 163. Terminology |
ARCHETYPES: In Jungian psychology, patterns of images for different approaches to life.
ARETE: The ancient Greek term for the highest personal excellence, the integrity to do what must be done.
ASANA: Any sitting posture for meditation. Lotus or non-lotus.
ASAT: All things unreal or illusionary. This is the world of illusion. The world of spirit is the real world.
ASCETICISM: The practice of denying oneself physical comforts and necessities, usually in order to get focused beyond material things.
ASHRAMA: The place where teachers and pupils reside – a hermitage.
ASMITA: Conceit, egoism, pride of an unevolved human.
ASSOCIATIONISM: The view that our ideas are formed by combining sense perceptions that resemble one another or that we experience together.
ASTRAL: Not of this world; an in between place or dimension, but not heaven (Christian term is "purgatory").
ASTRAL TRAVEL: When the soul or oversoul travels to the astral plane while the body is in deep rest.
ATARAXIA: The ancient Greek term for mental tranquility.
ATMA – ATMAN: The oversoul or super consciousness in human beings in vedantic philosophy (Holy-spirit in Christianity).
ATOMISM: The belief of the Presocratic philosopher, beginning with Leucippus and Democritus, that everything could be broken down to tiny, indivisible particles called atoms. It turned out to be true (until scientists learned that the atom could be split onto subatomic particles.)
AURA: Multi-colored force lines that surround the body (similar to a magnetic field). Not to be confused with the "etheric double" of bluish-gray color.
AUTHENTICITY: The existentialist concept of leading your life on your own terms, refusing to accept the assumptions others make.
AVATAR or AVATARA: A rare person with no karma and not necessarily human. But one who adopts human form (incarnates in order to teach). Avatar (male) avatara (female) is always higher than any human. An angel, shien (Taoism), Jesus the Christ. They appear when the world is in danger or humanity is in danger as a species. An avatar is one who teaches and "restores" to present-day requirements ancient teachings.
AVESHA: The entering of an avatar into another person's body to do some special work. But only if the "host" agrees.
AVIDYA: Ignorance. To mistake life on the earth as the only life that matters. Earth is a classroom or training ground, a boot camp of the soul.
