tie, to bind," hence "a practice designed to tie down tightly, as though by a spell-binding force." If religions were not impervious to change, they would quickly dissolve into the chaos of the occult.

Religion is worship. It is based on the strict separation of divinity and humanity. Magic, on the contrary, is the invocation or evocation of spirits or divinity based on kinship or identity with them.

Living religions begin by being as creative, spontaneous and iconoclastic as the arts. But that creative fire quickly damps down to immutable dogma and robot-priests. Worship for its own sake amounts to little more than useless idolatry. It is utterly infra dig for any intelligent human being. The sole purpose of ritual is the arousal of consciousness in the participant. When such awakening fails to take place, it is time to throw the ikons to the dogs. The universe is self-created and everything in it created itself and goes on creating itself. There are higher beings, to be sure, but it is a perilous mistake to worship "The Creator" who is as far from perfect as you can get and still live on this side of Nothing. Nor should we consider humanity, in its present condition, to be anything but imperfect. Along with Nietzsche, we should see man as capable of infinite improvement. But Nietzsche's so-called "superman" will never evolve without struggle -- and not be the easy struggle of fascistic tyranny over material forms, but by the infinitely more difficult way of universal internal enlightenment.

Since there are infinite levels of enlightenment the majority of people are incapable of consensus or agreement, hence any idea of a religious "congregation" is absurd. As for the profane multitudes... unaware that omniscience, omnipotence and immortality comprise the deepest foundation of existence, they consider their own confusion to be the highest expression of consciousness. The ultimate purpose of creation is to know itself through the experience of eternal expansion of the mind. It is physical or fiscal expansion, however, that is of primary interest to homo vulgaris.

The mission of the magician isn't necessarily to bring down the traditional houses of religion -- especially the monoliths: Islam, Christendom or Judaism. But neither can he support them. For it is a truism that there is wisdom in the individual and it is difference that we should value, not sameness. For the magician, far more acceptable alternatives to monotheism can be found in India, Egypt, Tibet, etc. with their practices of Lamaism, Tantrism, Yoga and so on, or in the atheistic systems of the Tao and Buddhism. But always -- though he understands and honors tradition, the magus creates his own rituals and observances, tailored to his own needs. He does not serve established orders. As Madame Blavatsky so hopefully put it, "There is no religion higher than truth."

RING-PASS-NOT

As the magician draws his circle to keep the demons from entering his world, so other monads draw their own circles to keep out the magician. The ring-pass-not is that Level of attainment beyond which you cannot go. In occult literature, according to Alice Bailey, it is a term used "to denote the periphery of the sphere of influence of any central life force, and is applied equally to all atoms, from the atom of matter as dealt with by the physicist or chemist through the human planetary atoms up to the great atom of a solar system. The ring- pass-not of the average person is the spheroidal form of his mental body which extends considerably beyond the physical and enables him to function on the lower levels of the mental plane."

HPB (The Secret Doctrine) defines the RPN as: "The circumference of the sphere of influence of any center of positive life. This includes the fire sphere of magnetic work of the solar orb, viewing it as the body of manifestation of a Solar Logos or to a planetary scheme and could equally well be applied to the sphere of activity of the human Ego."

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

A dictionary of parapsychology. Please note that words in grey are hyperlinked to a corresponding archive with articles related to that particular topic.

Vibration, Vibrations Motion is a fundamental principle in universal nature, coeval with boundless space, ceasing not even during pralaya; and we can form only a relative idea of its real nature, yet can have intuitions of it through its manifestations, the most fundamental of which is vibration. The essential characteristic of vibration is periodicity or cyclic motion. It appears in the alternation of manvantara and pralaya in the cosmic Great Breath and in the most rapid oscillations of minutest particles. The relative periodicity of various vibrations is found to constitute a mathematical scale, according to which phenomena may be classified.

The principle of sympathetic vibration involves mysteries relating to the tremendous potency of sound, some of which are familiar to physicists. The discoveries of John Worrell Keely (cf SD 1:555-66) were of this nature. He was able to develop enormous energy in an engine without using the principle of pressure; but his discoveries were premature and their results were frustrated.

Sound is a universal principle which manifests itself physically as vibrations in the mass and particles of bodies. Physicists, by a logical confusion, have called the effects "sound," whereas they are only one of the productions of causal sound. We might as well define fear as a trembling of the body; whereas we know that the trembling is an effect produced by the emotion. The same applies to heat, light, and others of the list of physical forces which manifest themselves in vibrations.

Vibration, in all its myriad manifestations, is the consequence of inner hidden causal agencies. The vibrations ensuing from such inner movements expressing themselves through bodies or veils, are always in accordance with the causal rhythms and mathematics involving quantities such as rate, intensity, and quality, there being vibrations of as many kinds as there are different causal agents. Thus there are vibrations as effects on our gross physical plane, other vibrations which manifest themselves on the astral, emotional, and psychological or lower mental planes. There are again vibrations of higher type which originate in the intellectual and spiritual monads of the human constitution.

Furthermore, because it is an expression of energy, all vibration is force and energy itself, and hence capable of arousing energies or forces of exactly the same quality or rate of intensity in other beings which they affect -- this being the reason behind sympathetic vibration. When vibrations thus interlock and synchronize in rate, intensity, and quality, we have what is called sympathy, love, or attraction, and such sympathetic vibration is operative on all the planes of universal nature. Not only is this the case in all relations of humans with each other, but likewise sympathetic vibration plays an enormous part in such matters as mob psychology, quick electrical sympathies affecting audiences, hates and rebellions -- even what is known as health and disease are communicated by means of vibrations, the one first affected being able to communicate his "affection" of whatever kind to others who are at the time negative to the vibrational impact and in time vibrating synchronously with the impacting energy. There is, of course, such a thing as resistance, which expresses itself in manifold ways, such as being able to throw off the vibration affecting it, and even to return it upon the sender, consciously or unconsciously; and herein lies the secret of the old medieval saying that curses come home to roost, or that if the magician is not stronger than the elementals or nature spirits he attempts to control, he is almost invariably destined to become their victim.

All vibrational activity of whatever rate, intensity, or attributive characteristic is always an effect, although always capable of becoming in its turn a cause producing effects of its own type. In other words, there is always the originating or causal agent for any specific instance of vibration; thus the thinker produces mental vibrational activity which we call thinking or thoughts, or emotion or feeling.

Indeed, every entity or thing in the universe is in incessant motion or vibrational activity arising from force inherent in the entity or thing itself; and these interblending activities of vibration produce the vast diversity of the universe around us. Thus every atom, electron, molecule, or being anywhere, sings its own vibrational note, which is the sound production of its own characteristic svabhava or individuality; so that our physical bodies, could we but hear their mystical music, would sound like a vast and marvelous symphony of interblended sound. For this reason Pythagoras spoke of the music of the spheres, ascribing to each celestial body its own dominant note, and pointing out that from the blending of such individual notes or sounds arise the harmony of the spheres.

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

DEGRIEFING

Degriefing is the process of recognizing the mental and physical pain that accompanies grief and treating it with a combination of somatic therapies and psychotherapeutic tools.

Degriefing can be used to unlock and remove grief from an individual’s body, and thereby heal not only physical symptoms, but mental and emotional wounds as well. It combines effective verbal counseling therapies with individualized physical care.

The techniques used in the degriefing process are intended to ease a person’s emotional distress, mental anguish, and physical discomforts. The goal of degriefing is to unlock blockages that have developed in the body and shift them to a more harmonious state.

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

Dinacharya

In order to keep the tridoshas in a state of healthy equlibrium and digestion & metabolism (agni) in proper order, Ayurveda prescribes for each individual a specific daily routine ( dina – day & acharya – behaviour). The various stages to this daily routine, influenced by the specifics of your prakriti, that will enable you to make the most out of your life, are:

Arising

Since our biological clocks are attuned to the rising and setting of the sun, it is obviously better to awake at sunrise in perfect synchronisation to the natural clock. An ideal time to let the body cells soak in the strength of a tempered sun to be charged for the day. Drinking a glass of luke-warm water helps flush out all toxins accumulated overnight in the body.

Natural Urges

The last portion of the night being ruled by vata – involved in the process of elimination – dawn is the best time to eliminate the body's physical waste. Proper elimination also helping remove the kapha that naturally accumulates overnight. Defecation once or twice daily is the best. Preferably not immediately after a meal. But urination then is wise. Examine your eliminations each morning and if you notice any disturbance indicating poor digestion, go on a fast. It will allow the body rest to correct the system before disease sets in. Never suppress the natural physical urges as elimination, hunger, thirst, sleep, sneezing, yawning, vomiting, flatus and ejaculation, for it will lead to discomfort and even disease.

Cleanliness

Thorough washing of the limbs, face, mouth, eyes & nose purifies the bodies sense organs. Best done with a bath in clean water, it should accompany brushing of the teeth (should be repeated after every meal), scraping off a toxicated coating of ama from the tongue, occasional gargling of salt water with a pinch of turmeric to keep gums, mouth & throat healthy, proper cleaning of the nose and the ears and washing the eyes with warm water held in mouth for moments (saliva being very good for the eyes). Keep your hair trimmed, nails filed and wear clean clothes. Feel free to use perfumes in moderation and feel good.

Exercise

Either passive like massage or active like aerobics or both as in yoga postures, regular exercise increases the body's stamina and resistance to disease by facilitating the immune system, clearing all channels, promoting circulation & waste disposal, and destroying fat. Done regularly, it can reduce anxiety but become addictive. Depending on age & body type, kaphas can go for heavy exercises, pittas should do it in moderation and vatas should perform yoga and not aerobics. Never exert more than half your capacity, during illness, just after a meal and without rhythmic breathing. Swimming, walking and even laughing are excellent options.

Massage

Necessary for every person, a regular self-massage with herbal oils is usually adequate but needs to be supplemented with professional attention occasionally. It makes the skin supple, controls vata by reducing its cold, dry, light, rough & erratic qualities, enhances blood circulation, encourages quicker removal of metabolic wastes and relaxes the body. Follow the normal direction of hair growth, use a little extra oil over the body's vital parts, massage the scalp and head at least weekly and just the soles of your feet if short of time.

Meditation

Ideal for disciplining the mind and removing stress & strain, it is best done after a quick bath to cleanse yourself. Critical in satisfying the mind's hunger, when done well it is so nourishing that even the body can survive on less. Control of desire, or mental hunger, is the key to longevity and immortality. Anything can be meditation so long it is sincere and heartfelt. The simplest and healthiest involves the sun and its golden colour is deemed the most nourishing and productive.

While this routine acts as a critical shield of defence against the destabilising influences of an external environment, by using selective choice in some of the other factors mentioned below you can easily improve upon the condition of your total health.

Clothing

In shielding from extreme temperatures, it tends to reflect the temperament of the wearer in a society showing growing preponderance of the same. Should always be light & airy, and made of natural fibres as cotton, wool, linen or silk. Always wear clean, and never anyone else's except that of a saint. Since energy is brought into the body through the crown of the head and exits from the soles of the feet – extracting abnormal heat from the system – the polluted energy usually collects in the footwear. So avoid wearing other's footwear, try not to take shoes into the house and walk barefoot whenever possible. And wooden sandals are more healthy than animal skin or rubber shoes.

Employment

Since work consumes at least one-third part of our lives and success or failure in your profession affects self-confidence, self-worth, it is important that the nature of work should match well with your prakriti.

Vata people love work that requires sudden bursts of intense energy. But it tends to exhaust them also. So to balance it off, despite their dislike, they should be in routine jobs, slightly repetitive. Need a soothing home and work environment to smooth out their rough edges. They need adequate rest, specially in the afternoons. And should avoid places where the air is exceptionally cool and dry e.g. the freezing cold inside electronics manufacturing outfits or exceptionally dusty fertiliser mills. The ideal jobs must have enough excitement to hold their interest and sufficient routine to avoid imbalances.

Pitta people are very practical, making good administrators but not original thinkers. By nature aggressive and self-promoting, these realists see everything as a contest that has to be won. Insisting on being in the forefront of all activity, they cram as much work as they can, demanding perfect functioning from their bodies all the time. They do not take delays and obstacles to their plans well and must seriously try to be fair to and keep their professional and private lives separate. They should avoid work that is physically irritating or involves heat (as welding or metal casting) and listen more to others. They should ideally have sufficient challenge to keep them occupied without the stress of severe competition.

Innate Kapha stability and balance makes them great administrators. They must make a conscious effort bring in change or variety to their otherwise staid and routine lives. And ensure that even if work is not physically active, leisure is. Slow to get going in the morning, competition is good for them although they may find it stressful.

Choice of Pet

Often an extension of their owner's personalities, pets should ideally be chosen so as to have a therapeutic effect on your doshic imbalances.

Vatas get along famously with dogs, the canine's loveable, sloppy, open-heartedness reassuring and stabilising their cold, fearful, fickle nature. Some do well with small, furry high- strung animals as guinea pigs that arouse the maternal instincts in the owners.

The cat is the Pittas favourite. With strongly held opinions on most subjects, the feline presents continuous challenges, even with its movements.

Kaphas in turn prefer birds, the avian's light chirpiness helping offset some of the dosha's natural ponderousness. For some large dogs prove beneficial as the canine encourages them to exercise along with.

Choice of Partner

Ayurvedic wisdom suggests that like types make better mates because of similar mental processes, attitudes and sexual proclivities. Unfortunately, two people of similar dispositions are likely to have the same defects too. Choosing the right partner who will stimulate, inspire you to evolve into better individual thus becomes very important.

Sleep

A state of physical inertia with mental relaxation, sleep promotes proper growth of the self. Night is the natural time to sleep and mid-day catnaps should not be more than 15 minutes long except for the very young, very old, very weak and those intoxicated, diseased, exhausted or traumatised. Avoid having a full meal just before retiring to bed. Sleeping on the right side is the most relaxing and good for yoga. On the left, it is most digestive and increases interest in food, sleep and sex. Sleeping on the back indirectly and on the stomach directly encourages disease. Sleeping with crown of the head facing east and feet into the west promotes the best meditative sleep. Washing the hands, feet & face just before improves sleep. Never sleep in the kitchen and go to bed only to sleep. 6 to 8 hours of daily sleep is essential. The ideal form of sleep is yoga – a state of complete physical inertness with retention of mental alertness & awareness.

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

Subconscious In The Secret Doctrine, used for a degree of consciousness less evolved than that with which we are familiar. Generally today, psychic researchers and psychoanalysts define it as a kind of mental action not yet revealed to ordinary consciousness and not easily apparent to introspection.

Our own consciousness is known by experience; that of others is inferred from analogy and from its results. In the same way, our conduct is found to be largely influenced by something which we must presume to be a conscious intelligence, yet of which we are not aware by actual experience.

We cannot get a clear definition of this until we have analyzed the concept of consciousness more fully, as is done in Hindu systems. But, as a practical question, our mental nature includes a far larger field than that occupied at any one time by the focus of attention. Subconscious may merely mean behind conscious; but if it taken to mean below, the expression is unfortunate as implying lower and more sinister regions of our mentality; and this indeed is actually the region studied and accepted by prominent modern psychoanalysts.

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

Evolution (from Latin evolutio unrolling, opening)

The unfolding or bringing into manifestation of the inherent, already inwardly existing characteristics of a being; it is therefore growth from within, development. The process is universal, since the universe consists of living beings, all of which are growing because unfolding. Evolution presupposes two main factors: the entity which is evolving, and the form which is evolved. These two are related as spirit to matter, as the monad to its organism.

Every one of the countless beings which constitute the universe is essentially a spark of the universal divine fire, life, or spirit; and at any time is at one stage or another of a continuous career of unfolding growth. Every spark creates for itself a succession of forms by which it expresses more or less of its inherent qualities. The physical vehicles are merely the physical end-products; before these physical imbodiments are engendered, there are other imbodiments made of subtler grades of matter or consciousness-substance on intermediate planes, and astral stuff on the lower plane close to the physical. Evolution is a continual reaction between what is within and what is without: environment modifies growth; but without the urge of the indwelling monad, there could be no action upon environment, nor any reaction by environment.

Evolution is not a process of accretion from without; such accretion could not produce an organism unless the full plan of that organism existed already latently in ideation. Nor is evolution in the vegetable and animal kingdoms a process of mere transformism by which one physical organism changes into another. The changes take place because of the unfolding growth of the indwelling entity, each new evolutional enfoldment of the latter impacting on the body, and therefore more or less modifying it; and this indwelling entity in this manner builds for itself new forms suitable to its own changed or more largely unfolded states.

Theosophy does not hold to the idea of a single-track, end-on evolution from a protoplasmic speck to human being, without inner astral, mental, and spiritual urge from within. Rather, the plan of evolution as represented by the different classes and orders of beings on earth may be represented by a tree, whose main trunk is the human stem, from which (so far as this manvantara is concerned) the various animal types have issued like branches, each of them then entering upon a special unfolding development and differentiation of its own. Indeed, the same observation applies with equal force to the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, although their root-types issued from the human stem long aeons before the animal types appeared on earth.

Evolution is an ancient and cardinal tenet of the archaic wisdom and was formerly called emanation. In mankind, three distinct, principal lines of evolution take place and converge; the spiritual, the mental or manasic, and the astral-vital-physical. The manasic factor is derived from the perfected humanity of a previous manvantara, whose entrance into the human stock of the third root-race brought about the union of the heavenly and the terrestrial so as to make a complete self-conscious being who thereafter mirrors every plane in nature. In humankind, the divine monad, a spark of the universal spirit, emanates from itself its first vehicle, and thus is formed the spiritual monad, atma-buddhi. This monad, emanating from itself in its turn another vehicle, becomes the higher human soul or reimbodying ego; and the emanational process is continued throughout the human constitution by the formation of the astral-vital soul which in its turn emanates or oozes forth the physical body.

The process of evolution cannot be considered as ending. Just as below human beings there are less evolved kingdoms, so above are beings in whom fuller self-consciousness has been achieved than we have yet achieved, and still more of the divine potentialities realized. All evolution beneath humankind tends towards humanhood as its objective; but humanity itself has ever greater heights still before it to attain in the future.

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

Sleep

A state of physical inertia with mental relaxation, sleep promotes proper growth of the self. Night is the natural time to sleep and mid-day catnaps should not be more than 15 minutes long except for the very young, very old, very weak and those intoxicated, diseased, exhausted or traumatised. Avoid having a full meal just before retiring to bed. Sleeping on the right side is the most relaxing and good for yoga. On the left, it is most digestive and increases interest in food, sleep and sex. Sleeping on the back indirectly and on the stomach directly encourages disease. Sleeping with crown of the head facing east and feet into the west promotes the best meditative sleep. Washing the hands, feet & face just before improves sleep. Never sleep in the kitchen and go to bed only to sleep. 6 to 8 hours of daily sleep is essential. The ideal form of sleep is yoga – a state of complete physical inertness with retention of mental alertness & awareness.

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