Suffering (dukkha): First noble truth of Buddhism which designates a state of anguish that results from clinging or grasping (tanha, trishna). Suffering is one of the Three Marks of Existence (ti-lakkhana) in Buddhism.

 (See also: Suffering , Eastern Philosophy, Body Mind and Soul)

Unmerited Suffering

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

A dream dictionary with dream-symbols and their meanings.

A spiritual view on dreams and the meaning of dreams by Sri Swami Sivananda, an authority in the vedic sciences and traditions.

twelve stages of healing: extraordinary approach to healing physical, mental, and spiritual ills. Its developer, Donald M. Epstein, founded Network Spinal Analysis. His theory posits twelve stages of consciousness common to all humanity.

Nearly all of Epstein's stages involve:

(a)   yoga- or Qigong-like exercises, and

(b)  ) declarations.

For example, the first stage (Suffering) involves declaring: Right now, I am helpless and Nothing works at this time. In The Twelve Stages of Healing: A Network Approach to Wholeness (1994), Epstein states: The most appropriate response to Suffering is to stop thinking about its causes. The seventh stage involves declaring: Oooh, Ahhh, and Whooosh. The ninth stage involves declaring, I experience my vital force; and the eleventh stage, May it be on Earth as it is in Heaven.

(See also: Twelve stages of healing , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Four Noble Truths: The essential teaching of early Buddhism. According to tradition, after attaining enlightenment, the Buddha proclaimed his liberating insight into the nature of existence in his first sermon through the topic of the Four Noble Truths:

¥ 1. Suffering, declares the nature of all phenomena comprising ordinary unenlightened experience as suffering, impermanent, and lacking in any enduring or substantial self or essence.

¥ 2. The Origin of Suffering, states that suffering has a cause, namely, craving.

¥ 3. The Cessation of Suffering, asserts that despite the fact of universal suffering in a totally conditioned universe proclaimed by the first two truths, there is liberation through the Cessation of Suffering, which is the nirvana, experienced by the Buddha.

¥ 4. The Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering, proclaims that this liberation is accessible to all who follow the way set forth by the Buddha.

(See also: Four Noble Truths , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Aryasatya (Sanskrit) (from arya holy, noble from the verbal root ri to move, arise, attain + satya true, real from the verbal root as to be)

Noble truth; in the plural, the four great truths of Buddhism -- chatvari aryasatyani (Pali, chattari ariyasachchani): 1) duhkha -- life is suffering; 2) samudaya -- origin, cause, craving, egoistic desire (tanha) is the cause of suffering; 3) nirodha -- destruction, extinction of desire brings cessation of suffering; and 4) aryashtanga-marga -- the eightfold path leads to extinction of suffering.

See also ARIYASACHCHA (for Pali equivalents); ARIYA ATTHANGIKA-MAGGA; ARYASHTANGA-MARGA

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

Buddhism: Basic Buddhist Dictionary

A basic dictionary of Buddhism terms. Please note that all words in grey like " Buddhism " are links to an archive with related articles.

Four Noble Truths

The essential teaching of early Buddhism.

According to tradition, after attaining enlightenment, the Buddha proclaimed his liberating insight into the nature of existence in his first sermon through the topic of the Four Noble Truths.

The first truth (Suffering) declares the nature of all phenomena comprising ordinary unenlightened experience as suffering, impermanent, and lacking in any enduring or substantial self or essence.

The second truth (the Origin of Suffering) states that suffering has a cause, namely, craving. Within this truth is subsumed the fundamental doctrine of conditioning, or dependent origination, which operates both generally and in the moral arena of reward and retribution through transmigration.

The third truth (the Cessation of Suffering) asserts that despite the fact of universal suffering in a totally conditioned universe proclaimed by the first two truths, there is liberation through the Cessation of Suffering, which is the nirvana, experienced by the Buddha.

The fourth truth (the Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering) proclaims that this liberation is accessible to all who follow the way set forth by the Buddha. The fourth truth inaugurates Buddhism as a religion and is the legitimation and touchstone for all Buddhist practice.

(See also: Four Noble Truths , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Sanskrit dictionary. From Advaita to Yoga.

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.

A dictionary Of Commonly Used Sanskrit terms. From Dadhicha to Kutichaka.

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

Buddhism

A variety of religions founded by a man named Gautama Siddhartha, the Buddha (“Enlightened One”). An outgrowth of Vedic Paleopagan mysticism, rooted in the “Four Noble Truths:”

(1) Existence is suffering,

(2) Suffering is caused by desire,

(3) Desire can be overcome,

(4) by following the Eightfold Path (right belief, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation).

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

Saha (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root sah to endure, suffer]

One of the loka-dhatus or divisions of the world in Buddhist philosophy: the world inhabited by men, or the earth -- Buddhists consider this earth a world of suffering. Adopted into theosophy to signify the earth and likewise any inhabited or manifested world or globe in the chiliocosm or sakvala.

Theosophy recognizes no hells in nature except those spheres of experience, evolutionary progress, and purgation through suffering which all the manifested globes of space are in almost infinitely varying degrees.

(See also: Saha , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Raga (Sanskrit). One of the five Kleshas (afflictions) in Patanjali’s Yoga philosophy. In Sankhya Karika, it is the "obstruction" called love and desire in the physical or terrestrial sense. The five Kleshas are: Avidya, or ignorance; Asmita, selfishness, or "I-am-ness" ; Raga, love; Dwesha, hatred; and Abhinivesa, dread of suffering.

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

artha:

artha (aartha). The distressed, suffering.

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

Klesha:

Klesha: 'suffering', affliction; five kinds: 1. avidya klesha: ignorance; 2. asthitha klesha:; 3. abhinava klesha: immaturity; 4. raga klesha: attachment; 5. dwesha klesha: hatred.

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

BUDDHISM

Since we waste our youth suffering from boundless ignorance and unfulfilled desire and since age is mostly a time of physical hardship and blunted hopes, it seems clear that life, for all its promises, is more a burden than a joy. Since, however, to die is to be instantly reborn into life, death is apparently an even more absolute cheat. Considering also that all things have arisen in the Mind, in the midst of the Void, and since we are ourselves our own creators and gods (in a multiplicity of aspects and a simultaneous gallimaufry of forms), there is no escaping from the inevitability of either the existing or the potential cosmos. Indeed, it is this very weariness which Reality seeks to assuage by confusing itself as to its own identity.

The Buddha, sensing the horror and outrage of life on earth, wants to lead us to the perfection of the Absolute.

He teaches that birth and death (the wheel of Samsara), together with the Karmic burden, can be dropped in enlightenment and we can enter into Nirvana directly. In an even deeper understanding we are shown that Samsara and Nirvana are already one so there is not even any need for enlightenment! (But of course you have to be enlightened before you can understand that you are already enlightened!)

To the average westerner this seems fairly tame stuff and much too intellectual for his taste. He doesnt want contemplation, he wants action. But he should understand that Buddhism is a discipline of conscious mind and is meant to accompany action, not to take its place. It is serenity of the mind which enables creative work to be done and acceptance of life to take place. The other thing the westerner sometimes fails to recognize is that death and reincarnation are as much a part of his belief system as they are that of a Hindu philosopher. What, after all, is Heaven but the prospect of rebirth on a higher plane? What is Hell but the karma of past lives?

(See also: BUDDHISM , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Aparigraha: A yama. Non-covetousness (detachment from material things); as above we are only borrowing and identification with a material good or attachment to them causes suffering.

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

Inclusion of Buddhahood in the nine worlds

(Jpn.: kukai-soku-bukkai or kukai-shogu-no-bukkai)

The principle that the world of Buddhahood is inherent in the nine worlds. That is, all beings of the nine worlds possess the potential for Buddhahood (i.e., the Buddha nature). The nine worlds refer to the realms of hell, hungry spirits, animals, asuras, human beings, heavenly beings, voice-hearers, cause-awakened ones, and bodhisattvas. These realms also signify inherent conditions or states of life that beings manifest at any given moment. The nine worlds are contrasted with the world of Buddhahood in that they are realms or states of illusion and suffering, while Buddha-hood is a state of enlightenment free from illusion and suffering.

The principle of Buddhahood as a potential within the nine worlds means that the beings of the nine worlds, i.e., those who are deluded, inherently possess the state of Buddhahood and can manifest Buddhahood from within their lives. This concept is derived from the Lotus Sutra, particularly the "Expedient Means" (second) chapter. Together with the inclusion of the nine worlds within Buddhahood, it explains T'ien-t'ai's concept of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds. The chapter reads, "The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, wish to open the door of Buddha wisdom to all living beings." Nichiren says, "This refers to the world of Buddhahood inherent in the nine worlds". That is, Buddhahood is inherent in all living beings.

(See also: Inclusion of Buddhahood in the nine worlds , Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Faith Healing, Drugless Healing Apart from the regular medical and surgical practice, widespread forms of drugless healing are employed today. Public opinion generally is either frankly skeptical about the whole matter, or believes that such afford safe and easy means of relief and escape from suffering and disease.

As a whole, these forms of faith or magnetic healing depend on the "inborn or inherent, ability of the 'healer' or practitioner to convey healthy life-force from himself to the diseased person. This is the key to success, or the lack of success, in all cases, and in all kinds of healing of whatever so-called 'school'" (SOPh 622). If the practitioner succeeds in conveying the vitality of the pranic fluids from his own healthy body to the diseased body or organ of another person, that healthy life-force "expels" or changes the inharmonious vibrations in the afflicted part and, by restoring harmony there, brings about health. Such cures can be permanent; usually they are temporary, lasting from a few days to a few years.

All these methods were known to the ancients. Unfortunately, the Western lack of any true psychology leaves unexplained the rationale of these healing systems -- whether by hypnotism, magnetism, mesmerism, or healing by faith as practiced by the Christian Scientists and faith-healers -- and gives no hint of their end results. The potential dangers incurred, both physical and superphysical, are unsuspected. The magnetic healer's emanation of his vitality and will-force inevitably carries and implants in the person it affects something of his own quality of mind, heart, and body. The germs of any latent disease, hidden vice, or mental bias will complicate any supposed cure.

Moreover, the subtle infection on inner lines karmically links for the future both healer and patient in the outcome. Even diseased or evil-minded persons of strong will and animal vitality can displace a disease and, by driving it back onto some inner level of the sufferer's constitution, can make a seeming cure. Howsoever it is displaced out of sight, it cannot be denied out of existence, and sooner or later it will reappear in a more untimely, unnatural, and probably a more dangerous form because of its suppression at the moment of its endeavor to exhaust itself in physical expression. Physical disease, originating in wrong thought in this or a former life, becomes visible on the most material level in working its way out of the system for good. It is positively pernicious for a healer to act upon the will, conscience, or moral integrity of the sick person by hypnotizing his mind, will, and conscience into believing that sickness does not exist, or that he is a victim of fate instead of suffering from his own past actions. Any such control of another's conscious life is a form of suggestion or hypnotism, and falls under what was formerly called black magic.

On the other hand, we are morally obligated to help the sick and suffering in the right ways of treating the body, mind, and soul; right because involving the arousing of the patient's own inner powers of spiritual, moral, and intellectual resistance against the weaknesses in himself. The wrong ways consist in the overpowering -- however good the motive of the practitioner may be -- of the moral instincts, will, and conscience of the sufferer, thereby rendering him weaker than before. In genuine mesmerism the vital emanation from a pure-minded, unselfish, healthy operator arouses the inert or disordered forces of the diseased organ or body, causing them to vibrate harmoniously and naturally. Thus the sufferer makes himself whole or healthy, and has no bad reaction. The best of all drugless healing methods is where the sufferer is brought into a state of hope, self-confidence, and the higher kind of resignation bringing peace and inner quiet, all of which works in harmony with the body's natural resources of health and healing. This is the kind of faith-cure used by Jesus and others of similar spiritual and intellectual stature.

(See also: Faith Healing, Drugless Healing , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Cold

• To dream of suffering from cold, you are warned to look well to your affairs. There are enemies at work to destroy you. Your health is also menaced.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

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