The Path Dictionary

Physical Medicine Path (the Medicine of the West): Mode of Cherokee healing.

(See also: Physical Medicine Path , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Eight-fold path

Buddha's teaching of the way of the Middle Path. Right-belief, right-thought, right-speech, right-action, right-livelihood, right-endeavor, right-rememberance, right-meditation/concentration

(See also: Eight-fold path , Body Mind and Soul)

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)

Eightfold Path

The eight right ways leading to the cessation of sufferings.

(1)  Right View;

(2)   (Right Thought;

(3)  Right Speech;

(4)  Right Action;

(5)  Right Livelihood;

(6)  Right Effort;

(7)  Right Remembrance;

(8)  Right Concentration.

 (See also: Eightfold Path , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Easy Path of Practice

Refers to Pure Land practice. The Easy Path involves reliance on the power of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, in particular Buddha Amitabha ("other-power") in addition to one's own cultivation ("self-power").

Usually contrasted with primary reliance on self-power (Difficult Path of Practice), taught in other Buddhist schools. Equal reliance on self-power and other-power distinguishes the Pure Land School from most other schools of Buddhism.

The distinction is, however, a matter of emphasis, as all schools of Buddhism rely, to a greater or lesser extent, on both self-power and otherpower.

See also "Other-power".

 (See also: Easy Path of Practice , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Left-hand Path or path of shadows, those taking it called in theosophy brothers of the shadow. One of the two fundamental paths or courses in nature, the left-hand path or path of matter in contrast to the right-hand path or path of spirit.

Shadow signifies matter, for spirit may be considered to be pure energy, and matter, although essentially crystallized spirit, may be looked upon as the shadow world or vehicular world in which the energy, spirit, or pure light works. Matter is but a generalizing term, comprised of an almost infinite number of degrees of increasing ethereality from the grossest physical substance, or absolute matter, up to the most ethereal or spiritualized substance, providing the logic of calling this the path of shadows. Those on this path are often called black magicians in contrast to white magicians or sons of light who follow the path of self-renunciation, self-conquest, and an expansion of the heart, mind, and consciousness in love and service for all that lives.

A Sanskrit equivalent for the left-hand path is pratyeka-yana (from pratyeka every one for himself + yana path). Those who follow this path are also called vamacharins, and their school or course of life is known as vamachara or savyachara. They follow the easy but perilous path leading downwards into ever more confusing, horrifying stages of matter and final spiritual obscuration and personal annihilation.

After death the lower classes of those on the left-hand path become the terrestrial or earthly elementaries. Cunning, low, vindictive, and seeking to retaliate their sufferings upon imbodied humanity, they become, until final annihilation, astral vampires, and therefore a constant psychic and even physical menace to those who open the doors of communication with them.

The higher classes of the brothers of the shadow, those who may be called spiritual sorcerers, mentioned in the New Testament as entities of spiritual wickedness, have a longer life period than have the lower classes. These spiritual sorcerers, depending upon the degree of unfolding of spiritual energy which they have attained and prostituted to evil uses, may even endure till the end of the globe manvantara, reincarnating themselves at repeated, rapid intervals; but their pathway is downwards into still deeper ranges of matter, and involves a progressively greater loss of inner spiritual light reaching them from their spiritual monad.

"Multitudes of human beings are unconsciously treading the Path of the Shadows, and in comparison with these multitudes it is relatively only a few who self-consciously lead and guide with subtle and wicked intelligence this army of unsuspecting victims of Maya. The Brothers of the Shadow are often highly intellectual men and women, frequently individuals with apparent great personal charm, and to the ordinary observer, judging from their conversation and daily works, are fully as well able to 'quote scripture' as are the Angels of Light!" (OG 22).

The warnings given to students of occultism about this matter have always been very solemn and urgent, and no one should at any moment consider himself safe or beyond the possibilities of taking the downward way until he has become at one with the divine monitor within, his own inner god. At every step, with every morn, at every choice, we face the right- or the left-hand path and are forced to choose.

(See also: Left-hand Path, Path of Shadows , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Natural Medicine Path (the Medicine of the South, the Natural Medicine of the South): Mode of Cherokee healing. The Natural Medicine Path is an animistic form of herbalism.

(See also: Natural Medicine Path , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

PATH WORKING: Using astral projection, bi-location, or dream time to accomplish a specific goal. Also called vision questing.

(See also: PATH WORKING , Paganism, Pagan, Pagan Dictionary)

dharma: (Sanskrit) "Righteousness." From dhri, "to sustain; carry, hold."

Hence dharma is "that which contains or upholds the cosmos." Dharma, religion, is a complex and all-inclusive term with many meanings, including: divine law, law of being, way of righteousness, religion, ethics, duty, responsibility, virtue, justice, goodness and truth. Essentially, dharma is the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature or destiny. Relating to the soul, it is the mode of conduct most conducive to spiritual advancement, the right and righteous path.

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

tantrism: The enlightenment path outlined in the Tantra scriptures.

1)    Tantrism is sometimes considered a parallel stream of history and tradition in Hinduism, running alongside and gradually interweaving with the Vedic brahminical tradition.

2)    Tantrism refers to traditions, mainly within Saivism and Shaktism, that focus on the arousal of the kundalini force, and which view the human body as a vehicle of the Divine and an instrument for liberation. Tantrism's ultimate aim is a channeling of the kundalini life force through the sushumna, the gracious channel, upwards into the sahasrara chakra and beyond, through the door of brahman (brahmarandhra) into Parasiva, either before or at the time of death. The stress is on the transformation of all spheres of consciousness, spiritual, psychic, emotional and material. It is a path of sadhana.

Shakta Tantrism: Brings a strong emphasis on the worship of the feminine force. Depending on the school, this may be symbolic or literal in rites involving sexual intercourse, etc. Shakta Tantrism's main principle is the use of the material to gain the spiritual. In certain schools, historically, this implies embracing that which is normally forbidden and manipulating the forces to attain transcendent consciousness rather than lower consciousness. There are three main streams:

-       the righthand path (dakshina marga or dakshinachara) of conservative Hindu practice,

-       the left-hand path (vama marga or vamachara) involving the use of things normally forbidden such as taking intoxicants, meat, ritual sex, etc., and

-       the yogic path of the Kaula sect. Gorakshanatha followers are sometimes grouped with the latter.

See: Shaktism, kundalini, kundalini yoga, raja yoga, tantra.

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

Cherokee healing (Cherokee Medicine): Traditional medicine of the Cherokees, a Native American people.

Its apparent principle is that, if one holds back the light in one's being, one causes:

(a)           occlusion of one's meridians and rivers of life and

(b)           suffering of mother Earth. Cherokee Medicine includes crystal healing, Eagle Medicine, Mental Medicine, the Natural Medicine Path, the Physical Medicine Path, and the Spiritual Medicine Path.

(See also: Cherokee healing , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Jnana yoga is the yoga of knowledge - not knowledge in the intellectual sense-but the knowledge of Brahman and Atman and the realization of their unity. Where the devotee of God follows the promptings of the heart, the jnani uses the powers of the mind to discriminate between the real and the unreal, the permanent and the transitory.

Read more here: » Jnana Yoga: The Path of Knowledge - Jnana Yoga

Marga (Sanskrit) Path; in Buddhism the noble eightfold path that leads to nirvana.

There are four commonly recognized margas, forms of yoga or spiritual and intellectual training:

1)    karma yoga (path of action);

2)    bhakti yoga (path of faith or love);

3)    raja yoga (path of kingly yoga); and

4)    jnana yoga (wisdom path).

These four pathways correspond with the four Hindu castes: Sudra (the agricultural); Vaisya (commercial); Kshattriya (administrative, military, ruler); and Brahmana (philosopher, sage).

(See also: Marga , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Marga (Sanskrit). "The "Path", The Ashthanga marga, the "holy" or sacred path is the one that leads to Nirvana. The eight-fold path has grown out of the seven-fold path, by the addition of the (now) first of the eight Marga; i.e., "the possession of orthodox views"; with which a real Yogacharya would have nothing to do.

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

CELTIC SHAMANISM: A shamanic path that is based on the Faery Faith of the Celtic peoples of Western Europe and especially of Britain, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, Isle of Man and Brittany.

(See also: CELTIC SHAMANISM , Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Amrita-yana amrita-yana (Sanskrit) (from a not + mrita dead from the verbal root mrir to die + yana path, vehicle)

The path of immortality; in The Voice of the Silence the path followed by the Buddhas of Compassion or of Perfection. It is the "secret path," the arya (noble) path of the heart doctrine of esoteric wisdom. The Buddhas of Compassion instead of donning the dharmakaya vesture and then entering nirvana, as the Pratyeka Buddhas do, give up nirvana and assume the nirmanakaya robe, thus enabling them to work directly for all beings less evolved than they; and because of this great individual sacrifice, the nirmanakaya condition is in one sense the holiest of the trikaya (three vestures). The amrita-yana is thus a lofty spiritual pathway, and leads to the ineffable glories of self-conscious immortality in the cosmic manvantaric "eternity."

The term may also refer to the "immortal vehicle" within each person, the individuality in contradistinction to the evanescent personality; that is, "the Spiritual Soul, or the Immortal monad -- a combination of the fifth, sixth and seventh" principles (ML 114).

(See also: Amrita-yana , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

magga (magga): Path. Specifically, the path to the cessation of suffering and stress. The four transcendent paths - or rather, one path with four levels of refinement - are the path to stream-entry (entering the stream to nibbana, which ensures that one will be reborn at most only seven more times), the path to once-returning, the path to nonreturning, and the path to arahantship. See phala.

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

Pratyeka-yana (Sanskrit) [from prati towards, for + eka one + yana vehicle, path]

The path of each one for himself, or the personal vehicle or ego, equivalent to the Pali pachcheka. Fully self-conscious being cannot ever be achieved by following the path for oneself, but solely by following the amrita-yana (immortal vehicle) or the path of self-consciousness in immortality, the spiritual path to a nirvana of high degree, the secret path as taught by the heart doctrine. The pratyeka-yana is the pathway of the personality, the vegetative or material path to a nirvana of a low degree, the open path, as taught by the eye doctrine. These two terms describe two kinds of advancement towards more spiritual things, and the two ultimate goals thereof: the amrita-yana of the Buddhas of Compassion, and the pratyeka-yana of the Pratyeka Buddhas.

Although advancing steadily in spirituality and upwards towards a lower nirvana, and therefore evolving on a path which is not only not harmful to humanity and others, but in a sense is even passively beneficial, the Pratyeka Buddha, precisely because his thoughts are involved in spiritual freedom and benefits for himself, is really enwrapped in a spiritual selfishness; and hence in the intuitive, albeit popular, consideration of Northern Buddhism is called by such names as the Solitary or the Rhinoceros -- applied in contrast to the Buddhas of Compassion, whose entire effort is to merge the individual into the universal, to expand their sympathies to include all that is, to follow the path of immortality (amrita), which is self-identification without loss of individuality with all that is.

When the sacrifice of the lower personal and inferior self, with all its hoard of selfish thought and impulses, for the sake of bringing into full and unfettered activity the ineffable glorious faculties and powers and functions of the higher nature -- not for the purpose of selfish personal advancement, but in order to become a helper of all that is -- the consequence is that as time passes, the disciple so living and dedicating himself finds himself becoming the very incarnation of his inner divinity. He becomes, as it were, a man-god on earth. This, however, is not the objective, for holding such an objective as the goal to be attained would be in itself a proof that selfishness still abides in the nature.

Abstractly, of course, pratyeka-yana can be used for sorcerers and the path of the Brothers of the Shadow, but such is not usual. Obviously the path of sorcery is a pratyeka path in the strictly logical sense. The path of the sorcerers is called the left-hand path, the path of darkness or of the shadows, the downward path, and is sometimes described by the term pratyeka-yana.

Actually, the path of the shadows and the path towards the light stretch in opposite directions; yet the ultimate goal of both is a nirvana. The path upwards, whether of the amrita or of the pratyeka, leads to the nirvana of spirit -- the amrita ultimately being far higher than that of the pratyeka; whereas the downward path of the Brothers of the Shadow leads also to a nirvana, but to enchainment in the avichi-nirvana of absolute matter for that hierarchy.

(See also: Pratyeka-yana , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Arhat (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root arh to be worthy, merit, be able)

Worthy, deserving; also enemy slayer (from ari enemy + the verbal root han to slay, smite)

, an arhat being a slayer of the foe of craving, the entire range of passions and desires, mental, emotional, and physical. Buddhists in the Orient generally define arhat in this manner, while modern scholars derive the word from the verbal root arh. Both definitions are equally appropriate (Buddhist Catachysm 93).

As a noun, originally one who had fully attained his spiritual ideals. In Buddhism arhat (Pali arahant) is the title generally given to those of Gautama Buddha's disciples who had progressed the farthest during his lifetime and immediately thereafter; more specifically to those who had attained nirvana, emancipation from earthly fetters and the attainment of full enlightenment. Arhat is broadly equivalent to the Egyptian heirophant, the Chaldean magus, and Hindu rishi, as well as being generally applicable to ascetics. On occasion it is used for the loftiest beings in a hierarchy: "The Arhats of the 'fire-mist' of the 7th run are but one remove from the Root-base of their Hierarchy -- the highest on Earth, and our Terrestrial chain" (SD 1:207).

Arhat is the highest of the four degrees of arhatship or the fourfold path to nirvana, of which the first three are srotapatti (he who has entered the stream), sakridagamin (he who returns to birth once more), and anagamin (the never returner who will have no further births on earth).

Arhat is both the way and the waygoer; and while the term is close philosophically to anagamin, the distinction between the two lies in their mystical connotations rather than in their etymological definitions. Arhat has a wider significance inasmuch as it applies to those noblest of the Buddha's disciples who were "worthy" of receiving, because comprehending, the Tathagata's heart doctrine, the more esoteric and mystical portions of his message.

As early as one hundred years after the Buddha died and had entered his parinirvana, differences in the doctrines and discipline of the Order become manifest. In the course of the centuries two basic trends developed into what has become popular to call the Hinayana (the lesser vehicle or path) or Theravada (doctrine of the elders), and Mahayana (the greater vehicle or path). The Theravada emphasized the fourfold path leading to nirvana, total liberation of the arhat from material concerns. The Mahayana held the bodhisattvayana as the ideal, the way of compassion for all sentient beings, culminating in renunciation of nirvana in order to return and inspire others "to awake and follow the dhamma." It is this fundamental difference in goal that characterizes the Old Wisdom School (arhatship) from the New Wisdom School (bodhsattvahood).

See also BUDDHAS OF COMPASSION, PRATYEKA BUDDHAS

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

Sadhana:

1) A spiritual discipline or path. 2) Practices, both physical and mental, on the spiritual path.

(See also: Sadhana , 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

Anagamin (Sanskrit) (from a not + agamin from a-gam to come, proceed toward)

One who does not come; in Southern or Theravada Buddhism, a "never returner," one who will be reborn on earth no more -- "unless he so desires in order to help mankind" (VS 88). The third stage of the fourfold path that leads to nirvana, the path of arhatship.

See also ARHAT

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