A Wisdom Archive on One Or Both Of

The name Africa came into Western use through the Romans, who used the name Africa terra — "land of the Afri" (plural, or "Afer" singular) — for the northern part of the continent, as the province of Africa with its capital Carthage, corresponding to modern-day Tunisia. The Afri were a tribe — possibly Berber — who dwelt in North Africa in the Carthage area. The origin of Afer may be connected with Phoenician `afar, dust (also found in most other Semitic languages); some other etymologies that have ...

Read more here: » Africa: Encyclopedia II - Africa - Etymology

To be born a human being with the unique faculties of discrimination and choice is both a great blessing and a terrible curse. This is because exercising one's choice often creates conflicts.
 
One can neither live with conflict nor solve conflict through suppression or desensitising the mind temporarily - the conflicts simply resurface. So it seems that there is no permanent solution to conflict, and hence in this matter we are left with no choice. But should we give up so easily? Don't we deserve to be free from conflict?
 
 

 
(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Krishna's Advice for Resolving Conflict

Three Faces. The Trimurti of the Indian Pantheon; the three persons of the one godhead. Says the Book of Precepts: "There are two Faces, one in Tushita (Devachan) and one in Myalba (earth); and the Highest Holy unites them and finally absorbs both."

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

Pagan (Latin). Meaning at first no worse than a dweller in the country or the woods; one far removed from the city-temples, and therefore unacquainted with the state religion and ceremonies. The word "heathen" has a similar significance, meaning one who lives on the heaths and in the country. Now, however, both come to mean idolaters.

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

Zim or Zikum (Chaldean) The spirit of the deep; spirit-substance, primordial matter. In later Babylonian theology, applied to the spirit present in both gods and men. Also the name of one of the seven gods represented as each producing a man, referring to the fashioning of man by the different classes of pitris.

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

Tai Chi Chuan is one way of working towards harmonising our energies both internally and externally so that we live in tune with nature. Because the movements of Tai Chi Chuan are slow and meditative, they put us indirect contact with nature.
 
Tai Chi Chuan not only provides a foundation for self-defence, but also teaches principles of harmonious action. Being in harmony requires flexibility in thought and the ability to release an idea free from the ego.
 
Tai Chi Chuan emphasises becoming aware of the inter-relationship of all the parts of one'sbody - both with one another and with the environment and moving these parts harmoniously under the direction of the mind. To be able to do this, special training is required.

 
(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Bring Harmony in to Your Life - Tai Chi Chuan

Vitala (Sanskrit) Better place, i.e., better for matter, in that its substance is more material or differentiated than atala which precedes it; the second on the descending scale of the seven talas, corresponding to taparloka. Vitala is related on earth to the state of samadhi, and in one sense also to human buddhic consciousness. No adept, save one, can be higher than this in the tala side of his consciousness and continue living on earth. All the different talas and their corresponding lokas are connected both with states of consciousness and with varieties of vehicles on which these various consciousnesses work. Every tala with its respective loka forms a bipolar sphere containing its own hosts of conscious entities imbodied in vehicles appropriate to the loka-tala or tala-loka in which they are.

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

Yoga (Sanskrit).
(1) One of the six Darshanas or schools of India; a school of philosophy founded by Patanjali, though the real Yoga doctrine, the one that is said to have helped to prepare the world for the preaching of Buddha, is attributed with good reasons to the more ancient sage Yajnawalkya, the writer of the Shatapatha Brahmana, of Yajur Veda, the Brihad Aranyaka, and other famous works.
(2) The practice of meditation as a means of leading to spiritual liberation. Psycho-spiritual powers are obtained thereby, and induced ecstatic states lead to the clear and correct perception of the eternal truths, in both the visible and invisible universe.

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