classes ::: Sanskrit,
children :::
branches ::: Guna

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object:Guna
language class:Sanskrit


Guna
1. quality, character, property.
2. the three gunas: the three modes of nature: sattva, rajas, tamas. [principle of light and harmony, kinesis, inertia]
3. [in Sanskrit grammar]: vowel modification.



sattva (sattwa) ::: being; the highest of the three modes (trigun.a) of the energy of the lower prakr.ti, the gun.a that is "the seed of intelligence" and "conserves the workings of energy"; it is derived from prakasa, the corresponding quality in the higher prakr.ti, and is converted back into pure prakasa in the process of traigun.yasiddhi. Psychologically, sattva is the "purest quality of Nature", that which "makes for assimilation and equivalence, right knowledge and right dealing, fine harmony, firm balance, right law of action, right possession"; but its knowledge and will are "the light of a limited mentality" and "the government of a limited intelligent force", and "its limited clarity falls away from us when we enter into the luminous body of the divine Nature".

rajas ::: (etymologically) "the shining"; (in the Veda) the antariks.a,"the middle world, the vital or dynamic plane" between heaven (the mental plane) and earth (the physical); "luminous power" established in this intermediate realm; (post-Vedic) the second of the three modes (trigun.a) of the energy of the lower prakr.ti, the gun.a that is "the seed of force and action" and "creates the workings of energy"; it is a deformation of tapas or pravr.tti, the corresponding quality in the higher prakr.ti, and is converted back into pure tapas or pravr.tti in the process of traigun.yasiddhi. This kinetic force "has its strongest hold on the vital nature", where it "turns always to action and desire", but "finding itself in a world of matter which starts from the principle of inconscience and a mechanical driven inertia, has to work against an immense contrary force; therefore its whole action takes on the nature of an effort, a struggle, a besieged and an impeded conflict for possession which is distressed in its every step by a limiting incapacity, disappointment and suffering".

tamas ::: darkness; the lowest of the three modes (trigun.a) of the energy of the lower prakr.ti, the gun.a that is "the seed of inertia and non-intelligence", the denial of rajas and sattva, and "dissolves what they create and conserve"; it is a deformation of sama, the corresponding quality in the higher prakr.ti, "an obscurity which mistranslates, we may say, into inaction of power and inaction of knowledge the Spirit's eternal principle of calm and repose", and it is converted back into pure sama in the process of traigun.yasiddhi. This principle of inertia "is strongest in material nature and in our physical being"; its "stigmata . . . are blindness and unconsciousness and incapacity and unintelligence, sloth and indolence and inactivity and mechanical routine and the mind's torpor and the life's sleep and the soul's slumber".


see also ::: Prakriti, Nature, 1.10 - The Three Modes of Nature


see also ::: 1.10_-_The_Three_Modes_of_Nature, Nature, Prakriti

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OBJECT INSTANCES [0] - TOPICS - AUTHORS - BOOKS - CHAPTERS - CLASSES - SEE ALSO - SIMILAR TITLES

TOPICS
SEE ALSO

1.10_-_The_Three_Modes_of_Nature
Nature
Prakriti

AUTH

BOOKS
Essays_On_The_Gita
Letters_On_Yoga
Letters_On_Yoga_I
Mind_-_Its_Mysteries_and_Control
Process_and_Reality
Self_Knowledge
The_Path_Of_Serenity_And_Insight__An_Explanation_Of_Buddhist_Jhanas
The_Study_and_Practice_of_Yoga
The_Way_of_Perfection
Writings_In_Bengali_and_Sanskrit

IN CHAPTERS TITLE

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME

IN CHAPTERS TEXT
0.00_-_INTRODUCTION
01.04_-_Sri_Aurobindos_Gita
01.12_-_Three_Degrees_of_Social_Organisation
02.01_-_The_World_War
03.01_-_Humanism_and_Humanism
03.03_-_Arjuna_or_the_Ideal_Disciple
03.06_-_Divine_Humanism
03.06_-_Here_or_Otherwhere
03.10_-_Hamlet:_A_Crisis_of_the_Evolving_Soul
03.14_-_Mater_Dolorosa
04.06_-_To_Be_or_Not_to_Be
1.00a_-_Introduction
1.02_-_Karma_Yoga
1.02_-_The_Eternal_Law
10.35_-_The_Moral_and_the_Spiritual
1.03_-_Measure_of_time,_Moments_of_Kashthas,_etc.
1.03_-_The_Human_Disciple
1.03_-_VISIT_TO_VIDYASAGAR
1.045_-_Piercing_the_Structure_of_the_Object
1.04_-_KAI_VALYA_PADA
1.04_-_The_Paths
1.05_-_The_Ascent_of_the_Sacrifice_-_The_Psychic_Being
1.05_-_THE_MASTER_AND_KESHAB
1.05_-_Vishnu_as_Brahma_creates_the_world
1.06_-_The_Literal_Qabalah
1.06_-_THE_MASTER_WITH_THE_BRAHMO_DEVOTEES
1.070_-_The_Seven_Stages_of_Perfection
1.07_-_THE_MASTER_AND_VIJAY_GOSWAMI
1.08_-_Adhyatma_Yoga
1.08_-_The_Gods_of_the_Veda_-_The_Secret_of_the_Veda
1.08_-_The_Supreme_Will
1.096_-_Powers_that_Accrue_in_the_Practice
1.099_-_The_Entry_of_the_Eternal_into_the_Individual
1.10_-_Mantra_Yoga
1.10_-_THE_MASTER_WITH_THE_BRAHMO_DEVOTEES_(II)
1.10_-_The_Three_Modes_of_Nature
1.10_-_The_Yoga_of_the_Intelligent_Will
1.11_-_Powers
1.11_-_The_Kalki_Avatar
1.11_-_The_Three_Purushas
1.11_-_WITH_THE_DEVOTEES_AT_DAKSHINEWAR
1.1.2_-_Commentary
1.12_-_Independence
1.12_-_The_Divine_Work
1.12_-_THE_FESTIVAL_AT_PNIHTI
1.13_-_THE_MASTER_AND_M.
1.14_-_The_Principle_of_Divine_Works
1.15_-_LAST_VISIT_TO_KESHAB
1.16_-_WITH_THE_DEVOTEES_AT_DAKSHINESWAR
1.18_-_The_Divine_Worker
1.19_-_Equality
1.200-1.224_Talks
1.22_-_ADVICE_TO_AN_ACTOR
1.23_-_FESTIVAL_AT_SURENDRAS_HOUSE
1.240_-_1.300_Talks
1.240_-_Talks_2
1.25_-_ADVICE_TO_PUNDIT_SHASHADHAR
1.28_-_Supermind,_Mind_and_the_Overmind_Maya
1.300_-_1.400_Talks
1.3.02_-_Equality__The_Chief_Support
1.4.03_-_The_Guru
1.439
1.450_-_1.500_Talks
1.550_-_1.600_Talks
1953-12-30
1969_09_14
1.ml_-_Realisation_of_Dreams_and_Mind
1.pbs_-_Peter_Bell_The_Third
1.rmpsd_-_In_the_worlds_busy_market-place,_O_Shyama
2.01_-_Indeterminates,_Cosmic_Determinations_and_the_Indeterminable
2.01_-_The_Two_Natures
2.01_-_The_Yoga_and_Its_Objects
2.02_-_Brahman,_Purusha,_Ishwara_-_Maya,_Prakriti,_Shakti
2.02_-_The_Ishavasyopanishad_with_a_commentary_in_English
2.02_-_The_Mother_Archetype
2.02_-_The_Synthesis_of_Devotion_and_Knowledge
2.03_-_Karmayogin__A_Commentary_on_the_Isha_Upanishad
2.03_-_The_Eternal_and_the_Individual
2.04_-_The_Scourge,_the_Dagger_and_the_Chain
2.04_-_The_Secret_of_Secrets
2.05_-_The_Cosmic_Illusion;_Mind,_Dream_and_Hallucination
2.06_-_On_Beauty
2.08_-_God_in_Power_of_Becoming
21.03_-_The_Double_Ladder
2.11_-_The_Modes_of_the_Self
2.12_-_The_Origin_of_the_Ignorance
2.12_-_The_Way_and_the_Bhakta
2.14_-_AT_RAMS_HOUSE
2.16_-_Oneness
2.17_-_December_1938
2.18_-_January_1939
2.21_-_Towards_the_Supreme_Secret
2.22_-_THE_MASTER_AT_COSSIPORE
2.22_-_The_Supreme_Secret
2.24_-_Gnosis_and_Ananda
2.24_-_THE_MASTERS_LOVE_FOR_HIS_DEVOTEES
2.24_-_The_Message_of_the_Gita
2.25_-_AFTER_THE_PASSING_AWAY
2.3.03_-_The_Overmind
2.3.04_-_The_Mother's_Force
3.01_-_Love_and_the_Triple_Path
3.05_-_The_Divine_Personality
3.1.03_-_A_Realistic_Adwaita
31.10_-_East_and_West
3.20_-_Of_the_Eucharist
3.2.1_-_Food
33.06_-_Alipore_Court
3_-_Commentaries_and_Annotated_Translations
4.04_-_The_Perfection_of_the_Mental_Being
4.05_-_The_Instruments_of_the_Spirit
4.08_-_The_Liberation_of_the_Spirit
4.09_-_The_Liberation_of_the_Nature
4.10_-_The_Elements_of_Perfection
4.15_-_Soul-Force_and_the_Fourfold_Personality
4.16_-_The_Divine_Shakti
4.17_-_The_Action_of_the_Divine_Shakti
4.1_-_Jnana
4.23_-_The_supramental_Instruments_--_Thought-process
5.2.02_-_Aryan_Origins_-_The_Elementary_Roots_of_Language
5.2.03_-_The_An_Family
5.4.01_-_Notes_on_Root-Sounds
6.0_-_Conscious,_Unconscious,_and_Individuation
9.99_-_Glossary
Bhagavad_Gita
BOOK_II._--_PART_II._THE_ARCHAIC_SYMBOLISM_OF_THE_WORLD-RELIGIONS
BOOK_I._--_PART_I._COSMIC_EVOLUTION
Conversations_with_Sri_Aurobindo
Jaap_Sahib_Text_(Guru_Gobind_Singh)
Liber_71_-_The_Voice_of_the_Silence_-_The_Two_Paths_-_The_Seven_Portals
r1912_01_13
r1912_01_18
r1912_01_19
r1912_01_22
r1912_01_27
r1912_07_15
r1912_07_18
r1912_07_21
r1912_12_30
r1912_12_31
r1913_02_07
r1913_07_01
r1913_11_18
r1913_12_14
r1913_12_28
r1914_03_24
r1914_04_07
r1914_04_08
r1914_04_09
r1914_04_10
r1914_04_11
r1914_04_12
r1914_04_13
r1914_04_14
r1914_04_16
r1914_04_18
r1914_05_03
r1914_05_27
r1914_12_11
r1914_12_13
r1914_12_19
r1915_01_24
r1915_05_02
r1915_05_17
r1915_05_22
r1915_05_24
r1915_06_16
r1915_06_21
r1915_08_07
r1917_02_05
r1917_03_17
r1918_05_19
r1919_06_25
r1919_07_01
r1919_07_20
r1919_07_23
r1919_08_15
Sayings_of_Sri_Ramakrishna_(text)
Talks_051-075
Talks_600-652
Talks_With_Sri_Aurobindo_1
The_Coming_Race_Contents
Verses_of_Vemana

PRIMARY CLASS

SIMILAR TITLES
Guna

DEFINITIONS


TERMS STARTING WITH

Guna: A Sanskrit term denoting a quality or basic attribute of the Cosmic Substance (prakriti). The three gunas of prakriti are: sattva, rajas and tamas (q.v.).

Gunabaddara 求那跋陀羅. See GUnABHADRA

Gunabatsuma 求那跋摩. See GUnAVARMAN

Gunabhadra. (C. Qiunabatuoluo; J. Gunabaddara; K. Kunabaltara 求那跋陀羅) (394-468). Indian scholiast and major translator of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese during the Liu Song period (420-479). Born in central India into a brāhmana family, he is said to have studied in his youth the five traditional Indian sciences, as well as astronomy, calligraphy, mathematics, medicine, and magic. He was converted to Buddhism and began systematically to study Buddhist texts, starting with the ABHIDHARMA and proceeding through the most influential MAHĀYĀNA texts, such as the MAHĀPRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀSuTRA and AVATAMSAKASuTRA. Around 435, he departed from Sri Lanka for China, arriving in Guangzhou by sea. In China, he devoted himself to teaching and translating Buddhist scriptures, carrying out most of his translations of Mahāyāna and mainstream Buddhist texts while residing at Qiyuansi in Jiankang and Xinsi in Jingzhou. He translated a total of fifty-two scriptures in 134 rolls, including the SAMYUKTĀGAMA and the PRAKARAnAPĀDA [sĀSTRA], both associated with the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school, such seminal Mahāyāna texts as the sRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIMHANĀDASuTRA and the LAnKĀVATĀRASuTRA. In the LENGQIE SHIZI JI, a CHAN genealogical history associated with the Northern school (BEI ZONG) of the early Chan tradition, Gunabhadra is placed before BODHIDHARMA in the Chan patriarchal lineage, perhaps because of his role in translating the Lankāvatārasutra, an important scriptural influence in the early Chan school.

Gunabhadra

Gunamaya: Full of qualities or attributes.

Gunaprabha

Gunaprabha. (T. Yon tan 'od; C. Deguang/Junabolapo; J. Tokko/Kunaharaba; K. Tokkwang/Kunaballaba 德光/瞿拏鉢剌婆) (d.u.; c. seventh century). Indian YOGĀCĀRA scholar and VINAYA specialist. In the Tibetan tradition, he is considered one of the most important of the Indian scholars because of his exposition of the vinaya. In the list of the "six ornaments and two supreme ones of JAMBUDVĪPA," the six ornaments are NĀGĀRJUNA and ĀRYADEVA, ASAnGA and VASUBANDHU, and DIGNĀGA and DHARMAKĪRTI; the two supreme ones are Gunaprabha and sĀKYAPRABHA. Gunaprabha is said to have been an adviser to King Harsa, who unified most of northern India following the demise of the Gupta empire. Born into a brāhmana family in MATHURĀ during the seventh century, Gunaprabha is said to have first studied the MAHĀYĀNA teachings and wrote several treatises on YOGĀCĀRA. He is known as the author of the Bodhisattvabhumivṛtti, a commentary on the BODHISATTVABHuMI, the Bodhisattvasīlaparivartabhāsya, an expansion of that commentary, and the PaNcaskandhavivarana, an exegesis of VASUBANDHU's work. Subsequently, this same Gunaprabha seems to have abandoned Yogācāra for sRĀVAKAYĀNA teachings and thereafter devoted several of his works to critiquing various aspects of the Mahāyāna. (There is some controversy as to whether Gunaprabha the Yogācāra teacher is the same as Gunaprabha the vinaya specialist, but prevailing scholarly opinion now accepts that they are identical.) Taking up residence at a monastery in Mathurā, he became a master of the vinaya, with a specialty in the monastic code of the MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA school (see MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA). His most influential work is the VINAYASuTRA. Despite its title, the work is not a sutra (in the sense of a work ascribed to the Buddha) but is instead an authored work composed of individual aphoristic statements (sutra). The text offers a summary or condensation of the massive Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya. At approximately one quarter the length of this larger vinaya, Gunaprabha's abridgment seems to have functioned as a kind of primer on the monastic code, omitting lengthy passages of scripture and providing the code of conduct that monks were expected to follow. In this sense, the text is an important work for determining what lived monastic practice may actually have been like in medieval India. The Vinayasutra became the most important vinaya text for Tibetan Buddhism, being studied in all of the major sects; in the DGE LUGS, it is one of the five books (GZHUNG LNGA) that served as the basis of the monastic curriculum. According to legend, Gunaprabha traveled to the TUŞITA heaven in order to discuss with MAITREYA his remaining doubts regarding ten points of doctrine. The accounts of this trip say that Gunaprabha did not learn anything, either because Maitreya was not an ordained monk and hence was unable to teach him anything or because Maitreya saw that Gunaprabha did not require any additional teaching. XUANZANG writes about Gunaprabha in his DA TANG XIYU JI ("Great Tang Dynasty Record of [Travels to] the Western Regions").

Guna (Qualities, Modes of Nature) ::: The modes of Nature are all qualitative in their essence and are called for that reason its gunas or qualities.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 19, Page: 425


Guna: Quality born of nature.

Gunasamya: A state where the three Gunas are found in equilibrium; the Supreme Absolute.

Guna (Sanskrit) Guṇa A thread, cord, string of a musical instrument; also an attribute, quality, or peculiarity. Each of the five elements is said to have its guna or peculiar quality, as well as a corresponding organ of sense in the human being. Thus ether has sabda or sound for its guna and the ear for its organ; the air has tangibility for its guna and the skin for its organ; fire or light has sight for its guna and the eye for its organ; water has taste for its guna and the tongue for its organ; the earth has smell for its guna and the nose for its organ. There are actually seven gunas in nature, only five of which have yet been evolved in any especial degree, and two remain still to appear both as qualities and as sense organs in the distant future.

Gunas ::: In Hindu philosophy these are the tripartite aspects of reality: sattva ("goodness"), rajas ("volition"), and tamas ("entropy").

Guna: (Skr. thread, cord) Quality, that which has substance (see dravya) as substratum. It is variously conceived in Indian philosophy and different enumerations are made. The Vaisesika, e.g., knows 24 kinds, along with subsidiary ones; the Sankhya, Trika, and others recognize three: sativa, rajas, tamas (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Gunas or Trigunas(Sanskrit) ::: Differentiated matter is considered to possess or to have in occult philosophy three essentialqualities or characteristics inherent in it, and their Sanskrit names are sattva, rajas, and tamas. These threeare the gunas or trigunas.

Gunasraya: Dependent on Gunas; consort of the qualities.

Gunatita: Beyond the Gunas; one who has transcended the three Gunas.

Gunavada: A statement of quality.

Gunavarman. (C. Qiunabamo; J. Gunabatsuma; K. Kunabalma 求那跋摩) (367-431 CE). A Kashmiri monk who was an important early translator of Buddhist VINAYA and BODHISATTVA preceptive materials into Chinese. He was a prince of Kubhā, who was ordained at the age of twenty and eventually became known as a specialist in the Buddhist canon (TREPItAKA). Upon his father's death, he was offered the throne, but refused, and instead embarked on travels throughout Asia to preach the dharma, including to Java, where he helped to establish the Buddhist tradition. Various miracles are associated with the places he visited, such as fragrance wafting in the air when he meditated and a dragon-like creature who was seen ascending to heaven in his presence. In 424 CE, Gunavarman traveled to China and was invited by Emperor Wen of the Liu Song dynasty to come to the capital in Nanjing. Upon his arrival, a monastery was built in his honor and Gunavarman lectured there on various sutras. During his sojourn in China, he translated some eighteen rolls of seminal Buddhist texts into Chinese, including the BODHISATTVABHuMI, and several other works associated with the BODHISATTVAsĪLA, the DHARMAGUPTAKA VINAYA (SIFEN LÜ), and monastic and lay precepts. Gunavarman was a central figure in founding the order of nuns (BHIKsUNĪ) in China and he helped arrange the ordination of several Chinese nuns whose hagiographies are recorded in the BIQIUNI ZHUAN.

Gunavarman

Gunavat (Sanskrit) Guṇavat [from guṇa quality] Endowed with qualities or merits, hence excellent, perfect. In philosophy, endowed with the five qualities or elements. Blavatsky also uses the anglicized form gunavatic.

guna ::: 1. quality, character, property. ::: 2. the three gunas: the three modes of nature: sattva, rajas, tamas. ::: 3. [in Sanskrit grammar]: vowel modification.

guna. ::: fundamental operating principle or quality; mode of nature; attribute; property

guna gunesu vartante ::: it is the modes of nature that are acting on the modes. [Gita 3.28]

guna-karma ::: quality and particular force of working.

gunamaya. ::: full of qualities or attributes

guna ::: n. --> In Sanskrit grammar, a lengthening of the simple vowels a, i, e, by prefixing an a element. The term is sometimes used to denote the same vowel change in other languages.

gunapāramitā

gunapāramitā. (T. yon tan pha rol tu phyin pa; C. gongde boluomi; J. kudokuharamitsu; K. kongdok paramil 功德波羅蜜). In Sanskrit, "the perfection of qualities," referring to the four salutary qualities of the TATHĀGATAGARBHA: permanence, purity, bliss, and self, as described in the sRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIMHANĀDASuTRA. These qualities are in distinction to the four perverted views (VIPARYĀSA), where ignorant sentient beings regard the conditioned realm of SAMSĀRA as being permanent, pure, blissful, and self when in fact it is impermanent (ANITYA), impure (asubha), suffering (DUḤKHA), and not-self (ANĀTMAN). More specifically, according to the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākyā, sentient beings assume that all the conditioned phenomena they experience are permanent and real: they consider their own bodies to be pure, regard their five aggregates (SKANDHA) as having a perduring self (ĀTMAN), falsely imagine permanence in the transitory, and mistakenly regard saMsāra as a source of real happiness. In order to counter these attachments, the Buddha therefore taught that saMsāra is impermanent, impure, suffering, and not-self. However, the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākyā says it would be wrong to assume that these four qualities also apply to the tathāgatagarbha or the DHARMAKĀYA; the Buddha teaches that it is endowed with the four gunapāramitā, or perfect qualities, of permanence, purity, bliss, and self. The FOXING LUN ("Buddha-Nature Treatise") additionally presents the gunapāramitā as resulting from the perfection of four soteriological practices, e.g., bliss refers to the condition of being free from suffering, which is experienced through cultivating a SAMĀDHI that overcomes wrong conceptions of emptiness (suNYATĀ); permanence indicates the endless variety of acts that bodhisattvas cultivate on the path of great compassion (MAHĀKARUnĀ), etc. This positive valorization of the qualities of the tathāgatagarbha serves to counteract any mistaken tendency toward nihilism that might be prompted by the apophatic language used within the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ literature or the MADHYAMAKA school.

gunarchy ::: n. --> See Gynarchy.

gunas. ::: a cosmic quality of which there are three fundamental operating principles &

gunasamya. :::a state where the three gunas are found in equilibrium; the supreme Absolute

GUNA (Skt &

guna

gunatita. ::: beyond the gunas; the state of transcendence of the gunas &

guna. (T. yon tan; C. gongde; J. kudoku; K. kongdok 功德). In Sanskrit and Pāli, lit. "string," or "strand," by extension a "quality" or "spiritual virtue." In the sense of a "quality," or "constituent part," the term appears in lists such as the five "strands" or "aspects" of "sensuality" (kāmaguna), viz., the sensual pleasures associated with the five physical senses. Guna as "spiritual virtue" or "meritorious quality" (S. guna; C. gongde) is sometimes contrasted with "merit" (S. PUnYA; C. fude), i.e., practices that lead to worldly rewards and/or better rebirths but not necessarily to enlightenment. In general, such religious deeds as building monasteries, erecting STuPAs, making images of the Buddha, transcribing sutras, and chanting all help to generate merit that can lead to better quality of life in this and other existences but will not in themselves produce the spiritual virtue (guna) that will be sufficient to bring about liberation from the cycle of rebirth (SAMSĀRA). See also GUnAPĀRAMITĀ.

guna vartanta eva ::: it is merely the gunas that work. [Gita 14. 23]


TERMS ANYWHERE

1. Gunaprabha

3. In the Mahabharata and the Puranas, the second member of the Triad, the embodiment of sattva-guna, the preserving and restoring power. This power has manifested in the world as the various incarnations of Vishnu, generally accepted as being ten in number. Vishnu"s heaven is Vaikuntha, his consort Lakshmi and his vehicle Garuda. He is portrayed as reclining on the serpent-king Sesa and floating on the waters between periods of cosmic manifestation. The holy river Ganga is said to spring from his foot. (A; V. G.; Dow)” *Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works

57. Niguna (T. Yon tan med pa)

. a (anandamaya purusha) ::: "the Bliss-Self of the spirit"; the supreme and universal Soul, "the one and yet innumerable Personality, the infinite Godhead, the self-aware and self-unfolding Purusha", whose essential nature is ananda, a "transcendent Bliss, unimaginable and inexpressible by the mind and speech"; also called ananda purus.a. anandamaya sagun anandamaya saguna

. a brahman ::: brahman without qualities (gun.as), also called santaṁ brahma, the featureless Reality whose "illimitable freedom . . . provides the indispensable condition for . . . a free and infinite selfexpression in quality and feature". nirguna nirgun guni . a gun

. a brahma ::: same as sagun.a brahman. sagun saguna

According to the Nyaya philosophy, all existing things possess 24 gunas or characteristic qualities: rupa (shape or form); rasa (savor); gandha (odor); sparsa (tangibility); sankhya (number); parimana (dimension); prithaktva (severalty); samyoga (conjunction); vibhaga (disjunction); paratva (remoteness); aparatva (proximity); gurutva (weight); dravatva (fluidity); sneha (viscidity); sabda (sound); buddhi or jnana (understanding or knowledge); sukha (happiness); duhkha (pain); ichchha (desire); dvesha (aversion); prayatna (effort); dharma (merit or virtue); adharma (demerit); and samskara (the self-reproductive quality).

According to the Sankhya philosophy, prakriti is considered to possess three basic qualities or qualitative bases (triguna), namely sattva (substantial reality), rajas (inherent activity), and tamas (inertia), popularly rendered goodness, passion, and darkness; or virtue, foulness, and ignorance.

Action of the gimas in yogat K ego and desire arc diffe- rent things from the gunas, then there can be an action of the gitnas without ego and desire and therefore without attachnienf.

Advaita: (Skr. "non-duality") The Vedantic (q.v.) doctrine of monism advocated by Sankara (q.v.) which holds the Absolute to be personal in relation to the world, especially the philosophically untutored, but supra-personal in itself (cf. nirguna, saguna); the world and the individual to be only relatively, or phenomenally, real; and salvation to consist in insight or jnana (q.v.) after dispelling the maya (q.v.) of separateness from the divine. -- K.F.L.

Agni-manavaka: Shining lad. [This illustrates Gauna Vritti or secondary sense. It literally means a lad who is fire itself. Instead of that, we should take the Guna (or quality) of fire and mean by that word a lad shining like fire.]

Agunah ::: (Heb. Anchored) A woman who cannot remarry; usually because her husband refuses to give her a get (writ of divorce), because there is no way to verify whether or not he is dead, or because he is incompetent to give a divorce (i.e., mentally ill).

Aguna (Sanskrit) Aguṇa [from a not + guṇa quality] Devoid of qualities or attributes (gunas); applied particularly to the supreme divinity — nirguna (without qualifying attributes). As a noun, a fault — devoid of good qualities.

Aguna: Without Guna or quality.

Ahan (Sanskrit) Ahan Day (ahan, ahas are base forms of some of the grammatical cases of ahan). In the Vishnu-Purana (1:5), one of the four bodies of Brahma: “Jyotsna (dawn), Ratri (night), Ahan (day), and Sandhya (evening)” which are “invested by the three qualities” (triguna). Esoterically this has “a direct bearing upon the seven principles of the manifested Brahma, or universe, in the same order as man. Exoterically, it is only four principles” (SD 2:58n). Hence only four bodies of Brahma are mentioned in the Puranas.

anamaya ::: full of knowledge. j ñanamaya anamaya saguna

anantagun.a (anantaguna; ananta guna; anantagunam) ::: "the infinite anantaguna qualities of the spirit" of which "Nature is only the power in being and the development in action"; brahman as "an Infinite teeming with innumerable qualities, properties, features"; capable of infinite qualities; same as anantagun.amaya.

anantaguna ::: [having] infinite quality.

anantagun.am ::: see anantagun.a. anantagunam anantagun anantagunamaya

Ananya Bhakti: Exclusive devotion to any single aspect of the Lord. Just as you see, through Vichara, the one essence (wood) in a chair, table, bench, door, stick, etc., you see Lord Narayana in all forms. This is Ananya Bhakti. When the meditator and the object of meditation become one, it is Ananya Bhakti. When you meditate on Lord Krishna as the Nirguna Brahman of the Upanishad, it is Ananya Bhakti. When the mind keeps up always one image of Lord Siva, to the exclusion of all other images, it is Ananya Bhakti.

. a-nirgun.a ::: both sagun.a (possessing qualities) and nirgun.a (free from qualities); same as sagun.a-nirgun.a brahman. sagun saguna-nirguna

ankokuji. (安國寺). In Japanese, "temples for the pacification of the country." After the Ashikaga shogunate took over control of the capital of Kyoto from the rapidly declining forces of Emperor Godaigo (1288-1339) between the years 1336 and 1337, they sought to heal the scars of civil war by following the suggestions of the ZEN master MUSo SOSEKI and building pagodas and temples in every province of Japan. By constructing these temples, the shogunate also sought to subsume local military centers under the control of the centralized government, just as the monarch Shomu (r. 724-749) had once done with the KOKUBUNJI system. These pagodas were later called rishoto, and the temples were given the name ankokuji in 1344. Many of these temples belonged to the lineages of the GOZAN system, especially that of Muso and ENNI BEN'EN.

Apara-brahman: Lower Brahman; Saguna Brahman or Isvara (personal god).

aranya. (P. araNNa; T. dgon pa; C. [a]lanruo; J. [a]rannya; K. [a]ranya [阿]蘭若). In Sanskrit, "forest" or "wilderness"; the ideal atmosphere for practice, and one of the various terms used to designate the residences of monks. The solitude and contentment fostered by forest dwelling was thought to provide a better environment for meditation (BHAVANA) than the bustle and material comforts of city monasteries, and there is some evidence in mainstream Buddhist materials of discord between monks who followed the two different ways of life. Forest dwelling was frequently championed by the Buddha, and living at the root of a tree was one of the thirteen specific ascetic practices (S. DHuTAGUnA, P. DHUTAnGA) authorized by the Buddha. Forest dwelling is also used as a metaphor for the renunciation and nonattachment that monks were taught to emulate. Forest dwellers are called aranyaka (P. araNNaka or AraNNaka). See also ARANNAVASI; PHRA PA.

. a ::: same as anandamaya sagun.a brahman. anandamaya saguna anandamaya

asinata ::: indifference (udasinata) due to a combination of sattva and tamas, which can arise when tamasic udasinata aids itself "by the intellectual perception that the desires of life cannot be satisfied, that the soul is too weak to master life, that the whole thing is nothing but sorrow and transient effort", or when sattwic udasinata "calls in the aid of the tamasic principle of inaction" to get rid of the disturbances caused by rajas, and the seeker of liberation "strives by imposing an enlightened tamas on his natural being . . . to give the sattwic guna freedom to lose itself in the light of the spirit". sattwic ud udasinata

AstasAhasrikAprajNApAramitA. (T. Sher phyin brgyad stong pa; C. Xiaopin bore jing; J. Shobon hannyakyo; K. Sop'um panya kyong 小品般若經). In Sanskrit, "Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines." This scripture is now generally accepted to be the earliest of the many PRAJNAPARAMITA sutras and thus probably one of the very earliest of the MAHAYANA scriptures. The Asta, as it is often referred to in the literature, seems to have gradually developed over a period of about two hundred years, from the first century BCE to the first century CE. Some of its earliest recensions translated into Chinese during the Han dynasty do not yet display the full panoply of self-referentially MahAyAna terminology that characterize the more elaborate recensions translated later, suggesting that MahAyAna doctrine was still under development during the early centuries of the Common Era. The provenance of the text is obscure, but the consensus view is that it was probably written in central or southern India. The Asta, together with its verse summary, the RATNAGUnASAMCAYAGATHA, probably represents the earliest stratum of the prajNApAramitA literature; scholars believe that this core scripture was subsequently expanded between the second and fourth centuries CE into other massive PrajNApAramitA scriptures in as many as 100,000 lines (the sATASAHASRIKAPRAJNAPARAMITA). By about 500 CE, the Asta's basic ideas had been abbreviated into shorter condensed statements, such as the widely read, 300-verse VAJRACCHEDIKAPRAJNAPARAMITA ("Diamond Sutra"). (Some scholars have suggested instead that the "Diamond Sutra" may in fact represent one of the earliest strata of the prajNApAramitA literature.) The MahAyAna tradition's view of its own history, however, is that the longest of the prajNApAramitA scriptures, the 100,000-line satasAhasrikAprajNApAramitA, is the core text from which all the other perfection of wisdom sutras were subsequently excerpted. The main interlocutor of the Asta, as in most of the prajNApAramitA scriptures, is SUBHuTI, an ARHAT foremost among the Buddha's disciples in dwelling at peace in remote places, rather than sARIPUTRA, who much more commonly appears in this role in the mainstream Buddhist scriptures (see AGAMA; NIKAYA). The prominent role accorded to Subhuti suggests that the prajNApAramitA literature may derive from forest-dwelling (Aranyaka) ascetic traditions distinct from the dominant, urban-based monastic elite. The main goal of the Asta and other prajNApAramitA scriptures is rigorously to apply the foundational Buddhist notion of nonself (ANATMAN) to the investigation of all phenomena-from the usual compounded things (SAMSKARA) and conditioned factors (SAMSKṚTADHARMA), but even to such quintessentially Buddhist summa bona as the fruits of sanctity (ARYAMARGAPHALA) and NIRVAnA. The constant refrain of the Asta is that there is nothing that can be grasped or to which one should cling, not PRAJNA, not PARAMITA, not BODHISATTVA, and not BODHI. Even the six perfections (sAdPARAMITA) of the bodhisattva are subjected to this same refutation: for example, only when the bodhisattva realizes that there is no giver, no recipient, and no gift will he have mastered the perfection of giving (DANAPARAMITA). Such radical nonattachment even to the central concepts of Buddhism itself helps to foster a thoroughgoing awareness of the emptiness (suNYATA) of all things and thus the perfection of wisdom (prajNApAramitA). Even if the Asta's area of origin was in the south of India, the prajNApAramitA scriptures seem initially to have found their best reception in the northwest of India during the KUSHAN dynasty (c. first century CE), whence they would have had relatively easy entrée into Central Asia and then East Asia. This geographic proximity perhaps accounts for the early acceptance the Asta and the rest of the prajNApAramitA literature received on the Chinese mainland, helping to make China the first predominantly MahAyAna tradition.

Aum (Sanskrit) Aum The ancient Indians held that Om, when considered as a single letter was the symbol of the Supreme; when written with three letters — Aum — it stood among other things for the three Vedas, the three gunas or qualities of nature, the three divisions of the universe, and the deities of the Hindu Trimurti — Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva — concerned in the creation, preservation, and destruction of the universe or the beings composing it. “The mystic formula, résumé of every science, contained in the three mysterious letters, AUM which signify creation, conservation, and transformation” (IU 2:31). These three letters are supposed by some Hindus to have correspondences as follows: “The letter A is the Sattva Guna, U is the Rajas, and M is the Tamas; these three qualities are termed Nature (Prakriti). . . . A is Bhurloka, U is Bhuvarloka, and M is Svarloka; by these three letters the spirit exhibits itself” (Laheri in Lucifer 10:147). This word is said to have a morally spiritualizing effect if pronounced during meditation and when the mind is at peace and cleansed of all impurities. See also OM

Avalokitesvaraguna-Kārandavyuha

Avalokitesvaraguna-KArandavyuha. (S). See KARAndAVYuHA.

“Avatarhood would have little meaning if it were not connected with the evolution. The Hindu procession of the ten Avatars is itself, as it were, a parable of evolution. First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, sattwic, nirguna Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man and again the overmental superman. Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development—Krishna opens the possibility of overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable.” Letters on Yoga

Avyakta, Avyaktam: Unmanifest; invisible; when the three Gunas are in a state of equilibrium; the undifferentiated.

bca' yig. (chayik). In Tibetan, "constitution" or "charter"; the monastic codes promulgated at individual monasteries, which govern life at those centers. These individual codes supplement the much larger MuLASARVASTIVADA VINAYA, the primary source for the monastic code, and its summary in GUnAPRABHA's VINAYASuTRA, a medieval Indian summary of the monastic code. Each monastery has its own bca' yig, which sometimes is an oral code of best practices, sometimes a written document drawn up by a respected party. The bca' yig condenses customs, oral lore, and traditional documentation into a single constitution for the community, addressing specific questions to do with the governance of the monastery, the duties, responsibilities, and dress of monastic officers, the order of priority among members, and the procedures for arriving at binding decisions. It also codifies the observance of ritual activities. See also QINGGUI.

Guna: A Sanskrit term denoting a quality or basic attribute of the Cosmic Substance (prakriti). The three gunas of prakriti are: sattva, rajas and tamas (q.v.).

Gunabaddara 求那跋陀羅. See GUnABHADRA

Gunabatsuma 求那跋摩. See GUnAVARMAN

Gunabhadra. (C. Qiunabatuoluo; J. Gunabaddara; K. Kunabaltara 求那跋陀羅) (394-468). Indian scholiast and major translator of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese during the Liu Song period (420-479). Born in central India into a brāhmana family, he is said to have studied in his youth the five traditional Indian sciences, as well as astronomy, calligraphy, mathematics, medicine, and magic. He was converted to Buddhism and began systematically to study Buddhist texts, starting with the ABHIDHARMA and proceeding through the most influential MAHĀYĀNA texts, such as the MAHĀPRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀSuTRA and AVATAMSAKASuTRA. Around 435, he departed from Sri Lanka for China, arriving in Guangzhou by sea. In China, he devoted himself to teaching and translating Buddhist scriptures, carrying out most of his translations of Mahāyāna and mainstream Buddhist texts while residing at Qiyuansi in Jiankang and Xinsi in Jingzhou. He translated a total of fifty-two scriptures in 134 rolls, including the SAMYUKTĀGAMA and the PRAKARAnAPĀDA [sĀSTRA], both associated with the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school, such seminal Mahāyāna texts as the sRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIMHANĀDASuTRA and the LAnKĀVATĀRASuTRA. In the LENGQIE SHIZI JI, a CHAN genealogical history associated with the Northern school (BEI ZONG) of the early Chan tradition, Gunabhadra is placed before BODHIDHARMA in the Chan patriarchal lineage, perhaps because of his role in translating the Lankāvatārasutra, an important scriptural influence in the early Chan school.

Gunabhadra

Gunamaya: Full of qualities or attributes.

Gunaprabha

Gunaprabha. (T. Yon tan 'od; C. Deguang/Junabolapo; J. Tokko/Kunaharaba; K. Tokkwang/Kunaballaba 德光/瞿拏鉢剌婆) (d.u.; c. seventh century). Indian YOGĀCĀRA scholar and VINAYA specialist. In the Tibetan tradition, he is considered one of the most important of the Indian scholars because of his exposition of the vinaya. In the list of the "six ornaments and two supreme ones of JAMBUDVĪPA," the six ornaments are NĀGĀRJUNA and ĀRYADEVA, ASAnGA and VASUBANDHU, and DIGNĀGA and DHARMAKĪRTI; the two supreme ones are Gunaprabha and sĀKYAPRABHA. Gunaprabha is said to have been an adviser to King Harsa, who unified most of northern India following the demise of the Gupta empire. Born into a brāhmana family in MATHURĀ during the seventh century, Gunaprabha is said to have first studied the MAHĀYĀNA teachings and wrote several treatises on YOGĀCĀRA. He is known as the author of the Bodhisattvabhumivṛtti, a commentary on the BODHISATTVABHuMI, the Bodhisattvasīlaparivartabhāsya, an expansion of that commentary, and the PaNcaskandhavivarana, an exegesis of VASUBANDHU's work. Subsequently, this same Gunaprabha seems to have abandoned Yogācāra for sRĀVAKAYĀNA teachings and thereafter devoted several of his works to critiquing various aspects of the Mahāyāna. (There is some controversy as to whether Gunaprabha the Yogācāra teacher is the same as Gunaprabha the vinaya specialist, but prevailing scholarly opinion now accepts that they are identical.) Taking up residence at a monastery in Mathurā, he became a master of the vinaya, with a specialty in the monastic code of the MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA school (see MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA). His most influential work is the VINAYASuTRA. Despite its title, the work is not a sutra (in the sense of a work ascribed to the Buddha) but is instead an authored work composed of individual aphoristic statements (sutra). The text offers a summary or condensation of the massive Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya. At approximately one quarter the length of this larger vinaya, Gunaprabha's abridgment seems to have functioned as a kind of primer on the monastic code, omitting lengthy passages of scripture and providing the code of conduct that monks were expected to follow. In this sense, the text is an important work for determining what lived monastic practice may actually have been like in medieval India. The Vinayasutra became the most important vinaya text for Tibetan Buddhism, being studied in all of the major sects; in the DGE LUGS, it is one of the five books (GZHUNG LNGA) that served as the basis of the monastic curriculum. According to legend, Gunaprabha traveled to the TUŞITA heaven in order to discuss with MAITREYA his remaining doubts regarding ten points of doctrine. The accounts of this trip say that Gunaprabha did not learn anything, either because Maitreya was not an ordained monk and hence was unable to teach him anything or because Maitreya saw that Gunaprabha did not require any additional teaching. XUANZANG writes about Gunaprabha in his DA TANG XIYU JI ("Great Tang Dynasty Record of [Travels to] the Western Regions").

Guna (Qualities, Modes of Nature) ::: The modes of Nature are all qualitative in their essence and are called for that reason its gunas or qualities.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 19, Page: 425


Guna: Quality born of nature.

Gunasamya: A state where the three Gunas are found in equilibrium; the Supreme Absolute.

Guna (Sanskrit) Guṇa A thread, cord, string of a musical instrument; also an attribute, quality, or peculiarity. Each of the five elements is said to have its guna or peculiar quality, as well as a corresponding organ of sense in the human being. Thus ether has sabda or sound for its guna and the ear for its organ; the air has tangibility for its guna and the skin for its organ; fire or light has sight for its guna and the eye for its organ; water has taste for its guna and the tongue for its organ; the earth has smell for its guna and the nose for its organ. There are actually seven gunas in nature, only five of which have yet been evolved in any especial degree, and two remain still to appear both as qualities and as sense organs in the distant future.

Gunas ::: In Hindu philosophy these are the tripartite aspects of reality: sattva ("goodness"), rajas ("volition"), and tamas ("entropy").

Guna: (Skr. thread, cord) Quality, that which has substance (see dravya) as substratum. It is variously conceived in Indian philosophy and different enumerations are made. The Vaisesika, e.g., knows 24 kinds, along with subsidiary ones; the Sankhya, Trika, and others recognize three: sativa, rajas, tamas (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Gunas or Trigunas(Sanskrit) ::: Differentiated matter is considered to possess or to have in occult philosophy three essentialqualities or characteristics inherent in it, and their Sanskrit names are sattva, rajas, and tamas. These threeare the gunas or trigunas.

Gunasraya: Dependent on Gunas; consort of the qualities.

Gunatita: Beyond the Gunas; one who has transcended the three Gunas.

Gunavada: A statement of quality.

Gunavarman. (C. Qiunabamo; J. Gunabatsuma; K. Kunabalma 求那跋摩) (367-431 CE). A Kashmiri monk who was an important early translator of Buddhist VINAYA and BODHISATTVA preceptive materials into Chinese. He was a prince of Kubhā, who was ordained at the age of twenty and eventually became known as a specialist in the Buddhist canon (TREPItAKA). Upon his father's death, he was offered the throne, but refused, and instead embarked on travels throughout Asia to preach the dharma, including to Java, where he helped to establish the Buddhist tradition. Various miracles are associated with the places he visited, such as fragrance wafting in the air when he meditated and a dragon-like creature who was seen ascending to heaven in his presence. In 424 CE, Gunavarman traveled to China and was invited by Emperor Wen of the Liu Song dynasty to come to the capital in Nanjing. Upon his arrival, a monastery was built in his honor and Gunavarman lectured there on various sutras. During his sojourn in China, he translated some eighteen rolls of seminal Buddhist texts into Chinese, including the BODHISATTVABHuMI, and several other works associated with the BODHISATTVAsĪLA, the DHARMAGUPTAKA VINAYA (SIFEN LÜ), and monastic and lay precepts. Gunavarman was a central figure in founding the order of nuns (BHIKsUNĪ) in China and he helped arrange the ordination of several Chinese nuns whose hagiographies are recorded in the BIQIUNI ZHUAN.

Gunavarman

Gunavat (Sanskrit) Guṇavat [from guṇa quality] Endowed with qualities or merits, hence excellent, perfect. In philosophy, endowed with the five qualities or elements. Blavatsky also uses the anglicized form gunavatic.

bodaiji. (菩提寺). In Japanese, literally "BODHI temple"; also known as bodaiin, bodaisho, or DANNADERA. Bodaiji are temples that flourished mainly during the Edo period under the parish system (DANKA SEIDO) established by the Tokugawa shogunate. Parishioners, known as danka or DAN'OTSU, were required to register at these local temples. By establishing the danka and terauke ("temple support") system, the early Tokugawa shogunate hoped to eradicate the threat of Christianity as they had witnessed it in the Christian-led Shimabara Uprising of 1637. During the Edo period, the bodaiji primarily offered funerary and memorial services for the ancestors of its parishioners and in many cases came to function as cemeteries. Festivals for the dead such as bon (see YULANBEN) and higan were also held annually at these temples. Although the danka system was abolished during the Meiji period, the bodaiji continue to function as memorial temples in modern Japan.

Bodhisattvabhumi. (T. Byang chub sems dpa'i sa; C. Pusa dichi jing; J. Bosatsujijikyo; K. Posal chiji kyong 菩薩地持經). In Sanskrit, "The Bodhisattva Stages"; a treatise on the entire vocation and training of a BODHISATTVA, attributed to MAITREYA/MAITREYANATHA or ASAnGA (c. fourth century CE), the effective founder of the YOGACARA school. Sanskrit and Tibetan recensions are extant, as well as three different renderings in Chinese: (1) Pusa dichi jing, translated by DHARMAKsEMA between 414-421 CE, which is also abbreviated as the "Treatise on the Bodhisattva Stages" (C. Dichi lun; J. Jijiron; K. Chiji non); (2) Pusa shanjie jing, translated by GUnAVARMAN in 431 CE; and (3) a version incorporated as the fifteenth section of XUANZANG's Chinese translation of Asanga's YOGACARABHuMIsASTRA. In the Tibetan BSTAN 'GYUR, the Bodhisattvabhumi appears as the sixteenth and penultimate part of the fundamental section (sa'i dngos gzhi) of the YogAcArabhumi (which has a total of seventeen sections), but it is set apart as a separate work in 6,000 lines. The Bodhisattvabhumi explains in three major sections the career and practices of a bodhisattva. The chapters on the abodes (vihArapatala) in the second major division and the chapter on stages (bhumipatala) in the third section are considered especially important, because they provide a systematic outline of the soteriological process by which a bodhisattva attains enlightenment. ¶ In contrast to the ten stages (DAsABHuMI) of the bodhisattva path that are described in the DAsABHuMIKASuTRA, the Bodhisattvabhumi instead outlines a system of seven stages (BHuMI), which are then correlated with the thirteen abodes (VIHARA): (1) The stage of innate potentiality (gotrabhumi), which corresponds to the abode of innate potentiality (gotravihAra); (2) the stage of the practice of resolute faith (adhimukticaryAbhumi), corresponding to the abode of resolute faith (adhimukticaryAvihAra); (3) the stage of superior aspiration (suddhAdhyAsayabhumi), which corresponds to the abode of extreme bliss (pramuditavihAra); (4) the stage of carrying out correct practices (caryApratipattibhumi), which includes the abode of superior morality (adhisīlavihAra), the abode of superior concentration (adhicittavihAra), and the abode of the superior wisdom (adhiprajNavihAra), i.e., the abode of superior insight associated with the factors of enlightenment (bodhipaksyapratisaMyukto 'dhiprajNavihAra), the abode of superior insight associated with the truths (satyapratisaMyukto 'dhiprajNavihAra), the abode of superior insight associated with the cessation of dependently arisen transmigration (pratītyasamutpAdapravṛttinivṛttipratisaMyukto 'dhiprajNavihAra), and the signless abode of applied practices and exertion (sAbhisaMskArasAbhoganirnimittavihAra); (5) the stage of certainty (niyatabhumi), which is equivalent to the signless abode that is free from application and exertion (anAbhoganirnimittavihAra); (6) the stage of determined practice (niyatacaryAbhumi), which corresponds to the abode of analytical knowledge (pratisaMvidvihAra); (7) the stage of arriving at the ultimate (nisthAgamanabhumi), which correlates with the abode of ultimate consummation [viz., of bodhisattvahood] (paramavihAra) and the abode of the tathAgata (tathAgatavihAra). In this schema, the first two stages are conceived as preliminary stages of the bodhisattva path: the first stage, the stage of innate potentiality (gotrabhumi), is presumed to be a state in which the aspiration for enlightenment (BODHICITTA) has yet to be generated; the second stage, the stage of the practice of resolute faith (adhimukticaryAbhumi), is referred to as the stage of preparation (saMbhArAvasthA) and applied practice (prayogAvasthA) in the case of the fivefold YOGACARA mArga schema, or alternatively to the ten faiths, ten abodes, ten practices, and ten dedications in the case of the comprehensive fifty-two stage bodhisattva path presented in the AVATAMSAKASuTRA, PUSA YINGLUO BENYE JING, and RENWANG JING. The third stage, the stage of superior aspiration, is regarded as corresponding to the first of the ten bhumis in the Dasabhumikasutra; the fourth stage of carrying out correct practices corresponds to the second through seventh bhumis in that rival schema; the fifth stage of certainty pertains to the eighth bhumi; the stage of determined practice to the ninth bhumi; and the stage of arriving at the ultimate to the tenth bhumi. In fact, however, the seven-bhumi schema of the Bodhisattvabhumi and the ten-bhumi schema of the Dasabhumikasutra developed independently of each other and it requires consider exegetical aplomb to correlate them. ¶ The Bodhisattvabhumi also serves as an important source of information on another crucial feature of bodhisattva practice: the MahAyAna interpretation of a set of moral codes specific to bodhisattvas (BODHISATTVAsĪLA). The chapter on precepts (sīlapatala) in the first major section of the text provides an elaborate description of MahAyAna precepts, which constitute the bodhisattva's perfection of morality (sĪLAPARAMITA). These precepts are classified into the "three sets of pure precepts" (trividhAni sīlAni; C. sanju jingjie, see sĪLATRAYA; TRISAMVARA): (1) the saMvarasīla, or "restraining precepts," (cf. SAMVARA), which refers to the "HĪNAYANA" rules of discipline (PRATIMOKsA) that help adepts restrain themselves from all types of unsalutary conduct; (2) practicing all virtuous deeds (kusaladharmasaMgrAhakasīla), which accumulates all types of salutary conduct; and (3) sattvArthakriyAsīla, which involve giving aid and comfort to sentient beings. Here, the first group corresponds to the generic hīnayAna precepts, while the second and third groups are regarded as reflecting a specifically MahAyAna position on morality. Thus, the three sets of pure precepts are conceived as a comprehensive description of Buddhist views on precepts, which incorporates both hīnayAna and MahAyAna perspectives into an overarching system. A similar treatment of the three sets of pure precepts is also found in the Chinese apocryphal sutra FANWANG JING (see APOCRYPHA), thus providing a scriptural foundation in East Asia for an innovation originally appearing in an Indian treatise. ¶ In Tibet, the Bodhisattvabhumi was a core text of the BKA' GDAMS sect, and its chapter on sīla was the basis for a large body of literature elaborating a VINAYA-type ritual for taking bodhisattva precepts in a MahAyAna ordination ceremony. The SA SKYA PA master Grags pa rgyal mtshan's explanation of CANDRAGOMIN's synopsis of the morality chapter, and TSONG KHA PA's Byang chub gzhung lam are perhaps the best known works in this genre. In Tibet, the SDOM GSUM genre incorporates the Bodhisattvabhumi's three sets of pure precepts into a new scheme that reconciles hīnayAna and MahAyAna with TANTRA.

brahmadr.s.t.i (saguna brahmadrishti) ::: vision of sagun.a brah. a brahmadrsti man. sagun saguna

Brahma-loka: In Hinduism, the divine plane of the first emanation, the world of Saguna Brahman (q.v.).

Butsumo hotokuzo hannya haramitsukyo 佛母寶德藏般若波羅蜜經. See RATNAGUnASAMCAYAGĀTHĀ

*Caturasītisiddhapravṛtti. (T. Grub thob brgyad bcu rtsa bzhi'i lo rgyus). In Sanskrit, "The Lives of the Eighty-four Siddhas"; a tantric doxography ascribed to the early twelfth-century Indian author ABHAYADATTAsRĪ. The original Sanskrit version has been lost, but the text is preserved in Tibetan translation. The work records brief vitae for the great SIDDHAs (or mahAsiddhas) of Indian tantric Buddhism, who are commonly enumerated in a list of eighty-four. While the list varies, according to Abhayadattasrī's work, the eighty-four siddhas include Luyipa, Līlapa, VIRuPA, dombipa, savaripa, SARAHA, Kankaripa, Mīnapa, Goraksa, CaurAngi, Vīnapa, sAntipa, Tantipa, Camaripa, Khadgapa, NAGARJUNA, KAnḥapa, Karnaripa, Thaganapa, NAROPA, salipa, TILOPA, Catrapa, Bhadrapa, Dhukhandi, Ajokipa, Kalapa, Dhombipa, Kankana, Kambala, tengipa, Bhandhepa, Tandhepa, Kukkuripa, Kucipa, Dharmapa, Mahipa, Acinta, Babhahi, Nalina, Bhusuku, INDRABHuTI, Mekopa, Kotali, KaMparipa, JAlandhari, RAHULA, Dharmapa, Dhokaripa, Medhina, Pankaja, Ghandhapa, Yogipa, Caluki, Gorura, Lucika, Niguna, JayAnanda, Pacari, Campaka, Bhiksana, Telopa, Kumaripa, Caparipa, ManibhadrA, MekhalA, KanakhalA, Kalakala, Kantali, Dhahuli, Udheli, Kapalapa, Kirava, Sakara, Sarvabhaksa, NAgabodhi, DArika, Putali, Panaha, Kokali, Ananga, LaksmīnkarA, Samudra, and Vyali. See MAHASIDDHA.

Cheng weishi lun. (S. *VijNaptimAtratAsiddhi; J. Joyui-shikiron; K. Song yusik non 成唯識論). In Chinese, "Demonstration of Consciousness-Only"; a magnum opus of Sino-Indian YOGACARA Buddhism and the foundational text of the Chinese WEISHI, or FAXIANG, school. The text is often cited by its reconstructed Sanskrit title *VIJNAPTIMATRATASIDDHI, and its authorship attributed to DHARMAPALA (530-561), but the text as we have it in Chinese translation has no precise analogue in Sanskrit and was never used within the Indian or Tibetan traditions. Its Chinese translator XUANZANG (600/602-664), one of the most important figures in the history of Chinese Buddhist scholasticism, traveled to India in the seventh century, where he specialized in YogAcAra doctrine at NALANDA monastic university under one of DharmapAla's disciples, sĪLABHADRA (529-645). At NAlandA, Xuanzang studied VASUBANDHU's TRIMsIKA (TriMsikAvijNaptimAtratA[siddhi]kArikA), the famous "Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only," along with ten prose commentaries on the verses by the prominent YogAcAra scholiasts DharmapAla, STHIRAMATI, Nanda, CitrabhAnu, Gunamati, Jinamitra, JNAnamitra, JNAnacandra, Bandhusrī, suddhacandra, and Jinaputra. After his return to China in 645, Xuanzang set to work translating this massive amount of new material into Chinese. Rather than translate in their entirety all ten commentaries, however, on the advice of his translation team Xuanzang chose to focus on DharmapAla's exegesis, which he considered orthodox, rather than muddy the waters in China with the divergent interpretations of the other teachers. As a foil for DharmapAla's interpretation, Xuanzang uses the commentaries by Sthiramati, Nanda, and occasionally CitrabhAnu, but he typically concludes any discussion with DharmapAla's definitive view. This decision to rely heavily on DharmapAla's interpretation probably comes from the fact that Xuanzang's own Indian teacher, sīlabhadra, was himself a pupil of DharmapAla. ¶ The Cheng weishi lun is principally concerned with the origination and removal of ignorance (AVIDYA), by clarifying the processes by which erroneous perception arises and enlightened understanding is produced. Unlike the writings of STHIRAMATI, which understood the bifurcation of consciousness into subject and object to be wholly imaginary, the Cheng weishi lun proposed instead that consciousness in fact always appears in both subjective and objective aspects, viz., a "seeing part" (darsanabhAga) and a "seen part" (nimittabhAga). The apparent dichotomy between inner self and external images is a supposition of mentality (MANAS), which in turn leads to the various afflictions (KLEsA), as the mind clings to those images it likes and rejects those it dislikes; thus, suffering (DUḤKHA) is created and the cycle of rebirth (SAMSARA) sustained. Both the perceiving self and the perceived images are therefore both simply projections of the mind and thus mere-representation (VIJNAPTIMATRA) or, as Xuanzang translated the term, consciousness-only (WEISHI). This clarification of the perceptual process produces an enlightened understanding that catalyzes a transmutation of the basis (AsRAYAPARAVṚTTI), so that the root consciousness (MuLAVIJNANA), or ALAYAVIJNANA, no longer serves as the storehouse of either wholesome or unwholesome seeds (BĪJA), thus bringing an end to the subject-object bifurcation. In the course of its discussion, the Cheng weishi lun offers an extensive treatment of the YogAcAra theory of the eight consciousnesses (VIJNANA) and especially the storehouse consciousness (AlayavijNAna) that stores the seeds, or potentialities, of these representational images. The text also offers an overview of the three-nature (TRISVABHAVA) theory of vijNaptimAtra as imaginary (PARIKALPITA), dependent (PARATANTRA), and perfected (PARINIsPANNA). Finally, the Cheng weishi lun provides such exhaustive detail on the hundred dharmas (BAIFA) taxonomical system of the YogAcAra that it has been used within the tradition as a primer of YogAcAra dharma theory.

cidananda (chidananda) ::: (also called nirgun.a, qualitiless) "Ananda cidananda of pure consciousness [cit] without the gunas", one of the seven principal forms of ananda, corresponding to the principle of ananda involved in cit-tapas, an "infinite inalienable delight" implicit in the "infinite imperishable force of self-conscious being".

daivi hyesa gunamayi mama maya ::: this is My divine maya of the gunas. [Gita 7.14]

danna. (檀那). This Japanese term is originally a transcription of the Sanskrit term DANA, or "giving." When referring to a patron of a monk, nun, or monastery, the term danna is used with reference to a "donor" (J. dan'otsu, dan'ochi, dannotsu; S. DANAPATI) or "parish temple" (DANKA). During the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), the Japanese shogunate required every family to register at and support a local temple, called the DANNADERA, which in turned entitled that family to receive funerary services from the local priest. The dannadera, also called the BODAIJI and dankadera, thus served as a means of monitoring the populace and preventing the spread in Japan of subversive religions, such as Christianity and the banned Nichiren-Fuju-Fuse sect of the NICHIREN school. By requiring each Japanese family to be registered at a specific local temple and obligating them to provide for that temple's economic support and to participate in its religious rituals, all Japanese thus became Buddhist in affiliation for the first time in Japanese history.

Deguang 德光. See GUnAPRABHA

devatmasaktim svagunair nigudham ::: the self-power of the divine Existent hidden by its own modes. [Svet. 1.3]

dge bshes. (geshe). A Tibetan abbreviation for dge ba'i bshes gnyen, or "spiritual friend" (S. KALYĀnAMITRA). In early Tibetan Buddhism, the term was used in this sense, especially in the BKA' GDAMS tradition, where saintly figures like GLANG RI THANG PA are often called "geshe"; sometimes, however, it can have a slightly pejorative meaning, as in the biography of MI LA RAS PA, where it suggests a learned monk without real spiritual attainment. In the SA SKYA sect, the term came to take on a more formal meaning to refer to a monk who had completed a specific academic curriculum. The term is most famous in this regard among the DGE LUGS, where it refers to a degree and title received after successfully completing a long course of Buddhist study in the tradition of the three great Dge lugs monasteries in LHA SA: 'BRAS SPUNGS, DGA' LDAN, and SE RA. According to the traditional curriculum, after completing studies in elementary logic and epistemology (BSDUS GRWA), a monk would begin the study of "five texts" (GZHUNG LNGA), five Indian sĀSTRAs, in the following order: the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA of MAITREYANĀTHA, the MADHYAMAKĀVATĀRA of CANDRAKĪRTI, the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHĀsYA of VASUBANDHU, and the VINAYASuTRA of GUnAPRABHA. Each year, there would also be a period set aside for the study of the PRAMĀnAVĀRTTIKA of DHARMAKĪRTI. The curriculum involved the memorization of these and other texts, the study of them based on monastic textbooks (yig cha), and formal debate on their content. Each year, monks in the scholastic curriculum (a small minority of the monastic population) were required to pass two examinations, one in memorization and the other in debate. Based upon the applicant's final examination, one of four grades of the dge bshes degree was awarded, which, in descending rank, are: (1) lha rams pa, (2) tshogs rams pa, (3) rdo rams pa; (4) gling bsre [alt. gling bseb], a degree awarded by a combination of monasteries; sometimes, the more scholarly or the religiously inclined would choose that degree to remove themselves from consideration for ecclesiastical posts so they could devote themselves to their studies and to meditation practice. The number of years needed to complete the entire curriculum depended on the degree, the status of the person, and the number of candidates for the exam. The coveted lha rams pa degree, the path to important offices within the Dge lugs religious hierarchy, was restricted to sixteen candidates each year. The important incarnations (SPRUL SKU) were first in line, and their studies would be completed within about twelve years; ordinary monks could take up to twenty years to complete their studies and take the examination. Those who went on to complete the course of study at the tantric colleges of RGYUD STOD and RYUD SMAD would be granted the degree of dge bshes sngags ram pa.

dhutaguna. [alt. dhuta/dhuta]. In Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, "austerities." See DHUTAnGA.

dhutaguna

dhutanga. [alt. dhutanga] (S. dhutaguna/dhuta/dhuta; T. sbyang pa'i yan lag; C. toutuo[xing]; J. zuda[gyo]; K. tut'a[haeng] 頭陀[行]). In Pāli, lit. "limbs of scrupulousness," viz., "austerities," or "ascetic practices." The term is alternately known as simply dhuta/dhuta in both Pāli and Sanskrit; the BUDDHIST HYBRID SANSKRIT term dhutaguna means the "qualities" (GUnA) of the "purified" (dhuta) person, viz., an "ascetic." Dhutanga refers to a specific set of thirteen ascetic practices that the Buddha authorized monks to adopt voluntarily for the purposes of cultivating contentedness with little, detachment, energy, and moderation. These austerities are not enjoined on monks and nuns by the VINAYA, but are rather optional practices that monastics were sanctioned to adopt for limited periods of time in order to foster sensory restraint (INDRIYASAMVARA), an important constituent of morality (sĪLA). Based on the Buddha's own failed experiments with extreme mortification of the flesh (see TAPAS) as a practice conducive to enlightenment while he was a BODHISATTVA, this specific set of practices was considered to provide a middle way (MADHYAMAPRATIPAD) between self-mortification and sensual indulgence. The thirteen authorized practices are (1) wearing patched robes made from discarded cloth rather than from cloth donated by laypeople; (2) wearing only three robes; (3) going for alms; (4) not omitting any house while on the alms round, rather than begging only at those houses known to provide good food; (5) eating only what can be eaten in one sitting; (6) eating only food received in the alms bowl (PĀTRA), rather than more elaborate meals presented to the SAMGHA; (7) refusing more food after indicating one has eaten enough; (8) dwelling in the forest; (9) dwelling at the root of a tree; (10) dwelling in the open air, using only a tent made from one's robes as shelter; (11) dwelling in a charnel ground (sMAsĀNA); (12) satisfaction with whatever dwelling one has; and (13) sleeping in a sitting position without ever lying down (see CHANGJWA PURWA). The comparable Mahāyāna list of twelve dhutagunas is essentially the same, dropping the two practices involving eating (5, 6) and adding an additional rule on wearing only garments made of coarse hemp and wool. The VISUDDHIMAGGA recommends these ascetic practices especially to those of either greedy (RĀGA) or deluded (MOHA) temperaments (CARITA), because greed and delusion both wane through, respectively, the continued practice of asceticism and the clarification of what is important in life; sometimes a person of hateful temperament is also said to benefit, because conflict abates as one becomes content with little. The Buddha offered this authorized list of voluntary practices after explicitly rejecting a more severe set of austerities proposed by his cousin and rival DEVADATTA that would have been mandatory for all members of the saMgha: forest dwelling (see ARANNAVĀSI), subsistence on gathered alms food only, use of rag robes only, dwelling at the foot of a tree, and strict vegetarianism. With the growth of settled monasticism, the practice of the austerities waned, although asceticism continues to be a major prestige factor within the Buddhist lay and monastic communities. In their accounts of India, both FAXIAN and XUANZANG note the presence of followers of Devadatta who adhered to the austere practices he had recommended to the Buddha. The dhutangas should be distinguished from TAPAS, "severe austerities," or DUsKARACARYĀ, "difficult feats" of religious virtuosity, practices that do not necessarily involve the authorized types of ascetic practices. See also THUDONG.

Distributed Eiffel ::: [Distributed Eiffel: A Language for Programming Multi-Granular Distributed Objects on the Clouds Operating System, L. Gunaseelan et al, IEEE Conf Comp Langs, 1992]. (1994-12-07)

Distributed Eiffel ["Distributed Eiffel: A Language for Programming Multi-Granular Distributed Objects on the Clouds Operating System", L. Gunaseelan et al, IEEE Conf Comp Langs, 1992]. (1994-12-07)

'dod yon sna lnga. See PANCAKĀMAGUnA

dravyaguna. ::: complete science of herbal plants, which includes pharmacognosy, pharmacology and therapeutic use of plants; ayurvedic system of pharmacology; science of the attributes of substances

Dravya: (Skr.) Substance, as a substratum of qualities (see guna), accidents, or modes. Various classes are established by Indian philosophers. -- K.F.L.

Each one of these gunas, with its corresponding quality or sense organ, is evolved in each one of the seven root-races that form a globe manvantara. The above listing gives the order in which these gunas appear correspondentially to the root-race which brings them into activity. At the present time, being in the fifth root-race, we have evolved five perceptible gunas with their corresponding qualities and sense organs.

". . . equality is the sign of unity with the Brahman, of becoming Brahman, of growing into an undisturbed spiritual poise of being in the Infinite. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated; for it is the sign of our having passed beyond the egoistic determinations of our nature, of our having conquered our enslaved response to the dualities, of our having transcended the shifting turmoil of the gunas, of our having entered into the calm and peace of liberation. Equality is a term of consciousness which brings into the whole of our being and nature the eternal tranquillity of the Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga*

“… equality is the sign of unity with the Brahman, of becoming Brahman, of growing into an undisturbed spiritual poise of being in the Infinite. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated; for it is the sign of our having passed beyond the egoistic determinations of our nature, of our having conquered our enslaved response to the dualities, of our having transcended the shifting turmoil of the gunas, of our having entered into the calm and peace of liberation. Equality is a term of consciousness which brings into the whole of our being and nature the eternal tranquillity of the Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga

Fenollosa, Ernest Francisco (Kano Yeitan). (1853-1908). An American proponent of Japanese Buddhism and Japanese art. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, to a mother from Salem and a Spanish father, he was part of Boston's East Asian renaissance during the 1890s and one of the first students of the incipient discipline of art history. He studied philosophy at Harvard and attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. At the age of twenty-five, Fenollosa went to teach at the Imperial University in Japan, where his students introduced him to Buddhism. His interest in the religion grew through his visits to temples near Nara and Kyoto. Fenollosa also became interested in traditional Japanese art and met the aristocratic families who had been court painters during the Tokugawa shogunate. By 1882, Fenollosa was considered enough of an expert to lecture at the Ryuchikai Club and, in 1884, he was named an imperial commissioner of fine arts. Sakurai Keitaku Ajari, the head of the Hoyugin Temple at MIIDERA, became Fenollosa's teacher of Buddhism. Fenollosa received the precepts of TENDAI Buddhism in 1885, making him one of the first Americans to practice MAHĀLĀNA Buddhism. During his time in Japan, he was adopted into the Kano family and received the name Kano Yeitan. He was also presented with the "Order of the Sacred Mirror" by the Meiji emperor. After returning to the United States in 1890, Fenollosa lectured and wrote about Buddhism, became the curator of Far Eastern Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and in 1893 published a poem called East and West. In 1895, he married his second wife, Mary McNeil Scott, and they returned together to Japan, where Fenollosa taught English at Tokyo Higher Normal School. He and Mary remained in Japan until 1900. Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art, his magnum opus, was published posthumously, with help from Ezra Pound.

Fomu baodezang bore boluomi jing 佛母寶德藏般若波羅蜜經. See RATNAGUnASAMCAYAGĀTHĀ

gomyoyoku 五妙欲. See PANCAKĀMAGUnA

gongde boluomi 功德波羅蜜. See GUnAPĀRAMITĀ

gongde 功德. See ANUsAMSA, GUnA

gozan. (五山). In Japanese, "five mountains"; a medieval Japanese ranking system for officially sponsored ZEN monasteries, which may derive from Chinese institutional precedents. Large and powerful public monasteries in China known as "monasteries of the ten directions" (SHIFANGCHA) came under the control of the Chinese state during the Song dynasty and were designated either as VINAYA or CHAN monasteries. Government administration of these monasteries eventually ceased, but it is widely believed that five major Chan monasteries in Zhejiang province (ranked in the order of WANSHOUSI, Lingyinsi, Jingdesi, Jingci Bao'en Guangxiaosi, and Guanglisi) were selected to be protected and governed by the state, largely through the efforts of the Chan master DAHUI ZONGGAO and his disciples. Whether this is indeed the beginning of a "five-mountain ranking system" is unclear, but by the Yuan dynasty the term was clearly in use in China. The implementation of this system in Japan began under the rule of the Kamakura shogun Hojo Sadatoki (1271-1311). Five illustrious RINZAISHu monasteries in Kamakura, including KENCHoJI and ENGAKUJI, were granted gozan status and given a specific rank. A reordering of the gozan ranks occurred when Emperor Godaigo (1288-1339) came to power in 1333. The powerful Zen monasteries in Kyoto, NANZENJI and DAITOKUJI, replaced Kenchoji and Engakuji as the top-ranking monasteries, and the monastery of ToFUKUJI was added to the gozan system. The gozan ranks were changed again several times by the Ashikaga shogunate. By the Muromachi period, some three hundred official monasteries (kanji) were ranked either gozan, jissatsu (ten temples), or shozan (many mountains). The term gozan also came to denote the prosperous lineages of MUSo SOSEKI and ENNI BEN'EN, who populated the gozan monasteries; monks in these lineages were particularly renowned for their artistic and literary talents in classical Chinese and brushstroke art. There seems also to have been a five-mountain convent system (amadera gozan or niji gozan) for Japanese nuns, which paralleled the five-mountain monastery system of the monks, but little is known about it.

guna ::: 1. quality, character, property. ::: 2. the three gunas: the three modes of nature: sattva, rajas, tamas. ::: 3. [in Sanskrit grammar]: vowel modification.

guņa ::: a quality, attribute or characteristic. The character of each being is described by three gunas: sattva (purity), rajas (passion) and tamas (lack of understanding).

guna. ::: fundamental operating principle or quality; mode of nature; attribute; property

guna gunesu vartante ::: it is the modes of nature that are acting on the modes. [Gita 3.28]

guna-karma ::: quality and particular force of working.

gunamaya. ::: full of qualities or attributes

guna ::: n. --> In Sanskrit grammar, a lengthening of the simple vowels a, i, e, by prefixing an a element. The term is sometimes used to denote the same vowel change in other languages.

gunapāramitā

gunapāramitā. (T. yon tan pha rol tu phyin pa; C. gongde boluomi; J. kudokuharamitsu; K. kongdok paramil 功德波羅蜜). In Sanskrit, "the perfection of qualities," referring to the four salutary qualities of the TATHĀGATAGARBHA: permanence, purity, bliss, and self, as described in the sRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIMHANĀDASuTRA. These qualities are in distinction to the four perverted views (VIPARYĀSA), where ignorant sentient beings regard the conditioned realm of SAMSĀRA as being permanent, pure, blissful, and self when in fact it is impermanent (ANITYA), impure (asubha), suffering (DUḤKHA), and not-self (ANĀTMAN). More specifically, according to the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākyā, sentient beings assume that all the conditioned phenomena they experience are permanent and real: they consider their own bodies to be pure, regard their five aggregates (SKANDHA) as having a perduring self (ĀTMAN), falsely imagine permanence in the transitory, and mistakenly regard saMsāra as a source of real happiness. In order to counter these attachments, the Buddha therefore taught that saMsāra is impermanent, impure, suffering, and not-self. However, the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākyā says it would be wrong to assume that these four qualities also apply to the tathāgatagarbha or the DHARMAKĀYA; the Buddha teaches that it is endowed with the four gunapāramitā, or perfect qualities, of permanence, purity, bliss, and self. The FOXING LUN ("Buddha-Nature Treatise") additionally presents the gunapāramitā as resulting from the perfection of four soteriological practices, e.g., bliss refers to the condition of being free from suffering, which is experienced through cultivating a SAMĀDHI that overcomes wrong conceptions of emptiness (suNYATĀ); permanence indicates the endless variety of acts that bodhisattvas cultivate on the path of great compassion (MAHĀKARUnĀ), etc. This positive valorization of the qualities of the tathāgatagarbha serves to counteract any mistaken tendency toward nihilism that might be prompted by the apophatic language used within the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ literature or the MADHYAMAKA school.

gun.a ::: quality, property, feature; any of "the numberless and infinite guna qualities" (anantagun.a) of the sagun.a brahman "into which all the cosmic action can be resolved"; the quality which the isvara "perceives in each different object of experience (vishaya) and for the enjoyment of which He creates it in the lila"; any of the three modes (trigun.a) of the energy of the lower Nature (apara prakr.ti), called sattva, rajas and tamas, which in the transition to the higher Nature (para prakr.ti) are transformed into pure prakasa, tapas (or pravr.tti) and sama.

gunarchy ::: n. --> See Gynarchy.

gunas. ::: a cosmic quality of which there are three fundamental operating principles &

gunasamya. :::a state where the three gunas are found in equilibrium; the supreme Absolute

GUNA (Skt &

guna

gunatita. ::: beyond the gunas; the state of transcendence of the gunas &

guna. (T. yon tan; C. gongde; J. kudoku; K. kongdok 功德). In Sanskrit and Pāli, lit. "string," or "strand," by extension a "quality" or "spiritual virtue." In the sense of a "quality," or "constituent part," the term appears in lists such as the five "strands" or "aspects" of "sensuality" (kāmaguna), viz., the sensual pleasures associated with the five physical senses. Guna as "spiritual virtue" or "meritorious quality" (S. guna; C. gongde) is sometimes contrasted with "merit" (S. PUnYA; C. fude), i.e., practices that lead to worldly rewards and/or better rebirths but not necessarily to enlightenment. In general, such religious deeds as building monasteries, erecting STuPAs, making images of the Buddha, transcribing sutras, and chanting all help to generate merit that can lead to better quality of life in this and other existences but will not in themselves produce the spiritual virtue (guna) that will be sufficient to bring about liberation from the cycle of rebirth (SAMSĀRA). See also GUnAPĀRAMITĀ.

guna vartanta eva ::: it is merely the gunas that work. [Gita 14. 23]

Haribhadra. (T. Seng ge bzang po) (c. 800). Indian Buddhist exegete during the Pāla dynasty, whom later Tibetan doxographers associate with the YOGĀCĀRA-*SVĀTANTRIKA syncretistic strand of Indian philosophy. He may have been a student of sĀNTARAKsITA and was a contemporary of KAMALAsĪLA; he himself lists Vairocanabhadra as his teacher. Haribhadra is known for his two commentaries on the AstASĀHASRIKĀPRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀSuTRA ("PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ in Eight Thousand Lines"): the longer ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRĀLOKĀ-PrajNāpāramitāvyākhyā, and its summary, the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRAVIVṚTI. He is also known for his recasting of the twenty-five-thousand-line version of the prajNāpāramitā (PANCAVIMsATISĀHASRIKĀPRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀSuTRA) in a work entitled the Le'u brgyad ma in Tibetan. Each of these works is based on the interpretative scheme set forth in the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA ("Ornament for Clear Realizations"), a guide to the PaNcaviMsati that Haribhadra explicitly attributes to MAITREYA. His AbhisamayālaMkārālokā builds upon PRAMĀnA, MADHYAMAKA, and ABHIDHARMA literature and was extremely influential in Tibet; its summary (known as "'grel pa don gsal" in Tibetan) is the root text (rtsa ba) for commentaries in the GSANG PHU NE'U THOG monastery tradition originating with RNGOG BLO LDAN SHES RAB. It is the most widely studied prajNāpāramitā commentary in Tibetan Buddhism to the present day. Haribhadra is known for his explanation of a JNĀNADHARMAKĀYA (knowledge truth-body) in addition to a SVĀBHĀVAKĀYA, viz., the eternally pure DHARMADHĀTU that is free from duality. He is characterized as an alīkākāravādin ("false-aspectarian") to differentiate him from Kamalasīla, a satyākāravādin ("true-aspectarian") who holds that the objects appearing in the diverse forms of knowledge in a buddha's all-knowing mind are truly what they seem to be. He cites DHARMAKĪRTI frequently but appears to accept that scripture (ĀGAMA) is also a valid authority (PRAMĀnA). There are two principal commentaries on his work, by Dharmamitra and Dharmakīrtisrī. BuddhasrījNāna (or simply BuddhajNāna) was his disciple. The Subodhinī, a commentary on the RATNAGUnASAMCAYAGĀTHĀ, is also attributed to him.

Hieizan. (比叡山). In Japanese "Mt. Hiei," a sacred mountain best known as the headquarters of the TENDAISHu (see TIANTAI ZONG). Mt. Hiei is located northeast of Kyoto on the border of present-day Kyoto and Shiga prefectures, and rises to 2,600 feet (848 meters). In 785, SAICHo, founder of the Tendai school, left Nara for Hieizan after receiving ordination. Dissatisfied with the Nara Buddhist schools, he resided in a hut on the mountain and gradually attracted a small group of followers. In 788, Saicho built the hall Ichijo shikan'in (later renamed Konpon chudo), which became incorporated into the larger monastery of ENRYAKUJI, headquarters for the Tendai school. As Tendai Buddhism rose to dominance in medieval Japan, Hieizan became extremely influential not only in religious matters, but also in politics, the economy, and military affairs. In addition to Enryakuji and numerous other Tendai monasteries, the mountain also housed three aristocratic temples (monzeki), which further extended its ties to the court in Kyoto. Hieizan's power was not maintained without its share of violence. Conflict erupted in the late tenth century with the nearby Tendai temple Onjoji, when succession over the position of head priest at Enryakuji broke down in armed disputes between ENNIN and ENCHIN and their respective followers and warrior monks (SoHEI). In order to wrest control of Hieizan's military and economic strength, Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) led an attack on the mountain in 1571, burning many of its monasteries to the ground. The mountain's influence was further supplanted during the Tokugawa period when Tenkai (1536?-1643), a Tendai priest and advisor to Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), presided over the construction of Kan'eiji in 1625, which the Shogunate ranked above Hieizan. Hieizan also served as home to many KAMI, notably obie and Kobie (Great and Small Hie), who developed close ties with Tendai monasteries as early as the Heian period (794-1185) through a process known as SHINBUTSU SHuGo ("unity of spirits and buddhas"). SHUGENDo practices eventually took root on Hieizan as well. The practice of "circumambulating the mountain" (KAIHoGYo), which reputedly dates back to the ninth century, consists of ascetics running a course around the mountain for as many as one thousand days.



In the liberated stale it is not the inner Purusha only that remains detached ; the inner Purusha is always detached, only one is not conscious of it in the ordinary state. It is the Prakrit! also that is not disturbed by the action of the Gunas or attached to it ; the mind, the vital, (he physical (whatever Prakriti) begin to get the same quietude, unperturbed peace and detachment as the Purusha, but it is quietude, not a cessation of all action. It is quietude in action itself. TTic whole being, Purusha, Prakriit, becomes detached (having no desire or attachment) even in the actions of the gunas. The outer being Is also detached ; the whole being is without desire or attachment and still action is possible, action without desire is possible, action without attach- ment is possible, action without ego is possible.

  In the Mahabharata and the Puranas, the second member of the Triad, the embodiment of sattva-guna, the preserving and restoring power. This power has manifested in the world as the various incarnations of Vishnu, generally accepted as being ten in number. Vishnu’s heaven is Vaikuntha, his consort Lakshmi and his vehicle Garuda. He is portrayed as reclining on the serpent-king Sesa and floating on the waters between periods of cosmic manifestation. The holy river Ganga is said to spring from his foot. (A; V. G.; Dow)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo’s Works

In the Vedas, amrita is applied to the mystical soma juice, which makes a new man of the initiate and enables his spiritual nature to overcome and govern the lower elements of his nature. It is beyond any guna (quality), for it is unconditioned per se (cf SD 1:348). Mystically speaking, therefore, amrita is the “drinking” of the water of supernal wisdom and the spiritual bathing in its life-giving power. It means the rising above all the unawakened or prakritic elements of the constitution, and becoming at one with and thus living in the kosmic life-intelligence-substance.

In the world of matter, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva are each personified by earth, water, and fire, i.e., each of these divinities combines in itself these three elements, one predominating when the divinity manifests one of its three fundamental gunas. “In Indian Puranas it is Vishnu, the first, and Brahma, the second logos, or the ideal and practical creators, who are respectively represented, one as manifesting the lotus, the other as issuing from it” (SD 1:381n). But Brahma, for instance, because of the significance of expansion inherent in the name, could equally well be looked upon as the source of Vishnu, manifesting as the cosmic waters or Second Logos. This perhaps is the reason why in this Trimurti, Brahma is called the emanator or evolver, and Vishnu the sustainer or preserver.

Ishwara is supracosmic as well as intracosmic; He is that which exceeds and inhabits and supports all individuality; He is the supreme and universal Brahman, the Absolute, the supreme Self, the supreme Purusha.8 But, very clearly, this is not the personal God of popular religions, a being limited by his qualities, individual and separate from all others; for all such personal gods are only limited representations or names and divine personalities of the one Ishwara. Neither is this the Saguna Brahman active and possessed of qualities, for that is only one side of the being of the Ishwara; the Nirguna immobile and without qualities is another aspect of His existence. Ishwara is Brahman the Reality, Self, Spirit, revealed as possessor, enjoyer of his own self-existence, creator of the universe and one with it, Pantheos, and yet superior to it, the Eternal, the Infinite, the Ineffable, the Divine Transcendence.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 366-367


“It is this essential indeterminability of the Absolute that translates itself into our consciousness through the fundamental negating positives of our spiritual experience, the immobile immutable Self, the Nirguna Brahman, the Eternal without qualities, the pure featureless One Existence, the Impersonal, the Silence void of activities, the Non-being, the Ineffable and the Unknowable. On the other side it is the essence and source of all determinations, and this dynamic essentiality manifests to us through the fundamental affirming positives in which the Absolute equally meets us; for it is the Self that becomes all things, the Saguna Brahman, the Eternal with infinite qualities, the One who is the Many, the infinite Person who is the source and foundation of all persons and personalities, the Lord of creation, the Word, the Master of all works and action; it is that which being known all is known: these affirmatives correspond to those negatives. For it is not possible in a supramental cognition to split asunder the two sides of the One Existence,—even to speak of them as sides is excessive, for they are in each other, their co-existence or one-existence is eternal and their powers sustaining each other found the self-manifestation of the Infinite.” The Life Divine

Junabolapo 瞿拏鉢剌婆. See GUnAPRABHA

Kakacupamasutta. (C. Moulipoqunna jing; J. Murihagunnakyo; K. Morip'agunna kyong 牟犁破群那經). In Pāli, "Simile of the Saw Discourse"; the twenty-first sutta of the MAJJHIMANIKĀYA (a separate SARVĀSTIVĀDA recension appears as the 193rd SuTRA in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMĀGAMA). According to the Pāli recension, the Buddha preached this sutta at Sāvatthi (sRĀVASTĪ), in conjunction with the admonishment of the monk Moliya Phagguna, who was overly friendly with nuns and angry at others' criticism of his behavior. Moliya Phagguna remained recalcitrant even after being admonished; in response, the Buddha spoke to his disciples of the harmfulness of anger and of the need for patience even in the most heinous of circumstances, such as if someone were sawing off one's limbs. Instead of giving in to hatred, such an event would offer an opportunity to develop loving-kindness by radiating loving thoughts even to one's attackers.

kāma. (T. 'dod pa; C. yu; J. yoku; K. yok 欲). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "sensuality," especially in the sense of sexual desire. Kāma often appears compounded with various intensifiers to emphasize its affective dimensions. KĀMARĀGA means "sensual craving" and is listed as the fourth of ten fetters (SAMYOJANA) that keep beings bound to the cycle of rebirth (SAMSĀRA). Kāmarāga is the desire for physical pleasure and sensuality; it belongs to the more general psychological category of craving (S. TṚsnĀ; P. tanhā, lit. "thirst"), which ceaselessly seeks pleasure here and there and is the chief root of suffering. The five "strands of sensuality" (kāmaguna) refer to the sensual pleasures of the five physical senses (see GUnA). KĀMACCHANDA means "sensual pleasure" or "sensual gratification" and is also classified as one of five hindrances (NĪVARAnA) that prevent the mind from achieving meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). Kāmacchanda is temporarily overcome with the attainment of the first meditative absorption and is eradicated in its grosser forms by attaining the stage of once-returner (SAKṚDĀGĀMIN), the second degree of Buddhist sanctity or holiness (ĀRYAPUDGALA); it is completely eliminated upon attaining the stage of nonreturner (ANĀGĀMIN), the third and penultimate degree of Buddhist holiness. Finally, KĀMADHĀTU, or the sensuous realm, is the lowest of the three realms of existence (TRAIDHĀTUKA) (excluding the realms of subtle materiality and immateriality) and receives this name because of the predominance of sensuous desire among the beings reborn there.

Karanabrahman: The highest and the first manifestation of the Absolute; the Absolute qualified by Maya; Saguna Brahman.

Kārandavyuha. [alt. Karandavyuha; Avalokitesvaraguna-kārandavyuha] (T. Za ma tog bkod pa'i mdo; C. Dasheng zhuangyan baowang jing; J. Daijo shogon hoogyo; K. Taesŭng changom powang kyong 大乘莊嚴寶王經). In Sanskrit, "Description of the Casket [of AVALOKITEsVARA's Qualities]"; the earliest textual source for the BODHISATTVA Avalokitesvara's MANTRA "OM MAnI PADME HuM" (oM, O Jewel-Lotus); the extended version of the title is Avalokitesvaraguna-kārandavyuha. The earliest version of the Kārandavyuha is presumed to have been composed in Kashmir sometime around the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth centuries CE. There are Tibetan and Chinese translations, including a late Chinese rendering made by the Kashmiri translator TIAN XIZAI (d. 1000) in 983. The Kārandavyuha displays characteristics of both sutra and TANTRA literature in its emphasis on the doctrine of rebirth in AMITĀBHA Buddha's pure land (SUKHĀVATĪ), as well as such tantric elements as the mantra "oM mani padme huM" and the use of MAndALAs; it is thought to represent a transitional stage between the two categories of texts. The sutra is composed as a dialogue between sĀKYAMUNI Buddha and the bodhisattva SARVANĪVARAnAVIsKAMBHIN. While describing Avalokitesvara's supernal qualities and his vocation of saving sentient beings, sākyamuni Buddha tells his audience about the mantra "oM mani padme huM" and the merits that it enables its reciters to accrue. Avalokitesvara is said to be the embodiment of the SAMBHOGAKĀYA (enjoyment body), the body of the buddha that remains constantly present in the world for the edification of all beings, and the dharma that he makes manifest is expressed in this six-syllable mantra (sAdAKsArĪ), the recitation of which invokes the power of that bodhisattva's great compassion (MAHĀKARUnĀ). The sutra claims that the benefit of copying this mantra but once is equivalent to that of copying all the 84,000 teachings of the DHARMA; in addition, there are an infinite number of benefits that derive from a single recitation of it.

Kinkakuji. (金閣寺). In Japanese, "Golden Pavilion monastery"; a Japanese temple located in northern Kyoto, the ancient capital city of Japan, formally known as Rokuonji (Deer Park temple, cf. MṚGADĀVA). It was originally built as a retirement villa for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the third shogun of the Muromachi (1337-1573) shogunate. However, following his father's wishes, his son converted it to a ZEN temple of the RINZAI school after the shogun's death in 1408. The temple inspired the building of Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion monastery), which was constructed about sixty years later on the other side of the city. The name Kinkaku derived from the pavilion's extravagant use of gold leaf, typical of Muromachi style, which covers the entire top two stories of the three-story pavilion. The pavilion uses three different architectural styles on each floor: the first emulates the residential style of Heian aristocracy; the second, warrior aristocracy; the third, Chinese CHAN style. The second floor enshrines the image of the BODHISATTVA Kannon (AVALOKITEsVARA), surrounded by the statues of the four heavenly kings (CĀTURMAHĀRĀJAN), the guardian divinities (DEVA) of Buddhism. The pavilion burned down several times, including twice during the onin war (1467-1477) and most recently by arson in 1950; the present structure was reconstructed in 1955. Kinkakuji is currently a branch temple of the RINZAI ZEN monastery of SHoKOKUJI.

kongdok paramil 功德波羅蜜. See GUnAPĀRAMITĀ

kongdok 功德. See ĀNISAMSA, GUnA

kudokuharamitsu 功德波羅蜜. See GUnAPĀRAMITĀ

kudoku 功德. See ĀNISAMSA, GUnA

Kunaballaba 瞿拏鉢剌婆. See GUnAPRABHA

Kunabalma 求那跋摩. See GUnAVARMAN

Kunabaltara 求那跋陀羅. See GUnABHADRA

Kunaharaba 瞿拏鉢剌婆. See GUnAPRABHA

Lankāvatārasutra. (T. Lang kar gshegs pa'i mdo; C. Ru Lengqie jing; J. Nyu Ryogakyo; K. Ip Nŭngga kyong 入楞伽經). In Sanskrit, "Scripture on the Descent into Lanka"; a seminal MAHĀYĀNA sutra that probably dates from around the fourth century CE. In addition to the Sanskrit recension, which was discovered in Nepal, there are also three extant translations in Chinese, by GUnABHADRA (translated in 443), BODHIRUCI (made in 513), and sIKsĀNANDA (made in 700), and two in Tibetan. The text is composed as a series of exchanges between the Buddha and the BODHISATTVA Mahāmati, who asks his questions on behalf of Rāvana, the YAKsA king of Lanka. Thanks to the wide-ranging nature of Mahāmati's questions, the text covers many of the major themes that were the focus of contemporary Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism, and especially the emerging YOGĀCĀRA school, including the theory of the storehouse consciousness (ĀLAYAVIJNĀNA), the womb or embryo of the buddhas (TATHĀGATAGARBHA), and mind-only (CITTAMĀTRA); despite these apparent parallels, however, the sutra is never quoted in the writings of the most famous figures of Indian Yogācāra, ASAnGA (c. 320-390) and VASUBANDHU (c. fourth century CE). The sutra also offers one of the earliest sustained condemnations in Buddhist literature of meat eating, a practice that was not proscribed within the mainstream Buddhist tradition (see JAINA; DHUTAnGA). The Lankāvatāra purports to offer a comprehensive synthesis of the Mahāyāna, and indeed, its many commentators have sought to discover in it a methodical exposition of scholastic doctrine. In fact, however, as in most Mahāyāna sutras, there is little sustained argumentation through the scripture, and the scripture is a mélange composed with little esprit de synthèse. ¶ The emerging CHAN school of East Asia retrospectively identified the Lankāvatāra as a source of scriptural authority; indeed, some strands of the tradition even claimed that the sutra was so influential in the school's development that its first translator, Gunabhadra, superseded BODHIDHARMA in the roster of the Chan patriarchal lineage, as in the LENGQIE SHIZI JI ("Records of the Masters and Disciples of the Lankāvatāra"). Rather than viewing the Chan school as a systematic reading of the Lankāvatāra, as the tradition claims, it is perhaps more appropriate to say that the tradition was inspired by similar religious concerns. The Newari Buddhist tradition of Nepal also includes the Lankāvatāra among its nine principal books of the Mahāyāna (NAVAGRANTHA; see NAVADHARMA).

Lengqie shizi ji. (J. Ryoga shishiki; K. Nŭngga saja ki 楞伽師資). In Chinese, "Records of the Masters and Disciples of the Lankāvatāra"; a genealogical anthology associated with the Northern school (BEI ZONG) of the early CHAN tradition, compiled by JINGJUE (683-c. 760). The Lengqie shizi ji contains the biographies and sayings of eight generations of masters (twenty-four in total), who received the "transmission of the lamp" (chuandeng) as patriarchs (ZUSHI) in the Chan school. The transmission narrative presented in this text differs markedly from that found in the LIUZU TAN JING ("Platform Sutra"), which becomes normative in the mature Chan tradition. The recipients of the special transmission of the Chan teachings in the Lenqi shizi ji belong instead to the Northern school. Jingjue places GUnABHADRA before BODHIDHARMA in the Chan patriarchal lineage (probably because of his role in translating the LAnKĀVATĀRASuTRA, an important scriptural influence in the early Chan school); in addition, SHENXIU is listed as the successor to the fifth Chinese patriarch, HONGREN, in place of HUINENG. The Lenqie shizi ji also contains a set of rhetorical questions and doctrinal admonitions known as zhishi wenyi (lit. "pointing at things and inquiring into their meaning") in the biographies of Gunabhadra, Bodhidharma, Hongren, and Shenxiu. Jingjue quotes from numerous sources, including his teacher Xuanze's (d.u.) Lengqie renfa zhi ("Records of the Men and Teachings of the Lankāvatāra," apparently extant only in these embedded quotations in the Lenqie shizi ji), the DASHENG QIXIN LUN, the XIUXIN YAO LUN, Bodhidharma's ERRU SIXING LUN, and the Rudao anxin yao fangpian famen attributed to DAOXIN (which also seems to exist only as quoted, apparently in its entirety, in the Lenqie shizi ji). As one of the earliest Chan texts to delineate the transmission-of-the-lamplight theory as espoused by the adherents of the Northern school of Chan, the Lenqie shizi ji is an invaluable tool for understanding the development of the lineage of Chan patriarchs and the early history of the Chan school. See also CHUANDENG LU; LIDAI FABAO JI.

Madhav: “This is another key idea in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, that Nature, what is called Prakriti in Indian philosophy, is not different, not alien to the Purusha. Nature is not foreign to the soul, to God. It is a conscious front of God. Scratch Nature, look behind the exterior of Nature and you will find God. The apparent difference, distinction between Nature and God is only a superficial appearance. Nature is really a power of God. It is devatma shakti, the self-power of God—svagunair nigudham lost in its qualitative workings. She is not separate; conscious, not something unconscious. Nature is aware that it is only a front of God behind.” The Book of the Divine Mother

Mahābherīhārakaparivarta. (T. Rnga bo che chen po'i le'u; C. Dafagu jing; J. Daihokkukyo; K. Taebopko kyong 大法鼓經). A Sanskrit MAHĀYĀNA sutra translated into Chinese by GUnABHADRA in the fifth century as the "Great Drum Sutra"; it is considered one of the major sutras for the exposition of the notion of the "embryo of the buddhas" (TATHĀGATAGARBHA). It is one of two texts (the other being the Mahāyāna AnGULIMĀLĪYASuTRA) that make specific reference to the TATHĀGATAGARBHASuTRA, stating that only BODHISATTVA-MAHĀSATTVAs understand the nature of the tathāgatagarbha and thus preserve the Tathāgatagarbhasutra. This sutra also sets forth the doctrine of a single vehicle (EKAYĀNA), similar to that found in the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA.

Mahākāsyapa. (P. Mahākassapa; T. 'Od srung chen po; C. Mohejiashe; J. Makakasho; K. Mahagasop 摩訶迦葉). Sanskrit name of one of the Buddha's leading disciples, regarded as foremost in the observance of ascetic practices (P. DHUTAnGA; S. dhutaguna). According to the Pāli accounts (where he is called Mahākassapa) his personal name was Pipphali and he was born to a brāhmana family in MAGADHA. Even as a child he was inclined toward renunciation and as a youth refused to marry. Finally, to placate his parents, he agreed to marry a woman matching in beauty a statue he had fashioned. His parents found a match in Bhaddā Kapilānī (S. BHADRA-KAPILĀNĪ), a beautiful maiden from Sāgala. But she likewise was inclined toward renunciation. Both sets of parents foiled their attempts to break off the engagement, so in the end they were wed but resolved not to consummate their marriage. Pipphali owned a vast estate with fertile soil, but one day he witnessed worms eaten by birds turned up by his plowman. Filled with pity for the creatures and fearful that he was ultimately to blame, he resolved then and there to renounce the world. At the same time, Bhaddā witnessed insects eaten by crows as they scurried among sesame seeds put out to dry. Feeling pity and fear at the sight, she also resolved to renounce the world. Realizing they were of like mind, Pipphali and Bhaddā put on the yellow robes of mendicants and abandoned their property. Although they left together, they parted ways lest they prove a hindrance to one another. Realizing what had transpired, the Buddha sat along Pipphali's path and showed himself resplendent with yogic power. Upon seeing the Buddha, Pipphali, whose name thenceforth became Kassapa, immediately recognized him as his teacher and was ordained. Traveling to Rājagaha (S. RĀJAGṚHA) with the Buddha, Mahākassapa requested to exchange his fine robe for the rag robe of the Buddha. The Buddha consented, and his conferral of his own rag robe on Mahākassapa was taken as a sign that, after the Buddha's demise, Mahākassapa would preside over the convention of the first Buddhist council (see COUNCIL, FIRST). Upon receiving the Buddha's robe, he took up the observance of thirteen ascetic practices (dhutanga) and in eight days became an arahant (S. ARHAT). Mahākassapa possessed great supranormal powers (P. iddhi; S. ṚDDHI) and was second only to the Buddha in his mastery of meditative absorption (P. JHĀNA; S. DHYĀNA). His body was said to be adorned with seven of the thirty-two marks of a superman (MAHĀPURUsALAKsAnA). So revered by the gods was he, that at the Buddha's funeral, the divinities would not allow the funeral pyre to be lit until Mahākassapa arrived and had one last chance to worship the Buddha's body. Mahākassapa seems to have been the most powerful monk after the death of the Buddha and is considered by some schools to have been the Buddha's successor as the first in a line of teachers (dharmācārya). He is said to have called and presided over the first Buddhist council, which he convened after the Buddha's death to counter the heresy of the wicked monk SUBHADRA (P. Subhadda). Before the council began, he demanded that ĀNANDA become an arhat in order to participate, which Ānanda finally did early in the morning just before the event. At the council, he questioned Ānanda and UPĀLI about what should be included in the SuTRA and VINAYA collections (PItAKA), respectively. He also chastised Ānanda for several deeds of commission and omission, including his entreaty of the Buddha to allow women to enter the order (see MAHĀPRAJĀPATĪ), his allowing the tears of women to fall on the Buddha's corpse, his stepping on the robe of the Buddha while mending it, his failure to recall which minor monastic rules the Buddha said could be ignored after his death, and his failure to ask the Buddha to live for an eon or until the end of the eon (see CĀPĀLACAITYA). Pāli sources make no mention of Mahākassapa after the events of the first council, although the Sanskrit AsOKĀVADĀNA notes that he passed away beneath three hills where his body will remain uncorrupted until the advent of the next buddha, MAITREYA. At that time, his body will reanimate itself and hand over to Maitreya the rag robe of sĀKYAMUNI, thus passing on the dispensation of the buddhas. It is said that the robe will be very small, barely fitting over the finger of the much larger Maitreya. ¶ Like many of the great arhats, Mahākāsyapa appears frequently in the MAHĀYĀNA sutras, sometimes merely listed as a member of the audience, sometimes playing a more significant role. In the VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEsA, he is one of the sRĀVAKA disciples who is reluctant to visit Vimalakīrti. In the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA, he is one of four arhats who understands the parable of the burning house and rejoices in the teaching of a single vehicle (EKAYĀNA); later in the sutra, the Buddha prophesies his eventual attainment of buddhahood. Mahākāsyapa is a central figure in the CHAN schools of East Asia. In the famous Chan story in which the Buddha conveys his enlightenment by simply holding up a flower before the congregation and smiling subtly (see NIANHUA WEIXIAO), it is only Mahākāsyapa who understands the Buddha's intent, making him the first recipient of the Buddha's "mind-to-mind" transmission (YIXIN CHUANXIN). He is thus considered the first patriarch (ZUSHI) of the Chan school.

Mahāmeghasutra. (T. Sprin chen po'i mdo; C. Dafangdeng wuxiang jing/Dayun jing; J. Daihodo musokyo/Daiungyo; K. Taebangdŭng musang kyong/Taeun kyong 大方等無想經/大雲經). In Sanskrit, the "Great Cloud Sutra"; it is also known in China as the Dafangdeng wuxiang jing. The Mahāmeghasutra contains the teachings given by the Buddha to the bodhisattva "Great Cloud Secret Storehouse" (C. Dayunmizang) on the inconceivable means of attaining liberation, SAMĀDHI, and the power of DHĀRAnĪs. The Buddha also declares that TATHĀGATAS remain forever present in the dharma and the SAMGHA despite having entered PARINIRVĀnA and that they are always endowed with the four qualities of NIRVĀnA mentioned in the MAHĀPARINIRVĀnASuTRA, namely, permanence, bliss, purity, and selfhood (see GUnAPĀRAMITĀ). The Mahāparinirvānasutra's influence on the Mahāmeghasutra can also be witnessed in the story of the goddess "Pure Light" (C. Jingguang). Having heard the Mahāparinirvānasutra in her past life, the goddess is told by the Buddha that she will be reborn as a universal monarch (CAKRAVARTIN). The sutra is often cited for its prophecy of the advent of NĀGĀRJUNA, as well as for its injunctions against meat-eating. It was also recited in order to induce rain. In China, commentators on the Mahāmeghasutra identified the newly enthroned Empress WU ZETIAN as the reincarnation of the goddess, seeking thereby to legitimize her rule. As Emperor Gaozong (r. 649-683) of the Tang dynasty suffered from increasingly ill health, his ambitious and pious wife Empress Wu took over the imperial administration. After her husband's death she exiled the legitimate heir Zhongzong (r. 683-684, 705-710) and usurped the throne. One of the many measures she took to gain the support of the people was the publication and circulation of the Mahāmeghasutra. Two translations by ZHU FONIAN and DHARMAKsEMA were available at the time. Wu Zetian also ordered the establishment of monasteries called DAYUNSI ("Great Cloud Monastery") in every prefecture of the empire.

Mahāparinirvānasutra. (T. Yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo; C. Da banniepan jing; J. Daihatsunehangyo; K. Tae panyolban kyong 大般涅槃經). In Sanskrit, "Discourse on the Great Decease" or the "Great Discourse on the Final Nirvāna"; also known in all languages simply as the Nirvāna Sutra. As its title suggests, the SuTRA describes the events and the Buddha's final instructions prior to his passage into PARINIRVĀnA and is thus the Sanskrit retelling of the mainstream version of the text (see MAHĀPARINIBBĀNASUTTA). However, although some of the same events are narrated in both versions, the Sanskrit text is very different in content, providing one of the most influential sources for MAHĀYĀNA views of the true nature of the Buddha and his NIRVĀnA, and of the buddha-nature (referred to in the sutra as both BUDDHADHĀTU, or "buddha-element," and TATHĀGATAGARBHA). There appear to have been a number of Sanskrit versions of the sutra, the earliest of which was likely compiled in Kashmir (see KASHMIR-GANDHĀRA) in the third century CE. One piece of internal evidence for the date of composition is the presence of prophecies that the dharma would fall into decline seven hundred years after the Buddha's passage into nirvāna. None of the Sanskrit versions is extant (apart from fragments), but several are preserved in Chinese and Tibetan translations. The earliest and shortest of these translations is in six rolls, translated into Chinese by FAXIAN (who brought the Sanskrit text to China from India) and BUDDHABHADRA, and completed in 418 CE. A second version was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan at the end of the eighth century. The longest version, in forty rolls, was translated into Chinese by DHARMAKsEMA and completed in 423. It is known as the "Northern Text." This version was later translated into Tibetan from the Chinese as the Yongs su mya ngan las das pa chen po'i mdo. Besides the Tibetan translation of the long Chinese version by Dharmaksema, there is another version of the sutra in Tibetan translation, a Mahāparinirvānasutra in 3,900 slokas, translated by Jinamitra, Dhyānagarbha, and Ban de btsan dra, as well as a few folios of a translation of the sutra by Kamalagupta and RIN CHEN BZANG PO. The Faxian and Dharmaksema Chinese versions were subsequently edited into a single work, in thirty-six rolls. Chinese scriptural catalogues (JINGLU) also refer to two other translations of the sutra, made prior to that of Faxian, but these are no longer extant. There were significant differences between the versions of Faxian and Dharmaksema (and hence apparently in the Sanskrit recensions that they translated), so much so that scholars speculate that the shorter version was composed in a non-Mahāyāna community, with Mahāyāna elements being added to what evolved into the longer version. The most famous of the differences between the versions occurs on the question of whether all beings, including "incorrigibles" (ICCHANTIKA), possess the buddha-nature; the shorter version says that they do not and they are therefore condemned to eternal damnation; the longer version says that they do and thus even they retain the capacity to achieve enlightenment. The shorter version of the sutra describes the SAMGHA as consisting of monks and nuns and preaches about the need to provide donations (DĀNA) to them; the longer version includes the laity among the saMgha and preaches the need for charity to all persons. The longer version also recommends various forms of punishment, including execution, for those who denigrate the Mahāyāna. The sutra also makes reference to other famous sutras, such as the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA, and is mentioned in other sutras, such as the MAHĀMEGHASuTRA. The Mahāparinirvānasutra, like other important sutras extolling tathāgatagarbha thought, such as the sRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIMHANĀDASuTRA, plays on the classical doctrine of the four "inverted views" (VIPARYĀSA), according to which sentient beings mistakenly view that which is suffering as being pleasurable, that which is impermanent as permanent, that which is impure as pure, and that which is without self as having self. In this sutra, by contrast, the four right views of suffering, impermanence, impurity, and no-self are proclaimed to be erroneous when describing the Buddha, his nirvāna, and the buddhadhātu; these are instead each said to be in fact blissful, permanent, pure, and endowed with self (see GUnAPĀRAMITĀ). Thus, the Buddha did not pass into nirvāna, for his lifespan is incalculable. The Buddha's nirvāna-which is referred to in the sutra as "great nirvāna" (mahānirvāna) or "great final nirvāna" (MAHĀPARINIRVĀnA)-differs from that of the ARHAT. The nirvāna of the arhat is said to be merely the state of the absence of the afflictions (KLEsA) but with no awareness of the buddhadhātu. The nirvāna of the buddha is instead eternal, pure, blissful, and endowed with self, a primordially existent reality that is only temporarily obscured by the klesa; when that nirvāna and buddhadhātu are finally "recognized," buddhahood is then achieved. The Buddha reveals the existence of this nirvāna to bodhisattvas. Because the buddhadhātu is present within all sentient beings, these four qualities are therefore found not simply in the Buddha but in all beings. This implies, therefore, that the Buddha and all beings are endowed with self, in direct contradiction to the normative Buddhist doctrine of no-self (ANĀTMAN). Here, in this sutra, the teaching of no-self is described as a conventional truth (SAMVṚTISATYA): when the Buddha said that there was no self, what he actually meant was that there is no mundane, conditioned self among the aggregates (SKANDHA). The Buddha's true teaching, as revealed at the time of his nirvāna, is that there is a "great self" or a "true self" (S. mahātman; C. dawo), which is the buddhadhātu, in all beings. To assert that there is no self is to misunderstand the true dharma. The doctrine of emptiness (suNYATĀ) thus comes to mean the absence of that which is compounded, suffering, and impermanent. These teachings would become influential in Tibet, especially among the proponents of the doctrine of "other emptiness" (GZHAN STONG). See also GUnAPĀRAMITĀ.

Mahāyāna. (T. theg pa chen po; C. dasheng; J. daijo; K. taesŭng 大乘). In Sanskrit, "great vehicle"; a term, originally of self-appellation, which is used historically to refer to a movement that began some four centuries after the Buddha's death, marked by the composition of texts that purported to be his words (BUDDHAVACANA). Although ranging widely in content, these texts generally set forth the bodhisattva path to buddhahood as the ideal to which all should aspire and described BODHISATTVAs and buddhas as objects of devotion. The key doctrines of the Mahāyāna include the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ), the skillful methods (UPĀYAKAUsALYA) of a buddha, the three bodies (TRIKĀYA) of a buddha, the inherency of buddha-nature (BUDDHADHĀTU; TATHĀGATAGARBHA), and PURE LANDs or buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA). The term Mahāyāna is also appended to two of the leading schools of Indian Buddhism, the YOGĀCĀRA and the MADHYAMAKA, because they accepted the Mahāyāna sutras as the word of the Buddha. However, the tenets of these schools were not restricted to expositions of the philosophy and practice of the bodhisattva but sought to set forth the nature of wisdom and the constituents of the path for the ARHAT as well. The term Mahāyāna often appears in contrast to HĪNAYĀNA, the "lesser vehicle," a pejorative term used to refer to those who do not accept the Mahāyāna sutras as the word of the Buddha. Mahāyāna became the dominant form of Buddhism in China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and Mongolia, and therefore is sometimes referred to as "Northern Buddhism," especially in nineteenth-century sources. Because of the predominance of the Mahāyāna in East Asia and Tibet, it is sometimes assumed that the Mahāyāna displaced earlier forms of Buddhism (sometimes referred to by scholars as "Nikāya Buddhism" or "MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS") in India, but the testimony of Chinese pilgrims, such as XUANZANG and YIJING, suggests that the Mahāyāna remained a minority movement in India. These pilgrims report that Mahāyāna and "hīnayāna" monks lived together in the same monasteries and followed the same VINAYA. The supremacy of the Mahāyāna is also sometimes assumed because of the large corpus of Mahāyāna literature in India. However, scholars have begun to speculate that the size of this corpus may not be a sign of the Mahāyāna's dominance but rather of its secondary status, with more and more works composed but few gaining adherents. Scholars find it significant that the first mention of the term "Mahāyāna" in a stone inscription does not appear in India until some five centuries after the first Mahāyāna sutras were presumably composed, perhaps reflecting its minority, or even marginal, status on the Indian subcontinent. The origins of the Mahāyāna remain the subject of scholarly debate. Earlier theories that saw the Mahāyāna as largely a lay movement against entrenched conservative monastics have given way to views of the Mahāyāna as beginning as disconnected cults (of monastic and sometimes lay members) centered around an individual sutra, in some instances proclaimed by charismatic teachers called DHARMABHĀnAKA. The teachings contained in these sutras varied widely, with some extolling a particular buddha or bodhisattva above all others, some saying that the text itself functioned as a STuPA. Each of these sutras sought to represent itself as the authentic word of sĀKYAMUNI Buddha, which was more or less independent from other sutras; hence, the trope in so many Mahāyāna sutras in which the Buddha proclaims the supremacy of that particular text and describes the benefits that will accrue to those who recite, copy, and worship it. The late appearance of these texts had to be accounted for, and various arguments were set forth, most making some appeal to UPĀYA, the Buddha's skillful methods whereby he teaches what is most appropriate for a given person or audience. Thus, in the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra"), the Buddha famously proclaims that the three vehicles (TRIYĀNA) that he had previously set forth were in fact expedient stratagems to reach different audiences and that there is in fact only one vehicle (EKAYĀNA), revealed in the Saddharmapundarīkasutra, the BUDDHAYĀNA, which had been taught many times in the past by previous buddhas. These early Mahāyāna sutras seem to have been deemed complete unto themselves, each representing its own world. This relatively disconnected assemblage of various cults of the book would eventually become a self-conscious scholastic entity that thought of itself as the Mahāyāna; this exegetical endeavor devoted a good deal of energy to surveying what was by then a large corpus of such books and then attempting to craft the myriad doctrines contained therein into coherent philosophical and religious systems, such as Yogācāra and Madhyamaka. The authority of the Mahāyāna sutras as the word of the Buddha seems to have remained a sensitive issue throughout the history of the Mahāyāna in India, since many of the most important authors, from the second to the twelfth century, often offered a defense of these sutras' authenticity. Another influential strand of early Mahāyāna was that associated with the RĀstRAPĀLAPARIPṚCCHĀ, KĀsYAPAPARIVARTA, and UGRAPARIPṚCCHĀ, which viewed the large urban monasteries as being ill-suited to serious spiritual cultivation and instead advocated forest dwelling (see ARANNAVĀSI) away from the cities, following a rigorous asceticism (S. dhutaguna; P. DHUTAnGA) that was thought to characterize the early SAMGHA. This conscious estrangement from the monks of the city, where the great majority of monks would have resided, again suggests the Mahāyāna's minority status in India. Although one often reads in Western sources of the three vehicles of Buddhism-the hīnayāna, Mahāyāna, and VAJRAYĀNA-the distinction of the Mahāyāna from the vajrayāna is less clear, at least polemically speaking, than the distinction between the Mahāyāna and the hīnayāna, with followers of the vajrayāna considering themselves as following the path to buddhahood set forth in the Mahāyāna sutras, although via a shorter route. Thus, in some expositions, the Mahāyāna is said to subsume two vehicles, the PĀRAMITĀYĀNA, that is, the path to buddhahood by following the six perfections (PĀRAMITĀ) as set forth in the Mahāyāna sutras, and the MANTRAYĀNA or vajrayāna, that is, the path to buddhahood set forth in the tantras.

Malalasekera, Gunapala Piyasena. (1899-1973). One of the most influential Sinhalese scholars of the twentieth century. Born in Malamulla Panadura, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Malalasekera entered the Ceylon Medical College in 1917. He attended the School of Oriental Studies at the University of London from 1923 to 1926, where he was a student of CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS. He later taught Pāli and Buddhist civilization, Pāli language, Sanskrit, and Sinhalese at the University of Ceylon. Aside from an immense influence on at least two generations of Indologists and Buddhologists in Sri Lanka, Malalasekera was also a distinguished diplomat, serving as the Ceylonese ambassador to the then-Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. He served as the permanent representative for Ceylon at the United Nations from 1961 to 1963, and as the high commissioner in Great Britain for four years after that. He was the president of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress from 1939 to 1957 and then again in 1967. He led the first conference of the WORLD FELLOWSHIP OF BUDDHISTS in 1950 and became editor-in-chief of the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism in 1956. Malalasekera published many books and articles, including The Pāli Literature of Ceylon and A Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names.

Malalasekera, Gunapala Piyasena

Mugai Nyodai. (無外如大) (1223-1298). Influential nun, who became Japan's first female ZEN master. A daughter of the powerful Adachi clan, Mugai entered the cloister and became a student of émigré teacher WUXUE ZUYUAN (J. Mugaku Sogen, 1226-1286). Wuxue was a Chinese CHAN master in the LINJI ZONG (J. RINZAISHu), who reluctantly came to Japan in 1279 at the invitation of Hojo Tokimune (1251-1284), the eighth regent of the Kamakura shogunate, to escape the depredations of the Mongol troops then invading China. Nyodai eventually became a dharma heir (J. hassu; C. FASI) in WUXUE's Rinzai lineage, together with the imperial scion and monk KoHo KENNICHI (1241-1316). Nyodai later founded Keiaiji, a Rinzai Zen convent in the Japanese capital of Kyoto, which eventually became the leading cloister of the five mountain convent system (amadera gozan), the nun's counterpart of the five mountain (GOZAN) monastery system of the Kamakura.

Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya. (T. Gzhi thams cad yod par smra ba'i 'dul ba; C. Genben Shuoyiqieyou bu pinaiye; J. Konpon Setsuissaiubu binaya; K. Kŭnbon Sorilch'eyubu pinaeya 根本一切有部毘奈耶). In Sanskrit, the "Monastic Code of the MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA," or "Original Monastic Code of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA School"; one of the six extant recensions of the VINAYA. Divergences between their respective monastic codes were one of the principal differentiating characteristics of the various mainstream schools of Indian Buddhism. The attempt to differentiate the Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya from the Sarvāstivāda vinaya (both of which are extant in Chinese translation) may well derive from a polemical claim by the MATHURĀ branch of the Sarvāstivāda school in north-central India that their tradition comprised the "root" or "foundational" monastic code of the school. Whatever the precise denotation of the term, the Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya, is by far the longest of the extant vinayas-by some calculations some four times longer than any of its counterparts. The Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya contains some material that suggests it may belong to one of the earliest strata of the vinaya literature. The text was composed in Sanskrit in the first or second centuries CE, but only a few Sanskrit fragments have been discovered at GILGIT. The code is preserved in full only in Tibetan translation, although there is also a partial (but still massive) Chinese translation made by YIJING (635-713) in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. The code details 253 rules and regulations for fully ordained monks (BHIKsU) and 364 rules for fully ordained nuns (BHIKsUNĪ) as well as precepts for male and female lay practitioners (UPĀSAKA and UPĀSIKĀ), male and female novices (sRĀMAnERA and sRĀMAnERIKĀ), and female probationers (sIKsAMĀnĀ). Because each rule requires an explanation of how it came to be established, the text is a vast source of stories (many of which do not appear in other codes) that provide essential insights into Buddhist monastic life at the time of its composition. The collection also includes discussions of areas of monastic life that receive short shrift in other recensions, such as how to escort images on procession through town or lend the SAMGHA's money with interest to laypeople. The Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya also includes many narratives (AVADĀNA) and stories, including one of the earliest Sanskrit accounts of the life of the Buddha, as well as SuTRAs that in other mainstream traditions appear in the scripture section of the canon (SuTRAPItAKA). Because of its eclectic content, the Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya functions almost as proto-canon (TRIPItAKA). The Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya is the monastic code still followed today in the Tibetan traditions of Buddhism, where it is studied primarily via the summary composed by GUnAPRABHA, entitled the VINAYASuTRA.

Myoan Eisai. (明庵榮西) (1141-1215). Japanese monk associated with the TENDAISHu (C. TIANTAI ZONG) and ZENSHu (C. CHAN ZONG) traditions; a successor in the HUANGLONG PAI collateral lineage of the Chinese LINJI ZONG, he was also the first monk to introduce the Chan school to Japan. Eisai became a monk at a young age and received the full monastic precepts on HIEIZAN, studying the Tendai teachings at the monastery of MIIDERA. In 1168, he left for China and made a pilgrimage to Mt. Tiantai and Mt. Ayuwang in present-day Zhejiang province. He returned to Japan that same year with numerous Tiantai texts of and made an effort to revitalize the Tendai tradition in Japan. In 1187, Eisai set out on another trip to China. This second time, he stayed for five years and studied under the Chan master Xu'an Huaichang (d.u.) on Mt. Tiantai. Eisai followed Xu'an to the monastery of Jingdesi on Mt. Tiantong when the latter was appointed its abbot in 1189. After receiving dharma transmission from Xu'an, Eisai returned to Japan in 1191. Eisai's efforts to spread the teachings of Zen was suppressed by his fellow Tendai monks of ENRYAKUJI despite his claim that the denial of Chan meant the denial of the teachings of SAICHo, the spiritual progenitor of Tendai. In 1198, Eisai composed his KoZEN GOKOKURON, wherein he defended Zen and argued for its usefulness in governing the nation and protecting Japan from foreign invasion. In 1199, he traveled to Kamakura where he won the support of the new shogunate and became the founding abbot (J. kaisan; C. KAISHAN) of the monastery of Jufukuji. Three years later, the shogun Minamoto Yoriie (1182-1204) established KENNINJI and appointed Eisai as its founding abbot. In 1214, he composed his treatise on tea, the KISSA YoJoKI, for Minamoto Sanetomo (1192-1219) who suffered from ill health. At Kenninji, Eisai taught a form of Zen that reflected his training in the esoteric (MIKKYo) teachings of Tendai.

Nanzenji. (南禪寺). In Japanese, "Southern ZEN Monastery," major monastery in Kyoto, Japan, that is currently the headquarters (honzan) of the Nanzenji branch of the RINZAISHu. In 1264, Emperor Kameyama (r. 1259-1274) built a country villa, which he later converted to a Zen monastery named Nanzenji. He invited the monk Mukan Fumon (1212-1291), a disciple of ENNI BEN'EN (1202-1280), to serve as the monastery's founding abbot (J. kaisan; C. KAISHAN). After Fumon's departure, the monk Soen (1261-1313) succeeded Mukan and oversaw additional construction at the monastery. As the first Zen monastery constructed by an emperor, many eminent Zen masters were appointed to its abbacy. In 1325, Emperor Godaigo (r. 1318-1339) invited MUSo SoSEKI (1275-1351) to serve as abbot of Nanzenji. After his triumphant return to Kyoto in 1334, Godaigo elevated Nanzenji to the first rank in the influential GOZAN system. Nanzenji maintained this rank, even after political power was handed over to the Ashikaga shogunate. During the Muromachi period, the abbacy of Nanzenji came to be restricted only to those who had already served as abbot of another gozan monastery. For this reason, Nanzenji became the center of gozan culture and Zen practice. The monastery suffered from a series of conflagrations in 1393, 1447, and 1467. Although the monastery never fully recovered from these fires, some restoration efforts were made by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598).

netrapratisthāpana. (P. akkhipujā; T. spyan dbye). In Sanskrit, "fixing the eyes," viz., "opening the eyes"; a consecration ceremony for a buddha image (BUDDHĀBHIsEKA), which serves to vivify the inert statue or painting, rendering it a hypostatization of the buddha. There are many versions of the ritual. In Southeast Asia, after making offerings to such Brahmanical protective divinities as INDRA, AGNI, or YAMA and conducting a purification ritual, the eyes of the image are painted in as the final act of preparing for its installation in a shrine. The ritual concludes with the recitation of a series of protective chants (PARITTA). The entire ritual often runs through the entire night, with the eyes "opened" around sunrise as the climax of the ritual. The Pāli form akkhipujā, lit. "ritual of [opening] the eyes," is attested by the late-fifth or early-sixth century, in the MAHĀVAMSA and BUDDHAGHOSA's SAMANTAPĀSĀDIKĀ. In Mahāyāna texts, such image consecration by painting in the eyes appears in the RATNAGUnASAMCAYAGĀTHĀ, which dates prior to the fifth century CE. See also PRATIstHĀ. For East Asian equivalents, see DIANYAN; KAIYAN.

Nirguna Brahman: In the teachings of Yoga, God anterior to existence and without attributes, the higher aspect of the Deity, the mysterious source out of which the creatively active aspect Saguna Brahman (q.v.) emerges.

nirguna brahman ::: the Eternal without qualities; the Impersonal Divine.

Nirgunabrahman: The impersonal, attributeless Absolute.

nirguna brahman. :::the supreme Reality, without form, quality or attribute;

nirgunam gunabhoktr ca ::: the enjoyer of the gunas, though not limited by them. [Gita 13.15]

nirgun.am ::: see nirgun.a. nirgunam nirgun nirguna

nirgun.a (nirguna; nirgunam) ::: without qualities; absence of qualities; nirguna short for nirgun.a brahman, "an Infinite essentially free from all limitation by qualities, properties, features"; the ananda of pure featureless consciousness (cit), another term for cidananda. nirgun nirguna

nirguna ::: qualityless; the Impersonal.

Nirguna: Sanskrit for “devoid of qualities” (guna), predicated as early as the Upanishads (q.v.) of the Absolute as its in-itself aspect (cf. saguna). The highest reality is conceived to be of such fullness, such transcendence that it has no part in the manifold of the phenomenal which is mere maya (q.v.) in Sankara’s philosophy in so far as it is esoteric.

Nirguna (Sanskrit) Nirguṇa [from nis destitute, without + guṇa quality] Devoid of qualities or properties; often applied to the cosmic hierarch as being itself without definable properties, and yet the origin of all the gunas which produce the manifested universe. Thus parabrahman or even Brahman is nirguna, whereas the manifested Brahma possesses gunas (attributes) and therefore is spoken of as saguna (with attributes).

nirguna sat ::: impersonal being.

Nirguna: (Skr.) "Devoid of qualities" (cf. guna), predicated as early as the Upanishads (q.v.) of the Absolute as its in-it-self aspect (cf. saguna). The highest reality is conceived to be of such fulness, such transcendence that it has no part in the manifold of the phenomenal which is mere maya (q.v.) in Sankara's (q.v.) philosophy in so far as it is esoteric. -- K.F.L.

nirguna. ::: unmanifested; without form, quality or attribute

Nirguna: Without attribute.

nistraigunya ::: [a state in which one is] free from the three gunas.

nistraigunyo bhavarjuna ::: do thou become free from the triple guna, O Arjuna. [Gita 2.45]

omyoyok 五妙欲. See PANCAKĀMAGUnA

One of the three gunas. Derived from sat meaning real, true, good; and tva meaning state of being, or abode of. (in some texts as satva or sattwa)

Padartha (Sanskrit) Padārtha [from pada step, stride, foot + artha relating to a thing or object; purpose or object, motive or reason] The meaning of a word; also that which corresponds to the meaning of a word, hence a material object and even a man, a person. In philosophy and logic, used as a category or predicament, the Vaiseshika school and the Vedantins enumerating seven, while the Sankhyas enumerate 25. Blavatsky compares the seven padarthas of the Vaiseshikas to the seven attributes of the seven principles as follows: dravya to sthula-sarira; guna to jiva; karma to linga-sarira; samanya to kama; visesha to manas; samavaya to buddhi; abhava to atman (BCW 4:580).

paNcakāmaguna

paNcakāmaguna. (T. 'dod yon sna lnga; C. wumiaoyu; J. gomyoyoku; K. omyoyok 五妙欲). In Sanskrit and Pāli, the "five strands of desire," the five qualities of the sensuous realm (KĀMADHĀTU): viz., pleasing visual objects, sounds, fragrances, tastes, and tangible objects. It is through attachment to these five that beings are reborn in the sensuous realm and it is in turn by giving up these attachments that beings are able to develop meditative absorption (DHYĀNA) and be reborn in the subtle-materiality realm (RuPADHĀTU) and the immaterial realm (ĀRuPYADHĀTU).

Phalguna (Sanskrit) Phalguna, Phālguna A name of Arjuna, because he was born in the spring month of Phalguna — the month during which the full moon stands in the nakshatra Phalguni.

PrajNāpāramitāratnagunasaMcayagāthā

PrajNāpāramitāratnagunasaMcayagāthā. (S). See RATNAGUnASAMCAYAGĀTHĀ.

Prakaranapāda[sāstra]. (T. Rab tu byed pa'i rkang pa; C. Pinlei zu lun; J. Honruisokuron; K. P'umnyu chok non 品類足論). In Sanskrit, "Exposition"; a book from the later stratum of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA, which is traditionally listed as the first of the six ancillary texts, or "feet" (pāda), of the JNĀNAPRASTHĀNA, the central treatise, or body (sarīra), of the Sarvāstivāda ABHIDHARMAPItAKA. The Prakaranapāda is attributed by tradition to Vasumitra and dates from c. 160 to 320 CE, probably following the compilation of the ABHIDHARMAMAHĀVIBHĀsĀ. The treatise is extant only in a complete Chinese translation made by GUnABHADRA and Bodhiyasas between 435 and 443. The Prakaranapāda establishes the definitive Sarvāstivāda categorization of dharmas into a fivefold grouping: materiality (RuPA), mentality (CITTA), mental concomitants (CAITTA or CAITASIKA), conditioned factors dissociated from thought (CITTAVIPRAYUKTASAMSKĀRA), and uncompounded elements (ASAMSKṚTADHARMA). This fivefold grouping is first employed in the ABHIDHARMAMAHĀVIBHĀsĀ, whence it enters the mainstream of the Sarvāstivāda-VAIBHĀsIKA analysis of dharmas and is subsequently adopted by several other Buddhist schools, including the SAUTRĀNTIKA, MADHYAMAKA, and YOGĀCĀRA (see BAIFA). The Prakaranapāda also adds a new listing of KUsALAMAHĀBHuMIKA, or factors always associated with wholesome states of mind. The Prakaranapāda was the first of the pādasāstras to represent the mature synthesis of Sarvāstivāda doctrine, which was followed in later abhidharma manuals and primers. The text therefore represents a transitional point in Sarvāstivāda abhidharma writing between the pādasāstras of the middle period and the commentarial writings of the later tradition.

prakriti; prakruti. ::: "nature"; causal matter; primordial substance out of which all things are created; the cause of illusive creation, the delusion; the primal nature without an "I"-sense; primordial unmanifest essence; that state in which the three gunas exist in equilibrium; when this equilibrium is disturbed, creation begins and the body, senses and mind are formed. The man who is deluded by egoism identifies the Self with the body, mind, the life-force and the senses, and ascribes to the Self all the attributes of the body and the senses. In fact, the gunas of nature perform all actions

Prakrit is the Force that acts. A Force may be in action or in quiescence, but when it acts it is as much a force as when it does not act. The gunas arc an action of the Force, they are in the Force itself.

Prakriti ::: What is meant by Prakriti or Nature is the outer or executive side of the Shakti or Conscious Force which forms and moves the worlds. This outer side appears here to be mechanical, a play of the forces, Gunas, etc. Behind it is the living Consciousness and Force of the Divine, the divine Shakti. The Prakriti itself is divided into the lower and higher,—the lower is the Prakriti of the Ignorance, the Prakriti of mind, life and Matter separated in consciousness from the Divine; the higher is the Divine Prakriti of Sachchidananda with its manifesting power of supermind, always aware of the Divine and free from Ignorance and its consequences. Man so long as he is in the ignorance is subject to the lower Prakriti, but by spiritual evolution he becomes aware of the higher Nature and seeks to come into contact with it. He can ascend into it and it can descend into him—such an ascent and descent can transform the lower nature of mind, life and Matter.
   Ref: SABCL Vol. 22-23-24, Page: 287


Prakrti: (Skr.) Primary matter or substance, nature, with purusa (q.v.) one of the two eternal bases of the world according to the Sankhya and the Yogasutras. It is the unconscious yet subtle cause of all material phenomena having three gunas (q.v.), sativa, rajas, tamas. Modifications of this view may be met throughout Indian philosophy. -- K.F.L.

prakriti ::: literally "making first"; the original or natural form of anything; the original producer of the material world, which consists of the three gunas.

Pratītyasamutpādavibhanganirdesasutra. (T. Rten cing 'brel bar 'byung ba dang po dang rnam par dbye ba bstan pa zhes bya ba'i mdo). In Sanskrit, "Sutra Setting Forth the Divisions of Dependent Origination," also known as the Pratītyasamutpādādivibhanganirdesasutra, a work discovered inscribed on two bricks at NĀLANDĀ monastery. The sutra was commented upon by VASUBANDHU in his Pratītyasamutpādavyākhyā, with a subcommentary by Gunamati.

Pulmo podokchang panya paramil kyong 佛母寶德藏般若波羅蜜經. See RATNAGUnASAMCAYAGĀTHĀ

Qiunabamo 求那跋摩. See GUnAVARMAN

Qiunabatuoluo 求那跋陀羅. See GUnABHADRA

rajas ::: 1. [one of the three gunas]: the mode of action, desire and passion; the force of kinesis (translates in quality as struggle and effort, passion and action). ::: 2. [Ved.]: a word for the heavenly and earthly worlds, meant probably "the shining"; the lower world.

Rajas ::: One of the three Gunas of Hinduism. Refers to the volition and impulse to activity that drives reality forward.

rajas. ::: qualities of restlessness, passion, activity, excitability, aggressiveness and emotion; the principle of dynamism in nature bringing about all changes; through this is protected the relative appearance of the Absolute as the universe; second of the three qualities &

Rajas(Sanskrit) ::: One of the three gunas or "qualities" in the correlations of force and matter, the other twobeing respectively sattva and tamas. Rajas is the guna or the "quality" of longing, passion, activity, one ofthe three divisions of nature. In a sense it is the result or consequence of the elementary urge in natureproducing change and the longing therefor.

rajoguna. ::: restless activity; passion; desire for an object or goal; transformation and change; evolution; basis of pulsations, vibrations, oscillations, and fluctuations in nature; symmetry breaking tendency; originating from desires and attachments, it leads to anticipations and attachments of results; hostile force that pulls one down into samsara

rajogunasamudbhavah ::: which has its native point of origin in the rajasika guna [Gita 3.37]

rajogun.a ::: the gun.a of rajas. rajoguna

rajoguna ::: [the quality (guna) of rajas], the quality of vital passion, impulsion or drive of propensity.

Rāstrapālaparipṛcchā. (T. Yul 'khor skyong gis zhus pa; C. Huguo pusahui [jing]; J. Gokoku bosatsue[kyo]; K. Hoguk posal hoe [kyong] 護國菩薩會[經]). In Sanskrit, "The Questions of RĀstRAPĀLA," one of the earliest MAHĀYĀNA sutras; the terminus ad quem for its composition is the third century CE, when DHARMARAKsA (c. 233-310) translated the sutra into Chinese (c. 270 CE), probably following a manuscript from the GANDHĀRA region in the KHAROstHĪ script. (The extant Sanskrit recension is much later.) There are also two later Chinese translations, one made c. 585-600 by JNĀNAGUPTA and other c. 980 by DĀNAPĀLA. The Rastrapāla represents a strand of early MAHĀYĀNA (found also in such sutras as the KĀsYAPAPARIVARTA and the UGRAPARIPṚCCHĀ) that viewed the large urban monasteries as being ill-suited to serious spiritual cultivation because of their need for constant fund-raising from the laity and their excessive entanglements in local politics. The Rāstrapāla strand of early Mahāyāna instead dedicated itself to forest dwelling (see ARANNAVĀSI) away from the cities, like the "rhinoceros" (KHAdGAVIsĀnA), and advocated a return to the rigorous asceticism (S. DHuTAGUnA; see P. DHUTAnGA) that was thought to characterize the early SAMGHA. To the Rāstrapāla author(s), the Buddha's own infinitely long career as a bodhisattva was an exercise in self-sacrifice and physical endurance, which they in turn sought to emulate through their own asceticism. The physical perfection the Buddha achieved through this long training, as evidenced in his acquisition of the thirty-two major marks of the superman (MAHĀPURUsALAKsAnA), receives special attention in the sutra. This approach is in marked contrast to other early Mahāyāna sutras, such as the AstASĀHASRIKĀPRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ, which were suspicious of the motives of forest dwellers and supportive of cenobitic monasticism in the towns and cities, where monks and nuns would be in a better position to serve the laity by preaching the dharma to them.

Ratnagotravibhāga. [alt. Ratnagotravibhanga] (T. Dkon mchog gi rigs rnam par dbye ba; C. Jiujing yisheng baoxing lun; J. Kukyo ichijo hoshoron; K. Kugyong ilsŭng posong non 究竟一乘寶性論). In Sanskrit, "Analysis of the Lineage of the [Three] Jewels," a seminal Indian MAHĀYĀNA sĀSTRA on the doctrine of the "embryo of the tathāgatas" (TATHĀGATAGARBHA), probably dating from the fourth century CE. Its full title is Ratnagotravibhāga-Mahāyāna-Uttaratantra and the treatise is often referred to simply as the Uttaratantra, or "Sublime Continuation." The Sanskrit recension is extant, along with Chinese and Tibetan translations. (RATNAMATI's Chinese translation was finished in 508.) The Chinese tradition attributes the work to Sāramati (C. Jianyi), while the Tibetan tradition attributes the core verses of the text to MAITREYA/MAITREYANĀTHA and its prose commentary entitled the Uttaratantravyākhyā to ASAnGA. It is one of the "five books of Maitreya," which, according to legend, were presented by the future buddha Maitreya to Asanga during the latter's visit to the TUsITA heaven. The primary subject of the Ratnagotravibhāga is the tathāgatagarbha or buddha-nature; this is the element (DHĀTU) or lineage (GOTRA) of the buddhas, which is present in all beings. The text offers an extensive overview of the tathāgatagarbha doctrine as set forth in such sutras as the TATHĀGATAGARBHASuTRA and the sRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIMHANĀDASuTRA. Like the srīmālā Sutra, the treatise describes the tathāgatagarbha as being both empty (sunya) of the afflictions (KLEsA) but nonempty (asunya) of the buddhas' infinite virtues. In ordinary beings, the tathāgatagarbha may be obscured by adventitious defilements, but when those defilements are removed, the state of enlightenment is restored. In proving this claim, the treatise examines in detail the "body of the tathāgata," an alternate name for the buddha-nature, which is said to have four perfect virtues (GUnAPĀRAMITĀ): permanence, bliss, selfhood, and purity. Those who have not realized the buddha-nature make two fundamental mistakes about emptiness (suNYATĀ): either viewing emptiness as annihilation (see UCCHEDADṚstI), assuming that the experience of NIRVĀnA requires the extinction of the phenomenal world; or substantiating emptiness by presuming that it is something distinct from materiality (RuPA). Instead, the Ratnagotravibhāga asserts that the tathāgatagarbha is free from all the various types of afflictions, but fully contains the myriad inconceivable attributes of a buddha. The treatise also examines the specific deeds the buddhas perform for the welfare of all sentient beings. See also FOXING.

RatnagunasaMcayagāthā

RatnagunasaMcayagāthā. (T. Yon tan rin po che sdud pa tshigs su bcad pa; C. Fomu baodezang bore boluomi jing; J. Butsumo hotokuzo hannya haramitsukyo; K. Pulmo podokchang panya paramil kyong 佛母寶德藏般若波羅蜜經). In Sanskrit, "Verses on the Collection of Precious Qualities," the longer title is PrajNāpāramitāratnagunasaMcayagāthā, or "Verses on the Collection of the Precious Qualities of the Perfection of Wisdom." The RatnagunasaMcayagāthā epitomizes the early MAHĀYĀNA in its emphasis on the emptiness (suNYATĀ) of the aggregates (SKANDHA) and its praise of the path of the BODHISATTVA over that of the ARHAT. The text is considered to be of particular importance in the history of the Mahāyāna because many of its verses, particularly those that appear early in the text, may represent some of the earliest expressions of Mahāyāna philosophy and may date as far back as 100 BCE. Another indication of the text's antiquity is that it was translated into Chinese as early as the second century CE. The only extant Sanskrit version is that edited in the eighth century by HARIBHADRA to conform to the structure of the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA, making the precise order of the original verses difficult to determine. Many Mahāyāna sutras are composed of alternating verse and prose. The verses of the RatnagunasaMcayagāthā are written in an ancient meter, suggesting to some that they constitute part of an original sutra, with the AstASĀHASRIKĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ ("Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines") supplying the prose section. However, because the verses that appear in the RatnagunasaMcayagāthā are not in all cases identical to those in the Astasāhasrikā, the RatnagunasaMcayagāthā may have originally been a separate work. It appears as the verse recapitulations in the Chinese translation of the Astasāhasrikā and as the eighty-fourth chapter of the Astadasasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā ("Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines") in its Tibetan translation.

Reiyukai. (霊友会/靈友會). In Japanese, lit. "Numinous Friends Society," or "Society of Friends of the Spirits"; a Japanese Buddhist lay organization, deriving from the teachings of the NICHIRENSHu. It was founded in 1925 by KUBO KAKUTARo (1892-1944) and KOTANI KIMI (1901-1971), the wife of Kubo's elder brother, who took over leadership of the organization and became president in 1944 upon Kubo's death. Kubo insisted that everyone keep a family death register and give posthumous names to venerated ancestors; these activities were formerly the domain of monks, who would be paid for their services. His other ideas included the classical directive to convert the world into a PURE LAND for Buddhism and the need to teach others the truth. He particularly emphasized the ability of each individual to improve him or herself. Kubo's ideas appealed to the poor and he began to attract converts quickly, including his brother Kotani Yasukichi and Kotani's wife, Kotani Kimi. In 1971 after Kotani Kimi died, Kubo's son Kubo Tsugunari took over as the leader of the group. For years he had prepared for this future, including studying Indian philosophy and Buddhism at Rissho University. Despite this preparation, Reiyukai was rocked by what some viewed as his personal failings and political maneuverings and Kubo Tsugunari eventually lost his leadership post. More recent leaders have been elected democratically. Some noted activities in recent years include opening the Lumbinī International Research Institute in Nepal and the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies in Tokyo. The organization reached its peak during the years surrounding the Second World War, when it claimed some three million members, and was the source of numerous Nichiren-related new religious movements, of which the RISSHo KoSEIKAI, founded in 1938, became the most prominent. Reiyukai continues to be an active lay organization in both Japan and abroad. The Reiyukai organization has no clergy and no formal affiliation with any other Buddhist school, but instead relies on volunteer lay teachers who lead informal group meetings and discussions. Reiyukai focuses on the human capacity for lifelong self-cultivation in order to become ever more wise and compassionate. All its adherents must have a personal sponsor in order to join the order. The school stresses ancestor worship, believing that personal and social ills are the result of inadequate veneration of ancestor spirits who have been unable to attain buddhahood and instead became guardian spirits until the proper rites are performed so they may be liberated. Its followers believe that reciting the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra") in abridged form during daily morning and evening services or a group meeting transfers merit to their ancestors.

Rinzaishu. (濟宗). In Japanese, "Rinzai School"; one of the major Japanese ZEN schools established in the early Kamakura period. The various branches of the Japanese Rinzai Zen tradition trace their lineages back to the Chinese CHAN master LINJI YIXUAN (J. Rinzai Gigen) and his eponymous LINJI ZONG; the name Rinzai, like its Chinese counterpart, is derived from Linji's toponym. The tradition was first transmitted to Japan by the TENDAISHu monk MYoAN EISAI (1141-1215), who visited China twice and received training and certification in the HUANGLONG PAI collateral line of the Linji lineage on his second trip. Eisai's Zen teachings, however, reflected his training in the esoteric (MIKKYo) teachings of the Tendai school; he did not really intend to establish an entirely new school. After Eisai, the Rinzai tradition was transferred through Japanese monks who trained in China and Chinese monks who immigrated to Japan. Virtually all of the Japanese Rinzai tradition was associated with the YANGQI PAI collateral line of the Linji lineage (see YANGQI FANGHUI), which was first imported by the Japanese vinaya specialist Shunjo (1166-1227). According to the early-Edo-period Nijushiryu shugen zuki ("Diagrammatic Record of the Sources of the Twenty-Four Transmissions of the Teaching"), twenty-four Zen lineages had been transmitted to Japan since the Kamakura period, twenty-one of which belonged to the Rinzai tradition; with the exception of Eisai's own lineage, the remaining twenty lineages were all associated with the Yangqi collateral line. Soon after its introduction into Japan, the Rinzai Zen tradition rose to prominence in Kamakura and Kyoto, where it received the patronage of shoguns, emperors, and the warrior class. The Rinzai teachers of this period included monks from Tendai and SHINGONSHu backgrounds, such as ENNI BEN'EN (1202-1280) and SHINCHI KAKUSHIN (1207-1298), who promoted Zen with an admixture of esoteric elements. Chinese immigrant monks like LANXI DAOLONG (J. Rankei Doryu, 1213-1278) and WUXUE ZUYUAN (J. Mugaku Sogen, 1226-1286) also contributed to the rapid growth in the popularity of the Rinzai tradition among the Japanese ruling classes, by transporting the Song-style Linji Chan tradition as well as Song-dynasty Chinese culture more broadly. With the establishment of the Ashikaga shogunate in 1338, the major Zen temples were organized following the Song Chinese model into the GOZAN (five mountains) system, a tripartite state control system consisting of "five mountains" (gozan), "ten temples" (jissetsu), and several associated "miscellaneous mountains" (shozan). The powerful gozan monasteries located in Kamakura and Kyoto functioned as centers of classical Chinese learning and culture, and continued to influence the ruling classes in Japan until the decline of the Ashikaga shogunate in the sixteenth century. The disciples of Enni Ben'en and MUSo SOSEKI (1275-1351) dominated the gozan monasteries. In particular, Muso Soseki was deeply engaged in both literary endeavors and political activities; his lineage produced several famous gozan poets, such as Gido Shushin (1325-1388) and Zekkai Chushin (1336-1405). Outside the official gozan ecclesiastical system were the RINKA, or forest, monasteries. DAITOKUJI and MYoSHINJI, the two principal rinka Rinzai monasteries, belonged to the otokan lineage, which is named after its first three masters NANPO JoMYo (1235-1309), SoHo MYoCHo (1282-1337), and KANZAN EGEN (1277-1360). This lineage emphasized rigorous Zen training rather than the broader cultural endeavors pursued in the gozan monasteries. After the decline of the gozan monasteries, the otokan lineage came to dominate the Rinzai Zen tradition during the Edo period and was the only Rinzai line to survive to the present. Despite the presence of such influential monks as TAKUAN SoHo (1573-1645) and BANKEI YoTAKU (1622-1693), the Rinzai tradition began to decline by the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. The monk credited with revitalizing the Rinzai tradition during the Edo period is the Myoshinji monk HAKUIN EKAKU (1685-1768). Hakuin systematized the KoAN (see GONG'AN; KANHUA CHAN) method of meditation, which is the basis of modern Rinzai Zen practice; it is also through Hakuin and his disciples that most Rinzai masters of today trace their lineages. The Rinzai tradition is currently divided into the fifteen branches named after each of their head monasteries, which represents the influence of the head and branch temple system designed in the Edo period. Of the fifteen branches, the Myoshinji branch has largely eclipsed its rivals and today is the largest and most influential of all the Rinzai lines.

Roerich, George (Yuri). (1902-1960). George (Yuri) Nikolaevich Roerich was the son of Russian painter and mystic Nikolai Roerich and Helena Ivanova, a Theosophist who translated Madame Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine into Russian. Roerich spent much of his childhood traveling the world. The family traveled to Urga, in the far western region of Siberia, and their journeys took them to Ladakh as well as later to Europe and America. He studied Asian languages at the University of London, at Harvard University, and at Paris, where he studied with SYLVAIN LÉVI. Nikolai Roerich believed that sAMBHALA was located in Central Asia, perhaps in the Gobi Desert, and from 1925 to 1928 he led an expedition through Chinese Turkestan, Mongolia, and Tibet, in search of evidence of the hidden kingdom of sambhala, the supposed abode of the mahātmas, the spiritual masters of all religions. In 1928, George and his father established the Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute in Darjeeling, India, moving later to the Kullu Valley in the western Himalayas. George Roerich was a scholar in Tibetology and Mongolian studies, later serving as the first director of the Buddhist Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow. Roerich played a significant role in reviving Russian Orientalism after returning from exile in 1957. Under Khrushchev's government, Roerich was able to revive the Biblioteca Buddhica Series, which had ceased publication in 1937. He worked with Bidiya Dandaron and GUNAPALA PIYASENA MALALASEKERA (1899-1973) and succeeded in printing the first Russian version of the DHAMMAPADA in 1960. He died suddenly from a heart attack that same year. Among his publications, his most important for Buddhist studies was his translation (with the assistance of DGE 'DUN CHOS 'PHEL) of the DEB THER SNGON PO ("Blue Annals") by 'Gos lo tsā ba Gzhon nu dpal.

sadaksarī. [alt. sadaksarīvidyā] (T. yi ge drug pa'i rig sngags; C. liuzi daming/liuzi zhangju; J. rokujidaimyo/rokujishoku; K. yukcha taemyong/yukcha changgu 六字大明/六字章句). In Sanskrit, "six-syllable spell"; the renowned MANTRA associated with the BODHISATTVA of compassion, AVALOKITEsVARA: viz., "OM MAnI PADME HuM." The mantra has six syllables and is used to call upon the bodhisattva, using his epithet Manipadma or "Jewel Lotus," a four-armed form who holds both a rosary of jewels (RATNA) and a lotus flower (PADMA). Hence, the mantra means "OM, O Jewel-Lotus," not "jewel in the lotus," contrary to popular belief. The earliest textual source for this mantra is the KĀRAndAVYuHA [alt. Avalokitesvaraguna-Kārandavyuha]. See OM MAnI PADME HuM.

Sadguna: Good quality; virtuous quality.

sagun.abodha ::: consciousness of sagun.a brahman. sagunabodha saguna sagun

Saguna Brahman: In the teachings of Yoga, the creatively active aspect of the Deity, endowed with specific attributes and powers. In Saguna Brahman there appear the features of Ishwara (q.v.).

saguna brahman. ::: the Absolute with qualities; manifest Brahman; the Absolute conceived as the creator, preserver and destroyer of the universe; the highest attainment which is eternal and undecaying

saguna brahman ::: the Eternal with (infinite) qualities; the Personal Divine.

Sagunabrahma: The supreme Absolute conceived of as endowed with qualities like mercy, omnipotence, omniscience, etc., as distinguished from the undifferentiated Absolute.

saguna. ::: manifested; possessing attributes or qualities

sagun.am ::: see sagun.a. sagunam sagun saguna-nirguna

sagun.a (saguna; sagunam) ::: with qualities; characterised by a percepsaguna tion of the gun.as or "qualities in universal Being" of which all things are the manifestation; brahman in the action of the three gun.as of the lower prakr.ti, self-displayed as "the creator and originator of works in the mutable becoming"; short for sagun.a brahman.

Saguna: Sanskrit for “possessed of qualities”; predicated of the Absolute from the exoteric point of view of the worshipper, in the philosophy of Sankara. (Cf. nirguna.)

saguna sat ::: personal being.

Saguna: (Skr.) "possessed of qualities" (see guna), predicated of the Absolute from the exoteric point of view of the worshipper, according to Sankara (q.v.; see Nirguna). -- K.F.L.

saguna ::: [with quality, personal]; the Personal.

Saidaiji. (西大寺). In Japanese, "Great Monastery to the West"; one of the seven major monasteries in the ancient Japanese capital of Nara (J. NANTO SHICHIDAIJI); the headquarters of the True Word Precepts (SHINGON-Ritsu) school in Japan. As its name implies, Saidaiji is located in the western part of Nara and was first constructed in 765 in accordance with a decree from SHoTOKU TAISHI (572-622). The monastery originally had two main halls, one dedicated to the buddha BHAIsAJYAGURU and the other to the bodhisattva MAITREYA. After conflagrations in 846 and 860, the monastery began to decline, but revived when Eison (Kosho bosatsu; 1201-1290) moved there in 1235 and made it the center of his movement to restore the VINAYA. After another major fire in 1502, the Tokugawa Shogunate supported a rebuilding project. The monastery enshrines four bronze statues of the four heavenly kings (CATURMAHĀRĀJA), dating to the Nara (710-794) period. The main hall is dominated by a statue of sĀKYAMUNI said to have been carved cooperatively by eleven sculptors in 1249. To its right is a statue of MANJUsRĪ riding a lion, to its left, a statue of Maitreya dating from 1322.

sākyaprabha. (T. Shākya 'od). (d.u.) Medieval Indian master of the VINAYA, renowned in Tibet, together with GUnAPRABHA, as one of the "two supreme ones" (mchog gnyis). Apparently from KASHMIR, he was an expert in the MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA. He is best known for his work srāmaneratrisatakakārikā ("Three Hundred Verses on the Novice"), to which he wrote an autocommentary entitled Prabhāvatī.

Samanyaguna: General quality; common nature or characteristic.

SaMcayagāthāprajNāpāramitā. (S). See RATNAGUnASAMCAYAGĀTHĀ.

SaMdhinirmocanasutra. (T. Mdo sde dgongs 'grel; C. Jieshenmi jing; J. Gejinmikkyo; K. Haesimmil kyong 解深密經). In Sanskrit, variously interpreted to mean the sutra "Unfurling the Real Meaning," "Explaining the Thought," or "Unraveling the Bonds"; one of the most important Mahāyāna sutras, especially for the YOGĀCĀRA school. The sutra is perhaps most famous for its delineation of the three turnings of the wheel of the dharma (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA), which would become an influential schema for classifying the teachings of the Buddha. The sutra has ten chapters. The first four chapters deal with the nature of the ultimate (PARAMĀRTHA) and how it is to be understood. The fifth chapter discusses the nature of consciousness, including the storehouse consciousness (ĀLAYAVIJNĀNA) where predispositions (VĀSANĀ) are deposited and ripen. The sixth chapter discusses the three natures (TRISVABHĀVA). In the seventh chapter, the division of the Buddha's teachings into the provisional (NEYĀRTHA) and the definitive (NĪTĀRTHA) is set forth. The eighth chapter explains how to develop sAMATHA and VIPAsYANĀ. The ninth chapter describes the ten bodhisattva BHuMIs and the final chapter describes the nature of buddhahood. Each of these chapters contains important passages that are cited in subsequent commentaries and treatises. ¶ Perhaps the most influential of all the sutra's chapters is the seventh, which discusses the three turnings of the wheel of the dharma (dharmacakrapravartana). There, the bodhisattva Paramārthasamudgata explains that the first turning of the wheel had occurred at ṚsIPATANA (the Deer Park at SĀRNĀTH), where the Buddha had taught the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS to those of the sRĀVAKA ("listener, disciple") vehicle. This first turning of the wheel is called the CATUḤSATYADHARMACAKRA, the "dharma wheel of the four truths." The bodhisattva says, "This wheel of dharma turned by the Buddha is surpassable, an occasion [for refutation], provisional, and subject to dispute." Referring presumably to the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ) sutras, the bodhisattva then goes on to explain that the Buddha then turned the wheel of dharma a second time for those who had entered the Mahāyāna, teaching them the doctrine of emptiness (suNYATĀ), that phenomena are "unproduced, unextinguished, originally quiescent, and inherently beyond sorrow." Commentators would call this second turning of the wheel the ALAKsAnADHARMACAKRA, "the dharma wheel of signlessness." But this wheel also is provisional. The Buddha finally turned the wheel of doctrine a third time for those of all vehicles, clearly differentiating how things exist. "This wheel of doctrine turned by the BHAGAVAT is unsurpassed, not an occasion [for refutation], of definitive meaning; it is indisputable." Commentators would call this third turning of the wheel the PARAMĀRTHAVINIsCAYADHARMACAKRA, "the dharma wheel for ascertaining the ultimate"; it is also called "the dharma wheel that makes a fine delineation" (*SUVIBHAKTADHARMACAKRA). The sutra thus takes something of an historical perspective on the Buddha's teaching, declaring both that his first sermon on the four noble truths addressed to srāvakas and his teaching of the perfection of wisdom addressed to bodhisattvas was not his final and most clearly delineated view. That consummate view, his true intention, is found in the third turning of the wheel of dharma, a wheel that includes, at very least, the SaMdhinirmocanasutra itself. The SaMdhinirmocanasutra was translated into Chinese four times: by GUnABHADRA, BODHIRUCI, PARAMĀRTHA, and XUANZANG. Of these recensions, the translations by Bodhiruci and Xuanzang are complete renderings of the sutra and circulated most widely within the East Asian tradition; the other two renderings were shorter digests of the sutra.

Samyavastha: State of equilibrium; harmony of the three Gunas; the state of the unmanifested being.

SaMyuktāgama. (P. SaMyuttanikāya; T. Yang dag par ldan pa'i lung; C. Za ahan jing; J. Zoagongyo; K. Chap aham kyong 雜阿含經). In Sanskrit, "Connected Discourses," a division of the ĀGAMAs corresponding roughly to the Pāli SAMYUTTANIKĀYA. The collection was probably compiled sometime between 200 and 400 CE. Some Sanskrit fragments, especially of the nidānasaMyukta section, were discovered in TURFAN, but the full collection is only preserved in a Chinese translation, in fifty rolls, made by GUnABHADRA between 435 and 443 CE, with a second partial Chinese translation (in sixteen rolls) made by an anonym and a brief one-roll version (with only twenty-seven sutras) apparently translated by AN SHIGAO. The longer Chinese translation is presumed to belong to the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school, with the shorter partial translation perhaps attributed to the KĀsYAPĪYA school. The SaMyuktāgama collects 1,362 sutras (compared to 2,872 for the Pāli SaMyuttanikāya), with some nascent attempts at a subject-matter arrangement, but nothing nearly as systematic as that found in the SaMyuttanikāya. The Chinese translated title of Za Ahan jing (lit. "Miscellaneous Āgama") corresponds more closely to a Sanskrit *Ksudrakāgama (cf. P. KHUDDAKANIKĀYA), a "miscellaneous" collection of sutras that is not known to have existed in the Sarvāstivāda school, although the content is more closely aligned with the SaMyuttanikāya.

Sankhya: Perhaps the oldest of the major systems of Indian philosophy (q.v.), founded by Kapila. Originally not theistic, it is realistic in epistemology, dualistic in metaphysics, assuming two moving ultimates, spirit (purusa, q.v.) and matter (prakrti, q.v.) both eternal and uncaused. Prakrti possesses the three qualities or principles of sattva, rajas, tamas (see these and guna), first in equipoise. When this is disturbed, the world in its multifariousness evolves in conjunction with purusa which becomes the plurality of selves in the process. The union (samyoga) of spirit and matter is necessary for world evolution, the inactivity of the former needing the verve of the latter, and the non-intelligence of that needing the guidance of conscious purusa. Successively, prakrti produces mahat or buddhi, ahamkara, manas, the ten indriyas, five tanmatras and five mahabhutas (all of which see). -- K.F.L.

Santa (Sanskrit) Śānta [from the verbal root śam to cease, be extinguished] Placidity, quiet, “the primeval quality of the latent, undifferentiated state of elementary matter” (TG 290) — equivalent to tamas, one of the three gunas (qualities of nature).

Sattvagunapradhana: Sattva-prevailing; Sattva-predominating.

Sattvaguna: Quality of light, purity and goodness.

sattvaguna (Sattwaguna) ::: [the quality (guna) of sattva].

sattvaguna. :::the single principle which leads to happiness, sentience, unity and unification, symmetry, salvation and liberation; resistance to binding action and to both positive and negative space-time curvatures; facilitates the reflection of consciousness and is favourable for the attainment of liberation; it's effect is Brahmavichara &

Sattva ::: One of the three Gunas of Hinduism. Refers to the wholeness and serenity that is reality at ease with itself.

SATTVA. ::: Prindple of assimilation, equilibrium and har- mony ; force of equilibrium, translates in quality as good and harmony and happiness and Kghf ; the quality that illumines ; one of the three gunas, fundamental qualities or modes of nature.

sattva. (P. satta; T. sems can; C. youqing/zhongsheng; J. ujo/shujo; K. yujong/chungsaeng 有情/衆生). In Sanskrit, "living being," commonly translated into English as "sentient being"; a generic term for any being in the cycle of rebirth (SAMSĀRA), including the five or six rebirth destines (GATI) of divinities (DEVA), demigods or titans (ASURA), humans (MANUsYA), animals (TIRYAK), ghosts (PRETA), and hell denizens (NĀRAKA). Buddhism, unlike the JAINA tradition, does not generally accept that plants are endowed with consciousness and thus does not typically include plant life among sentient beings (although this claim later becomes a matter of debate within the tradition, especially in East Asia). The term sattva technically does not include buddhas and ARHATs, because they are no longer subject to rebirth. In the word BODHISATTVA and MAHĀSATTVA, sattva may retain a meaning closer to its mainstream Indian usage as "spiritual essence," as in the SāMkhya school, where sattva is conceived as the spiritual, enlightening "strand" (guna) that interacts with tamas (dullness) and rajas (energy) to explain the dispositions of people and the changes that occur in the environment.

Sattva(Sanskrit) ::: One of the trigunas or "three qualities," the other two being rajas and tamas. Sattva is thequality of truth, goodness, reality, purity. These three gunas or qualities run all through the web or fabricof nature like threads inextricably mingled, for, indeed, each of these three qualities participates likewiseof the nature of the other two, yet each one possessing its predominant (which is its own svabhava) orintrinsic characteristic. One who desires to gain some genuine understanding of the manner in which thearchaic wisdom looks upon these three phases of human intellectual and spiritual activity must rememberthat not one of these three can be considered apart from the other two. The three are fundamentally threeoperations of the human consciousness, and essentially are that consciousness itself.

Sattva (Sanskrit) Sattva [from sat being] True essence, spiritual essence, reality, true being. Also one of the trigunas (three qualities), the other two being rajas and tamas. “Sattwa is the quality of truth, goodness, reality, purity. These three gunas or qualities run all through the web or fabric of Nature like threads inextricably mingled, for, indeed, each of these three qualities participate likewise in the nature of the other two, yet each one possessing its predominant (which is its own Swabhava) or intrinsic characteristic. One who desires to gain some genuine understanding of the manner in which the Archaic Wisdom looks upon these three phases of human intellectual and spiritual activity must remember that not one of these three can be considered apart from the other two. The three are fundamentally three operations of the human consciousness, and essentially are that consciousness itself” (OG 153-4). As the human being is the microcosm of the macrocosm, the same gunas can be discovered in the cosmos.

sattva (Sattwa) ::: [one of the three gunas]: the mode of light and poise and peace; the force of equilibrium (translates in quality as good and harmony and happiness and light).

Sattva: (Skr. "be-ness") Being, existence, reality, etc. Also one of the three gunas (q.v.) of the Sankhya (q.v.) and as such the quality of buoyancy, pleasure, and goodness of matter or prakrti (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

sattva &

Savisesha-brahman: Brahman with attributes; Saguna Brahman.

See also TRIGUNAS

Sengguo. (J. Soka; K. Sŭngkwa 僧果) (b. 408). In Chinese, "Fruition of the SaMgha"; a Buddhist nun from Xiuwu in northern China during the Liu-Song dynasty (420-479), the first of the four short-lived southern dynasties that formed during the Six Dynasties period. Her biography, contained in the BIQIUNI ZHUAN, exemplifies several prevalent characteristics of early Chinese Buddhist nuns' hagiographies. She engaged in a strict observance of the monastic rules (VINAYA), which inspired her disciples. Her contemplative practice, which began from a young age, was reputed to be so intense that it often produced trance states resembling death. She left secular life as an adult and practiced at a convent near the Song capital, where a number of Ceylonese nuns resided. Upon conversing with them, Sengguo discovered that while Chinese nuns had previously accepted monastic obligations from an assembly of monks (BHIKsU), they had not received them from an assembly of nuns (BHIKsUnĪ), as was required by the VINAYA. After consulting with the Indian monk GUnAVARMAN (367-431) on the issue, she resolved that she and her fellow nuns should be reordained. Thus in 433, in an ordination ceremony presided over by SAMGHAVARMAN, Sengguo and over three hundred other nuns were ordained with both an assembly of monks and an assembly of nuns in attendance, thereby officially instituting the monastic order for women in China.

shogunate ::: n. --> The office or dignity of a Shogun.

Shokokuji. (相国寺). In Japanese, "Ministering to the State Monastery," an important ZEN Buddhist monastery located just adjacent to the old imperial grounds in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto. The monastery was built in 1382 by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the third shogun of the Muromachi (1337-1573) shogunate. The Zen master Shunnoku Myoha (1311-1388) was supposed to be installed as the abbot of the new monastery, but he instead insisted that his own teacher, MUSo SOSEKI (1275-1351), an eminent Zen master associated with the RINZAISHu, be posthumously designated its founding abbot. The temple was listed as the second of the so-called GOZAN (five mountains) temples of Kyoto, and served as a center of Zen culture during the period. The monastery continued to be sponsored by the subsequent Tokugawa (1603-1868) shogunate. The temple structures often suffered serious damage, including the monastery's complete destruction during the onin war (1467-1477), and has been repeatedly reconstructed. The temple now serves as the head monastery of the Shokokuji branch of the contemporary Rinzai school and has nearly a hundred affiliated branch temples, including the famous Golden Pavilion (KINKAKUJI).

siku. (J. shiko; K. sago 四枯). In Chinese, "four witherings." When the Buddha passed into PARINIRVĀnA, there were said to be four pairs of sĀLA trees surrounding his body in the four cardinal directions. At his passing, one tree in each pair blossomed and the other withered. The four witherings are said to represent the four inverted views (VIPARYĀSA) as they pertain to the Buddha. These four views are typically listed as to see that which is painful as pleasurable, to see that which is impermanent as permanent, to see that which is impure as pure, and to see that which is without self as having self. In some texts, such as the sRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIMHANĀDASuTRA, the TATHĀGATAGARBHA is said to be endowed with the four perfect qualities (GUnAPĀRAMITĀ) of blissfulness, permanence, purity, and selfhood; however, in the context of the "four witherings," it is said to be a mistake to view NIRVĀnA as blissful, the DHARMAKĀYA as eternal, the body of the Buddha as pure, and the tathāgatagarbha as self.

Since the Consciousness-Force of the eternal Existence is the universal creatrix, the nature of a given world will depend on whatever self-formulation of that Consciousness expresses itself in that world. Equally, for each individual being, his seeing or representation to himself of the world he lives in will depend on the poise or make which that Consciousness has assumed in him. Our human mental consciousness sees the world in sections cut by the reason and sense and put together in a formation which is also sectional; the house it builds is planned to accommodate one or another generalised formulation of Truth, but excludes the rest or admits some only as guests or dependents in the house. Overmind Consciousness is global in its cognition and can hold any number of seemingly fundamental differences together in a reconciling vision. Thus the mental reason sees Person and the Impersonal as opposites: it conceives an impersonal Existence in which person and personality are fictions of the Ignorance or temporary constructions; or, on the contrary, it can see Person as the primary reality and the impersonal as a mental abstraction or only stuff or means of manifestation. To the Overmind intelligence these are separable Powers of the one Existence which can pursue their independent self-affirmation and can also unite together their different modes of action, creating both in their independence and in their union different states of consciousness and being which can be all of them valid and all capable of coexistence. A purely impersonal existence and consciousness is true and possible, but also an entirely personal consciousness and existence; the Impersonal Divine, Nirguna Brahman, and the Personal Divine, Saguna Brahman, are here equal and coexistent aspects of the Eternal. Impersonality can manifest with person subordinated to it as a mode of expression; but, equally, Person can be the reality with impersonality as a mode of its nature: both aspects of manifestation face each other in the infinite variety of conscious Existence. What to the mental reason are irreconcilable differences present themselves to the Overmind intelligence as coexistent correlatives; what to the mental reason are contraries are to the Overmind intelligence complementaries. Our mind sees that all things are born from Matter or material Energy, exist by it, go back into it; it concludes that Matter is the eternal factor, the primary and ultimate reality, Brahman. Or it sees all as born of Life-Force or Mind, existing by Life or by Mind, going back into the universal Life or Mind, and it concludes that this world is a creation of the cosmic Life-Force or of a cosmic Mind or Logos. Or again it sees the world and all things as born of, existing by and going back to the Real-Idea or Knowledge-Will of the Spirit or to the Spirit itself and it concludes on an idealistic or spiritual view of the universe. It can fix on any of these ways of seeing, but to its normal separative vision each way excludes the others. Overmind consciousness perceives that each view is true of the action of the principle it erects; it can see that there is a material world-formula, a vital world-formula, a mental world-formula, a spiritual world-formula, and each can predominate in a world of its own and at the same time all can combine in one world as its constituent powers. The self-formulation of Conscious Force on which our world is based as an apparent Inconscience that conceals in itself a supreme Conscious-Existence and holds all the powers of Being together in its inconscient secrecy, a world of universal Matter realising in itself Life, Mind, Overmind, Supermind, Spirit, each of them in its turn taking up the others as means of its self-expression, Matter proving in the spiritual vision to have been always itself a manifestation of the Spirit, is to the Overmind view a normal and easily realisable creation. In its power of origination and in the process of its executive dynamis Overmind is an organiser of many potentialities of Existence, each affirming its separate reality but all capable of linking themselves together in many different but simultaneous ways, a magician craftsman empowered to weave the multicoloured warp and woof of manifestation of a single entity in a complex universe. …

siogoonate ::: n. --> See Shogunate.

&

smasāna. (P. susāna; T. dur khrod; C. shilin/hanlin; J. shirin/kanrin; K. sirim/hallim 屍林/寒林). In Sanskrit, "charnel ground," "cemetery"; funerary sites in ancient India where corpses were left to decompose. The charnel ground was recommended as a site for monks to practice meditation in order to overcome attachment to the body. In the MAHĀSATIPAttHĀNASUTTA, the Buddha recommends nine "charnel ground contemplations" (sīvathikā manasikāra). There is a set of "contemplations on the foul" (AsUBHABHĀVANĀ) described in mainstream Buddhist literature that were to take place in the charnel grounds, where the monks would sit next to the dead and contemplate the nine or ten specific stages in the decomposition of a corpse; this meditation was a powerful antidote to the affliction of lust (RĀGA). The traditional list of thirteen authorized ascetic practices (S. dhutaguna; P. DHUTAnGA) also includes dwelling in a charnel ground (no. 11) and wearing only discarded cloth (no. 1), which typically meant to use funerary cloth taken from rotting corpses to make monastic raiments (CĪVARA), thus weaning the monk or nun from attachment to material possessions. The ideal charnel ground is described as a place where corpses are cremated daily, where there is the constant smell of decomposing corpses, and where the weeping of the families of the dead can be heard. The practice of meditation there is said to result in an awareness of the inevitability of death, the abandonment of lust, and the overcoming of attachment to the body. In India, the charnel ground was a frightful place not only because of the presence of corpses but also for the creatures, including wild animals and various demons, that frequented it at night. Thus, in tantric Buddhism, the charnel ground was considered to be inhabited by wrathful deities, dĀKINĪs, and MAHĀSIDDHAs, making it a potent place for the performance of ritual and meditation. Mahāsiddhas are sometimes depicted in charnel grounds, sitting on corpses and drinking from skull cups. ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA texts also refer to a set of "eight great charnel grounds" (S. AstAMAHĀsMAsĀNA), which are also frequently depicted in tantric Buddhist art. While the eight sites are often equated with actual geographic locations in India, they also carry a deeper symbolism, referring to regions of tantric sacred geography, points on a MAndALA or a deity's body, and elements of tantric physiology such as the channels (NĀdĪ) in the subtle body of a meditating YOGIN. Their origin myth describes the defeat of the demon Rudra, after which the charnel grounds arose in the eight cardinal and intermediate directions, each from a piece of his dismembered body. They are described as wild and terrifying places, littered with human corpses and wild animals, each with their own trees, protectors, STuPAs, NĀGAs, jewels, fires, clouds, mountains, and lakes. They are inhabited by a host of spirits and nonhuman beings, as well as meditating yogins and YOGINĪs. In general, charnel grounds and similar frightening locations are said to be efficacious for the practice of tantric meditation. The astamahāsmasāna are also usually depicted as forming part of the outer protection wheel in mandalas of anuttarayogatantra. There are varying lists of the eight great charnel grounds, one of which is: candogrā (most fierce), gahvara (dense thicket), vajrajvala (blazing vajra), endowed with skeletons (karankin), cool grove (sītavana), black darkness (ghorāndhakāra), resonant with "kilikili" (kilikilārava), and cries of "ha ha" (attahāsa); Tibetan sources give the names of the eight great charnel grounds as gtum drag (candogra), tshang tshing 'khrigs pa (gahvara), rdo rje bar ba (vajrajvala), keng rus can (karankin), bsil bu tshal (sītavana), mun pa nag po (ghorāndhakāra) ki li ki lir sgra sgrog pa (kilikilārava), and ha ha rgod pa (attahāsa).

. s.n.a (anandamaya lilamaya Krishna) ::: Kr.s.n.a as the anandamaya and the lilamaya, taking divine delight in the cosmic game. anandamaya lil anandamaya lilamaya amaya saguna

sohei. (僧兵). In Japanese, "monks' militia." During the mid-Heian period, the major Buddhist monasteries near Nara and Kyoto, such as KoFUKUJI, ENRYAKUJI, and Onjoji (later called MIIDERA), became large landholders and were deeply immersed in political activities. The monasteries maintained small armies of private warriors to protect their assets and promote their interests. Although these warriors wore Buddhist robes and lived inside the temple complexes, they were not formally ordained; on the battlefield, they also wore full armor, making them virtually indistinguishable from ordinary warriors. During this period, these warriors were called simply "members of the congregation" (shuto; daishu) or pejoratively referred to as "evil monks" (akuso); the term sohei seems not to have been used until 1715, when it first appeared in the Dainihon shi ("The History of Great Japan"). These monks' militias were mustered against both rival temples and secular authorities. From the tenth to the twelfth centuries, monks' militias engaged in pitched battles with their rivals, as in the intrasectarian rivalry between the Tendai monasteries of Enryakuji and Onjoji, and the intersectarian rivalries between Kofukuji and its two Tendai counterparts. During this same period, monks' militias also participated in the Genpei War of 1180-1185, which led to the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate. There were more than two hundred major violent incidents involving monks' militias between the late-tenth and early-sixteenth centuries. The monks' militia of Enryakuji also battled the temples established by the new schools of JoDO SHINSHu and NICHIRENSHu, which gained popularity among commoners and local warlords during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: for example, Enryakuji sohei attacked and destroyed the original HONGANJI in otani (east of Kyoto) in 1465 and twenty-one Nichiren temples in Kyoto in 1536. However, the power of monks' militias diminished significantly after 1571, when the warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) massacred the Buddhist clerics and sohei on HIEIZAN and burned down Enryakuji, which had threatened him with its military power. Monks' militias are not an exclusively Japanese phenomenon but are found across much of the Buddhist tradition. See also HUGUO FOJIAO.

Sri Aurobindo: "Avatarhood would have little meaning if it were not connected with the evolution. The Hindu procession of the ten Avatars is itself, as it were, a parable of evolution. First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, sattwic, nirguna Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man and again the overmental superman. Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development — Krishna opens the possibility of overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable.” *Letters on Yoga

srīmālādevīsiMhanādasutra. (T. Lha mo dpal phreng gi seng ge'i sgra'i mdo; C. Shengman shizihou yisheng da fangbian fangguang jing; J. Shoman shishiku ichijodaihoben hokogyo; K. Sŭngman sajahu ilsŭng tae pangp'yon panggwang kyong 勝鬘師子吼一乘大方便方廣經). In Sanskrit, "Sutra on the Lion's Roar of Queen srīmālā," one of the earliest TATHĀGATAGARBHA texts, composed about the third century CE, probably by MAHĀSĀMGHIKA adherents in the ĀNDHRA region of southern India. The original Sanskrit has not survived, except in quotations in such texts as the RATNAGOTRAVIBHĀGA. The first translation of this sutra into Chinese was made by the central Indian missionary DHARMAKsEMA (d. 433) in the 420s, which was no longer extant by the Yuan dynasty. The second and most popular Chinese translation was made in 436 by GUnABHADRA (394-468), also a native of central India. Although its full title is Shengman shizihu yisheng da fangbian fangguang jing, Gunabhadra's title is abbreviated in six different ways in the Chinese commentarial literature, the shortest and the best-known of which is simply as the Shengman jing (srīmālā Sutra). A third translation was made in the early eighth century by BODHIRUCI (672-727), a native of southern India. The sutra is exceptional in its distinctive stance on laypeople and laywomen. The chief character of the sutra is Queen srīmālā, the daughter of King PRASENAJIT. The sutra is considered one of the authoritative texts for the doctrine of tathāgatagarbha and buddha-nature (S. BUDDHADHĀTU; C. FOXING), even though the concept of tathāgatagarbha does not receive extensive treatment in the text. In the sutra, the tathāgatagarbha is the basis of the one vehicle (EKAYĀNA); since all sentient beings share in the same tathāgatagarbha, they will all equally reach NIRVĀnA. The srīmālā Sutra criticizes rigidly apophatic interpretations of the doctrine of emptiness (suNYATĀ), maintaining that tathāgatagarbha is both empty (sunya) and nonempty (asunya), because it simultaneously is empty of all afflictions (KLEsA) but "nonempty" (viz., full) of all the Buddha's virtues. The sutra explains the Buddha's virtues using kataphatic language, such as permanence (nitya) and selfhood (ĀTMAN). The srīmālā Sutra was especially influential in East Asian Buddhism. Over twenty Chinese commentaries were composed, the most influential being those by JINGYING HUIYUAN (523-592), JIZANG (549-623), and KUIJI (632-682).

Sthiramati. (T. Blo gros brtan pa; C. Anhui; J. An'e/Anne; K. Anhye 安慧) (475-555). Indian Buddhist philosopher associated particularly with YOGĀCĀRA school. His dates are uncertain (leading one scholar to posit three figures with this name), but he is generally placed in the sixth century, although he is said to have been a disciple of both VASUBANDHU and Gunamati. Sthiramati seems to have been primarily based in VALABHĪ, but may have also studied at NĀLANDĀ. He wrote a number of important commentaries on such Yogācāra works as the MAHĀYĀNASuTRĀLAMKĀRA and MADHYĀNTAVIBHĀGA of MAITREYANĀTHA and VASUBANDHU's TRIMsIKĀ.

Suddhabrahma: Pure Brahman, free from Maya; Nirguna Brahman.

suddhananda (shuddhananda; suddhananda) ::: pure ananda, "the suddhananda pure delight of the Infinite"; the form of subjective ananda corresponding to the plane of transcendent bliss (anandaloka) or to the sub-planes created by the "repetition of the Ananda plane in each lower world of consciousness". It brings the "sense of Supreme Beauty in all things" (sarvasaundarya), differing from cidghanananda in that it "transcends or contains" the beauty of gun.a (quality) proper to vijñana, depending "not on knowledge-perception of the separate guna & yatharthya [truth] of things, but on being-perception in chit of the universal ananda of things"; its highest intensities are experienced when the soul "casts itself into the absolute existence of the spirit and is enlarged into its own entirely self-existent bliss infinitudes". suddha pravr suddha pravrtti

Swabhava ::: Swabhava means one thing in the highest spiritual nature and takes quite another form and significance in the lower nature of the three gunas. There too it acts, but is not in full possession of itself, is seeking as it were for its own true law in a half light or a darkness and goes on its way through many lower forms, many false forms, endless imperfections, perversions, self-losings, self-findings, seekings after norm and rule before it arrives at self-discovery and perfection. Our nature here is amixed weft of knowledge and ignorance, of truth and falsehood, of success and failure, of right and wrong, of finding and losing, of sin and virtue.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 19, Page: 520-21


tamas ::: darkness, obscurity; [one of the three gunas]: the mode of ignorance and inertia, the force of inconscience (translates in quality as incapacity and inaction) .

Tamas ::: One of the three Gunas of Hinduism. Refers to disorder and the entropic impulse that hones the edge of reality and recycles form.

Tamas: One of the three constituents (gunas) of the Cosmic Substance (prakriti), viz. the restraining aspect of Nature that obstructs and envelops the other two constituents by counteracting the tendency of rajas to do work and sattva to reveal; in Yoga, the quality of delusion or ignorance.

Tamas(Sanskrit) ::: One of the three gunas or qualities or essential attributes of manifested beings and things.Tamas is the quality of darkness, illusion, ignorance; it also means, in a quite different sense, quiescence,passivity, repose, rest, inertia. It becomes immediately obvious from the distinctions that these two seriesof words show, that there is both a good and an evil side to tamas, just as indeed there is a good and evilside to rajas, and even to sattva. The condition of manifested existence in the state of cosmic pralaya is inone sense of the word the tamasic condition, signifying quiescence or rest. When the universe is in thestage of active manvantaric manifestation, we may in a generalizing sense say that the universe is in therajasic state or condition; and that aspect of the universe which we may call the divine-spiritual, whetherin the universe itself or in the manvantara or in the pralaya of a globe, can be spoken of as the sattvicstate or condition. From these observations it should be evident that the three gunas -- sattva, rajas, tamas-- not only can exist contemporaneously and coincidently, but actually do so exist, and that in fact thethree are inextricably interblended. They are really three phases or conditions of imbodiedconsciousnesses, and each has its noble and each its "evil" side.

Tamas (Sanskrit) Tamas The quality of darkness, illusion, ignorance; also quiescence, passivity, rest, inertia. One of the three gunas — qualities or essential attributes of manifested beings — the others being rajas and sattva.

Tamas: (Skr.) One of the three gunas (q.v.) of the Sankhya (q.v.), representing the principle of inactivity, sluggishness, and indifference in matter or prakrti (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

tamoguna. :::action which is limiting, localising, encircling, internalising and confining; absorbed by the quality of ignorance; gross, inert and visible; basis of all mental and physical forms and forces; originating from ignorance, it leads to extremes or slothfulness

tamogun.a ::: the gun.a of tamas. tamoguna tamomaya nidr nidra

tamoguna ::: [the quality (guna) of tamas].

tathāgatagarbha. (T. de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po; C. rulaizang; J. nyoraizo; K. yoraejang 如來藏). In Sanskrit, variously translated as "womb of the TATHĀGATAs," "matrix of the tathāgatas," "embryo of the tathāgatas," "essence of the tathāgatas"; the term probably means "containing a tathāgatha." It is more imprecisely interpreted as the "buddha-nature," viz., the potential to achieve buddhahood that, according to some MAHĀYĀNA schools, is inherent in all sentient beings. The tathāgatagarbha is the topic of several important Mahāyāna sutras, including the TATHĀGATAGARBHASuTRA (with its famous nine similes about the state), the sRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIMHANĀDASuTRA, the MAHĀPARINIRVĀnASuTRA, and the LAnKĀVATĀRASuTRA (where it is identified with the ĀLAYAVIJNĀNA), as well as the important Indian sĀSTRA, the RATNAGOTRAVIBHĀGA (also known as the Uttaratantra), with a commentary by ASAnGA. The concept is also central to such East Asian apocryphal scriptures as the DASHENG QIXIN LUN and the KŬMGANG SAMMAE KYoNG. The concept of tathāgatagarbha seems to have evolved from a relatively straightforward inspiration that all beings are capable of achieving buddhahood to a more complex doctrine of an almost genetic determination that all beings would eventually become buddhas; the Lankāvatāra goes so far as to describe the tathāgatagarbha itself as possessing the thirty-two marks of a superman (MAHĀPURUsALAKsAnA). Tathāgatagarbha thought seeks to answer the question of why ignorant beings are able to become enlightened by suggesting that this capacity is something innate in the minds of all sentient beings, which has become concealed by adventitious afflictions (ĀGANTUKAKLEsA) that are extrinsic to the mind. "Concealment" (S. saMdhi/abhisaMdhi; C. yinfu) here suggests that the tathāgatagarbha by the presence of the afflictions; or, second, it is an active agent of liberation, which secrets itself away inside the minds of sentient beings so as to inspire them toward enlightenment. The former passive sense is more common in Indian materials; the latter sense of tathāgatagarbha as an active soteriological potency is more typical of East Asian presentations of the concept. Tathāgatagarbha thought could thus claim that enlightenment need involve nothing more rigorous than simply relinquishing the mistaken notion that one is deluded and accepting the fact of one's inherent enlightenment (see also BENJUE; HONGAKU). The notion of tathāgatagarbha was a topic of extensive commentary and debate in India, Tibet, and East Asia. It was not the case, for example, that all Mahāyāna exegetes asserted that all sentient beings possess the tathāgatagarbha and thus the capacity for enlightenment; indeed, the FAXIANG ZONG, an East Asian strand of YOGĀCĀRA, famously asserted that some beings could so completely lose all aspiration for enlightenment that they would become "incorrigible" (ICCHANTIKA) and thus be forever incapable of liberation. There was also substantial debate as to the precise nature of the tathāgathagarbha, especially because some of its descriptions made it seem similar to the notion of a perduring self (ĀTMAN), a doctrine that is anathema to most schools of Buddhism. The srīmālādevīsiMhanāda, for example, described the tathāgatagarbha as endowed with four "perfect qualities" (GUnAPĀRAMITĀ): permanence, purity, bliss, and self, but states that this "self" is different from the "self" (ĀTMAN) propounded by the non-Buddhists. In an effort to avoid any such associations, CANDRAKĪRTI explains that the tathāgatagarbha is not to be understood as an independent quality but rather refers to the emptiness (suNYATĀ) of the mind; it is this emptiness, with which all beings are endowed, that serves as the potential for achieving buddhahood. In Tibet, Candrakīrti's view was taken up by the DGE LUGS sect, while the more literal view of the tathāgatagarbha as an ultimately real nature obscured by conventional contaminants was asserted most famously by the JO NANG. Both the extensive influence of the doctrine and the controversy it provoked points to an ongoing tension in the Mahāyāna between the more apophatic discourse on emptiness, found especially in the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ sutras, and the more substantialist descriptions of the ultimate reality implied by such terms as tathāgatagarbha, DHARMADHĀTU, and DHARMAKĀYA. The term is also central to the larger question of whether enlightenment is something to be achieved through a sequence of practices or something to be revealed in a flash of insight (see DUNWU). See also HIHAN BUKKYo.

Tendaishu. (天台宗). In Japanese, "Platform of Heaven School," the Japanese counterpart of the Chinese TIANTAI ZONG, the name of the Chinese tradition from which Tendai derives. The pilgrim-monk SAICHo (767-822) is presumed to have laid the doctrinal and institutional foundations on which the Tendai tradition in Japan was eventually constructed. Like its Chinese counterpart, the Japanese Tendai tradition took the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra") and the commentaries on this sutra by TIANTAI ZHIYI as its central scriptures. The Tendai tradition also came to espouse the doctrine of original or inherent enlightenment (HONGAKU). An important step in the development of an autonomous Japanese Tendai tradition was the establishment of a MAHĀYĀNA precepts platform (daijo kaidan). Saicho made numerous petitions to the court to have an independent Mahāyāna precepts platform established on HIEIZAN (see ENRYAKUJI), which would provide him with institutional autonomy from the powerful monasteries of the well-established Buddhist sects in Nara. Saicho's petition was finally granted after his death in 823. The following year, his disciple GISHIN (781-833) was appointed head (zasu) of the Tendai tradition, and several years later, a precepts platform was constructed at the monastery of Enryakuji on Mt. Hiei. The Tendai tradition prospered under the leadership of ENNIN (794-864) and ENCHIN (814-891). A controversy in 993 between the lineages of Enchin and Ennin over the issue of succession led to a schism between Ennin's Sanmon branch at Mt. Hiei and Enchin's Jimon branch at Onjoji (see MIIDERA). The Tendai tradition also produced important figures in the history of the PURE LAND movement in Japan, such as GENSHIN, RYoNIN, HoNEN, and SHINRAN. DoGEN KIGEN, founder of the SoToSHu of ZEN, began his career in the Tendai tradition, practicing as a monk at Mt. Hiei, as did NICHIREN. From the medieval period up through the Tokugawa era (1600-1868), Tendai was a dominant force in Japanese Buddhism. By extension, it had considerable political influence at the court in Kyoto and later with the Tokugawa Bakufu. In order to weaken the powerful Mt. Hiei institution, at the start of the Tokugawa era, the shogunate constructed To Eizan in the capital of Edo ("to" means eastern, thus setting up a juxtaposition with the western Mt. Hiei), which received more funding and prestige than its western counterpart. A major factor in the success of the Tendai institution in Japan was its incorporation of esoteric Buddhism, or MIKKYo, beginning with a limited number of tantric practices that Saicho brought back with him from China. The extensive training that KuKAI (774-835), the founder of the SHINGONSHu, received in esoteric Buddhism in China ultimately rivaled that of Saicho, a challenge that would eventually threaten Tendai's political sway at court. However, after Saicho's disciples Ennin, Enchin, and ANNEN (841-889?) returned from China with the latest esoteric practices, Tendai's preeminence was secured. This Tendai form of mikkyo, which Ennin called TAIMITSU, was considered equal to the teachings of the Saddharmapundarīkasutra. Tendai also heavily influenced the esoteric practices of SHUGENDo centers around the country. During the Tokugawa era, many of these mountain practice sites became formally institutionalized under Tendai Shugendo (referred to as Honzan), and were administered by the monastery of Shogoin in Kyoto. In addition, Tendai monks were among those who made major efforts to incorporate local native spirits (KAMI) into Tendai practice, by acknowledging them as manifestations of the Buddha (see HONJI SUIJAKU).

That is the nature of the action of these gunav in the unattached liberated yogi.

  “The condition of manifested existence in the state of cosmic pralaya is in one sense of the word the tamasic condition, signifying quiescence or rest. When the universe is in the stage of active manvantaric manifestation, we may in a generalizing sense say that the universe is in the rajasic state or condition; and that aspect of the universe which we may call the divine-spiritual, whether in the universe itself or in the manvantara or in pralaya of a globe, can be spoken of as the sattvic state or condition. From these observations it should be evident that the three gunas, sattva, rajas, tamas, not only can exist contemporaneously and coincidentally, but actually do so exist, and that in fact the three are inextricably interblended. They are really three phases or conditions of imbodied consciousnesses, and each has its noble and each its ‘evil’ side” (OG 169-70).

  “The double triangle — the Satkiri Chakram of Vishnu — or the six-pointed star, is the perfect seven. In all the old Sanskrit works — Vedic and Tantrik — you find the number 6 mentioned more often than the 7 — this last figure, the central point being implied, for it is the germ of the six and their matrix. . . . the central point standing for seventh, and the circle, the Mahakasha — endless space — for the seventh Universal Principle. In one sense, both are viewed as Avalokitesvara, for they are respectively the Macrocosm and the microcosm. The interlaced triangles — the upper pointing one — is Wisdom concealed, and the downward pointing one — Wisdom revealed (in the phenomenal world). The circle indicates the bounding, circumscribing quality of the All, the Universal Principle which, from any given point expands so as to embrace all things, while embodying the potentiality of every action in the Cosmos. As the point then is the centre round which the circle is traced — they are identical and one, and though from the standpoint of Maya and Avidya — (illusion and ignorance) — one is separated from the other by the manifested triangle, the 3 sides of which represent the three gunas — finite attributes. In symbology the central point is Jivatma (the 7th principle), and hence Avalokitesvara, the Kwan-Shai-yin, the manifested ‘Voice’ (or Logos), the germ point of manifested activity; — hence — in the phraseology of the Christian Kabalists ‘the Son of the Father and Mother,’ and agreeably to ours — ‘the Self manifested in Self’ — Yih-sin, the ‘one form of existence,’ the child of Dharmakaya (the universally diffused Essence), both male and female. Parabrahm or ‘Adi-Buddha’ while acting through that germ point outwardly as an active force, reacts from the circumference inwardly as the Supreme but latent Potency. The double triangles symbolize the Great Passive and the Great Active; the male and female; Purusha and Prakriti. Each triangle is a Trinity because presenting a triple aspect. The white represents in its straight lines: Gnanam — (Knowledge); Gnata — (the Knower); and Gnayam — (that which is known). The black — form, colour, and substance, also the creative, preservative, and destructive forces and are mutually correlating . . .” (ML 345-6).

The gunas affect every part of our natural being. They have indeed their strongest relative hold in the three different members of it, mind, life and body. Tamas, the principle of inertia, is strongest in material nature and in our physical being. The action of this principle is of two kinds, inertia of force and inertia of knowledge. Whatever is predominantly governed by Tamas, tends in its force to a sluggish inaction and immobility or else to a mechanical action which it does not possess, but is possessed by obscure forces which drive it in a mechanical round of energy; equally in its consciousness it turns to an inconscience or enveloped subconscience or to a reluctant, sluggish or in some way mechanical conscious action which does not possess the idea of its own energy, but is guided by an idea which seems external to it or at least concealed from its active awareness. Thus the principle of our body is in its nature inert, subconscient, incapable of anything but a mechanical and habitual self-guidance and action: though it has like everything else a principle of kinesis and a principle of equilibrium of its state and action, an inherent principle of response and a secret consciousness, the greatest portion of its rajasic motions are contributed by the lifepower and all the overt consciousness by the mental being. The principle of rajas has its strongest hold on the vital nature. It is the Life within us that is the strongest kinetic motor power, but the life-power in earthly beings is possessed by the force of desire, th
   refore rajas turns always to action and desire; desire is the strongest human and animal initiator of most kinesis and action, predominant to such an extent that many consider it the father of all action and even the originator of our being. Moreover, rajas finding itself in a world of matter which starts from the principle of inconscience and a mechanical driven inertia, has to work against an immense contrary force; th
   refore its whole action takes on the nature of an effort, a struggle, a besieged and an impeded conflict for possession which is distressed in its every step by a limiting incapacity, disappointment and suffering: even its gains are precarious and limited and marred by the reaction of the effort and an aftertaste of insufficiency and transience. The principle of sattwa has its strongest hold in the mind; not so much in the lower parts of the mind which are dominated by the rajasic life-power, but mostly in the intelligence and the will of the reason. Intelligence, reason, rational will are moved by the nature of their predominant principle towards a constant effort of assimilation, assimilation by knowledge, assimilation by a power of understanding will, a constant effort towards equilibrium, some stability, rule, harmony of the conflicting elements of natural happening and experience. This satisfaction it gets in various ways and in various degrees of acquisition. The attainment of assimilation, equilibrium and harmony brings with it always a relative but more or less intense and satisfying sense of ease, happiness, mastery, security, which is other than the troubled and vehement pleasures insecurely bestowed by the satisfaction of rajasic desire and passion. Light and happiness are the characteristics of the sattwic guna. The whole nature of the embodied living mental being is determined by these three gunas.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 684-685


The idea of the three essential modes of Nature is a creation of the ancient Indian thinkers and its truth is not at once obvious, because it was the result of long psychological experiment and profound internal experience. Th
   refore without a long inner experience, without intimate self-observation and intuitive perception of the Nature-forces it is difficult to grasp accurately or firmly utilise. Still certain broad indications may help the seeker on the Way of Works to understand, analyse and control by his assent or
   refusal the combinations of his own nature. These modes are termed in the Indian books qualities, gunas, and are given the names sattva, rajas, tamas. Sattwa is the force of equilibrium and translates in quality as good and harmony and happiness and light; rajas is the force of kinesis and translates in quality as struggle and effort, passion and action; tamas is the force of inconscience and inertia and translates in quality as obscurity and incapacity and inaction. Ordinarily used for psychological self-analysis, these distinctions are valid also in physical Nature. Each thing and every existence in the lower Prakriti contains them and its process and dynamic form are the result of the interaction of these qualitative powers.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 232-233


The Ineffable: *Sri Aurobindo: "It is this essential indeterminability of the Absolute that translates itself into our consciousness through the fundamental negating positives of our spiritual experience, the immobile immutable Self, the Nirguna Brahman, the Eternal without qualities, the pure featureless One Existence, the Impersonal, the Silence void of activities, the Non-being, the Ineffable and the Unknowable. On the other side it is the essence and source of all determinations, and this dynamic essentiality manifests to us through the fundamental affirming positives in which the Absolute equally meets us; for it is the Self that becomes all things, the Saguna Brahman, the Eternal with infinite qualities, the One who is the Many, the infinite Person who is the source and foundation of all persons and personalities, the Lord of creation, the Word, the Master of all works and action; it is that which being known all is known: these affirmatives correspond to those negatives. For it is not possible in a supramental cognition to split asunder the two sides of the One Existence, — even to speak of them as sides is excessive, for they are in each other, their co-existence or one-existence is eternal and their powers sustaining each other found the self-manifestation of the Infinite.” The Life Divine

The invariable form of the Puranas is of a dialogue between an exponent or teacher and an inquirer or disciple, interspersed with the dialogues and observations of other individuals. In addition to the Puranas there are 18 subordinate Upa-puranas. The Puranas are popularly classified in India under three categories corresponding to the gunas sattva, rajas, and tamas. Those in which the quality of sattva (purity) prevails are: the Vishnu, Naradiya, Bhagavata, Garuda, Padma, and Varaha Puranas, also called the Vaishnava-Puranas. Those in which rajas (passion) are said to prevail, relating chiefly to the god Brahma, are the Brahma, Brahmanda, Brahma-vaivarta, Markandeya, Bhavishya, and Vamana Puranas. Those in which tamas (inertia) is said to prevail, relating chiefly to the god Siva, are the Matsya, Kurma, Linga, Siva, Skanda, and Agni Puranas.

The noun gunavatta means the state of being endowed with qualities.

These kumaras are sometimes also called rudras, adityas, gandharvas, asuras, maruts, and vedhas. The seven kumaras — both as groups and as aggregated individuals — are intimately connected with the dhyani-buddhas who watch over the seven rounds of our planetary chain. The four groups of kumaras generally spoken of are connected equally intimately with the four celestial bodhisattvas of the four globes of our round, and by correspondence with the four completed root-races of our earth. They are identical with the angels of the seven planets, and their name shows their connection with the constellation Makara or Capricorn. Makara is connected with the birth of the spiritual microcosm, and the death or dissolution of the physical universe (its passage into the realm of the spiritual) as are the kumaras. Mara is the god of darkness, the Fallen one, and death, i.e., death of every physical thing; but through the karmic lessons learned also the quickener of the birth of the spiritual. The kumaras are connected also with the sage Narada. An allegory in the Puranas says that the kumaras, the first progeny of Brahma, were without desire or passion, inspired with the holy wisdom, and undesirous of progeny. They refused to create, but were compelled later on to complete divine man by incarnating in him. The barhishads or lunar pitris formed the “senseless” astral-physical humanity of the early root-races. Those beings possessing the living spiritual fire were the agnishvattas or solar pitris. The sons of Brahma, the kumaras, being originally themselves unconscious (in our sense) could be of no use in supplying the mental and kamic principles, as they did not possess them: they had attained no individual karmic elevation in merit of their own as had the agnishvattas. The perfection of the kumaras was passive and negative (nirguna). The kumaras eventually “sacrifice” themselves by incarnating in mankind, thus corresponding to the manasaputras and fallen angels cast into hell (material spheres, our earth).

The three persons of the Trimurti are the three qualificative gunas or attributes of the universe of differentiated spirit-matter, self-formative, self-preserving, and self-destroying for purposes of regeneration and perfectibility. Because Brahma is the considered the formative or emanative force, it is said to be personified imbodiment of rajas, the quality of activity, of desire for creation — that desire owing to which the universe and everything in it is called forth into being. Vishnu because of its preservative and sustaining function is said to be the imbodied sattva, which characterizes the intermediate period between full growth and the beginning of decay; and Siva is said to be the imbodiment of tamas which, in one of its functions, is the attribute of stagnancy and final decay, and thus becomes the destroyer.

Todaiji. (東大寺). In Japanese, "Great Monastery of the East"; a major monastery in the ancient Japanese capital of Nara affiliated with the Kegon (HUAYAN) school of Buddhism, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The monastery was founded by the Hossoshu (FAXIANG ZONG) monk GYoGI (668-749). The monastery is renowned for its colossal buddha image of VAIROCANA (J. Birushana nyorai), which is commonly known as the NARA DAIBUTSU; at forty-eight feet (fifteen meters) high, this image is the largest extant gilt-bronze image in the world and the Daibutsuden where the image is enshrined is the world's largest wooden building. The Indian monk BODHISENA (J. Bodaisenna) (704-760), who traveled to Japan in 736 at the invitation of Emperor Shomu (r. 724-749), performed the "opening the eyes" (KAIYAN; NETRAPRATIstHĀPANA) ceremony for the 752 dedication of the great buddha image. Todaiji was founded on the site of Konshusenji by order of Emperor Shomu and became the headquarters of a network of provincial monasteries and convents in the Yamato region. The first abbot, Ryoben (689-773), is commemorated in the kaisando (founder's hall; see KAISHAN). Other halls include the inner sanctuary of the hokkedo (lotus hall), which was probably once Konshusenji's main hall. The hall enshrines the Fukukensaku Kannon, a dry lacquer statue of the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITEsVARA, which dates from 746. The monastery was renamed Konkomyoji in 741 and, in 747 when major construction began on the large compound, it finally became known as Todaiji, the name it retains today. The Todaiji complex was completed in 798; monastery records state that 50,000 carpenters, 370,000 metal workers, and 2.18 million laborers worked on the compound, its buildings, and their furnishings, almost bankrupting the country. Entering the monastery through the Great Gate to the South (Nandaimon), itself a Japanese national treasure, a visitor would have passed through two seven-storied, 328-foot high pagodas to the east and west (both subsequently destroyed by earthquakes), before passing through the Inner Gate to the Daibutsuden. North of the Daibutsuden, which is flanked by a belfry and a SuTRA repository, is the kodo (lecture hall), which is surrounded on three sides by the monk's quarters. An ordination hall displays exceptional clay-modeled shitenno (four heavenly kings; see LOKAPĀLA) dating from the Tenpyo Era (729-749). Of the eighth-century buildings, only the tegaimon (the western gate) and the Hokkedo's inner sanctuary have survived. After a conflagration in 1180, then-abbot Chogen (1121-1206) spearheaded a major reconstruction in a style he had seen in Southern Song-dynasty China. This style is exemplified by the south gate, which is protected by two humane-kings statues, both twenty-eight feet in height, carved in 1203. The Tokugawa Shogunate sponsored a second reconstruction after another fire in 1567 and the current Daibutsuden dates from about 1709. The Shosoin repository at the monastery, itself a Japanese national treasure (kokuho), contains over nine thousand precious ornamental and fine-art objects that date from the monastery's founding in the eighth century, including scores of objects imported into Japan via the SILK ROAD from all over Asia, including cut-glass bowls and silk brocade from Persia, Byzantine cups, Egyptians chests, and Indian harps, as well as Chinese Tang and Korean Silla musical instruments, etc. Every spring, the two-week long Omizutori (water-drawing) festival is conducted at Todaiji, which is thought to cure physical ailments and cleanse moral transgressions.

Tokko 德光. See GUnAPRABHA

Tokkwang 德光. See GUnAPRABHA

traiguayavisaya vedah ::: the triple guna is the subject of the Vedas. [Gita 2.45]

traigunatitya ::: transcendence of the three gunas.

traigunyamayi maya ::: the lower prakrti [maya] of the three gunas.

Transformation of the gunas ::: If the force and the Inner consciousness are very strong, then there is a tendency for rafas to become like some inferior fapas and the lamas to become like a kind of inert Sama. That Is how the transformation begins, but usually it is very slow in Its process.

Trigunamayi: A connotative name of God as the Divine Mother suggesting that She possesses the three Gunas.

Trigunas (Sanskrit) Triguṇa-s The three qualities; all differentiated beings and matter are considered to possess three inherent qualities or characteristics: sattva (purity, goodness, truth); rajas (activity, passion, desire); and tamas (quiescence, indifference, darkness). Each of these three qualities has both a good and an imperfect or evil side, and possesses in itself the other two qualities; for instance, there is sattva-sattva, rajas-sattva, tamas-sattva, etc. Thus in the different hierarchies in the cosmos, the beings composing these hierarchies may be classified not only under one of the three gunas, as essentially manifesting that characteristic, but likewise during their evolution they pass through the phases of the other two qualities, although under the dominance of the main quality from which they as individuals derive.

trigunas. ::: the three gunas or qualities

trigun.a ::: the three gun.as, qualities or modes of the lower Nature triguna (apara prakr.ti), called sattva, rajas and tamas, which may be defined "in terms of the motion of the universal Energy as Nature"s three concomitant and inseparable powers of equilibrium, kinesis and inertia"; psychologically, tamas is "Nature"s power of nescience", rajas "her power of active seeking ignorance enlightened by desire and impulsion", and sattva "her power of possessing and harmonising knowledge". Among these gun.as "there is a necessary disequilibrium, a shifting inconstancy of measures and a perpetual struggle for domination" which can cease only when "the disharmonies of the triple mode of our inferior existence are overpassed and there begins a greater triple mode of a divine Nature" (para prakr.ti); tamas, rajas and sattva are then replaced by sama, tapas (or pravr.tti) and prakasa, of which they are "imperfect or degraded forms".

trigunatita ::: above or beyond the three gunas.

trigunatita. ::: beyond the three gunas

trigun.atitam ::: see trigun.atita. trigunatitam

trigun.atita (trigunatita; trigunatitam) ::: beyond the trigun.a, "supetrigunatita rior to the three qualities and master of them and therefore at once capable of action and unaffected, undominated by its own action"; brahman manifesting in "the repose, kinesis, illumination of the divine Nature" above "this nature of the Ignorance with its unquiet unbalanced activity of the three modes". trigun trigunatita

Trigunatmika: Characterised by three Gunas, viz., Sattva, Rajas and Tamas; of the cosmic energy or the divine power.

twelve ascetic practices. (S. dhutaguna; P. dhutanga; T. sbyangs pa'i yon tan; C. shi'er toutuo xing 十二頭陀行)

Unconditioned Having no attributes (gunas), used of the one reality of our kosmos, and of the still more abstract conception called the Rootless Root or All. In the categories of philosophy the term would apply also to spirit-substance extending into differentiations of the kosmos which, at least by comparison, is itself without attributes.

Vaisesika: One of the major systems of Indian philosophy (q.v.) founded by Ulaka, better known by his surname Kanada. It is a pluralistic realism, its main insistence being on visesa or particularity of the ultimate reality, incidental to an atomism. There are theistic implications. Reality falls into seven categories: nine substances (dravya, q.v.), 24 qualities (guna, q.v.), action (karma, q.v.), universality (samanya, q.v.), particularity (visesa), inherence (samavdya), and non-existence (abhava). -- K.F.L.

Vaishamyavastha: A state wherein the equilibrium of the three Gunas is disturbed; a state opposite to Samyavastha which is a state of equilibrium of the three Gunas.

Valabhī. [alt. Vallabhī]. Sanskrit name of a city in western India (in the modern state of Gujarat) that flourished under the Maitraka kings (475-775) and was the site of an important Buddhist monastery. Said to rival NĀLANDĀ in fame, Valabhī was known especially as a center of sRĀVAKAYĀNA learning, with each of the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS represented. However, the MAHĀYĀNA was also taught there, as were Brahmanical and secular subjects. Two important figures of the YOGĀCĀRA school, GUnAMATI and STHIRAMATI, were said to have held prominent positions at Valabhī before they proceeded to Nālandā. In the late seventh century, XUANZANG found approximately six thousand monks residing there in about a hundred monastic buildings.

varna&

Vinayamulasutra. Another name for GUnAPRABHA's VINAYASuTRA. See VINAYASuTRA.

vinayapitaka. (T. 'dul ba'i sde snod; C. lüzang; J. ritsuzo; K. yulchang 律藏). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "basket of discipline" or the "collection of discipline"; one of the three "baskets" (TRIPItAKA), or divisions of Buddhist scripture, together with the SuTRAPItAKA and the ABHIDHARMAPItAKA. Although typically presumed to include just the rules and regulations of monastic conduct, the vinayapitaka is actually one of the richest sources for understanding Buddhist practice and institutions in India. It is said that the Buddha instituted a new rule only after the commission of some form of misconduct that he sought to prevent in the future, so the vinayas are careful to recount in great detail the circumstances leading up to the Buddha's promulgation of the rule. The vinayapitaka is therefore composed largely of narratives, some of considerable length; one of the earliest biographies of the Buddha appears in the vinaya of the MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA school (see MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA). According to tradition, the redaction of the vinayapitaka occurred at the first Buddhist council (SAMGĪTI; see COUNCIL, FIRST), shortly after the Buddha's death, when a group of ARHATs assembled to recite the Buddha's teachings. There, the monk UPĀLI, considered an expert in the monastic code, was called upon to recite the vinaya. However, assuming that such a recitation occurred, disputes soon arose over what was allowable conduct according to the rules and regulations included in the vinayapitaka. At the time of his death, the Buddha told ĀNANDA that, after his death, the minor rules could be disregarded. At the first council, he was asked what those minor rules were, and Ānanda admitted that he had failed to ask. All rules were therefore retained, and his failure to ask was one of his errors requiring a confession of wrongdoing. The eventual division into the traditional eighteen MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS often centered on questions of vinaya practice and conduct. There is, therefore, no single vinayapitaka, but a number of vinayapitakas, with the precise content determined by the specific Indian school. To give one example, the Pāli vinayapitaka, which was perhaps redacted around the first century CE, is composed of the following three major divisions: (1) SUTTAVIBHAnGA (S. sutravibhanga; cf. VINAYAVIBHAnGA), which includes the pātimokkha (S. PRĀTIMOKsA) code with explanations and commentary, including the mahāvibhanga with the rules for monks and the bhikkhunīvibhanga with the rules for nuns; (2) KHANDHAKA (S. skandhaka; cf. VINAYAVASTU), which is subdivided between the MAHĀVAGGA, which includes chapters on such topics as the procedure for the ordination of monks, the fortnightly observances (P. uposatha; S. UPOsADHA), the rains retreat, the use of clothing, food, medicine, and so forth, and the CulAVAGGA, which includes a variety of judicial rules, procedures for the ordination of nuns, and accounts of the first and second Buddhist councils; and (3) PARIVĀRA, an appendix that provides a summary and classification of the rules of monastic conduct. ¶ Numerous vinaya texts were translated into Chinese, including complete (or near-complete) vinayapitakas associated with five of the mainstream schools of Indian Buddhism. In the order of their translation dates, these five are (1) "Ten-Recitations Vinaya" (C. Shisong lü; C. *Dasabhānavāravinaya; *Dasādhyāyavinaya) of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school, perhaps composed sometime between the first and third centuries CE and translated into Chinese between 404 and 409 CE; (2) DHARMAGUPTAKA vinaya, the renowned "Four-Part Vinaya" (SIFEN LÜ), translated between 410 and 412 CE, which becomes the definitive recension of the vinaya in the East Asian traditions and the focus of scholarship in the different East Asian vinaya schools (see NANSHAN LÜ ZONG, DONGTA LÜ ZONG, RISSHu); (3) MAHĀSĀMGHIKA vinaya (Mohesengji lü), composed between 100 and 200 CE and translated between 416 and 418; (4) MAHĪMsĀSAKA vinaya, or the "Five-Part Vinaya" (Wufen lü), perhaps composed in the first century BCE and translated between 422 and 423; and (5) the MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA vinaya, perhaps composed in the fourth or fifth century CE and translated into Chinese between 703 and 713. (The complete Tibetan translation of this vinaya becomes definitive for Tibetan Buddhism). ¶ It is important to note that the texts contained in the vinayapitaka of any school have served as just one source of the monastic code. In China, no complete recension of any Indian vinaya was translated until the beginning of the fifth century. (Indeed, none of the surviving recensions of the vinayas of any Buddhist school can be dated prior to the fifth century CE.) When the Indian vinayas were translated into Chinese, for example, their regulations were viewed as being so closely tied to the customs and climate of India that they were sometimes found either incomprehensible or irrelevant to the Chinese. This led to the composition of indigenous Chinese monastic codes, called guishi ("regulations") or QINGGUI ("rules of purity"), which promulgated rules of conduct for monks and nuns that accorded more closely with the realities of life in East Asian monasteries. In Tibet, the VINAYASuTRA by GUnAPRABHA, a medieval Indian summary of the much larger Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya, was the primary source for the monastic code, but each monastery also had its own regulations (BCA' YIG) that governed life there. See also PRĀTIMOKsASuTRA.

Vinayasutra. (T. 'Dul ba'i mdo). In Sanskrit, "Discourse on Discipline"; a work on the monastic code by the Indian master GUnAPRABHA, who is dated between the fifth and seventh century CE. Despite its title, the work is not a SuTRA (in the sense of a discourse ascribed to the Buddha), but instead is an authored work composed of individual aphoristic statements (sutras). The text offers a summary or condensation of the massive MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA. At approximately one quarter the length of this massive vinaya collection, Gunaprabha's abridgment seems to have functioned as a kind of primer on the monastic code, omitting lengthy passages of scripture and providing the code of conduct to which monks were expected to subscribe. In this sense, the text is an important work for determining what monastic practice may actually have been like in medieval India. The Vinayasutra became the most important vinaya text for Tibetan Buddhism, being studied in all of the major sects. In the DGE LUGS, it is one of the five books (GZHUNG LNGA) that served as the basis of the monastic curriculum. The detailed commentaries on the Vinayasutra by the Pāla dynasty writer Dharmamitra (early ninth century) and the BKA' GDAM PA master Tsho sna ba Shes rab bzang po's (b. thirteenth century) were widely studied.

viparyāsa. (P. vipallāsa; T. phyin ci log; C. diandao; J. tendo; K. chondo 顚倒). In Sanskrit, lit. "inversion," but referring to "perverted," "corrupted," or "inverted" views (the Chinese translation diandao literally means "upside down") or simply "error." There is a standard list of four "inverted views" that cause sentient beings to remain subject to the cycle of rebirth (SAMSĀRA). The four are (1) to view as pleasurable what is in fact painful or suffering (DUḤKHA), (2) to see as permanent what is in fact impermanent (ANITYA), (3) to see as pure what is in fact impure (AsUBHA), and (4) to see as having self what is in fact devoid of self (ANĀTMAN). These four inversions are corrected through insight into the true nature of reality, which prompts the realization that the aggregates (SKANDHA) are in fact suffering, impermanent, impure, and devoid of self. In the TATHĀGATAGARBHA literature, these four putatively correct views are in turn said also to be inversions from the standpoint of the tathāgatagarbha, which is said to possess four perfect qualities (GUnAPĀRAMITĀ): bliss, permanence, purity, and selfhood.

Visadrisaparinama: A change different from the original, like that of milk into curd; one relation of the Gunas changes into another different from it and so on.

Viseshaguna: Special quality.

Vishnu (Sanskrit) Viṣṇu [from the verbal root viṣ to enter, pervade] The sustainer or preserver; the second of the three gods of the Hindu Trimurti or Triad. Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu together are infinite space, of which the gods, rishis, manus, and all in the universe are simply the manifestations, qualities, and potencies. Vishnu is called the eternal deity, and in the Mahabharata and the Puranas he is declared to be the imbodiment of sattva-guna, the quality of mercy and goodness, which displays itself as the preserving power in the self-existent, all-pervading spirit. His symbol is the chakra (circle). He is identical with the Hindu Idaspati (master of the waters) and with the Greek Poseidon and Latin Neptune.

Vyākhyāyukti. (T. Rnam par bshad pa'i rigs pa). In Sanskrit, "Principles of Exegesis," a treatise by VASUBANDHU preserved only in Tibetan translation. In the broadest sense, the text deals with scriptural interpretation, touching on a wide range of related issues, including the authenticity of the MAHĀYĀNA sutras as the word of the Buddha (BUDDHAVACANA), which Vasubandhu upholds. The work is a companion to another work by Vasubandhu, the Vyākhyāyuktisutrakhandasata ("One Hundred Extracts from the Sutras for the Principles of Exegesis"), a collection of 109 passages presented without identification and without comment, all of which derive from "mainstream" (that is, non-Mahāyāna) sources, in most cases from the canon of the MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA. These passages serve as the basis for the discussion in the Vyākhyāyukti, which states that sutras are to be explained according to (1) their purpose, (2) their summarized meaning, (3) their sense, (4) their sequence, and (5) objections and responses. In discussing the sense or meaning of a sutra passage, he considers thirteen terms that have multiple meanings, including DHARMA, RuPA, and SKANDHA. In his explication of technical terminology, Vasubandhu explains four distinct aspects of "the meaning of the words" (padārtha): synonyms (paryāya), definition (laksana), etymology (nirukti), and their subdivisions (prabheda; perhaps implying subsidiary meanings, or "connotations," in this context). In the course of the discussion, several Mahāyāna sutras are quoted. The work was influential in late Indian scholastic circles, eliciting a commentary by Gunamati; it was also cited by such scholars as HARIBHADRA. It was highly praised by such luminaries as SA SKYA PAndITA and BU STON in Tibet, where it was used to establish principles for the translation of Buddhist texts from Sanskrit into Tibetan. See also NETTIPPAKARAnA; PEtAKOPADESA; SANFEN KEJING.

World Fellowship of Buddhists. The first international Buddhist organization, founded in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1950, by representatives from twenty-seven countries, and headed by GUNAPALA PIYASENA MALALASEKERA (1899-1973). Although most Buddhist traditions around the world are actively involved in the organization, THERAVĀDA Buddhists of Southeast Asia have traditionally played a central role: all its previous and current headquarters have been located in countries where the Theravāda tradition predominates (e.g., Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand) and all its presidents have also come from those countries. The WFB has more than 130 regional centers in over thirty countries, including India, Australia, the United States, Korea, Japan, and some African and European countries. The organization aims to promote the teachings of the Buddha, strengthen collegiality among Buddhists of different national traditions, and contribute to world peace by participating in social, educational, and humanitarian activities. The current headquarters is located in Bangkok, Thailand.

Wuxue Zuyuan. (J. Mugaku Sogen; K. Muhak Chowon 無學祖元) (1226-1286). Chinese CHAN master in the LINJI ZONG, who was the founder of the influential monastery of ENGAKUJI in Kamakura, Japan; also known as Ziyuan. On the advice of his brother, Wuxue entered the Chinese monastery of Jingcisi, where he was ordained by Beijian Jujian (1164-1246). Wuxue later became the student of the Linji Chan master WUZHUN SHIFAN (1178-1249) and received his seal of transmission (YINKE). Wuxue also studied under XUTANG ZHIYU (1185-1269) and Wuchu Daguan (1201-1268) and spent the next few decades residing at various monasteries in Zhejiang prefecture. In 1275, Wuxue left for Nengrensi to avoid the invading Mongol troops of the Yuan dynasty. In 1279, at the invitation of Hojo Tokimune (1251-1284), the eighth regent of the Kamakura shogunate, Wuxue reluctantly left China for Japan. Upon his arrival in Kamakura, Wuxue was appointed abbot of KENCHoJI, succeeding the third abbot LANXI DAOLONG. In 1282, Tokimune established Engakuji to commemorate the defeat of the invading Mongol troops and installed Wuxue as its founding abbot (J. kaisan; C. KAISHAN). Serving as administrator of the two most powerful Buddhist institutions in Japan at the time, Wuxue established a firm foundation for the success of the RINZAISHu in Japan. Wuxue was given the posthumous title state preceptor (J. kokushi, C. GUOSHI) Bukko (Buddha Radiance). His students included Japan's first female Zen master, MUGAI NYODAI (1223-1298), and KoHo KENNICHI (1241-1316), the son of Emperor Gosaga (r. 1242-1246) and the teacher of MUSo SOSEKI. Wuxue's teachings appear in his Bukko kokushi goroku.

Yishan Yining. (J. Issan Ichinei; K. Ilsan Illyong 一山一寧) (1247-1317). Chinese CHAN master in the LINJI ZONG; a native of Taizhou prefecture in present-day Zhejiang province. At a young age, Yishan became a student of a certain Wudeng Rong (d.u.) at the monastery of Hongfusi on Mt. Fu near his hometown in Taizhou. He was later ordained at the monastery of Puguangsi in Siming in Zhejiang province and continued to study VINAYA at Yingzhensi and TIANTAI thought and practice at Yanqingsi. Yishan then began his training in Chan under several teachers. He eventually became a disciple of Wanji Xingmi (d.u.), a disciple of the Chan master CAOYUAN DAOSHENG. In 1299, the Yuan emperor Chengzong (r. 1294-1307) bestowed upon him the title Great Master Miaoci Hongji (Subtle Compassion, Universal Salvation) and an official post as the overseer of Buddhist matters in Zhejiang. That same year, he was sent to Japan as an envoy of the court, but was detained temporarily at the temple of Shuzenji in Izu by the Kamakura shogunate. When the Hojo rulers learned of Yishan's renown in China, Yishan was invited to reside as abbot of the powerful monasteries of KENCHoJI, ENGAKUJI, and Jochiji in Kamakura. In 1313, Yishan was invited by the retired Emperor Gouda (r. 1274-1287) to reside as the third abbot of the monastery NANZENJI in Kyoto. Yishan had many students in Japan including the eminent Japanese monk MUSo SOSEKI. Yishan became ill and passed away in the abbot's quarters (J. hojo; C. FANGZHANG) of Nanzenji in 1317. The emperor bestowed upon him the title state preceptor (J. kokushi; C. GUOSHI) Issan (One Mountain). Yishan is also remembered for his calligraphy and for introducing to Japan the new commentaries written by the great Neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200) to Japan. He and his disciples, such as Shiliang Rengong (1266-1334), Mujaku Ryoen (d.u.), Monkei Ryoso (d. 1372), and Torin Yukyu (d. 1369), contributed much to the development of GOZAN culture in Japan.

Yon tan 'od. See GUnAPRABHA

yon tan pha rol tu phyin pa. See GUnAPĀRAMITĀ

Yon tan rin po che sdud pa tshigs su bcad pa. See RATNAGUnASAMCAYAGĀTHĀ

yon tan. See GUnA

zhung lnga. (shung nga). [alt. gzhung chen bka' pod lnga/gzhung chen pod lnga]. In Tibetan, "the five books," five Indian treatises that provided the foundation for the monastic curriculum of the DGE LUGS sect. The five works are the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA of MAITREYA, the MADHYAMAKĀVATĀRA of CANDRAKĪRTI, the PRAMĀnAVĀRTTIKA of DHARMAKĪRTI, the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHĀsYA of VASUBANDHU, and the VINAYASuTRA of GUnAPRABHA.



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1:We cannot get beyond the three gunas, if we do not first develop within ourselves the rule of the highest guna, sattwa. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge,
2:The Godhead, the spirit manifested in Nature appears in a sea of infinite quality, Ananta-guna. But the executive or mechanical prakriti is of the threefold Guna, Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas, and the Ananta-guna, the spiritual play of infinite quality, modifies itself in this mechanical nature into the type of these three gunas. And in the soul-force in man this Godhead in Nature represents itself as a fourfold effective Power, caturvyuha , a Power for knowledge, a Power for strength, a Power for mutuality and active and productive relation and interchange, a Power for works and labour and service, and its presence casts all human life into a nexus and inner and outer operation of these four things. The ancient thought of India conscious of this fourfold type of active human personality and nature, built out of it the four types of the Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra, each with its spiritual turn, ethical ideal, suitable upbringing, fixed function in society and place in the evolutionary scale of the spirit. As always tends to be the case when we too much externalise and mechanise the more subtle truths of our nature, this became a hard and fast system inconsistent with the freedom and variability and complexity of the finer developing spirit in man. Nevertheless the truth behind it exists and is one of some considerable importance in the perfection of our power of nature; but we have to take it in its inner aspects, first, personality, character, temperament, soul-type, then the soul-force which lies behind them and wears these forms, and lastly the play of the free spiritual shakti in which they find their culmination and unity beyond all modes. For the crude external idea that a man is born as a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Sudra and that alone, is not a psychological truth of our being. The psychological fact is that there are these four active powers and tendencies of the Spirit and its executive shakti within us and the predominance of one or the other in the more well-formed part of our personality gives us our main tendencies, dominant qualities and capacities, effective turn in action and life. But they are more or less present in an men, here manifest, there latent, here developed, there subdued and depressed or subordinate, and in the perfect man will be raised up to a fullness and harmony which in the spiritual freedom will burst out into the free play of the infinite quality of the spirit in the inner and outer life and in the self-enjoying creative play of the Purusha with his and the world's Nature-Power. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 4:15 - Soul-Force and the Fourfold Personality,

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1:Tak ada guna orang tua hendak menang sendiri. Pada akhirnya para dewa juga yang menang. ~ Pramoedya Ananta Toer,
2:Seseorang pernah mengatakan, guna puisi adalah dengan hadir tanpa guna. Ia tak bisa dijual. Ia menegaskan tak semua bisa dijual. ~ Goenawan Mohamad,
3:Apa guna warna langit dan bunyi jengkerik? Apa guna sajak dan siul? Yang buruk dari kapitalisme adalah menyingkirkan hal-hal yang percuma. ~ Goenawan Mohamad,
4:Guna means strand, and in the Gita the gunas are described as the very fabric of existence, the veil that hides unity in a covering of diversity. ~ Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa,
5:We cannot get beyond the three gunas, if we do not first develop within ourselves the rule of the highest guna, sattwa. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge,
6:Apa guna jadi Jawa kalau hanya untuk dilanggar hak-haknya? Tak mengerti kau kiranya, catatan begini sangat pribadi sifatnya? Tak pernah gurumu mengajarkan etika dan hak-hak perseorangan? ~ Pramoedya Ananta Toer,
7:Abandon pride, which is the same as Tamas-guna (darkness), rooted as it is in ignorance and is a source of considerable pain; and adore Lord Shri Rama, the Chief of the Raghus and an ocean of compassion. ~ Tulsidas,
8:Abandon pride, which is the same as Tamas-guna (darkness), rooted as it is in ignorance and is a source of considerable pain; and adore Lord Shri Rama, the Chief of the Raghus and an ocean of compassion.

(Page 787). ~ Tulsidas,
9:Alain de Lille —Alanus de Insulis— descubrió a fines del siglo XII esta fórmula, que las edades venideras no olvidarían: “Dios es una esfera inteligible, cuyo centro está en todas partes y su circunferencia en nin- guna”. ~ Anonymous,
10:Tapi kau sudah melakukan apapun yang bisa kau lakukan, dan ketika kau tidak bisa melakukan apa-apa lagi kau berdamai dengan takdirmu, dan kau tidak melawannya tanpa guna. Itu adalah kebijakan, bukan kelemahan - Katrina ~ Christopher Paolini,
11:Kita tetap suka mengenang, walau tak pernah benar-benar tahu apa guna sejarah bagi kita. Mungkin karena kita tak bisa menyangkal bahwa apa yang kita mengerti sekarang tak bisa lepas dari hal-hal yang kita alami pada masa lalu dan proyeksi kita untuk masa depan. ~ Avianti Armand,
12:He of rajas-guna, will look upon the devata with the bhaav of a conditional follower (vaishya-varna) or a conditional leader (kshatriyavarna). He will always value the devata for his possessions and not for who he is. He will blame the devata for all his problems and resent his own dependence on the devata. ~ Devdutt Pattanaik,
13:The three gunas [qualities] happen: sattva, rajas and tamas. These three gunas come in cycles into our life. When sattva comes, there is alertness, knowledge, interest, joy, happiness – everything comes. When rajo guna comes there is more desire, feverishness, restlessness, and sadness. When tamo guna comes delusion, attachment, lack of knowledge, lethargy – all these come. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,
14:Apa guna belajar ilmu dan pengetahuan Eropa, bergaul dengan orang-orang Eropa, kalau akhirnya toh harus merangkak, beringsut seperti keong dan menyembah seorang raja kecil yang barang kali buta huruf pula! God, God! Menghadap bupati sama dengan bersiap menampung penghinaan tanpa boleh membela diri. Tak pernah aku memaksa orang lai berbuat semacam itu terhadapku. Mengapa harus kulakukan untuk orang lain? Sambar gledek! ~ Pramoedya Ananta Toer,
15:Guna means strand, and in the Gita the gunas are described as the very fabric of existence, the veil that hides unity in a covering of diversity. Tamas is maya’s power of concealment, the darkness or ignorance that hides unitive reality; rajas distracts and scatters awareness, turning it away from reality toward the diversity of the outside world. Thus the gunas are essentially born of the mind. When the mind’s activity is stilled, we see life as it is. ~ Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa,
16:Berakal saja tidaklah cukup. Akal mestilah digunakan dan cara menggunakannya hendaklah tepat. Hanya dengan pandai-pandai menggunakan akal itu manusia mendapat suluhnya ke arah keselamatan hidup. Akal adalah satu kurnia yang bermata dua. Tersalah guna akal mungkin, bahkan selalu merosakkan hidup manusia. Itulah sebabnya manusia itu dengan akalnya, boleh melebihi malaikat dalam ketinggian nilai diri. Sebaliknya dia mungkin meluncur turun dalam itu lebih rendah dari syaitan. ~ Zulkifli Muhammad,
17:Guna impact not just matter but also the mind. Thus, thought and emotions also display the three tendencies. Therefore some people are lazy followers, some are driven leaders who want to change the world and some decide when to follow and when to lead, and know that the world can be changed only cosmetically with technology, but not in essence, at a psychological level. Tamas guna stops us from thinking, so we follow the trend. Rajas guna stops us from trusting anyone but ourselves. Sattva guna makes us care for those who are frightened, intimidated by the diverse and dynamic reality of the world. ~ Devdutt Pattanaik,
18:Barang kali kau tidak atau belum mencintai gadis itu. Bukan aku yang menentukan. Lagi pula tak ada cinta muncul mendadak, karena dia adalah anak kebudayaan,bukan batu dari langit. Setidak-tidaknya, bukan aku yang menentukan, yang menjalani sendiri. Kau harus uji dirimu, hatimu sendiri. Boleh jadi gadis itu suka padamu. Ibunya jelas sayang padamu sejauh sudah kau ceritakan. Aku tak percaya pada guna-guna. Barang kali memang ada, tapi aku tak perlu mempercayainya, karena itu hanya bisa berlaku dalam kehidupan yang masih terlalu sederhana tingkat peradabannya. Apalagi kau sudah bilang, Nyai melakukan segala pekerjaan kantor. Orang begitu tidak akan bermain guna-guna. Dia akan lebih percaya kepada kekuatan pribadi. Hanya orang tidak berpribadi bermain sihir, bermain dukun. Nyai itu tahu apa yang diperlukannya. Barang kali dia mengenal kesunyian hidup anaknya. ~ Pramoedya Ananta Toer,
19:Kapan selesai penghinaan atas diri nyai yang seorang ini? Haruskah setiap orang boleh menyakiti hatinya? Haruskah aku mengutuki orangtuaku yang telah mati, yang telah menjual aku jadi nyai begini? Aku tidak pernah mengutuki mereka, Ann. Apa orang tidak mengerti, orang terpelajar itu, insinyur pula, dia bukan hanya menghina diriku, juga anak-anakku? Haruskah anak-anakku jadi kranjang sampah tempat lemparan hinaan? Dan mengapa Tuan, Tuan Herman Mallema, yang bertubuh tinggi-besar, berdada bidang, berbulu dan berotot perkasa itu tak punya sesuatu kekuatan untuk membela teman-hidupnya, ibu anak-anaknya sendiri? Apa lagi arti seorang lelaki seperti itu? Kan dia bukan saja guruku, juga bapak anak-anakku, dewaku? Apa guna semua pengetahuan dan ilmunya? Apa guna dia jadi orang Eropa yang dihormati semua Primbumi? Apa guna dia jadi tuanku dan guruku sekaligus, dan dewa-dewaku, kalau membela dirinya sendiri pun tak mampu? ~ Pramoedya Ananta Toer,
20:Prakriti is said to be composed of three forces, sattwa, rajas and tamas, which are known collectively as the three gunas. These gunas-whose individual characteristics we shall describe in a moment-pass through phases of equilibrium and phases of imbalance; the nature of their relationship to each other is such that it is subject to perpetual change. As long as the gunas maintain their equilibrium, Prakriti remains undifferentiated and the universe exists only in its potential state. As soon as the balance is disturbed, a re-creation of the universe begins. The gunas enter into an enormous variety of combinations-all of them irregular, with one or the other guna predominating over the rest. Hence we have the variety of physical and psychic phenomena which make up our apparent world. Such a world continues to multiply and vary its forms until the gunas find a temporary equilibrium once more, and a new phase of undifferentiated potentiality begins. ~ Prabhavananda,
21:Shiva is the embodiment and controller of tama-guna, the mode of darkness, inertia, and the tendency towards annihilation. This is how he assists in the destruction of the cosmic creation in the end times, as well as in the exhibition of continuous forms of death and destruction that we see every day. However, this demise and dissolution can also be viewed as a renewal, which is also considered to be a part of Shiva. We can find additional characteristics of Lord Shiva in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (4.2.2) in which it states that Lord Shiva is the spiritual master of the entire world. He is a peaceful personality, free from enmity, always satisfied in himself. He is the greatest among all the demigods. He is the spiritual master of the world by showing how to worship the Supreme. He is considered the best of all devotees. Therefore, he has his own spiritual line or sampradaya called the Rudra-sampradaya that comes directly from him. These days it is found in the Vishnusvami-sampradaya, or the Vallabha-sampradaya. ~ Stephen Knapp,
22:Es necesario hallar la línea media de cada asana, de manera que la energía quede distribuida de forma adecuada. Cuando uno vacila, apartándose de la línea media, entonces se dirige hacia el pasado o el futuro. La ascensión vertical es el futuro; el descenso vertical es el pasado. La horizontalidad es el presente. El presente es el asana perfecta. Cuando creas apertura horizontal, el futuro y el pasado se encuentran en el presente. Por eso la extensión y la expansión dinámicas te permiten hallar el equilibrio y vivir de manera más plena en el presente mediante tu cuerpo. En asana hallamos equilibrio e integración en las tres dimensiones del espacio, pero también hallamos equilibrio e integración en la cuarta dimensión, la del tiempo. Los sabios de antaño dijeron que la clave de la vida era el equilibrio. Equilibrio, como yo he insistido, en todas las capas de nuestro ser. ¿Pero qué se supone que hemos de equilibrar? La respuesta radica en las tres cualidades de la naturaleza, llamadas guna. Estas tres cualidades deben hallarse en equilibrio en tu práctica de asana y en tu cuerpo, mente y alma. Podrían traducirse como solidez, dinamismo y luminosidad. ~ B K S Iyengar,
23:Gunaah ka bojh kiya hota hai aur aadmi apnay gunaah kay bojh ko kiss tarah qayaamat kay din apni pusht say utaar phainkna chahay ga kiss tarah uss say door bhaagna chahay ga kiss tarah doosray kay kandhay per daal dena chahay ga,yeh uss ki samajh mai Haram Shareef mai pohanch kar aya tha.Wahan kharay ho kar woh apnay paas mojood aur anay wali saari zindagi ki daulat kay aiwaz bhi kisi ko woh guna
ah baichna chahta tu koi yeh tijarat na karta.Kaash aadmi kisi maal kay aiwaz apnay gunaah baich sakta.Kisi ujrat kay taur per doosron ki naikiyaan mangnay ka haq rakhta.Laakhon loagon kay iss hujoom mai 2 sufaid chaadarain orhay,kaun janta tha kay Salaar Sikandar kaun tha?Uss ka I.Q Level kiya tha.Kissay parwah thi?Uss kay paas kaun kaunsi aur kahan ki Degree thi.Kissay hosh tha?Uss nay zindagi kay Maidaan mai kitnay taleemi record toray aur banaye thay.Kissay khabar thi woh apnay zehan kay kaun say maidaan taskheer karnay wala tha.Kaun rashk karnay wala tha?Woh wahan uss hujoom mai thokar kha kar girta,Bhagdar mai ronda jata.Uss kay ooper say guzarnay wali khalqat mai say koi bhi yeh nahin sochta kay unhone kaisay dimaagh ko kho diya hai.Kiss I.Q Level kay nayaab aadmi ko kis tarah khatam kar diya tha.Ussay duniya mai apni auqaat,apni ahmiyat ka pata chal gaya tha.Agar kuch mughaalita reh bhi gaya tha tu ab khatam hogaya tha.Agar kuch shubah baaqi tha,tu ab door hogaya tha.Fakhar,takabbur,rashk,ana,khudpasandi,khud sataayishi kay her bachay hue tukray ko nichor kar uss nay andar say phaink diya tha.Woh in hi alaaishon ko door karwanay kay liye wahan aya tha. ~ Umera Ahmed,

IN CHAPTERS [123/123]



   43 Integral Yoga
   29 Yoga
   4 Hinduism
   3 Occultism
   2 Poetry
   1 Psychology


   82 Sri Aurobindo
   20 Sri Ramakrishna
   12 Nolini Kanta Gupta
   4 Swami Krishnananda
   3 Swami Vivekananda
   3 Sri Ramana Maharshi
   3 Aleister Crowley
   2 Vyasa
   2 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
   2 Mahendranath Gupta
   2 A B Purani


   24 The Synthesis Of Yoga
   19 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
   19 Record of Yoga
   13 Essays On The Gita
   5 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
   4 Vedic and Philological Studies
   4 The Study and Practice of Yoga
   4 Talks
   2 Vishnu Purana
   2 Raja-Yoga
   2 Liber ABA
   2 Isha Upanishad
   2 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
   2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
   2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
   2 Amrita Gita
   2 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah


0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
   There are three kinds of formal devotion: tamasic, rajasic, and sattvic. If a person, while showing devotion, to God, is actuated by malevolence, arrogance, jealousy, or anger, then his devotion is tamasic, since it is influenced by tamas, the quality of inertia. If he worships God from a desire for fame or wealth, or from any other worldly ambition, then his devotion is rajasic, since it is influenced by rajas, the quality of activity. But if a person loves God without any thought of material gain, if he performs his duties to please God alone and maintains toward all created beings the attitude of friendship, then his devotion is called sattvic, since it is influenced by sattva, the quality of harmony. But the highest devotion transcends the three Gunas, or qualities, being a spontaneous, uninterrupted inclination of the mind toward God, the Inner Soul of all beings; and it wells up in the heart of a true devotee as soon as he hears the name of God or mention of God's attributes. A devotee possessed of this love would not accept the happiness of heaven if it were offered him. His one desire is to love God under all conditions — in pleasure and pain, life and death, honour and dishonour, prosperity and adversity.
   There are two stages of bhakti. The first is known as vaidhi-bhakti, or love of God qualified by scriptural injunctions. For the devotees of this stage are prescribed regular and methodical worship, hymns, prayers, the repetition of God's name, and the chanting of His glories. This lower bhakti in course of time matures into para-bhakti, or supreme devotion, known also as prema, the most intense form of divine love. Divine love is an end in itself. It exists potentially in all human hearts, but in the case of bound creatures it is misdirected to earthly objects.
  --
   Yet one is not sure whether the Master's soul actually was tortured by this agonizing disease. At least during his moments of spiritual exaltation — which became almost constant during the closing days of his life on earth — he lost all consciousness of the body, of illness and suffering. One of his attendants (Latu, later known as Swami Adbhutananda.) said later on: "While Sri Ramakrishna lay sick he never actually suffered pain. He would often say: 'O mind! Forget the body, forget the sickness, and remain merged in Bliss.' No, he did not really suffer. At times he would be in a state when the thrill of joy was clearly manifested in his body. Even when he could not speak he would let us know in some way that there was no suffering, and this fact was clearly evident to all who watched him. People who did not understand him thought that his suffering was very great. What spiritual joy he transmitted to us at that time! Could such a thing have been possible if he had 'been suffering physically? It was during this period that he taught us again these truths: 'Brahman is always unattached. The three Gunas are in It, but It is unaffected by them, just as the wind carries odour yet remains odourless.' 'Brahman is Infinite Being, Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Bliss. In It there exist no delusion, no misery, no disease, no death, no growth, no decay.' 'The Transcendental Being and the being within are one and the same. There is one indivisible Absolute Existence.'"
   The Holy Mother secretly went to a Siva temple across the Ganges to intercede with the Deity for the Master's recovery. In a revelation she was told to prepare herself for the inevitable end.

01.04 - Sri Aurobindos Gita, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Arrived so far, we now find, if we look back, a change in the whole perspective. Karma and even Karmayoga, which hitherto seemed to be the pivot of the Gita's teaching, retire somewhat into the background and present a diminished stature and value. The centre of gravity has shifted to the conception of the Divine Nature, to the Lord's own status, to the consciousness above the three Gunas, to absolute consecration of each limb of man's humanity to the Supreme Purusha for his descent and incarnation and play in and upon this human world.
   The higher secret of the Gita lies really in the later chapters, the earlier chapters being a preparation and passage to it orpartial and practical application. This has to be pointed out, since there is a notion current which seeks to limit the Gita's effective teaching to the earlier part, neglecting or even discarding the later portion.

01.12 - Three Degrees of Social Organisation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Still, the conception of duty cannot finally and definitively solve the problem. It cannot arrive at a perfect harmonisation of the conflicting claims of individual units; for, duty, as I have already said, is a child of mental idealism, and although the mind can exercise some kind of control over life-forces, it cannot altogether eliminate the seeds of conflict that lie imbedded in the very nature of life. It is for this reason that there is an element of constraint in duty; it is, as the poet says, the "stern daughter of the Voice of God". One has to compel oneself, one has to use force on oneself to carry out one's dutythere is a feeling somehow of its being a bitter pill. The cult of duty means rajas controlled and coerced by Sattwa, not the transcendence of rajas. This leads us to the high and supreme conception of Dharma, which is a transcendence of the Gunas. Dharma is not an ideal, a standard or a rule that one has to obey: it is the law of self-nature that one inevitably follows, it is easy, spontaneous, delightful. The path of duty is heroic, the path of Dharma is of the gods, godly (cf. Virabhava and Divyabhava of the Tantras).
   The principle of Dharma then inculcates that each individual must, in order to act, find out his truth of being, his true soul and inmost consciousness: one must entirely and integrally merge oneself into that, be identified with it in such a manner that all acts and feelings and thoughts, in fact all movements, inner and outerspontaneously and irrepressibly well out of that fount and origin. The individual souls, being made of one truth-nature in its multiple modalities, when they live, move and have their being in its essential law and dynamism, there cannot but be absolute harmony and perfect synthesis between all the units, even as the sun and moon and stars, as the Veda says, each following its specific orbit according to its specific nature, never collide or haltna me thate na tas thatuh but weave out a faultless pattern of symphony.

03.01 - Humanism and Humanism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Indian spirituality precisely envisages such a transcendence. According to it, the liberated soul, one who lives in and with the Brahman or the Supreme Divine is he who 'has discarded the inferior human nature and has taken up the superior divine nature. He has conquered the evil of the lower nature, certainly; but also he has gone beyond the good of that nature. The liberated man is seated above the play of the three Gunas that constitute the apar prakti.Human intelligence, human feeling, human sentiment, human motive do not move him. Humanism generally has no meaning for him. He is no longer human, but supra-human; his being and becoming are the spontaneous expression of a universal and transcendent consciousness. He does not always live and move externally in the non-human way; but even when he appears human in his life and action, his motives are not humanistic, his consciousness lies anchored somewhere else, in the Divine Will that makes him be and do whatever it chooses, human or not.
   There is, however, a type of humanism that is specially known in Indiait is not human humanism, but, as it is called, divine humanism. That is to say, the human formula is maintained, but a new significance, a transcendent connotation is put into it. The general contour of the instrumentation is preserved, but the substance is transmuted. The brain, the heart and the physical consciousness not only change their direction, but their very nature and character. And the Divine himself is conceived of as such a Human Person for the norm of the human personality is an eternal verity in the divine consciousness.

03.03 - Arjuna or the Ideal Disciple, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   To say this is to miss the whole nature of discipleship, at least as it is conceived in the Gita. A disciple is not a bundle of qualifications and attainments, however high or considerable they may be. A disciple is first and foremost an aspiring soul. He may not have high qualities to his credit; on the contrary, he may have what one calls serious defects, but even that would not matter if he possessed the one thing needful, the unescapable urge of the soul, the undying fire in the secret heart. Yudhishthira may have attained a high status of sttvic nature; but the highest spiritual status, the Gita says, lies beyond the three Gunas. He is the fittest person for this spiritual life who has abandoned all dharmasprinciples of conduct, modes of living and taken refuge in the Lord alone, made the Lord's will the sole and sufficient law of life. Even though to outward regard such a person be full of sins, the Lord promises to deliver him from all that. It is the soul's love for the Divine given unconditionally and without reserve that can best purify the dross of the inferior nature and render one worthy of the Divine Grace.
   Such was Arjuna's capacity; herein lay his strength, his spiritual superiority. It was because he could be so intimate with the Divine as to call him his friend and companion and playmate and speak to him in familiar and homely termseven though he felt contrition for having in this way perhaps slighted the Lord and not paid sufficient regard towards him. Yet this turn of his soul and nature points to the straightness and simplicity and candidness that were there and it was this that helped to call in the Divine and the Divine choice to fall upon him.

03.06 - Divine Humanism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Indian spirituality envisages precisely such a transcendence. According to it, the liberated soul, one who lives in and with the Brahman or the Supreme Divine, is he who has discarded the inferior human nature and has taken up the superior divine nature. He has conquered the evil of the lower nature, certainly; but also he has gone beyond the good of that nature. The liberated man is seated above the play of the three Gunas that constitute the inferior hemisphere of manifestation, apar prakti, Human intelligence, human feeling, human sentiment, human motive, even at their best and purest, do not move him. Humanism has naturally no meaning for him. He is no longer human, but supra-human; his being and becoming are the spontaneous expression of a universal and transcendent consciousness. He may not always live and move externally in the non-human way; but even when he appears human in his life and action, his motives are not humanistic, his consciousness lies anchored somewhere else, in the transcendent Will of the Divine that makes him be and do whatever it chooses, human or otherwise.
   And yet there is a humanism that is proper to Indiait is not 'human humanism', but, as it is called, 'divine humanism'. That is to say, the human formula is maintained, but a new significance, a transcendent connotation is put into it. The general contour of the instrumentation is preserved, but the substance is transmuted. The brain, the heart and the physical consciousness not only change their direction, but their very nature and character. And the Divine Himself is conceived as such a Divine Person for the norm of the human personality in this view is an eternal verity in the divine consciousness.

03.06 - Here or Otherwhere, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The question naturally turns upon the nature and the kind of workwhe ther there is a choice and selection in it. Gita speaks indeed of all works, ktsna-karmakt, but does that really mean any and every work that an ignorant man, an ordinary man steeped in the three Gunas does or can do? It cannot be so. For, although all activity, all energy has its source and impetus in the higher consciousness of the Divine, it assumes on the lower ranges indirect, diverted or even perverted formulations and expressions, not because of the inherent falsity of these so-called inferior strata, the instruments, but because of their temporary impurity and obscurity. There are evidently activities and impulsions born exclusively of desire, of attachment and egoism. There are habits of the body, urges of the vital, notions of the mind, there are individual and social functions that have no place in the spiritual scheme, they have to be rigorously eschewed and eliminated. Has not the Gita said, this is desire, this is passion born of the quality of Rajas? . . . There is not much meaning in trying to do these works unattached or to turn them towards the Divine. When you are unattached, when you turn to the Divine, these 'Simply drop away of themselves. Yes, there are social duties and activities and relations that inevitably dissolve and disappear as you move into the life divine. Some are perhaps tolerated for a period, some are occasions for the consciousness to battle and surmount, grow strong and pass beyond. You have to learn to go beyond and new-create your environment.
   It was Danton who said, one carries not his country with him at the sole of his shoe. Even so you cannot hope to shift bodily your present social ensemble, place it wholesale in the divine life on the plea that it will be purified and transformed in the process. Purification is there indeed, but one must remember purification literally means burning and not a little of the past and present has to be burnt down to ashes.

03.14 - Mater Dolorosa, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   If, on the contrary, any part of us belongs to the Inferior Nature, even if the larger part dwells in some higher status of Nature, even then we are not immune to the attacks that come from the inferior Nature. Those whom we usually call pious or virtuous or honest have still a good part of them imbedded in the Lower Nature, in various degrees they are yet its vassals; they owe allegiance to the three Gunas, be it even to sattwasattwa is also a movement in Inferior Nature; they are not free. Has not Sri Krishna said: Traigunyaviayved nistraigunyo bhavrjuna1? only thing we must remember is that freedom from the Gunas does not necessarily mean an absolute cessation of the play of Prakriti. Being in the Gunas we must know how to purify and change them, transmute them into the higher and divine potentials.
   This is a counsel of perfection, one would say. But there is no other way out. If humanity is to be saved, if it is at all to progress, it can be only in this direction. Buddha's was no less a counsel of perfection. He saw the misery of man, the three great maladies inherent in life and his supreme compassion led him to the discovery of a remedy, a radical remedy,indeed it could remove the malady altogether, for it removed the patient also. What we propose is, in this sense, something less drastic. Ours is not a path of escape, although that too needs heroism, but of battle and conquest and lordship.
  --
   The action of the three Gunas is the subject matter of the Veda: but do thou become free from the triple Guna, O Arjuna.The Gita, II.45
   ***

04.06 - To Be or Not to Be, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Once in this status of the divine consciousness, one passes beyond the three Gunas. That is to say, one bids good-bye to one's (the human sense of) freedom and option or choice. One can say no longer, I cannot do it, for it seems immoral, I have to do that, because that seems good. One goes beyond good and bad and awaits the divine command. One does what one is ordered to do from above, what is needed to fulfil the Cosmic Purpose. You do not act then, it is the Divine who acts in you.
   It may be asked if even then there are not some types of activity and impulsion that are intrinsically evil, undivine they can under no circumstances be godly or God's instruments, they have to be rejected, cast aside in the very beginning, also in the middle and naturally in the end. But it must be remembered that the human mind cannot be the judge of what is divine or undivine, there are things the Divine may sanction which the mental being fights shy of. It must leave into the Divine to choose His instrument and His mode of activityit is sufficient if the mental being knows by whom it is impelled and where it falls as an arrow shot to its mark: keneitam patati preitam.6

1.00a - Introduction, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  The Letter Kaph, Jupiter (Jehovah), the Wheel of Fortune in the Tarot the Atu X is a picture of the Universe built up and revolving by virtue of those Three Principles: Sulphur, Mercury, Salt; or Gunas: Sattvas, Rajas, Tamas has the value 20. So also has the letter Yod spelt in full.
  One Gnostic secret way of spelling and pronouncing Jehovah is and this has the value 811. So has "Let there be," Fiat, transliterating into Greek.

1.02 - Karma Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
  36. An egoistic man alone thinks: I am the doer. Really it is the Guna or Prakriti or the sense that does the action. Atman is actionless, Akarta, Nishkriya.
  37. Practise your Svadhanna, your Varnashrama Dharma unselfishly, without egoism. You will attain purification of heart. Knowledge of Brahman will dawn in your heart.

1.02 - The Eternal Law, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
  play of the three Gunas, which rock us endlessly from light to dark,
  enthusiasm to exhaustion, gray apathy to fugitive pleasures and recurring sufferings, and to find a poise above in other words, to recover the divine consciousness (yoga), the state of perfect equilibrium. In order to achieve this goal, they try to take us out of the state of dispersion and waste in which we live daily, and to create in us a concentration powerful enough to break our ordinary limits and,

10.35 - The Moral and the Spiritual, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   A strange fascination for the forbidden fruit has gripped the modern mentality and the most significant part of the thing is that the forbidding comes from within oneself, not from any authority outside It is self-forbidden. We are reminded here of the Kantian moral absolute the categorical imperative. This is a gospel based upon the Christian and Semitic tradition, polished by the Greek (that is, Socratic) touch, quickened and sharpened by the intellectual and social stress of European Culture. India admitted no such moral absolute or mental categorical imperative. The urge of her spiritual consciousness was always to go beyond, beyond the dualities, beyond the trinities (the three Gunas)all mental or scriptural rules and regulations. For her there is only one absolute the transcendent, the Supreme Divine himself the Brahman, nothing else, netaram.
   The Indian spiritual consciousness considers the secular distinction of good and evil as otiose: both are maya, there must neither be attachment to the Good, nor repulsion from Evil, the two, dwandwas, belong to the same category of relativity, that is, unreality.

1.03 - Measure of time, Moments of Kashthas, etc., #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
  [1]: Agency depends upon the Rāja Guna, the quality of foulness or passion, which is an imperfection. Perfect being is void of all qualities, and is therefore inert:
  [2]: This term is also applied to a different and still more protracted period. See b. VI. C. 3.

1.03 - The Human Disciple, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Arjuna is, in the language of the Gita, a man subject to the action of the three Gunas or modes of the Nature-Force and habituated to move unquestioningly in that field, like the generality of men. He justifies his name only in being so far pure and sattwic as to be governed by high and clear principles and impulses and habitually control his lower nature by the noblest
  Law which he knows. He is not of a violent Asuric disposition, not the slave of his passions, but has been trained to a high calm and self-control, to an unswerving performance of his duties

1.03 - VISIT TO VIDYASAGAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "The vijnni sees that Brahman is immovable and actionless, like Mount Sumeru. This universe consists of the three Gunas - sattva, rajas, and tamas. They are in Brahman.
  But Brahman is unattached.
  --
  "The vijnni further sees that what is Brahman is the Bhagavan, the Personal God. He who is beyond the three Gunas is the Bhagavan, with His six supernatural powers.
  Living beings, the universe, mind, intelligence, love, renunciation, knowledge - all these are the manifestations of His power. (With a laugh) If an aristocrat has neither house nor property, or if he has been forced to sell them, one doesn't call him an aristocrat any more. (All laugh.) God is endowed with the six supernatural powers. If He were not who would obey Him? (All laugh.)

1.045 - Piercing the Structure of the Object, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  The cosmological doctrine of the Samkhya is that there is originally a common base for every form of material existence, and that the variety of this world is really a diversified form of one and the same substance. It is not really a variety of substance but a variety of form forms taken by one and the same substance which the Samkhya calls prakriti or pradhana. This original material of all things, called pradhana or prakriti, is constituted of what we know as Gunas, the essential properties sattva, rajas and tamas. These are peculiar things which are easily mistaken and misconstrued as certain conditions or attributes of prakriti or pradhana. However, they are not the ordinary attri butes or qualities of pradhana, but are another name for pradhana itself.
  There is, ultimately, no distinction between substance and quality, though in the world of ordinary sensory experience we are likely to make a distinction between substance and its attri bute. It is not an attri bute; it is a condition of the substance out of which prakriti is made. Prakriti has three conditions known as sattva, rajas and tamas and what is known as the ultimate state of prakriti is only the equilibrium of these three Gunas, wherein we cannot know which is preponderant and which is submerged. They act and react upon one another with equal force, so that their presence is not objectively felt. There is, therefore, no external consciousness or object-consciousness in the state of the ultimate condition of prakriti.
  Any person who is absorbed in the condition of prakriti will not have world-consciousness, because there is no externalisation caused by the preponderance of rajas. The externalisation of the objectification of consciousness by means of perception is due to the preponderance of the rajas quality of prakriti; but there is no such preponderance in the ultimate condition. They are all equally emphasised with equal intensity and, therefore, there is nothing special in the form of an individual experience. There is no individuality at all, because the individual consciousness is itself an outcome of the rajas preponderating, by which one part of prakriti is cut off from another part.

1.04 - KAI VALYA PADA, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
  te vyciktasookshma Gunatmanah
  They are manifested or fine, being of the nature of the
  --
  The Gunas are the three substances, Sattva , Rajas, and
  Tamas, whose gross state is the sensible universe. Past and
  --
  purusharthashoonyanan Gunanan pratiprasavah
  kaivalyan, svaroopapratishtha va chitishaktireti

1.04 - The Paths, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
  We have, therefore, , the alchemical symbol of Sulphur, a fiery energetic principle, the Hindu Gunam of Rajas, the quality of energy and volition. On the arms of his throne are carved two ram's heads, showing that this attri bution is harmonious.
  V-V

1.05 - The Ascent of the Sacrifice - The Psychic Being, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
     If knowledge is the widest power of the consciousness and its function is to free and illumine, yet love is the deepest and most intense and its privilege is to be the key to the most profound and secret recesses of the Divine Mystery. Man, because he is a mental being, is prone to give the highest importance to the thinking mind and its reason and will and to its way of approach and effectuation of Truth and, even, he is inclined to hold that there is no other. The heart with its emotions and incalculable movements is to the eye of his intellect an obscure, uncertain and often a perilous and misleading power which needs to be kept in control by the reason and the mental will and intelligence. And yet there is in the heart or behind it a profounder mystic light which, if not what we call intuition -- for that, though not of the mind, yet descends through the mind -- has yet a direct touch upon Truth and is nearer to the Divine than the human intellect in its pride of knowledge. According to the ancient teaching the seat of the immanent Divine, the hidden Purusha, is in the mystic heart, -- the secret heart-cave, hrdaye Gunayam, as the Upanishads put it, -- and, according to the experience of many Yogins, it is from its depths that there comes the voice or the breath of the inner oracle.
     This ambiguity, these opposing appearances of depth and blindness are created by the double character of the human emotive being. For there is in front in men a heart of vital emotion similar to the animal's, if more variously developed; its emotions are governed by egoistic passion, blind instinctive affections and all the play of the life-impulses with their imperfections, perversions, often sordid degradations, -- heart besieged and given over to the lusts, desires, wraths, intense or fierce demands or little greeds and mean pettinesses of an obscure and fallen life-force and debased by its slavery to any and every impulse. This mixture of the emotive heart and the sensational hungering vital creates in man a false soul of desire; it is this that is the crude and dangerous element which the reason rightly distrusts and feels a need to control, even though the actual control or rather coercion it succeeds in establishing over our raw and insistent vital nature remains always very uncertain and deceptive. But the true soul of man is not there; it is in the true invisible heart hidden in some luminous cave of the nature: there under some infiltration of the divine Light is our soul, a silent inmost being of which few are even aware; for if all have a soul, few are conscious of their true soul or feel its direct impulse. There dwells the little spark of the Divine which supports this obscure mass of our nature and around it grows the psychic being, the formed soul or the real Man within us. It is as this psychic being in him grows and the movements of the heart reflect its divinations and impulsions that man becomes more and more aware of his soul, ceases to be a superior animal, and, awakening to glimpses of the godhead within him, admits more and more its intimations of a deeper life and consciousness and an impulse towards things divine. It is one of the decisive moments of the integral Yoga when this psychic being liberated, brought out from the veil to the front, can pour the full flood of its divinations, seeings and impulsions on the mind, life and body of man and begin to prepare the upbuilding of divinity in the earthly nature.

1.05 - THE MASTER AND KESHAB, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Their frames are human skeletons, their sails of the three Gunas made;
  But all their curious workmanship is merely for ornament.

1.05 - Vishnu as Brahma creates the world, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
  [1]: The terms here employed are for qualities, Gunas; which, as we have already noticed, are those of goodness, foulness, and darkness. The characteristics, or Swabhāvas, are the inherent properties of the qualities, by which they act, as, soothing, terrific, or stupifying: and the forms, Svarūpas, are the distinctions of biped, quadruped, brute, bird, fish, and the like.
  [2]: Or Tamas, Moha, Mahāmoha, Tamisra, Andhatamisra; they are the five kinds of obstruction, viparyyaya, of soul's liberation, according to the Sā

1.06 - The Literal Qabalah, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
  Tarot attri bution was the Emperor wherein was found con- cealed the symbol of Sulphur, or the Hindu Gunam of
  Rajas. M A is Thor with his Swastika, hurling thunder- bolts and lightning from heaven. Aleph, too, is the whirling

1.06 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "As worldly people are endowed with sattva, rajas, and tamas, so also is bakti characterized by the three Gunas.
  "Do you know what a worldly person endowed with sattva is like? Perhaps his house is in a dilapidated condition here and there. He doesn't care to repair it. The worship hall may be strewn with pigeon droppings and the courtyard covered with moss, but he pays no attention to these things. The furniture of the house may be old; he doesn't think of polishing it and making it look neat. He doesn't care for dress at all; anything is good enough for him. But the man himself is very gentle, quiet, kind, and humble; he doesn't injure anyone.

1.070 - The Seven Stages of Perfection, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  The efforts that are mentioned here are nothing but the efforts of the practice of yoga. When the mind loses control over the consciousness, which is the fifth stage, there is a dismantling of the house of the Gunas. As I mentioned, all the material of the house of this individuality is pulled out. The materials are the Gunas sattva, rajas and tamas. The prison of this individuality is pulled out, broken down, because the material of this individuality, which is nothing but the complex of sattva, rajas and tamas, is withdrawn within its cause, and this complex of body-mind ceases to operate. That is the sixth stage.
  The seventh stage is the return of consciousness to itself, where the self becomes aware of what it is completely freed from all bondage. Yog

1.07 - THE MASTER AND VIJAY GOSWAMI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "When the dry branch of a coconut palm drops to the ground, it leaves only a mark on the trunk indicating that once there was a branch at that place. In like manner, he who has attained God keeps only an appearance of ego; there remains in him only a semblance of anger and lust. He becomes like a child. A child has no attachment to the three Gunas-sattva, rajas, and tamas. He becomes as quickly detached from a thing as he becomes attached to it. You can cajole him out of a cloth worth five rupees with a doll worth an nn, though at first he may say with great determination: 'No, I won't give it to you. My daddy bought it for me.' Again, all persons are the same to a child.
  He has no feeling of high and low in regard to persons. So he doesn't discriminate about caste. If his mother tells him that a particular man should be regarded as an elder brother, the child will eat from the same plate with him, though the man may belong to the low caste of a blacksmith. The child doesn't know hate, or what is holy or unholy.
  --
  "After realizing God a man becomes like a child. One acquires the nature of the object one meditates upon. The nature of God is like that of a child. As a child builds up his toy house and then breaks it down, so God acts while creating, preserving, and destroying the universe. Further, as the child is not under the control of any Guna, so God is beyond the three Gunas-sattva, rajas, and tamas. That is why paramahamsas keep five or ten children with them, that they may assume their nature."
  Sitting on the floor in the room was a young man from Agarpara about twenty-two years old. Whenever he came to the temple garden, he would take the Master aside, by a sign, and whisper his thoughts to him. He was a newcomer. That day he was sitting on the floor near the Master.

1.08 - Adhyatma Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
  18. Think and feel that Prakriti or Svabhava or Guna does everything. Identify yourself with the Actionless Atman, the Silent Witness and thus free yourself from the bondage of action.
  19. Surrender all actions unto the Lord. Fix your mind on Him. Free yourself from egoism, attachment, desire. No action will bind you. Actions are burnt by the fire of Wisdom. Such actions are no longer actions at all. You will attain the Supreme Abode of everlasting bliss and peace.

1.08 - The Gods of the Veda - The Secret of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  In the ninth rik, I take vahnayah in its natural sense, those who bear or support; it is the application of the general function, charshanidhrit to the particular activity of the sacrifice, medham jushanta vahnayah. I cannot accept the sense of priest for vahni; it may have this meaning in some passages, but the ordinary significance is clearly fixed by Medhatithis collocation, vahanti vahnayah, in the [fourteenth] sukta; for to suppose such a collocation to have been made without any reference to the common significance of the two words, is to do violence to common sense & to language. In the same rik we have the word asridhah rendered by Sayana, undecaying or unwithering, and ehimysah, in which he takes ehi to be -ha, pervading activity & my in the sense of prajn, intelligence. We have no difficulty in rejecting these constructions. Ehi is a modified form, by Gunation, from the root h, and must mean like h, wish, attempt, effort or activity; my from m, to contain or measure (mt, mna) or m, to contain, embrace, comprehend, know, may mean either capacity, wideness, greatness or comprehending knowledge. The sense, therefore, is either that the Visvadevas put knowledge into all their activities or else that they have a full capacity, whether in knowledge or in any other quality, for all activities. The latter sense strikes me as the more natural & appropriate in the context. Sridhah, again, means enemies in the Veda, and asridhah may well mean, not hostile, friendly. It will then be complementary to adruhah,asridhah adruhah, unhostile, unharmful, and the two epithets will form an amplification of omsas, kindly, the first of the characteristics applied to these deities. Yet such a purposeless negative amplification of a strong positive & sufficient epithet is not in the style of the Sukta, of Madhuchchhandas hymns generally or of any Vedic Rishi; nor does it go well with the word ehimysah which inappropriately divides the two companion epithets. Sridh has the sense of enemy from the idea of the shock of assault. The root sri means to move, rush, or assail; sridh gives the additional idea of moving or rushing against some object or obstacle. I suggest then that asridhah means unstumbling, unfailing (cf the English to slide). The sense will then be that the Visvadevas are unstumbling & unfaltering in the effectuation of their activities because they have a full capacity for all activities, and for the same reason they cause no hurt to the work or the human worker. We have a coherent meaning & progression of related ideas and a good reason for the insertion of ehimysah between the two negative epithets asridhah & adruhah.
  We can now examine the functioning of the Visvadevas as they are revealed to us in these three riks of the ancient Veda: Come, says the Rishi, O Visvadevas who in your benignity uphold the activities of men, come, distributing the nectar-offering of the giver. O Visvadevas, swift to effect, come to the nectar-offering, hastening like mornings to the days (or, like lovers to their paramours). O Visvadevas, who stumble not in your work, for you are mighty for all activity and do no hurt, cleave in heart to the sacrifice & be its upbearers. The sense is clear & simple. The kindly gods who support man in his action & development, are to arrive; they are to give abroad the nectar-offering which is now given to them, to pour it out on the world in joy-giving activities of mind or body, for that is the relation of gods & men, as we see in the Gita, giving out whatever is given to them in an abundant mutual helpfulness. Swiftly have they to effect the many-sided action prepared for them, hastening to the joy of the offering of Ananda as a lover hastens to the joy of his mistress. They will not stumble or fail in any action entrusted to them, for they have full capacity for their great world-functions, nor, for the like reason, will they impair the force of the joy or the strength in the activity by misuse, therefore let them put their hearts into the sacrifice of action and upbear it by this unfaltering strength. Swiftness, variety, intensity, even a fierce intensity of joy & thought & action is the note throughout, but yet a faultless activity, fixed in its variety, unstumbling in its swiftness, not hurting the strength, light & joy by its fierceness or violent expenditure of energydhishnya, asridhah, adruhah. That which ensures this steadiness & unfaltering gait, is the control of the mental power which is the agent of the action & the holder of the joy by the understanding. Indra is dhiyeshita. But what will ensure the understanding itself from error & swerving? It is the divine inspiration, Saraswati, rich with mental substance & clearness, who will keep the system purified, uphold sovereignly the Yajna, & illumine all the actions of the understanding, by awakening with the high divine perception, daivyena ketun, the great sea of ideal knowledge above. For this ideal knowledge, as we shall see, is the satyam, ritam, brihat; it is wide expansion of being & therefore utmost capacity of power, bliss & knowledge; it is the unobscured light of direct & unerring truth, and it is the unstumbling, unswerving fixity of spontaneous Right & Law.

1.096 - Powers that Accrue in the Practice, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  The fourth is anvaya, the immanence of the forces of prakriti as sattva, rajas and tamas in the elements. These elements are nothing but sattva, rajas and tamas; and their presence in all these forms is hidden. It is these three Gunas that, by some peculiar modification of themselves, enter into a peculiar state of density, gradually, and become the five elements. There are no five elements; it is the three Gunas appearing as the five. The five elements are nothing but the five gradations in the density of the development of the mulaprakriti herself. That is the immanent aspect of the elements, anvaya the involvement of the elements in the three Gunas of prakriti.
  The last one is called arthavatva, the purpose for which they exist. Everything exists for the liberation of the spirit. That was pointed out in sutras we studied earlier. Bhogpavargrtham dyam (II.18): The whole universe has been manifest for the purpose of providing the field of experience for the individuals therein, in order that they may gain salvation, ultimately, through experiences of this kind. These are the five aspects of the five elements, and we concentrate and do samyama on them.
  --
  The character of grasping an object is called grahana. The way in which the eyes see, the ears hear, etc. that manner of the senses operating upon objects is called grahana. Svarupa is the senses themselves, independent of these functions. Apart from the functions that the senses perform, they have a nature of their own. That independent nature of the senses, apart from their activity, is called svarupa. Asmita is the I-principle that controls the operation of the five senses. It is the ego principle which organises the activities of the different senses and focuses them on a particular object. That means to say, the higher controls the lower, and the higher includes the lower. Ultimately, it is the I-principle that is the reason behind the working of the senses. Thus, if we can grasp the meaning of this ego, the meaning of the senses also is clear. The fourth one is anvaya. That is similar to the fourth aspect in respect of the power of the five elements namely, the operation of the Gunas. The three Gunas sattva, rajas and tamas of prakriti are the rudimentary principles behind the senses and also the ahamkara tattva, or I-principle. Arthavattva is the purpose of the activity of the senses which is, again, to bring about experience for the purpose of the liberation of the spirit. With these connotations of the activities of the senses, one can concentrate, do samyama on the senses themselves, and the senses come under ones control. Grahaa svarpa asmita anvay arthavattva sayamat indriyajaya (III.48).
  Then the sutra, tata manojavitva vikaraabhva pradhnajaya ca (III.49), tells us that the mind becomes powerful and it can carry the body, like a rocket, to any place. That is called manojavitvam: one can fly as fast as the mind flies. Vikranabhava is another perfection that is said to follow. Vikranabhava means the capacity to reach any object, at any distance, and manipulate it in the manner required, according to the wish of the yogi. Again, this is another part of grahsya samapatti, or the power that one gains over the elements.

1.099 - The Entry of the Eternal into the Individual, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  Thus, by the increase of sattva in us, we allow the powers of nature to enter us. It is the rajas that is predominant in ourselves which cuts off nature from our individual lives. The principal function of rajo Guna is separation differentiating one from the other, not allowing in the cooperation of one with the other, and creating a dissimilarity of character and difference in function. Due to the intensity of the action of rajas, there is this division of properties and a separation of individualities, so that there has been the perception and experience of a dividedness of life, while this is really not there. For nature, taken in its completeness, there is no division. It is one total, a comprehensive completeness in which there is no distinction of the subject on one side and the object on the other side. The distinction has been created by certain artificial factors, and these are the operations of the Gunas. By diminishing the intensity of the action of rajas through intense concentration of mind, we become more and more approximate to the original condition of prakriti. The integrating powers of nature begin to act when sattva rises in us. On the other hand, if the rajas is to be predominant, the disintegrating factors start operating.
  Thus, what is yoga? Yoga is nothing but an endeavour in the direction of the increase of sattva in oneself and a decrease of rajas. The methods have already been described in the earlier sections. The sutra merely tells us of a principle of how prakriti acts namely, that it fills a vacancy wherever a vacancy is created. Empty thyself, and I shall fill thee. This great statement is similar to the principle of this sutra. When we empty ourselves of all those conditioning factors of our individuality, the universal forces will enter us. The universal is not outside us. It is, on account of its being universal by itself, everywhere. But it is not allowed to operate, just as we do not allow the sunlight to enter a house by closing the windows and doors. The vehemence or the force with which the ego-principle, or the I-principle, works in us prevents the entry of universal forces into us. Yoga is the technique of the diminution of the intensity of this I-principle.

1.10 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES (II), #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER: "When the Godhead is thought of as creating, preserving, and destroying, It is known as the Personal God, Sa Guna Brahman, or the Primal Energy, dyakti. Again, when It is thought of as beyond the three Gunas, then It is called the Attri buteless Reality, Nir Guna Brahman, beyond speech and thought; this is the Supreme Brahman, Parabrahman.
  The three Gunas
  "Under the spell of God's maya man forgets his true nature. He forgets that he is heir to the infinite glories of his Father. This divine maya is made up of three Gunas. And all three are robbers; for they rob man of all his treasures and make him forget his true nature. The three Gunas are sattva, rajas, and tamas. Of these, sattva alone points the way to God. But even sattva cannot take a man to God.
  Parable of the three robbers
  --
  "Now, the first robber, who said: 'What's the good of keeping the man alive? Kill him', is tamas. It destroys. The second robber is rajas, which binds a man to the world and entangles him in a variety of activities. Rajas makes him forget God. Sattva alone shows the way to God. It produces virtues like compassion, righteousness, and devotion. Again, sattva is like the last step of the stairs. Next to it is the roof. The Supreme Brahman is man's own abode. One cannot attain the Knowledge of Brahman unless one transcends the three Gunas."
  PREACHER: "You have given us a fine talk, sir."
  --
  Thou the Support of the three Gunas,
  Higher than the most high.

1.10 - The Three Modes of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   influences, often a conflict, a wrestling of forces, a struggle to dominate each other. All have in great or in small extent or degree, even if sometimes in a hardly appreciable minimum, their sattwic states and clear tracts or inchoate tendencies of light, clarity and happiness, fine adaptation and sympathy with the environment, intelligence, poise, right mind, right will and feeling, right impulse, virtue, order. All have their rajasic moods and impulses and turbid parts of desire and passion and struggle, perversion and falsehood and error, unbalanced joy and sorrow, aggressive push to work and eager creation and strong or bold or fiery or fierce reactions to the pressure of the environment and to life's assaults and offers. All have their tamasic states and constant obscure parts, their moments or points of unconsciousness, their long habit or their temporary velleities of weak resignation or dull acceptance, their constitutional feeblenesses or movements of fatigue, negligence and indolence and their lapses into ignorance and incapacity, depression and fear and cowardly recoil or submission to the environment and to the pressure of men and events and forces. Each one of us is sattwic in some directions of his energy of Nature or in some parts of his mind or character, in others rajasic, tamasic in others. According as one or other of the modes usually dominates his general temperament and type of mind and turn of action, it is said of him that he is the sattwic, the rajasic or the tamasic man; but few are always of one kind and none is entire in his kind. The wise are not always or wholly wise, the intelligent are intelligent only in patches; the saint suppresses in himself many unsaintly movements and the evil are not entirely evil: the dullest has his unexpressed or unused and undeveloped capacities, the most timorous his moments or his way of courage, the helpless and the weakling a latent part of strength in his nature. The dominant Gunas are not the essential soul-type of the embodied being but only the index of the formation he has made for this life or during his present existence and at a given moment of his evolution in Time.
  * *
  --
  An escape from the action of the two inferior Gunas is very evidently indispensable if we are to transmute our present nature into a power and form of the divine consciousness and an instrument of its forces. Tamas obscures and prevents the light of the divine knowledge from penetrating into the dark and dull corners of our nature. Tamas incapacitates and takes
  The Three Modes of Nature
  --
  A radically different movement has to draw us back from the Gunas and lift us above them. The error that accepts the action of the modes of Nature must cease; for as long as it is accepted, the soul is involved in their operations and subjected to their law. Sattwa must be transcended as well as rajas and tamas; the golden chain must be broken no less than the leaden fetters and the bond-ornaments of a mixed alloy. The Gita prescribes to this end a new method of self-discipline. It is to stand back in oneself from the action of the modes and observe this unsteady flux as the Witness seated above the surge of the forces of Nature. He is one who watches but is impartial and indifferent, aloof from them on their own level and in his native posture high above them. As they rise and fall in their waves, the Witness looks, observes, but neither accepts nor for the moment interferes with their course. First there must be the freedom of the impersonal
  Witness; afterwards there can be the control of the Master, the
  --
  This is the greater consciousness into which our inferior consciousness has to be transformed, this nature of the Ignorance with its unquiet unbalanced activity of the three modes changed into this greater luminous supernature. At first we become free from the three Gunas, detached, untroubled, nistraigun.ya; but this is the recovery of the native state of the soul, the self, the spirit free and watching in its motionless calm the motion of
  Prakriti in her force of the Ignorance. If on this basis the nature, the motion of Prakriti, is also to become free, it must be by a quiescence of action in a luminous peace and silence in which all necessary movements are done without any conscious reaction or participation or initiation of action by the mind or by the lifebeing, without any ripple of thought or eddy of the vital parts: it must be done under the impulsion, by the initiation, by the

1.10 - The Yoga of the Intelligent Will, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   of the three Gunas of Prakriti in their eternal entangled twining and wrestling, ignorance, a false, sensuous, objective life of the soul, enslavement to grief and wrath and attachment and passion, are the results of the downward trend of the buddhi, - the troubled life of the ordinary, unenlightened, undisciplined man. Those who like the Vedavadins make sense-enjoyment the object of action and its fulfilment the highest aim of the soul, are misleading guides. The inner subjective self-delight independent of objects is our true aim and the high and wide poise of our peace and liberation.
  Therefore, it is the upward and inward orientation of the intelligent will that we must resolutely choose with a settled concentration and perseverance, vyavasaya; we must fix it firmly in the calm self-knowledge of the Purusha. The first movement must be obviously to get rid of desire which is the whole root of the evil and suffering; and in order to get rid of desire, we must put an end to the cause of desire, the rushing out of the senses to seize and enjoy their objects. We must draw them back when they are inclined thus to rush out, draw them away from their objects, - as the tortoise draws in his limbs into the shell, so these into their source, quiescent in the mind, the mind quiescent in intelligence, the intelligence quiescent in the soul and its selfknowledge, observing the action of Nature, but not subject to it, not desiring anything that the objective life can give.

1.11 - Powers, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
  45. By making Samyama on the gross and fine forms of the elements, their essential traits, the inherence of the Gunas in them and on their contri buting to the experience of the soul, comes mastery of the elements.
  The Yogi makes Samyama on the elements, first on the gross, and then on the finer states. This Samyama is taken up more by a sect of the Buddhists. They take a lump of clay and make Samyama on that, and gradually they begin to see the fine materials of which it is composed, and when they have known all the fine materials in it, they get power over that element. So with all the elements. The Yogi can conquer them all.
  --
  48. By making Samyama on the objectivity and power of illumination of the organs, on egoism, the inherence of the Gunas in them and on their contri buting to the experience of the soul, comes the conquest of the organs.
  In the perception of external objects the organs leave their place in the mind and go towards the object; this is followed by knowledge. Egoism also is present in the act. When the Yogi makes Samyama on these and the other two by gradation, he conquers the organs. Take up anything that you see or feel, a book for instance; first concentrate the mind on it, then on the knowledge that is in the form of a book, and then on the Ego that sees the book, and so on. By that practice all the organs will be conquered.

1.11 - The Three Purushas, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  These three Purushas are described in the fifteenth chapter of the Gita. There are two Purushas in the world, the akara and the kara,the kara is all creatures, the akara is called kastha, the one on the summit. There is another Purusha, the highest (uttama), called also the Paramatma or Supreme Spirit, who enters into the three worlds, (the worlds of suupti, svapna, jgrat, otherwise the causal, mental and physical planes of existence), and sustains them as their imperishable lord. And in the thirteenth chapter, while drawing the distinction between the lower Purusha and the higher, Sri Krishna defines more minutely the relations of God and the individual soul to Nature. Prakriti is the basic source of cause, effect and agency; the Purusha, of the sense of enjoyment of happiness and grief; for it is the soul in Nature (Purusha in Prakriti) that enjoys the threefold workings of things caused by Nature, (the play of conservation, creation and destruction; reception, reaction and resistance; illumination, misconception and obscuration; calm, work and inertia; all being different manifestations of three fundamental forces called the Gunas or essential properties of Prakriti), and it is the attachment of the soul to the Gunas that is the cause of births in bodies good and evil. The highest Purusha in this body is the one who watches, who sanctions, who enjoys, who upholds, who is the mighty Lord and the Supreme Soul.
  The personality of the Supreme Soul is universal, not individual. Whatever is in all creatures, character, idea, imagination, experience, sensation, motion, is contained by Him as an object of spiritual enjoyment without limiting or determining Him. He is all things at once. Such a universality is necessary to support and supply individual existence, but it cannot be the determining limit of individual existence. Something has to be reserved, something put forward, and this partial manifestation is the individual. It is verily an eternal part of Me that in the world of individual existence becomes the Jiva or individual. The Jiva or individual is kara purua, and between him and the Supreme stands the akara purua, the bird on the summit of the tree, joyous in his own bliss, undisturbed by the play of Nature, impartially watching it, receiving its images on his calm immovable existence without being for a moment bound or affected, eternally self-gathered, eternally free. This akara purua is our real self, our divine unity with God, our inalienable freedom from that which is transient and changing. If it did not exist, there would be no escape from the bondage of life and death, joy and grief, sin and virtue; we should be prisoners in a cage without a door, beating our wings against the bars in vain for an exit; life and death, joy and grief, sin and virtue would be eternal, ineffugable realities, not temporary rules determining the great game of life, and we should be unwilling actors, not free playmates of God able to suspend and renew the game when we will. It is by realising our oneness with the akara purua that we get freedom from ignorance, freedom from the cords of desire, freedom from the imperative law of works. On the other hand if the akara purua were all, as the Sankhya philosophy contends, there would be no basis for different experience, no varying personality, every individual existence would be precisely like every other individual existence, the development and experience of one soul in Nature an exact replica of the development and experience of another soul. It is the kara purua who is all creatures, and the variety of experience, character and development is effected by a particular part of the universal swabhava or nature of conscious existence in phenomena being attached to a particular individual or Jiva. This is what is meant by saying that it is a part of God which becomes the Jiva. This swabhava, once determined, does not change; but it manifests various parts of itself, at various times, under various circumstances, in various forms of action and various bodies suited to the action or development it has to enjoy. It is for this reason that the Purusha in Nature is called kara, fluid, shifting, although it is not in reality fluid or shifting, but constant, eternal and immutable, santana. It is the variety of its enjoyment in Time, Space and Causality that makes it kara. The enjoyment of the akara purua is self-existent, beyond Time, Space and Causality, aware of but undisturbed by the continual multitudinous flux and reflux of Prakriti. The enjoyment of Purushottama is both in Prakriti and beyond it, it embraces and is the reality of all experience and enjoyment.

1.11 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINEWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "But a paramahamsa is beyond the three Gunas. Though they exist in him, yet they are practically non-existent. Like a child, he is not under the control of any of the Gunas.
  That is why paramahamsas allow small children to come near them-in order to assume their nature.

1.12 - Independence, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
  13. They are manifested or fine, being of the nature of the Gunas.
  The Gunas are the three substances, Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, whose gross state is the sensible universe. Past and future arise from the different modes of manifestation of these Gunas.
  14. The unity in things is from the unity in changes.

1.12 - THE FESTIVAL AT PNIHTI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER: "One cannot attain it unless one has seen God. But there are signs that a man has had the vision of God. A man who has seen God sometimes behaves like a madman: he laughs, weeps, dances, and sings. Sometimes he behaves like a child, a child five years old-guileless, generous, without vanity, unattached to anything, not under the control of any of the Gunas, always blissful. Sometimes he behaves like a ghoul: he doesn't differentiate between things pure and things impure; he sees no difference between things clean and things unclean. And sometimes he is like an inert thing, staring vacantly: he cannot do any work; he cannot strive for anything."
  Was the Master making a veiled reference to his own states of mind?
  --
  The three Gunas
  MASTER: "Yes, it is. But that concept is something far beyond the ordinary man. Daya springs from sattva. Sattva preserves, rajas creates, and tamas destroys. But Brahman is beyond the three Gunas. It is beyond Prakriti.
  "None of the three Gunas can reach Truth; they are like robbers, who cannot come to a public place for fear of being arrested. Sattva, rajas, and tamas are like so many robbers.
  "Listen to a story. Once a man was going through a forest, when three robbers fell upon him and robbed him of all his possessions. One of the robbers said, 'What's the use of keeping this man alive?' So saying, he was about to kill him with his sword, when the second robber interrupted him, saying: 'Oh, no! What is the use of killing him? Tie him hand and foot and leave him here.' The robbers bound his hands and feet and went away.
  --
  "It is extremely difficult to go beyond the three Gunas. One cannot reach that state without having realized God. Man dwells in the realm of maya. Maya does not permit him to see God. It has made him a victim of ignorance.
  Man's inordinate attachment

1.13 - THE MASTER AND M., #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER (to M.): "Like the ka, Brahman is without any modification. It has become manifold because of akti. Again, Brahman is like fire, which itself has no colour. The fire appears white if you throw a white substance into it, red if you throw a red, black if you throw a black. The three Gunas-sattva, rajas, and tamas-belong to akti alone.
  Brahman Itself is beyond the three Gunas. What Brahman is cannot be described. It is beyond words. That which remains after everything is eliminated by the Vedantic process of 'Not this, not this', and which is of the nature of Bliss, is Brahman.
  "Suppose the husb and of a young girl has come to his father-in-law's house and is seated in the drawing-room with other young men of his age. The girl and her friends are looking at them through the window. Her friends do not know her husb and and ask her, pointing to one young man, 'Is that your husband?' 'No', she answers, smiling.

1.14 - The Principle of Divine Works, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Transcending the lower nature of the three Gunas and seating the soul in the immobile Purusha beyond the three Gunas, we can ascend finally into the higher nature of the infinite Godhead which is not bound by the three Gunas even when it acts through
  Nature. Reaching the inner actionlessness of the silent Purusha, nais.karmya, and leaving Prakriti to do her works, we can attain supremely beyond to the status of the divine Mastery which is
  --
  The effort is vain. The kinetic side of your nature must first seek to add to itself the quietistic; you must uplift yourself beyond this lower nature to that which is above the three Gunas, that which is founded in the highest principle, in the soul. Only when you have attained to peace of soul, can you become capable of a free and divine action.
  The quietist, the ascetic, on the other hand cannot see any possibility of perfection into which life and action enter. Are they not the very seat of bondage and imperfection? Is not all action imperfect in its nature, like a fire that must produce smoke, is not the principle of action itself rajasic, the father of desire, a cause that must have its effect of obscuration of knowledge, its round of longing and success and failure, its oscillations of joy and grief, its duality of virtue and sin? God may be in the world, but he is not of the world; he is a God of renunciation and not the Master or cause of our works; the master of our works is desire and the cause of works is ignorance. If the world, the

1.15 - LAST VISIT TO KESHAB, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "There is also another class of devotees, those who are beyond the three Gunas. They have the nature of a child. Their worship consists in chanting God's name-just His name.
  Meaning of Keshab's illness

1.16 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  M: "Yes, sir. The Jnni goes beyond the three Gunas, as you say. He is not under the control of any of the Gunas-sattva, rajas, or tamas. All these three are so many robbers, as it were."
  MASTER: "Yes, one must assimilate that."
  --
  M: "Sir, what is the nature of the divine love transcending the three Gunas?"
  MASTER: "Attaining that love, the devotee sees everything full of Spirit and Consciousness. To him 'Krishna is Consciousness, and His sacred Abode is also Consciousness'. The devotee, too, is Consciousness. Everything is Consciousness. Very few people attain such love."
  DR. MADHU: "The love transcending the three Gunas means, in other words, that the devotee is not under the control of any of the Gunas."
  MASTER (smiling): "Yes, that's it. He becomes like a child five years old, not under the control of any of the Gunas."
  The Master was resting after his noon meal. Mani Mallick arrived and saluted him. Sri Ramakrishna remained lying on the couch and said a word or two to Mani.

1.18 - The Divine Worker, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  And yet this liberation does not at all prevent him from acting. Only, he knows that it is not he who is active, but the modes, the qualities of Nature, her triple gun.as. "The man who knows the principles of things thinks, his mind in Yoga (with the inactive Impersonal), 'I am doing nothing'; when he sees, hears, touches, smells, eats, moves, sleeps, breathes, speaks, takes, ejects, opens his eyes or closes them, he holds that it is only the senses acting upon the objects of the senses." He himself, safe in the immutable, unmodified soul, is beyond the grip of the three Gunas, trigun.atta; he is neither sattwic, rajasic nor tamasic; he sees with a clear untroubled spirit the alternations of the natural modes and qualities in his action, their rhythmic play of light and happiness, activity and force, rest and inertia. This superiority of the calm soul observing its action but not involved in it, this traigun.attya, is also a high sign of the divine worker. By itself the idea might lead to a doctrine of the mechanical determinism of Nature and the perfect aloofness and irresponsibility of the soul; but the Gita effectively avoids this fault of an insufficient thought by its illumining supertheistic idea of the Purushottama. It makes it clear that it is not in the end Nature which mechanically determines its own action; it is the will of the Supreme which inspires her; he who has already slain the Dhritarashtrians, he of whom Arjuna is only the human instrument, a universal Soul, a transcendent Godhead is the master of her labour. The reposing of works in the Impersonal is a means of getting rid of the personal egoism of the doer, but the end is to give up all our actions to that great Lord of all, sarva-loka-mahesvara. "With a consciousness identified with the
  Self, renouncing all thy actions into Me, mayi sarvan.i karman.i

1.19 - Equality, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Traigun.attya, transcendence of the Gunas, is the unperturbed spirit's superiority to that flux of action of the modes of Nature which is in its constant character perturbed and unequal; if it has to enter into relations with the conflicting and unequal activities of Nature, if the free soul is to allow its nature any action at all, it must show its superiority by an impartial equality towards all activities, results or happenings.
  Equality is the sign and also for the aspirant the test. Where there is inequality in the soul, there there is in evidence some unequal play of the modes of Nature, motion of desire, play of personal will, feeling and action, activity of joy and grief or that disturbed and disturbing delight which is not true spiritual bliss but a mental satisfaction bringing in its train inevitably a counterpart or recoil of mental dissatisfaction. Where there is inequality of soul, there there is deviation from knowledge, loss of steadfast abiding in the all-embracing and all-reconciling
  --
  Through the sattwic being and nature to that which is beyond the three Gunas lies the way of the soul to its perfection.
  The movement which will lead us out of the disturbances of the lower nature must be necessarily a movement towards equality in the mind, in the emotional temperament, in the soul.
  But it is to be noted that, although in the end we must arrive at a superiority to all the three Gunas of the lower nature, it is yet in its incipience by a resort to one or other of the three that the movement must begin. The beginning of equality may be sattwic, rajasic or tamasic; for there is a possibility in the human nature of a tamasic equality. It may be purely tamasic, the heavy equability of a vital temperament rendered inertly irresponsive to the shocks of existence by a sort of dull insensibility undesirous of the joy of life. Or it may result from a weariness of the emotions and desires accumulated by a surfeit and satiety of the pleasure or else, on the contrary, a disappointment and a disgust and shrinking from the pain of life, a lassitude, a fear and horror and dislike of the world: it is then in its nature a mixed movement, rajaso-tamasic, but the lower quality predominates.
  Or, approaching the sattwic principle, it may aid itself by the intellectual perception that the desires of life cannot be satisfied, that the soul is too weak to master life, that the whole thing is nothing but sorrow and transient effort and nowhere in it is there any real truth or sanity or light or happiness; this is the sattwotamasic principle of equality and is not so much equality, though it may lead to that, as indifference or equal refusal. Essentially, the movement of tamasic equality is a generalisation of Nature's principle of jugupsa or self-protecting recoil extended from the shunning of particular painful effects to a shunning of the whole life of Nature itself as in sum leading to pain and self-tormenting and not to the delight which the soul demands.
  --
  Gita, however, admits and makes room for this movement; it allows as a recoiling starting-point the perception of the defects of the world-existence, birth and disease and death and old age and sorrow, the historic starting-point of the Buddha, janmamr.tyu-jara-vyadhi-duh.kha-dos.anudarsanam, and it accepts the effort of those whose self-discipline is motived by a desire for release, even in this spirit, from the curse of age and death, jara-maran.a-moks.aya mam asritya yatanti ye. But that, to be of any profit, must be accompanied by the sattwic perception of a higher state and the taking delight and refuge in the existence of the Divine, mam asritya. Then the soul by its recoil comes to a greater condition of being, lifted beyond the three Gunas and free from birth and death and age and grief, and enjoys the immortality of its self-existence, janma-mr.tyu-jara-duh.khair vimukto
  'mr.tam asnute. The tamasic unwillingness to accept the pain and effort of life is indeed by itself a weakening and degrading thing, and in this lies the danger of preaching to all alike the gospel of asceticism and world-disgust, that it puts the stamp of a tamasic weakness and shrinking on unfit souls, confuses their understanding, buddhibhedam janayet, diminishes the sustained aspiration, the confidence in living, the power of effort which the soul of man needs for its salutary, its necessary rajasic struggle to master its environment, without really opening to it - for it is yet incapable of that - a higher goal, a greater endeavour, a mightier victory. But in souls that are fit this tamasic recoil may serve a useful spiritual purpose by slaying their rajasic attraction, their eager preoccupation with the lower life which prevents the sattwic awakening to a higher possibility. Seeking then for a refuge in the void they have created, they are able to hear the divine call, "O soul that findest thyself in this transient and unhappy world, turn and put thy delight in Me," anityam asukham lokam imam prapya bhajasva mam.
  --
   wise man who labours for perfection is carried away by the vehement insistence of the senses." Perfect security can only be had by resorting to something higher than the sattwic quality, something higher than the discerning mind, to the Self, - not the philosopher's intelligent self, but the divine sage's spiritual self which is beyond the three Gunas. All must be consummated by a divine birth into the higher spiritual nature.
  And the philosopher's equality is like the Stoic's, like the world-fleeing ascetic's, inwardly a lonely freedom, remote and aloof from men; but the man born to the divine birth has found the Divine not only in himself, but in all beings. He has realised his unity with all and his equality is therefore full of sympathy and oneness. He sees all as himself and is not intent on his lonely salvation; he even takes upon himself the burden of their happiness and sorrow by which he is not himself affected or subjected. The perfect sage, the Gita more than once repeats, is ever engaged with a large equality in doing good to all creatures and makes that his occupation and delight, sarvabhutahite ratah.. The perfect Yogin is no solitary musing on the Self in his ivory tower of spiritual isolation, but yuktah. kr.tsna-karma-kr.t, a many-sided universal worker for the good of the world, for

1.22 - ADVICE TO AN ACTOR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Their frames are human skeletons, their sails of the three Gunas made;
  But all their curious workmanship is merely for ornament.
  --
  The three Gunas
  "The three Gunassattva, rajas, and tamashave men under their control. They are like three brothers: As long as sattva exists, it calls on rajas for help; and rajas can get help from tamas. The three Gunas are so many robbers. Tamas kills and rajas binds. Sattva no doubt releases man from his bondage, but it cannot take him to God."
  VIJAY (smiling): "It is because sattva, too, is a robber."

1.23 - FESTIVAL AT SURENDRAS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "The man who has seen God becomes like a child. He is beyond the three Gunas; he is unattached to any of them. He behaves like a ghoul, for he maintains the same attitude toward things holy and unholy. Again, like a madman, he sometimes laughs and sometimes weeps. Now he dresses himself like a dandy and the next moment he goes entirely naked and roams about with his cloth under his arm. Therefore he seems to be a lunatic. Again, at times he sits motionless like an inert thing."
  Harmless ego

1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi power (sakti), life current (prana), etc. Seek your source; the search takes you to the Heart automatically. The antahkaranas are only ideas (kalpana) to explain the subtle body (sukshma sarira). The physical body (sarira) is made up of the elements: earth, air, fire, water and ether; it is insentient. The Self is pure and self-luminous and thus self-evident. The relation between the two is sought to be established by positing a subtle body, composed of the subtle aspects of the five elements on the one hand, and the reflected light of the Self on the other. In this way the subtle body which is synonymous with the mind, is both sentient and insentient, i.e., abhasa. Again, by the play of the pure quality (satva Guna) on the elements, their brightness (satva aspect) manifests as the mind
  (manas), and the senses (jnanendriyas); by the play of rajas (active quality), the raja (active) aspect manifests as life (prana) and limbs

1.25 - ADVICE TO PUNDIT SHASHADHAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "Then there are devotees who are beyond the three Gunas. They are eternally devoted to God, like Nrada. These devotees behold Krishna as Chinmaya, all Spirit, His Abode as Chinmaya, His devotee as Chinmaya. To them God is eternal, His Abode is eternal, His devotee is eternal.
  "Those who reason and speculate following the process of 'Neti, neti' do not accept the Incarnation of God. Hazra says well that Divine Incarnation is only for the bhakta, and not for the Jnni, because the Jnni is quite contented with his ideal, 'I am He'."

1.300 - 1.400 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi power (sakti), life current (prana), etc. Seek your source; the search takes you to the Heart automatically. The antahkaranas are only ideas (kalpana) to explain the subtle body (sukshma sarira). The physical body (sarira) is made up of the elements: earth, air, fire, water and ether; it is insentient. The Self is pure and self-luminous and thus self-evident. The relation between the two is sought to be established by positing a subtle body, composed of the subtle aspects of the five elements on the one hand, and the reflected light of the Self on the other. In this way the subtle body which is synonymous with the mind, is both sentient and insentient, i.e., abhasa. Again, by the play of the pure quality (satva Guna) on the elements, their brightness (satva aspect) manifests as the mind
  (manas), and the senses (jnanendriyas); by the play of rajas (active quality), the raja (active) aspect manifests as life (prana) and limbs

1.4.03 - The Guru, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Yes [surrender to the formless Divine would leave parts of the being subject to the Gunas and ego] - because only the static parts would be free in formlessness, the active nature would be still in the play of the Gunas. Many think they are free from ego because they get the sense of the formless Existence, they do not see that the egoistic element remains in their action just as before.
  Other Gurus

1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  3. The five senses mean the subtle functions (tanmatras), namely, hearing, touch, seeing, taste and smell. Variations of these form the whole universe; they vary according to the three Gunas as follows: by tamas (dullness) the gross elements; by rajas (activity) the instruments for knowing objects; by sattva (clearness) the different kinds of knowledge of the senses; also: by tamas - the gross objects i.e., the world; by rajas - the vital airs and the karmendriyas by sattva - the sense organs of perception (jnanendriyas).
  Karmendriyas are organs of holding, walking, speech, evacuation and reproduction.
  --
  gross body. The jagrat state is characterised by satva Guna denoted
  by the letter A and presided over by the deity Vishnu. The swapna
  --
  characterised by the rajo Guna denoted by the letter U and presided
  over by the deity Brahma, so say the wise.
  --
  which is made up of nescience, characterised by tamo Guna, denoted
  by the letter M and presided over by the deity Rudra.

1.550 - 1.600 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  3. The five senses mean the subtle functions (tanmatras), namely, hearing, touch, seeing, taste and smell. Variations of these form the whole universe; they vary according to the three Gunas as follows: by tamas (dullness) the gross elements; by rajas (activity) the instruments for knowing objects; by sattva (clearness) the different kinds of knowledge of the senses; also: by tamas - the gross objects i.e., the world; by rajas - the vital airs and the karmendriyas by sattva - the sense organs of perception (jnanendriyas).
  Karmendriyas are organs of holding, walking, speech, evacuation and reproduction.

1953-12-30, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   The proportion is very important, this proportion of the three Gunas (you know the three Gunas?1) the proportion of the three Gunas in the nature. And one must know the exact proportion in oneself and how to use one Guna to fight the other, and so on. But there is a moment when one should attain a certain equilibrium, and then be capable of establishing it in oneself a little steadily and facing life without having to fall into holes or struggle against terrible things. From that moment on everything goes well.
   It had been proposed that education in our school and our university centre would be given in accordance with the ideals of Sri Aurobindo. But so far the education given here is the same as in other schools; one follows the same programme.

1.ml - Realisation of Dreams and Mind, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
   Lord Paindapa, you who practice yogic discipline! Your name has been prophesied by the devas; what a great wonder! Under the hand of glorious Advayalalita Are the vajra brothers and sisters whose minds do not differ. Headed by Sri Gunamati, Dakas who are sitting in the right hand row, listen to me! After them, the secret yoginis, Headed by the consort Sukhavajri, Dakinis who are sitting in the left hand row, listen to me! Generally, all Dharmas are illusion. Dreams are exalted as special illusion. Early in the night, dreams arise born from habitual patterns. There is nothing whatsoever to rely on there. At midnight, the deceptions of Mara appear. One should not trust in these. At dawn, there are prophecies by the devas. How wondrous, how great indeed! At the break of dawn this morning, The great lord master appeared And taught the Dharma which revealed the ultimate. This is the unforgettable memory of what Maitripa said: "In general, all Dharmas are mind. The Guru arises from mind. The Guru is nothing other than mind. Everything that appears is the nature of mind. This mind itself is primordially non-existent. In the natural state, unborn and innate, There is nothing to abandon by discursive effort. Rest at ease, naturally, without restriction. This can be shown by signs: A human corpse, an outcast, a dog, a pig, An infant, a madman, an elephant, A precious jewel, a blue lotus, Quicksilver, a deer, a lion, A Brahman, and a black antelope; did you see them?" Maitripa asked. The realization of the truth was shown by these signs: Not fixated on either samsara or Nirvana, Not holding acceptance or rejection in one's being, Not hoping for fruition from others, Mind free from occupation and complexity, Not falling into the four extremes, Nonmeditation and nonwandering, Free from thought and speech, Beyond any analogy whatsoever. Through the kindness of the Guru, I realised these. Since the experience of these realisations has dawned, Mind and mental events have ceased, And space and insight are inseparable. Faults and virtues neither increase nor decrease. Bliss, emptiness, and luminosity are unceasing. Therefore, luminosity dawns beyond coming or going. This transmission of the innate, the pith of the view Through the sign meanings which reveal the unborn, I heard from the great lord master. The reason why I sing these words Is the insistent request of the honourable lords. I could not refuse the Dharma brothers and sisters. Dakinis, do not be jealous! Thus, this song was sung for the Dharma brothers and sisters headed by Paindapa at the Rinchen Tsul monastery in Nepal to show the meaning of the signs of mahamudra as revealed by Maitripa's appearance in a dream.

1.rmpsd - In the worlds busy market-place, O Shyama, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
     their sails of the the three Gunas made;
  But all their curious workmanship

2.01 - The Two Natures, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Gita related and synthetised works and knowledge. The vision of the World-Purusha intervenes in the eleventh chapter, gives a dynamic turn to this stage of the synthesis and relates it vividly to works and life. Thus again all is brought powerfully back to the original question of Arjuna round which the whole exposition revolves and completes its cycle. Afterwards the Gita proceeds by the differentiation of the Purusha and Prakriti to work out its ideas of the action of the Gunas, of the ascension beyond the Gunas and of the culmination of desireless works with knowledge where that coalesces with Bhakti, - knowledge, works and love made one, - and it rises thence to its great finale, the supreme secret of self-surrender to the Master of Existence.
  In this second part of the Gita we come to a more concise and easy manner of statement than we have yet had. In the first six chapters the definitions have not yet been made which give the key to the underlying truth; difficulties are being met and solved; the progress is a little laboured and moves through several involutions and returns; much is implied the bearing of which is not yet clear. Here we seem to get on to clearer ground and to lay hold of a more compact and pointed expression. But because of this very conciseness we have to be careful always
  --
  So far the justifying truths that have been offered to it are those with which it is already familiar, and they are only sufficient as a starting-point. There is first the distinction between the Self and the individual being in Nature. The distinction has been used to point out that this individual being in Nature is necessarily subject, so long as he lives shut up within the action of the ego, to the workings of the three Gunas which make up by their unstable movements the whole scope and method of the reason, the mind and the life and senses in the body. And within this circle there is no solution. Therefore the solution has to be found by an ascent out of the circle, above this nature of the Gunas, to the one immutable Self and silent Spirit, because then one gets beyond that action of the ego and desire which
  The Two Natures
  --
  Self it is possible to have spiritual freedom from our works and yet to continue in the works of Nature. But it has not yet been stated who is this Supreme, incarnate here in the divine teacher and charioteer of works, or what are his relations to the Self and to the individual being in Nature. Nor is it clear how the Will to works coming from him can be other than the will in the nature of the three Gunas. And if it is only that, then the soul obeying it can hardly fail to be in subjection to the Gunas in its action, if not in its spirit, and if so, at once the freedom promised becomes either illusory or incomplete. Will seems to be an aspect of the executive part of being, to be power and active force of nature,
  Shakti, Prakriti. Is there then a higher Nature than that of the three Gunas? Is there a power of pragmatic creation, will, action other than that of ego, desire, mind, sense, reason and the vital impulse?
  Therefore, in this uncertainty, what has now to be done is to give more completely the knowledge on which divine works are to be founded. And this can only be the complete, the integral knowledge of the Divine who is the source of works and in whose being the worker becomes by knowledge free; for he knows the free Spirit from whom all works proceed and participates in his freedom. Moreover this knowledge must bring a light that justifies the assertion with which the first part of the Gita closes.
  --
  The Sankhya stops there, and because it stops there, it has to set up an unbridgeable division between the soul and Nature; it has to posit them as two quite distinct primary entities. The Gita also, if it stopped there, would have to make the same incurable antinomy between the Self and cosmic Nature which would then be only the Maya of the three Gunas and all this cosmic existence would be simply the result of this Maya; it could be nothing else.
  But there is something else, there is a higher principle, a nature of spirit, para prakr.tir me. There is a supreme nature of the Divine which is the real source of cosmic existence and its fundamental creative force and effective energy and of which the other lower and ignorant Nature is only a derivation and a dark shadow.
  --
  Self it is involved in the Spirit; it is there, but in nivr.tti or a holding back from action: in the mutable self and the cosmos it comes out into action, pravr.tti. There by its dynamic presence it evolves in the Spirit all existences and appears in them as their essential spiritual nature, the persistent truth behind their play of subjective and objective phenomena. It is the essential quality and force, svabhava, the self-principle of all their becoming, the inherent principle and divine power behind their phenomenal existence. The balance of the Gunas is only a quantitative and quite derivative play evolved out of this supreme Principle. All this activity of forms, all this mental, sensuous, intelligential striving of the lower nature is only a phenomenon, which could not be at all except for this spiritual force and this power of being; it comes from that and it exists in that and by that solely.
  If we dwell in the phenomenal nature only and see things only by the notions it impresses on us, we shall not get at the real truth of our active existence. The real truth is this spiritual power, this divine force of being, this essential quality of the spirit in things or rather of the spirit in which things are and from which they draw all their potencies and the seeds of their movements. Get at that truth, power, quality and we shall get at the real law of our becoming and the divine principle of our living, its source and sanction in the Knowledge and not only its process in the
  --
   phenomenal nature? On me, says Krishna, all this, all that is here - sarvam idam, the common phrase in the Upanishads for the totality of phenomena in the mobility of the universe - is strung like pearls upon a thread. But this is only an image which we cannot press very far; for the pearls are only kept in relation to each other by the thread and have no other oneness or relation with the pearl-string except their dependence on it for this mutual connection. Let us go then from the image to that which it images. It is the supreme nature of Spirit, the infinite conscious power of its being, self-conscient, all-conscient, all-wise, which maintains these phenomenal existences in relation to each other, penetrates them, abides in and supports them and weaves them into the system of its manifestation. This one supreme power manifests not only in all as the One, but in each as the Jiva, the individual spiritual presence; it manifests also as the essence of all quality of Nature. These are therefore the concealed spiritual powers behind all phenomena. This highest quality is not the working of the three Gunas, which is phenomenon of quality and not its spiritual essence. It is rather the inherent, one, yet variable inner power of all these superficial variations. It is a fundamental truth of the Becoming, a truth that supports and gives a spiritual and divine significance to all its appearances.
  The workings of the Gunas are only the superficial unstable becomings of reason, mind, sense, ego, life and matter, sattvika bhava rajasas tamasas ca; but this is rather the essential stable original intimate power of the becoming, svabhava. It is that which determines the primary law of all becoming and of each
  Jiva; it constitutes the essence and develops the movement of the nature. It is a principle in each creature that derives from and is immediately related to a transcendent divine Becoming, that of the Ishwara, madbhavah.. In this relation of the divine bhava to the svabhava and of the svabhava to the superficial bhavah., of the divine Nature to the individual self-nature and of the self-nature in its pure and original quality to the phenomenal nature in all its mixed and confused play of qualities, we find the link between that supreme and this lower existence. The degraded powers and values of the inferior Prakriti derive from
  --
  Nature, bhavah. (states of mind, affections of desire, movements of passion, the reactions of the senses, the limited and dual play of reason, the turns of the feeling and moral sense), which are sattwic, rajasic and tamasic, as for the working of the three Gunas, they are, says the Gita, not themselves the pure action of the supreme spiritual nature, but are derivations from it; "they are verily from me," matta eva, they have no other origin, "but I am not in them, it is they that are in me." Here is indeed a strong and yet subtle distinction. "I am" says the Divine "the essential light, strength, desire, power, intelligence, but these derivations from them I am not in my essence, nor am I in them, yet are they all of them from me and they are all in my being." It is then upon the basis of these statements that we have to view the transition of things from the higher to the lower and again from the lower back to the higher nature.
  The first statement offers no difficulty. The strong man in spite of the divine nature of the principle of strength in him falls into subjection to desire and to attachment, stumbles into sin, struggles towards virtue. But that is because he descends in all his derivative action into the grasp of the three Gunas and does not govern that action from above, from his essential divine nature. The divine nature of his strength is not affected by these derivations, it remains the same in its essence in spite of every obscuration and every lapse. The Divine is there in that nature and supports him by its strength through the confusions of his lower existence till he is able to recover the light, illumine wholly
  The Two Natures
  --
  But how can the Divine be desire, kama? for this desire, this kama has been declared to be our one great enemy who has to be slain. But that desire was the desire of the lower nature of the Gunas which has its native point of origin in the rajasic being, rajogun.a-samudbhavah.; for this is what we usually mean when we speak of desire. This other, the spiritual, is a will not contrary to the dharma.
  Is it meant that the spiritual kama is a virtuous desire, ethical in its nature, a sattwic desire, - for virtue is always sattwic in its origin and motive force? But then there would be here an obvious contradiction, - since in the very next line all sattwic affections are declared to be not the Divine, but only lower derivations.
  --
   what is meant is that the true and supreme spiritual nature of the Divine is not imprisoned there; they are only phenomena in his being created out of it by the action of the ego and the ignorance. The ignorance presents everything to us in an inverted vision and at least a partially falsified experience. We imagine that the soul is in the body, almost a result and derivation from the body; even we so feel it: but it is the body that is in the soul and a result and derivation from the soul. We think of the spirit as a small part of us - the Purusha who is no bigger than the thumb - in this great mass of material and mental phenomena: in reality, the latter for all its imposing appearance is a very small thing in the infinity of the being of the spirit. So it is here; in much the same sense these things are in the Divine rather than the Divine in these things. This lower nature of the three Gunas which creates so false a view of things and imparts to them an inferior character is a Maya, a power of illusion, by which it is not meant that it is all non-existent or deals with unrealities, but that it bewilders our knowledge, creates false values, envelops us in ego, mentality, sense, physicality, limited intelligence and there conceals from us the supreme truth of our existence. This illusive Maya hides from us the Divine that we are, the infinite and imperishable spirit. "By these three kinds of becoming which are of the nature of the Gunas, this whole world is bewildered and does not recognise Me supreme beyond them and imperishable." If we could see that that Divine is the real truth of our existence, all else also would change to our vision, assume its true character and our life and action acquire the divine values and move in the law of the divine nature.
  But why then, since the Divine is there after all and the divine nature at the root even of these bewildering derivations, since we are the Jiva and the Jiva is that, is this Maya so hard to overcome, maya duratyaya? Because it is still the Maya of the
  --
  Maya of the Gunas." It is itself divine and a development from the nature of the Divine, but the Divine in the nature of the gods; it is daiv, of the godheads or, if you will, of the Godhead, but of the Godhead in its divided subjective and lower cosmic aspects,
  The Two Natures

2.02 - The Ishavasyopanishad with a commentary in English, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  avf, and must let the Gunas of prakriti work. Since this is so,
  let every man who wishes to throw his kt&y km behind him, see
  --
  of the Gunas and the Eternal being above the Gunas cannot be
  touched by Sin. Having established the identity of the Lord who

2.02 - The Mother Archetype, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  (matter) and assigned to it the three Gunas or fundamental
  attri butes: sattva, rajas, tamas: goodness, passion, and darkness. 1
  --
  1 This is the etymological meaning of the three Gunas. See Weckerfing, Ananda-
  raya-makhi: Das Gliick des Lebens, pp. 2 iff., and Garbe, Die Samkhya Philosophie,

2.02 - The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  But there is also this lower nature of the three Gunas whose character is the character of the ignorance and whose action is the action of the ignorance, mixed, confused, perverted; it is the action of the lower personality, of the ego, of the natural and not of the spiritual individual. It is in order to recede from that false personality that we have to resort to the impersonal Self and make ourselves one with it. Then, freed so from the ego personality, we can find the relation of the true individual to the
  Purushottama. It is one with him in being, even though necessarily partial and determinative, because individual, in action and temporal manifestation of nature. Freed too from the lower nature we can realise the higher, the divine, the spiritual. Therefore to act from the soul does not mean to act from the desire soul; for that is not the high intrinsic being, but only the lower natural and superficial appearance. To act in accordance with the intrinsic nature, the swabhava, does not mean to act out of the passions of the ego, to enact with indifference or with desire sin and virtue according to the natural impulses and the unstable play of the Gunas. Yielding to passion, an active or an inert indulgence of sin is no way either to the spiritual quietism of the highest impersonality or to the spiritual activity of the divine individual who is to be a channel for the will of the supreme Person, a direct power and visible becoming of the Purushottama.
  280
  --
  Prakriti, the sattwic, which is seeking always for a harmonious light of knowledge and for a right rule of action. The Purusha, the soul within us which assents in Nature to the varying impulse of the Gunas, has to give its sanction to that sattwic impulse and that sattwic will and temperament in our being which seeks after such a rule. The sattwic will in our nature has to govern us and not the rajasic and tamasic will. This is the meaning of all high reason in action as of all true ethical culture; it is the law of
  Nature in us striving to evolve from her lower and disorderly to her higher and orderly action, to act not in passion and ignorance with the result of grief and unquiet, but in knowledge and enlightened will with the result of inner happiness, poise and peace. We cannot get beyond the three Gunas, if we do not first develop within ourselves the rule of the highest Guna, sattwa.
  "The evil-doers attain not to me," says the Purushottama,
  --
  Maya of the three Gunas, are not instruments of the spirit, but willing slaves or self-deceived tools of his desires. He sees this lower nature only and not his supreme self and highest being or the Godhead within himself and in the world: he explains all existence to his will in the terms of ego and desire and serves only ego and desire. To serve ego and desire without aspiration
  The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge
  --
   to a higher nature and a higher law is to have the mind and the temperament of the Asura. A first necessary step upward is to aspire to a higher nature and a higher law, to obey a better rule than the rule of desire, to perceive and worship a nobler godhead than the ego or than any magnified image of the ego, to become a right thinker and a right doer. This too is not in itself enough; for even the sattwic man is subject to the bewilderment of the Gunas, because he is still governed by wish and disliking, iccha-dves.a.
  He moves within the circle of the forms of Nature and has not the highest, not the transcendental and integral knowledge. Still by the constant upward aspiration in his ethical aim he in the end gets rid of the obscuration of sin which is the obscuration of rajasic desire and passion and acquires a purified nature capable of deliverance from the rule of the triple Maya. By virtue alone man cannot attain to the highest, but by virtue2 he can develop a first capacity for attaining to it, adhikara. For the crude rajasic or the dull tamasic ego is difficult to shake off and put below us; the sattwic ego is less difficult and at last, when it sufficiently subtilises and enlightens itself, becomes even easy to transcend, transmute or annihilate.
  --
  If we do not bring in as a corrective to an excessive quietism the idea of sacrifice to the Highest, we have to regard this element of action as something not at all ourselves, some remnant of the play of the Gunas without any divine reality behind it, a last dissolving form of ego, of I-ness, a continued impetus of the lower
  Nature for which we are not responsible since our knowledge rejects it and aims at escape from it into pure inaction. But by combining the tranquil impersonality of the one self with the stress of the works of Nature done as a sacrifice to the Lord, we by this double key escape from the lower egoistic personality and grow into the purity of our true spiritual person. Then are we no longer the bound and ignorant ego in the lower, but the free Jiva in the supreme Nature. Then we no longer live in the

2.03 - Karmayogin A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  let the Gunas, the moods of Nature, work. He may control that
  work, for he is no longer the slave of Prakriti, but he cannot
  --
  three Gunas or essential qualities of Prakriti, passivity, activity
  The Karmayogin
  --
  it appear? By the interaction of the three Gunas inherent in
  Prakriti, reception, reaction, retention. But the interaction of the
  three Gunas did not create Consciousness, they only liberated it
  from the dense obscuration of gross matter. For if consciousness
  --
  the play of the three Gunas, the principles of material reception,
  reaction and retention, on the body, the vital impulses, the mind,
  --
  the three Gunas and the false conceptions which that bondage
  creates. This liberation or release must therefore be the final
  --
  works through three inherent Gunas or qualities which repeat
  themselves in all stages and forms of her multifold activity; they
  --
  be merely the natural operation of the three Gunas interacting
  upon each other. These three Gunas are called in the Sankhya
  terminology sattwa, rajas, tamas; comprehension, activity, passivity, or as they manifest in physical substance, retention, active
  reaction and passive reception. None of these Gunas can exist
  or act by themselves; the activity of each involves the activity

2.04 - The Scourge, the Dagger and the Chain, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  1:THE Scourge, the Dagger, and the Chain, represent the three alchemical principles of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. These are not the substances which we now call by these names; they represent "principles," whose operations chemists have found it more convenient to explain in other ways. But Sulphur represents the energy of things, Mercury their fluidity, Salt their fixity. They are analogous to Fire, Air and Water; but they mean rather more, for they represent something deeper and subtler, and yet more truly active. An almost exact analogy is given by the three Gunas of the Hindus; Sattvas, Rajas, and Tamas. Sattvas is Mercury, equable, calm, clear; Rajas is Sulphur, active, excitable, even fierce; Tamas is Salt, thick, sluggish, heavey, dark.1
  2:But Hindu philosophy is so occupied with the main idea that only the Absolute is worth anything, that it tends to consider these Gunas (even Sattvas) as evil. This is a correct view, but only from above; and we prefer, if we are truly wise, to avoid this everlasting wail which characterizes the thought of the Indian peninsula "Everything is sorrow," etc. Accepting their doctrine of the two phases of the Absolute, we must, if we are to be consistent, class the two phases together, either as good or as bad; if one is good and the other bad we are back again in that duality, to avoid which we invented the Absolute.
  3:The Christian idea that sin was worth while because salvation was so much more worth while, that redemption is so splendid that innocence was well lost, is more satisfactory. St. Paul says: "Where sin abounded, there did grace much abound. Then shall we do evil that good may come? God forbid." But (clearly!) it is exactly what God Himself did, or why did He create Satan with the germ of his "fall" in him?

2.04 - The Secret of Secrets, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Nature has been represented as the mechanical bondage of the Gunas, the soul as the egoistic being subject to that bondage.
  But if that be all their truth, they are not and cannot be divine.

2.06 - On Beauty, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   The pervading quality or Guna.
   The expression or form.

2.08 - God in Power of Becoming, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The metaphysical synthesis is complete. Sankhya has been admitted for the separation of the soul from the lower nature, - a separation that must be effected by self-knowledge through the discriminating reason and by transcendence of our subjection to the three Gunas constituent of that nature. It has been completed and its limitations exceeded by a large revelation of the unity of the supreme Soul and supreme Nature, para purus.a, para prakr.ti. Vedanta of the philosophers has been admitted for the self-effacement of the natural separative personality built round the ego. Its method has been used to replace the little personal by the large impersonal being, to annul the separative illusion in the unity of the Brahman and to substitute for the blind seeing of the ego the truer vision of all things in one Self and one Self in all things. Its truth has been completed by the impartial revelation of the Parabrahman from whom originate both the mobile and the immobile, the mutable and the immutable, the action and the silence. Its possible limitations have been transcended by the intimate revelation of the supreme Soul and Lord who becomes here in all Nature, manifests himself in all personality and puts forth the power of his Nature in all action. Yoga has
  356

2.11 - The Modes of the Self, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Connected with this triple mode of the Self is that distinction which Indian philosophy has drawn between the Qualitied and the Qualityless Brahman and European thought has made between the Personal and the Impersonal God. The Upanishad indicates clearly enough the relative nature of this opposition, when it speaks of the Supreme as the "Qualitied who is without qualities"363. We have again two essential modes, two fundamental aspects, two poles of eternal being, both of them exceeded in the transcendent divine Reality. They correspond practically to the Silent and the Active Brahman. For the whole action of the universe may be regarded from a certain point of view as the expression and shaping out in various ways of the numberless and infinite qualities of the Brahman. His being assumes by conscious Will all kinds of properties, shapings of the stuff of conscious being, habits as it were of cosmic character and power of dynamic self-consciousness, Gunas, into which all the cosmic action can be resolved. But by none of these nor by all of them nor by their utmost infinite potentiality is He bound; He is above all His qualities and on a certain plane of being rests free from them. The Nir Guna or Unqualitied is not incapable of qualities, rather it is this very Nir Guna or No-Quality who manifests Himself as Sa Guna, as Ananta- Guna, infinite quality, since He contains all in His absolute capacity of boundlessly varied self-revelation. He is free from them in the sense of exceeding them; and indeed if He were not free from .them they could not be infinite; God would be subject to His qualities, bound by His nature, prakriti would be supreme and Purusha its creation and plaything. The Eternal is bound neither by quality nor absence of quality, neither by Personality nor by Impersonality; He is Himself, beyond all our positive and all our negative definitions.
  But if we cannot define the Eternal, we call unify ourselves with it. It has been said that we can become the Impersonal, but not tile personal God, but this is only true in the sense that no one can become individually the Lord of all the universes; we can free ourselves into the existence of the active Brahman as well as that of the Silence; we can live in both, go back to our being in both, but each in its proper way, by becoming one with the Nir Guna in our essence and one with the Sa Guna in the liberty of our active being, in our nature364. The Supreme pours Himself out of an eternal peace, poise and silence into an eternal activity, free and infinite, freely fixing for itself its self-determinations, using infinite quality to shape out of it varied combination of quality. We have to go back to that peace, poise and silence and act out of it with the divine freedom from the bondage of qualities but still using qualities even the most opposite largely and flexibly for the divine work in the world. Only, while the Lord acts out of the centre of all things, we have to act by transmission of His will and power and self-knowledge through the individual centre, the soul-form of Him which we are. The Lord is subject to nothing; the Individual soul-form is subject to its own highest Self and the greater and more absolute is that subjection the greater becomes its sense of absolute force and freedom.

2.12 - The Way and the Bhakta, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   of the mental, vital and physical nature. The immortal Dharma is one; it is that of the highest spiritual divine consciousness and its powers, para prakr.tih.. It is beyond the three Gunas, and to reach it all these lower dharmas have to be abandoned, sarva-dharman parityajya. Alone in their place the one liberating unifying consciousness and power of the Eternal has to become the infinite source of our action, its mould, determinant and exemplar. To rise out of our lower personal egoism, to enter into the impersonal and equal calm of the immutable eternal all-pervading Akshara Purusha, to aspire from that calm by a perfect self-surrender of all one's nature and existence to that which is other and higher than the Akshara, is the first necessity of this Yoga. In the strength of that aspiration one can rise to the immortal Dharma. There, made one in being, consciousness and divine bliss with the greatest Uttama Purusha, made one with his supreme dynamic nature-force, sva prakr.tih., the liberated spirit can know infinitely, love illimitably, act unfalteringly in the au thentic power of a highest immortality and a perfect freedom.
  The rest of the Gita is written to throw a fuller light on this immortal Dharma.

2.14 - AT RAMS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER: "Only the ego that is attached to 'woman and. gold' is harmful. But the ego that feels it is the servant of God does no harm to anybody. Neither does the ego of a child, which is not under the control of any Guna. One moment children quarrel, and the next moment they are on friendly terms. One moment they build their toy houses with great care, and immediately afterwards they knock them down. There is no harm in the 'I-consciousness' that makes one feel oneself to be a child of God or His servant. This ego is really no ego at all. It is like sugar candy, which is not like other sweets. Other sweets make one ill; but sugar candy relieves acidity. Or take the case of Om. It is unlike other sounds.
  "With this kind of ego one is able to love Satchidananda. It is impossible to get rid of the ego. Therefore it should be made to feel that it is the devotee of God, His servant.

2.18 - January 1939, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   Sri Aurobindo: That is the psychic voice. But the spiritual point of view is quite different. There is no question of right or wrong in it. One goes above all these standards and looks from that plane. But for that it is essential to have the perception and feeling of the Divine in all, veiled behind the Gunas. From that plane one finds that the Gita is right in what it says about the Gunas: that man is made to act by the action of the Gunas. There was an angry Sannyasi who came to the Kali Temple at Calcutta. Ramakrishna said about him: "He is a Tamasic Narayana." But he could not keep that standard when another Vedantin came there with a concubine. He asked the Vedantin: "Why do you keep a concubine?" The Vedantin replied: "Everything is Maya, so what does it matter what you do or do not do?" Ramakrishna said: "I spit on your Vedanta." But logically, the Vedantin was right. So long as you believe everything to be Maya you can do as you like. But how will you say which is right? For instance, what will you say about Curzon's action?
   Disciple: About Bengal partition?
  --
   Disciple: My friend N is hesitating to put to you a question. He is puzzled by a contradiction in what you said yesterday about the Gunas.
   Disciple: You said that the Cosmic Spirit might be leading Hitler on the way he is going and again you said that the Cosmic Spirit is not responsible for Hitler's actions. These two statements seem contradictory to me.
  --
   Sri Aurobindo: Truth is not always consistent, but the contradiction you see does not mean that there is no responsibility or no morality, no right and wrong. The individual is responsible because he accepts the action of the Gunas.
   Disciple: But it is the Cosmic Spirit that makes him accept it, is it not?
   Sri Aurobindo: No. The Cosmic Spirit does not act directly. It acts through the Nature. The Cosmic Spirit acts not through the true individuality but through the individual in Nature. It acts through personality and personality is not the person. Personality is something formed of the mental, vital and physical nature. This personality is responsible because it accepts the Gunas through ego and nature. As I said, the Cosmic Spirit works through the nature and not direct.
   Disciple: But the Cosmic Spirit works its purpose through the individual, by making him carry out its intention.
  --
   Disciple: Can the individual refuse or reject the Gunas?
   Sri Aurobindo: Certainly. The individual can refuse to submit to Nature. For example, Arjuna refused to act according to his nature and eighteen chapters of the Gita had to be told to make him fight.

2.21 - Towards the Supreme Secret, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  This ideal of renunciation, of a self-conquered stillness, spiritual passivity and freedom from desire is common to all the ancient wisdom. The Gita gives us its psychological foundation with an unsurpassed completeness and clearness. It rests on the common experience of all seekers of self-knowledge that there are two different natures and as it were two selves in us. There is the lower self of the obscure mental, vital and physical nature subject to ignorance and inertia in the very stuff of its consciousness and especially in its basis of material substance, kinetic and vital indeed by the power of life but without inherent selfpossession and self-knowledge in its action, attaining in the mind to some knowledge and harmony, but only with difficult effort and by a constant struggle with its own disabilities. And there is the higher nature and self of our spiritual being, self-possessed and self-luminous but in our ordinary mentality inaccessible to our experience. At times we get glimpses of this greater thing within us, but we are not consciously within it, we do not live in its light and calm and illimitable splendour. The first of these two very different things is the Gita's nature of the three Gunas.
  Its seeing of itself is centred in the ego idea, its principle of action is desire born of ego, and the knot of ego is attachment to the objects of the mind and sense and the life's desire. The inevitable constant result of all these things is bondage, settled subjection to a lower control, absence of self-mastery, absence of selfknowledge. The other greater power and presence is discovered to be nature and being of the pure spirit unconditioned by ego, that which is called in Indian philosophy self and impersonal Brahman. Its principle is an infinite and an impersonal existence one and the same in all: and, since this impersonal existence is without ego, without conditioning quality, without desire, need or stimulus, it is immobile and immutable; eternally the same, it regards and supports but does not share or initiate the action of the universe. The soul when it throws itself out into active
  --
  There is no longer the lower blind and limping action of the ego and the three Gunas, but instead the vast self-determining movement of an infinite spiritual Force, a free immeasurable Shakti.
  All Nature becomes the power of the one Divine and all action his action through the individual as channel and instrument. In place of the ego there comes forward conscious and manifest the true spiritual individual in the freedom of his real nature, in the power of his supernal status, in the majesty and splendour of his eternal kinship to the Divine, an imperishable portion of the supreme Godhead, an indestructible power of the supreme Prakriti, mamaivamsah. sanatanah., para prakr.tir jva-bhuta. The soul of man then feels itself to be one in a supreme spiritual impersonality with the Purushottama and in its universalised personality a manifest power of the Godhead. Its knowledge is a light of his knowledge; its will is a force of his will; its unity with all in the universe is a play of his eternal oneness. It is in this double realisation, it is in this union of two sides of an ineffable Truth of existence by either and both of which man can approach and enter into his own infinite being, that the liberated man has to live and act and feel and determine or rather have determined for him by a greatest power of his supreme self his relations with all and the inner and outer workings of his spirit. And in that unifying realisation adoration, love and devotion are not only still possible, but are a large, an inevitable and a crowning portion of the highest experience. The One who eternally becomes the Many, the Many who in their apparent division are still eternally one, the Highest who displays in us this secret and mystery of existence, not dispersed by his multiplicity, not limited by his oneness, - this is the integral knowledge, this is the reconciling experience which makes one capable of liberated action, muktasya karma.
  --
  Nothing can be more positive than the Gita's statement in this matter. "And by doing also all actions always lodged in Me he attains by my grace the eternal and imperishable status." This liberating action is of the character of works done in a profound union of the will and all the dynamic parts of our nature with the Divine in ourself and the cosmos. It is done first as a sacrifice with the idea still of our self as the doer. It is done next without that idea and with a perception of the Prakriti as the sole doer. It is done last with the knowledge of that Prakriti as the supreme power of the Divine and a renunciation, a surrender of all our actions to him with the individual as a channel only and an instrument. Our works then proceed straight from the Self and Divine within us, are a part of the indivisible universal action, are initiated and performed not by us but by a vast transcendent Shakti. All that we do is done for the sake of the Lord seated in the heart of all, for the Godhead in the individual and for the fulfilment of his will in us, for the sake of the Divine in the world, for the good of all beings, for the fulfilment of the world action and the world purpose, or in one word for the sake of the Purushottama and done really by him through his universal Shakti. These divine works, whatever their form or outward character, cannot bind, but are rather a potent means for rising out of this lower Prakriti of the three Gunas to the perfection of the supreme, divine and spiritual nature. Disengaged from these mixed and limited dharmas we escape into the immortal Dharma which comes upon us when we make ourselves one in all our consciousness and action with the Purushottama. That oneness here brings with it the power to rise there into the immortality beyond Time. There we shall exist in his eternal transcendence.
  Thus these eight verses carefully read in the light of the knowledge already given by the Teacher are a brief, but still a comprehensive indication of the whole essential idea, the entire central method, all the kernel of the complete Yoga of the Gita.

2.22 - THE MASTER AT COSSIPORE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Master moved to Cossipore — Predicting his passing away — The coming of devotees — Master's love for devotees — Significance of the Master's illness — Different classes of devotees — The great visions — Five suppliers of the Master's needs — Master's foreseeing of the coming of devotees — Master and Narendra — Narendra's yearning for God — His intense dispassion — Devotees' detachment from the world — Brahman is beyond the Gunas — Brahman and maya — Wicked ego and spiritualized ego — No liberation for Divine Incarnations — Master's great suffering — His vision of unity — Master about himself — Master teaches Narendra Brahmajnana — "Ego of Knowledge" — Narendra and M.
  Wednesday December 23, 1885
  --
  But once you said at Dakshineswar that it is quite different if one is able to live in the world free from the three Gunas."
  MASTER: "Yes — like a child!"
  --
  M: "Perhaps you are now in the state of mind that the Gita describes as beyond the three Gunas. Sattva, rajas, and tamas are performing their own functions, and you yourself are unattached — unattached even to sattva."
  MASTER: "Yes, the Divine Mother has put me into the state of a child. Tell me, won't the body live through this illness?"
  --
  MASTER: "Brahman is without taint. The three Gunas are in Brahman, but It is Itself untainted by them.
  "You may find both good and bad smells in the air; but the air itself is unaffected.
  --
  MASTER (to Narendra): "An outcaste was carrying a load of meat. Sankaracharya, after bathing in the Ganges, was passing by. Suddenly the outcaste touched him. Sankara said sharply: 'What! You touched me!' 'Revered sir,' he replied, 'I have not touched you nor have you touched me. Reason with me: Are you the body, the mind, or the buddhi? Analyse what you are. You are the Pure Atman, unattached and free, unaffected by the three Gunas — sattva, rajas, and tamas.'
  "Do you know what Brahman is like? It is like air. Good and bad smells are carried by the air, but the air itself is unaffected."
  --
  MASTER: "He is beyond the Gunas and maya — beyond both the 'maya of knowledge' and the 'maya of ignorance'. 'Woman and gold' is the 'maya of ignorance'. Knowledge, renunciation, devotion, and other spiritual qualities are the splendours of the 'maya of knowledge'. Sankaracharya kept this 'maya of knowledge'; and that you and these others feel concerned about me is also due to this 'maya of knowledge'.
  "Following the 'maya of knowledge' step by step, one attains the Knowledge of Brahman. This 'maya of knowledge' may be likened to the last few steps of the stairs. Next is the roof. Some, even after reaching the roof, go up and down the stairs; that is to say, some, even after realizing God, retain the 'ego of Knowledge'. They retain this in order to teach others, taste divine bliss, and sport with the devotees of God."

2.22 - The Supreme Secret, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  For Purusha veils himself in this round, veils his divine and immortal being in ignorance and is subject to the law of an insistent limiting Prakriti. That law is the compelling rule of the three Gunas. It is a triple stair that stumbles upward towards the divine light but cannot reach it. At its base is the law or dharma of inertia: the tamasic man inertly obeys in a customary mechanical action the suggestions and impulses, the round of will of his material and his half-intellectualised vital and sensational nature. In the middle intervenes the kinetic law or dharma; the rajasic man, vital, dynamic, active, attempts to impose himself on his world and environment, but only increases the wounding weight and tyrant yoke of his turbulent passions, desires and egoisms, the burden of his restless self-will, the yoke of his rajasic nature. At the top presses down upon life the harmonic regulative law or dharma; the sattwic man attempts to erect and follow his limited personal standards of reasoning knowledge, enlightened utility or mechanised virtue, his religions and philosophies and ethical formulas, mental systems and constructions, fixed channels of idea and conduct which do not agree with the totality of the meaning of life and are constantly being broken in the movement of the wider universal purpose.
  The dharma of the sattwic man is the highest in the circle of the Gunas; but that too is a limited view and a dwarfed standard.
  Its imperfect indications lead to a petty and relative perfection; temporarily satisfying to the enlightened personal ego, it is not founded either on the whole truth of the self or on the whole truth of Nature.
  --
  The pursuit of an impersonal truth or an impersonal will in our conduct is vitiated so long as we live at all in our normal mind by that which is natural and inevitable to that mind, the law of our personality, the subtle urge of our vital nature, the colour of ego. The pursuit of impersonal truth is turned by these influences into an unsuspected cloak for a system of intellectual preferences supported by our mind's limiting insistence; the pursuit of a disinterested impersonal action is converted into a greater authority and apparent high sanction for our personal will's interested selections and blind arbitrary persistences. On the other hand an absolute impersonality would seem to impose an equally absolute quietism, and this would mean that all action is bound to the machinery of the ego and the three Gunas and to recede from life and its works the only way out of the circle. This impersonal silence however is not the last word of wisdom in the matter, because it is not the only way and crown or not all the way and the last crown of self-realisation open to our endeavour. There is a mightier fuller more positive spiritual experience in which the circle of our egoistic personality and the round of the mind's limitations vanish in the unwalled infinity of a greatest self and spirit and yet life and its works not only remain still acceptable and possible but reach up and out to their widest spiritual completeness and assume a grand ascending significance.
  There have been different gradations in this movement to bridge the gulf between an absolute impersonality and the dynamic possibilities of our nature. The thought and practice of the Mahayana approached this difficult reconciliation through the experience of a deep desirelessness and a large dissolving freedom from mental and vital attachment and sanskaras and on the positive side a universal altruism, a fathomless compassion for the world and its creatures which became as it were the flood and outpouring of the high Nirvanic state on life and action.
  --
  The Gita throughout has been insisting on a great and wellbuilt discipline of Yoga, a large and clearly traced philosophical system, on the Swabhava and the Swadharma, on the sattwic law of life as leading out of itself by a self-exceeding exaltation to a free spiritual dharma of immortal existence utterly wide in its spaces and high-lifted beyond the limitation of even this highest Guna, on many rules and means and injunctions and conditions of perfection, and now suddenly it seems to break out of its own structure and says to the human soul, "Abandon all dharmas, give thyself to the Divine alone, to the supreme
  Godhead above and around and within thee: that is all that thou needest, that is the truest and greatest way, that is the real deliverance." The Master of the worlds in the form of the divine

2.24 - Gnosis and Ananda, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The soul lives: it is not abolished, it is not lost in a featureless Indefinite. For on, every plane of our existence the same principle holds; the soul may fall asleep in a trance of self-absorption, dwell in an ineffable intensity of God-possession, live in the highest glory of its own plane, -- the Anandaloka, Brahmaloka, Vaikuntha, Goloka of various Indian systems, -- even turn upon the lower worlds to fill them with its own light and power and beatitude. In the eternal worlds and more and more in all worlds above Mind these states exist in each other. For they are not separate; they are coexistent, even coincident powers of the consciousness of the Absolute. The Divine on the Ananda plane is not incapable of a world-play or self-debarred from any expression of its glories. On the contrary, as the Upanishad insists, the Ananda is the true creative principle. For all takes birth from this divine Bliss;485 all is pre-existent in it as an absolute truth of existence which the Vijnana brings out and subjects to voluntary limitation by the Idea and the law of the Idea. In the Ananda all law ceases and there is an absolute freedom without binding term or limit. It is superior to all principles and in one and the same motion the enjoyer of all principles; it is free from all Gunas and the enjoyer of its own infinite Gunas; it is above all forms and the builder and enjoyer of all its self-forms and figures. This unimaginable completeness is what the spirit is, the spirit transcendent and universal, and to be one in bliss with the transcendent and universal spirit is for the soul too to be that and nothing less. Necessarily, since there is on this plane the absolute and the play of absolutes, it is ineffable by any of the conceptions of our mind or by signs of the phenomenal or ideal realities of which mind-conceptions are the figures in our intelligence. These realities are themselves indeed only relative symbols of those ineffable absolutes. The symbol, the expressive reality, may give an idea, a perception, sense, vision, contact even of the thing itself to us, but at last we get beyond it to the thing it symbolises, transcend idea, vision, contact, pierce through the ideal and pass to the real realities, the identical, the supreme, the timeless and eternal, the infinitely infinite.
  Our first absorbing impulse when we become inwardly aware of something entirely beyond what we now are and know and are powerfully attracted to it, is to get away from the present actuality and dwell in that higher reality altogether. The extreme form of this attraction when we are drawn to the supreme Existence and the infinite Ananda is the condemnation of the lower and the finite as an illusion and all aspiration to Nirvana in the beyond, -- the passion for dissolution, immersion, extinction in the spirit. But the real dissolution, the true nirvana is the release of all that is bindingly characteristic of the lower into the larger being of the Higher, the conscious possession of the living symbol by the living Real. We discover in the end that not only is that higher Reality the cause of all the rest, not only it embraces and exists in all the rest, but as more and more we possess it, all the rest is transformed in our soul-experience into a superior value and becomes the means of a richer expression of the Real, a more many-sided communion with the Infinite, a larger ascent to the Supreme. Finally, we get close to the absolute and its supreme values which are the absolutes of all things. We lose the passion for release, mumuksutva, which till then actuated us, because we are now intimately near to that which is ever free, that which is neither attracted into attachment by what binds us now nor afraid of what to us seems to be bondage. It is only by the loss of the bound soul's exclusive passion for its freedom that there can come an absolute liberation of our nature. The Divine attracts the souls of men to him by various lures; all of them are born of the soul's own relative and imperfect conceptions of bliss; all are its ways of seeking for the Ananda, but, if clung to till the end, miss the inexpressible truth of those surpassing felicities. First in order comes the lure of an earthly reward, a prize of material, intellectual, ethical or other joy in the terrestrial mind and body. A second, remoter greater version of the same fruitful error is the hope of a heavenly bliss, far exceeding these earthly rewards; the conception of heaven rises in altitude and purity till it reaches the pure idea of the eternal presence of God or an unending union with the Eternal. And last we get the subtlest of all lures, an escape from these worldly or heavenly joys and from all pains and sorrows, effort and trouble and from all phenomenal things, a Nirvana, a self-dissolution in the Absolute, an Ananda of cessation and ineffable peace. In the end all these toys of the mind have to be transcended. The fear of birth and the desire of escape from birth must entirely fall away from us. For, to repeat the ancient language, the soul that has realised oneness has no sorrow or shrinking; the spirit that has entered into the bliss of the spirit has nought to fear from anyone or anything whatsoever. Fear, desire and sorrow are diseases of the mind; born of its sense of division and limitation, they cease with the falsehood that begot them. The Ananda is free from these maladies; it is not the monopoly of the ascetic, it is not born from the disgust of existence.

2.24 - THE MASTERS LOVE FOR HIS DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  M: "The Master is like a child — beyond the three Gunas."
  SASHI AND RAKHAL: "He himself has said that."

2.24 - The Message of the Gita, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Nature which is the secret of things in themselves is not manifest in their outward phenomena. The Nature which we see when we look outwards, the Nature which acts in our mind and body and senses is a lower Force, a derivation, a Magician who creates figures of the Spirit but hides the Spirit in its figures, conceals the truth and makes men look upon masks, a Force which is only capable of a sum of secondary and depressed values, not of the full power and glory and ecstasy and sweetness of the manifestation of the Divine. This Nature in us is a Maya of the ego, a tangle of the dualities, a web of ignorance and the three Gunas. And so long as the soul of man lives in the surface fact of mind and life and body and not in his self and spirit, he cannot see God and himself and the world as they really are, cannot overcome this Maya, but must do what he can with its terms and figures.
  "It is possible by drawing back from the lower turn of his nature in which man now lives, to awake from this light that is darkness and live in the luminous truth of the eternal and immutable self-existence. Man then is no longer bound up in his narrow prison of personality, no longer sees himself as this little
  --
  Godhead of which it is a portion; then it is one with all beings in the self and spirit, one with them both in God and in Nature; then it is not only free but complete, plunged in the supreme felicity, ready for its ultimate perfection. He still sees the self as an eternal and changeless Spirit silently supporting all things; but he sees also Nature no longer as a mere mechanical force that works out things according to the mechanism of the Gunas, but as a power of the Spirit and the force of God in manifestation. He sees that the lower Nature is not the inmost truth of the spirit's action; he becomes aware of a highest spiritual nature of the Divine in which is contained the source and the yet to be realised greater truth of all that is imperfectly figured now in mind, life and body. Arisen from the lower mental to this supreme spiritual nature, he is delivered there from all ego. He knows himself as a spiritual being, in his essence one with all existences and in his active nature a power of the one Godhead and an eternal soul of the transcendent Infinite. He sees all in God and God in all; he sees all things as Vasudeva. He is delivered from the dualities of joy and grief, from the pleasant and the unpleasant, from desire and disappointment, from sin and virtue. All henceforth is to his conscious sight and sense the will and working of the Divine. He lives and acts as a soul and portion of the universal consciousness and power; he is filled with the transcendent divine delight, a spiritual Ananda. His action becomes the divine action and his status the highest spiritual status.
  * *
  --
  "Action will still be done in you because Nature is always at work; but you must learn and feel that your self is not the doer of the action. Observe simply, observe unmoved the working of Nature and the play of her qualities and the magic of the Gunas. Observe unmoved this action in yourself; look on all that is being done around you and see that it is the same working in others. Observe that the result of your works and theirs is constantly other than you or they desired or intended, not theirs, not yours, but omnipotently fixed by a greater Power that wills and acts here in universal Nature. Observe too that even the will in your works is not yours but Nature's. It is the will of the ego sense in you and is determined by the predominant quality in your composition which she has developed in the past or else brings forward at the moment. It depends on the play of your natural personality and that formation of Nature is not your true person. Draw back from this external formation to your inner silent self; you will see that you the Purusha are inactive, but Nature continues to do always her works according to her Gunas. Fix yourself in this inner inactivity and stillness: no longer regard yourself as the doer. Remain seated in yourself above the play, free from the perturbed action of the Gunas. Live secure in the purity of an impersonal spirit, live untroubled by the mortal waves that persist in your members.
  "If you can do this, then you will find yourself uplifted into a great release, a wide freedom and a deep peace. Then you will be aware of God and immortal, possessed of your dateless selfexistence, independent of mind and life and body, sure of your spiritual being, untouched by the reactions of Nature, unstained by passion and sin and pain and sorrow. Then you will depend for your joy and desire on no mortal or outward or worldly thing, but will possess inalienably the self-sufficient delight of a calm and eternal spirit. Then you will have ceased to be a mental creature and will have become spirit illimitable, the Brahman.
  --
  Godward turn a working of the three Gunas. But when the Godlover is also the God-knower, the lover becomes one self with the Beloved; for he is the chosen of the Most High and the elect of the Spirit. Develop in yourself this God-engrossed love; the heart spiritualised and lifted beyond the limitations of its lower nature will reveal to you most intimately the secrets of God's immeasurable being, bring into you the whole touch and influx and glory of his divine Power and open to you the mysteries of an eternal rapture. It is perfect love that is the key to a perfect knowledge.
  "This integral God-love demands too an integral work for the sake of the Divine in yourself and in all creatures. The ordinary man does works in obedience to some desire sinful or virtuous, some vital impulse low or high, some mental choice common or exalted or from some mixed mind and life motive.
  --
   physical world. It is not enough for this end to be calm, inactive and free from the Gunas in the inner self and to watch and allow indifferently their mechanical action in the outer members. For the active nature as well as the self has to be given to the Divine and to become divine. All that you are must grow into one law of being with the Purushottama, sadharmya; all must be changed into my conscious spiritual becoming, mad-bhava. A completest surrender must be there. Take refuge with Me in all the many ways and along all the living lines of your nature; for that alone will bring about this great change and perfection.
  "This high consummation of the Yoga will at once solve or rather it will wholly remove and destroy at its roots the problem of action. Human action is a thing full of difficulties and perplexities, tangled and confused like a forest with a few more or less obscure paths cut into it rather than through it; but all this difficulty and entanglement arises from the single fact that man lives imprisoned in the ignorance of his mental, vital and physical nature. He is compelled by its qualities and yet afflicted with responsibility in his will because something in him feels that he is a soul who ought to be what now he is not at all or very little, master and ruler of his nature. All his laws of living, all his dharmas must be under these conditions imperfect, temporary and provisional and at best only partly right or true. His imperfections can cease only when he knows himself, knows the real nature of the world in which he lives and, most of all, knows the Eternal from whom he comes and in whom and by whom he exists. When he has once achieved a true consciousness and knowledge, there is no longer any problem; for then he acts freely out of himself and lives spontaneously in accordance with the truth of his spirit and his highest nature.
  --
   ignorance of the mind and the play of the Gunas. It is only when the soul of man finds itself that he can overpass and erase from his consciousness the ignorance and the confusion of the Gunas.
  It is true that even when you have found yourself and live in your self, your nature will still continue on its old lines and act for a time according to its inferior modes. But now you can follow that action with a perfect self-knowledge and can make of it a sacrifice to the Master of your existence. Follow then the law of your Swadharma, do the action that is demanded by your

2.25 - AFTER THE PASSING AWAY, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Who dwells beyond all moods, transcending the three Gunas.
  Narendra sang again:
  --
  Beyond the three Gunas, free from delusion and darkness, absorbed in meditation,
  And ever aware of the true nature of the world;

2.3.04 - The Mother's Force, #The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The Mother's Force and the Three Gunas
  When one feels that it is the Mother's Force that acts through one and not one's own force, is it the Mother's Force alone that works in one's actions while the Gunas remain quiescent?
  No, the Gunas are there and not quiescent - for they are the instrumentation. If the force and the inner consciousness are very strong then there is a tendency for the rajas to become like some inferior form of tapas and the tamas to become more like a kind of inert shama. That is how the transformation begins, but usually it is very slow in its process.
  29 January 1936

31.10 - East and West, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   No doubt, the East has moral codes and in profusion, but they are not considered to be the last word on spirituality; they all fall under the category of the 'Lesser Knowledge' (Apara Vidya) and therefore the East has not confined itself within the play of the lower - the three Gunasof nature. Its gaze is fixed on a still higher region. Europe claims herself to be the follower of the Christ. But how has Christianity developed there? It was the Church martyr in the beginning, it developed into the Church militant which finally turned into the Church political. The Christian church aimed at establishing the kingdom of Heaven on earth, but as a matter of fact, it has succeeded in establishing something of an earthly kingdom only. On the other hand, the religion of the East has quite a different movement. The ideal of the East is represented by Vedic seers like Vasishtha and Viswamitra who sought to realise the great Heavens - the Vast Truth. And their descendants clung to this ideal so firmly that no other thing existed for them. Vasishtha and Viswamitra have been consummated in Buddha and Shankara. The West has brought religion down to the level of the mundane and is about to lose it there, while the East has pushed religion up and is at last on the verge of losing the world in the Brahman or the Void.
   Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon are the ideal men of action in the West, while Krishna, Arjuna and Bhishma are the representatives 'of the ideal of the East. The European heroes display daemoniac restlessness and exuberance. The Indian heroes possess the godly virtues of calmness and poise along with clear insight. Napoleon is a mighty Vibhuti of the Divine Power. But Sri Krishna is the Incarnation of God Himself Leaving aside some solitary exceptions, the West has generally failed to imbibe spirituality; even so the East has failed to assimilate the true spirit of earthly action. As in the West the Christ is practically buried in oblivion, so the East has somehow managed to wipe out the teachings of Sri Krishna. And, in consequence, the people of the East try to avoid action as much as possible in order to attain to union with God. The West moves in the diametrically opposite direction and tries to attain perfection in every sphere of work in the outer world. Typically, Haeckel was enthusiastic enough to devote his entire life to the discovery of the life-history of the cray fish. To plant a banner in the polar region has been the mission of many a youth in the West. The Eastern mind is apt to look upon these things as a mere child's play. The Eastern mind was never content until it could in some way or other associate even the inescapable mundane knowledge with the knowledge of the Self. The motto of the East runs: "Know the Self alone and cast aside all other thoughts."

3.20 - Of the Eucharist, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  three Gunas. For tamas (darkness) take opium or nightshade or some
  sleepy medicine; for rajas (activity) take strychnine or other excitant;

3.2.1 - Food, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  I think the importance of sattwic food from the spiritual point of view has been exaggerated. Food is rather a question of hygiene and many of the sanctions and prohibitions laid down in ancient religions had more a hygienic than a spiritual motive. The Gitas definitions seem to point in the same directiontamasic food, it seems to say, is what is stale or rotten with the virtue gone out of it, rajasic food is that which is too acrid, pungent etc., heats the blood and spoils the health, sattwic food is what is pleasing, healthy etc. It may well be that different kinds of food nourish the action of the different Gunas and so indirectly are helpful or harmful apart from their physical action. But that is as far as we can confidently go. What particular eatables are or are not sattwic is another question and more difficult to determine. Spiritually, I should say that the effect of food depends more on the occult atmosphere and influences that come with it than on anything in the food itself. Vegetarianism is another question altogether; it stands, as you say, on a will not to do harm to the more conscious forms of life for the satisfaction of the belly.
  As to the question of practising to take all kinds of food with equal rasa, it is not necessary to practise nor does it really come by practice. One has to acquire equality within in the consciousness and as this equality grows one can extend it or apply it to the various fields of the activity of the consciousness.

33.06 - Alipore Court, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   In the midst of all this, Sri Aurobindo used to sit apart in his little corner. But we could approach him if anyone had anything to ask. One day we arranged a "general meeting", that is, requested him to give us a talk - of course in the court-room itself and during the proceedings! The court would go on and we would go on with our "meeting". Sri Aurobindo agreed to speak and he chose as his subject, "Nationalism and the Three Gunas (Psychological Types)."
   Afterwards, on coming out of jail, he wrote out the substance of this speech and had it published in one of his papers. It has since been included in his Bengali work, DharmaO Jatiyata.

3 - Commentaries and Annotated Translations, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  secondary root on the base of the consonant y^, the Gunas of
  which are strength and tenderness applied to action, motion,
  --
  play. On the basis of the consonant d^ of which the Gunas are
  force, heavy violence, density, dense penetration, dense movement, we get dA to cut, Ed to vibrate and d; to trouble and from
  --
  h^, the essential Gunas of which are aggression, violent action,
  impetuosity, loud breathing, and so challenge, summons etc.
  --
  is detachment from Guna and it is as detached from Guna that
  God possesses and enjoys Guna, otherwise He would be bound
  by and could not rightly enjoy it. It is because the tranquillity
  --
  His Being, Awareness and Bliss He conceals Guna or quality, He
  is nir Guna Sat, impersonal being with Awareness and Bliss either
  --
  the Lord of activity. But when in His being, He manifests Guna or
  quality He is sa Guna Sat, personal being. Even then He may be
  --
  fi, fjimoc. eh would be an adverb formed from ih^ by Gunation
  to eh^ and the addition of a either adverbially or as an accusative
  --
  pvZApvZA. The word is from the root p, to fill, by Gunation
  and the addition of the compound suffix vZ. pv & pvn^ are
  --
  thing-in-itself, its vratani, by the Guna or gana, quality or number
  (ratio) of the nature, the swadha. The Nature works out by three
  --
  derivative from mn^ with an archaic connecting Gunated u as in
  Mandala Six
  --
  d;s^ + trFt; (t Gunated + t; with connecting I), t to pierce,
  {, an old Vedic infinitive form,

4.04 - The Perfection of the Mental Being, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The witness Purusha in the mind observes that the inadequacy of his effort, all the inadequacy in fact of man's life and nature arises from the separation and the consequent struggle, want of knowledge, want of harmony, want of oneness. It is essential for him to grow out of separative individuality, to universalise himself, to make himself one with the universe. This unification can be done only through the soul by making our soul of mind one with the universal Mind, our soul of life one with the universal Life-soul, our soul of body one with the universal soul of physical Nature. When this can be done, in proportion to the power, intensity, depth, completeness, permanence with which it can be done, great effects are produced upon the natural action. Especially there grows an immediate and profound sympathy and immixture of mind with mind, life with life, a lessening of the body's insistence on separateness, a power of direct mental and other intercommunication and effective mutual action which helps out now the inadequate indirect communication and action that was till now the greater part of the conscious means used by embodied mind. But still the Purusha sees that in mental, vital, physical nature, taken by itself, there is always a defect, inadequacy, confused action, due to the mechanically unequal interplay of the three modes or Gunas of Nature. To transcend it he has in the universality too to rise to the supramental and spiritual, to be one with the supramental soul of cosmos, the universal spirit. He arrives at the larger light and order of a higher principle in himself and the universe which is the characteristic action of the divine Sachchidananda. Even, he is able to impose the influence of that light and order, not only on his own natural being, but, within the radius and to the extent of the Spirit's action in him, on the world he lives in, on that which is around him. He is svarat self-knower, self-ruler, but he begins to be also through this spiritual oneness and transcendence samrat, a knower and master of his environing world of being.
  In this self-development the soul finds that it has accomplished on this line the object of the whole integral Yoga, union with the Supreme in its self and in its universalised individuality. So long as he remains in the world-existence, this perfection must radiate out from him, -- for that is the necessity of his oneness with the universe and its beings, -- in an influence and action which help all around who are capable of it to rise to or advance towards the same perfection, and for the rest in an influence and action which help, as only the self-ruler and master man can help, in leading the human race forward spiritually towards this consummation and towards some image of a greater divine truth in their personal and communal existence. He becomes a light and power of the Truth to which he has climbed and a means for others' ascension.

4.05 - The Instruments of the Spirit, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Moreover, it is a total purification of all the complex instrumentality in all the parts of each instrument that is demanded of us by the integral perfection. It is not, ultimately, the narrower moral purification of the ethical nature. Ethics deals only with the desire-soul and the active outward dynamical part of our being; its field is confined to character and action. It prohibits and inhibits certain actions, certain desires, impulses, propensities, -- it inculcates certain qualities in the act, such as truthfulness, love, charity, compassion, chastity. When it has got this done and assured a base of virtue, the possession of a purified will and blameless habit of action, its work is finished. But the Siddha of the integral perfection has to dwell in a larger plane of the Spirit's eternal purity beyond good and evil. By this phrase it is not meant, as the rash hastily concluding intellect would be prone to imagine, that he will do good and evil indifferently and declare that to the spirit there is no difference between them, which would be in the plane of individual action an obvious untruth and might serve to cover a reckless self-indulgence of the imperfect human nature. Neither is it meant that since good and evil are in this world inextricably entangled together, like pain and pleasure, -- a proposition which, however true at the moment and plausible as a generalisation, need not be true of the human being's greater spiritual evolution, -- the liberated man will live in the spirit and stand back from the mechanical continued workings of a necessarily imperfect nature. This, however possible as a stage towards a final cessation of all activity, is evidently not a counsel of active perfection. But it is meant that the Siddha of the active integral perfection will live dynamically in the working of the transcendent power of the divine Spirit as a universal will through the supermind individualised in him for action. His works will therefore be the works of an eternal Knowledge, an eternal Truth, an eternal Might, an eternal Love, an eternal Ananda; but the truth, knowledge, force, love, delight will be the whole essential spirit of whatever work he will do and will not depend on its form; they will determine his action from the spirit within and the action will not determine the spirit or subject it to a fixed standard or rigid mould of working. He will have no dominant mere habit of character, but only a spiritual being and will with at the most a free and flexible temperamental mould for the action. His life will be a direct stream from the eternal fountains, not a form cut to some temporary human pattern. His perfection will not be a sattwic purity, but a thing uplifted beyond the Gunas of Nature, a perfection of spiritual knowledge, spiritual power, spiritual delight, unity and harmony of unity; the outward perfection of his works will be freely shaped as the self-expression of this inner spiritual transcendence and universality. For this change he must make conscient in him that power of spirit and supermind which is now superconscient to our mentality. But that cannot work in him so long as his present mental, vital, physical being is not liberated from its actual inferior working. This purification is the first necessity.
  In other words, purification must not be understood in any limited sense of a selection of certain outward kinetic movements, their regulation, the inhibition of other action or a liberation of certain forms of character or particular mental and moral capacities. These things are secondary signs of our derivative being, not essential powers and first forces. We have to take a wider psychological view of the primary forces of our nature. We have to distinguish the formed parts of our being, find out their basic defect of impurity or wrong action and correct that, sure that the rest will then come right naturally. We have not to doctor symptoms of impurity, or that only secondarily, as a minor help, -- but to strike at its roots after a deeper diagnosis. We then find that there are two forms of impurity which are at the root of the whole confusion. One is a defect born of the nature of our past evolution, which has been a nature of separative ignorance; this defect is a radically wrong and ignorant form given to the proper action of each part of our instrumental being. The other impurity is born of the successive process of an evolution, where life emerges in and depends on body, mind emerges in and depends on life in the body, supermind emerges in and lends itself to instead of governing mind, soul itself is apparent only as a circumstance of the bodily life of the mental being and veils up the spirit in the lower imperfections. This second defect of our nature is caused by this dependence of the higher on the lower parts; it is all immixture of functions by which the impure working of the lower instrument gets into the characteristic action of the higher function and gives to it an added imperfection of embarrassment, wrong direction and confusion.

4.08 - The Liberation of the Spirit, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  For certain ways of thinking liberation is a throwing off of all nature, a silent state of pure being, a Nirvana or extinction, a dissolution of the natural existence into some indefinable Absolute, moksa. But an absorbed and immersed bliss, a wideness of actionless peace, a release of self-extinction or self-drowning in the Absolute is not our aim. We shall give to the idea of liberation, mukti, only the connotation of that inner change which is common to all experience of this kind, essential to perfection and indispensable to spiritual freedom. We shall find that it then implies always two things, a rejection and an assumption, a negative and a positive side; the negative movement of freedom is a liberation from the principal bonds, the master-knots of the lower soul-nature, the positive side an opening or growth into the higher spiritual existence. But what are these master-knots-other and deeper twistings than the instrumental knots of the mind, heart, psychic life-force? We find them pointed out for us and insisted on with great force and a constant emphatic repetition in the Gita; they are four, desire, ego, the dualities and the three Gunas of Nature; for to be desireless, ego-less, equal of mind and soul and spirit and nistraigunya is in the idea of the Gita to be free, mukta. We may accept this description; for everything essential is covered by its amplitude. On the other hand, the positive sense of freedom is to be universal in soul, transcendently one in spirit with God, possessed of the highest divine nature, -- as we may say, like to God, or one with him in the law of our being. This is the whole and full sense of liberation and this is the integral freedom of the spirit.
  We have already had to speak of purification from the psychic desire of which the craving of the Prana is the evolutionary or, as we may put it, the practical basis. But this is in the mental and psychic nature; spiritual desirelessness has a wider and more essential meaning: for desire has a double knot, a lower knot in the Prana, which is a craving in the instruments, and a very subtle knot in the soul itself with the Buddhi as its first support or pratistha, which is the inmost origin of this mesh of our bondage. When we look from below, desire presents itself to us as a craving of the life force which subtilises in the emotions into a craving of the heart and is farther subtilised in the intelligence into a craving, preference, passion of the aesthetic, ethical, dynamic or rational turn of the Buddhi. This desire is essential to the ordinary man; he cannot live or act as an individual without knotting up all his action into the service of some kind of lower or higher craving, preference or passion. But when we are able to look at desire from above, we see that what supports this instrumental desire is a will of the spirit. There is a will, tapas, sakti, by which the secret spirit imposes on its outer members all their action and draws from it an active delight of its being, an Ananda, in which they very obscurely and imperfectly, if at all consciously, partake. This Tapas is the will of the transcendent spirit who creates the universal movement, of the universal spirit who supports and informs it, of the free individual spirit who is the soul centre of its multiplicities. It is one will, free in all these at once, comprehensive, harmonious, unified; we find it, when we live and act in the spirit, to be an effortless and desireless, a spontaneous and illumined, a self-fulfilling and self-possessing, a satisfied and blissful will of the spiritual delight of being.

4.09 - The Liberation of the Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The two sides of our being, conscious experiencing soul and executive Nature continuously and variously offering to the soul her experiences, determine in their meeting all the affections of our inner status and its responses. Nature contri butes the character of the happenings and the forms of the instruments of experience, the soul meets it by an assent to the natural determinations of the response to these happenings or by a will to other determination which it imposes upon the nature. The acceptance of the instrumental ego-consciousness and the will-to-desire are the initial consent of the self to the lapse into the lower ranges of experience in which it forgets its divine nature of being; the rejection of these things, the return to free self and the will of the divine delight in being is the liberation of the spirit. But on the other side stand the contri butions of Nature herself to the mixed tangle, which she imposes on the soul's experience of her doings and makings when once that first initial consent has been given and made the law of the whole outward transaction. Nature's essential contri butions are two, the Gunas and the dualities. This inferior action of Nature in which we live has certain essential qualitative modes which constitute the whole basis of its inferiority. The constant effect of these modes on the soul in its natural powers of mind, life and body is a discordant and divided experience, a strife of opposites, dvandva, a motion in all its experience and an oscillation between or a mixture of constant pairs of contraries, of combining positives and negatives, dualities. A complete liberation from the ego and the will of desire must bring with it a superiority to the qualitative modes of the inferior Nature, traigunyatitya, a release from this mixed and discordant experience, a cessation or solution of the dual action of Nature. But on this side too there are two kinds of freedom. A liberation from Nature in a quiescent bliss of the spirit is the first form of release. A farther liberation of the Nature into a divine quality and spiritual power of world-experience fills the supreme calm with the supreme kinetic bliss of knowledge, power, joy and mastery. A divine unity of supreme spirit and its supreme nature is the integral liberation.
  Nature, because she is a power of spirit, is essentially qualitative in her action. One may almost say that Nature is only the power in being and the development in action of the infinite qualities of the spirit, ananta Guna. All else belongs to her outward and more mechanical aspects; but this play of quality is the essential thing, of which the rest is the result and mechanical combination. Once we have set right the working of the essential power and quality, all the rest becomes subject to the control of the experiencing Purusha. But in the inferior nature of things the play of infinite quality is subject to a limited measure, a divided and conflicting working, a system of opposites and discords between which some practical mobile system of concords has to be found and to be kept in action; this play of concorded discords, conflicting qualities, disparate powers and ways of experience compelled to some just manageable, partial, mostly precarious agreement, an unstable, mutable equilibrium, is managed by a fundamental working in three qualitative modes which conflict and combine together in all her creations. These three modes have been given in the Sankhya system, which is generally adopted for this purpose by all the schools of philosophic thought and of Yoga 'in India, the three names, sattva, rajas and tamas.656 Tarnas is the principle and power of inertia; Rajas is the principle of kinesis, passion, endeavour, struggle, initiation (arambha); Sattwa the principle of assimilation, equilibrium and harmony. The metaphysical bearing of this classification does not concern us; but in its psychological and spiritual bearing it is of immense practical importance, because these three principles enter into all things, combine to give them their turn of active nature, result, effectuation, and their unequal working in the soul-experience is the constituent force of our active personality, our temperament, type of nature and cast of psychological response to experience.
  All character of action and experience in us is determined by the predominance and by the proportional interaction of these three qualities or modes of Nature. The soul in its personality is obliged, as it were, to run into their moulds; mostly, too, it is controlled by them rather than has any free control of them. The soul can only be free by rising above and rejecting the tormented strife of their unequal action and their insufficient concords and combinations and precarious harmonies, whether in the sense of a complete quiescence from the half-regulated chaos of their action or in the sense of a superiority to this lower turn of nature and a higher control or transformation of their working. There must be either an emptiness of the Gunas or a superiority to the Gunas.
  The Gunas affect every part of our natural being. They have indeed their strongest relative hold in the three different members of it, mind, life and body. Tamas, the principle of inertia, is strongest in material nature and in our physical being. The action of this principle is of two kinds, inertia of force and inertia of knowledge. Whatever is predominantly governed by Tamas, tends in its force to a sluggish inaction and immobility or else to a mechanical action which it does not possess, but is possessed by obscure forces which drive it in a mechanical round of energy; equally in its consciousness it turns to an inconscience or enveloped subconscience or to a reluctant, sluggish or in some way mechanical conscious action which does not possess the idea of its own energy, but is guided by an idea which seems external to it or at least concealed from its active awareness. Thus the principle of our body is in its nature inert, subconscient, incapable of anything but a mechanical and habitual self-guidance and action: though it has like everything else a principle of kinesis and a principle of equilibrium of its state and action, an inherent principle of response and a secret consciousness, the greatest portion of its rajasic motions is contri buted by the life-Power and all the overt consciousness by the mental being. The Principle of Rajas has its strongest hold on the vital nature. It is the Life within us that is the strongest kinetic motor power, but the life-power in earthly beings is possessed by the force of desire, therefore Rajas turns always to action and desire; desire is the strongest human and animal initiator of most kinesis and action, predominant to such an extent that many consider it the father of all action and even the originator of our being. Moreover, Rajas finding itself in a world of matter which starts from the principle of inconscience and a mechanically driven inertia, has to work against an immense contrary force; therefore its whole action takes on the nature of an effort, a struggle, a besieged and an impeded conflict for possession which is distressed in its every step by a limiting incapacity, disappointment and suffering: even its gains are precarious and limited and marred by the reaction of the effort and an after-taste of insufficiency and transience. The principle of Sattwa has its strongest hold in the mind; not so much in the lower parts of the mind which are dominated by the rajasic life-power, but mostly in the intelligence and the will of the reason. Intelligence, reason, rational will are moved by the nature of their predominant principle towards a constant effort of assimilation, assimilation by knowledge, assimilation by a power of understanding will, a constant effort towards equilibrium, some stability, rule, harmony of the conflicting elements of natural happening and experience. This satisfaction it gets in various ways and in various degrees of acquisition. The attainment of assimilation, equilibrium and harmony brings with it always a relative but more or less intense and satisfying sense of ease, happiness, mastery, security, which is other than the troubled and vehement pleasures insecurely bestowed by the satisfaction of rajasic desire and passion. Light and happiness are the characteristics of the sattwic Guna. The whole nature of the embodied living mental being is determined by these three Gunas.
  But these are only predominant powers in each part of our complex system. The three qualities mingle, combine and strive in every fibre and in every member of our intricate psychology. The mental character is made by them, the character of our reason, the character of our will, the character of our moral, aesthetic, emotional, dynamic, sensational being. Tamas brings in all the ignorance, inertia, weakness, incapacity which afflicts our nature, a clouded reason, nescience, unintelligence, a clinging to habitual notions and mechanical ideas, the refusal to think and know, the small mind, the closed avenues, the trotting round of mental habit, the dark and the twilit places. Tamas brings in the impotent will, want of faith and self-confidence and initiative, the disinclination to act, the shrinking from endeavour and aspiration, the poor and little spirit, and in our moral and dynamic being the inertia, the cowardice, baseness, sloth, lax subjection to small and ignoble motives, the weak yielding to our lower nature. Tamas brings into our emotional nature insensibility, indifference, want of sympathy and openness, the shut soul, the callous heart, the soon spent affection and languor of the feelings, into our aesthetic and sensational nature the dull aesthesis, the limited range of response, the insensibility to beauty, all that makes in man the coarse, heavy and vulgar spirit. Rajas contri butes our normal active nature with all its good and evil; when unchastened by a sufficient element of Sattwa, it turns to egoism, self-will and violence, the perverse, obstinate or exaggerating action of the reason, prejudice, attachment to opinion, clinging to error, the subservience of the intelligence to our desires and preferences and not to the truth, the fanatic or the sectarian mind, self-will, pride, arrogance, selfishness, ambition, lust, greed, cruelty, hatred, jealousy, the egoisms of love, all the vices and passions, the exaggerations of the aesthesis, the morbidities and perversions of the sensational and vital being. Tamas in its own right produces the coarse, dull and ignorant type of human nature. Rajas the vivid, restless, kinetic man, driven by the breath of action, passion and desire. Sattwa produces a higher type. The gifts of Sattwa are the mind of reason and balance, clarity of the disinterested truth-seeking open intelligence, a will subordinated to the reason or guided by the ethical spirit, self-control, equality, calm, love, sympathy, refinement, measure, fineness of the aesthetic and emotional mind, in the sensational being delicacy, just acceptivity, moderation and poise, a vitality subdued and governed by the mastering intelligence. The accomplished types of the sattwic man are the philosopher, saint and sage, of the rajasic man the statesman, warrior, forceful man of action. But in all men there is in greater or less proportions a mingling of the Gunas, a multiple personality and in most a good deal of shifting and alternation from the predominance of one to the prevalence of another Guna; even in the governing form of their nature most human beings are of a mixed type. All the colour and variety of life is made of the intricate pattern of the weaving of the Gunas.
  But richness of life, even a sattwic harmony of mind and nature does not constitute spiritual perfection. There is a relative possible perfection, but it is a perfection of incompleteness, some partial height, force, beauty, some measure of nobility and greatness, some imposed and precariously sustained balance. There is a relative mastery, but it is a mastery of the body by life or of the life by mind, not a free possession of the instruments by the liberated and self-possessing spirit. The Gunas have to be transcended if we would arrive at spiritual perfection. Tamas evidently has to be overcome, inertia and ignorance and incapacity cannot be elements of a true perfection; but it can only be overcome in Nature by the force of Rajas aided by an increasing force of Sattwa. Rajas has to be overcome, egoism, personal desire and self-seeking passion are not elements of the true perfection; but it can only be overcome by force of Sattwa enlightening the being and force of Tamas limiting the action. Sattwa itself does not give the highest or the integral perfection; Sattwa is always a quality of the limited nature; sattwic knowledge is the light of a limited mentality; sattwic will is the government of a limited intelligent force. Moreover, Sattwa cannot act by itself in Nature, but has to rely for all action on the aid of Rajas, so that even sattwic action is always liable to the imperfections of Rajas; egoism, perplexity, inconsistency, a one-sided turn, a limited and exaggerated will, exaggerating itself in the intensity of its limitations, pursue the mind and action even of the saint, philosopher and sage. There is a sattwic as well as a rajasic or tamasic egoism, at the highest an egoism of knowledge or virtue; but the mind's egoism of whatever type is incompatible with liberation. All the three Gunas have to be transcended. Sattwa may bring us near to the Light, but its limited clarity falls away from us when we enter into the luminous body of the divine Nature.
  This transcendence is usually sought by a withdrawal from the action of the lower nature. That withdrawal brings with it a stressing of the tendency to inaction. Sattwa, when it wishes to intensify itself, seeks to get rid of Rajas and calls in the aid of the tamasic principle of inaction; that is the reason why a certain type of highly sattwic men live intensely in the inward being, but hardly at all in the outward life of action, or else are there incompetent and ineffective. The seeker of liberation goes farther in this direction, strives by imposing an enlightened Tamas on his natural being, a Tamas which by this saving enlightenment is more of a quiescence than an incapacity, to give the sattwic Guna freedom to lose itself in the light of the spirit. A quietude and stillness is imposed on the body, on the active life-soul of desire and ego, on the external mind, while the sattwic nature by stress of meditation, by an exclusive concentration of adoration, by a will turned inward to the Supreme, strives to merge itself in the spirit. But if this is sufficient for a quietistic release, it is not sufficient for the freedom of an integral perfection. This liberation depends upon inaction and is not entirely self-existent and absolute; the moment the soul turns to action, it finds that the activity of the nature is still the old imperfect motion. There is a liberation of the soul from the nature which is gained by inaction, but not a liberation of the soul in nature perfect and self-existent whether in action or in inaction. The question then arises whether such a liberation and perfection are possible and what may be the condition of this perfect freedom.
  The ordinary idea is that it is not possible because all action is of the lower Gunas, necessarily defective, sadosam, caused by the motion, inequality, want of balance, unstable strife of the Gunas; but when these unequal Gunas fall into perfect equilibrium, all action of Nature ceases and the soul rests in its quietude. The divine Being, we may say, may either exist in his silence or act in Nature through her instrumentation, but in that case must put on the appearance of her strife and imperfection. That may be true of the ordinary deputed action of the Divine in the human spirit with its present relations of soul to nature in an embodied imperfect mental being, but it is not true of the divine nature of perfection. The strife of the Gunas is only a representation in the imperfection of the lower nature; what the three Gunas stand for are three essential powers of the Divine which are not merely existent in a perfect equilibrium of quietude, but unified in a perfect consensus of divine action. Tamas in the spiritual being becomes a divine calm, which is not an inertia and incapacity of action, but a perfect power, sakti, holding in itself all its capacity and capable of controlling and subjecting to the law of calm even the most stupendous and enormous activity: Rajas becomes a self-effecting initiating sheer Will of the spirit, which is not desire, endeavour, striving passion, but the same perfect power of being, sakti, capable of an infinite, imperturbable and blissful action. Sattwa becomes not the modified mental light, prakasa, but the self-existent light of the divine being, jyotih, which is the soul of the perfect power of being and illumines in their unity the divine quietude and the divine will of action. The ordinary liberation gets the still divine light in the divine quietude, but the integral perfection will aim at this greater triune unity.
  When this liberation of the nature comes, there is a liberation also of all the spiritual sense of the dualities of Nature. In the lower nature the dualities are the inevitable effect of the play of the Gunas on the soul affected by the formations of the sattwic, rajasic and tamasic ego. The knot of this duality is an ignorance which is unable to seize on the spiritual truth of things and concentrates on the imperfect appearances, but meets them not with a mastery of their inner truth, but with a strife and a shifting balance of attraction and repulsion, capacity and incapacity, liking and disliking, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, acceptance and repugnance; all life is represented to us as a tangle of these things, of the pleasant and the unpleasant, the beautiful and the unbeautiful, truth and falsehood, fortune and misfortune, success and failure, good and evil, the inextricable double web of Nature. Attachment to its likings and repugnances keeps the soul bound in this web of good and evil, joys and sorrows. The seeker of liberation gets rid of attachment, throws away from his soul the dualities, but as the dualities appear to be the whole act, stuff and frame of life, this release would seem to be most easily compassed by a withdrawal from life, whether a physical withdrawal, so far as that is possible while in the body, or an inner retirement, a refusal of sanction, a liberating distaste, vairagya, for the whole action of Nature. There is a separation of the soul from Nature. Then the soul watches seated above and unmoved, udasina, the strife of the Gunas in the natural being and regards as an impassive witness the pleasure and pain of the mind and body. Or it is able to impose its indifference even on the outer mind and watches with the impartial calm or the impartial joy of the detached spectator the universal action in which it has no longer an active inner participation. The end of this movement is the rejection of birth and a departure into the silent self, moksa.
  But this rejection is not the last possible word of liberation. The integral liberation comes when this passion for release, mumuksutva, founded on distaste or vairagya, is itself transcended; the soul is then liberated both from attachment to the lower action of nature and from all repugnance to the cosmic action of the Divine. This liberation gets its completeness when the spiritual gnosis can act with a supramental knowledge and reception of the action of Nature and a supramental luminous will in initiation. The gnosis discovers the spiritual sense in Nature, God in things, the soul of good in all things that have the contrary appearance; that soul is delivered in them and out of them, the perversions of the imperfect or contrary forms fall away or are transformed into their higher divine truth, -- even as the Gunas go back to their divine principles, -- and the spirit lives in a universal, infinite and absolute Truth, Good, Beauty, Bliss which is the supramental or ideal divine Nature. The liberation of the Nature becomes one with the liberation of the spirit, and there is founded in the integral freedom the integral perfection.
  author class:Sri Aurobindo

4.10 - The Elements of Perfection, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  When the self is purified of the wrong and confused action of the instrumental Nature and liberated into its self-existent being, consciousness, power and bliss and the Nature itself liberated from the tangle of this lower action of the struggling Gunas and the dualities into the high truth of the divine calm and the divine action, then spiritual perfection becomes possible. Purification and freedom are the indispensable antecedents of perfection. A spiritual self-perfection can only mean a growing into oneness with the nature of divine being, and therefore according to our conception of divine being will be the aim, effort and method of our seeking after this perfection. To the Mayavadin the highest or rather the only real truth of being is the impassive, impersonal, self-aware Absolute and therefore to grow into an impassive calm, impersonality and pure self-awareness of spirit is his idea of perfection and a rejection of cosmic and individual being and a settling into silent self-knowledge is his way. To the Buddhist for whom the highest truth is a negation of being, a recognition of the impermanence and sorrow of being and the disastrous nullity of desire and a dissolution of egoism, of the upholding associations of the Idea and the successions of Karma are the perfect way. Other ideas of the Highest are less negative; each according to its own idea leads towards some likeness to the Divine, sadrsya, and each finds its own way, such as the love and worship of the Bhakta and the growing into the likeness of the Divine by love. But for the integral Yoga perfection will mean a divine spirit and a divine nature which will admit of a divine relation and action in the world; it will mean also in its entirety a divinising of the whole nature, a rejection of all its wrong knots of being and action, but no rejection of any part of our being or of any field of our action. The approach to perfection must be therefore a large and complex movement and its results and workings will have an infinite and varied scope. We must fix in order to find a clue and method on certain essential and fundamental elements and requisites of perfection, siddhi; for if these are secured, all the rest will be found to be only their natural development or particular working. We may cast these elements into six divisions, interdependent on each other to a great extent but still in a certain way naturally successive in their order of attainment. The movement will start from a basic equality of the soul and mount to an ideal action of the Divine through our perfected being in the largeness of the Brahmic unity.
  The first necessity is some fundamental poise of the soul both in its essential and its natural being regarding and meeting the things, impacts and workings of Nature. This poise we shall arrive at by growing into a perfect equality, samata. The self, spirit or Brahman is one in all and therefore one to all; it is, as is said in the Gita which has developed fully this idea of equality and indicated its experience on at least one side of equality, the equal Brahman, samam brahma; the Gita even goes so far in one passage as to identify equality and yoga, samatvam yoga ucyate. That is to say, equality is the sign of unity with the Brahman, of becoming Brahman, of growing into an undisturbed spiritual poise of being in the Infinite. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated; for it is the sign of our having passed beyond the egoistic determinations of our nature, of our having conquered our enslaved response to the dualities, of our having transcended the shifting turmoil of the Gunas, of our having entered into the calm and peace of liberation. Equality is a term of consciousness which brings into the whole of our being and nature the eternal tranquillity of the Infinite. Moreover, it is the condition of a securely and perfectly divine action; the security and largeness of the cosmic action of the Infinite is based upon and never breaks down or forfeits its eternal tranquillity. That too must be the character of the perfect spiritual action; to be equal and one to all things in spirit, understanding, mind, heart and natural consciousness, -- even in the most physical consciousness, -- and to make all their workings, whatever their outward adaptation to the thing to be done, always and imminuably full of the divine equality and calm must be its inmost principle. That may be said to be the passive or basic, the fundamental and receptive side of equality, but there is also an active and possessive side, an equal bliss which can only come when the peace of equality is founded and which is the beatific flower of its fullness.
  The next necessity of perfection is to raise all the active parts of the human nature to that highest condition and working pitch of their power and capacity, sakti, at which they become capable of being divinised into true instruments of the free, perfect, spiritual and divine action. For practical purposes we may take the understanding, the heart, the Prana and the body as the four members of our nature which have thus to be prepared, and we have to find the constituent terms of their perfection. Also there is the dynamical force in us (virya) of the temperament, character and soul nature, svabhava, which makes the power of our members effective in action and gives them their type and direction; this has to be freed from its limitations, enlarged, rounded so that the whole manhood in us may become the basis of a divine manhood, when the Purusha, the real Man in us, the divine Soul, shall act fully in this human instrument and shine fully through this human vessel. To divinise the perfected nature we have to call in the divine Power or shakti to replace our limited human energy so that this may be shaped into the image of and filled with the force of a greater infinite energy, daivi prakrti, bhagavati sakti. This perfection will grow in the measure in which we can surrender ourselves, first, to the guidance and then to the direct action of that Power and of the Master of our being and our works to whom it belongs, and for this purpose faith is the essential, faith is the great motor-power of our being in our aspirations to perfection, -- here, a faith in God and the shakti which shall begin in the heart and understanding, but shall take possession of all our nature, all its consciousness, all its dynamic motive-force. These four things are the essentials of this second element of perfection, the full powers of the members of the instrumental nature, the perfected dynamis of the soul nature, the assumption of them into the action of the divine Power, and a perfect faith in all our members to call and support that assumption, sakti, virya, daivi prakrti, sraddha.
  --
  There will remain, because it will then only be entirely possible, the perfect action and enjoyment of being on the gnostic basis. The Purusha enters into cosmic manifestation for the variations of his infinite existence, for knowledge, action and enjoyment; the gnosis brings the fullness of spiritual knowledge and it will found on that the divine action and cast the enjoyment of world and being into the law of the truth, the freedom and the perfection of the spirit. But neither action nor enjoyment will be the lower action of the Gunas and consequent egoistic enjoyment mostly of the satisfaction of rajasic desire which is our present way of living. Whatever desire will remain, if that name be given, will be the divine desire, the will to delight of the Purusha enjoying in his freedom and perfection the action of the perfected prakriti and all her members. The prakriti will take up the whole nature into the law of her higher divine truth and act in that law offering up the universal enjoyment of her action and being to the Anandamaya Ishwara, the Lord of existence and works and Spirit of bliss, who presides over and governs her workings. The individual soul will be the channel of this action and offering, and it will enjoy at once its oneness with the Ishwara and its oneness with the prakriti and will enjoy all relations with Infinite and finite, with God and the universe and beings in the universe in the highest terms of the union of the universal Purusha and prakriti.
  All the gnostic evolution opens up into the divine principle of Ananda, which is the foundation of the fullness of spiritual being, consciousness and bliss of Sachchidananda or eternal Brahman. Possessed at first by reflection in the mental experience, it will be possessed afterwards with a greater fullness and directness in the massed and luminous consciousness, cidghana, which comes by the gnosis. The Siddha or perfected soul will live in union with the Purushottama in this Brahmic consciousness, he will be conscious in the Brahman that is the All, sarvam brahma, in the Brahman infinite in being and infinite in quality, anantam jnanam brahma, in Brahman as self-existent consciousness and universal knowledge, jnanam brahma, in Brahman as the selfexistent bliss and its universal delight of being, anandam brahma. He will experience all the universe as the manifestation of the One, all quality and action as the play of his universal and infinite energy, all knowledge and conscious experience as the outflowing of that consciousness, and all in the terms of that one Ananda. His physical being will be one with all material Nature, his vital being with the life of the universe, his mind with the cosmic mind, his spiritual knowledge and will with the divine knowledge and will both in itself and as it pours itself through these channels, his spirit with the one spirit in all beings. All the variety of cosmic existence will be changed to him in that unity and revealed in the secret of its spiritual significance. For in this spiritual bliss and being he will be one with That which is the origin and continent and inhabitant and spirit and constituting power of all existence. This will be the highest reach of self-perfection.

4.15 - Soul-Force and the Fourfold Personality, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  All the action of man in life is a nexus of the presence of the soul arid the workings of Nature, Purusha and prakriti. The presence and influence of the Purusha represents itself in nature as a certain power of our being which we may call for our immediate purpose soul-force; and it is always this soul-force which supports all the workings of the powers of the reason, the mind, life and body and determines the cast of our conscious being and the type of our nature. The normal ordinarily developed man possesses it in a subdued, a modified, a mechanised, submerged form as temperament and character; but that is only its most outward mould in which Purusha, the conscious soul or being, seems to be limited, conditioned and given some shape by the mechanical prakriti. The soul flows into whatever moulds of intellectual, ethical, aesthetic, dynamic, vital and physical mind and type the developing nature takes and can act only in the way this formed prakriti lays on it and move in its narrow groove or relatively wider circle. The man is then sattwic, rajasic or tamasic or a mixture of these qualities and his temperament is only a sort of subtler soul-colour which has been given to the major prominent operation of these fixed modes of his nature. Men of a stronger force get more of the soul-power to the surface and develop what we call a strong or great personality, they have in them something of the Vibhuti as described by the Gita, vibhutmiat sattvam sridam urjimam eva va, a higher power of being often touched with or sometimes full of some divine afflatus or more than ordinary manifestation of the Godhead which is indeed present in all, even in the weakest or most clouded living being, but here some special force of it begins to come out from behind the veil of the average humanity, and there is something beautiful, attractive, splendid or powerful in these exceptional persons which shines out in their personality, character, life and work. These men too work in the type of their nature-force according to its Gunas, but there is something evident in them and yet not easily analysable which is in reality a direct power of the Self and spirit using to strong purpose the mould and direction of the nature. The nature itself thereby rises to or towards a higher grade of its being. Much in the working of the Force may seem egoistic or even perverse, but it is still the touch of the Godhead behind, whatever Daivic, Asuric or even Rakshasic form it may take, which drives the prakriti and uses it for its own greater purpose. A still more developed power of the being will bring out the real character of this spiritual presence and it will then be seen as something impersonal and self-existent and self-empowered, a sheer soul-force which is other than the mind-force, life-force, force of intelligence, but drives them and, even while following to a certain extent their mould of working, Guna, type of nature, yet puts its stamp of an initial transcendence, impersonality, pure fire of spirit, a something beyond the Gunas of our normal nature. When the spirit in us is free, then what was behind this soul-force comes out in all its light, beauty and greatness, the Spirit, the Godhead who makes the nature and soul of man his foundation and living representative in cosmic being and mind, action and life.
  The Godhead, the spirit manifested in Nature appears in a sea of infinite quality, Ananta- Guna. But the executive or mechanical prakriti is of the threefold Guna, Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas, and the Ananta- Guna, the spiritual play of infinite quality, modifies itself in this mechanical nature into the type of these three Gunas. And in the soul-force in man this Godhead in Nature represents itself as a fourfold effective Power, caturvyuha, a Power for knowledge, a Power for strength, a Power for mutuality and active and productive relation and interchange, a Power for works and labour and service, and its presence casts all human life into a nexus and inner and outer operation of these four things. The ancient thought of India conscious of this fourfold type of active human personality and nature, built out of it the four types of the Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra, each with its spiritual turn, ethical ideal, suitable upbringing, fixed function in society and place in the evolutionary scale of the spirit. As always tends to be the case when we too much externalise and mechanise the more subtle truths of our nature, this became a hard and fast system inconsistent with the freedom and variability and complexity of the finer developing spirit in man. Nevertheless the truth behind it exists and is one of some considerable importance in the perfection of our power of nature; but we have to take it in its inner aspects, first, personality, character, temperament, soul-type, then the soul-force which lies behind them and wears these forms, and lastly the play of the free spiritual shakti in which they find their culmination and unity beyond all modes. For the crude external idea that a man is born as a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Sudra and that alone, is not a psychological truth of our being. The psychological fact is that there are these four active powers and tendencies of the Spirit and its executive shakti within us and the predominance of one or the other in the more well-formed part of our personality gives us our main tendencies, dominant qualities and capacities, effective turn in action and life. But they are more or less present in an men, here manifest, there latent, here developed, there subdued and depressed or subordinate, and in the perfect man will be raised up to a fullness and harmony which in the spiritual freedom will burst out into the free play of the infinite quality of the spirit in the inner and outer life and in the self-enjoying creative play of the Purusha with his and the world's Nature-Power.
  The most outward psychological form of these things is the mould or trend of the nature towards certain dominant tendencies, capacities, characteristics, form of active power, quality of the mind and inner life, cultural personality or type. The turn is often towards the predominance of the intellectual element and the capacities which make for the seeking and finding of knowledge and an intellectual creation or formativeness and a preoccupation with ideas and the study of ideas or of life and the information and development of the reflective intelligence. According to the grade of the development there is produced successively the make and character of the man of active, open, inquiring intelligence, then the intellectual and, last, the thinker, sage, great mind of knowledge. The soul-powers which make their appearance by a considerable development of this temperament, personality, soul-type, are a mind of light more and more open to all ideas and knowledge and incomings of Truth; a hunger and passion for knowledge, for its growth in ourselves, for its communication to others, for its reign in the world, the reign of reason and right and truth and justice and, on a higher level of the harmony of our greater being, the reign of the spirit and its universal unity and light and love; a power of this light in the mind and will which makes all the life subject to reason and its right and truth or to the spirit and spiritual right and truth and subdues the lower members to their greater law; a poise in the temperament turned from the first to patience, steady musing and calm, to reflection, to meditation, which dominates and quiets the turmoil of the will and passions and makes for high thinking and pure living, founds the self-governed sattwic mind, grows into a more and more mild, lofty, impersonalised and universalised personality. This is the ideal character and soul-power of the Brahmana, the priest of knowledge. If it is not there in all its sides, we have the imperfections or perversions of the type, a mere intellectuality or curiosity for ideas without ethical or other elevation, a narrow concentration on some kind of intellectual activity without the greater needed openness of mind, soul and spirit, or the arrogance and exclusiveness of the intellectual shut up in his intellectuality, or an ineffective idealism without any hold on life, or any other of the characteristic incompletenesses and limitations of the intellectual, religious, scientific or philosophic mind. These are stoppings short on the way or temporary exclusive concentrations, but a fullness of the divine soul and power of truth and knowledge in man is the perfection of this Dharma or Swabhava, the accomplished Brahminhood of the complete Brahmana.

4.16 - The Divine Shakti, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  To reach this perfection we have to become aware of the divine shakti, draw her to us and call her in to fill the whole system and take up the charge of all our activities. There will then be no separate personal will or individual energy trying to conduct our actions, no sense of a little personal self as the doer, nor will it be the lower energy of the three Gunas, the mental, vital and physical nature. The divine shakti will fill us and preside over and take up all our inner activities, our outer life, our Yoga. She will take up the mental energy, her own lower formation, and raise it to its highest and purest and fullest powers of intelligence and will and psychic action. She will change the mechanical energies of the mind, life and body which now govern us into delight-filled manifestations of her own living and conscious power and presence. She will manifest in us and relate to each other all the various spiritual experiences of which the mind is capable. And as the crown of this process she will bring down the supramental light into the mental levels, change the stuff of mind into the stuff of supermind, transform all the lower energies into energies of her supramental nature and raise us into our being of gnosis. The shakti will reveal herself as the power of the Purushottama, and it is the Ishwara who will manifest himself in his force of supermind and spirit and be the master of our being, action, life and Yoga.
  author class:Sri Aurobindo

4.17 - The Action of the Divine Shakti, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  This, however, is a stage and not the whole perfection. The existence, however comparatively large and free, is still subject to the inferior nature. The sattwic, rajasic and tamasic ego is diminished but not eliminated; or if it seems to disappear, it has only sunk in our parts of action into the universal operation of the Gunas, remains involved in them and is still working in a covert, subconscient fashion and may force itself to the front at any time. The Sadhaka has therefore first to keep the idea and get the realisation of a one self or spirit in all behind all these workings. He must be aware behind prakriti of the one Supreme and universal Purusha. He must see and feel not only that all is the self-shaping of the one Force, prakriti or Nature, but that all her actions are those of the Divine in all, the one Godhead in all, however veiled, altered and as it were perverted -- for perversion comes by a conversion into lower forms -- by transmission through the ego and the Gunas. This will farther diminish the open or covert insistence of the ego and, if thoroughly realised, it will make it difficult or impossible for it to assert itself in such a way as to disturb or hamper the farther progress. The ego-sense will become, so far as it interferes at all, a foreign intrusive element and only a fringe of the mist of the old ignorance hanging on to the outskirts of the consciousness and its action. And, secondly, the universal shakti must be realised, must be seen and felt and borne in the potent purity of its higher action, its supramental and spiritual workings. This greater vision of the shakti will enable us to escape from the control of the Gunas, to convert them into their divine equivalents and dwell in a consciousness in which the Purusha and prakriti are one and not separated or hidden in or behind each other. There the shakti will be in its every movement evident to us and naturally, spontaneously, irresistibly felt as nothing else but the active presence of the Divine, the shape of power of the supreme Self and Spirit.
  The shakti in this higher status reveals itself as the presence or potentiality of the infinite existence, consciousness, will, delight and when it is so seen and felt, the being turns towards it in whatever way, with its adoration or its will of aspiration or some kind of attraction of the lesser to the greater, to know it, to be full of and possessed by it, to be one with it in the sense and action of the whole nature. But at first while we still live in the mind, there is a gulf of division or else a double action. The mental, vital and physical energy in us and the universe is felt to be a derivation from the supreme shakti, but at the same time an inferior, separated and in some sense another working. The real spiritual force may send down its messages or the light and power of its presence above us to the lower levels or may descend occasionally and even for a time possess, but it is then mixed with the inferior workings and partially transforms and spiritualises them, but is itself diminished and altered in the process. There is an intermittent higher action or a dual working of the nature. Or we find that the shakti for a time raises the being to a higher spiritual plane arid then lowers it back into the inferior levels. These alternations must be regarded as the natural vicissitudes of a process of transformation from the normal to the spiritual being. The transformation, the perfection cannot for the integral Yoga be complete until the link between the mental and the spiritual action is formed and a higher knowledge applied to all the activities of our existence. That link is the supramental or gnostic energy in which the incalculable infinite power of the supreme being, consciousness, delight formulates itself as an ordering divine will and wisdom, a light and power in the being which shapes all the thought, will, feeling, action and replaces the corresponding individual movements.

4.23 - The supramental Instruments -- Thought-process, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  This observing action of supermind applies to all things. Its view of physical objects is not and cannot be only a surface or outward view, even when concentrated on the externals. It sees the form, action, properties, but it is aware at the same time of the qualities or energies, Guna, sakti, of which the form is a translation and it sees them not as an inference or deduction from the form or action, but feels and sees them directly in the being of the object and quite as vividly, -- one might say, with a subtle concreteness and fine substantiality, -- as the form or sensible action. It is aware too of the consciousness that manifests itself in quality, energy, form. It can feel, know, observe, see forces, tendencies, impulsions, things abstract to us quite as directly and vividly as tile tilings we now call visible and sensible. It observes in just the same way persons and beings. It can take as its starting-point or first indication the speech, action, outward signs, but it is not limited by or dependent on them. It can know and feel and observe the very self and consciousness of another, can either proceed to that directly through the sign or can in its more powerful action begin with it and at once instead of seeking to know the inner being through the evidence of the outer expression, understand rather all the outer expression in the light of the inner being. Even so, completely, the supramental being knows his own inner being and nature. The supermind can too act with equal power and observe with direct experience what is hidden behind the physical order; it can move in other planes than the material universe. It knows the self and reality of things by identity, by experience of oneness or contact of oneness and a vision, a seeing and realising ideation and knowledge dependent on or derived from these things, and its thought presentation of the truths of the spirit is an expression of this kind of sight and experience.
  The supramental memory is different from the mental, not a storing up of past knowledge and ' experience, but an abiding presence of knowledge that can be brought forward or, more characteristically, offers itself, when it is needed: it is not dependent on attention or on conscious reception, for the things of the past not known actually or not observed can be called up from latency by an action which is yet essentially a remembrance. Especially on a certain level all knowledge presents itself as a remembering, because all is latent or inherent in the self of supermind. The future like the past presents itself to knowledge in the supermind as a memory of the preknown. The imagination transformed in the supermind acts on one side as a power of true image and symbol, always all image or index of some value or significance or other truth of being, on the other as an inspiration or interpretative seeing of possibilities and potentialities not less true than actual or realised things. These are put in their place either by an attendant intuitive or interpretative judgment or by one inherent in the vision of the image, symbol or potentiality, or by a supereminent revelation of that which is behind the image or symbol or which determines the potential and the actual and their relations and, it may be, overrides and overpasses them, imposing ultimate truths and supreme certitudes.

5.2.02 - Aryan Origins - The Elementary Roots of Language, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  I shall consider first the vowel roots. They are four in number, a, i, u and , and all four of them indicate primarily the idea of being, existence in some elementary aspect or modification suggested by the innate quality or Guna of the sound denoting it. A in its short form indicates being in its simplicity without any farther idea of modification or quality, mere or initial being creative of space, i an intense state of existence, being narrowed, forceful and insistent, tending to a goal, seeking to occupy space, u a wide, extended but not diffused state of existence, being medial and firmly occupant of space, a vibrant state of existence, pulsing in space, being active about a point, within a limit. The leng thened forms of these vowels add only a greater intensity to the meaning of the original forms, but the leng thening of the a modifies more profoundly. It brings in the sense of space already created & occupied by the diffusion of the simple state of beinga diffused or pervasive state of existence. These significances are, I suggest, eternally native to these sounds and consciously or unconsciously determined the use of them in language by Aryan speakers. To follow these developments and modifications it is necessary to take these roots one by one in themselves and in their derivatives.
  From the persistent evidence of the Sanscrit language it is clear that to the initial idea of existence the Aryans attached, as fundamental circumstances of being, the farther ideas of motion, contact, sound, form and action and there are few root-families in which there are not the six substantial ideas which form the starting point of all farther development of use and significance.

5.2.03 - The An Family, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Proceeding always from the basis that the seed sound A is especially significative of vaguely extended being with a point of beginning or station, but no fixed limit, we shall see how this root Guna works out in the word-clans and families which belong to this small but important tribe.
  Let us take for our starting-point the dental & cerebral groups, which will give us, if it is complete, the five dental roots, at, ath, ad, adh, an and the five cerebral roots, a, ah, a, ah, a. If we are right in the belief that there is no fundamental difference of quality between dental & cerebral groups, except that the cerebral sound perhaps emphasises & as it were coarsens the sense of the dental, this will appear by our analysis & we can treat the corresponding members of each group as one root, for all practical purposes.
  --
   preserves only in its derivative , a kettledrum or thunderbolt.On the other hand the cerebral root has this peculiarity that in all its derivatives it abandons the vaguer or heavier ideas of being & substance & concentrates on the idea of subtlety or paucity which is inherent in the idea of substance as represented by the N sound, but not its chief characteristic. This subordinate idea which is merely a secondary shade in the N Guna, serving to distinguish it from its brother dentals, is here brought out & constitutes the chief connotation of the
   group.

5.4.01 - Notes on Root-Sounds, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  N. etc which may originally have derived from the primary root by Gunation, are nevertheless included for convenience under the root
  Significances of the primary form . Roundness, inclusion, comprehension
  The Gunated Form.
  (1.a) , armour, mail.. charm, Covering, inclusion.
  --
  Significances of the Gunated form Inclusion, by covering, taking in, confining, comprehension. Thick, tufted or rough substance.. Circling or swelling motion.. Strong taste .. Shrill or loud sound .. Brightness, bright colour or burning heat.. Mixture, connection.. Penetration, hurt, injury.. Strong emotion .. Sexual enjoyment.
  The Guttural group
  --
  The roots of the ch family are a subsection of the palatal group and have as their base of significance the Guna of narrow & intense penetration, separation and fine distinction. In action their sense is to cut, split, divide, separate, in motion to dart, leap like the lightning, race, drop suddenly or dart up, throw, project, eject etc, any narrow or intense action or motion. From the sense of to cut off it comes to mean screen, hide or cover. We have in the sense of a sharp touch & by detrition of meaning simply touch, () snapping of thumb & forefinger. Applied to light it means a sharp glitter or intense light.
  ***

9.99 - Glossary, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
     Guna: According to the Samkhya philosophy, Prakriti (nature), in contrast with Purusha (soul), consists of three Gunas (qualities or strands) known as sattva, rajas, and tamas. Tamas stands for inertia or dullness, rajas for activity or restlessness, and sattva for balance or wisdom.
    guru(deva): Spiritual teacher.
  --
    rajas: The principle of activity or restlessness. See Guna.
    rajasic: Pertaining to, or possessed of, rajas.
  --
    sattva: The principle of balance or wisdom. See Guna.
    sattvic: Pertaining to, or possessed of, sattva.
  --
    tamas: The principle of inertia or dullness. See Guna.
    tamasic: Pertaining to, or possessed of, tamas.

Bhagavad Gita, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  14. The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas
  15. The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit

BOOK II. -- PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  three Gunams for its three faces, and divided into seven rays, which develop in course of time the
  seven principles of this classification. The progress of development presents some points of similarity

Conversations with Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  We are always using mental words that mislead. Yes, it is true that it is the support of all personality. The Vedantic standpoint of the impersonal absolute, which has spread so much in the later years[1] is only one aspect of the truth. It applies very much to the mind, especially to the modern mind, but when the consciousness rises above mind, it is clearly seen as a partial aspect of the truth. It is the power that has personality as a Guna. It uses the impersonal to rise above the limited egoism of our personalities. The impersonal view of the divine is somewhat larger than our personal conception, limited by our mind. But it is mind that limits personality. It has an existence above mind. You have to recognize that the power is not a mere power.
  It is true that, for the present, I only see it as a working power.

Jaap Sahib Text (Guru Gobind Singh), #Jaap Sahib, #unset, #Zen
  keh aphvul Gunah hain. keh shahan shah hain.
  keh karan kunind hain, keh roji dehund hain. (109)

Liber 71 - The Voice of the Silence - The Two Paths - The Seven Portals, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
   These three Halls correspond to the Gunas: Ignorance, tamas; Learning,
   rajas; Wisdom, sattva.

r1912 01 13, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The last record covered the period from Dec 12th. 1911 to January 11th 1912.1 Liberated from anticipation, it was a pure record of fact and experience, but its correctness was sometimes vitiated by a misvaluation of the significance of the fact through over-appreciation or depreciation. It is intended that the present record should be free from this defect.Ananda has very fully established itself in the field of the indriyas. All sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, movements, actions, are now pleasurable or give pleasure; all carry with them the rasagrahana or appreciation of the beauty of the Gunas which they are in expression, the joy of the vijnana in them (the basis of chidghana ananda), the joy of the heart in them (the basis of premananda), the joy of the body in them (the basis of the kamananda), the joy of the mind as indriya in them (the basis of the ahaituka ananda). All this joy is of the nature of bhoga from which the ananda is beginning to emerge. Joy of the spirit in the Ekam which expresses itself (the basis of shuddhananda, chidananda & sadananda together making kaivalyananda) is as yet obscure & involved in the lower anandas. Since yesterday, the ahaituka kamananda & today the sahaituka tivrananda are manifesting. Yesterday also the discomfort of heat & cold and pain were again exiled, though not entirely. Experiments made with the body show that below a certain intensity all pain now gives ananda of bhoga at the time of the feeling of pain, & pain beyond that degree brings it after the immediate acuteness has passed. Sometimes sahaituka raudrananda results. As I write ahaituka tivrananda, raudrananda & vaidyutananda (negative) are recommencing; also vishayananda sahaituka and ahaituka, begun yesterday, are becoming more definite. The bhoga of all these forms is already established. The greatest difficulty is found in the prolonged contact of intense heat with a sensitive part of the body, eg. the heated stone of the floor under the midday sun. The intensity of the heat to the sensation can be increased, lessened or inhibited by Will; the prolonged contact tends to remove the element of suffering unless the Will is made to increase or maintain it, or unless the stream of Will (chit-shakti) is kept tamasic suffering weakly the contact instead of meeting it. This daurbalyam has been created in order to bring about certain forms of intense ananda, chiefly viparita. It is possible, as is now clearly seen, to render it a great element of strong positive (not viparita) ananda, but in that case the daurbalyam must be merely a form of balam, in other words, it must be supported by dhairyam and anandadharanashakti.Ananda is now being extended to events. Even depression and sinking are met and claimed by a stream of ananda, and the place, necessity & delight of amangalam, its true mangalamaya nature is being impressed by the jnanam not only on the buddhi but on the sanskaras of the manas, chitta, prana and material body.Pure varna manifested this morning in a form, (dense crude), so that all the material and possible variation of material for the crude forms is, in a way, ready and regularised; only the perfect crude forms have to be subjected to the same process. Other siddhis are in comparative abeyance awaiting the movement of the ananda.
   ***

r1912 01 18, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   Defect of anima strongly felt on rising. Walking & standing from 7.20 to 9.30; the stiffness more insistent today. The utthapana has not recovered its force. Chhayarupas have still the tendency to vagueness & a blurred or imperfect form, but some are very distinct; these have a tendency to short stability or no stability at all. Momentary asaundaryam of Guna, followed by a recovery and increased intensity of shuddha ananda in sarvasaundarya above Guna; but this harmony is still imperfect.
   The rest of the day has passed in the final purification of the system from all trace of rajas or sensibility of the system to rajasic impressions from outside. The sattwic remnants are also being removed, but the process is not yet complete. A relaxation of the elementary utthapana occupied the system. The roga that came, is being slowly eliminated. Its chief characteristic is a dull form of watery nausea, slight in substance but with some tamasic power of oppression. The prithivi, tejas & jala are very weak. Hunger persists. Samadhi in the afternoon greatly improved, but not free of the tamas. Sleep 1.0 to 7. Signs of the raising of the objective siege.

r1912 07 15, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   This morning Samata is perfectly restored and there is a strong increase of the suddhananda with a manifestation of the faery element in the beauty of things, the sense of their beauty of ananda, the pleasure taken in them as visions of his weaving of God. This transcends or contains the beauty of Guna proper to the vijnanam; it depends not on knowledge-perception of the separate Guna & yatharthya of things, but on being-perception in chit of the universal ananda of things.
   The written prediction today:

r1912 07 18, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   Sahitya was resumed today, the Life Divine commenced; also the systematic study of Magha, an orderly arrangement of material ( dhatus) for the Structure of Sanscrit Speech and a review of past Prerana records begun. The insistence on physical ananda was not strong, but health & utthapana were maintained & in the evening the physical capacity of surfeit was, momentarily at least, conquered. The realisation of action as movement of Shakti enjoyed by Purusha came strongly in active dasya with arrangement in knowledge of the kama. There was one remarkable instance of outflow. Vijnanam is now acting invariably, spontaneously, not in particular instances & by special tapas as formerly, but not yet perfectly. The Powers overbore opposition & acted upon detail as well as generally, with great frequency in the evening. Extension of samadhi was not noticed in the swapna condition, but in the jagrat there was a temporary living in the pranamay jagat and a strong sensation of the vibrations of its earth & sense of its atmosphere. The annamaya self became finally tri Gunatita, indifferent to the action of the three Gunas, not yet ananta Guna. Tejasic tapas is dead in action, feebly phantomlike & ineffective in knowledge, but tamas is still strong, though the depression of the annamaya system, persistent recently, has been modified. Internal ananda is yet weak & overshadowed; only the buddhi keeps its grasp on the Anandam Brahma. Sleep at night six hours, in daytime half an hour.
   ***

r1912 07 21, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The last suggestion was fulfilled. All the usual work has been done, but the collection of material replaced the usual comment on R.V. Prerana was intermitted. The sixth chatusthaya was rendered vivid & invariable, the fourfold Brahman being seen everywhere in the whole & in each object, very vividly, except when the mind is not free. There is a state in which the infinity of the mind is clouded by preoccupation with a particular idea or subject; the sense of freedom, prakash (transparent luminousness) & lightness is replaced by obscurity & a heavy contraction in the Guna of narrowness. This is a remnant of the buddha condition. There is another in which there is a particular movement in mind (special occupation), but the mind itself is infinite[,] free & merely watches its own movement. This is mukti with particular tapas.
   The second chatusthaya reemerged in the evening bringing with it a restoration of force & faith (not complete), but this reemergence was clouded afterwards. Health was much stronger, but perfect assimilation is still disputed by the apana, though the latter no longer produces distention of flatulence, but only tries to limit food-capacity, maintain the slowness of assimilation & restore the visrishti which has been discontinued for four days; the jalavisrishti is very strong and insistent. Nirvisesha kamananda in its intenser form, but not so intense as it was at times, is normal & frequent, but not long continued. The vyapti prakamya is becoming more decisive & intense. Samadhi is attacking the discontinuity & momentariness of the visible record,thought record has already the power of continuity. Sleep for five & a half hours1 hour in the daytime.

r1912 12 31, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   On the other hand the theory of the Yoga has been proved. The perfectibility of the human being, trikaldrishti, Power, the play of the Divine Force in the individual, the existence of the other worlds, & of extra-mental influences, even the possibility of the physical siddhis are established factsvijnana, the Vedic psychology, the seven streams, everything is established. What is wanting is the perfect application, free from the confusions of the anritam which result from the play of mind. It has been seen that in repose, in nivritti[,] in udasinata, perfect peace and ananda are possible; but the thing the Yoga has set out to establish is the perfect harmony of Nivritti & Pravritti, of desirelessness & Lipsa, of Guna & Nir Guna, complete Ananda, Tapas, Knowledge, Love, Power & Infinite Egoless Being, consummating in the full and vehement flow of the Pravritti. By the fulfilment or failure of this harmony the Yoga stands or falls. The siddhi has now reached a stage when the test of its positive worldward side has to be undertaken. Tyaga is finished; shama & shanti & udasinata have had their fulfilment; but in that resting place there can be no abiding. It is the starting point of the Lila, not its goal. Therefore during the next three months it has to be seen whether, the harmony in nivritti being definitely thrown aside, the harmony in pravritti, which has always been attacked & denied by the enemy, can be prepared or accomplished. Only then can there be a settled peace and a perfected action.
   MS Maheshwari

r1913 11 18, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The Gunas of daya, naishturyam & krauryam are now well-developed; they have yet to be harmonised. The Pashu, Pishacha, Pramatha, Rakshasa have all now taken their seat; they have to be harmonised & subjected to the Deva-Asura who will give them the bali.
   The Ananda of defeat is now right in temperament and well-established. The doubts of the Mahasaraswati vibhuti have not yet been set at rest; they persist and find their justification in the falterings of the siddhi and the continued success of the obstruction

r1913 12 14, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The subjective anandas, although well-established, are liable to clouding especially by the loss of the sense of beauty in the adaptation of form to Guna. If the Brahman is seen in the Guna of a face that is mean or ugly, the meanness or ugliness becomes itself beautiful to the inner eye & through the inner eye to the outer vision; but, this failing, the shuddha & premanandas fail by temporary loss of the chidghana. Premananda is also attacked by old sanskaras of relation & non-relation. Normally, however, chidghana, ahaituka & suddha are permanently manifest; prema is there usually in the priti, not so commonly in the bhoga.
   Arrangement of lipi has been well-established both in chitra and akasha. The struggle now is between the slowly growing intensity & vividness of the letters & the old tendency to vagueness, dimness & illegibility. This intensity & vividness was formerly perfect, but exceptional, it is now imperfect, but tends to be normal. The lipi is usually intelligible even when imperfectly legible, but its interpretation by the ideality is often obstructed; eg the lipi Pyrotechnics on the Kart[t]ik Purnima. Owing to the minds ignorance of the fact that it was Karttik Purnima or that here it is usual to have fireworks on that tithi, the lipi remained unintelligible in its main purpose until the evening when the fireworks began.

r1914 05 27, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The shuddhananda & sense of Supreme Beauty in all things is growing with the growth of the Mahalakshmi bhava, but it is not, as formerly, overpowering & intolerant of the perception of differences in Gunas in the mentality. It perceives the vulgar as vulgar, the common as common & yet as divine & uncommon in that which it expresses.
   The consciousness now lives chiefly in the Bhuvar lower & higher, but not actively in the Pradiv or Swar. It has to raise itself to these altitudes.

r1914 12 19, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   Anandamaya Krishnadarshana is now extending itself to all objects & beings independent of form, Guna etc.
   ***

r1915 01 24, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The Ishwaradarshan is now securely normalised with the Krishna Kali Ananda, Guna & Jnana as its contents.
   This is the first chatusthaya (Brahma) entirely satisfactory in its finality. Only intensity of bhava and fullness of detail have to be added, but this depends partly on the progress in other chatusthayas.

r1915 08 07, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The Krishnadarshana has surmounted several of its difficulties. Formerly the adult vulgar & hirsute masculine face did not at once throw back the idea of Krishna. Now all faces at once reflect him. There was also a division between the Krishna in human form & the formless & universal Krishna. Either the first was intensely sensed & the latter became merely Brahman or the latter was seen & the human form became a mask of Brahman + Guna etc. This is now in type surmounted; but the Siddhi goes back to this stage firmly in order to bridge over the division by proceeding from the universal to the individual and no longer from the individual to the universal. In all probability this movement will be complete today.
   ***

r1917 02 05, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   In the morning sudden efflorescence of a perfect shuddha anandamaya-vijnanamaya vision of universal beauty. Every detail is seen in its perfect, divine sense and faery loveliness and in its place in the whole and the divine symmetry of the whole based on its brihat Idea, even in what appears to the mind [un]symmetrical. This was realised in things yesterday, today in faces, figures, actions, etc. It is not yet stable, but strong and returns in spite of the force that depresses the vision and attempts to return to the diffuse mental view of things. In the mental view the general shuddha ananda is ahaituka, even when it is full of feature; in this it is self-existent, yet contains all hetu, Guna, rasa = Ananda with vijnana in its embrace.
   ***

r1917 03 17, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The Ishwaradarshana has made a rapid bound to the shuddha Ananda possessing the chidghana, with the sense of the absolute universal beauty with the variety of feature. The chidghana gives a centrality and perfect harmony to the variety and reveals the spiritual law of each form of beauty, the Guna and the swabhava, the thing it expresses. The Ananda is sometimes intense, sometimes moderate, sometimes goes back to the manasa shuddha chidghana; but the trend to intensity prevails.
   ***

r1918 05 19, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The second chatusthaya is now complete, but in parts it is deficient in force, awaiting farther development of the Kalibhava and this again dependent on farther development of the ideality, that is the unification of the first three chatusthayas. Shama now contains in itself no longer a relaxed, but a concentrated tapas and relaxed prakasha, tapas an involved prakasha and a basic shama. By the unification of the three chatusthayas there will be the perfect unification of the three Gunas. This is in the temperament, but the play of jnana and T will bring it about also in the mentality. In the vijnana they are always united. There will then remain the body, but there too the siddhi is being made ready.
   Ideality II is now acting upon the mental telepathy intuitive and manasic which still survives bringing about a greater light of vision and more efficacy of tapas, but without absolute certainty which only comes when there is the play of the ideal T; provisional certainty is however more frequent, but does not owing to the continued residuary action of the old intelligence always know its own proper limits.

r1919 06 25, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The Ananda Ishwara is now vivid and all the action and Guna has been taken up into the Anandamaya; there was a discord between the darshan of the supreme universal Anandamaya and the perception of the universal mental unideal consciousness, but this is cured and only the bridge between the Anandamaya in universal and individual and the mentality is not yet brought into light. If this is done the darshana will be complete in essence.
   ***

r1919 07 01, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The difficulty is almost eliminated in all the central ideality except the T. There it is being removed and has to be eliminated partially or wholly during the month of July. Perfection prepared by the last months work has to be initially founded in the highest logistic ideality. In Samadhi and rupa vishaya the obstacles have to be still overcome; in the former they have a diminished, in the latter a complete persistence. The difficulties of Ananda have to be obliterated and spontaneity, continuity and intensity fixed in the system. The difficulties of the arogya have to be attacked and brought to nothing; this is possible in July, but not yet certain. The utthapana and saundarya are likely to be longer hampered and are not likely to come to anything very considerable till the closing months of the year. Ananda Brahman has to be filled in with the Guna and jnana.
   The attack of the rogas of cold, cough, eye-disease are now attempting to materialise in the night, taking advantage of the slightest exposure, because then owing to sleep the tapas is not active and the prana is more vulnerable. This night owing partly to previous tapas the attack was neither so successful nor so forcible. Eye disease is now operating in the sukshma showing there its symptoms and trying to impress them on the physical body by the sraddha in the disease; it is combated by tapas and by sraddha in arogya and is not so far successful except very superficial[ly], and this slight superficial result is now more easily removed by tapas as soon as the body rises. It is now quite evident that the source of disease is psychical, not physical; it is due to failure of tapas, idea of ill-health, weakness of the prana-shakti, faith in ill-health in the physical body. Faith with knowledge from the ideality is now powerful to combat it, though not yet entirely to eliminate; for the body is still subject to the mental suggestions from the outside forces.

r1919 07 20, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   Sadhara rupa also is returning, fine crude, often perfect, but without stability. This has brought in an outburst of the finer prakashamaya niradhara rupas in a variety, groups, persons, objects, animals, scenes, some clear, others confused, none stable, except a solitary one or two: but there is already a hint of a tendency towards stability. Of the three Gunas, variety, perfection, stability, the first long resisted may possibly now be on the point of bursting the barrier. It is to be noted that lipi in the morning declared that today would be the turning point in jagrat rupa and vishaya; this lipi has been repeated with a firmer asseveration. This may be the beginning in the rupa; but as yet there is no appearance of fulfilment in the vishaya. All the material crude forms have now manifested in this finer crude niradhara,prakasha, chhaya, tejas, jyotir, agni and varnamaya forms. Subsequently some union of stability and relative perfection began to be developed in a still greater but confused and irregular variety. The higher forms occurred hardly at all and then without stability.
   In Samadhi much pressure of Nidra, but the ideal samadhi persevered and kept itself in progress as an overtone. Rupas of the manasa loka, bright and tejomaya, but with a brief stability. Dream was immediately converted into symbol of ideality; incoherence of lipi into a crookedness of pointed significance.

r1919 07 23, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   Premananda in the Vishwadarshana has for some days been insisting on its normality. Ahaituka mental darshana is the chief obstacle; it is shantimaya with suppressed prema or anandamaya with diminished prema. This mental sight is disappearing before the premamaya vision into the vijnana or chidghana sa Guna seeing. In proportion as the Guna was not seen, there was deficiency of prema; in the prema itself the mentality would thrust a diminishing incompletive suggestion of sterile ahaituka. Vijnana darshana does not suppress, but can hold a non-insistent diminished prema. Prema increases the ananda in the vijnana; ananda increases prema. Brahma-vision seeing things as objects of the unifying cognizance tends to be without prema; Purusha Brahma or Ishwara brahma darshana brings the deeper unity, prema and ananda.
   K.A has recovered its force, but is still easily depressed by the interruption of the minds absorptions, because there is a pressure on it from the obstructing force which compels it to sink easily in a mechanical variation of intensity, fluctuation and occasional cessation of its overt presence. But now the memory always brings back the Ananda.

Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (text), #Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  This world is the wilderness. The three robbers are the three Gunas (constituents) of Nature-Sattva,
  Rajas and Tamas. Jiva or the individual' soul is the traveler. Self-knowledge is his treasure. Tamas wants
  --
  are. You know that the true Self is not attached to any of the three Gunas of Nature, Sattva, Rajas and
  Tamas." Then Sankara was abashed and had the true awakening.

Talks 051-075, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  Gita - Chapter XIV - the final verses speak of Gunatita (one who has transcended the Gunas). That is the final stage.
  The earlier stages are asuddha satva (impure being), misra satva
  --
  Of these, the impure being is when overpowered by rajas and tamas; the mixed being is that state in which the being - satva - asserts itself spasmodically; the suddha satva overpowers rajas and tamas. After these successive stages there comes the state transcending Gunas.
  --- Talk 74.

Talks 600-652, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  In it the jiva in the Visva aspect and the Lord in the Virat aspect, abiding together in the eight petals of the Heart lotus, function through the eyes and enjoy novel pleasures from various objects by means of all the senses, organs, etc. The five gross elements which are widespread, the ten senses, the five vital airs, the four inner faculties, the twenty-four fundamentals - all these together form the gross body. The jagrat state is characterised by satva Guna denoted by the letter A and presided over by the deity Vishnu. The swapna is the dream state in which the jiva in the Taijasa aspect and the
  Lord in the Hiranyagarbha aspect, abiding together in the corolla of the Heart-Lotus, function in the neck and experience through the mind the results of the impressions collected in the waking state.
  All the principles, the five gross elements, the will and the intellect, seventeen in all, together form the subtle body of the dream which is characterised by the rajo Guna denoted by the letter U and presided over by the deity Brahma, so say the wise.
  The sushupti is the state of deep sleep in which the jiva in the Prajna aspect and the Lord in the Isvara aspect, abiding together in the stamen of the Heart-Lotus, experience the bliss of the Supreme by means of the subtle avidya (nescience). Just as a hen after roaming about in the day calls the chicks to her, enfolds them under her wings and goes to rest for the night, so also the subtle individual being, after finishing the experiences of the jagrat and swapna for the time being, enters with the impressions gathered during those states into the causal body which is made up of nescience, characterised by tamo Guna, denoted by the letter M and presided over by the deity Rudra.
  Deep sleep is nothing but the experience of pure being. The three states go by different names, such as the three regions, the three forts, the three deities, etc. The being always abides in the Heart, as stated above.

Talks With Sri Aurobindo 1, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  is right about the Gunas and that man is made to do one thing or another by
  187
  the action of the Gunas. That is why Ramakrishna said about a visiting Sannyasi that he was tamasic Narayana, God inert. But when another Vedantin
  came along and brought a concubine with him, Ramkrishna could not keep
  --
  The individual is responsible because he accepts the action of the Gunas, the
  qualities of Nature
  --
  World-repulsion arising from the Guna (quality) of Tamas (ignorance
  and inertia) in one's nature: the two other Gunas are Rajas (dynamism) and
  Sattwa (refinement and poise).
  --
  PURANI: Well, there is a sloka which says that Sattwa, the mental Guna, binds
  by happiness.

The Coming Race Contents, #The Coming Race, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
  which is a transcendence of the Gunas. Dharma
  is not an ideal, a standard or a rule that one

WORDNET












--- Grep of noun guna
laguna
phalguna



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Sunderlal Bahuguna ::: Born: January 9, 1927; Occupation: Environmentalist;
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Amatsuki -- -- Studio Deen -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Action Demons Fantasy Historical Shoujo Supernatural -- Amatsuki Amatsuki -- Tokidoki Rikugou is a history-hating student who flunks out of his Japanese History course; his high school forces him to make up for his failed grade by attending a special museum lecture. Its star exhibit, a vast recreation of the Edo Period, promises to alleviate the delinquent student's poor grades with an elaborate simulation of the Tokugawa Shogunate: the Edo Bakumatsu Walking Tour and Exhibition. -- -- Knowing next to nothing about samurai culture or the times he's walked into, he is quickly surprised to learn of the superstitious nature of Japan during the 1600s. Quickly dismissing the existence of gods and demons, he is shocked when confronted by a demon on a bridge, who attacks the unsuspecting high-schooler. Saved by a mysterious swordsman named Kuchiha, he discovers that he can no longer escape the simulation at the history museum. -- -- Meeting another swordsman named Kon Shinonome, he discovers another contemporary that was trapped in the simulation before him. Quickly adjusting to his new home, Tokidoki must now help protect the village from demons, while uncovering the mystery of both the simulation and the company that created it. -- -- 53,203 6.91
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Basilisk: Kouga Ninpou Chou -- -- Gonzo -- 24 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Historical Supernatural Romance Samurai Fantasy -- Basilisk: Kouga Ninpou Chou Basilisk: Kouga Ninpou Chou -- For centuries, the Iga and Kouga ninja clans have engaged in a bitter war. But when a ceasefire is ordered by the powerful warlord Ieyasu Tokugawa, the two clans are forced to put down their arms. -- -- Years later, Gennosuke Kouga, heir of the Kouga clan, and Oboro Iga, heir of the Iga clan, have fallen in love. Through marriage, both heirs aim to bring peace to the clans. But their hopes are dashed when flames of rivalry between their clans are reignited, and they are dragged into another war. -- -- Ieyasu's two grandsons have both claimed to be the next heir to the shogunate. To resolve this dispute, both the Kouga and Iga are ordered to send their 10 best warriors to fight in a bloody battle royale, with each clan representing one of the potential shogunate heirs. Two scrolls with the names of the fighters are given and are to be marked in blood upon the given fighter's death. The prize for winning is the favor of the Tokugawa shogunate for a thousand years. Torn between their love for each other and duty to their clans, Gennosuke and Oboro must ultimately decide the fate of their clans. -- -- TV - Apr 13, 2005 -- 159,582 7.57
Hakuouki Reimeiroku -- -- Studio Deen -- 12 eps -- Visual novel -- Action Historical Supernatural Drama Samurai Josei -- Hakuouki Reimeiroku Hakuouki Reimeiroku -- The year is 1863 and as Japan's long festering wounds of political discord erupt into violent waves of street clashes and murder, the Tokugawa Shogunate sends a new force of masterless samurai called the Roshigumi to the aid of the Aizu forces in Kyoto. However the new "police" are anything but a cohesive force and assassination has already split them into two opposing factions. The stronger is led by the brutal Serizawa Kamo and the lesser by the more honorable but less assertive Isami Kondo. It is into this pack of wolves that Ryunosuke Ibuki is dragged by the rabid Serizawa. Forced to be a virtual slave by blood debt, he hates the samurai and everything they stand for. But as he sees how the other half of the samurai live, he begins to believe that there may still be a chance, for both himself and Japan, if only Kondo will step up and take down the mad dog Serizawa! -- -- (Source: Sentai Filmworks) -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- TV - Jul 10, 2012 -- 49,621 7.47
Hakuouki Reimeiroku -- -- Studio Deen -- 12 eps -- Visual novel -- Action Historical Supernatural Drama Samurai Josei -- Hakuouki Reimeiroku Hakuouki Reimeiroku -- The year is 1863 and as Japan's long festering wounds of political discord erupt into violent waves of street clashes and murder, the Tokugawa Shogunate sends a new force of masterless samurai called the Roshigumi to the aid of the Aizu forces in Kyoto. However the new "police" are anything but a cohesive force and assassination has already split them into two opposing factions. The stronger is led by the brutal Serizawa Kamo and the lesser by the more honorable but less assertive Isami Kondo. It is into this pack of wolves that Ryunosuke Ibuki is dragged by the rabid Serizawa. Forced to be a virtual slave by blood debt, he hates the samurai and everything they stand for. But as he sees how the other half of the samurai live, he begins to believe that there may still be a chance, for both himself and Japan, if only Kondo will step up and take down the mad dog Serizawa! -- -- (Source: Sentai Filmworks) -- TV - Jul 10, 2012 -- 49,621 7.47
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Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls -- -- Arms -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Harem Comedy Ecchi Samurai School -- Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls -- With its gorgeous landscape and prosperous people, Great Japan is the envy of all other nations. But a serious threat hovers over the country. Mysterious guardians known as Master Samurai are Great Japan's only defense. -- -- At the behest of the student council, young samurai Muneakira Yagyuu arrives at Buou Academic School. Run by the Tokugawa Shogunate, here children of warriors are given aristocratic education required to run the country. The school is led by the student council president Yoshihiko Tokugawa and his sister Sen, who also happens to be Muneakira's childhood friend. -- -- Upon arriving at the academy, Muneakira finds himself in the midst of a terrible fight. During the chaos, the sky fills with a peculiar white light and a mysterious girl named Juubei Yagyuu appears and suddenly kisses Muneakira. With his kiss, she awakens an unknown power that protects them. -- -- Just who is this girl, and where did she come from? Muneakira finds himself entangled in the fate of the country and a threat that will shake Great Japan to its core. He must learn the secret behind the Master Samurai and the kiss that awakened Juubei's power in order to protect his country. -- -- TV - Sep 4, 2010 -- 154,911 6.81
Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood -- -- Bakken Record -- 12 eps -- Original -- Action Historical Supernatural -- Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood -- Set in alternate history Japan in 1931 and the 64th year of the Meiji era, the Tokugawa shogunate was never abolished and Emperor Meiji was never restored to power. The anime will follow the activities of "Nue," an organization of shogunate executioners who enforce the government. The country has developed its own energy source, the "dragon vein," and has achieved a unique development in which science and the Edo period are mixed. -- -- However, behind the glamorous city, the dissident organization Kuchinawa strives to overthrow the administration, while the Nue of the Tokugawa regime, who was entrusted with its extermination, are in conflict. Sawa Yukimura, whose family was killed when she was young, continues to search for Janome, the executioner of the Nue. -- -- (Source: MAL News) -- 54,745 6.64
Katanagatari -- -- White Fox -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Historical Martial Arts Romance -- Katanagatari Katanagatari -- In an Edo-era Japan lush with a variety of sword-fighting styles, Shichika Yasuri practices the most unique one: Kyotouryuu, a technique in which the user's own body is wielded as a blade. The enigmatic seventh head of the Kyotouryuu school, Shichika lives quietly in exile with his sister Nanami until one day—the wildly ambitious strategist Togame barges into their lives. -- -- Togame brazenly requests that Shichika help in her mission to collect twelve unique swords, known as the "Deviant Blades," for the shogunate. Shichika accepts, interested in the girl herself rather than petty politics, and thus sets out on a journey. Standing in their way are the fierce wielders of these legendary weapons as well as other power-hungry entities who seek to thwart Togame's objective. In order to prevail against their enemies, the duo must become an unbreakable team as they forge ahead on a path of uncertainty and peril. -- -- -- Licensor: -- NIS America, Inc. -- 457,873 8.36
One Piece 3D: Gekisou! Trap Coaster -- -- Toei Animation -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Fantasy Comedy Shounen -- One Piece 3D: Gekisou! Trap Coaster One Piece 3D: Gekisou! Trap Coaster -- Toei Animation released a new 3D anime short at events starting December 1, 2011. The short run about 12 minutes long and played at stereoscopic 3D theaters at Aichi Prefecture's Lagunasia theme park, Nagasaki Prefecture's Huis Ten Bosch theme park, Kanagawa Prefecture's Yokohama Landmark Tower, and Hiroshima Prefecture's NTT CRED Hall. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- Movie - Dec 1, 2011 -- 18,126 6.99
Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Ishinshishi e no Chinkonka -- -- Gallop -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Samurai Historical Drama Shounen -- Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Ishinshishi e no Chinkonka Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Ishinshishi e no Chinkonka -- The war against the Tokugawa Shogunate ended years ago. But there are some who are not happy with the outcome. Shigure Takimi watched his friends and family get slashed down in the name of freedom and prosperity. Now he and a band of desperate rebels have sworn to settle one final score. Only one man stands in their way: Kenshin Himura. But when Shigure discovers Kenshin's true identity as the Hitokiri Battousai, his fight becomes a personal vendetta. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films, Aniplex of America -- Movie - Dec 20, 1997 -- 44,896 7.56
Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Ishinshishi e no Chinkonka -- -- Gallop -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Samurai Historical Drama Shounen -- Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Ishinshishi e no Chinkonka Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Ishinshishi e no Chinkonka -- The war against the Tokugawa Shogunate ended years ago. But there are some who are not happy with the outcome. Shigure Takimi watched his friends and family get slashed down in the name of freedom and prosperity. Now he and a band of desperate rebels have sworn to settle one final score. Only one man stands in their way: Kenshin Himura. But when Shigure discovers Kenshin's true identity as the Hitokiri Battousai, his fight becomes a personal vendetta. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- Movie - Dec 20, 1997 -- 44,896 7.56
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