Sense Dictionary

Sense:

A mechanism that notices or causes sensation.

(See also: Sense , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

psychometric sense

The telepathic sensing and ESP exercised in the ability of a sensitive to receive impression from the radiations of inanimate objects

(See also: Psychometric sense , Body Mind and Soul)

Psychic and intuitive perception (what most people refer to as their “gut feeling”) is god given and natural to us when we are born. But what happens to these abilities as humans grow and develop? Children are generally taught to use them only in their most basic form and psychic abilities are often seen as superstition, imagination and other worldly experiences. How can we as parents support our children in awakening these innate abilities?

Read more here: » Spiritual Parenting: Childrens Psychic Abilities and Sense Perception

extrasensory perception

Apart from or in addition to normal sense perception. Awareness and ability to perceive, to acquire and to experience response to event or other external knowledge that is of supernormal or unknown extraordinary initiation

(See also: Extrasensory perception , 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)

Matter In the widest sense, the negative pole of the one universal life regarded as a duality. The manifested One, considered as a unit, is called the manifested Logos; and as a duad it becomes spirit-matter or life.

Matter is thus co-eternal with spirit, forming the vehicular or passive aspect of every plane. It is equivalent to prakriti (or sakti, maya, or pradhana), and just as there are seven, ten, or twelve prakritis, so there are seven, ten, or twelve matters: the root-essence of all the series is what the Hindus called mulaprakriti (root-nature). Equivalently, matter may also be defined as the illusory aggregate of veils surrounding the fundamental essence of the universe.

Matter in the scientific sense is a percept resulting from the interaction of our physical senses with the physical plane of prakriti. Formerly regarded as having an existence independently of the observer, its illusory nature is now better recognized.

 In attempting to conceive of matter in a general sense the mind must be relieved of familiar notions of physically extended space, of resistance, mass, bulk, etc. -- properties peculiar to the physical plane of consciousness, but which we are apt to transfer unwittingly to our notions of other kinds of matter. We may speak of mind-stuff as the scene of mental activity and the vehicle of thought-force; but we can hardly view this as a kind of rare gas. Grossness, inertness, and immobility are attributes of the physical plane, rather than of matter itself. Yet the word matter has come to be significant of grossness, animalism, and materialism, although it is but the shadow or veil of cosmic spirit, spirit concreted or manifesting under the multifarious forms of the planes of the universe.

(See also: Matter , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Creation (from Latin, cf Greek krainein, Sanskrit kri to make, do)

The Ever-existent, which in its transcendent aspect is the eternally embracing Boundless, is the source as well as the sum total of all beings and things; hence in essence all beings and things are eternal and have never been created in the Christian sense, for they are of the very stuff, essence, and be-ness of the Boundless itself.

Yet the word creation has a legitimate use in the original sense of coming forth from being into existence, not as something produced from nothing but in the ordinary sense of production of something out of something else.

A human being can be said to be created in that he is brought into being as such, not from nothing but from the various elements which when combined form the human constitution, conjoined with the contemporaneous evolution of the powers and substances of the monad by which it acquires its various sheaths; worlds also can be said to be created out of primordial matter, and compound elements from simpler ones.

Hermes says that matter becomes; formerly it was -- profound expressions indeed; and Fichte expresses the same idea in his distinction between Seyn and Daseyn. In this sense, matter or worlds may be said to be brought forth or created, with the significance of becoming.

See also PRIMARY CREATION; SECONDARY CREATION

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

Senses In general, gateways of communication between the perceiving function of the ego and the corresponding elements of the plane where it is functioning. The physical senses appeared in serial evolution in the order of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. These senses were not developed out of nothing but are expressions or reflection on the physical plane of previous latent, inner causal functions residing in the structure of the inner person.

The five physiological senses are modifications or specializations of a general perceptiveness which has different modifications in different animal species where the organs are different, especially in the insects. Sensitives and clairvoyants may be able to receive visual, auditory, or other impressions without the use of the physical organ, or the usual functions of a sense organ may be transferred to another part of the body.

The human senses are actually seven including, besides the usual five already developed, the organ or function of manas (mind) and of buddhi (understanding). These latter two are not senses in the physical significance pertaining to the bodily senses, but the emphasis is laid on organic and functional activities, both being inner and spiritual-intellectual. At the present stage of evolution man has not developed the power of manifesting the sixth and seventh sense functions and organs, but in the fifth round the development of ether will bring forth into relatively full evolution the manasic sense organ with the beginnings of the buddhic.

In exoteric mythologies the bodily senses and functions are said to have their presiding deities, so that there are two septenary sets: the causal spiritual, and their material reflections as effects. The cycles of septenary evolution bring forth the spiritual or divine; intellectual and higher psychological; the lower psychological, including the passional, and the instinctual; and the semi-corporeal and purely physical natures. The senses belong to the last two groups. The astral-vital-physical nature furnishes sensory organs, through which the inner senses can act, thus causing the functioning of the physical senses. These physiological senses develop pari passu with the physicalization of humanity.

In the first human protoplasts, the senses were nonexistent in the sense of being non-functional although latent; as evolution unfolded innate capacity and attribute, the functions and organs followed suit, and appeared in the evolving physical vehicle.

The senses belong to the third of seven creations mentioned in the Puranas, the first three constituting a group known as the prakrita creations:

1)    mahat-tattva creation;

2)    bhuta or bhutasarga; and

3)    indriya or aindriyaka.

These three are not so much senses as the three first or elemental prakrita creations of the cosmos, representing the first three stages of the development of manifestation after a solar pralaya. Nevertheless, as analogy is nature's rule throughout, these creations are equally applicable to the human senses, applying to the generalized development of sense function and sense apparatus more than to the sense organs themselves. The last of the three is, in its human application, a modified form of ahankara, the conception of the egoistic and mayavi "I" in man, the reflection of the spiritual ego or monad; and this third creation is also termed the organic creation or creation of the senses.

(See also: Senses , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Aboriginal Dreaming

An English expression adopted by Australian Aborigines to convey ideas that, though related in their thought, are not usually denoted by a single word in any of their languages.

One sense is that of a primordial epoch, the Dreaming or Dreamtime, when beings with remarkable powers arose from the ground, descended from the sky, or appeared from over the horizon. They gave the earth its shape by creating physical features (often from parts of their own bodies), fixed life in species form, established human culture, and gave everything its name.

These creative beings, who in their totality are the ultimate explanation of all things, are themselves called Dreamings (roughly equivalent to the anthropological term totems).

Their significance to the Aborigines is not merely historical but personal and social, for each individual and group gains a distinctive identity through its association with one or more Dreamings. In many regions it is held that such beings reincarnate themselves as humans, or that they left relics behind that, to this day, are sufficiently potent to impregnate women.

This sense of oneness, in which past and present, spirit being and human being, are somehow fused, is also seen in ceremonies in which the actors wear designs and make movements symbolic or mimetic of what the Dreamings did in the Dreamtime. By extension, from these two senses of Dreaming, the Aborigines form other expressions, such as Dreaming-place (a site at which a Dreaming was active and left something of itself) and Dreaming-track (an imagined path along which a Dreaming traveled from place to place in the primordial epoch).

Contrary to what is sometimes suggested, the term has no necessary connection with the verb to dream, even though present-day revelations to humans by Dreamings normally occur while the recipient is in a dream or trance state.

See Astral World.

(See also: Aboriginal Dreaming , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

ayatana (aayatana): Sense medium. The inner sense media are the sense organs: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. The outer sense media are their respective objects.

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

A dictionary Of Siddha Yoga Terminology. From Abhanga to Yogini.

Please note that all words in grey, like "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

AROMATHERAPY: uses essential oils from flowers, trees, roots, herbs, berries and fruits, to treat emotional disorders such as stress and anxiety as well as a wide range of other ailments and to promote physical, mental and emotional wellness. Oils are either massaged into the skin in diluted form, inhaled, placed in baths, or applied on and around the body.

Aromatherapy is often used in conjunction with massage therapy, acupuncture, reflexology, herbology, chiropractic and other wholistic healing.

What is aromatherapy?

It is the controlled use of natural essential oils in the process of physical and emotional healing. You may have discovered that in some ways, you've been experiencing aromatherapy most of your life without even knowing it.

We have all experienced memory recall triggered by a particular scent; perhaps the scent of a favorite flower, or the perfume your grandmother used to wear, or an aunt's linen closet. The event can produce positive or negative memories. Certain scents may trigger negative thoughts of a person or place in your past. Whatever the case, the importance of scent in our lives is quite profound and in some ways, unique to each of us. Aromatherapy is a way to enjoy a controlled use of natural oils to enrich and benefit your life.

What are essential oils?

Whole, pure essential oils come from nature; they are the "essence" of plants. They are droplets of water-like fluid contained in the leaves, stems, bark, flowers, roots and/or fruits of different plants, and give the plant its unique scent. Essential oils are volatile, whereas they easily transfer from a liquid to a gaseous state at room temperature or higher. The amount of essential oil found in most plants is 1 to 2%, but can contain amounts from 0.01 to 10%. They can change in composition and location with a particular plant. For example, orange trees produce neroli oil in their blossoms, orange oil in their citrus, and petitgrain oil in their leaves. Essential oils are also very concentrated and extremely potent, and sometimes 75 to 100 times more concentrated than say, the herb it is present in. This is all the more reason to use these oils with thorough knowledge of their potency.

How are essential oils extracted?

There are two common procedures for extracting true essential oils:

1. Steam distillation
2. Expression

 The process of steam distillation has 5 steps:

1. Steam plant material
2. Collect steam carrying aromatic molecules
3. Cool in cold-water bath
4. Produce floral water and essential oil
5. Separate essential oil, then bottle

This process is also the most popular for obtaining the essential oils from plants. The steam is forced into a vat containing the plant material, which ruptures the oil glands and releases the oil. The volatile oils are cooled, separated from the water content, and bottled. It may take hundreds or thousands of pounds of plant material to distill a single pound of the essential oil. Bulgarian Rose oil requires about 4,000 pounds of hand-picked flower petals to make 1 pound of oil, obviously making this one expensive oil!

The second method, extraction, has 4 major steps:

1. Have citrus peels
2. Machine press
3. Obtain essential oils and fruit waxes
4. Separate oils, then bottle

This method is primarily used in the perfume and food industries, and does not produce a 100% pure essential oil. Solvents are used in the process to pull out the soluable molecules; therefore making them incomplete oils. Resins, concretes, absolutes, and pomades result from this method.

How are essential oils taken in?

Essential oils are absorbed into the body two ways; through the skin and through nasal inhalation. Our sense of smell, controlled by the olfactory system, is some 10,000 times greater than any other sense. The olfactory system is directly linked to the limbic system, which is responsible for our emotional state, memory, and certain regulatory function.

Essential oils also penetrate the skin, or the integumentary system. Because essential oils have a low molecular weight and are organic in nature, they are absorbed through the pores and hair follicles of the skin, and unlike synthetic chemicals, they do not accumulate in the body. Absorption can take place anywhere from 15 minutes to 12 hours, and take from 3 to 6 hours to be metabolized in a healthy body. Excessive fat or toughened skin may slow down the rate of absorption; whereas heat, water, exercise, or broken skin may speed it up.

How are essential oils used?

Aromatherapy is used to self-heal and soothe common, everyday health challenges. It is by no means a replacement for the opinion of a licensed physician, and should always be used with respect.

As with all things derived from nature, some essential oils are considered hazardous, and under certain circumstances, should be avoided. Some are phototoxic, neurotoxic, or carcinogenic, and safety precautions should always be considered when working with and administering any essential oil.

Here are common-sense safety points to note:

1. Avoid essential oils deemed as hazardous
2. Keep all essential oils out of the reach of children.
3. Remember essentail oils are very potent.
4. Do not take orally.
5. Follow dilution guidelines carefully. Never use an oil without first diluting.
6. Use 1% or less dilution during pregnancy.
7. Be aware of others with sensitivities or allergies.
8. Do not use on or near the eyes.
9. Do a skin patch test if prone to sensitivities.
10. Use extra care on broken or damaged skin.
11. Avoid phototoxic essential oils if history of skin cancer.
12. Keep them away from light and heat sources.
13. Use only therapeutic genuine and authentic essential oils.

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

The Blessed Lord said: “Many births have been left behind by Me and by thee, O Arjuna, I know them all, but thou knowest not thine, O Parantapa.

The death and dying and the life after death has always fascinated man. This is an excerpt from the book What Becomes Of The Soul After Death by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » Soul After Death: What Does The Gita Say On Life After Death

ahamkara: (Sanskrit) "I-maker." Personal ego. The mental faculty of individuation; sense of duality and separateness from others. Sense of I-ness, "me" and "mine." Ahamkara is characterized by the sense of I-ness (abhimana), sense of mine-ness, identifying with the body (madiyam), planning for one's own happiness (mamasukha), brooding over sorrow (mamaduhkha), and possessiveness (mama idam). See: anava, ego, mind (individual mind).

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

Immortality That which is not subject to death, deathlessness. Death is the dissolution of a compound entity, where the compound itself ceases to exist, though its elements do not perish. Nor does the ensouling entity perish because of the dissolution of its physical, astral, or other vehicle. Hence in a restricted sense certain elements can be said to be immortal, relative to the compound they form.

Theosophy teaches the constant rebirths of the identic spiritual-intellectual individuality throughout the manvantara; and that, even after union into paranirvana, the individuality, precisely because it is then on its own higher plane or sphere of life, is not lost and will reemerge at a new manvantara to pursue its own particular cycle. This eternal monad, the spiritual-intellectual individuality, is the real and truly immortal essence of the person; and within this supreme cycle of immortality are a series of less immortalities, each representing the life cycle of one of the imbodiments of the monad. Death therefore of necessity becomes a recurrent process, precisely like birth or rebirth, and of many degrees, and simply means the dissolution of some group of lower sheaths enclosing the individual in imbodiment.

Viewing the question from the consciousness aspect, death means the exchange of one mode of consciousness for others. We cannot say offhand that we are either mortal or immortal, since we contain various elements of both kinds. The essence of the individuality is unconditionally immortal, its sheaths or bodies are mortal in various and relative degrees.

Immortality is conditional for the human soul: if it aspires to its inner god and allies itself therewith, the human soul becomes immortal because it is at one with its spiritual parent, the upper triad or monad. But if the personal or human soul refuse to recognize its spiritual essence and allies itself with increasing fullness with the complex compound of the lower human nature, it loses its chance of immortality and becomes but a psychological mortal compound itself.

The Buddha's statement that "nothing composite endures and consequently that as man is a composite entity there is in him no immortal and unchanging 'soul,' is the key. The 'soul' of man is changing from instant to instant -- learning, growing, expanding, evolving -- so that at no two consecutive seconds of time or of experience is it the same. Therefore it is not immortal. For immortality means enduring continually as you are. If you evolve you change, and therefore you cannot be immortal in the part which evolves, because you are growing into something greater" (FSO 385). In this sense, portions of an entity may endure for long periods of time, and thus be called immortal; but they are not immortal in the sense of continuing to exist unchanged or in a state identical to what they are now.

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

Mahabhutas (Sanskrit) (from maha great + bhuta element from the verbal root bhu to be, become)

Great or primordial element; the gross or vehicular cosmic elements in contradistinction from the subtle or causative cosmic elements (tanmatras) out of which the mahabhutas are evolved. Five are enumerated exoterically -- aether, fire, air, water, and earth -- but in the esoteric enumeration there are seven, ten, or twelve. Also an adjective meaning being great, or relating to the gross elements.

The mahabhutas are so called because they are the karmic fruits or resultants from the preceding cosmic manvantara, so that even these great cosmic elements begin their evolutionary courses in the new cosmic manvantara at the exact point in development which they had acquired when the preceding pralaya began.

The tanmatras are the inner vital cosmic principles, the causal rudiments, which evolve forth the mahabhutas. The distinction between them may be seen by an analogy drawn from the human constitution: the difference between sense as a faculty or power and sense organ as the vehicle of the sense faculty.

The five senses hitherto developed in the human being -- hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell -- have their five corresponding sense organs, the senses producing through evolution and time their respective organs. Similarly on the cosmic scale, the tanmatras correspond to the senses in the human constitution, while the mahabhutas correspond to the sense organs in the human body.

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

Heart The heart is the seat in the human body of buddhic consciousness, corresponding to the anahata chakra which is ruled by the planet Venus. There are three principal centers of the human body: the heart as the center of spiritual consciousness; the head as the center of mental consciousness; and the navel as the center of kamic or emotional consciousness.

The heart is the organ through which the higher ego acts, seeking to impress the lower self which works through the brain. In this sense the heart is the most important part of the body, and when developed leads to spiritual mastery, the unity of atma-buddhi-manas. In another sense, the heart corresponds to prana, "but only because Prana and the Auric Envelope are essentially the same, and because again as Jiva it is the same as the Universal Deity" (BCW 12:694).

Cosmically, the sun is the beating heart of the solar system, and the sunspot cycle of approximately 12 years represents the cycle of its beating, as it sends forth and receives back the circulations on many planes which sustain the solar system. The sun is "a beating heart; in another sense, it is a brain. There is a temptation to use the words heart and brain literally, and such usage wanders not far from fact. But it is not the physical globe which is the true head and heart, except insofar as the physical universe is concerned. The real head and the real heart, coalescing and working as one, are the divinity behind and above and within the physical vehicle of our glorious daystar" (FSO 299; cf SD 1:541-2).

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

Materialism In the rigid philosophical sense, any theory which considers the facts of the universe to be sufficiently explained by the existence and nature of matter. A familiar form of this is what has been called the atomo-mechanical theory, which derives all phenomena from the movements of material atoms in space. The philosophical definition of materialism differs according to the meaning of the word matter; as for instance, when we limit matter by no physical attributes or implications alone, but

See in it the sevenfold prakritis or pradhanas of Hindu philosophers and mystics, matter is then seen to be but a name for the veil or shadow of spirit -- the other side of spirit as it were. This distinction makes materialism but a synonym for spiritualism -- i.e., the profound philosophic theory that the universe is built throughout, from and of the substances and attributes of spirit, which become matter in its innumerable and manifold forms and phases on the lower cosmic planes. What physicists have been calling matter is a percept derived from the interaction of the physical senses with the physical plane of prakriti or nature.

Matter is one of the twin aspects of universal life, coeternal with spirit and indeed spirit's veil or vehicle, and hence is present on every plane of manifestation, from the highest to the lowest. When the manifested One of a universe is considered as a unit or unity, it is called the First or Unmanifest Logos; when it is considered as a duality it is called the Manifest-Unmanifested or Second Logos, and is spirit-matter or life, spirit being its positive pole and matter its negative. Matter is everywhere the vehicle of spirit, and in matter inhere the attributes which spirit expresses in it. Hence materialism, in this sense, would define the whole theosophic philosophy.

The history of philosophy presents a rivalry of schools where materialism is contrasted with idealism, but all these rival schools originated outside of the Mysteries of the sanctuary, although many if not all contain substantial elements of occult verities. The attempt entirely to separate the notions of spirit and matter, of mind and body, of noumenon and phenomenon, results in futility and confusion; a purely ideal world is as unreal as a purely material one.

Materialism, however, stands commonly for an attitude of mind which exalts sense-life, together with its appropriate species of intellectualism, into a summum bonum; and which strives to devise a philosophy that will justify such an attitude. It is an attitude towards life consisting of mental and emotional attachment to externals, to the senses, and to reasoning based on sensory perceptions; and a corresponding neglect and denial of real values. This kind of materialism undermines morals by substituting self-interest or expediency for an innate moral sense, as the basis for conduct. It places illusory power in the hands of man, while at the same time depriving him of his real power of penetrating discrimination, and hence of his ability while under this illusion to use the powers of nature aright.

(See also: Materialism , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Fences

Fences may be symbols of personal separation in a negative sense or protection in a positive one. These meanings are often derived specifically from whom the fence is separating us from. If you can discern a feeling about what may happen if the fence were traversed (would it be better or worse), that may tell the role the fence is playing in the dream.

 Fences can also be a source of boundary. This is true if there is a sense that the fence cannot be traversed. What are the boundaries of your life in relation to other characters in your dream? Perhaps you want to change those boundaries and move a relationship in a new direction. If you are alone at your fence, perhaps you need to protect yourself from others more, or are already doing so excessively.

Source: iVillage, http://www.ivillage.co.uk

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Fences , Meaning of Dreams about Fences , Dream Interpretation Fences )

Ocean

All life originated in the ocean. Especially in Jungian interpretation, this is a place of creativity, fertility, and birth. There is also a lingering sense humans have of rising up out of the collective origins of life in the oceans. It is easy to see the Darwinian influence of these ideas. More importantly, it is easy to see the lack of connection some dreamers could have with this approach to dream interpretation.

Given the widespread popularity of boating, scuba diving, and cruise holidays, numerous people have experiences with the ocean that were not available in the past. It may be that the dreamer has one of these connections to the ocean, rather than a general perception of fertility. For some, the ocean can impart a sense of fear and foreboding, especially if they can't swim. Its ultimate vastness, coupled with their lack of swimming ability, can appear in a dream as a reflection of some insurmountable struggle they may be having in waking life.

Source: iVillage, http://www.ivillage.co.uk

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Ocean , Meaning of Dreams about Ocean , Dream Interpretation Ocean )