All the words defined here, and all those filling this whole background
essay section, are useful to read but they do not mean nearly as much as doing
the actual practices, games, rituals and processes described in other parts of
the site.
And doing any exercise, game, process, as important as they are, are not nearly as
affective as the experience of real connection which takes place in a face to
face exchange between people.
This web site is an attempt to offer a resource which uses this modern medium
to surpass the role of books as a way of helping you to enhance that moment.
It passes books, because it uses every available symbolic language to point to the realm of mystery which fills the gaps between thoughts and
feelings, power and action.
Literally wheel, but generally used to refer to wheels of light. Important
energy centers in the body, but more profoundly each center presents a state of
being or mind and so are ways of organising and experiencing the world. Follow
the link, for a summary of the meanings of each center. For a deeper
analysis of the symbolic language of the chakras follow this link
Teachings of Gautama Siddhartha, Buddha. (Follow the link for a more
detail.)
Contemplation.
Self-examination and observation generally through stillness and silence but
also through intellectual as well as intuitive questioning of your emotional and
other internal processes. This is the Western philosophical and mystical
definition.
Zen is the Japanese name for the Chinese Chan version of the djana (or dana)
tradition of Buddhist contemplation. In this approach Nirvana (the mystery of
being) is entered by stepping sideways (the literally Transcendence)
to a new perspective on the world. The mystery expressed in Nirvana is an
experience beyond words which has inspired hundreds and thousands of books. The
explanations of it have been argued about for two thousand years. Those arguing
where and often are wish-making philosophers trying to box it in concepts
and words, otherwise they are teachers trying to find away to point us to it.
All are useful.
In the post-modern era we can talk about the aim of contemplation as
achieving a new identity (self definition and experience) based on the flow of
the essence of mind instead of the objects
of mind. That is, the mystery ('void' is often used because it feels that
way, but it is not empty as the word suggests) between thoughts, feelings and
experiences.
Many teachers focus on the bliss associated with some meditative states as a
way of talking about the aim but bliss (even internal versions which feel very
spiritual and give the impression of great power, infinity and all knowing) is
an experience happening and is therefore an object of mind. Identity is
invisible until threatened, it is the eye we see with, the ear we hear with and
the body we feel with and so is the fundament of existence.
The search for wisdom includes bliss and power.
Literally: Inner truth of Tantra. Tantra, the history and the word's meanings
are lost but in general it is taken to be web or in more modern terms network,
as in the network of relationships both material and psychological which create
reality as we experience it. (Follow the link for a more detail.)
These two terms come from Zen - specifically the Shambhala Dragon Editions'
book a translation of "The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng",
1990. These two sutras are the foundation of Chan, the Chinese version of
contemplative Buddhism which is better known by its Japanese word - Zen.
Objects of Mind are thoughts, feelings and experiences as we experience them
within, subjectively. Essence of Mind is the substance of internal experience
noticed in contemplation. A field of
mind is the individual experience of the essence into and from which objects
of mind are made.
The problem is that we have a very limited language for talking about the
subjective, i.e. the inner life. In away that is what poetry can be the
discovery of a unique language for sharing the real moments constructed by these
elements. Our sense of identity comes from the way we value our experiences both
inner and outer. Values are the architectures, the tracks, which create the
objects and the courses of the ripples of reactions which are themselves also
objects.
If we think of the essence of mind as the water in the ocean. Then a large
current like the Gulf Stream would be our individual identities, the fields of
mind, then the smaller currents would be the deeper emotional patterns and flows
(these are the larger objects of mind which organise the others) then there are
the waves and ripples, the moment to moment thoughts and feelings.
This process is a multi-dimensional and multi-directional but with
ordered patterns in it. The smallest ripples are the building blocks and
expressions of the ocean's uniqueness and yet the water and the ocean's shape
and nature affects the winds and weather, the depths of its floors, all coming
out of history, creating the ripples, the waves.
Literally, beginning, to begin something, to enter a new level of power.
To go through a symbolic process, very often a mythically based ritual set of
actions, which builds connections between the deeper aspects of our being and
our daily life. It usually passes on knowledge to allow you to participate in a
new world of power and action.
If it's an affective process it will bring into play your history/karma, all
seven senses, the emotions, the body and the intellect.
Karma/History
Karma is generally used to speak of a morally conscious intelligent history,
with quotes from the Bible like "you reap what you sow". Many use it
to explain bad luck or tolerance of bad behaviours on the part of others. The
bad luck to be born with difficult parents is often explain by your "karmic
load" carried over from past lives.
Most ways that people talk about it are very simplistic and linear. In the
esoteric systems of both Buddhism and Hinduism and (even in the concept of sin
in the Bible) karma and history are more complex because they acknowledge the
moral ambiguities of reality. Any action's meanings change over time, are never
purely right or wrong. The Warrior seeks simple truths to justify their anger on
the battleground. Listen to the Warriors and they will talk of history in very
black and white moral terms, without understanding the rainbow of possibilities
each action and event has in flow of time.
This Warrior's view is emotionally enticing because we all seek security, and
strength looks like the shortest route to it. The Lover's understanding of the
relativity of moral situations and meaning looks like a recipe for inaction, for
overwhelming powerlessness. Like Karma has no meaning, that it won't offer the
vengeance hidden in so many people's conception of it. That Karma won't be the
instrument of responsibility, so you can hide in inaction and powerlessness and
moral irresponsibility. The Hero stands with the understandings of the Lover and
acts, being the warrior but without the need for the simplicities of rage and
yet maintaining sensitivity.
Kundalini
A primarily subjective experience which happens during intense meditative,
emotional psycho-sexual and physical events traditionally characterised by
shooting sensations up the spine, but not always.
The activation of each Chakra represents different states of mind. Each
person generally operates from an identity based on one or two chakras
Techniques for developing choice with mind/body states (including the
emotions). (Follow the link for a more detail.)
The Sacred Sex aspect of Ritual. One of the five elements (or makara) in Tantric
ritual.
Mantra
Sound meditations - Chants often combined with music. (Follow the link for
a more detail.)
Mudra
Movement and posture meditations. (Follow the link for a more detail.)
Multi-sensory Imagination and Memory
Meditations and other exercises involving all the senses coordinated
together. (Follow the link for a more detail.)
Open relationship based on honesty, responsibility, freedom, respect and
love.
Ritual/Celebration
Holistic events involving all the senses with meaningful actions which invoke
the power of myth. (Follow the link for a more detail.)
An alternative way of thinking about experience and the Chakras. One sense
for each Chakra.
The Senses are the traditional five plus the 'proxemic' sense and the
sense we use to perceive thoughts. Follow the link in the title for detail.
One of the two lineages of traditions indigenous to China. The other is
Confucianism. There are many different teachings and schools, many with Buddhist
influence. It has also had an influence on the forms of Buddhism there as well. (Follow
the link for a more detail.)
Taoism or Daoism (the 'd' is the modern spelling as used by the Chinese) is
the Indigenous Chinese Mystical Tradition based on their ancient shaman
practices. (Follow the link for a more detail.)
'Peak Experience' is the commonly used term for intensive states,
often blissful, associated with spiritual practice. I prefer 'Threshold
Experience'.
Peak experience connotes the climbing of a mountain, or getting high (both
spiritually and chemically). In some ways it is based on the sense of
achievement after effort, it also has embeded in it ascension model of
spirituality - ie that the spiritual is above and beyond the muck and mire of
the mundane world of everyday life. Also embedded in it is the sense that it is
a special case, the bliss of a unique moment brought on by a ritual process
(possibly but not necessarily including drugs). It also includes the idea of
simplicity, at the top of the mountain all the complexities of the path there
fall away, you are free of struggle, and all you are left with is a spectacular
view. Beautiful.
Threshold Experience includes all the above, and much more. It is the meeting
place, the edge, the gateway, the doorway and the window between many emotions,
many experiences, which can all exist together. It is complicated. Inner and
outer coexist, in fact, co-create. Effort and effortlessness are felt together,
choice and destiny, void and substance, bliss and agony, reality, illusion and
fantasy, past, present and future, our many inner characters. A complicated
place with all the senses alive with thoughts, feelings and mystery.
The flaw in the 'peak experience' naming is that at its core is a hierarchy
of experience which decides that the ecstasy at the top is beauty and the rest
is a blockade from it. Each moment is a threshold experience dynamically
changing, love and peace come when we can sit with it, in it and appreciate its
beauty moment by moment. It is an inclusive idea, including ambition, envy, sexy
sensuality, pain, power, rage, isolation, desolation and sorrow, in their
mundane washed out everyday versions and in their flooding overpowering
versions.
Moving sideways. Many who use this word are actually meaning rise above or
away from the everyday pains and desires of
Visual meditations using both abstract and figurative. Often used in art. The
image to the right is an example of an artwork inspired by the Sri Yantra, a
centrally important tantric symbol. (Follow the link for a more detail.)
Yoga
Literally discipline, particularly for spiritual progress.
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