Spiritual Self Dictionary

Vasana, Conditioning, Tendencies, Self-limitation:

Self-imposed limitations; the general idea is that your true self is unbounded and without attributes, yet most people generate their own bondage and subsequent suffering by faulty identification with that which is less than their true self. These limitations are in essence different forms of attachments, such as attachment to one's:

 · Personal history (memory)

 · Personal strengths and weaknesses

 · Predispositions

 · Likes and dislikes

 · Habits

 · Habitual outlook

 · Opinions

 In short all the things that go into building your individual sense of self or ego. The word vasana is usually translated as mental conditioning or subtle tendencies.

(See also: Vasana, Conditioning, Tendencies, Self-limitation , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Enneagram system (Enneagram, Enneatype system): System of spiritual psychology based on an ancient Sufi typology of nine (ennea in Greek) personality types or primary roles:

(1)           the achiever (reformer) - orderly, rational, and self-righteous;

(2)           the helper - generous, manipulative, and possessive;

(3)           the succeeder (motivator, status-seeker) - ambitious, hostile, and pragmatic;

(4)           the individualist (artist) - intuitive, self-absorbed, and sensitive;

(5)           the observer (thinker) - analytic, original, and provocative;

(6)           the guardian (loyalist) - defensive, engaging, and responsible;

(7)           the dreamer (generalist) - accomplished and manic;

(8)           the confronter (leader) - combative, dominating, and self-confident; and

(9)           the preservationist (peacemaker) - easygoing and receptive.

Each type has a prime psychological addiction (fixation or blind spot), respectively: anger, pride, deceit, envy, greed, fear, gluttony, lust for life and power, and laziness. These addictions include Christianity's seven deadly sins.

(a)           Recognition of one's type is tantamount to spiritual awakening. in the process of neutralizing the prime addiction:

(b)          achievers become pathfinders,

(c)           helpers become partners, succeeders become motivators,

(d)           individualists become builders,

(e)           observers become explorers,

(f)             guardians become stabilizers,

(g)           dreamers become illuminators,

(h)           confronters become philanthropists, and

(i)             preservationists become universalists.

(See also: Enneagram system , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Concentration With meditation, an equivalent for certain parts of yoga, as found in samadhi, dharana; the removal or surmounting of distractions originating in the mind and centering the latter on the spiritual and intellectual objective to be attained, which in the best sense is union with the inner god, the divine monad -- a conscious identification of oneself with the universal through the individual's innate divinity.

The method of meditative concentration prescribed in the Bhagavad-Gita is to perform all the duties of life without either attachment or avoidance. The hindrances to concentration which are to be removed are those arising from anger, lust, vanity, fear, sloth, etc. Such obstacles are removed by lifting the mind above them or by deliberately ignoring them, since directly fighting with them serves to concentrate the mind on them, thus defeating the object aimed at; and by cultivating the spirit of impersonal love and the light of wisdom which it evokes. Thus the blending of the personal self with the impersonal self is achieved by an orderly process of self-directed evolution, first by unselfish work in the cause of humanity, continued in the various degrees of chelaship, culminating in initiation.

Concentration has often been perverted to mean a kind of personal self-culture, having for its aim the attainment of personal power or self-satisfaction. If unsuccessful, the attempt upsets the balance of the constitution, and if successful, it sows a bitter harvest of aroused personality for future reaping; for when yearning for sympathetic fellowship with our fellowmen we shall find our faculties counterworking us. True meditative concentration actually applies more to the heart than to the mind, and is not a forcible mental practice but a general although very positive and impersonal attitude towards life. It means the centering of our wishes, thoughts, and acts on the ideal of self-identification with the spiritual and universal.

See also DHYANA.

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

Enquiry, self-enquiry, vichara:

To seek an answer to the question "Who am I?" not by intellectual reasoning, but by beholding oneself. To look within.

(See also: Enquiry, self-enquiry, vichara , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Kapila, Kapila-rishi (Sanskrit) A great sage and adept of antiquity who flourished before the middle of the 6th century BC, considered to be the founder of the Sankhya philosophy. These archaic teachers, such as Zoroaster and Hermes, were several in number, it having been a habit in archaic times for the later heads of a school to use the name of the school's founder as their own, the name thus becoming in some cases a title.

Kapila is also one of the three secret kumaras who are the progenitors of the true spiritual self in the physical human being. In many of the old writings Kapila is also symbolic of cosmic spirit, or of the individual spiritual self who represents the highest state reached on earth. Hence the Puranas and the Ramayana relate that Sagara's 60,000 sons were reduced to ashes by a mere glance of Kapila's eye. This allegory symbolizes the personifications of human emotions, both passional and mental, being completely reduced to inactivity by the spiritual wisdom and purity of the sage -- here the personification of wisdom itself.

Kapila is also a primeval sage of the satya yuga who imparted true wisdom to all creatures.

See also SANKYA.

(See also: Kapila, Kapila-rishi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Human Kingdom One of the great kingdoms or divisions of monads on earth. Below it are the animal, plant, mineral, and also three elemental kingdoms; above are kingdoms of dhyanis or highly evolved human beings and gods. One of the critical points in evolution, at which self-consciousness is attained, although by no means fully developed. Here the spiritual and the material meet: the spiritual self finds its house in the organism built up of lower elements, and the two-natured human being of earth is thus formed. See MAN; ROOT-RACES

(See also: Human Ego , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Self-healing: An approach to health, or process that typically involves using affirmations, prayer, and/or visualization techniques to tap one's innate healing potential or vital force. Its states that anyone who does not have congenital or hereditary defects, has not had exposure to damaging radiation, has not ingested alcohol or other drugs excessively, has a nourishing diet, and genuinely wants to enjoy good health, can do so because each of his or her basic systems is perfect.

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

self-conceit: Too high an opinion of oneself; vanity, vain pride.

(See also: Self-conceit , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Spiritual Monad The second monadic center in the descending scale of intimately related human monadic centers; in the septenary constitution, atma-buddhi-manas, with an emphasis on the buddhi-manas, atman being the divine monad. It is man's individual monad, the spiritual center of his own stream of consciousness, in the heart of which abides his inner god or "Father in heaven."

"The human constitution is a composite or compound, and may be figurated . . . as a stream of consciousness flowing forth from the deathless Center or Spiritual Monad, which last is at once the immortal Root of the human being and his Essential Self" (ET 718). It corresponds to the spiritual self or jivatman.

After death, when the second death occurs, man's consciousness is withdrawn from the higher astral regions into the next superior sphere or plane -- the human monad is indrawn into the spiritual monad. Then occurs the state of devachan.

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

Self-Help for Stress and Pain (Self-Help Approach): Offshoot of applied kinesiology originated by Elizabeth and Hamilton Barhydt and described in their book of the same name, published in 1989.

(See also: Self-Help for Stress and Pain , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Anatta (Pali) (from an not + atta self, soul)

Non-self, nonegoity; a Buddhist doctrine postulating that there is no unchanging, permanent self (atta, Sanskrit atman) in the human being, in contrast to the Upanishad view that the atman or inner essence of a human being is identic with Brahman, the Supreme, which pervades and is the universe. While Gautama Buddha stresses the nonreality of self, regarding as continuous only its attributes (the five khandas; Sanskrit skandhas) which return at rebirth, there is scriptural testimony in both Southern and Northern Schools that the Buddha recognized a fundamental selfhood in the human constitution (cf ET 108-10).

In the Dhammapada, one of the most respected texts of the Southern Buddhists, we read: "The self is the master of the self (atta hi attano natho)

, for who else could be its master?" (12:160); in the Mahaparinibbana-sutta (2:33, 35): attadipa attasarana, "be ye as those who have the self (atta) as their light (diva, also translated as island); be ye as those who have the self (atta) as their refuge (sarana)

" (cf RK Dh. 12, 45). Also we find Nagarjuna stating in his commentary on the Prajna-paramita: "Sometimes the Tathagata taught that the Atman verily exists, and yet at other times he taught that the Atman does not exist" (Chinese recension of Yuan Chung).

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

A Theosophical definition of Self :

Self

Man is a sheaf or bundle of forces or energies and material elements combined; and the power controlling all and holding them together, making out of the composite aggregate a unity, is what theosophists call the Self  - not the mere ego, but the Self, a purely spiritual unit, in its essence divine, which is the same in every man and woman on earth, the same in every entity everywhere in all the boundless fields of limitless space, as we understand space. If one closely examine his own consciousness, he will very soon know that this is the pure consciousness expressed in the words, "I am"  - and this is the Self; whereas the ego is the cognition of the "I am I."

Consider the hierarchy of the human being growing from the Self as its seed  - ten stages: three on the arupa or immaterial plane; and seven (or perhaps better, six) on the planes of matter or manifestation. On each one of these seven planes (or six planes), the Self or paramatman develops a sheath or garment, the upper ones spun of spirit, or light if you will, and the lower ones spun of shadow or matter; and each such sheath or garment is a soul; and between the Self and a soul  - any soul  - is an ego.

See also: Self , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Spirit-man Corresponds to the spiritual ego, spiritual soul, spiritual self, or human spirit; for the higher mind or manas united with its spiritual prototype buddhi. A sharp contrast is drawn between the spirit-man and the human soul, the clothing or vehicle of the human spirit formed of kama-manas. The spirit-man is unconditionally immortal for the duration of the solar manvantara, whereas the human soul is conditionally immortal.

Another name for the spirit-man is monad used in a generalizing sense, which becomes confusing when one remembers that in the human septenary constitution there are several monads coordinately evolving. There is the divine monad, virtually atman; the spiritual monad, buddhi-manas overshone by atman; the human monad or reincarnating ego, the higher manas in conjunction with the aroma of kama and overshone by atma-buddhi; then on still lower scales of evolutionary unfolding come the animal monad seated in the manas-kama; the astral monad seated in the prana-lingasarira; and finally the physical monad, the lingasarira-sthulasarira under the gentle efflux of the higher principles, which accounts for the permanency, albeit changeability, of the physical person. In reality every portion of human pneumatology is a monad, each one producing all that any other produces, each lower being the vehicle or seat of the next higher, and the higher ones being merely more unfolded than the lower ones.

(See also: Spirit-man , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Yogi yogin (Sanskrit) Feminine yogini. A devotee who practices a full yoga system; the yogi state is that which, "when reached, makes the practitioner thereof absolute master of his six 'principles,' he now being merged in the seventh. It gives him full control, owing to his knowledge of Self and Self, over his bodily, intellectual and mental states, which, unable any longer to interfere with, or act upon, his Higher Ego, leave it free to exist in its original, pure, and divine state" (TG 381).

More commonly, a practitioner of one or more various subordinate branches of yoga. There are many grades and kinds of yogis, and the term has become in India a generic name for every kind of ascetic. "In some cases, yogins are men who strive in various ways to conquer the body and physical temptations, for instance by torture of the body.

They also study more or less some of the magnificent philosophical teachings of India coming down from far-distant ages of the past; but mere mental study will not make a man a Mahatma, nor will any torture of the body bring about the spiritual vision -- the Vision Sublime" (OG 183).

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

Atman (Sanskrit) Self; the highest part a human being: pure consciousness, that cosmic self which is the same in every dweller on this globe and on every one of the planetary or stellar bodies in space. It is the feeling and knowledge of "I am," pure cognition, the abstract idea of self. It does not differ at all throughout the cosmos except in degree of self-recognition. Though universal it belongs, in our present stage of evolution, to the fourth cosmic plane, though it is our seventh principle counting upwards. It may also be considered as the First Logos in the human microcosm. During incarnation the lowest aspects of atman take on attributes, because it is linked with buddhi, as the buddhi is linked with manas, as the manas is linked with kama, etc.

Atman is for each individualized consciousness its laya-center or entrance way into cosmic manifestation. It is our self precisely because it is a link which connects us with the cosmic hierarch. Through this atmic laya-center stream the divine forces from above, which by their unfolding on the lower planes originate and become seven principles. "We say that the Spirit (the 'Father in secret' of Jesus), or Atman, is no individual property of any man, but is the Divine essence which has no body, no form, which is imponderable, invisible and indivisible, that which does not exist and yet is, as the Buddhists say of Nirvana. It only overshadows the mortal; that which enters into him and pervades the whole body being only its omnipresent rays, or light, radiated through Buddhi, its vehicle and direct emanation" (Key 101).

Atman is also sometimes used of the universal self or spirit, called in Sanskrit Brahman or paramatman. The individual is rooted in the surrounding kosmos by three superior principles, which are that atman's highest and most glorious parts. Atman is included among the human principles because it is the universal absolute essence of which buddhi, the soul-spirit, is the carrier, transmitting its rays to the remainder of the human constitution.

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

People : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - People represent aspects of Self

People represent aspects of Self.

An aspect is a particular way of thinking and expressing. An easy way to recognize aspects of Self is to acknowledge the roles the thinker plays in life- the devoted spouse, loving parent, reliable employee, the good friend. Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage, and we are merely the players." Aspects reflect characteristics of the dreamer- the comic, the shy one, the ambitious one, the generous one. Whatever quality the dreamer attaches to that person is the quality of Self being addressed in the dream message.

Source: The Dreamer's Dictionary

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation People , Dream Dictionary People )

self-assertive: Quality of one who makes himself, his ideas, opinions, etc., dominant. Demanding recognition.

(See also: Self-assertive , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Dynamic Self Inquiry (TM): A psycho-spiritual process promoted by transformational facilitator (see Transformational Breath (TM)) Thomas Michael Amelio of New York City.

(See also: Dynamic Self Inquiry , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Religion [from Latin religare to bind back, implying obligation; or from relegere to select, distinguish among various elements for the choosing of the best; ponder]

In theosophy individual religion of conduct means faith in his own essential divinity as a source of wisdom and an unerring and infallible guide in conduct; an ever-growing realization of that truth, an ever-growing consciousness of one's spiritual identity with the divine in nature; and constant devotion to the ideals thus inspired. Religion means a self-sacrificing devotion to truth, a resolve to live in harmony with all other lives, a sacrificing of the personal self to the greater self.

In theosophy there is no divorce between the devotional and speculative functions of the mind; science and philosophy do not conflict with the innate sense of rectitude. Ethics are not based on expediency, a social compact, or a special revelation, but are inherent in the laws of the universe.

The ancient wisdom is the quintessence of all religions, the universal parent-source of all faiths; and in proportion as each great world religion rises to the height of its own possibilities, so will the external divergences among the different faiths of mankind blend into the original fundamental unity.

(See also: Religion , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Difficult Path of Practice (Path of the Sages, Self-Power Path)

According to Pure Land teaching, all conventional Buddhist ways of practice and cultivation (Zen, Theravada, the Vinaya School ...), which emphasize self-power and self-reliance.

This is contrasted to the Easy Path of Practice, that is, the Pure Land method, which relies on both self-power and other-power (the power and assistance of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas).

 (See also: Difficult Path of Practice (Path of the Sages, Self-Power Path) , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Psychic Self-Defense: Program whose principle is that negative forces, negative influences, or negative thought-forms - a usually imperceptible form of subtle energy - often are the source of addictions, bad luck, depression, and other problems. It is a form of aura balancing.

(See also: Psychic Self-Defense , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Atmanam Atmana Pasya (Sanskrit) (from atman self + the verbal root pas to see)

See the self by the self; a favorite phrase used in Vedanta philosophy, especially by Sankaracharya. In its highest interpretation it refers to Avalokitesvara which is "in one sense 'the divine Self perceived or seen by Self,' the Atman or seventh principle ridded of its mayavic distinction from its Universal Source -- which becomes the object of perception for, and by the individuality centred in Buddhi, the sixth principle, -- something that happens only in the highest state of Samadhi. This is applying it to the microcosm" (ML 343).

In the Upanishads the same idea is often expressed in the allegory of the two birds seated in a tree -- one bird looking at the other.

(See also: Atmanam Atmana Pasya , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)