Pure Consciousness Dictionary

Absolute:

The highest Reality; supreme Consciousness; the pure, untainted, changeless Truth.

(See also: Absolute , Yoga, Yoga Dictionary, Siddha Yoga, Siddha Yoga Dictionary)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z

A Theosophical definition of Nirvana :

Nirvana

(Sanskrit) This is a compound: nir, "out," and vana, the past participle passive of the root va, "to blow," literallly meaning "blown out." So badly has the significance of the ancient Indian thought (and even its language, the Sanskrit) been understood, that for many years erudite European scholars were discussing whether being "blown out" meant actual entitative annihilation or not. But the being blown out refers only to the lower principles in man.

Nirvana is a very different thing from the "heavens." Nirvana is a state of utter bliss and complete, untrammeled consciousness, a state of absorption in pure kosmic Being, and is the wondrous destiny of those who have reached superhuman knowledge and purity and spiritual illumination. It really is personal-individual absorption into or rather identification with the Self  - the highest SELF. It is also the state of the monadic entities in the period that intervenes between minor manvantaras or rounds of a planetary chain; and more fully so between each seven-round period or Day of Brahma, and the succeeding day or new kalpa of a planetary chain. At these last times, starting forth from the seventh sphere in the seventh round, the monadic entities will have progressed far beyond even the highest state of devachan. Too pure and too far advanced even for such a condition as the devachanic felicity, they go to their appropriate sphere and condition, which latter is the nirvana following the end of the seventh round.

Devachan and nirvana are not localities. They are states, states of the beings in those respective spiritual conditions. Devachan is the intermediate state; nirvana is the superspiritual state; and avichi, popularly called the lowest of the hells, is the nether pole of the spiritual condition. These three are states of beings having habitat in the lokas or talas, in the worlds of the kosmic egg.

So far as the individual human being is concerned, the nirvanic state or condition may be attained to by great spiritual seers and sages, such as Gautama the Buddha, and even by men less progressed than he; because in these cases of the attaining of the nirvana even during a man's life on earth, the meaning is that one so attaining has through evolution progressed so far along the path that all the lower personal part of him is become thoroughly impersonalized, the personal has put on the garment of impersonality, and such a man thereafter lives in the nirvanic condition of the spiritual monad.

As a concluding thought, it must be pointed out that nirvana, while the ultima thule of the perfection to be attained by any human being, nevertheless stands less high in the estimate of mystics than the condition of the bodhisattva. For the bodhisattva, although standing on the threshold of nirvana and seeing and understanding its ineffable glory and peace and rest, nevertheless retains his consciousness in the worlds of men, in order to consecrate his vast faculties and powers to the service of all that is. The buddhas in their higher parts enter the nirvana, in other words, assume the dharmakaya state or vesture, whereas the bodhisattva assumes the nirmanakaya vesture, thereafter to become an ever-active and compassionate and beneficent influence in the world. The buddha indeed may be said to act indirectly and by long distance control, thus indeed helping the world diffusively or by diffusion; but the bodhisattva acts directly and positively and with a directing will in works of compassion, both for the world and for individuals.

See also: Nirvana , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

purusha:

Pure, unmanifested consciousness.

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

Bhajana -

(1) the word bhajana is derived from the verbal root ‘bhaj’ which is defined in the Garusa Purana (Purva-khansa 231.3): bhaj ity esa vai dhatu sevayam parikirtitah tasmat seva budhaih prokta bhakti sadhana-bhuyasi  - "The verbal root bhaj is used specifically in the sense of seva, or service. Therefore, when sadhana is performed with the consciousness of being a servant, it is called bhakti.” According to this sloka, krsna-seva, or loving devotional service to Krsna is called bhakti. Such service is the intrinsic attribute of bhakti or bhajana. Therefore whatever services are performed in this consciousness may be referred to as bhajana.

(2) in the general sense bhajana refers to spiritual practices; especially hearing, chanting, and meditating upon the holy name, form, qualities, and pastimes of Sri Krsna.

(See also: Bhajana , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Acchadita-cetana - covered consciousness. This refers to living beings such as trees, creepers, shrubs, stones, and other non-moving beings whose consciousness is barely detectable.

(See also: Acchadita-cetana , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

anagami (anaagaamii): Nonreturner. A person who has abandoned the five lower fetters that bind the mind to the cycle of rebirth (see samyojana), and who after death will appear in one of the Brahma worlds called the Pure Abodes, there to attain nibbana, never again to return to this world.

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

A Theosophical definition of Gods :

Gods

The old pantheons were builded upon an ancient and esoteric wisdom which taught, under the guise of a public mythology, profound secrets of the structure and operations of the universe which surrounds us. The entire human race has believed in gods, has believed in beings superior to men; the ancients all said that men are the "children" of these gods, and that from these superior beings, existent in the azure spaces, men draw all that in them is; and, furthermore, that men themselves, as children of the gods, are in their inmost essence divine beings linked forever with the boundless universe of which each human being, just as is the case with every other entity everywhere, is an inseparable part. This is a truly sublime conception.

One should not think of human forms when the theosophist speaks of the gods; we mean the arupa  - the "formless"  - entities, beings of pure intelligence and understanding, relatively pure essences, relatively pure spirits, formless as we physical humans conceive form. The gods are the higher inhabitants of nature. They are intrinsic portions of nature itself, for they are its informing principles. They are as much subject to the wills and energies of still higher beings  - call these wills and energies the "laws" of higher beings, if you will  - as we are, and as are the kingdoms of nature below us.

The ancients put realities, living beings, in the place of laws which, as Occidentals use the term, are only abstractions  - an expression for the action of entities in nature; the ancients did not cheat themselves so easily with words. They called them gods, spiritual entities. Not one single great thinker of the ancients, until the Christian era, ever talked about laws of nature, as if these laws were living entities, as if these abstractions were actual entities which did things. Did the laws of navigation ever navigate a ship? Does the law of gravity pull the planets together? Does it unite or pull the atoms together? This word laws is simply a mental abstraction signifying unerring action of conscious and semi-conscious energies in nature.

See also: Gods , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Akasic Samadhi (adjective of akasa ether, space + samadhi profound meditation from sam-a-dha to hold or fix together (in abstract thought))

Used for the state of consciousness into which victims of accidental death enter: "a state of quiet slumber, a sleep full of rosy dreams, during which, they have no recollection of the accident, but move and live among their familiar friends and scenes, until their natural life-term is finished, when they find themselves born in the Deva-Chan . . ." (ML 109).

This condition of human consciousness differs from the devachanic state. As used above, akasic samadhi was applied to those individuals dying by accident who on earth had been of unusually pure character and life. It is a temporary condition, equivalent to an automatic reproduction in the victim's consciousness of the beautiful and holy thoughts that the person had had during incarnated life; in fact, a sort of preliminary to the devachanic state. Such dream state immediately succeeds the first condition of absolute unconsciousness which the shock of death brings to all human beings, good, bad, or indifferent. In the above cases there is no conscious kama-lokic experience whatsoever, because the shock of death has brought about the paralysis of all the lower parts of the human constitution.

Only adumbrations of the consciousness of the buddhi and atman, with the most spiritual portion of manas are then active (ML 131). In certain cases the condition of samadhi in the akasic portions of the human constitution may last until what would have been the natural life term on earth is completed; and then these individuals glide into the devachanic state.

(See also: Akasic Samadhi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Individuality :

Individuality

Theosophists draw a sharp and comprehensive distinction between individuality and personality. The individuality is the spiritual-intellectual and immortal part of us; deathless, at least for the duration of the kosmic manvantara  - the root, the very essence of us, the spiritual sun within, our inner god. The personality is the veil, the mask, composed of various sheaths of consciousness through which the individuality acts.

The word individuality means that which cannot be divided, that which is simple and pure in the philosophical sense, indivisible, uncompounded, original. It is not heterogeneous; it is not composite; it is not builded up of other elements; it is the thing in itself. Whereas, on the contrary, the intermediate nature and the lower nature are composite, and therefore mortal, being builded up of elements other than themselves. Strictly speaking, individuality and monad are identical, but the two words are convenient because of the distinctions of usage contained in them; just as consciousness and self-consciousness are fundamentally identical, but convenient as words on account of the distinctions contained in them. (See also Monad)

See also: Individuality , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Sadhya - the object or goal which is desired by a person and for the attainment of which he undergoes a suitable process, is known as sadhya. There are many different types of sadhyas, or objects of attainment, and these are generally grouped into four categories: dharma (religiosity) , artha (economic development) , kama (material enjoyment) , and moksa (liberation).

The  sadhya-vastu, or object of attainment, for the bhaktas is bhagavat-priti, love for the Supreme Lord. This is also known as prema. Bhaktior prema, being an eternal function of Sri Bhagavan’s svarupa-sakti, is not produced by anything. Yet, when the bhakta’s heart is purified by performing sadhana-bhakti, it becomes fit to receive the manifestation of His hladini or pleasure giving potency. At that time Krsna manifests this potency in the bhakta’s heart and it becomes known as bhagavat-priti (see priti and purusartha).

(See also: Sadhya , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Sankucita-cetana - contracted consciousness. This refers to animals, birds, insects, and aquatics. Their consciousness is more de veloped than that of the non-moving entities, yet inferior to human consciousness. Sankucita-cetana is mainly limited to the activities of eating, sleeping, mating, fearing, moving about of their own volition, fighting with other animals over territory and possessions which they claim as their own, and becoming angry in the face of encroachment. Beings at this stage of consciousness have no knowledge of the next life and no tendency to inquire about God.

(See also: Sankucita-cetana , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Mediator An agent who stands or goes between, specifically one who acts as the conscious agent or intermediary of special spiritual power and knowledge.

Most often applied to highly-evolved characters who mediate, not only between superhuman spiritual entities and ordinary men, but who also themselves consciously unite their own spiritual nature with their merely human souls. Such people attain to this lofty state by the great sanctity and wisdom of their lives, aided by frequent interior ecstatic contemplation. They radiate a pure and beneficent atmosphere which invites, and is congenial to, exalted spiritual beings of the solar system.

Evil entities of the astral realms cannot endure their clean and highly magnetic aura, nor are they able to continue obsessing other unfortunate persons if the mediator be present and will their departure, or even approaches the sufferer.

This powerful spiritual self-consciousness of the individual who is a mediator reaching upwards to superior spiritual realms, is in sharpest possible contrast with the passive, unconscious, weak-willed medium who, through ignorance or folly, becomes the agent for the use of any astral entity that may be attracted to the entranced body. Apollonius, Iamblichus, Plotinus, and Porphyry are examples of mediators: "but if the temple is defiled by the admission of an evil passion, thought or desire, the mediator falls into the sphere of sorcery. The door is opened; the pure spirits retire and the evil ones rush in. This is still mediatorship, evil as it is; the sorcerer, like the pure magician, forms his own aura and subjects to his will congenial inferior spirits" (IU 1:487).

(See also: Mediator , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Buddhi (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root budh to awaken, enlighten, know)

The spiritual soul, the faculty of discriminating, the channel through which streams divine inspiration from the atman to the ego, and therefore that faculty which enables us to discern between good and evil -- spiritual conscience. The qualities of the buddhic principle when awakened are higher judgment, instant understanding, discrimination, intuition, love that has no bounds, and consequent universal forgiveness.

In the theosophical scheme, it is the sixth principle counting upwards in the human constitution: the vehicle of pure, universal spirit, hence an inseparable garment or vehicle of atman. In its essence of the highest plane of akasa or alaya, buddhi stands in the same relation to atman as, on the cosmic scale, mulaprakriti does to parabrahman.

Buddhi uses manas as its garment, and in the former are likewise stored the fruitages of the many incarnations on earth; hence buddhi is often called both the seed and flower of manas. Buddhi is truly the center of spiritual consciousness and therefore its qualities are enduring. The purer and higher part of manas must awaken, by rising to it, this essential energy that inherently resides in buddhi so that the latter may become active in a person's life. Buddha and Christ are examples of sages who had become human imbodiments of the usually latent qualities of buddhi. Buddhi becomes more or less conscious on this plane by the flowerings it draws from manas after every incarnation of the ego. "Buddhi would remain only an impersonal spirit without this element which it borrows from the human soul, which conditions and makes of it, in this illusive Universe, as it were something separate from the universal soul for the whole period of the cycle of incarnation" (Key 159-60).

"No purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle, -- or the over-soul, -- has (a) passed through every elemental form of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha)" (SD 1:17).

In the human constitution buddhi is a ray from the cosmic principle mahabuddhi or adi-buddhi, a synonym for alaya, pradhana, or the Second Logos, while akasa in its higher reaches is identic with alaya.

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

Cinmaya - possessing full spiritual nature and consciousness; composed of pure cognition; spiritual.

(See also: Cinmaya , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Hinduism Lexicon on B

From backbiting to buddhi chitta.

Read more here: » Hinduism: Hinduism Lexicon on B

The nature of Atman is pure consciousness, and though the phenomena are perceived to be taking place, in reality they are only aspects of consciousness. Consciousness is not affected by them. The Atman is 'hidden’ inside all of us, as a bee is hidden inside a lotus flower. It will be futile to seek it in the water or air outside.

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

Read more here: » Nirvikalp Samadhi: Pure Consciousness: Nirvikalp Samadhi  

Hinduism Lexicon on A

From aadheenam to axis.

Read more here: » Hinduism: Hinduism Lexicon on A

Why should we understand how the universe was created? Because it gives us a clearer understanding of where we have come from, where we are going, who and what we are, and what our purpose is here. Once you consider that there is a purpose to life, the search for life's origins may very well lead you into a different direction than simply trying to find an explanation for a mechanical or chemical process of creation. This article by Stephen Knapp takes different approach to the origin of the universe, the Vedic approach.

Read more here: » Vedic Science: Understanding The Creation Of The Universe

Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the DNA, presented what he called the “Astonishing Hypothesis”: Human behaviour is merely the sum of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. But, can human consciousness be explained in physical terms?

Those who embrace challenge the validity of Crick’s astonishing hypothesis.

Scientists, however, claim that mind and consciousness are only a pack of neurons, made up of a chain of lifeless molecules and atoms. Therefore, it can be fully explained in terms of “lower level sciences” of chemistry and physics.

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

Read more here: » Consciousness: Can Consciousness Be Reduced To Matter?  

What raises us above other known sentient beings is our ability to be conscious of our own consciousness. But what does this mean, scientifically?

“It is now widely accepted that all knowledge, from the beginning of time, is available to each of us, an intelligence that is carried at the cellular, subatomic level. Highly evolved individuals who have touched the hem of the eternal and communed with the infinite through their higher consciousness, made that quantum leap but have been unable to transfer their understanding due to limitations imposed by language. Because language is incomplete and fragmentary, merely registering a stage in the average advance beyond the ape mentality. But all of us do have flashes of insight beyond meanings already stabilized in etymology and grammar.”

Read more here: » Consciousness: What is Consciousness?

There are different kinds of meditation. A particular kind is best suited for a particular mind. The kind of meditation varies according to taste, temperament, capacity and type of mind of the individual.

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

Read more here: » Meditation: Different Kinds of Meditation

What is the Hindu definition of God -monotheistic or polytheistic?

There is much confusion about this, not among Hindus but among those on the outside looking in.

Hinduism is both a monotheistic and a henotheistic religion. Hindus believe in one supreme God who created the universe and who is worshipped as Light, Love and Consciousness. Hindus were never polytheistic, but were always henotheistic. Henotheism is defined by Webster's as "the belief in or worship of one God without denying the existence of others."

Read more here: » Hinduism: What is the Hindu definition of God -monotheistic or polytheistic?