ENLIGHTENMENT (bodhi, Sanskrit) -

1. universal consciousness;; traditionally compared to a mind full of light like the moon in a cloudless sky or a mirror without any dust on it.

2. awareness that you are a manifestation of one Infinity, always moving according to yin and yang and the Order of the Universe. (Michi Kushi)

3. seeing not an alienated world to be gotten out of but a realized world in which we know that all plays a part. (Gary Snyder)

4. enlightenment experiences are described as; aha experience, awareness, born-again, conversion, cosmic-consciousness, convictional event, deep knowing, divine intervention. Eureka, felt shift, flash point, gestalt formation, getting it, gift of the guru, gnosis, grace, greater reality, illumination, inner feeling, inner voice, insight, awareness, left-right brain shift, miracle, moment of clarity, moment of truth, mystical experience, peak experience, quantum leap, religious experience, satari, spiritual awakening, sudden decision, surrender, transformation, turning point

(See also: ENLIGHTENMENT, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

ALCHEMICAL SYNERGY

Developed by Kamala Renner, Alchemical Synergy is a process of evolving universal energy patterns and is used as a holistic counseling system that focuses on achieving transformation by utilizing the universal four forces of centripetal, centrifugal, gravity, and electromagnetics - the consciousness portion of the Big Bang theory relative to the beginning of the universe.

Centripetal controls all inward movement, allowing us to go inside to observe and reconnect with our inner world which contains knowledge of all that is natural for us as an individual. Centrifugal controls all outward movement, allowing interaction of the consciousness with the surroundings and other people.

Centripetal and centrifugal are duality and control all activity that depends on yin/yang, negative/positive balance for its existence. Gravity regulates the action of centripetal and centrifugal to ensure universal balance and stimulates the ability to step out of duality to observe the effect of its interaction from a neutral space.

Electromagnetics is the life force that is a catalyst for reproduction to occur, allowing the evolution of consciousness to continue. Synergy training defines every experience in categories relative to the force from which it originates. When we are aware of the influence of the four forces, we can begin to alter structures and patterns that cause stagnation in personal growth.(Adapted from Holistic Health Directory.)

(See also: ALCHEMICAL SYNERGY, Alternative Health, Massage, Bodywork, Body Mind and Soul)

microcosm-macrocosm: "Little world" or "miniature universe" as compared with "great world." Microcosm refers to the internal source of something larger or more external (macrocosm).

In Hindu cosmology, the outer world is a macrocosm of the inner world, which is its microcosm and is mystically larger and more complex than the physical universe and functions at a higher rate of vibration and even a different rate of time.

The microcosm precedes the macrocosm. Thus, the guiding principle of the Bhuloka comes from the Antarloka and Sivaloka. Consciousness precedes physical form. In the tantric tradition, the body of man is viewed as a microcosm of the entire divine creation. "Microcosm-macrocosm" is embodied in the terms pinda and anda.

See: apex of creation, pinda, quantum, tattva, tantra.

(See also: Microcosm-macrocosm, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Nature :

Nature

The consciousness side of nature is composed of vast hierarchies of gods, developed cosmical spirits, spiritual entities, cosmic graduates in the university of life.

The material side of nature is the heterogeneous matter, the material world in its many various planes, in all stages of imperfection  - but all these stages filled with armies of entities evolving and growing.

The proper term for nature in modern theosophical usage is prakriti or still more accurately mulaprakriti  - the ever-living kosmic producer, the eternally fecund mother, of the universe. When a theosophist speaks of nature, unless he limits the term to the physical world, he never means the physical world alone, but the vast reaches of universal kosmos and more particularly the inner realms, the causal factors of the boundless All.

Hence, a growing understanding of nature in this sense  - which is another way of saying an understanding of reality  - obviously provides the only basis of a religion founded on the changeless realities.

See also: Nature, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

Cosmic Ideation Another name for divine thought, out of which springs the activity of universal mind -- the collective aggregate of all individualized dhyani-chohanic consciousnesses everywhere.

Theosophy postulates the appearance and disappearance of worlds, whether visible or invisible, as a continuous process, each world being a link in an endless chain of interlocking cosmic hierarchies. As one of these comes into manifested existence it is likened to an outbreathing of the divine breath, each such outbreathing being a thought of the cosmic ideation, this thought becoming a world.

This divine breath, then, may be assumed to be cosmic ideation entering into the activity of manvantara; and cosmic ideation is the root again of all individual consciousness everywhere. Just as precosmic ideation is regarded as the root of consciousness, so precosmic substance is the spiritual substratum of matter. Thus manvantara is produced by means of the interlocking and interacting motion of cosmic ideation with primordial cosmic substance. Further, fohat is the intelligent energy behind this interlocking activity, which during manvantara joins these two together.

Cosmic ideation and cosmic substance are one in their primordial character, yet as the reawakening of the universal mind into manvantara needs the appropriate cosmic fields of action, cosmic substance may be said to be the manvantaric vehicle of cosmic ideation. Conversely, during cosmic pralaya, all the varied differentiations of cosmic substance are resolved back or indrawn once again into cosmic unity, a subjective condition, and hence during the cosmic pralaya cosmic ideation can no longer be called active, but passive.

(See also: Cosmic Ideation, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Multiverse - Anthropic principle. The concept of other universes has been proposed to explain why our universe seems to be fine-tuned for conscious life as we experience it. If there were a large number (possibly infinite) of different physical laws (or fundamental constants) in as many universes, some of these would have laws that were suitable for stars, planets and life to exist. The anthropic principle could then be applied to conclude that we would only consciously exist in those universes which were finely- ...

See also:

Multiverse, Multiverse - Multiverse hypotheses in physics, Multiverse - Classification, Multiverse - Open multiverse, Multiverse - Bubble Theory, Multiverse - Big bounce, Multiverse - Many world interpretation of quantum physics, Multiverse - M-theory, Multiverse - String Landscape, Multiverse - Arguments against multiverse theories, Multiverse - Multiverse hypotheses in philosophy, Multiverse - Anthropic principle, Multiverse - Modal realism, Multiverse - Trans-world identity issues, Multiverse - Fictional multiverses

Read more here: » Multiverse: Encyclopedia II - Multiverse - Multiverse hypotheses in philosophy

world: In Hindu theology, world refers to

1)    loka: a particular region of consciousness or plane of existence.

2)    maya: The whole of manifest existence; the phenomenal universe, or cosmos. In this sense it transcends the limitations of physical reality, and can include emotional, mental and spiritual, physical realms of existence, depending on its use. Also denoted by the terms prakriti and Brahmanda.

3)    pasha: In Saivism, the term world is often used to translate the term pasha in the Agamic triad of fundamentals - Pati, pashu, pasha, "God, soul, world." It is thus defined as the "fetter" (pasha) that binds the soul, veiling its true nature and enabling it to grow and evolve through experience as an individual being. In this sense, the world, or pasha, is three-fold, comprising anava (the force of individuation), karma (the principle of cause and effect) and maya (manifestation, the principle of matter, Siva's mirific energy, the sixth tattva).

See: Brahmanda, microcosm-macrocosm, sarvabhadra, Sivamaya, tattva.

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

Samadhi (Sanskrit) [from sam with, together + a towards + the verbal root dha to place, bring]

To direct towards; to combine the mental faculties towards an object. Self-consciousness union with the spiritual monad by intense and profound spiritual contemplation or meditation.

It implies "the complete abstraction of the percipient consciousness from all worldly, or exterior, or even mental concerns or attributes, and its . . . becoming the pure unadulterate, undilute super-consciousness of the god within. . . . Samadhi is the eighth or final stage of genuine occult Yoga, and can be attained at any time by the initiate without conscious recourse to the other phases or practices of Yoga enumerated in Oriental works, and which other and inferior practices are often misleading, in some cases distinctly injurious, and at the best mere props or aids in the attaining of complete mental abstraction from worldly concerns" (OG 150-1). The seeker on attaining samadhi becomes practically omniscient for his solar universe because his consciousness is functioning in the cosmic spiritual and causal worlds.

Bodhi (enlightenment) is a particular state of samadhi, during which the subject reaches the culmination of spiritual knowledge. Samadhi is the highest state on earth that can be reached while in the body; its highest stage or degree is called turiya. To attain beyond this, the initiate must have become a nirmanakaya.

(See also: Samadhi, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Atman :

Atman

(Sanskrit) The root of atman is hardly known; its origin is uncertain, but the general meaning is that of "self." The highest part of man  - self, pure consciousness per se. The essential and radical power or faculty in man which gives to him, and indeed to every other entity or thing, its knowledge or sentient consciousness of selfhood. This is not the ego.

This principle (atman) is a universal one; but during incarnations its lowest parts take on attributes, because it is linked with the buddhi, as the buddhi is linked with the manas, as the manas is linked to the kama, and so on down the scale.

Atman is also sometimes used of the universal self or spirit which is called in the Sanskrit writings Brahman (neuter), and the Brahman or universal spirit is also called the paramatman.

Man is rooted in the kosmos surrounding him by three principles, which can hardly be said to be above the first or atman, but are, so to say, that same atman's highest and most glorious parts.

The inmost link with the Unutterable was called in ancient India by the term ``self,'' which has often been mistranslated "soul." The Sanskrit word is atman and applies, in psychology, to the human entity. The upper end of the link, so to speak, was called paramatman, or the ``self beyond,'' i.e., the permanent SELF  - words which describe neatly and clearly to those who have studied this wonderful philosophy, somewhat of the nature and essence of the being which man is, and the source from which, in beginningless and endless duration, he sprang. Child of earth and child of heaven, he contains both in himself.

We say that the atman is universal, and so it is. It is the universal selfhood, that feeling or consciousness of selfhood which is the same in every human being, and even in all the inferior beings of the hierarchy, even in those of the beast kingdom under us, and dimly perceptible in the plant world, and which is latent even in the minerals. This is the pure cognition, the abstract idea, of self. It differs not at all throughout the hierarchy, except in degree of self-recognition. Though universal, it belongs (so far as we are concerned in our present stage of evolution) to the fourth kosmic plane, though it is our seventh principle counting upwards.

See also: Atman, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Samadhi :

Samadhi

(Sanskrit) A compound word formed of sam, meaning "with" or "together"; a, meaning "towards"; and the verbal root dha, signifying "to place," or "to bring"; hence samadhi, meaning "to direct towards," generally signifies to combine the faculties of the mind with a direction towards an object. Hence, intense contemplation or profound meditation, with the consciousness directed to the spiritual. It is the highest form of self-possession, in the sense of collecting all the faculties of the constitution towards reaching union or quasi-union, long or short in time as the case may be, with the divine-spiritual. One who possesses and is accustomed to use this power has complete, absolute control over all his faculties, and is, therefore, said to be "completely self- possessed." It is the highest state of yoga or "union."

Samadhi, therefore, is a word of exceedingly mystical and profound significance implying the complete abstraction of the percipient consciousness from all worldly or exterior or even mental concerns or attributes, and its absorption into or, perhaps better, its becoming the pure unadulterate, undilute superconsciousness of the god within. In other words, samadhi is self-conscious union with the spiritual monad of the human constitution. Samadhi is the eighth or final stage of genuine occult yoga, and can be attained at any time by the initiate without conscious recourse to the other phases or practices of yoga enumerated in Oriental works, and which other and inferior practices are often misleading, in some cases distinctly injurious, and at the best mere props or aids in the attaining of complete mental abstraction from worldly concerns.

The eight stages of yoga usually enumerated are the following:

(1)  yama, signifying "restraint" or "forbearance";

(2)  niyama, religious observances of various kinds, such as watchings or fastings, prayings, penances, etc.;

(3)  asana (q.v.), postures of various kinds;

(4)  pranayama, various methods of regulating the breath; (5) pratyahara, a word signifying "withdrawal," but technically and esoterically the "withdrawal" of the consciousness from sensual or sensuous concerns, or from external objects;

(5)  dharana (q.v.), firmness or steadiness or resolution in holding the mind set or concentrated on a topic or object of thought, mental concentration;

(6)  dhyana (q.v.), abstract contemplation or meditation when freed from exterior distractions; and finally,

(7)  samadhi, complete collection of the consciousness and of its faculties into oneness or union with the monadic essence.

It may be observed, and should be carefully taken note of by the student, that when the initiate has attained samadhi he becomes practically omniscient for the solar universe in which he dwells, because his consciousness is functioning at the time in the spiritual-causal worlds. All knowledge is then to him like an open page because he is self-consciously conscious, to use a rather awkward phrase, of nature's inner and spiritual realms, the reason being that his consciousness has become kosmic in its reaches.

See also: Samadhi, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

MIND

Mind very much resembles matter, both in its degrees of density and in its peculiarity of design. That's not surprising since the one derives from the other. We might also say that they are mirror images of one another. Just as matter varies in the size of its conglomerations, from the circumferences of giant stars and galaxies to the infinitely small subatomic world of its constituents, so mind ranges through the levels of experience infinitely above and below consciousness. There is no Not-Mind - not ever - except within the Ultimate Void itself.

Hypnosis sheds a faint light on certain levels of consciousness beneath the ordinary. By means of the intense concentration and focusing of attention that hypnosis evokes, we are able to accomplish feats of mind and body that otherwise only yogis know. Hypnosis works by forcing a thread of memory awareness deep into the mind labyrinth, which, however deeply it may penetrate the darkness, is always tied tightly to the ordinary consciousness at the top. Without that Ariadne's thread, the more deeply we were to concentrate on something, the more we would be lost to the world. The more attention we bring to bear on anything, the deeper into a simulacrum of sleep we proceed, as our surroundings and the outside world disappear into this darkness and outer sensations are walled off - presumably to prevent distraction. Since this state of concentration so much resembles sleep, in fact, the slightest lapse of the will sends us drifting towards unconsciousness. Ordinary sleep is a mirror-like repetition of the fragmentation of superconsciousness that we shall see results in abandonment of the self. However, as concentration proceeds ever more inward, the more the inner landscape is illuminated and narrowed. This "inner light" of laser-like consciousness is shared by the vegetable kingdom. (Its character can be recognized in psychedelic intoxication of various kinds). Finally, as we proceed into the unconscious itself we enter a quantum universe of our own. Here we find ourselves in the very "consciousness" of matter itself, with its links to everything in the universe. Presumably, death is but a deeper descent still, a proceeding into the actual heart of Mind, leading into the Void, which is the womb of all manifestations. Ordinary consciousness is obviously the link between higher and lower planes. It is a delicate balance between retreat into self-absorption and abandonment of the self to the sensory experience. It is maintained with great difficulty, for we have a tendency to drift out of it into one or the other of the two diametrically opposed realms of experience that it separates. These realms, of course, are infinitely more attractive than boring, old, routine mind. Within this narrow water-hole of ordinary consciousness, however, lie all the accomplishments and discoveries of human history. Indeed, it is this narrow and unreliable bridge that human society has learned to exploit as "civilization". Unfortunately, it has been examined but superficially and little has been done to stretch its dimensions or protect it from disintegration. Consequently we know almost nothing either of its limitations or its potential powers.

Heightened awareness is the opposed of focused attention or concentration. Attention becomes more and more generalized and cognizant of every petal on every flower in the garden, then every vein in every leaf. . . But now, as attention fans out, mind loses its coherency and begins to fragment. Under the influence of psychedelic drugs the attention is so fragmented that it merges altogether with the outer world and the inner self is abandoned to the chaos of the interface. The loss of the inner self, however, is usually accompanied by extreme panic as it attempts to jump from scintilla to scintilla.

For a time, the fragmentation of expanding mind can be kept under control by the use of amphetamines or cocaine in ever-increasing dosages. By means of these substances, alertness and intelligence are increased because attention is spread infinitely thin across a wider and wider spectrum of sensory experience coming in from the outer world. The "outer world" includes, of course, the consciousness of one's own body, as well as reflexive self-observation. At the same time, the inner self is being supplied with increased energy and speed too, so that it can maintain consciousness of itself and stave off chaos by racing back and forth around the ever-enlarging periphery of experience. As we are all very well aware, however, this path quickly comes to an end.

Fortunately, the heightening of externalized consciousness can be achieved without drugs, through mysticism. The sensory awareness can either be bypassed or used as the vehicle of its own transcendence. If the inner self is voluntarily released to heightened consciousness, which we sometimes refer to as leaving the ego behind in order to enter Nirvana, peace descends at once and chaos is transformed into the so-called "mystical experience." This process, once begun, can continue into such total absorption that the individual consciousness ceases to exist at any point and we could refer to that as a more or less permanent trance.

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

Ideation The faculty, power, or process of forming ideas. Cosmic ideation denotes an abstraction, being one aspect of cosmic egoity, and also the more concrete reality represented by mahat. Cosmic ideation, focused in a basis or upadhi, results as the abstract consciousness of space working through the monad or vehicle; and the manifestations vary according to the degree of the different upadhis.

Cosmic ideation is sometimes called mahabuddhi or mahat, the universal world-soul, the cosmic or spiritual noumenon of matter. As mahat is the primordial essence or principle of cosmic consciousness and intelligence, it is the fountain of the seven prakritis -- the seven planes or elements of the universe -- and the guiding intelligence of manifested nature on all planes. Going deeper, we have precosmic ideation, which is an aspect of that metaphysical triad which is the root from which proceeds all manifestation.

Idea, as Plato pointed out, means primarily a prototype existing in the cosmic mind and manifested in forms by the action of cosmic energy, guided by ideation, working in matter. Therefore it must be regarded as innate, and our thoughts are mental manifestations of ideas.

With Plato and Aristotle (when not using the word to denote species), ideas were the fundamental roots of manifested things, as viewed under the aspect of consciousness rather than under that of matter. Hence the faculty of ideation, considered cosmically, is originative and creative of what lies latent in ideation itself, and can be so in the human being, since each individual is a microcosm. This is quite different from the faculty of making mental images of sensory experiences, these images being really what the Greeks called phantasmata. Yet even this is a degree of the original process and may be called, perhaps, astral ideation.

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

Ve (Scandinavian), Vei, Vi (Icelandic) [cognate with vigan to carry high, venerate]

Sacred, holy; in Norse mythology, the brother of Odin (spirit) and Vile (will), the creative deities who bring a universe into existence. They are born of the primeval pair Bore and Bestla, karmic residue from the previous life cycle, and correspond to the Greek Logos, the Word or intelligence from which emanate the divine forces which organize kosmos out of chaos. Odin and his two brothers "slay" the frostgiant Ymer -- the latent matter of worlds -- transforming him into an orderly universe, into which they infuse consciousness and life from their own essence.

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

A Theosophical definition of Universal Brotherhood :

Universal Brotherhood

Universal brotherhood as understood in the esoteric philosophy, and which is a sublime natural fact of universal nature, does not signify merely sentimental unity, or a simple political or social cooperation. Its meaning is incomparably wider and profounder than this. The sense inherent in the words in their widest tenor or purport is the spiritual brotherhood of all beings; particularly, the doctrine implies that all human beings are inseparably linked together, not merely by the bonds of emotional thought or feeling, but by the very fabric of the universe itself, all men  - as well as all beings, both high and low and intermediate  - springing forth from the inner and spiritual sun of the universe as its hosts of spiritual rays. We all come from this one source, that spiritual sun, and are all builded of the same life-atoms on all the various planes.

It is this interior unity of being and of consciousness, as well as the exterior union of us all, which enables us to grasp intellectually and spiritually the mysteries of the universe; because not merely ourselves and our own fellow human beings, but also all other beings and things that are, are children of the same kosmic parent, great Mother Nature, in all her seven (and ten) planes or worlds of being. We are all rooted in the same kosmic essence, whence we all proceeded in the beginning of the primordial periods of world evolution, and towards which we are all journeying back. This interlocking and interblending of the numberless hierarchies of beings forming the universe itself extends everywhere, in the invisible worlds as well as in the worlds which are visible.

Finally, it is upon this fact of the spiritual unity of all beings and things that reposes the basis and foundation of human ethics when these last are properly understood. In the esoteric philosophy ethics are no mere human convention or rules of action convenient and suitable for the amelioration of the asperities of human intercourse, but are fundamental in the very structure and inextricably coordinated operations of the universe itself.

See also: Universal Brotherhood, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

John R. Searle, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, has pioneered an approach to mind-body issues that is dualistic in some respects, monist in others. He calls it "biological naturalism." Searle's views sound like dualistic interactionism. He believes that consciousness "is a real part of the real world and it cannot be eliminated in favor of, or reduced to, something else" whether that something-else is a neurological state of the brain or a software program. He contends, for example, that the software ...

See also:

Dualism philosophy of mind, Dualism philosophy of mind - Types of ontological dualism, Dualism philosophy of mind - Types of interaction dualism, Dualism philosophy of mind - Arguments for dualism, Dualism philosophy of mind - Intuitive and religious arguments, Dualism philosophy of mind - The problem of mental causation, Dualism philosophy of mind - Subjective argument in support of dualism, Dualism philosophy of mind - Arguments against dualism, Dualism philosophy of mind - Biological naturalism

Read more here: » Dualism philosophy of mind: Encyclopedia II - Dualism philosophy of mind - Biological naturalism

Jose Arguelles

(1939 - ) New Age author whose book The Mayan Factor, published early 1987, argued that during a critical time (August 16-17 of that year) the prophecies of the Bible, Aztec and Mayan calendars indicated that the world would either begin a new age or be destroyed.

If 144,000 self-chosen people were "resonating" with peace during this important time, worldwide, though especially at the "power centers" like Mount Shasta, Arguelles believed the world could be saved from destruction. (see Harmonic Convergence).

He has a distinguished career as an educator, he taught at Princeton University, University of California, Evergreen State College, San Francisco State University, San Francisco Institute of Art, the Naropa Institute, the University of Colorado, and The Union Graduate School.

His pioneering books resulting from investigations into human whole systems include: Mandala (1972), A Psychophysical Aesthetic (1972), The Transformative Vision: Reflections on the Nature and History of Human Expression (1975) (1992), and, Earth Ascending: An illustrated Treatise on the Law Governing Whole Systems (1984, 1988). As one of the founders of Earth Day, 1970 (First Whole Earth Festival, Davis, California. 1970), Arguelles is a career activist for peace and the planetary transformation of consciousness.

With his wife and partner, Lloydine, they founded the Planet Art Network (1983), promoting the revival of the Nicholas Roerich Peace Pact and Banner of Peace (1935). Combining investigations of the Roerich Peace Pact with his lifetime study of the mathematics and prophesies of the Mayan Calendar.

(See also: Jose Arguelles, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Force Used in two senses: an effect produced in matter, and the unknown cause of that effect. In the former sense it is a definite measurable quantity, usable in calculating the quantitative relation between phenomena, and of practical service in mechanics. But in the latter sense, force remains for science a mystery. If it is an inherent property of matter, then matter becomes a self-moving entity, a divine thing in its essence; if it acts on matter from outside, then where does it inhere? Is it an independent existence? The whole question is thus left hanging in the air.

According to theosophy the forces of science are effects produced on the physical plane by elementals or nature forces, which are themselves secondary causes and the effects of primary causes, ultimately of divine origin, behind the veil of terrestrial phenomena. Descending through the planes of cosmos there is a chain of effects. Theosophy sees no fundamental difference between force and motion: eternal motion gives rise on every plane to the dual manifestation of force and matter, twin aspects of the same substance.

In the universe force may be generalized as a unity, just as substance or consciousness may; but nevertheless just as there are consciousnesses and substances, so likewise cosmic force is to be understood as a generalizing phrase for cosmic forces essentially intelligent, and therefore that these cosmic forces are essentially divinities -- these divinities existing on different planes of the invisible worlds of the universe in hierarchical structure or degrees.

We have therefore the picture of inner and invisible conscious and likewise self-conscious forces, which are really divinities of many kinds, which by their interconnections and interwoven activities, produce the differentiated and marvelously varied manifested world in which we live.

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

A Theosophical definition of The Path :

The Path

Universal nature, our great parent, exists inseparably in each one of us, in each entity everywhere, and no separation of the part from the whole, of the individual from the kosmos, is possible in any other than a purely illusory sense. This points out to us with unerring definiteness and also directs us to the sublime path to utter reality. It is the path inwards, ever onwards within, which is endless and which leads into vast inner realms of wisdom and knowledge; for, as all the great world philosophies tell us so truly, if you know yourself you then know the universe, because each one of you is an inseparable part of it and it is all in you, its child.

It is obvious from this last reflection that the sole essential difference between any two grades of the evolving entities which infill and compose the kosmos is a difference of consciousness, of understanding; and this consciousness and understanding come to the evolving entity in only one way  - by unwrapping or unfolding the intrinsic faculties or powers of that entity's own inner being. This is the path, as the mystics of all ages have put it.

The pathway is within yourself. There is no other pathway for you individually than the pathway leading ever inwards towards your own inner god. The pathway of another is the same pathway for that other; but it is not your pathway, because your pathway is your Self, as it is for that other one his Self  - and yet, wonder of wonders, mystery of mysteries, the Self is the same in all. All tread the same pathway, but each man must tread it himself, and no one can tread it for another; and this pathway leads to unutterable splendor, to unutterable expansion of consciousness, to unthinkable bliss, to perfect peace.

See also: The Path, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

AnimaMundi (Latin). The"Soul of the World", the same as the Alaya of the Northern Buddhists; the divine essence which permeates, animates and informs all, from the smallest atom of matter to man and god.

It is in a sense the "seven-skinned mother" of the stanzas in the Secret Doctrine, the essence of seven planes of sentience, consciousness and differentiation, moral and physical. In its highest aspect it is Nirvana, in its lowest Astral Light.

It was feminine with the Gnostics, the early Christians and the Nazarenes; bisexual with other sects, who considered it only in its four lower planes. Of igneous, ethereal nature in the objective world of form (and then ether), and divine and spiritual in its three higher planes.

When it is said that every human soul was born by detaching itself from the Anima Mundi, it means, esoterically, that our higher Egos are of an essence identical with It, which is a radiation of the ever unknown Universal ABSOLUTE.

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

Kashmir Saivism: (Sanskrit) In this mildly theistic and intensely monistic school founded by Vasugupta around 850, Siva is immanent and transcendent. Purification and yoga are strongly emphasized.

Kashmir Saivism provides an extremely rich and detailed understanding of the human psyche, and a clear and distinct path of kundalini-siddha yoga to the goal of Self Realization. The Kashmir Saivite is not so much concerned with worshiping a personal God as he is with attaining the transcendental state of Siva consciousness. Sadhana leads to the assimilation of the object (world) in the subject (I) until the Self (Siva) stands revealed as one with the universe. The goal- liberation- is sustained recognition (pratyabhijna) of one's true Self as nothing but Siva.

There are three upaya, or stages of attainment of God consciousness: anavopaya (yoga), shaktopaya (spiritual discrimination), shambhavopaya (attainment through the guru's instruction) and anupaya, or "no means" (spontaneous realization without effort). Kashmir Saivite literature is in three broad divisions: Agama Shastras, Spanda Shastras and Pratyabhijna Shastras. Today various organizations promulgate the esoteric teachings. While the number of Kashmir Saivite formal followers is uncertain, the school remains an important influence in India.

See: Saivism, upaya.

(See also: Kashmir Saivism, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Aham Eva Parabrahma (Sanskrit) (from aham I + eva indeed, verily + para beyond + brahma creative deity from the verbal root brih to expand)

Also aham asmi parabrahma. I am verily parabrahma, the Boundless; imbodies the teaching that above and within every entity whatsoever is everything that is in universal space or boundless infinitude, so that each person is fundamentally one with all that is because the same divine consciousness flows through every point in space, in that all worlds, gods, human beings, and atoms are each one derived from the same original source.

(See also: Aham Eva Parabrahma, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)