Nu

NU may stand for: Nicaragua (NATO country code) Niue (ISO 3166 country code) Nunavut, Canadian Territory postal code Nahdatul Ulama, an Islamic group in Indonesia The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Niagara University Northwestern University Northeastern University Norwich University, Military College of Vermont Nu may stand for: Nu is a letter in the Greek alphabet: lowercase ν, uppercase Ν. In Egypt ...

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Hinduism Lexicon on B

From backbiting to buddhi chitta.

Read more here: » Hinduism: Hinduism Lexicon on B

Bach flower therapy: (Bach flower essence method, Bach flower essence system): Homeopathic system of diagnosis and treatment developed in the 1930:s by British physician Edward Bach (1886-1936). Bach held that disease was essentially beneficial and that its design was to subject the personality to the Divine will of the soul. He psychically discovered the specific healing effects of 38 wildflowers. The life force ("soul quality" or "energy wavelength") of each of these flowers is transferable to water and thence to humans.

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

ugghatitannu (uggha.tita~n~nu): Of swift understanding. After the Buddha attained Awakening and was considering whether or not to teach the Dhamma, he perceived that there were four categories of beings: those of swift understanding, who would gain Awakening after a short explanation of the Dhamma, those who would gain Awakening only after a lengthy explanation (vipacitannu); those who would gain Awakening only after being led through the practice (neyya); and those who, instead of gaining Awakening, would at best gain only a verbal understanding of the Dhamma (padaparama).

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

Rabbi (Hebrew) [from rab great, a chief, leader]

My master, my teacher; the master was addressed by his pupils with the word rabbi or rabbenu (our teacher), Moses being customarily called Mosheh rabbenu (our teacher Moses). Equivalent to the Sanskrit guru, but during the closing decades of the Second Temple, the term became commonly associated with the scribes as merely an honorary title. Then during the time of the Mishnah period, all scholars were termed Rabs (or Chaldean plural Rabbin). Later the sect of the Qaraites, who rejected the Talmud, designated all believers in its by this term. Rabbi is likewise now applied to the modern Jewish clergy.

Rabbinical literature is generally understood to mean writings concerning the Jewish traditions since the beginning of the Talmudic period.

(See also: Rabbi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Chant: Repetition of magical phrases, syllables, or words to produce a desired effect as well as bring the chanter to a deeper meditative state. See also Mantra.

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

Khnum, Khnumu, or Khnemu (Egyptian) (from khnem to join, unite)

The chief member of the triad of deities revered at Abu or Elephantine, their worship extending from Thebes to Philae. Khnemu was the Father who was in the beginning, who fashioned the first egg from which sprang the sun, raiser up of the heaven upon its four pillars, and supporter of the same in the firmament, builder of gods and men, maker of all things which are, evolver of things which shall be, the source of things which exist.

Thus Khnemu is intimately connected with Khepera, perhaps the latter in his active creative functions.

His attributes are those of a water deity, one of the recondite cosmic powers in the waters of space; later he become associated with the Nile god, Hapi, taking on the name Hap-ur, and with Nu, the primeval god of the watery abyss or space. But at Abu he united the characteristics of Ra, Shu, Seb, and Osiris. Even in Christian times his worship flourished, for Gnostic gems bear testimony to his popularity. Sometimes pictured as a ram-headed deity fashioning a man on a potter's wheel.

(See also: Khnum, Khnumu,, Khnemu , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hap, Hapi (Egyptian) God of the Nile; Hep (later Hap) is a name believed to be given to the river by the predynastic Egyptians. The deity is always represented in the form of a man with the breasts of a woman: symbol of fertility and nourishment.

As Egypt was divided into the North and South, the deity took on two aspects: Hap-Reset, the North Nile, pictured with a cluster of papyrus plants upon his head, and Hap-Meht, the South Nile, depicted with lotus plants. He was called the vivifier, creator of things which exist, father of the gods. In one aspect, Hap was identified with Osiris, especially Osiris-Apis or Serapis; thus Isis came to be regarded as his consort.

Likewise he had absorbed the attributes of Nu, the primeval watery abyss from which Ra, the sun god, emerged on the first day of the new world period; therefore he was designated the father of living things, for without the waters of Hap, all living things would perish. Blavatsky points to his psychopompic role and his equivalence with the angel Gabriel (BCW 10:55-6).

Hap among the ancient Egyptians was considered to have two existences, the celestial and the earthly, and in a sense was in Egypt what the river Jordan, both mystical and earthly, became to the Jews and Christians. Again, it is both the river of life and the river of death, crossed at the beginning of the peregrinations undertaken by the deceased.

See also NILE GOD

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

Khepera (Egyptian) (from kheper to become, be born, arise into manifestation)

Originally one of three aspects of the sun:

"I am Khepera in the morning, and Ra at noon-day, and Temu in the evening." Later each of these aspects developed into a separate deity. Khepera was the god of regeneration and development in growth, a spiritual power regulating reimbodiments and transmigrations and the deity presiding over the Egyptian form of the creation, where he is the only thing in existence besides the watery abyss, Nu. The deity of the universe, Nebertcher (a form of Ra) says:

"I am he who came into being in the form of the god Khepera," the hieroglyphic text representing the word by the scarab surmounted by a circle. The universe, then, is but the re-manifestation of a previous universe: the scarab standing for rebirth and regeneration, and the circle for karmic destiny in the universe as containing the seeds of life, brought into activity through reimbodiment or rebirth. The primeval deities Shu and Tefnut were brought forth by Khepera, who was the developer of everything which comes into manifested being from latency. In The Book of the Dead Khepera is called the father of the gods.

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

Reiki Attunement: When attending a Reiki course the participant gets attuned/initiated by a Reiki Master through a simple process, this opens him/her to receive and utilize more of the Universal Life Energy. The attunements have in themselves a very powerful balancing and healing effect.

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

Nu or Noo (Egyptian) The primeval cosmic deep, described in the Egyptian creation as a watery mass in a state of perduring, intense activity, eternally in motion in its structural detail yet eternally quiescent as a whole. Shu and Tefnut, the two firstborn deities, arose from Nu, the father.

The Eye of Nu is the sun -- any sun or star. In later dynasties there was also a god called Nu the son of Ra, referring to the solar system considered as the sun's kingdom and as the waters of the cosmic kingdom infilled with Ra's life. The ancient Hebrew in Genesis had the same conception when they spoke of the face of the deep over which brooded the soul of the 'elohim.

(See also: Nu, Noo , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Faith healing (spiritual healing): 1. Any method wherein one makes an appeal to God or a spirit to participate in healing others, typically a combination of prayer, meditation, and utilization of faith in God. 2. An ill-defined group of methods that encompasses absent healing, Christian Science, the laying on of hands, mesmerism, and shamanism.

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

Flower Essences: A modality that uses extracts from flowering plants in homeopathic proportions as catalysts for healing. Each liquid preparation carries the imprint of a specific plant that speaks a subtle language that works on the root causes of disease. See also Bach Flower Therapy.

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

Initiation: 1. An event, or doorway, that acts as an expansion or transformation of a person's consciousness. An initiate's consciousness has to some degree been transformed so that he now perceives reality from a higher perspective. There are many types of initiation, either of spiritual or social nature. 2. a ritual that elevates an individual to a higher office in a social or religious organization.

In the case of Reiki also used as a name for the Reiki Attunements.

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

Maat (Egyptian) The goddess personifying physical and moral law, order, and truth, regarded as the feminine counterpart of Thoth (Tehuti).

 She is represented as standing with Thoth in the boat of Ra when the sun god first rose above the waters of the primeval spatial abyss of Nu. She is called the daughter of Ra, the eye of Ra, lady of heaven, queen of the earth, and mistress of the Underworld, who guides the course of the sun.

The type and symbol of the goddess is the ostrich feather; the word maat is represented by the hieroglyph of the feather and means primarily that which is orderly and direct, hence in a moral sense, right, truth, justice, including a reference to the fact that these supreme attributes weigh light as a feather in the scales of judgment, and yet are as weighty in importance as the universe itself. Maat was regarded by the Egyptians, in connection with her moral power, as the greatest of goddesses, for she was the chief lady of the Judgment Hall, into which the deceased must enter (called the Hall of Maati, "double truth").

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

Zen Buddhism: A Japanese branch of Mahayana Buddhism believed to have originated in India from the teachings of a Buddhist master, Bodhidharma, about 600 BC, but traced back by advocates to the Buddha himself. Practitioners seek satori (sudden illumination enabling bliss and harmony), which cannot be explained but only experienced.

Techniques include zazen (sitting meditation techniques) and koans, which are short riddles or sayings. The koans (which number about 1700) are not designed to have cognitive answers but to promote the experience of Zen.

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

Bhogarishi: nu (Sanskrit) One of the 18 siddhas of Saiva tradition, an alchemist and tantrika yogi, associated with the Palani Hills Murugan temple in South India, who created the Dandayuthapaniswami murti from nine poisonous metals. He is thought by some to still reside there in a cave. Chinese historical records suggest that he came from China. See: siddha, siddhi, tantric.

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

Nut (Egyptian) Also Noot, Noun, Nout, Nu. Goddess of the sky or cosmic space -- whether of the solar system or the galaxy -- daughter of Shu and Tefnut, wife of Seb (the cosmic earth or outspread space), mother of Osiris and Isis, and of Set and Nephthys or Neith; the heavens personified.

Some manuscripts distinguish between Nut, the day sky, and Naut, the night sky, although the two are but lower and higher aspects of one cosmic divinity. Her attributes partake of those of the other nature goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon: she is addressed as Lady of Heaven, who gave birth to all the gods. The favorite representation of Nut is of a woman bending so that her body forms a semicircle -- a part of the endless circle of space -- upon which the stars are portrayed, while her consort, Seb, prostrate beneath her, completes the circle. Again, the solar boat is represented sailing up over the lower limbs, in order to pursue its journey over the day sky; and sailing down her arms to complete its cycle in the night sky.

Nut is an important goddess of the Underworld and figures largely in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. She is one of the twelve deities who judge the deceased. Her office was to supply food and water, enabling the one entering the Underworld (Tuat) to rise in a renewed body, even as Ra, the sun god, arose from the egg produced by Seb and Nut. Thus, wherever possible, the sarcophagus had the figure of the goddess represented upon it, her protective wings spread over the deceased, her hands holding the emblems of celestial water and air.

The Greek nous

"was the designation given to the Supreme deity (third logos) by Anaxagoras. Taken from Egypt where it was called Nout, it was adopted by the Gnostics for their first conscious AEon which, with the Occultists, is the third logos, cosmically, and the third 'principle' (from above) or manas, in man. . . .

"In the Pantheon of the Egyptians it meant the 'One-only-One,' because they did not proceed in their popular or exoteric religion higher than the third manifestation which radiates from the Unknown and the Unknowable, the first unmanifested and the second logoi in the esoteric philosophy of every nation. The Nous of Anaxagoras was the Mahat of the Hindu Brahma, the first manifested Deity -- 'the Mind or Spirit self-potent'; this creative Principle being of course the primum mobile of everything in the Universe -- its Soul and Ideation" (TG 234).

Some of the most abstract attributes connected with Nut place her at times as the Second Logos; but because the Second contains the Third Logos, and therefore the Mother being in a sense identical with her Daughter, it follows that not infrequently the attributes of Nut place her as the higher portion of the Third Logos.

(See also: Nut , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Primordial Water Chaos, "the great green one," the Egyptian Nu, the waters of space; a graphic descriptive term of cosmic space before manvantara begins.

(See also: Primordial Water , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Pranava (Sanskrit) [from pra-nu to utter a droning or humming sound, as during the proper pronunciation of the world Om or Aum]

The mystical, sacred syllable Om or Aum, pronounced by Brahmins, Yogis, and others during meditation. In Vedanta philosophy and the Upanishads, used in another sense: "In one sense Pranava represents the macrocosm and in another sense the microcosm. . . . The reason why this Pranava is called Vach is this, that these four principles of the great cosmos correspond to these four forms of Vach" (N on G 25, 26) -- vaikhari, madhyama, pasyanti, para. These are called the four matras of pranava.

It is also equivalent to the second sign of the zodiac, Rishabha (Taurus).

The fact that this term is given to the mystical sacred syllable, and that it signifies a droning or humming sound, shows that anciently the word was uttered aloud, although in secret whenever possible. Modern Brahmins, however, are apt to condemn the vocal utterance of their sacred syllable, and sometimes assert that it should be uttered in silence -- i.e., in the mind.

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