Oneness - Clarity and Joy of Life through Advaita by Madhukar - HTML preview

GLOSSARY

ADVAITA Teaching of Non-Duality. Absolute ARJUNA The student of Krishna whose

Oneness. Vedanta teachings derived from the

instruction is related in the Bhagavad-Gita.

Vedas. Popular in the West as Existential Philosophy.

ARTUS Legendary hero, the only one to be able to draw the sword Excalibur from the

ADVAITIN Someone who lives Advaita, who stone, making him king; Knight of the Round

has realized Oneness.

Table with ties to Merlin, Avalon and the Holy Grail.

AHAMKARA Ego, or transitory I, one of the five inner organs in Indian philosophy.

ARUNACHALA Holy mountain in Tamil Na-du, Southern India, where Sri Ramana Mahar-

ALANDI Village in the Pune district, Maha-shi spent most of his life. (A-runa-chala =

rastra. Site of the Samadhi of Marathi Saint

Mountain that severs the bonds of servitude)

Jnaneshwar.

 

ASANA (Sanskr.) “Seat.” Practice of Hatha ALBERT EINSTEIN Swabian-Jewish Nobel Yoga, the third stage in the Yoga Sutras of Pa-Prize laureate in Physics. 1879–1955.

tanjali.

 

ALPHA The fine-structure constant alpha ASCETICISM Physical and mental exercises; measures the strength of electromagnetic in-rigorously spartan life-style of renunciation with teraction that binds electrons to the magnetic the goal of realizing moral and religious ideals.

nucleus. A number whose value is pretty

exactly 1/137.

ASHRAM Place where people live together in search of Truth, God and Self-Realization. A

ANAND SHAKRAVATI Traditional local Hin-place of meditation and silence that usually de-du festival during which people fast during the velops around a Master.

day.

 

ASURA In the Vedic texts, this originally ANANDA Spiritual bliss.

means “being full of life force.” Refers to a

class of gods, and later also to demons.

ANANDA MAYA KOSHA One of the five

sheaths of the body, “sheath made of bliss.”

ATMA VICHARA Self-enquiry. The essentials of Advaita and Jnana Yoga include not

ANTAHKARANAS The five inner organs in only surrender but also Self-enquiry based on

Indian philosophy (Knowledge, Mind, Intel—

the question “Who am I?” (Nan Yar).

lect, Memory, Ego).

 

AUROBINDO, SRI Indian philosopher and ANTI-GRAVITATIONAL FIELD

Guru. Pondicherry, India, 1872–1950.

Field in which gravity (the attraction exerted by a mass on other masses, in reality nothing but AVATAR “One who descends.” Incarnation curved space-time) is deactivated.

of a divinity.

 

151

BALSEKAR, RAMESH Student of Nisar-

BRINDAVAN (ALSO VRINDAVAN)

gadatta Maharaj. “In the phenomenal world

Place in Northern India where Krishna

there is no one higher for me than Ramana

grew up.

Maharshi.”

 

BRIZENDINE, LOUANN Professor of Clinical BHAGAVAD GITA Section of the Mahabha-Psychiatry, M.D., studied neurobiology and

rata (important Indian religious saga, heroic

medicine, founder of the UCSF Women’s

epic), in which Krishna gives instruction to his Mood and Hormone Clinic in San Francisco.

Devotee Arjuna.

 

BUDDHA “Awakened One, Intellectual.”

BHAGAVAN “One who possesses happiness Formerly Siddhartha Gautama. Lived from

or bliss;” for Guru or God.

563–483 B.C. in what is now Nepal and India.

Taught the Dharma and founded Buddhism.

BHAGAVATAM Writings devoted to the life and teachings of Krishna.

BUDDHI Intellect, one of the five inner organs in Indian philosophy.

BHAKTI Surrender to and love of the Self, God or a Master.

BUDDHISM Tradition of teaching and religion that goes back to Siddhartha Gautama, the

BHAKTI VEDANTA Designation for real to-historical Buddha.

getherness with Krishna; visions.

 

BUTTERFLY DREAM The no doubt most

BIDIS Hand-rolled Indian cigarettes.

famous parable of the Zhuangzi is the so-called Butterfly Dream: “Once Zhuang Zhou

BIG BANG Represents the beginning of the was dreaming and became a fluttering butter-universe, and thus of matter, space and time.

fly, light-hearted and in tune with his intentions.

He knew nothing of Zhuang Zhou. When

BODHI-TREE Sacred fig tree. Siddhartha suddenly he awoke, Zhuang Zhou was com-Gautama was sitting beneath this tree when

pletely and fully present. Now it is uncertain he realized his highest being and became the

whether a Zhuang Zhou becomes a butterfly

Buddha.

while dreaming, or whether a butterfly, while

dreaming, becomes a Zhuang Zhou. If both a

BÖN Was the dominant religion in 8th cen-Zhuang Zhou and a butterfly exist, then there

tury Tibet when Buddhism arrived. For its

must be a difference between them. This is

adherents, Bön signifies “Truth,” “Reality,”

called the transfiguration of things.”

“True Teachings.”

 

CATHARSIS (Gk.) “Purification” from spiritual BONOBO Dwarf chimpanzee; primate from conflicts and tensions.

the family of humanoid apes.

 

CHAKRAS Subtle energy centers in the hu-BRAHMAN The uppermost caste in Vedic man body.

society. Someone who has studied the Vedas

and is capable of providing leadership to

CHENNAM (KSHANA) In classical Indian society.

philosophy, the length of a single moment of

observation is called kshana (1/4500 of a

minute or 0,0133 seconds).

 

152

CHENPO Teaching of Perfection; path of mystics and philosophers of the Christian

self-liberation in Tibetan Buddhism.

Middle Ages, ca. 1260–1327/1328. “Therefore

it is in Oneness that God is found and they

CHITTA Memory, one of the five inner organs who would find God must themselves become

in Indian philosophy.

One.”

 

COUNCIL OF NICAEA Council held in Ni-EKNATH Indian saint from Maharashtra, caea in 325 A.D. with the goal of resolving a

1533–1599. New version of the Jnaneshwari.

conflict that threatened to split the church. The result was the Nicene Creed, which involved

ENIGMA (Gk.) Riddle.

the falsification or deletion of many Biblical passages.

EPICURUS Greek philosopher, ca. 341–270

B.C., defender of the pleasure principle and

CUMULONIMBUS Storm cloud.

friendship “Stranger, here you will do well to tarry.”

DAO (Chin.): “The path.” Being underlying all reality, immanent and transcendent highest

EROS In Greek mythology the god of love.

reality. Representatives include Laotse (with

For Plato, the philosopher of Beauty, Eros is a his famous book Tao te kin) and Zhuangzi.

helper on the path to knowledge and stands for Along with Confucianism and Buddhism, Dao-a friendship-transcending form of love that me-ism is the third pillar of Chinese philosophy

diates the attainment of knowledge between

and religion.

teacher and student as pedagogical Eros. Life

drive, one of the two main drives in Freudian

DARSHAN “Beholding;” from the Sanskrit psychoanalysis.

root drs – to see. The gaze of a sage or saint.

To be in his presence.

ETHICS (Gk.) “The moral (science).” One of the great subdivisions of philosophy, con-DEVOTEE “One who is devoted.” Devotion cerned with human actions.

is love in utter surrender and dedication to a thing, a Master or God.

EUDAIMONIA Philosophical term for a state of blissfulness and spiritual wellbeing. Refers DHARMA (Sanskr.): “Harmony of Mind.” The to the teaching of virtuous ethics founded by teachings of the Buddha. Also: the purpose

Socrates.

indwelling in people or things, divine law; in Hinduism, also a code of conduct, an ethically FREUD, SIGMUND Austrian doctor and

pure prescribed way of life.

founder of psychoanalysis. 1856–1936.

 

DRAUPADI Wife of the five Pandava bro-FREYA Germanic goddess of fertility, love thers from the epic Mahabharata.

and love magic.

 

DZOGCHEN (Tib.): “Great Perfection.”

GANA PUJA Ritual in the Tibetan Dzogchen.

Refers to teachings that in Tibetan Buddhism

and Bön are transmitted as the essence of the

GAUTAMA See Buddha.

teachings of Buddha.

 

GAYATRI MANTRA Most famous Vedic

ECKHART, MEISTER Eckhart von Hoch—

Mantra. "Om, may the venerable, light-filled heim. One of the most important theologians,

glory of the Highest enlighten us so that,

 

153

meditating on That, we can realize the highest determinate location on a path around the

Truth.” In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna identifies nucleus but rather describes the sum of pro-with this mystical Mantra.

babilities as to where this electron might be

situated.

GITA See Bhagavad Gita.

 

HERACLITUS Important pre-Socratic Greek GOPI Krishna’s companions, “female

philosopher. Logos as the world’s Existence

cowherd.” The love between Krishna and the

Principle, ca. 540–480 B.C.

Gopis represents the eternal love between

God and his Devotees.

HINDI One of the 18 national languages of India.

GURU (Sanskr.) “One who drives away darkness;” spiritual Master; “Guri,” (Sanskr.) con-HRIDAYAM (Sanskr.) “Heart,” used by Sri centration.

Ramana Maharshi to mean the true Self.

 

HANUMAN “Son of the wind,” monkey god INCARNATION Incarnatio (Lat.): “Becoming from the Hindu epic of the gods, Ramayana.

flesh,” refers to the incarnation of the divine in human form.

HARILAL One of the names of Krishna, first name of H.W.L. Poonja.

ISTRI Female energy of the Universe.

 

HEART-SUTRA Belongs to the most famous

-JI Suffix added to a name as an honorific texts of Mahayana Buddhism; Sutra (“thread”)

(Hindi, Sanskrit), to show respect and give

of the highest wisdom; also seen as the most

honor (see Papaji).

concise summary of so-called Prajnaparamita

literature, a 600 volume compilation of the

JIVAN MUKTA Human being who achieves teachings of Buddha.

liberation during his lifetime.

 

HEDONISM Branch of philosophical-ethical JNANA Knowledge (of the Self), realization thought that sees pleasure as the highest good of the final Truth, related to the Greek term and as a prerequisite for bliss and a good life.

concept Gnosis.

 

HEIDANEINOMOALAB’RAU (Swabian)

JNANA YOGA Yoga of Knowledge.

Interjection expressing astonishment and slight annoyance.

JNANESHWAR Jnani and Marathi poet—

saint. Exponent of the Bhakti tradition. 1275

HEISENBERG, WERNER German Nobel