TERMS STARTING WITH
VISUALIZE To give pictorial vividness to a mental representation; to construct a visual image in the mind.
visualize ::: v. t. --> To make visual, or visible; to see in fancy.
TERMS ANYWHERE
AlikAli. (T. A li kA li). The letters of the Sanskrit alphabet (A being the first in the list of vowels and ka the first in the list of consonants), often recited or visualized in tantric practice. See also ARAPACANA; AJIKAN.
amṛta. (P. amata; T.'chi med/bdud rtsi; C. ganlu; J. kanro; K. kamno 甘露). In Sanskrit, lit. "deathless" or "immortal"; used in mainstream Buddhist materials to refer to the "end" (NIstHA) of practice and thus liberation (VIMOKsA). The term is also used to refer specifically to the "nectar" or "ambrosia" of the TRAYASTRIMsA heaven, the drink of the divinities (DEVA) that confers immortality. It is also in this sense that amṛta is used as an epithet of NIRVAnA, since this elixir confers specific physical benefit, as seen in the descriptions of the serene countenance and clarity of the enlightened person. Moreover, there is a physical dimension to the experience of nirvAna, for the adept is said to "touch the 'deathless' element with his very body." Because amṛta is sweet, the term is also used as a simile for the teachings of the Buddha, as in the phrase the "sweet rain of dharma" (dharmavarsaM amṛtaM). The term is also used in Buddhism to refer generically to medicaments, viz., the five types of nectar (PANCAMṚTA) refer to the five divine foods that are used for medicinal purposes: milk, ghee, butter, honey, and sugar. AmṛtarAja (Nectar King) is the name of one of the five TATHAGATAs in tantric Buddhism and is identified with AMITABHA. In ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, there are five types of amṛta and five types of mAMsa ("flesh") that are transformed in a KAPALA ("skull cup") into a special offering substance called nang mchod, the "inner offering," in Tibetan. Giving it to the deities in the MAndALA is a central feature in anuttarayogatantra practice (SADHANA) and ritual (VIDHI). The inner offering of important religious figures in Tibetan is often distilled into a pill (T. bdud rtsi ril bu) that is then given to followers to use. In tantric practices such as the visualization of VAJRASATTVA, the meditator imagines a stream of amṛta descending from the teacher or deity visualized on the top of the head; it descends into the body and purifies afflictions (KLEsA) and the residual impressions (VASANA) left by earlier negative acts.
animittayoga. (T. mtshan med kyi rnal 'byor). Literally, "yoga without signs," a term that occurs in Buddhist tantric literature and is especially associated with YOGATANTRA among the four classes of tantric texts. It refers to those meditation practices in which one meditates on emptiness (suNYATA) in such a way that there are no dualistic appearances or "signs." It is contrasted with SANIMITTAYOGA or "yoga with signs," practices that entail dualistic appearances or signs in the sense that the meditator visualizes seed syllables (BĪJA) and deities.
A risk_graph ::: is a two-dimensional graphical representation that displays the range of profit or loss possibilities for an option at various prices in the underlying asset. The x-axis represents the price of the underlying security and the y-axis represents the potential profit/loss. Often called a "profit/loss diagram or p&l graph", this graph provides an easy way to understand and visualize the effects of what may happen to an option under various situations. Risk graphs can be drawn to show the potential payoffs for single options as well as for spreads or combination strategies.
Astral Plane ::: Also Yetzirah. One of the Four Worlds as part of the Kabbalistic map of reality. A realm of reality situated between the Physical and Mental Planes that serves as the abode of the imagination. This is the foundation upon which the capacity to visualize exists and is where the ability to express many emotional archetypes originates. The most "real" aspects of experiences of astral projection, visionary journeys, and dreams tend to be found in this layer. See also Astral Projection.
asubhabhAvanA. (P. asubhabhAvanA; T. mi sdug pa bsgom pa; C. bujing guan; J. fujokan; K. pujong kwan 不淨觀). In Sanskrit, the "contemplation on the impure" or "foul"; a set of traditional topics of meditation (see KAMMAttHANA) that were intended to counter the affliction of lust (RAGA), develop mindfulness (SMṚTI; P. SATI) regarding the body, and lead to full mental absorption (DHYANA). In this form of meditation, "impure" or "foul" is most often used to refer either to a standardized list of thirty-one or thirty-two foul parts of the body or to the various stages in the decay of a corpse. In the case of the latter, for example, the meditator is to observe nine or ten specific types of putrefaction, described in gruesome detail in the Buddhist commentarial literature: mottled discoloration of the corpse (vinīlakasaMjNA), discharges of pus (vipuyakasaMjNA), decaying of rotten flesh (vipadumakasaMjNA), bloating and tumefaction (vyAdhmAtakasaMjNA), the exuding of blood and the overflow of body fluids (vilohitakasaMjNA), infestation of worms and maggots (vikhAditakasaMjNA), the dissolution of flesh and exposure of bones and sinews (viksiptakasaMjNA), the cremated remains (vidagdhakasaMjNA), and the dispersed skeletal parts (asthisaMjNA). The KAyagatAsatisutta of the MAJJIHIMANIKAYA includes the contemplation of the impure within a larger explanation of the contemplation of one's body with mindfulness (KAYANUPAsYANA; see also SMṚTYUPASTHANA); before the stages in the decay of the corpse, it gives the standardized list of thirty-one (sometimes thirty-two) foul parts of the body: the head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, bones, bone marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, large intestines, small intestines, gorge, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, skin-oil, saliva, mucus, fluid in the joints, and urine. These parts are chosen specifically because they will be easily visualized, and may have been intended to be the foul opposites of the thirty-two salutary marks of the great man (MAHAPURUsALAKsAnA). The Chinese tradition also uses a contemplation of seven kinds of foulness regarding the human body in order to counter lust and to facilitate detachment. (1) "Foulness in their seeds" (C. zhongzi bujing): human bodies derive from seminal ejaculate and, according to ancient medicine, mother's blood. (2) "Foulness in their conception" (C. shousheng bujing): human bodies are conceived through sexual intercourse. (3) "Foulness in their [gestational] residence" (C. zhuchu bujing): human bodies are conceived and nurtured inside the mother's womb. (4) "Foulness in their nutriments" (C. shidan bujing): human bodies in the prenatal stage live off and "feed on" the mother's blood. (5) "Foulness in their delivery" (C. chusheng bujing): it is amid the mess of delivery, with the discharge of placenta and placental water, that human bodies are born. (6) "Foulness in their entirety" (C. jüti bujing): human bodies are innately impure, comprising of innards, excrement, and other foul things underneath a flimsy skin. (7) "Foulness in their destiny" (C. jiujing bujing): human bodies are destined to die, followed by putrid infestation, decomposition, and utter dissolution. There is also a contemplation on the nine bodily orifices (C. QIAO), which are vividly described as constantly oozing pus, blood, secretions, etc. ¶ As contemplation on foulness deepens, first an eidetic image (S. udgrahanimitta, P. UGGAHANIMITTA), a perfect mental reproduction of the visualized corpse, is maintained steadily in mind; this is ultimately followed by the appearance of the representational image (S. pratibhAganimitta, P. PAtIBHAGANIMITTA), which the VISUDDHIMAGGA (VI.66) describes as a perfectly idealized image of, for example, a bloated corpse as "a man with big limbs lying down after eating his fill." Continued concentration on this representational image will enable the meditator to access up to the fourth stage of the subtle-materiality dhyAnas (ARuPYAVACARADHYANA). After perfecting dhyAna, this meditation may also be used to develop wisdom (PRAJNA) through developing increased awareness of the reality of impermanence (ANITYA). Foulness meditation is ritually included as part of the THERAVADA ordination procedure, during which monks are taught the list of the first five of the thirty-two foul parts of the body (viz., head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, and skin) in order to help them ward off lust.
bīja. (T. sa bon; C. zhongzi; J. shuji; K. chongja 種子). In Sanskrit, "seed," a term used metaphorically in two important contexts: (1) in the theory of KARMAN, an action is said to plant a "seed" or "potentiality" in the mind, where it will reside until it fructifies as a future experience or is destroyed by wisdom; (2) in tantric literature, many deities are said to have a "seed syllable" or seed MANTRA that is visualized and recited in liturgy and meditation in order to invoke the deity. In the Chinese FAXIANG (YOGACARA) school, based on similar lists found in Indian Buddhist texts like the MAHAYANASAMGRAHA, a supplement to the YOGACARABHuMI, various lists of two different types of seeds are mentioned. (1) The primordial seeds (BENYOU ZHONGZI) and the continuously (lit. newly) acquired seeds (XINXUN ZHONGZI). The former are present in the eighth "storehouse consciousness" (ALAYAVIJNANA) since time immemorial, and are responsible for giving rise to a sentient being's basic faculties, such as the sensory organs (INDRIYA) and the aggregates (SKANDHA). The latter are acquired through the activities and sense impressions of the other seven consciousnesses (VIJNANA), and are stored within the eighth storehouse consciousness as pure, impure, or indeterminate seeds that may become activated again once the right conditions are in place for it to fructify. (2) Tainted seeds (youlou zhongzi) and untainted seeds (wulou zhongzi). The former are sowed whenever unenlightened activities of body, speech, and mind and the contaminants (ASRAVA) of mental defilements take place. The latter are associated with enlightened activities that do not generate such contaminants. In all cases, "full emergence" (SAMUDACARA, C. xiangxing) refers to the sprouting of those seeds as fully realized action. ¶ In tantric Buddhism the buddha field (BUDDHAKsETRA) is represented as a MAndALA with its inhabitant deities (DEVATA). The sonic source of the mandala and the deities that inhabit it is a "seed syllable" (bīja). In tantric practices (VIDHI; SADHANA) the meditator imagines the seed syllable emerging from the expanse of reality, usually on a lotus flower. The seed syllable is then visualized as transforming into the mandala and its divine inhabitants, each of which often has its own seed syllable. At the end of the ritual, the process is reversed and collapsed back into the seed syllable that then dissolves back into the nondual original expanse. Seed syllables in tantric Buddhism are connected with DHARAnĪ, mnemonic codes widespread in MahAyAna sutras that consist of strings of letters, often the first letter of profound terms or topics. These strings of letters in the dhAranĪ anticipate the MANTRAs found in tantric ritual practices. The tantric "seed syllable" is thought to contain the essence of the mantra, the letters of which are visualized as standing upright in a circle around the seed syllable from which the letters emerge and to which they return.
cakra. (P. cakka; T. 'khor lo; C. lun; J. rin; K. yun 輪). In Sanskrit, "wheel," "disc," or "circle"; a frequent symbol used to represent various aspects of Buddhism, from the Buddha, to the DHARMA, to Buddhist notions of kingship. When the Buddha first taught his new religion, it is said that he "turned the wheel of dharma" (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA) and the eight-spoked "wheel of dharma" (DHARMACAKRA) is subsequently used as a symbol for both the teachings as well as the person who rediscovered and enunciated those teachings. The ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA explains that the noble eightfold path (ARYAstAnGAMARGA) is like a wheel because it is similar in terms of the hub that is the support of the wheel, the spokes, and the containment rim. Right speech, action, and livelihood are like the hub, because they are the training in morality that provides support for concentration (DHYANA) and wisdom (PRAJNA). Right view, thought, and effort are like spokes, because they are the training in wisdom. Right mindfulness and concentration are like the rim because the spokes of right view and so forth provide the objective support (ALAMBANA) in a one-pointed manner in dependence on them. The dharmacakra appears in some of the earliest Buddhist art, often as an iconographic symbol standing in for the Buddha himself. The sign of a thousand-spoked wheel on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet is one of the thirty-two major marks of a great man (MAHAPURUsALAKsAnA), which is said to adorn the body of both a Buddha and a "wheel-turning emperor" (CAKRAVARTIN), his secular counterpart. A cakravartin's power is said to derive from his wheel of divine attributes, which rolls across different realms of the earth, bringing them under his dominion. The realm of SAMSARA is sometimes depicted iconographically in the form of a wheel, known as the "wheel of existence" (BHAVACAKRA), with a large circle divided into the six realms of existence (sAdGATI), surrounded by an outer ring representing the twelve links of dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA). ¶ The term cakra is also important in Buddhist TANTRA, especially in ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA. According to various systems of tantric physiognomy, a central channel (AVADHuTĪ) runs from either the tip of the genitals or the base of the spine to either the crown of the head or the point between the eyebrows, with a number of "wheels" (cakra) along its course. In one of the systems, these wheels are located at the point between the eyebrows, the crown of the head, the throat, the heart, the navel, the base of the spine, and the opening of the sexual organ. Running parallel to the central channel to the right and left are two channels, both smaller in diameter, the LALANA and the RASANA. It is said that the right and left channels wrap around the central channel, forming knots at the cakras. Much tantric practice is devoted to techniques for loosening these knots in order to allow the winds (PRAnA) or energies that course through the other channels to flow freely and enter into the central channel. The cakras themselves are essential elements in this practice and other tantric meditative practices, with seed syllables (BĪJA), spells (MANTRA), deities, and diagrams (MAndALA) visualized at their center. The cakras themselves are often described as open lotus blossoms, with varying numbers of petals in different colors.
convex hull "mathematics, graphics" For a {set} S in space, the smallest {convex set} containing S. In the plane, the convex hull can be visualized as the shape assumed by a rubber band that has been stretched around the set S and released to conform as closely as possible to S. (1997-08-03)
convex hull ::: (mathematics, graphics) For a set S in space, the smallest convex set containing S. In the plane, the convex hull can be visualized as the shape assumed by a rubber band that has been stretched around the set S and released to conform as closely as possible to S. (1997-08-03)
dAkinī. (T. mkha' 'gro ma; C. tuzhini; J. dakini; K. tojini 荼枳尼). In Sanskrit, a cannibalistic female demon, a witch; in sANTIDEVA's BODHICARYAVATARA, a female hell guardian (narakapAlA); in tantric Buddhism, dAkinīs, particularly the vajradAkinī, are guardians from whom tAntrikas obtain secret doctrines. For example, the VAJRABHAIRAVA adept LAlitavajra is said to have received the YAMANTAKA tantras from vajradAkinīs, who allowed him to bring back to the human world only as many of the texts as he could memorize in one night. The dAkinī first appears in Indian sources during the fourth century CE, and it has been suggested that they evolved from local female shamans. The term is of uncertain derivation, perhaps having something to do with "drumming" (a common feature of shamanic ritual). The Chinese, Japanese, and Korean give simply a phonetic transcription of the Sanskrit. In Tibetan, dAkinī is translated as "sky goer" (mkha' 'gro ma), probably related to the Sanskrit khecara, a term associated with the CAKRASAMVARATANTRA. Here, the dAkinī is a goddess, often depicted naked, in semi-wrathful pose (see VAJRAYOGINĪ); they retain their fearsome element but are synonymous with the highest female beauty and attractiveness and are enlightened beings. They form the third of what are known as the "inner" three jewels (RATNATRAYA): the guru, the YI DAM, and the dAkinīs and protectors (DHARMAPALA; T. chos skyong). The archetypical Tibetan wisdom or knowledge dAkinī (ye shes mkha' 'gro) is YE SHES MTSHO RGYAL, the consort of PADMASAMBHAVA. dAkinīs are classified in a variety of ways, the most common being mkha' 'gro sde lnga, the female buddhas equivalent to the PANCATATHAGATA or five buddha families (PANCAKULA): BuddhadAkinī [alt. AkAsadhAtvīsvarī; SparsavajrA] in the center of the mandala, with LocanA, MAmakī, PAndaravAsinī, and TARA in the cardinal directions. Another division is into three: outer, inner, and secret dAkinīs. The first is a YOGINĪ or a YOGIN's wife or a regional goddess, the second is a female buddha that practitioners visualize themselves to be in the course of tantric meditation, and the last is nondual wisdom (ADVAYAJNANA). This division is also connected with the three bodies (TRIKAYA) of MahAyAna Buddhism: the NIRMAnAKAYA (here referring to the outer dAkinīs), SAMBHOGAKAYA (meditative deity), and the DHARMAKAYA (the knowledge dAkinī). The word dAkinī is found in the title of the explanation (vAkhyA) tantras of the yoginī class or mother tantras included in the CakrasaMvaratantra group.
devatāyoga. (T. lha'i rnal 'byor). In Sanskrit, "deity yoga"; tantric practice in which a deity (often a buddha or bodhisattva) is visualized in the presence of the practitioner, the deity is propitiated through offerings, prayers, and the recitation of MANTRA, and is then requested to bestow SIDDHIs. Two types are sometimes enumerated: one in which the deity is visualized in front of the practitioner and another in which the practitioner imagines himself or herself to be the deity. According to TSONG KHA PA, the practice of this latter type of deity yoga is the distinguishing characteristic of the VAJRAYĀNA, differentiating it from the PĀRAMITĀYĀNA. He argues that both forms of deity yoga are to be found in all classes of tantra: KRIYĀ, CARYĀ, YOGA, and ANUTTARAYOGA. Devatāyoga is a central feature of the two stages of anuttarayoga tantra (UTPATTIKRAMA and NIsPANNAKRAMA); in the former "generation" stage, guided by a SĀDHANA, the tāntrika visualizes a MAndALA, with its central and surrounding deities. Through meditation on ANĀTMAN (nonself) or suNYATĀ (emptiness), the practitioner imagines himself or herself to be the central deity of the mandala. In certain forms of practice, the practitioner will also imagine the entire mandala and its deities as residing within the practitioner's body. When the practitioner has developed the ability to visualize the mandala and its deities in minute detail, one moves to the second "completion" stage (nispannakrama), in which the complex of NĀdIs (channels) and CAKRAs (wheels) of the human body are utilized to achieve buddhahood.
Dongshan famen. (J. Tozan homon; K. Tongsan pommun 東山法門). In Chinese, lit. "East Mountain Dharma Gate" or "East Mountain Teachings"; one of the principal early CHAN schools, which is associated with the putative fourth and fifth patriarchs of the tradition, DAOXIN (580-651) and HONGREN (602-675). The name of the school is a toponym for the location of Hongren's monastery, at Huangmei in Qizhou (present-day Hubei province). "East Mountain" refers to the easterly of the "twin peaks" of Mount Shuangfeng, where Hongren taught after the death of his master Daoxin, who had taught on the westerly peak; the term "East Mountain Teachings," however, is typically used to refer to the tradition associated with both masters. The designations Dongshan famen and Dongshan jingmen (East Mountain Pure Gate) first appear in the LENGQIE SHIZI JI ("Records of the Masters and Disciples of the Lankā[vatāra]") and were used in the Northern school of Chan (BEI ZONG) by SHENXIU (606?-706) and his successors to refer to the lineage and teachings that they had inherited from Daoxin and Hongren. ¶ Although later Chan lineage texts list Daoxin and Hongren as respectively the fourth and the fifth Chan patriarchs, succeeding BODHIDHARMA, HUIKE, and SENGCAN, the connection of the East Mountain lineage to these predecessors is tenuous at best and probably nonexistent. The earliest biography of Daoxin, recorded in the XU GAOSENG ZHUAN ("Supplementary Biographies of Eminent Monks"), not only does not posit any connection between Daoxin and the preceding three patriarchs, but does not even mention their names. This connection is first made explicit in the c. 713 CHUAN FABAO JI ("Annals of the Transmission of the Dharma-Jewel"), one of the earliest Chan "transmission of the lamplight" (CHUANDENG LU) lineage texts. Unlike many of the Chan "schools" that were associated with a single charismatic teacher, the "East Mountain Teachings" was unusual in that it had a single, enduring center in Huangmei, which attracted increasing numbers of students. Some five or six names of students who studied with Daoxin survive in the literature, with another twenty-five associated with Hongren. Although Hongren's biography in the Chuan fabao ji certainly exaggerates when it says that eight to nine out of every ten Buddhist practitioners in China studied under Hongren, there is no question that the number of students of the East Mountain Teachings grew significantly over two generations. ¶ The fundamental doctrines and practices of the East Mountain Teachings can be reconstructed on the basis of the two texts: the RUDAO ANXIN YAO FANGBIAN FAMEN ("Essentials of the Teachings of the Expedient Means of Entering the Path and Pacifying the Mind") and the XIUXIN YAO LUN ("Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind"), ascribed respectively to Daoxin and Hongren. The Rudao anxin yao fangbian famen, which is included in the Lengqie shizi ji, employs the analogy of a mirror from the Banzhou sanmei jing (S. PRATYUTPANNABUDDHASAMMUKHĀVASTHITASAMĀDHISuTRA) to illustrate the insubstantiality of all phenomena, viz., one's sensory experiences are no more substantial than the reflections in a mirror. The text then presents the "single-practice SAMĀDHI" (YIXING SANMEI) as a practical means of accessing the path leading to NIRVĀnA, based on the Wenshushuo bore jing ("Perfection of Wisdom Sutra Spoken by MANJUsRĪ"). Single-practice samādhi here refers to sitting in meditation, the supreme practice that subsumes all other practices; it is not one samādhi among others, as it is portrayed in the MOHE ZHIGUAN ("Great Calming and Contemplation"). Single-practice samādhi means to contemplate every single aspect of one's mental and physical existence until one realizes they are all empty, just like the reflections in the mirror, and "to guard that one without deviation" (shouyi buyi). The Xiuxin yao lun, which is attributed to Hongren, stresses the importance of "guarding the mind" (SHOUXIN). Here, the relationship between the pure mind and the afflictions (KLEsA) is likened to that between the sun and clouds: the pure mind is obscured by afflictions, just as the sun is covered by layers of clouds, but if one can guard the mind so that it is kept free from false thoughts and delusions, the sun of NIRVĀnA will then appear. The text suggests two specific meditation techniques for realizing this goal: one is continuously to visualize the original, pure mind (viz., the sun) so that it shines without obscuration; the other is to concentrate on one's own deluded thoughts (the clouds) until they disappear. These two techniques purport to "guard the mind" so that delusion can never recur. The East Mountain Teachings laid a firm foundation for the doctrines and practices of later Chan traditions like the Northern school.
Dutthagāmanī. [alt. Sinhalese: Dutugümunu] (r. 101-77 BCE). Sinhalese king best known for restoring Sinhalese suzerainty over the entire island of Sri Lanka after his first century BCE defeat of King Elāra of the predominantly Hindu Damilas (Tamil). According to the MAHĀVAMSA, Dutthagāmanī had been a monk in his previous life, when he vowed to be reborn as a CAKRAVARTIN. As king, he went to war against the enemies of the dharma, carrying a spear with a relic of the Buddha attached to it. The battle ended when he killed the enemy king, the pious but non-Buddhist Elāra. After his victory, he planted his spear in the earth. When he attempted to extract it, he failed, and so decided to have a STuPA built around it, making the instrument of his victory a site for merit-making. Like AsOKA, Dutthagāmanī was troubled by the carnage he had caused, specifically the death of sixty thousand of his enemies. But a delegation of ARHATs assured him that, because his victims were not Buddhists, he had only accrued the negative KARMAN of having killed just one and a half persons. As a result of meritorious deeds, Dutthagāmanī is said to have been reborn in the TUsITA heaven, awaiting rebirth as a disciple of MAITREYA. The story of Dutthagāmanī continues to be told in Sri Lanka, and was deployed during the late-twentieth century to defend the violence of Sinhalese Buddhists against non-Buddhist Tamils. After his victory over Elāra at his capital of ANURĀDHAPURA, the king began a series of construction projects in support of Buddhism, culminating in the MAHĀTHuPA, the great stupa [alt. Ruwanwelisaya], at the site where the Buddha is thought to have made his third visit to the island of Sri Lanka. Dutthagāmanī fell ill before this massive project was completed, but according to legend his brother Saddhātissa draped the site in white cloth so that the king could visualize it in all its glory prior to his death.
ganacakra. (T. tshogs kyi 'khor lo/tshogs). In Sanskrit, lit. "circle of assembly" or "feast"; originally, the term may have referred to an actual gathering of male and female tāntrikas engaging in antinomian behavior, including ingesting substances ordinarily deemed unclean, and sexual activities ordinarily deemed taboo. In Tibet, the ganacakra is typically a ritualized tantric liturgy, often performed by celibate monks, that involves visualizing impure substances and transforming them into a nectar (AMṚTA; PANCĀMṚTA), imagining the bliss of high tantric attainment, and mentally offering this to buddhas, bodhisattvas, and various deities (see T. TSHOGS ZHING) and to oneself visualized as a tantric deity. The ritual is regarded as a rapid means of accumulating the equipment (SAMBHĀRA) required for full enlightenment. In Tibet the word is inextricably linked with rituals for worshipping one's teacher (GURUYOGA) and in that context means an extended ritual performed on special days based on practices of highest yoga tantra (ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA). ¶ To start the ganacakra ritual, a large accumulation of food, including GTOR MA, bread, sweets, and fruit is placed near the altar, often supplemented by offerings from participants; a small plate with tiny portions of meat, a small container of an alcoholic beverage, and yogurt mixed with red jam is placed in a small container nearby. After visualizing one's teacher in the form of the entire pantheon of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and so on, the ganacakra consists of worship on the model of the BHADRACARĪPRAnIDHĀNA, i.e., the seven-branch worship (SAPTĀnGAVIDHI) of going for refuge, confessing transgressions, giving gifts, rejoicing, asking the teacher to turn the wheel of dharma, asking the buddhas not to pass into NIRVĀnA, and, finally, dedicating the merit to full enlightenment (see PARInĀMANĀ). Following this, the participants visualize the nectar (AMṚTA) and the bliss of high tantric attainment. Three participants then line up in front of the officiating master (VAJRĀCĀRYA) and ritually offer a plate with a gtor ma and other parts of the collected offerings, along with a tiny bit of meat, a slight taste of alcohol, and a drop of the mixed yogurt and jam. While singing tantric songs extolling the bliss of tantric attainment, the rest of the offerings are divided up equally among the other participants, who are also given a tiny bit of meat, a slight taste of alcohol, and a drop of the mixed yogurt and jam. The ganacakra forms the central part of the worship of the teacher (T. bla ma mchod pa) ritual and is a marker of religious identity in Tibetan Buddhism, because participants visualize their teacher in the form of the head of the particular sect, tradition, or monastery to which they are attached, with the historical buddha, and the tantric buddha telescoped into smaller and smaller figures in his heart; the entire pantheon of buddhas, bodhisattvas and so on are then arrayed around that form. A ganacakra is customarily performed at the end of a large ABHIsEKA (consecration) or teaching on TANTRA, where participants can number in the thousands.
gcod. (cho). A Tibetan term, from the verb "to cut" or "to sever;" a Tibetan tantric practice for severing attachment. The full name of the practice is bdud kyi gcod yul, or "the demon to be severed," and is a Tibetan tantric practice in which the meditator, through visualization, offers his or her body to an assembly of benevolent and malevolent deities as a means of accumulating merit and eliminating attachment to the body. The tradition of gcod, together with that of ZHI BYED or "pacification," is commonly classified among eight important tantric traditions and transmission lineages that spread throughout Tibet, the so-called "eight great conveyances that are lineages of achievement" (SGRUB BRGYUD SHING RTA CHEN PO BRGYAD). The practice was originally promulgated by the twelfth-century female adept MA GCIG LAB SGRON, who described it as a practice that severs (gcod) attachment to one's body, dualistic thinking, and conceptions of hope and fear. Although usually practiced by solitary meditators in isolated and frightening locations, gcod liturgies are also performed by monastic assemblies-both accompanied by the ritual music of the hand drum (see dAMARU) and the human leg-bone trumpet. The meditation, rooted in PRĀJNĀPĀRAMITĀ and MAHĀMUDRĀ, involves the visualized offering of the adept's body, flesh, blood, bones, and organs, as food for a vast assembly of beings, including local spirits and demons. It is also commonly used as a ritual for healing or protection.
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guruyoga. (T. bla ma'i rnal 'byor). The practice of GURU devotion, considered especially important in tantric practice, in which one's teacher is regarded as a buddha. In Tibetan Buddhism, guruyoga is included in a series of preliminary practices (SNGON 'GRO) to be undertaken before receiving a consecration. According to such works as DPAL SPRUL's KUN BZANG BLA MA'I ZHAL LUNG ("Words of My Perfect Teacher"), guruyoga includes reciting one hundred thousand repetitions of the name MANTRA of one's guru, visualized in the form of an enlightened being (in the case of that text, PADMASAMBHAVA). Guruyoga also includes the proper attitude toward a guru, as set forth in the GURUPANCĀsIKĀ and expanded on at length at the beginning of works of the LAM RIM-type genre. See also GAnACAKRA.
homa. (T. sbyin sreg; C. humo; J. goma; K. homa 護摩). In Sanskrit, "burnt offering," an esoteric Buddhist ritual in which various offerings are consigned to flames. In the older Brahmanical traditions of the Indian subcontinent, burnt offerings were made through the medium of the deity AGNI (the god of fire) to the Vedic gods, in exchange for the boon of cattle and other forms of wealth. These rituals were systematized first in the Brāhmanas, and subsequently in the Āranyaka literature, where the exoteric homa rituals were questioned and reconceptualized as inner worship. Buddhist TANTRA includes both an outer offering of grain and other materials into a fire, and an inner offering into the fire of transcendental wisdom. In the latter, the inner offering is done by visualizing a skull cup (KAPĀLA) atop a triangular fire in a hearth made of three skulls. Impure objects are visualized as melting into a bliss-producing nectar (AMṚTA) that is then offered to one's GURU and to oneself visualized as the meditation deity. In Tibetan Buddhism, a homa ritual is often performed at the end of a meditation retreat as a means of purification.
Hongren. (J. Konin/Gunin; K. Hongin 弘忍) (601-674). Chinese Chan master and the reputed fifth patriarch of the Chan zong. Hongren was a native of Huangmei in Qizhou (present-day Hubei province). Little is known of his early life, but he eventually became the disciple of the fourth patriarch DAOXIN. After Daoxin's death in 651, Hongren succeeded his teacher and moved to Mt. Fengmao (also known as Dongshan or East Mountain), the east peak of Mt. Shuangfeng (Twin Peaks) in Huangmei. Hongren's teachings thus came to be known as the "East Mountain teachings" (DONGSHAN FAMEN), although that term is later applied also to the lineage and teachings of both Daoxin and Hongren. After his move to Mt. Fengmao, disciples began to flock to study under Hongren. Although Hongren's biography in the CHUAN FABAO JI certainly exaggerates when it says that eight to nine out of every ten Buddhist practitioners in China studied under him, there is no question that the number of students of the East Mountain teachings grew significantly over two generations. The twenty-five named disciples of Hongren include such prominent figures as SHENXIU, Zhishen (609-702), Lao'an (d. 708), Faru (638-689), Xuanze (d.u.), and HUINENG, the man who would eventually be recognized by the mature Chan tradition as the sixth, and last, patriarch. The legendary account of Hongren's mind-to-mind transmission (YIXIN CHUANXIN) of the DHARMA to Huineng can be found in the LIUZU TAN JING. Later, Emperor Daizong (r. 762-779) bestowed upon Hongren the title Chan master Daman (Great Abundance). The influential treatise XIUXIN YAO LUN ("Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind") is attributed to Hongren; it stresses the importance of "guarding the mind" (SHOUXIN). In that text, the relationship between the pure mind and the afflictions (KLEsA) is likened to that between the sun and the clouds: the pure mind is obscured by afflictions just as the sun is covered by layers of clouds; but if one can guard the mind so that it is kept free from false thoughts and delusions, the sun of NIRVĀnA will then appear. The text suggests two specific meditation techniques for realizing this goal: one is continuously to visualize the original, pure mind (viz., the sun) so that it shines without obscuration; the other is to concentrate on one's own deluded thoughts (the clouds) until they disappear. These two techniques purport to "guard the mind" so that delusion can never recur.
Indrajāla. (Indra's Net) (T. Dbang po'i dra ba; C. Yintuoluo wang/Di-Shi wang; J. Indaramo/Taishakumo; K. Indara mang/Che-Sok mang 因陀羅網/帝釋網). In Sanskrit, "Indra's net"; a metaphor used widely in the HUAYAN ZONG of East Asian Buddhism to describe the multivalent web of interconnections in which all beings are enmeshed. As depicted in the AVATAMSAKASuTRA, the central scripture of the Huayan school, above the palace of INDRA, the king of the gods, is spread an infinitely vast, bejeweled net. At each of the infinite numbers of knots in the net is tied a jewel that itself has an infinite number of facets. A person looking at any single one of the jewels on this net would thus see reflected in its infinite facets not only everything in the cosmos but also an infinite number of other jewels, themselves also reflecting everything in the cosmos; thus, every jewel in this vast net is simultaneously reflecting, and being reflected by, an infinite number of other jewels. This metaphor of infinite, mutually reflecting jewels is employed to help convey how all things in existence are defined by their interconnection with all other things, but without losing their own independent identity in the process. The metaphor of Indra's net thus offers a profound vision of the universe, in which all things are mutually interrelated to all other things, in simultaneous mutual identity and mutual intercausality. The meditation on Indra's net (C. Diwang guan; J. Taimo kan; K. Chemang kwan) is the last of the six contemplations outlined by Fazang in his Xiu Huayan aozhi wangjin huanyuan guan ("Cultivation of the Inner Meaning of Huayan: The Contemplations That End Delusion and Return to the Source"), which helps the student to visualize the DHARMADHĀTU of the unimpeded interpretation between phenomenon and phenomena (SHISHI WU'AI FAJIE).
jNānamudrā. (T. ye shes phyag rgya). In Sanskrit, "knowledge seal"; a term used to refer to an imagined or visualized female consort in the practice of sexual yoga in ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA. In the context of sexual yoga, three types of female consorts or VIDYĀ ("knowledge women") are sometimes enumerated. The first is the jNānamudrā or "knowledge seal," who is an imagined or visualized partner, not an actual consort. The second and third types of consorts are both actual consorts. The SAMAYAMUDRĀ, or "pledge seal," is a consort who is fully qualified for the practice of sexual yoga, in the sense that she is of the appropriate age and caste, has practiced the common path, and maintains the tantric pledges (SAMAYA). The third and final type is the KARMAMUDRĀ, "action seal," who is also an actual consort but who may not possess the qualifications of a samayamudrā. In some expositions of tantric practice, these three types of "seals" are discussed with reference to MAHĀMUDRĀ, or "great seal," a multivalent term sometimes defined as the union of method (UPĀYA) and wisdom (PRAJNĀ), which does not require a consort.
jNānasattva. (T. ye shes sems dpa'). In Sanskrit, "knowledge being;" in later tantric visualization practice, one is first instructed to create a visualized image, called the "pledge being" (SAMAYASATTVA), of the deity (DEVATĀ) being propitiated. Once that image is perfectly visualized, the true form of the deity, called the "knowledge being," is invited to come from his or her abode and fuse with the visualized form created by the meditator during the SĀDHANA ritual.
kapāla. (T. thod pa; C. dulou qi/jiebobei; J. dokuroki/kohahai; K. ch'ongnu ki/kopp'abae 髑髏器/劫波杯). In Sanskrit, "skull"; used in Buddhist TANTRA to refer to the skull cup that is often one of the accoutrements of MAHĀSIDDHAs and wrathful deities. The vessel, made from the cranium of a human skull, is often elaborately carved and inlaid with precious metals. The symbolism of the skull cup is variously explained; most generally, it is yet another antinomian aspect of Buddhist tantra, in which things that would be regarded as polluting in Indian culture (in this case the skull of a corpse) are put to use to overcome dualities. It is also said that the skull cup is a constant reminder of death. In tantric SĀDHANAs, the skull cup is often said to contain the elixir of immortality (AMṚTA). The skull cup figures prominently in tantric iconography (being held, for example, by PADMASAMBHAVA) and in tantric practice. For example, in GCOD practice, one visualizes the top of one's own head being cut off and transformed into a huge vessel, where one's own body is cooked and offered to VAJRAYOGINĪ.
karmamudrā. (T. las kyi phyag rgya). In Sanskrit, "action seal"; a term used to refer to the female consort in the practice of sexual yoga in ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA. In the context of sexual yoga, three types of female consorts or VIDYĀ ("knowledge women") are sometimes enumerated. The first is the JNĀNAMUDRĀ, or "wisdom seal," who is an imagined or visualized partner and is not an actual consort. The second and third types of consorts are both actual consorts. The SAMAYAMUDRĀ, or "pledge seal," is a consort who is fully qualified for the practice of sexual yoga, in the sense that she is of the appropriate age and caste, has practiced the common path, and maintains the tantric pledges (SAMAYA). The third and final type is the karmamudrā, who is also an actual consort but who may not possess the qualifications of a samayamudrā. In some expositions of tantric practice, these three types of "seals" are discussed with reference to MAHĀMUDRĀ, or "great seal," a multivalent term sometimes defined as the union of method (UPĀYA) and wisdom (PRAJNĀ), which does not require a consort.
kasina. (S. *kṛtsna/*kṛtsnāyatana; T. zad par gyi skye mched; C. bianchu; J. hensho; K. p'yonch'o 遍處). In Pāli, lit. "totality" or "universal" [alt. kasināyatana], a "visualization device" that serves as the meditative foundation for the "totality" of the mind's attention to an object of concentration. Ten kasina are generally enumerated: visualization devices that are constructed from the physical elements (MAHĀBHuTA) of earth, water, fire, and air; the colors blue, yellow, red, and white; and light and empty space. The earth device, for example, might be constructed from a circle of clay of even texture, the water device from a tub of water, and the red device from a piece of red cloth or a painted red disc. The meditation begins by looking at the physical object; the perception of the device is called the "beginning sign" or "preparatory sign" (P. PARIKAMMANIMITTA). Once the object is clearly perceived, the meditator then memorizes the object so that it is seen as clearly in his mind as with his eyes. This perfect mental image of the device is called the "eidetic sign," or "learning sign" (P. UGGAHANIMITTA) and serves subsequently as the object of concentration. As the internal visualization of this eidetic sign deepens and the five hindrances (NĪVARAnA) to mental absorption (P. JHĀNA; S. DHYĀNA) are temporarily allayed, a "representational sign" or "counterpart sign" (P. PAtIBHĀGANIMITTA) will emerge from out of the eidetic image, as if, the texts say, a sword is being drawn from its scabbard or the moon is emerging from behind clouds. The representational sign is a mental representation of the visualized image, which does not duplicate what was seen with the eyes but represents its abstracted, essentialized quality. The earth disc may now appear like the moon, the water device like a mirror suspended in the sky, or the red device like a bright jewel. Whereas the eidetic sign was an exact mental copy of the visualized beginning sign, the representational sign has no fixed form but may be manipulated at will by the meditator. Continued attention to the representational sign will lead to all four of the meditative absorptions associated with the realm of subtle materiality. Perhaps because of the complexity of preparing the kasina devices, this type of meditation was superseded by techniques such as mindfulness of breathing (P. ānāpānasati; S. ĀNĀPĀNASMṚTI) and is rarely practiced in the THERAVĀDA world today. But its notion of a purely mental object being somehow a purer "representation" of the external sense object viewed by the eyes has compelling connections to later YOGĀCĀRA notions of the world being a projection of mind.
kongokai. (S. vajradhātu; T. rdo rje dbyings; C. jingang jie; K. kŭmgang kye 金剛界). In Japanese, "diamond realm" or "diamond world"; one of the two principal diagrams (MAndALA) used in the esoteric traditions of Japan (see MIKKYo), along with the TAIZoKAI ("womb realm"); the Sanskrit reconstruction for this diagram is *vajradhātumandala. The teachings of the kongokai are said to derive in part from two seminal scriptures of the esoteric traditions, the MAHĀVAIROCANĀBHISAMBODHISuTRA and SARVATATHĀGATATATTVASAMGRAHA, but its construction as a mandala relies on no known written instructions and more likely evolved pictorially. KuKAI (774-835), the founder of the SHINGONSHu, used the kongokai mandala in combination with the taizokai mandala in a variety of esoteric rituals designed to awaken the individual adept. However, Japanese TENDAI Buddhism as well as various SHUGENDo complexes also heavily incorporated their own rituals into the two mandalas. ¶ The kongokai consists of nine smaller, nearly square-shaped mandalas, or "assemblies" (J. e), some of which are sometimes isolated for worship and visualized independently. It is said that, by visualizing the mandala, the kongokai ultimately demonstrates that the universe as a whole is coextensive with the body of the DHARMAKĀYA or cosmic buddha, Mahāvairocana (SEE VAIROCANA). In the center of the mandala, Mahāvairocana sits on a lotus flower, surrounded by four female figures, who symbolize the four perfections. Immediately outside are four discs, each encompassing a directional buddha: AMITĀBHA to the west, AKsOBHYA to the east, AMOGHASIDDHI to the north, and RATNASAMBHAVA to the south. Each is, in turn, surrounded by four BODHISATTVAs. This ensemble of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and female figures is repeated in the first four mandala of outward trajectory and its structure repeated in the lower six. Below the center mandala is the mandala of physical objects, each representing the buddhas and bodhisattvas. The next one in outward trajectory are figures residing inside a three-pointed vajra, representing the sounds of the world. The fourth mandala displays all figures (excluding buddhas) in their female form, each exhibiting specific bodily movements. Arriving next at the upper-left mandala, the group is reduced to Mahāvairocana and four surrounding bodhisattvas. In the top-center mandala sits only a large Mahāvairocana. The last three mandalas in the outward spiral shift toward worldly affairs. The top right reveals passions and desire. In the next to last are horrific demons and deities. The last mandala represents consciousness. ¶ Looking at the depictions in the kongokai individually, the nine smaller mandalas are arrayed in a clockwise direction as follows. (1) The perfected-body assembly (jojinne) is the central assembly of the entire mandala. In the center of this assembly sits Mahāvairocana, displaying the gesture (MUDRĀ) of the wisdom fist (BODHYAnGĪMUDRĀ; J. chiken-in), surrounded by the four directional buddhas (Aksobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, and Amoghasiddhi), who embody four aspects of Mahāvairocana's wisdom. Each of these buddhas, including Mahāvairocana, is in turn attended by four bodhisattvas. (2) The SAMAYA assembly (J. sammayae; S. samayamandala) replaces the buddhas and bodhisattvas with physical objects, such as VAJRAS and lotuses. (3) The subtle assembly (J. misaime; S. suksmamandala) signifies the adamantine wisdom of Mahāvairocana. (4) In the offerings assembly (J. kuyo-e; S. pujāmandala), bodhisattvas make offerings to the five buddhas. (5) The four-mudrās assembly (J. shiinne; S. caturmudrāmandala) depicts only Mahāvairocana and four bodhisattvas. (6) The single-mudrā assembly (J. ichiinne; S. ekamudrāmandala) represents Mahāvairocana sitting alone in the gesture of wisdom. (7) In the guiding-principle assembly (J. rishu-e; S. nayamandala), VAJRASATTVA sits at the center, surrounded by four female figures, representing craving, physical contact, sexual desire, and fulfillment. (8) In the assembly of the descent into the three realms of existence (J. gozanze-e; S. trailokyavijayamandala), Vajrasattva assumes the ferocious appearance of Gosanze (TRAILOKYAVIJAYA). (9) The samaya of the descent into the three-realms assembly (J. gozanzesammayae; S. trailokyavijayasamaya mandala) has the same structure as the previous one. ¶ In one distinctively Shingon usage, the mandala was placed in the east and the kongokai stood in juxtaposition across from it. The initiate would then invite all buddhas, bodhisattvas, and divinities into the sacred space, invoking all of their power and ultimately unifying with them. In SHUGENDo, the two mandalas were often spatially superimposed over mountain geography or worn as robes on the practitioner while entering the mountain. See TAIZoKAI.
mahāyoga. (T. rnal 'byor chen po/ma hā yo ga). In Sanskrit "great yoga"; the seventh of the nine vehicles according to the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Here, the system of practice described elsewhere as ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA is divided into three: mahāyoga, ANUYOGA, and ATIYOGA, with mahāyoga corresponding roughly to practices of the "stage of generation" (UTPATTIKRAMA), in which one visualizes oneself as a deity and one's environment as a MAndALA. Its root text is the GUHYAGARBHATANTRA.
mandala. (T. dkyil 'khor; C. mantuluo; J. mandara; K. mandara 曼荼羅). In Sanskrit, lit. "circle"; a polysemous term, best known for its usage in tantric Buddhism as a type of "circular diagram." Employed widely throughout South, East, and Central Asia, mandala are highly flexible in form, function, and meaning. The core concept of mandala originates from the Sanskrit meaning "circle," where a boundary is demarcated and increasing significance is accorded to areas closer to the center; the Tibetan translation (dkyil 'khor) "center periphery" emphasizes this general scheme. In certain contexts, mandalas can have the broad sense of referring to circular objects ("mandala of the moon") or a complete collection of constituent parts ("mandala of the universe"). This latter denotation is found in Tibetan Buddhism, where a symbolic representation of the universe is offered to buddhas and bodhisattvas as a means of accumulating merit, especially as a preliminary practice (SNGON 'GRO). Mandalas may have begun as a simple circle drawn on the ground as part of a ritual ceremony, especially for consecration, initiation, or protection. In its developed forms, a mandala is viewed as the residential palace for a primary deity-located at the center-surrounded by an assembly of attendant deities. This portrayal may be considered either a symbolic representation or the actual residence; it may be mentally imagined or physically constructed. The latter constitutes a significant and highly developed contribution to the sacred arts of many Asian cultures. Mandalas are often depicted two dimensionally by a pattern of basic geometric shapes and are most commonly depicted in paint or colored powders. These are thought of almost as architectural floor plans, schematic representations viewed from above of elaborate three-dimensional structures, mapping an ideal cosmos where every element has a symbolic meaning dependent upon the ritual context. Mandalas are occasionally fashioned in three dimensions from bronze or wood, with statues of deities situated in the appropriate locations. When used in a private setting, such as in the Buddhist visualization meditation of deity yoga (DEVATĀYOGA), the practitioner imagines the entire universe as purified and transformed into the transcendent mandala-often identifying himself or herself with the form of the main deity at the center. In other practices, the mandala is visualized within the body, populated by deities at specific locations. In public rituals, including tantric initiations and consecration ceremonies, a central mandala can be used as a common basis for the participation of many individuals, who are said to enter the mandala. The mandala is also understood as a special locus of divine power, worthy of ritual worship and which may confer "blessings" upon devotees. Religious monuments (BOROBUDUR in Java), institutions (BSAM YAS monastery in Tibet), and even geographical locations (WUTAISHAN in China) are often understood as mandalas. Mandalas have also entered the popular vocabulary of the West. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung developed theories of cognition incorporating mandalas as an analytical model. The fourteenth DALAI LAMA has used the KĀLACAKRA mandala as a means of spreading a message of peace throughout the world. See also KONGoKAI; TAIZoKAI.
MaNjusrīnāmasaMgīti. (T. 'Jam dpal gyi mtshan yang dag par brjod pa; C. Sheng miaojixiang zhenshi ming jing; J. Shomyokichijo shinjitsumyokyo; K. Song myogilsang chinsil myong kyong 聖妙吉祥眞實名經). In Sanskrit, "Litany of the Names of MANJUsRĪ"; one of the most popular liturgical works of late Indian Buddhism. The text dates from the late seventh or early eighth century CE and in its present form includes 167 verses and a lengthy prose section. It begins with a request to the Buddha from a disciple, in this case, the tantric deity VAJRADHARA, to set forth the names of MaNjusrī. The Buddha offers extensive praise to MaNjusrī in the form of multiple epithets and identifications, equating him with all that is auspicious, although special attention is paid to his identity with the myriad categories of Buddhist wisdom. In other verses, the Buddha provides syllables to be recited in order to visualize a variety of deities, all of whom are considered forms of MaNjusrī. MaNjusrī himself is identified with the letter A, the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, and hence the source of all other names and the deities they represent. The Buddha also describes the MAndALA of MaNjusrī. The prose section, like so many Mahāyāna sutras, extols the virtues of its own recitation. Here, the Buddha declares that those who recite the MaNjusrīnāmasaMgīti three times daily will gain all manner of attainment and will also be protected by the Hindu gods, such as Visnu (NĀRĀYAnA) and siva (Mahesvara).
mantra. (T. sngags; C. zhenyan; J. shingon; K. chinon 眞言). In Sanskrit, "spell," "charm," or "magic formula"; a syllable or series of syllables that may or may not have semantic meaning, most often in a form of Sanskrit, the contemplation or recitation of which is thought to be efficacious. Indian exegetes creatively etymologized the term with the paronomastic gloss "mind protector," because a mantra serves to protect the mind from ordinary appearances. There are many famous mantras, ranging in length from one syllable to a hundred syllables or more. They are often recited to propitiate a deity, and their letters are commonly visualized in tantric meditations, sometimes within the body of the meditator. Although mantras are typically associated with tantric texts, they also appear in the SuTRAs, most famously in the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀHṚDAYASuTRA ("Heart Sutra"). Numerous tantric SĀDHANAs require the recitation of a particular mantra a specific number of times, with the recitations counted on a rosary (JAPAMĀLĀ). In Tibetan Buddhism, mantras are also repeated mechanically by turning "prayer wheels" (MA nI 'KHOR LO). Perhaps the most famous of all such spells is the six-syllable mantra of the bodhisattva AVALOKITEsVARA, OM MAnI PADME HuM, which is recited throughout the Tibetan Buddhist world. The Japanese SHINGONSHu takes its name from the Sinitic translation of mantra as "true word" (C. zhenyan; J. shingon).
mudrā. (P. muddā; T. phyag rgya; C. yin; J. in; K. in 印). In Sanskrit, lit., "seal," "mark," or "sign"; but in Buddhist contexts it often refers to hand and arm "gestures" made during the course of ritual practice or depicted in images of buddhas, bodhisattvas, tantric deities, and other Buddhist images. Mudrās commonly associated with figures of the Buddha, such as the "gesture of fearlessness" (ABHAYAMUDRĀ), the "earth-touching gesture" (BHuMISPARsAMUDRĀ), the "wheel of the dharma gesture" (DHARMACAKRAMUDRĀ), and the "gesture of meditation" (DHYĀNAMUDRĀ), are found in the earliest Indian representations of sĀKYAMUNI. With the development of MAHĀYĀNA and VAJRAYĀNA iconography, the number of mudrās depicted in Buddhist art proliferated, until they numbered in the hundreds. They are a prominent feature in the vajrayāna artwork of the Himalayan region (northern India, Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan) as well as early tantric images from Southeast Asia and the esoteric traditions of East Asia. Mudrās are also dynamic hand movements performed during the course of tantric ritual practice, where they may symbolize material offerings, enact forms of worship, or signify relationships with visualized deities. ¶ In a more specifically tantric denotation, the term mudrā is used to refer to a sexual consort, of which there are two types: the JNĀNAMUDRĀ (a visualized consort) and the KARMAMUDRĀ (an actual consort). The highest state of realization in certain tantric systems is called MAHĀMUDRĀ, the great seal. See also ABHAYAMUDRĀ; ANJALIMUDRĀ; BHuTAdĀMARAMUDRĀ; BODHYAnGĪMUDRĀ; DAINICHI KEN-IN; HuMKĀRAMUDRĀ; HoSHU-IN; ONGYo-IN; TARJANĪMUDRĀ; VARADAMUDRĀ; VITARKAMUDRĀ.
navasaMjNā. (P. navasaNNā; T. 'du shes dgu; C. jiuxiang guan; J. kusokan; K. kusanggwan 九想觀). In Sanskrit, lit. "the nine perceptions," one of the so-called meditations on the impurity/foulness [of the body] (AsUBHABHĀVANĀ), the objective of which is to facilitate understanding of impermanence (ANITYA), to develop disenchantment toward one's own and others' bodies, and/or to subdue lustful thoughts. In this meditation, the adept either mentally visualizes or physically observes the progressive decay of a corpse through nine specific stages: mottled discoloration of the corpse (vinīlakasaMjNā), discharges of pus (vipuyakasaMjNā), the decay of rotten flesh (vipadumakasaMjNā), bloating and tumefaction (vyādhmātakasaMjNā), the exuding of blood and the overflow of body fluids (vilohitakasaMjNā), infestation of worms and maggots (vikhāditakasaMjNā), the dissolution of flesh and exposure of bones and sinews (viksiptakasaMjNā), the cremated remains (vidagdhakasaMjNā), and the dispersed skeletal parts (asthisaMjNā). These contemplations help to wean the meditator from the affliction of lust (RĀGA; LOBHA), but lead only to the first of the four levels of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA).
pāpadesanā. [alt. pāpasodhana] (P. pāpadesanā; T. sdig pa bshags pa; C. chanhui; J. sange; K. ch'amhoe 懺悔). In Sanskrit, "confession of transgressions," "atonement"; the confession of unvirtuous deeds, either privately in the presence of a real or visualized representation of a buddha, or communally as part of a confession ceremony, such as the fortnightly monastic confession (S. UPOsADHA; P. uposatha). Such confession also figures as a standard component in many MAHĀYĀNA and tantric liturgies. The Mahāyāna also deployed a confessional ritual designed for people burdened with heavy karmic obstructions who wished swiftly to attain complete, perfect enlightenment (ANUTTARASAMYAKSAMBODHI); this ritual involved chanting the names of thirty-five buddhas of the ten directions (dasadigbuddha, see DAsADIs) and making offerings before images of them. Regardless of the setting, the tenor of confession practice is to make public something that has been hidden; there is no tradition in Buddhism of a priest offering absolution of sins. According to standard theory of KARMAN, the seeds of an unsalutary deed can be removed only through suffering the effects of that deed or through destroying the seed through wisdom (PRAJNĀ). However, there is a general view in the Buddhist ethical systems that the strength of an unwholesome deed, especially one of a less heinous nature, can be diminished through its declaration and revelation.
parikammanimitta. In Pāli, "preparatory image" or "preliminary sign;" the first of the three major visualization signs experienced in tranquillity (P. samatha; S. sAMATHA) exercises, along with the UGGAHANIMITTA (eidetic image) and the PAtIBHĀGANIMITTA (representational or counterpart image). Any object of attention, such as a visualization device (KASInA) that is used in the initial development of concentration, is termed a parikammanimitta. Generally, these devices involve visual objects such as fire, a circle of earth, or a particular color, though the breath may also be considered a parikammanimitta. These three signs and the meditative exercises employed to experience them are discussed in detail in BUDDHAGHOSA's VISUDDHIMAGGA, where they are listed sequentially according to the degree of concentration necessary for them to appear. In these exercises, the meditator attempts to convert a visual object of meditation, such as earth, fire, or a color, into a mental projection or conceptualization that is as clear as the visual image itself. The image the practitioner views with his eyes is called the parikammanimitta or "preparatory image," and the effort the practitioner makes is called parikammabhāvanā. When that parikammanimitta is equally clear when visualized in the mind, the practitioner is then said to have obtained the uggahanimitta (eidetic image). Even that image, however, still represents a relatively weak degree of concentration, and it must be enhanced until the patibhāganimitta, or "counterpart image," emerges, which marks the access to meditative absorption (P. JHĀNA, S. DHYĀNA).
patibhāganimitta. In Pāli, lit., "counterpart image," "representational image"; the third of the three major visualization signs experienced in tranquillity (P. samatha; S. sAMATHA) exercises, along with the PARIKAMMANIMITTA (preparatory image) and the UGGAHANIMITTA (eidetic image). These three images and the meditative exercises employed to experience them are discussed in detail in BUDDHAGHOSA's VISUDDHIMAGGA, where they are listed sequentially according to the degree of concentration necessary to develop them. These images are particularly associated with the use of the ten visualization devices (KASInA) that are used in the initial development of concentration. In these exercises, the meditator attempts to convert a visual object of meditation, such as soil, fire, or a color, into a mental projection or conceptualization that is as clear as the visual image itself. When the image the practitioner sees with his eyes (the so-called parikammanimitta or "preparatory image") is equally clear when visualized in the mind, the practitioner is said to have obtained the uggahanimitta (eidetic image). This image, however, still represents a relatively weak degree of concentration, and it must be strengthened until the patibhāganimitta, or "representational image," emerges, which marks the access to meditative absorption (P. JHĀNA, S. DHYĀNA). This representational image is said to be a purely abstract, conceptual form of the visualized image that appears to "break out" from the eidetic sign, e.g., with the fire kasina, the representational image of the visualized flame appears motionless, like a piece of red cloth hanging in space, or like a golden fan.
phalayāna. (T. 'bras bu theg pa). In Sanskrit, "fruition vehicle"; one of the epithets of the VAJRAYĀNA. In this context, the "effect" or "fruition" (PHALA) refers to buddhahood, specifically the pure abode, body, resources, and deeds of a buddha. In tantric practice, one visualizes oneself as a buddha, in a MAndALA palace, with the possessions of a buddha such as the VAJRA and bell, performing the deeds of a buddha such as purifying environments and the beings who inhabit them. This practice is referred to as bringing the fruition to the path; as a means of proceeding quickly on the path to buddhahood, one imagines that the fruition of buddhahood has already been achieved.
Plane ::: A level of reality that uniquely qualifies and constrains Consciousness to a particular lens in subsetted planes. Usually this refers to stable stages of experience in respect to a self or what those stages of stability add to the overall qualia of awareness (i.e. the lens). For example, the Astral Plane adds the capacity to visualize and express certain emotional states to the physical world. There are models that attempt to map the evolution of Consciousness into distinct planes including the Four Worlds Model and the Seven Planes Model. Contrast with Dimension.
Political Philosophy: That branch of philosophy which deals with political life, especially with the essence, origin and value of the state. In ancient philosophy politics also embraced what we call ethics. The first and most important ancient works on Political Philosophy were Plato's Politeia (Republic) and Aristotle's Politics. The Politeia outlines the structure and functions of the ideal state. It became the pattern for all the Utopias (see Utopia) of later times. Aristotle, who considers man fundamentally a social creature i.e. a political animal, created the basis for modern theories of government, especially by his distinction of the different forms of government. Early Christianity had a rather negative attitude towards the state which found expression in St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei. The influence of this work, in which the earthly state was declared to be civitas diaboli, a state of the devil, was predominant throughout the Middle Ages. In the discussion of the relation between church and empire, the main topic of medieval political philosophy, certain authors foreshadowed modern political theories. Thomas Aquinas stressed the popular origin of royal power and the right of the people to restrict or abolish that power in case of abuse; William of Ockham and Marsiglio of Padua held similar views. Dante Alighieri was one of the first to recognize the intrinsic value of the state; he considered the world monarchy to be the only means whereby peace, justice and liberty could be secured. But it was not until the Renaissance that, due to the rediscovery of the individual and his rights and to the formation of territorial states, political philosophy began to play a major role. Niccolo Machiavelli and Jean Bodin laid the foundation for the new theories of the state by stressing its independence from any external power and its indivisible sovereignty. The theory of popular rights and of the right of resistance against tyranny was especially advocated by the "Monarchomachi" (Huguenots, such as Beza, Hotman, Languet, Danaeus, Catholics such as Boucher, Rossaeus, Mariana). Most of them used the theory of an original contract (see Social Contract) to justify limitations of monarchical power. Later, the idea of a Natural Law, independent from divine revelation (Hugo Grotius and his followers), served as an argument for liberal -- sometimes revolutionary -- tendencies. With the exception of Hobbes, who used the contract theory in his plea for absolutism, almost all the publicists of the 16th and 17th century built their liberal theories upon the idea of an original covenant by which individuals joined together and by mutual consent formed a state and placed a fiduciary trust in the supreme power (Roger Williams and John Locke). It was this contract which the Pilgrim Fathers translated into actual facts, after their arrival in America, in November, 1620, long before John Locke had developed his theorv. In the course of the 17th century in England the contract theory was generally substituted for the theory of the divine rights of kings. It was supported by the assumption of an original "State of Nature" in which all men enjoyed equal reciprocal rights. The most ardent defender of the social contract theory in the 18th century was J. J. Rousseau who deeply influenced the philosophy of the French revolution. In Rousseau's conception the idea of the sovereignty of the people took on a more democratic aspect than in 17th century English political philosophy which had been almost exclusively aristocratic in its spirit. This tendency found expression in his concept of the "general will" in the moulding of which each individual has his share. Immanuel Kant who made these concepts the basis of his political philosophy, recognized more clearly than Rousseau the fictitious character of the social contract and treated it as a "regulative idea", meant to serve as a criterion in the evaluation of any act of the state. For Hegel the state is an end in itself, the supreme realization of reason and morality. In marked opposition to this point of view, Marx and Engels, though strongly influenced by Hegel, visualized a society in which the state would gradually fade away. Most of the 19th century publicists, however, upheld the juristic theory of the state. To them the state was the only source of law and at the same time invested with absolute sovereignty: there are no limits to the legal omnipotence of the state except those which are self imposed. In opposition to this doctrine of unified state authority, a pluralistic theory of sovereignty has been advanced recently by certain authors, laying emphasis upon corporate personalities and professional groups (Duguit, Krabbe, Laski). Outspoken anti-stateism was advocated by anarchists such as Kropotkin, etc., by syndicalists and Guild socialists. -- W.E.
pratibhāsa. (T. snang ba; C. xianxian; J. kengen; K. hyonhyon 顯現). A polysemous term in Sanskrit, whose denotations include "appearance" and "perception." The term is often used to describe what is perceived by consciousness (VIJNĀNA), as opposed to the true nature of the object perceived. The term therefore often carries a negative connotation of something ephemeral and deceptive. Tantric literature describes a practice of "pure appearance" in which the ordinary world is visualized as a MAndALA and one's own body is visualized as the body of a buddha.
pratidesanā. (P. patidesanā; T. so sor bshags pa; C. huiguo; J. keka; K. hoegwa 悔過). Often translated from Sanskrit as "confession," but meaning something closer to "disclosure" or "acknowledgment"; the practice of acknowledging one's misdeeds. It is the central practice of the fortnightly UPOsADHA rites, where monks and nuns "disclose" or "confess" their transgressions of the PRĀTIMOKsA precepts and is also an important part of MAHĀYĀNA liturgy, in which misdeeds are revealed during an additional recitation during the uposadha rites, or, in the absence of a community (SAMGHA), to an image of the buddha or to visualized buddhas. In the prātimoksa, the related term PRATIDEsANĪYA refers specifically to four infractions that need only be acknowledged.
raksācakra. (T. srung gi 'khor lo). In Sanskrit, "wheel of protection," a figurative wheel used to destroy internal and external evils during tantric rituals and meditative practices. The wheel is created through ritual actions or visualization as a preliminary step in constructing a MAndALA, performing an initiation ritual (ABHIsEKA), or cultivating meditative practices. The wheel has various intents, including maintaining the faithfulness of the disciple toward one's master, destroying the power of an enemy, preventing the intrusion of baleful influences, preventing infectious diseases, or averting a curse. For example, in the GUHYASAMĀJATANTRA, a practitioner visualizes a wheel with ten spokes, representing the ten directions (DAsADIs). Each spoke is occupied by the ten wrathful deities (dasakrodha), who conquer enemies or inner hindrances, the names and the locations of which are as follows: YAMĀNTAKA (east), PrajNāntaka (south), Padmāntaka (west), Vighnāntaka (north), ACALA (northeast), takkirāja (southeast), Nīladanda (southwest), Mahābala (northwest), Usnīsacakravartin (zenith), and Sumbha (nadir). The practitioner then imagines demonic beings filling the areas between the spokes, so that, as the wheel turns, the spokes destroy the demons. In a more detailed explanation, the demons are also bound by ropes and put in well-like cells in the ground. This wheel is also called "wheel of the ten spokes" (dasacakra).
Sādhanamālā. (T. Sgrub thabs rgya mtsho). In Sanskrit, "Garland of Methods," sometimes attributed to ABHAYĀKARAGUPTA; an important compendium of some three hundred individual tantric SĀDHANAs, the latest of which were composed around the twelfth century. In addition to the details its provides about tantric practice during this period, the detailed descriptions of the deities to be visualized are an important source of tantric Buddhist iconography. The version preserved in Tibetan is entitled Sādhanasāgara, "Ocean of Methods."
sahaja. (T. lhan skyes; C. jushengqi; J. kushoki; K. kusaenggi 生起). A polysemous Sanskrit term, variously translated as "coemergence," "connate," "simultaneously arisen," and "the innate." This term is used frequently in the tantric Buddhist verses composed by the SIDDHAs of medieval north India such as SARAHA, Kānha, and TILOPA; these include collections of DOHĀ recorded in APABHRAMsA and Bengali compilations of caryāgīti (see CARYĀGĪTIKOsA). In these contexts, sahaja refers most generally to the ultimate and innermost true nature, as well as to its realization through the spontaneous and uninhibited lifestyle and practice associated with tantric adepts. The term may be used as a noun for the ultimate state itself, or as an adjective describing a state or condition as natural and uncontrived. In the context of the YOGINĪ tantras such as the HEVAJRATANTRA, the term sahaja is used to refer to the highest of four states of ecstasy-innate ecstasy (sahajānanda)-which can be gained through the visualized or actual practice of sexual yoga, and through which one comes to realize the mind's luminosity and natural purity. Early twentieth-century authors-beginning with the Bengali scholars and translators who first published studies on the collections of tantric verses-described what they called the sahajayāna ("path of sahaja") and the sahajiyās who followed it, although neither term is found in traditional Indian Buddhist literature. The Tibetan form, lhan skyes (short for lhan cig tu skyes pa) appears widely in the subsequent literature of MAHĀMUDRĀ.
samayamudrā. (T. dam tshig gi phyag rgya; C. sanmoye yin; J. sanmayain; K. sammaya in 三摩耶印). In Sanskrit, "seal of the vow," "seal of time," or "seal of the symbol," all three denotations related to objects of meditation in tantric Buddhism. The samayamudrā is usually listed as the third of four "seals" (MUDRĀ), "seal" here being used in the sense of a doorway through which one must pass in order to attain full realization; the other three are the KARMAMUDRĀ, the JNĀNAMUDRĀ, and the MAHĀMUDRĀ. In the context of sexual yoga, the term is also used to refer to a tantric consort who maintains the tantric pledges, as opposed to a karmamudrā (a consort who does not maintain such pledges) and a jNānamudrā (a consort who is not a physical person but is visualized in meditation). As "seal of the vow," the samayamudrā involves sustained focus on one's intention to keep a specific set of vows received as part of one's initiation (ABHIsEKA, dīksā) into tantric practice. As "seal of time," samaya carries its temporal denotation and the meditation involves an abandonment of past and future for the sake of a sustained experience of the present moment. As "seal of the symbol," the object of attention is a symbolic representation of various aspects of a buddha, BODHISATTVA, or deity.
samayasattva. (T. dam tshig sems dpa'; C. sanmeiye saduo; J. sanmayasatta; K. sammaeya salt'a 三昧耶薩埵). In Sanskrit, "pledge being," an important element in tantric visualization. Prior to inviting a deity to appear, the meditator visualizes the body of the deity. This visualized image is called the "pledge being." The actual deity, called the "wisdom deity" (JNĀNASATTVA), is then invited to descend into and fuse with the visualized form. In this context, the term SAMAYA may be understood in two different ways. First, the term is synonymous with "conventional," indicating that the visualized body of the deity is not his or her actual body. The term samaya is also understood to indicate the practitioner's "vow" or "pledge" to undertake those practices that will evoke the actual presence of the deity. When the meditator visualizes himself or herself as the deity, the initial visualization is the "pledge being." In some tantric circles, the term samayasattva is also used to indicate one who has been newly initiated into esoteric practice.
sanimitta. (T. mtshan bcas). In Sanskrit, literally "with marks" or "with signs," a term that has at least two principal denotations. In the context of MADHYAMAKA, sanimitta is a pejorative term, implying that one perceives the world via the chimeric signs or marks of intrinsic nature (SVABHĀVA). Because all phenomena are ultimately "signless" (ĀNIMITTA), to perceive them as having signs is a benighted form of ignorance. In the context of tantric meditation, however, the term has a more salutary meaning. Tantric texts and especially YOGATANTRAs, mention two forms of meditation, one called "yoga with signs" (SANIMITTAYOGA), the other "yoga without signs" (ANIMITTAYOGA). Yoga with signs refers to meditation in which one visualizes oneself as a deity, one's environment as a MAndALA, etc. Yoga without signs refers to meditation in which one meditates on emptiness (suNYATĀ). In certain tantric SĀDHANAs, both forms of meditation are performed.
sanimittayoga. (T. mtshan bcas kyi rnal 'byor). Literally, "yoga with signs," a term that occurs in Buddhist tantric literature, and is especially associated with YOGATANTRA class of tantric texts. Yoga with signs refers to those meditation practices that entail dualistic appearances or "signs," in the sense that the meditator visualizes seed syllables (BĪJA) and deities. It is contrasted with ANIMITTAYOGA, or "yoga without signs," those meditation practices in which one meditates on emptiness (suNYATĀ) in such a way that there are no dualistic appearances or signs.
Seer: One who sees; a crystal-gazer; a person endowed with second sight; one who foresees future events—a prophet; in astrological terminology, one whose extrasensory perceptions enable him to visualize the ultimate effects that will result from the cosmic causes portrayed in a birth Figure.
Shapeshifting ::: The process of changing either the Physical or Astral form into that which is other than the default. Almost always this is viewed as stabilizing the locus of focus upon a visualized Astral form but the possibility is not ruled out that this can apply physically as well.
sodasasthavira. (T. gnas brtan bcu drug; C. shiliu zunzhe; J. jurokusonja; K. simnyuk chonja 十六尊者). In Sanskrit, "the sixteen elders" (most commonly known in the East Asian tradition as the "sixteen ARHATs"); a group of sixteen venerated arhat (C. LUOHAN) disciples of the Buddha whom the Buddha orders to forgo NIRVĀnA and to continue to dwell in this world in order to preserve the Buddhist teachings until the coming of the future buddha, MAITREYA. Each of these arhats is assigned an (often mythical) residence and a retinue of disciples. With Maitreya's advent, they will gather the relics of the current buddha sĀKYAMUNI and erect one last STuPA to hold them, after which they will finally pass into PARINIRVĀnA. The sāriputraparipṛcchā ("Sutra on sāriputra's Questions"), which was translated at least by the Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420 CE) but may date closer to the beginning of the millennium, mentions four great monks (mahā-BHIKsU) to whom the Buddha entrusted the propagation of the teachings after his death: MAHĀKĀsYAPA, PIndOLA, Kundovahan (C. Juntoupohan, "Holder of the Mongoose," apparently identical to BAKKULA), and RĀHULA. The MILE XIASHENG JING ("Sutra on the Advent of Maitreya"), translated in 303 CE by DHARMARAKsA, states instead that the Buddha instructed these same four monks to wait until after the buddhadharma of the current dispensation was completely extinct before entering PARINIRVĀnA. The sāriputraparipṛcchā's account is also found in the FAHUA WENJU by TIANTAI ZHIYI (538-597) of the Sui dynasty. The Mahāyānāvatāra (C. Ru dasheng lun; "Entry into the Mahāyāna"), a treatise written by Sāramati (C. Jianyi) and translated into Chinese c. 400 CE by Daotai of the Northern Liang dynasty (397-439) first mentions "sixteen" great disciples (mahā-sRĀVAKA) who disperse throughout the world to preserve the Buddha's teachings after his death, but does not name them. Indeed, it is not until the Tang dynasty that the full list of sixteen disciples who preserve the buddhadharma is first introduced into the Chinese tradition. This complete list first appears in the Nandimitrāvadāna (Da aluohan Nantimiduo luo suoshuo fazhu ji, abbr. Fazhu ji, "Record of the Duration of the Dharma Spoken by the Great Arhat NANDIMITRA"), which was translated by XUANZANG in 654 CE. (Nandimitra [C. Qingyou zunzhe] was born in the second century CE in Sri Lanka.) This text tells the story of the Buddha's special charge to this group of elders and offers each of their names, residences, and numbers of disciples. JINGQI ZHANRAN's (711-782) Fahua wenju ji, a commentary to TIANTAI ZHIYI's (538-597) FAHUA WENJU, also cites an account from the apocryphal Ratnameghasutra (Bao yun jing) that the Buddha charged sixteen "worthy ones" (S. arhat; C. luohan) with preserving the BUDDHADHARMA until the advent of Maitreya, after which they could then enter parinirvāna. Zhanran's citation of this sutra gives the names of each of the sixteen arhats, along with their residence and the number of their followers; but while Pindola's and Rāhula's names are included in the sixteen, Mahākāsyapa is not mentioned. According to the Xuanhe huapu ("The Xuanhe Chronology of Painting"), the earliest Chinese iconography showing a group of sixteen disciples probably dates to the Liang dynasty (502-557), when ZHANG SENGYAO (d.u.; fl c. 502-549) first painted a rendering of the sodasasthavira. After the Nandimitrāvadāna was translated into Chinese in the middle of the seventh century, the group of sixteen elders became so universally revered within China that many verses, paintings, and sculptures were dedicated to them. As a group, they appear frequently in East Asian monastic art, each arhat specifically identified by his unique (and often wildly exaggerated) physical characteristics. The most renowned such painting was made at the end of the ninth century by the monk CHANYUE GUANXIU (832-912); his work became the standard presentation of the sixteen. His vivid portrayal of the arhats offers an extreme, stylized rendition of how the Chinese envisioned "Indians" (fan) or "Westerners" (hu). He gives each of his subjects a distinctive bearing and deportment and unique phrenological features and physical characteristics; these features are subsequently repeated routinely in the Chinese artistic tradition. The standard roster of arhats now recognized in the East Asian tradition, in their typical order, are (1) PIndOLA BHĀRADVĀJA; (2) KANAKAVATSA; (3) KANAKA BHĀRADVĀJA; (4) SUBINDA [alt. Suvinda]; (5) BAKKULA [alt. Bākula, Nakula]; (6) BHADRA; (7) KĀLIKA [alt. Karīka]; (8) VAJRAPUTRA; (9) JĪVAKA; (10) PANTHAKA; (11) RĀHULA; (12) NĀGASENA; (13) AnGAJA; (14) VANAVĀSIN; (15) AJITA; (16) CudAPANTHAKA. Sometime before the Song dynasty, the Chinese occasionally added two extra arhats to the roster, possibly in response to Daoist configurations of teachers, giving a total of eighteen. The most common of these additional members were Nandimitra (the putative subject of the text in which the protectors are first mentioned by name) and Pindola Bhāradvāja (another transcription of the arhat who already appears on the list), although Mahākāsyapa also frequently appears. The Tibetan tradition adds still other figures. In a standard form of the Tibetan ritual, the sixteen elders are listed as Angaja, Ajita, Vanavāsin, Kālika, Vajraputra, Bhadra, Kanakavatsa, Kanaka Bhāradvāja, Bakkula, Rāhula, Cudapanthaka, Pindola Bhāradvāja, Panthaka, Nāgasena, GOPAKA (Sbed byed), and Abheda (Mi phyed pa). They are visualized together with sākyamuni Buddha whose teaching they have been entrusted to protect, their benefactor the layman (UPĀSAKA) Dharmatāla [alt. Dharmatāra, Dharmatrāta], and the four great kings (CATURMAHĀRĀJA) VAIsRAVAnA [alt. Kubera], DHṚTARĀstRA, VIRudHAKA, and VIRuPĀKsA. Each of the elders is described as having a particular scroll, begging bowl, staff, and so on, and in a particular posture with a set number of arhats. They come miraculously from their different sacred abodes, assemble, are praised, and worshipped with the recitation of the bodhisattva SAMANTABHADRA's ten vows in the BHADRACARĪPRAnIDHĀNA. Then, with solemn requests to protect the dispensation by watching over the lives of the gurus, they are requested to return to their respective homelands. In other rituals, one finds BUDAI heshang (Cloth-Bag Monk, viz., AnGAJA), the Buddha's mother, Queen MĀYĀ, and his successor, Maitreya; or the two ancient Indian Buddhist sages "Subduer of Dragons" (C. Xianglong) and "Subduer of Lions" (C. Fuhu). See also LUOHAN; and individual entries on each of the sixteen arhats/sthaviras.
Sukhāvatīvyuhasutra. (T. Bde ba can gyi bkod pa'i mdo; C. Wuliangshou jing; J. Muryojukyo; K. Muryangsu kyong 無量壽經). Literally, the "Sutra Displaying [the Land of] Bliss," the title of the two most important Mahāyāna sutras of the "PURE LAND" tradition. The two sutras differ in length, and thus are often referred to in English as the "larger" and "smaller" (or "longer" and "shorter") Sukhāvatīvyuhasutras; the shorter one is commonly called the AMITĀBHASuTRA. Both sutras are believed to date from the third century CE. The longer and shorter sutras, together with the GUAN WULIANGSHOU JING (*Amitāyurdhyānasutra), constitute the three main texts associated with the pure land tradition of East Asia (see JINGTU SANBUJING). There are multiple Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan versions of both the longer and shorter sutras, with significant differences among them. ¶ The longer Sukhāvatīvyuhasutra begins with ĀNANDA noticing that the Buddha is looking especially serene one day, and so asks him the reason. The Buddha responds that he was thinking back many millions of eons in the past to the time of the buddha LOKEsVARARĀJA. The Buddha then tells a story in the form of a flashback. In the audience of this buddha was a monk named DHARMĀKARA, who approached Lokesvararāja and proclaimed his aspiration to become a buddha. Dharmākara then requested the Buddha to describe all of the qualities of the buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA). Lokesvararāja provided a discourse that lasted one million years, describing each of the qualities of the lands of trillions of buddhas. Dharmākara then retired to meditate for five eons, seeking to concentrate all of the marvelous qualities of the millions of buddha-fields that had been described to him into a single pure buddha-field. When he completed his meditation, he returned to describe this imagined land to Lokesvararāja, promising to create a place of birth for fortunate beings and vowing that he would follow the bodhisattva path and become the buddha of this new buddha-field. He described the land he would create in a series of vows, stating that if this or that marvel was not present in his pure land, may he not become a buddha: e.g., "If in my pure land there are animals, ghosts, or hell denizens, may I not become a buddha." He made forty-eight such vows. These included the vow that all the beings in his pure land will be the color of gold; that beings in his pure land will have no conception of private property; that no bodhisattva will have to wash, dry, or sew his own robes; that bodhisattvas in his pure land will be able to hear the dharma in whatever form they wish to hear it and whenever they wish to hear it; that any woman who hears his name, creates the aspiration to enlightenment (BODHICITTA), and feels disgust at the female form, will not be reborn as a woman again. Two of these vows would become the focus of particular attention. In the eighteenth vow (seventeenth in the East Asian versions), Dharmākara vows that when he has become a buddha, he will appear at the moment of death to anyone who creates the aspiration to enlightenment, hears his name, and remembers him with faith. In the nineteenth vow (eighteenth in the East Asian versions), he promises that anyone who hears his name, wishes to be reborn in his pure land, and dedicates their merit to that end, will be reborn there, even if they make such a resolution as few as ten times during the course of their life. Only those who have committed one of the five inexpiable transgressions bringing immediate retribution (ĀNANTARYAKARMAN, viz., patricide, matricide, killing an ARHAT, wounding a buddha, or causing schism in the SAMGHA) are excluded. The scene then returns to the present. Ānanda asks the Buddha whether Dharmākara was successful, whether he did in fact traverse the long path of the bodhisattva to become a buddha. The Buddha replies that he did indeed succeed and that he became the buddha Amitābha (Infinite Light). The pure land that he created is called sukhāvatī. Because Dharmākara became a buddha, all of the things that he promised to create in his pure land have come true, and the Buddha proceeds to describe sukhāvatī in great detail. It is carpeted with lotuses made of seven precious substances, some of which reach ten leagues (YOJANA) in diameter. Each lotus emits millions of rays of light and from each ray of light there emerge millions of buddhas who travel to world systems in all directions to teach the dharma. The pure land is level, like the palm of one's hand, without mountains or oceans. It has great rivers, the waters of which rise as high or sink as low as one pleases, from the shoulders to the ankles, and vary in temperature as one pleases. The sound of the river takes the form of whatever auspicious words one wishes to hear, such as "buddha," "emptiness," "cessation," and "great compassion." The words "hindrance," "misfortune," and "pain" are never heard, nor are the words "day" and "night" used, except as metaphors. The beings in the pure land do not need to consume food. When they are hungry, they simply visualize whatever food they wish and their hunger is satisfied without needing to eat. They dwell in bejeweled palaces of their own design. Some of the inhabitants sit cross-legged on lotus blossoms while others are enclosed within the calyx of a lotus. The latter do not feel imprisoned, because the calyx of the lotus is quite large, containing within it a palace similar to that inhabited by the gods. Those who dedicate their merit toward rebirth in the pure land yet who harbor doubts are reborn inside lotuses where they must remain for five hundred years, enjoying visions of the pure land but deprived of the opportunity to hear the dharma. Those who are free from doubt are reborn immediately on open lotuses, with unlimited access to the dharma. Such rebirth would become a common goal of Buddhist practice, for monks and laity alike, in India, Tibet, and throughout East Asia. ¶ The "shorter" Sukhāvatīvyuhasutra was translated into Chinese by such famous figures as KUMĀRAJĪVA and XUANZANG. It is devoted largely to describing this buddha's land and its many wonders, including the fact that even the names for the realms of animals and the realms of hell-denizens are not known; all of the beings born there will achieve enlightenment in their next lifetime. In order to be reborn there, one should dedicate one's merit to that goal and bear in mind the name of the buddha here known as AMITĀYUS (Infinite Life). Those who are successful in doing so will see Amitāyus and a host of bodhisattvas before them at the moment of death, ready to escort them to sukhāvatī, the land of bliss. In order to demonstrate the efficacy of this practice, the Buddha goes on to list the names of many other buddhas abiding in the four cardinal directions, the nadir, and the zenith, who also praise the buddha-field of Amitāyus. Furthermore, those who hear the names of the buddhas that he has just recited will be embraced by those buddhas. Perhaps to indicate how his own buddha-field (that is, our world) differs from that of Amitāyus, sākyamuni Buddha concludes by conceding that it has been difficult to teach the dharma in a world as degenerate as ours.
tantra. (T. rgyud; C. tanteluo; J. dantokura; K. tant'ŭngna 檀特羅). In Sanskrit, lit. "continuum"; a term derived from the Sanskrit root √tan ("to stretch out," "to weave"), having the sense of an arrangement or a pattern (deployed not only in a ritual, but in military and political contexts as well). The term is thus used to name a manual or handbook that sets forth such arrangements, and is not limited to Buddhism or to Indian religions more broadly. Beyond this, the term is notoriously difficult to define. It can be said, however, that tantra does not carry the connotation of all things esoteric and erotic that it has acquired in the modern West. In Buddhism, the term tantra generally refers to a text that contains esoteric teachings, often ascribed to sĀKYAMUNI or another buddha. Even this, however, is problematic: there are esoteric texts that do not carry the term tantra in their title (such as the VAJRAsEKHARASuTRA), and there are nonesoteric texts in whose title the term tantra appears (such as the UTTARATANTRA). Scholars therefore tend to define tantra (in the textual sense) based on specific sets of elements contained in the texts. These include MANTRA, MAndALA, MUDRĀ, initiations (ABHIsEKA), fire sacrifices (HOMA), and feasts (GAnACAKRA), all set forth with the aim of gaining powers (SIDDHI), both mundane and supramundane. The mundane powers are traditionally enumerated as involving four activities: pacification of difficulties (sĀNTIKA), increase of wealth (PAUstIKA), control of negative forces (VAsĪKARAnA), and destruction of enemies (ABHICĀRA). The supramundane power is enlightenment (BODHI). The texts called tantras began to appear in India in the late seventh and early eighth centuries CE, often written in a nonstandard (some would say "corrupt") Sanskrit that included colloquial elements and regional terms. These anonymous texts (including such famous works as the GUHYASAMĀJATANTRA, the CAKRASAMVARATANTRA, and the HEVAJRATANTRA), typically provided mantras and instructions for drawing mandalas, among a variety of other elements, but their presentation and organization were usually not systematic; these texts came to serve as the "root tantra" for a cycle of related texts. The more systematic of these were the SĀDHANA (lit. "means of achievement"), a ritual manual by a named author, which set forth the specific practices necessary for the attainment of siddhi. The standard form was to create a mandala into which one invited a deity. The meditator would either visualize himself or herself as the deity or visualize the deity as appearing before the meditator. Various offerings would be made, mantras would be recited, and siddhis would be requested. Although scholars continue to explore the relation between the tantras and the MAHĀYĀNA sutras, tantric exegetes viewed the tantras, like the Mahāyāna sutras, as being the word of the Buddha (BUDDHAVACANA) and as setting forth forms of practice consistent with the bodhisattva vow and the quest for buddhahood, albeit more quickly than by the conventional path, via what came to be referred to as the VAJRA vehicle (VAJRAYĀNA). Thus, it was said that the Mahāyāna was divided into the pāramitānaya, the "mode of the perfections" set forth in the Mahāyāna sutras, and the mantranaya, the "mode of the mantras" set forth in the tantras. These two are also, although less commonly, known as the sutrayāna and the TANTRAYĀNA. In this context, then, the term "tantra" is often used by tantric exegetes in contrast to "sutra," which is taken to mean the corpus of exoteric teachings of the Buddha. For those who accept the tantras as the word of the Buddha, the term "sutras and tantras" would thus refer to the entirety of the Buddha's teachings. The corpus of tantras was eventually classified by late Indian Buddhist exegetes into a number of schemata, the most famous of which is the fourfold division into KRIYĀTANTRA, CARYĀTANTRA, YOGATANTRA, and ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA.
Tārā. (T. Sgrol ma; C. Duoluo; J. Tara; K. Tara 多羅). In Sanskrit, lit. "Savioress"; a female bodhisattva who has the miraculous power to be able to deliver her devotees from all forms of physical danger. Tārā is said to have arisen from either a ray of blue light from the eye of the buddha AMITĀBHA, or from a tear from the eye of the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITEsVARA as he surveyed the suffering universe. The tear fell into a valley and formed a lake, out of which grew the lotus from which Tārā appeared. She is thus said to be the physical manifestation of the compassion of Avalokitesvara, who is himself the quintessence of the compassion of the buddhas. Because buddhas are produced from wisdom and compassion, Tārā, like the goddess PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ ("Perfection of Wisdom"), is hailed as "the mother of all buddhas," despite the fact that she is most commonly represented as a beautiful sixteen-year-old maiden. She is often depicted together with BHṚKUTĪ (one of her forms) as one of two female bodhisattvas flanking Avalokitesvara. Tārā is the subject of much devotion in her own right, serving as the subject of many stories, prayers, and tantric SĀDHANAs. She can appear in peaceful or wrathful forms, depending on the circumstances, her powers extending beyond the subjugation of these worldly frights, into the heavens and into the hells. She has two major peaceful forms, however. The first is SITATĀRĀ, or White Tārā. Her right hand is in VARADAMUDRĀ, her left is at her chest in VITARKAMUDRĀ and holds a lotus and she sits in DHYĀNĀSANA. The other is sYĀMATĀRĀ, or Green Tārā. Her right hand is in varadamudrā, her left is at her chest in vitarkamudrā and holds an utpala, and she sits in LALITĀSANA. Her wrathful forms include KURUKULLĀ, a dancing naked YOGINĪ, red in color, who brandishes a bow and arrow in her four arms. In tantric MAndALAs, she appears as the consort of AMOGHASIDDHI, the buddha of the northern quarter; together they are lord and lady of the KARMAKULA. But she is herself also the sole deity in many tantric SĀDHANAs, in which the meditator, whether male or female, visualizes himself or herself in Tārā's feminine form. Tārā is best-known for her salvific powers, appearing the instant her devotee recites her MANTRA, oM tāre tuttāre ture svāhā. She is especially renowned as Astabhayatrānatārā, "Tārā Who Protects from the Eight Fears," because of her ability to deliver those who call upon her when facing the eight great fears (mahābhaya) of lions, elephants, fire, snakes, thieves, water, imprisonment, and demons. Many tales are told recounting her miraculous interventions. Apart from the recitation of her mantra, a particular prayer is the most common medium of invoking Tārā in Tibet. It is a prayer to twenty-one Tārās, derived from an Indian TANTRA devoted to Tārā, the Sarvatathāgatamātṛtārāvisvakarmabhavatantra ("Source of All Rites to Tārā, the Mother of All the Tathāgatas"). According to some commentarial traditions on the prayer, each of the verses refers to a different form of Tārā, totaling twenty-one. According to others, the forms of Tārā are iconographically almost indistinguishable. Tārā entered the Buddhist pantheon relatively late, around the sixth century, in northern India and Nepal, and her worship in Java is attested in inscriptions dating to the end of the eighth century. Like Avalokitesvara, she has played a crucial role in Tibet's history, in both divine and human forms. One version of the creation myth that has the Tibetan race originating from a dalliance between a monkey and an ogress says the monkey was a form of Avalokitesvara and the ogress a form of Tārā. Worship of Tārā in Tibet began in earnest with the second propagation and the arrival of ATIsA DĪPAMKARAsRĪJNĀNA in the eleventh century; she appears repeatedly in accounts of his life and in his teachings. He had visions of the goddess at crucial points in his life, and she advised him to make his fateful journey to Tibet, despite the fact that his life span would be shortened as a result. His sādhanas for the propitiation of Sitatārā and syāmatārā played a key role in promoting the worship of Tārā in Tibet. He further was responsible for the translation of several important Indic texts relating to the goddess, including three by Vāgīsvarakīrti that make up the 'chi blu, or "cheating death" cycle, the foundation of all lineages of the worship of Sitatārā in Tibet. The famous Tārā chapel at Atisa's temple at SNYE THANG contains nearly identical statues of the twenty-one Tārās. The translator Darmadra brought to Tibet the important ANUYOGA tantra devoted to the worship of Tārā, entitled Bcom ldan 'das ma sgrol ma yang dag par rdzogs pa'i sangs rgyas bstod pa gsungs pa. Tārā is said to have taken human form earlier in Tibetan history as the Chinese princess WENCHENG and Nepalese princess Bhṛkutī, who married King SRONG BTSAN SGAM PO, bringing with them buddha images that would become the most revered in Tibet. Which Tārā they were remains unsettled; however, some sources identify Wencheng with syāmatārā and Bhṛkutī with the goddess of the same name, herself said to be a form of Tārā. Others argue that the Nepalese princess was Sitatārā, and Wencheng was syāmatārā. These identifications, however, like that of Srong btsan sgam po with Avalokitesvara, date only to the fourteenth century, when the cult of Tārā in Tibet was flourishing. In the next generation, Tārā appeared as the wife of King KHRI SRONG LDE BTSAN and the consort of PADMASAMBHAVA, YE SHES MTSHO RGYAL, who in addition to becoming a great tantric master herself, served as scribe when Padmasambhava dictated the treasure texts (GTER MA). Later, Tārā is said to have appeared as the great practitioner of the GCOD tradition, MA GCIG LAP SGRON (1055-1149). Indeed, when Tārā first vowed eons ago to achieve buddhahood in order to free all beings from SAMSĀRA, she swore she would always appear in female form.
tejokasina. (S. tejaskṛtsnāyatana; T. me zad par gyi skye mched; C. huo bianchu; J. kahensho; K. hwa p'yonch'o 火遍處). In Pāli, "fire device"; one of the ten devices (KASInA) described in the PĀLI tradition for developing meditative concentration (P. JHĀNA, S. DHYĀNA); the locus classicus for their exposition is the VISUDDHIMAGGA of BUDDHAGHOSA. Ten kasina are enumerated there: visualization devices that are constructed from the elements (MAHĀBHuTA) of earth, water, fire, air; the colors blue, yellow, red, white; and light and empty space. In each case, the meditation begins by looking at the physical object; the perception of the device is called the "beginning sign" or "preparatory sign" (P. PARIKAMMANIMITTA). Once the object is clearly perceived, the meditator then memorizes the object so that it is seen as clearly in his mind as with his eyes. This perfect mental image of the device is called the "eidetic sign," or "learning sign" (P. UGGAHANIMITTAs), and serves as the subsequent object of concentration. As the internal visualization of this eidetic sign deepens and the five hindrances (NĪVARAnA) to mental absorption are temporarily allayed, a "representational sign" or "counterpart sign" (P. PAtIBHĀGANIMITTA) will emerge from out of the eidetic image, as if, the texts say, a sword is being drawn from its scabbard or the moon is emerging from behind clouds. The representational sign is a mental representation of the visualized image, which does not duplicate what was seen with the eyes but represents its abstracted, essentialized quality. Continued attention to the representational sign will lead to all four of the meditative absorptions of the subtle-materiality realm (RuPADHĀTU). In the case of the tejokasina, the meditator begins by making a fire of dried heartwood, hanging a curtain of reeds, leather, or cloth in front of it, then cutting a hole four fingerwidths in size in the curtain. He then sits in the meditative posture and observes the flame (rather than the sticks or the smoke) through the hole, thinking, "fire, fire," using the perception of the flame as the preparatory sign. The eidetic sign, which is visualized without looking at the flame, appears as a tongue of flame and continually detaches itself from the fire. The representational sign is more steady, appearing motionless like a red cloth in space, a gold fan, or a gold column. With the representational sign achieved, progress through the various stages of absorption may begin. The tejokasina figures prominently in the dramatic story of the passing away of the Buddha's attendant, ĀNANDA. According to FAXIAN, when Ānanda was 120 years old, he set out from MAGADHA to VAIsĀLĪ in order to die. Seeking control of the saint's relics after his death, AJĀTAsATRU followed him to the Rohīni River, while a group for Vaisālī awaited him on the other side. Not wishing to disappoint either group, Ānanda levitated to the middle of the river in the meditative posture, preached the dharma, and then meditated on the tejokasina, which caused his body to burst into flames, with his relics dividing into two parts, one landing on each side of the river.
tshogs zhing. (tsok shing). In Tibetan, "field of assembly" or "field of accumulation"; the assembly of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other deities visualized in meditation practice (and represented in Tibetan scroll paintings, or THANG KA). The term is generally glossed to mean "the field for the collection of merit" because the assembly of deities are the objects of various virtuous practices through which the meditator accumulates merit. The most common practice performed in the presence of the field of assembly would be the sevenfold offering (SAPTĀnGAVIDHI): obeisance (vandana), offering (pujana), confession of transgressions (PĀPADEsANĀ), rejoicing in others' virtues (ANUMODANA), requesting that the buddhas turn the wheel of the dharma (dharmacakrapravartanacodana), beseeching the buddhas not pass into NIRVĀnA (aparinirvṛtādhyesana), and the dedication (PARInĀMANĀ) of merit. In paintings of the field of assembly, the central figure is often depicted with previous figures in the lineage in a vertical line above, with various disciples on either side and protector deities at the bottom.
Tulpa ::: As part of Tibetan Buddhist tradition, a tulpa is a type of artificial spirit created within a visualized mandala and into which a deity is invoked.
uggahanimitta. In Pāli, "eidetic image" or "learning sign," the second of the three major visualization signs experienced in calmness or tranquillity (P. samatha; S. sAMATHA) exercises, along with the PARIKAMMANIMITTA (preparatory image) and the PAtIBHĀGANIMITTA (counterpart, or representational, image). The signs are listed sequentially according to the degree of concentration necessary for them to appear. These three visualization signs and the meditative exercises employed to experience them are discussed in detail in BUDDHAGHOSA's VISUDDHIMAGGA. These signs are particularly associated with the ten visualization devices (KASInA) that are used in the initial development of concentration. In these exercises, the meditator attempts to convert a visual object of meditation, such as earth, fire, or light, into a mental projection or conceptualization that is as clear as the visual image itself. When the image the practitioner sees with his eyes (the so-called parikammanimitta, or "preparatory image") is equally clear when visualized in the mind, the practitioner is said to have obtained the uggahanimitta. With the fire kasina, for example, the eidetic image of the visualized flame appears like a detached flame, with any embers, ashes, or smoke that were present in the preparatory image still visible. This uggahanimitta, however, still represents a relatively weak degree of concentration, and it must be strengthened until the patibhāganimitta, or "counterpart/representational image," emerges, which marks the access to meditative absorption (P. JHĀNA; S. DHYĀNA).
utpattikrama. (T. bskyed rim; C. shengqi cidi; J. shokishidai; K. saenggi ch'aje 生起次第). In Sanskrit, "stage of generation" or the "creation stage," one of the two major phases (along with the NIsPANNAKRAMA or the "stage of completion") of ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA practice. The term encompasses a wide range of practices that commence after one has received initiation (ABHIsEKA), generally involving the practice of the SĀDHANA of a particular deity with the aim of the "generation" or transformation of the body, environment, enjoyments, and activities of the practitioner into the body, environment, enjoyments, and activities of a buddha. This is done through the practice of deity yoga (DEVATĀYOGA), in which the meditator visualizes himself or herself as a buddha and the environment as a MAndALA. In the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism, MAHĀYOGA generally corresponds to the utpattikrama.
Vaidehī. (P. Videhī; T. Lus 'phags ma; C. Weitixi; J. Idaike; K. Wijehŭi 韋提希). Sanskrit proper name of the queen of BIMBISĀRA, king of MAGADHA, and mother of AJĀTAsATRU. According to some traditions, her name derives from the fact that she hailed from VIDEHA. When her son Ajātasatru usurped the throne and imprisoned his father, no one was allowed to visit him except for Vaidehī. Although she was prohibited from bringing Bimbisāra food, she hid food in her clothes. When this was discovered, she hid food in her hair and then in her shoes. When these were discovered, she smeared her body with the four sweet substances, which the king licked for his sustenance. When this was discovered, the king lived on the energy from walking meditation, until his son had his feet lacerated, after which he died. The incident of Vaidehī's visit to the cell of Bimbisāra provides the setting for one of the three major sutras of the East Asian PURE LAND traditions, the GUAN WULIANGSHOU JING (sometimes known by the hypothetical reconstructed Sanskrit title *Amitāyurdhyānasutra, or simply as the "Meditation Sutra"). According to this sutra, when Ajātasatru discovers that his mother has been secretly feeding the king, he incarcerates her as well. Despite her sorrow, Vaidehī does not give up her faith in the Buddha and invokes his aid. The Buddha then appears before her, and she asks that he teach her about a place where there is no sorrow. The Buddha then teaches her how to visualize the SUKHĀVATĪ pure land of the buddha named "Infinite Life" (AMITĀYUS/AMITĀBHA). He next explains to her how one may be reborn in this wonderful paradise, which is a land without suffering, a world of endless bliss. At the end of the sutra, Vaidehī is mentioned as one of many who were inspired by the Buddha's preaching.
Vajrayoginī. (T. Rdo rje rnal 'byor ma). The most important of the dĀKInĪ in the VAJRAYĀNA, associated especially with the "mother tantras" (MĀTṚTANTRA) of the ANUTTARAYOGA class. She is also the most important of the female YI DAM. Her visualization is central to many tantric SĀDHANAs, especially in the practice of GURUYOGA, in which the meditator imagines himself or herself in the form of Vajrayoginī in order to receive the blessings of the GURU. She is also visualized in GCOD and GTUM MO practice. Her worship seems to originate with the CAKRASAMVARATANTRA and is popular in all sects of Tibetan Buddhism. Vajrayoginī plays a special role in the "six yogas of NĀROPA" (NĀ RO CHOS DRUG), where she is known as Nā ro mkha' spyod ma (Kachoma). She is closely associated with VAJRAVĀRĀHĪ, the consort of CAKRASAMVARA. In her most common form, she stands in the ĀLĪdHA posture, holding a KAtVĀnGA and a skull cup.
Visualization ::: The ability of the mind to form an internal world in which the only limit is the imagination of the visualizer. This is a capability largely provided by the Astral Plane and into which the locus of focus can be narrowed and strengthened so as to allow for practices like lucid dreaming and astral projection to take place.
VISUALIZE To give pictorial vividness to a mental representation; to construct a visual image in the mind.
visualize ::: v. t. --> To make visual, or visible; to see in fancy.
yi dam. In Tibetan, a term often translated as "meditational deity" or "tutelary deity." In the practice of Buddhist tantra, it is the enlightened being, whether male or female, peaceful or wrathful, who serves as the focus of one's SĀDHANA practice. One is also to visualize one's tantric teacher (VAJRĀCĀRYA) as this deity. The term is of uncertain origin and does not seem to be a direct translation of a Sanskrit term, although istadevatā is sometimes identified with the term. The etymology that is often given sees the term as an abbreviation of yid kyi dam tshig, meaning "commitment of the mind." Traditionally, the yi dam is selected by throwing a flower onto a MAndALA, with the deity upon whom the flower lands becoming the "chosen deity." However, when one receives a tantric initiation, the central deity of that tantra typically becomes the yi dam, with daily practices of offering and meditation often required. Through the propitiation of the deity and recitation of MANTRA, it is said that the deity will bestow accomplishments (SIDDHI). In the practice of DEVATĀYOGA, one meditates upon oneself as that deity in order to achieve buddhahood in the form of that deity. The yi dam is considered one of the three roots (rtsa gsum) of tantric practice, together with the GURU and the dĀKINĪ: the guru is considered to be the source of blessings; the yi dam, the source of accomplishments; and the dākinī, the source of activities. These three roots are considered the inner refuge, with the Buddha, DHARMA, and SAMGHA being the outer refuge, and the channels (NĀdĪ), winds (PRĀnA), and drops (BINDU) being the secret refuge.
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1:Whenever you feel like it and have the time, sit in solitude and try to visualize everything as pure light. Look at the vast sky and try to merge in that expansiveness. Look within and observe the thoughts and trace them back to their source. ~ MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI, #KEYS
2:For example, when practitioners transform into Shenlha Ökar (Shen Deity of White Light), they visualize their bodies as being adorned with the thirteen ornaments of peacefulness that in themselves evoke the enlightened quality of peacefulness.2 Shenlha Ökar himself embodies all six of the antidote qualities of love, generosity, wisdom, openness, peacefulness, and compassion; so as soon as you transform into Shenlha Ökar, you instantly embody these same qualities. ~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind, #KEYS
3:31. For your exercise this week, visualize your friend, see him exactly as you last saw him, see the room, the furniture, recall the conversation, now see his face, see it distinctly, now talk to him about some subject of mutual interest; see his expression change, watch him smile. Can you do this? All right, you can; then arouse his interest, tell him a story of adventure, see his eyes light up with the spirit of fun or excitement. Can you do all of this? If so, your imagination is good, you are making excellent progress. ~ Charles F Haanel, The Master Key System, #KEYS
4:PROTECTION
Going to sleep is a little like dying, a journey taken alone into the unknown. Ordinarily we are not troubled about sleep because we are familiar with it, but think about what it entails. We completely lose ourselves in a void for some period of time, until we arise again in a dream. When we do so, we may have a different identity and a different body. We may be in a strange place, with people we do not know, involved in baffling activities that may seem quite risky.
Just trying to sleep in an unfamiliar place may occasion anxiety. The place may be perfectly secure and comfortable, but we do not sleep as well as we do at home in familiar surroundings. Maybe the energy of the place feels wrong. Or maybe it is only our own insecurity that disturbs us,and even in familiar places we may feel anxious while waiting for sleep to come, or be frightenedby what we dream. When we fall asleep with anxiety, our dreams are mingled with fear and tension, sleep is less restful, and the practice harder to do. So it is a good idea to create a sense of protection before we sleep and to turn our sleeping area into a sacred space.
This is done by imagining protective dakinis all around the sleeping area. Visualize the dakinis as beautiful goddesses, enlightened female beings who are loving, green in color, and powerfully protective. They remain near as you fall asleep and throughout the night, like mothers watching over their child, or guardians surrounding a king or queen. Imagine them everywhere, guarding the doors and the windows, sitting next to you on the bed, walking in the garden or the yard, and so on, until you feel completely protected.
Again, this practice is more than just trying to visualize something: see the dakinis with your mind but also use your imagination to feel their presence. Creating a protective, sacred environment in this way is calming and relaxing and promotes restful sleep. This is how the mystic lives: seeing the magic, changing the environment with the mind, and allowing actions, even actions of the imagination, to have significance.
You can enhance the sense of peace in your sleeping environment by keeping objects of a sacred nature in the bedroom: peaceful, loving images, sacred and religious symbols, and other objects that direct your mind toward the path.
The Mother Tantra tells us that as we prepare for sleep we should maintain awareness of the causes of dream, the object to focus upon, the protectors, and of ourselves. Hold these together inawareness, not as many things, but as a single environment, and this will have a great effect in dream and sleep.
~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep,#KEYS
5:30. Take the same position as heretofore and visualize a Battleship; see the grim monster floating on the surface of the water; there appears to be no life anywhere about; all is silence; you know that by far the largest part of the vessel is under water; out of sight; you know that the ship is as large and as heavy as a twenty-story skyscraper; you know that there are hundreds of men ready to spring to their appointed task instantly; you know that every department is in charge of able, trained, skilled officials who have proven themselves competent to take charge of this marvelous piece of mechanism; you know that although it lies apparently oblivious to everything else, it has eyes which see everything for miles around, and nothing is permitted to escape its watchful vision; you know that while it appears quiet, submissive and innocent, it is prepared to hurl a steel projectile weighing thousands of pounds at an enemy many miles away; this and much more you can bring to mind with comparatively no effort whateveR But how did the battleship come to be where it is; how did it come into existence in the first place? All of this you want to know if you are a careful observer.
31. Follow the great steel plates through the foundries, see the thousands of men employed in their production; go still further back, and see the ore as it comes from the mine, see it loaded on barges or cars, see it melted and properly treated; go back still further and see the architect and engineers who planned the vessel; let the thought carry you back still further in order to determine why they planned the vessel; you will see that you are now so far back that the vessel is something intangible, it no longer exists, it is now only a thought existing in the brain of the architect; but from where did the order come to plan the vessel? Probably from the Secretary of Defense; but probably this vessel was planned long before the war was thought of, and that Congress had to pass a bill appropriating the money; possibly there was opposition, and speeches for or against the bill. Whom do these Congressmen represent? They represent you and me, so that our line of thought begins with the Battleship and ends with ourselves, and we find in the last analysis that our own thought is responsible for this and many other things, of which we seldom think, and a little further reflection will develop the most important fact of all and that is, if someone had not discovered the law by which this tremendous mass of steel and iron could be made to float upon the water, instead of immediately going to the bottom, the battleship could not have come into existence at all. ~ Charles F Haanel, The Master Key System,#KEYS
6:GURU YOGA
Guru yoga is an essential practice in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. This is true in sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen. It develops the heart connection with the masteR By continually strengthening our devotion, we come to the place of pure devotion in ourselves, which is the unshakeable, powerful base of the practice. The essence of guru yoga is to merge the practitioner's mind with the mind of the master.
What is the true master? It is the formless, fundamental nature of mind, the primordial awareness of the base of everything, but because we exist in dualism, it is helpful for us to visualize this in a form. Doing so makes skillful use of the dualisms of the conceptual mind, to further strengthen devotion and help us stay directed toward practice and the generation of positive qualities.
In the Bon tradition, we often visualize either Tapihritsa* as the master, or the Buddha ShenlaOdker*, who represents the union of all the masters. If you are already a practitioner, you may have another deity to visualize, like Guru Rinpoche or a yidam or dakini. While it is important to work with a lineage with which you have a connection, you should understand that the master you visualize is the embodiment of all the masters with whom you are connected, all the teachers with whom you have studied, all the deities to whom you have commitments. The master in guru yoga is not just one individual, but the essence of enlightenment, the primordial awareness that is your true nature.
The master is also the teacher from whom you receive the teachings. In the Tibetan tradition, we say the master is more important than the Buddha. Why? Because the master is the immediate messenger of the teachings, the one who brings the Buddha's wisdom to the student. Without the master we could not find our way to the Buddha. So we should feel as much devotion to the master as we would to the Buddha if the Buddha suddenly appeared in front of us.
Guru yoga is not just about generating some feeling toward a visualized image. It is done to find the fundamental mind in yourself that is the same as the fundamental mind of all your teachers, and of all the Buddhas and realized beings that have ever lived. When you merge with the guru, you merge with your pristine true nature, which is the real guide and masteR But this should not be an abstract practice. When you do guru yoga, try to feel such intense devotion that the hair stands upon your neck, tears start down your face, and your heart opens and fills with great love. Let yourself merge in union with the guru's mind, which is your enlightened Buddha-nature. This is the way to practice guru yoga.
The Practice
After the nine breaths, still seated in meditation posture, visualize the master above and in front of you. This should not be a flat, two dimensional picture-let a real being exist there, in three dimensions, made of light, pure, and with a strong presence that affects the feeling in your body,your energy, and your mind. Generate strong devotion and reflect on the great gift of the teachings and the tremendous good fortune you enjoy in having made a connection to them. Offer a sincere prayer, asking that your negativities and obscurations be removed, that your positive qualities develop, and that you accomplish dream yoga.
Then imagine receiving blessings from the master in the form of three colored lights that stream from his or her three wisdom doors- of body, speech, and mind-into yours. The lights should be transmitted in the following sequence: White light streams from the master's brow chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your entire body and physical dimension. Then red light streams from the master's throat chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your energetic dimension. Finally, blue light streams from the master's heart chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your mind.
When the lights enter your body, feel them. Let your body, energy, and mind relax, suffused inwisdom light. Use your imagination to make the blessing real in your full experience, in your body and energy as well as in the images in your mind.
After receiving the blessing, imagine the master dissolving into light that enters your heart and resides there as your innermost essence. Imagine that you dissolve into that light, and remain inpure awareness, rigpa.
There are more elaborate instructions for guru yoga that can involve prostrations, offerings, gestures, mantras, and more complicated visualizations, but the essence of the practice is mingling your mind with the mind of the master, which is pure, non-dual awareness. Guru yoga can be done any time during the day; the more often the better. Many masters say that of all the practices it is guru yoga that is the most important. It confers the blessings of the lineage and can open and soften the heart and quiet the unruly mind. To completely accomplish guru yoga is to accomplish the path.
~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep, [T3],#KEYS
7:For instance, a popular game with California occultists-I do not know its inventor-involves a Magic Room, much like the Pleasure Dome discussed earlier except that this Magic Room contains an Omniscient Computer.
To play this game, you simply "astrally project" into the Magic Room. Do not ask what "astral projection" means, and do not assume it is metaphysical (and therefore either impossible, if you are a materialist, or very difficult, if you are a mystic). Just assume this is a gedankenexperiment, a "mind game." Project yourself, in imagination, into this Magic Room and visualize vividly the Omniscient Computer, using the details you need to make such a super-information-processor real to your fantasy. You do not need any knowledge of programming to handle this astral computer. It exists early in the next century; you are getting to use it by a species of time-travel, if that metaphor is amusing and helpful to you. It is so built that it responds immediately to human brain-waves, "reading" them and decoding their meaning. (Crude prototypes of such computers already exist.) So, when you are in this magic room, you can ask this Computer anything, just by thinking of what you want to know. It will read your thought, and project into your brain, by a laser ray, the correct answer.
There is one slight problem. The computer is very sensitive to all brain-waves. If you have any doubts, it registers them as negative commands, meaning "Do not answer my question." So, the way to use it is to start simply, with "easy" questions. Ask it to dig out of the archives the name of your second-grade teacher. (Almost everybody remembers the name of their first grade teacher-imprint vulnerability again-but that of the second grade teacher tends to get lost.)
When the computer has dug out the name of your second grade teacher, try it on a harder question, but not one that is too hard. It is very easy to sabotage this machine, but you don't want to sabotage it during these experiments. You want to see how well it can be made to perform.
It is wise to ask only one question at a time, since it requires concentration to keep this magic computer real on the field of your perception. Do not exhaust your capacities for imagination and visualization on your first trial runs.
After a few trivial experiments of the second-grade-teacher variety, you can try more interesting programs. Take a person toward whom you have negative feelings, such as anger, disappointment, feeling-of-betrayal, jealousy or whatever interferes with the smooth, tranquil operation of your own bio-computer. Ask the Magic Computer to explain that other person to you; to translate you into their reality-tunnel long enough for you to understand how events seem to them. Especially, ask how you seem to them.
This computer will do that job for you; but be prepared for some shocks which might be disagreeable at first. This super-brain can also perform exegesis on ideas that seem obscure, paradoxical or enigmatic to us. For instance, early experiments with this computer can very profitably turn on asking it to explain some of the propositions in this book which may seem inexplicable or perversely wrong-headed to you, such as "We are all greater artists than we realize" or "What the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves" or "mind and its contents are functionally identical."
This computer is much more powerful and scientifically advanced than the rapture-machine in the neurosomatic circuit. It has total access to all the earlier, primitive circuits, and overrules any of them. That is, if you put a meta-programming instruction into this computer; it will relay it downward to the old circuits and cancel contradictory programs left over from the past. For instance, try feeding it on such meta-programming instructions as: 1. I am at cause over my body. 2. I am at cause over my imagination. 3.1 am at cause over my future. 4. My mind abounds with beauty and power. 5.1 like people, and people like me.
Remember that this computer is only a few decades ahead of present technology, so it cannot "understand" your commands if you harbor any doubts about them. Doubts tell it not to perform. Work always from what you can believe in, extending the area of belief only as results encourage you to try for more dramatic transformations of your past reality-tunnels.
This represents cybernetic consciousness; the programmer becoming self-programmer, self-metaprogrammer, meta-metaprogrammer, etc. Just as the emotional compulsions of the second circuit seem primitive, mechanical and, ultimately, silly to the neurosomatic consciousness, so, too, the reality maps of the third circuit become comic, relativistic, game-like to the metaprogrammer. "Whatever you say it is, it isn't, " Korzybski, the semanticist, repeated endlessly in his seminars, trying to make clear that third-circuit semantic maps are not the territories they represent; that we can always make maps of our maps, revisions of our revisions, meta-selves of our selves. "Neti, neti" (not that, not that), Hindu teachers traditionally say when asked what "God" is or what "Reality" is. Yogis, mathematicians and musicians seem more inclined to develop meta-programming consciousness than most of humanity. Korzybski even claimed that the use of mathematical scripts is an aid to developing this circuit, for as soon as you think of your mind as mind 1 , and the mind which contemplates that mind as mind2 and the mind which contemplates mind2 contemplating mind 1 as mind3, you are well on your way to meta-programming awareness. Alice in Wonderland is a masterful guide to the metaprogramming circuit (written by one of the founders of mathematical logic) and Aleister Crowley soberly urged its study upon all students of yoga. ~ Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:VISUALIZE!!! Rehearse your future. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 2:Everyone has the power to visualize. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 3:When you visualize, then you materialize. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 4:Visualize your successful outcome in great detail. ~ leo-babauta, @wisdomtrove 5:My last word s that it all depends on what you visualize. ~ amsel-adams, @wisdomtrove 6:VISUALIZE!!! See it, feel it! This is where action begins. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 7:If you can visualize it, if you can dream it, there's some way to do it. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 8:Visualize and think about yourself as you would ideally like to be, not just as you are. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 9:I can visualize the time when almost every family will have a small plane in their back yard. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 10:Imagine your ideal future. Visualize yourself as if your life were perfect in every respect. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 11:Meditate, Visualize and Create your own reality and the universe will simply reflect back to you. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 12:Close your eyes and visualize having what you already want - and the feeling of having it already. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 13:When you visualize, then you materialize. If you've been there in the mind you'll go there in the body ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 14:Persistent people are able to visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel when others can't see it ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 15:Visualize the soft white light continuing to expand as it gently swirls around, until it has filled the earth, the sky, the universe, and all of infinity. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 16:Start small; Think possibilities; Reach beyond your known abilities; Invest all you have in your dream; Visualize miracles; Expect to experience success. ~ robert-h-schuller, @wisdomtrove 17:Right now is the time for you to visualize and create your future. Make it as healthy and bright and joyful as you can. It's your life, and you're going to live it. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 18:Visualize your goal as already accomplished. Put yourself into a state of actually being there. Make it real in your mind, and you’ll soon see it in your reality. ~ steve-pavlina, @wisdomtrove 19:To visualize an image (in whole or in part) is to see clearly in the mind prior to exposure, a continuous projection from composing the image through the final print. ~ amsel-adams, @wisdomtrove 20:We've seen what can be accomplished when we use 50% of our human capacity. If you visualize what 100% can do, you'll join me as an unbridled optimist about America's future. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 21:Have an outcome in mind. How will you know when your project is complete? Visualize what the project will look like when you’re done. Then write this down in a sentence or two. ~ leo-babauta, @wisdomtrove 22:If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove 23:Focus your attention around the naval area, feel that spot. Visualize it. Do whatever it takes. When thoughts come in and out of your mind, pay no attention. You just stay right on that spot! ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 24:Connect with People Who Support You Identify friends and family who care about you, and try to spend more time with them. When you’re apart, visualize being with them and take in the good feelings. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 25:Close your eyes and visualize the person you really want to be, who fits your own concepts of self-respect. If you can see the person clearly in the mirror of you mind, you surely will become that person. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 26:Rehearsing failure is simply a bad habit, not a productive use of your time. When you choose to visualize the path that works, you're more likely to shore it up and create an environment where it can take place. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 27:Visualize a golden light within you and spread it out. First to those about you - your circle of friends and relatives - and then gradually to the world. Keep on visualizing God's golden light surrounding our earth. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 28:Focus your attention on the center of your forehead. Visualize that there is a slow but steady swirl of white light there. Visualize that the white light above your forehead is slowly moving in a clockwise direction. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 29:You can visualize God's light each day and send it to someone who needs help. Your divine nature must reach out and touch the divine nature of another. Within you is the light of the world, it must be shared with the world. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 30:Visualization is the process of creating pictures in your mind of yourself enjoying what you want. When you visualize, you generate powerful thoughts and feelings of having it now. The law of attraction then returns that reality to you, just as you saw it in your mind. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 31:Simply look with perceptive eyes at the world about you, and trust to your own reactions and convictions. Ask yourself: Does this subject move me to feel, think and dream? Can I visualize a print - my own personal statement of what I feel and want to convey - from the subject before me? ~ amsel-adams, @wisdomtrove 32:People who soar are those who refuse to sit back, sigh and wish things would change. They neither complain of their lot nor passively dream of some distant ship coming in. Rather, they visualize in their minds that they are not quitters; they will not allow life's circumstances to push them down and hold them under. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 33:When van Gogh paints sunflowers, he reveals, or achieves, the vivid relation between himself, as man, and the sunflower, as sunflower, at that quick moment of time. His painting does not represent the sunflower itself. We shall never know what the sunflower itself is. And the camera will visualize the sunflower far more perfectly than van Gogh can. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 34:A chief cause of unhappiness is what I call mental movies. Mental movies are a misuse of the imagination. You know how it goes. You have a painful experience with someone, then run it over and over in your mind. You visualize what you said, what he did, how you both felt. As awful as it is, you feel compelled to repeat the film day and night. It is as if you were locked inside a theatre playing a horrible movie. ~ vernon-howard, @wisdomtrove 35:Children, when we go to the temple, do not hurry to have darshan, then make some offering and return home in a hurry. We should stand there patiently in silence for some time and try to visualize the beloved deity in our hearts. If possible, we should sit down and meditate. At each step, remember to do japa. Amma doesn't say that the offerings and worship are not necessary, but of all the offerings we make, what the Lord wants most is our hearts! ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 36:When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that-which-is-not- God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 37:Imaginary testing is unreliable, and in many cases, it's a huge waste of time and energy. In truth you just don't know what will happen until you try. You may start a business, and it could take off in ways no one could predict. Or it could be a complete failure. You could ask for a date and end up with the partner of your dreams. Or you could be rejected cold. It's great to visualize what you want, but you never really know what's going to happen until you act. ~ steve-pavlina, @wisdomtrove 38:Pay attention to your body and mindset throughout the day. Notice any tightness. When you do, do the following: 1. Visualize it dissipating. Just imagine the tightness floating out of you and into the air, dissolving into little bits and then being blown away by the breeze. 2. Go from tight to loose. 3. Breathe. Take in a deep, slow breath. Smile. This transforms everything. You can now approach any activity, any moment, with an attitude of relaxed enjoyment. ~ leo-babauta, @wisdomtrove 39:For those of you who are seeing the spiritual life, I recommend these four daily practices: Spend time alone each day in receptive silence. When angry, or afflicted with any negative emotion, take time to be alone with God. (Do not talk with people who are angry; they are irrational and cannot be reasoned with. If you or they are angry, it is best to leave and pray.) Visualize God's light each day and send it to someone who needs help. Exercise the body, it is the temple of the soul. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 40:Connect with People Who Support You Identify friends and family who care about you, and try to spend more time with them. When you’re apart, visualize being with them and take in the good feelings. Companionship, even if only imagined, activates the brain’s attachment and social group circuitry. Physical and emotional closeness to caregivers and other members of the band was a necessity for survival during our evolutionary history. Consequently, activating a felt sense of closeness will probably help you feel safer. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:VISUALIZE!!! Rehearse your future. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
2:Everyone has the power to visualize. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
3:Numbers speak, drawings visualize. ~ Ibrahim Ibrahim, #NFDB
4:Visualize Yourself Doing, Not Achieving. ~ Richard Wiseman, #NFDB
5:Visualize success, but don't believe your eyes. ~ A C Newman, #NFDB
6:Visualize the end, and start at the beginning. ~ Carolyn Brown, #NFDB
7:My last word s that it all depends on what you visualize. ~ Ansel Adams, #NFDB
8:VISUALIZE!!! See it, feel it! This is where action begins. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
9:Don't visualize beating the keeper, visualize destroying the keeper. ~ Steven Gerrard, #NFDB
10:The man who cannot visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot. ~ Andr Breton, #NFDB
11:If you can visualize it, if you can dream it, there's some way to do it. ~ Walt Disney, #NFDB
12:Learn to think like a winner. Think positive and visualize your strengths. ~ Vic Braden, #NFDB
13:Affirm it, visualize it, believe it and it will actualize itself. ~ Norman Vincent Peale, #NFDB
14:I can't visualize the situation in which we nuke ourselves into extinction. ~ John Keegan, #NFDB
15:Visualize yourself effortlessly enjoying the process of achieving your goals. ~ Hal Elrod, #NFDB
16:The survivor may, seemingly without reason, visualize someone being abusive. ~ Pete Walker, #NFDB
17:Make sure you visualize what you really want, not what someone else wants for you. ~ Jerry Gillies, #NFDB
18:Prayerize, visualize, actualize—that is the formula for successful imaging. ~ Norman Vincent Peale, #NFDB
19:It's never too late to get a new design, and if you wanna compete you gotta visualize. ~ Ray Davies, #NFDB
20:If you don’t visualize what you want to accomplish, then you won’t accomplish anything. ~ Tim Dorsey, #NFDB
21:we tend to visualize future events very poorly and with a deficit of proper imagination. ~ Tyler Cowen, #NFDB
22:When you visualize the recent past, do you see it as being somewhere over on the left? ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
23:Stop looking at what you can't do and look ahead, to your safe landing. Visualize it. ~ Susan May Warren, #NFDB
24:Educate yourself make your world view bigger, visualize wealth, and put yourself in the picture ~ KRS One, #NFDB
25:People who are suffering have to visualize ways out of tragedy to actually get out of it. ~ Fred D Aguiar, #NFDB
26:Stop rehearsing life's failures. Use your beautiful imagination to visualize success. ~ Cheryl Richardson, #NFDB
27:Visualize a place that you really love, be there, see the details. Now write about it. ~ Natalie Goldberg, #NFDB
28:I can visualize the time when almost every family will have a small plane in their back yard. ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
29:I would hear the song of the columns and visualize in the pure sky the monument of a melody. ~ Paul Val ry, #NFDB
30:Develop a positive attitude. Think and picture how amazing you are going to be. Visualize it! ~ Jack LaLanne, #NFDB
31:Meditate, Visualize and Create your own reality and the universe will simply reflect back to you. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
32:Through imagination, we can visualize the uncredited worlds of potential that lie within us. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
33:I give myself a pep talk and visualize the routine. I tell myself: "I can do this, let's go!" ~ Gabby Douglas, #NFDB
34:It's hard to visualize someone as a leader, if she is always waiting to be told what to do. ~ Sheryl Sandberg, #NFDB
35:Through imagination, we can visualize the uncredited worlds of potential that lie within us. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
36:I try to visualize geometric shapes and patterns slowly spinning and expanding into infinity. ~ Martina McBride, #NFDB
37:I believed in myself and I am a firm believer you have to think the things you want and visualize. ~ John Legend, #NFDB
38:Close your eyes and visualize having what you already want - and the feeling of having it already. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
39:Can we find "The Universe in a grain of sand"? Well perhaps, but a stone seems easier to visualize. ~ Peter J Carroll, #NFDB
40:Visualize this thing you want. See it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin. ~ Robert Collier, #NFDB
41:We've been given the power to have what we visualize, but we tend to visualize what we already have. ~ Tommy Newberry, #NFDB
42:Everything I make as a producer, I visualize it as a DJ first. And all those beats, I test them as a DJ. ~ David Guetta, #NFDB
43:I try to help my athletes visualize their full potential, and then get out of the way as they achieve it. ~ Pat Roberts, #NFDB
44:Persistent people are able to visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel when others can't see it ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
45:I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans. And I am rooting for the machines. ~ Claude Shannon, #NFDB
46:Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person. ~ William Zinsser, #NFDB
47:If we knew what type of jobs would exist in 20 years, we would be quite rich. But we just cannot visualize it. ~ Branko Milanovic, #NFDB
48:I must visualize the scene, Apthorpe. When we are old men, memories of things like this will be our chief comfort. ~ Evelyn Waugh, #NFDB
49:I visualize the day that tridents and pentagrams are thrust into the sky from church roofs instead of crosses. ~ Anton Szandor LaVey, #NFDB
50:Reading is a creative activity. You have to visualize the characters, you have to hear what the voices sound like. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
51:Visualize the outcome you desire and these positive thoughts will connect you to the place where real miracles come from. ~ Steve Alten, #NFDB
52:It is true that I visualize music and, as I visualize music, I have some sort of story running in my head, all the time. ~ Susan Stroman, #NFDB
53:To deal with a 14-dimensional space, visualize a 3-D space and say 'fourteen' to yourself very loudly. Everyone does it. ~ Geoffrey Hinton, #NFDB
54:Your brain has a difficult time distinguishing between what you see with your eyes and what you visualize in your mind. ~ Travis Bradberry, #NFDB
55:Keep everything going at once and organized.” He shrugged. “It’s not so hard. Visualize the end, and start at the beginning. ~ Carolyn Brown, #NFDB
56:Visualize what you want to do before you do it. Visualization is so powerful that when you know what you want, you will get it. ~ Audrey Flack, #NFDB
57:It is impossible to imagine a four-dimensional space. I personally find it hard enough to visualize a three-dimensional space! ~ Stephen Hawking, #NFDB
58:If you visualize a failure, you tend to create the conditions that produce failure. Visualize-believe-and thank God in advance. ~ Norman Vincent Peale, #NFDB
59:When we visualize something, we establish a relationship to the thing itself, not to some mere subjective representation of it inside us. ~ Medard Boss, #NFDB
60:(As a boy) I was listening to Sonny Boy Williamson's (I) records and I would close my eyes and I could visualize myself playing the harp. ~ Junior Wells, #NFDB
61:I was so tired when I set out that hard as I tried I couldn’t properly visualize my own murder, I couldn’t fill in the details. ~ Louis Ferdinand C line, #NFDB
62:When you begin to visualize and hold powerful positive imagery in your mind, it appears almost like magic. This is the power of gratitude. ~ Demi Lovato, #NFDB
63:To be a scholar of mathematics you must be born with talent, insight, concentration, taste, luck, drive and the ability to visualize and guess. ~ Paul Halmos, #NFDB
64:Bruce Lee, before he fought, he would try to visualize how the fight would go, because he was visualizing a victorious path out of the combat. ~ Fred D Aguiar, #NFDB
65:You only have control over three things in your life—the thoughts you think, the images you visualize, and the actions you take (your behavior). ~ Jack Canfield, #NFDB
66:I'm talking like just the beauty, but at the same time to get people to realize that we should treasure it. Maybe visualize it, but leave it alone. A ~ DJ Spooky, #NFDB
67:I could open up the novel at any page and immediately know where I was in the story, could almost visualize the next sentence before I reached it. ~ Gail Honeyman, #NFDB
68:Shockley had the ability to visualize quantum theory, how it explained the movement of electrons, the way a choreographer can visualize a dance. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
69:Without imagination, there’s no power to visualize what we have never experienced... and without that, there can be no progress, no invention. ~ Max Allan Collins, #NFDB
70:You can be whoever you choose to become in the future, just do it. Just see it and visualize it and every day of your life project that about yourself. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
71:You must learn to take a step back and visualize the whole piece. If you focus only on the thread given to you, you lose sight of what it can become. ~ Colleen Houck, #NFDB
72:Let us face it: 'deep down' nobody in his right mind can visualize his own existence without assuming that he has always lived and will live hereafter. ~ Erik Erikson, #NFDB
73:The photo replaces the memory. When someone dies, after a while you can't visualize them anymore, you only remember them through their pictures. ~ Christian Boltanski, #NFDB
74:Doctors don’t seem to realize that most of us are perfectly content not having to visualize ourselves as animated bags of skin filled with obscene glop. ~ Joe Haldeman, #NFDB
75:I think mainly it's an optics thing: to be able to visualize a woman in a position of power. It's going to be wonderful for all of us in every field. ~ Natalie Portman, #NFDB
76:Sit quietly for a moment upon awakening and visualize who you want to be for the day. That will become a practice that can change your life considerably. ~ Karen Casey, #NFDB
77:It comes down to something really simple: Can I visualize myself playing those scenes? If that happens, then I know that I will probably end up doing it. ~ Jessica Lange, #NFDB
78:So you should be able to see them clearly in your imagination. We always find it easier to visualize what we fear; it's what keeps us afraid of the dark. ~ Michael Scott, #NFDB
79:Visualize the soft white light continuing to expand as it gently swirls around, until it has filled the earth, the sky, the universe, and all of infinity. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
80:I enjoy watching football on TV. Many times I can visualize the whole field, even on the TV screen, because I still know enough about what the teams are doing. ~ Tony Dungy, #NFDB
81:The images we see, as a culture, help define and expand our dreams, our perceptions of what is possible. Pictures of who we are help us visualize who we can be. ~ Tee Corinne, #NFDB
82:I can’t stop thinking about her. Nothing specific, nothing I can visualize or recall. It’s just pain and emptiness. Darkness. The light, the bright light, is gone. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
83:Words are a good first step. They have a lot of power. You can summon things by believing in them. First you visualize them being true, and then they come true. ~ Maddie Dawson, #NFDB
84:You have to visualize a second or two ahead of your car what line you are taking, what you are going to do, before you get there because it comes too fast. ~ Emerson Fittipaldi, #NFDB
85:Death? Why this fuss about death? Use your imagination, try to visualize a world without death! Death is the essential condition of life, not an evil. ~ Charlotte Perkins Gilman, #NFDB
86:Right now is the time for you to visualize and create your future. Make it as healthy and bright and joyful as you can. It's your life, and you're going to live it. ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
87:Visualize a sphere, a dome of red energy surrounding you. Feel that you are consciously directing energy from the center of your body, in the area of your naval. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
88:The quality you most admire in a woman? Courage moral and physical: "anima"-the ability to visualize the mind and need of a man. Also a sense of the absurd. ~ Christopher Hitchens, #NFDB
89:Without the ability to visualize a goal and believe it will be reached, nothing of substance will be achieved. Not by anybody. Not at any time. Not in any place. ~ Robert Herjavec, #NFDB
90:You can’t always visualize the path to victory from the sidelines, but once you’re in the game, it becomes clearer and clearer with every twist and turn. And, ~ Kirsten Gillibrand, #NFDB
91:Before starting a fitness program or diet, know why you're doing it. Have specific goals with deadlines and visualize the end result each night before going to bed. ~ Robert Cheeke, #NFDB
92:I usually know what kind of song I'm after. I know what I'm trying to do when I start. I don't always get there. But I try to visualize what it's actually going to be. ~ Jimmy Webb, #NFDB
93:To visualize an image (in whole or in part) is to see clearly in the mind prior to exposure, a continuous projection from composing the image through the final print. ~ Ansel Adams, #NFDB
94:Death? Why all this fuss about death? Use your imagination, try to visualize a world without death! Death is the essential condition to life, not an evil. ~ Charlotte Perkins Gilman, #NFDB
95:Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, once declared, “I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I’m rooting for the machines. ~ Michio Kaku, #NFDB
96:In Buddhist practice a great deal of time is spent practicing mandala meditation. You learn to visualize and hold simultaneous concepts in the mind during meditation. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
97:You've got to get your mind connected to the workout. Pay attention to what your body's doing. It's about connecting mind and the body. Visualize the muscles moving. ~ Michael Cudlitz, #NFDB
98:I visualize a day when tridents and pentagrams are thrust into the sky from church roofs instead of crosses. I have a legacy to fulfill, and it will be fulfilled. ~ Anton Szandor LaVey, #NFDB
99:Rather than being so ready to jump into action to get the things that you want, we say think them into being; see them, visualize them, and expect them—and they will be. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
100:To visualize is to see what is not there, what is not real - a dream. To visualize is, in fact, to make visual lies. Visual lies, however, have a way of coming true. ~ Peter McWilliams, #NFDB
101:In the development of both capitalism and communism, as we visualize them in the next fifty or a hundred years, the processes that encourage human alienation will continue. ~ Erich Fromm, #NFDB
102:So you should be able to see them clearly in your imagination. We always find it easier to visualize what we fear; it's what keeps us afraid of the dark." -Virginia Dare. ~ Michael Scott, #NFDB
103:In my book (and this is my book!) magical thinking is the alchemy that you can use to visualize and project yourself into the professional and personal life that you want. ~ Sophia Amoruso, #NFDB
104:The computer is the way I'm making books, but I still think about the physical properties. I visualize the length of a book, the proportions of a book, in material terms. ~ Jonathan Lethem, #NFDB
105:The songs that I like are the ones that you can't visualize, that are just cries from the heart - those very straight, direct songs that make rock & roll music so wonderful. ~ Nick Cave, #NFDB
106:I would visualize things coming to me. It would just make me feel better. Visualization works if you work hard. That's the thing. You can't just visualize and go eat a sandwich. ~ Jim Carrey, #NFDB
107:We've seen what can be accomplished when we use 50% of our human capacity. If you visualize what 100% can do, you'll join me as an unbridled optimist about America's future. ~ Warren Buffett, #NFDB
108:If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
109:When I'm preparing for a swim, I imagine absolutely everything about it: the color of the water, how cold it is, the taste of salt in my mouth. I visualize each and every stroke. ~ Lewis Gordon, #NFDB
110:I created the characters from what I read in the script. I decided how I should talk, accent, no accent, my own voice, or a created voice. Then, I visualize what I should look like. ~ Ruth Buzzi, #NFDB
111:Some visualize the Pistols era in shades of black and white. It wasn't. Actually, the colors I envision are neon or army dirt green with fluorescent pink--anything that would annoy." ~ John Lydon, #NFDB
112:Visualize a house that’s opening its front door to you and welcoming you to bask in the sacred warmth of its interior, and imagine leaving all angst and fear behind as you walk in. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
113:As long as you visualize this sphere of red energy surrounding you, negative thoughts, hostilities, anger, and aggressive feelings of other persons and situations cannot enter you. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
114:Whenever I heard the song of a bird and the answering call of its mate, I could visualize the notes in scale, all built up within my consciousness as a natural symphony. ~ William Christopher Handy, #NFDB
115:The "kingdom of heaven" to which he referred was the state of God-consciousness, not the beautiful astral heavens that most people visualize, where virtuous souls go after death. ~ Goswami Kriyananda, #NFDB
116:The first step, then, is to consciously decide—every night, before bed—to actively and mindfully create a positive expectation for the next morning. Visualize it and affirm it to yourself. ~ Hal Elrod, #NFDB
117:And it was making me a little queasy. Doctors don’t seem to realize that most of us are perfectly content not having to visualize ourselves as animated bags of skin filled with obscene glop. ~ Joe Haldeman, #NFDB
118:A couple of times a day I sit quietly and visualize my body fighting the AIDS virus. It's the same as me sitting and seeing myself hit the perfect serve. I did that often when I was an athlete. ~ Arthur Ashe, #NFDB
119:Think of the person you love the most in the world. Do you really see them visually? Or don't you see on a much deeper level? It's lots easier to visualize people we don't know very well. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
120:Visualize a beautiful rose in the center of your chest. Imagine a soft reddish rose. Imagine that the rose is completely folded up. Visualize the first set of petals is gradually unfolding. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
121:Focus your attention around the naval area, feel that spot. Visualize it. Do whatever it takes. When thoughts come in and out of your mind, pay no attention. You just stay right on that spot! ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
122:I couldn't even think about wanting to be something else; I wouldn't let myself visualize another life. But I wrote because I couldn't stop. It was a release, a mental exercise, a way of keeping sane. ~ Jay Z, #NFDB
123:You visualize [pitches]. You see it in your head; you think it...I used to play every pitcher in my mind before I went to the ballpark. I started getting ready for ever game the moment I woke up. ~ Hank Aaron, #NFDB
124:If you want to visualize something in its fullness you have to look at every perspective and every angle, and that means - sometimes uncomfortably - looking at things you don't want to look at. ~ David Mccandless, #NFDB
125:My sense is that the wonderful technology that we have to visualize the inside of the body often leaves physicians feeling that the exam is a waste of time and so they may shortchange the ritual. ~ Abraham Verghese, #NFDB
126:You always start with a fantasy. Part of the fantasy technique is to visualize something as perfect. Then with the experiments you work back from the fantasy to reality, hacking away at the components. ~ Edwin Land, #NFDB
127:A useful technique for implementing the problem-solving process above is to visualize the problem using a logic tree. A logic tree is a simplified sketch of relationships branching out from left to right. ~ Blinkist, #NFDB
128:Think about where you’d like to be a year from now and use every bit of your imagination to visualize it. You’ll need to do this with a serious intent if you want to make your wishes your reality. ~ Karen McQuestion, #NFDB
129:Perhaps you can visualize him saying a thing like that! Myself it's not clear what his idea of me was, or at any rate, it's clear that I was just pure idea, an idea that kept itself alive without food. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
130:Every now and then I’d squint my eyes to visualize a time when I’d start feeling the craving myself: when I was thirty, it would be at thirty-two; at thirty-two, I’d be ready by thirty-six; and on it went. ~ Meghan Daum, #NFDB
131:As a kid I always idolized the winning athletes. It is one thing to idolize heroes. It is quite another to visualize yourself in their place. When I saw great people, I said to myself: I can be there. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger, #NFDB
132:As I visualize it, the business of the future will be a scientific, social and economic unit. It will be vigorously creative in pure science where its contributions will compare with those of the universities... ~ Edwin Land, #NFDB
133:I love to act, I've always wanted to be an actor. I think that acting and fiction go nicely together - being able to visualize language as something you perform, not just something that's there on the page. ~ Gary Shteyngart, #NFDB
134:Rehearsing failure is simply a bad habit, not a productive use of your time. When you choose to visualize the path that works, you're more likely to shore it up and create an environment where it can take place. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
135:And now a hundred subjective years had passed in those hundred objective hours and he could no longer clearly visualize the university at all or the life of sad frustration he had been leading there toward the end. ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
136:Architects mostly work for privileged people, people who have money and power,” Ban said recently. “Power and money are invisible, so people hire us to visualize their power and money by making monumental architecture. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
137:I think about a storm rolling in with black clouds and I visualize the lightning and try to draw energy from that, and I think: all I have to do is beat this man until he stops moving, then I can go home to my son. ~ Carlos Condit, #NFDB
138:I study pitchers. I visualize pitches. That gives me a better chance every time I step into the box. That doesn't mean I'm going to get a hit every game, but that's one of the reasons I've come a long way as a hitter. ~ Mark McGwire, #NFDB
139:By closing your eyes and forming images of your choice, you begin to control your imagination. Like dreaming, when you visualize you should be able to use all of your senses to experience what you ‘see around you. ~ Storm Constantine, #NFDB
140:Focus your attention on the center of your forehead. Visualize that there is a slow but steady swirl of white light there. Visualize that the white light above your forehead is slowly moving in a clockwise direction. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
141:The audience has to understand that if the film is going to have any meaning for them. If they are going to empathize with the characters, they have to visualize the process of concentration involved in making every move. ~ Conrad Hall, #NFDB
142:And, please, as you visualize your future, don’t be afraid to be blue sky. People these days are measured by the size of their dreams. No one accomplishes more than he sets out to accomplish. So visualize a big future. ~ David J Schwartz, #NFDB
143:Like Nhat Hanh—who, in a passage entitled “Tangerine Meditation,” reminds us not only to notice our food’s taste and fragrance, but also to visualize “the blossoms in the sunshine and in the rain”—I saw beauty in my food. ~ Tovar Cerulli, #NFDB
144:All of a sudden, those few pages of script that he had shown me with the weird images I could visualize all of that in my brain, and I knew that there was this mad little genius at work here and I really wanted to do the film. ~ Jack Nance, #NFDB
145:I can't do fiction unless I visualize what's going on. When I began to write science fiction, one of the things I found lacking in it was visual specificity. It seemed there was a lot of lazy imagining, a lot of shorthand. ~ William Gibson, #NFDB
146:IMAGINATION: one of the most powerful tools that humans have to help us visualize our dreams and goals. Imagination is our ability to form mental images and concepts in our brains to foster ideas and turn our goals into reality. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
147:I hear him in the creak and groan of the floorboards as the summer nights stretch them, can visualize him sitting at the foot of my bed, saying, Other houses have support beams and foundations. Ours has bones and a heartbeat. I ~ Emily Henry, #NFDB
148:Take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Mentally picture all tiredness, tension, and fatigue leaving you. Visualize that a wave of golden light is entering you at the top of your head and passing throughout your entire body. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
149:Before the first press pictures, the ordinary man would visualize only those events that took place near him, on his street or in his village. Photography opened a window. As the reader's outlook expanded, the world began to shrink. ~ Gisele Freund, #NFDB
150:In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular... sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice. ~ Ansel Adams, #NFDB
151:I am interested in the paradox between identity and uniformity, in the power and vulnerability of each individual and each group. It is in this paradox that I try to visualize by concentrating on poses, attitudes, gestures, and gazes. ~ Rineke Dijkstra, #NFDB
152:When you start your meditation, picture a beautiful blue sky without any clouds in it. Feel that your body is growing lighter. Visualize that you are floating in the sky and that all tension, fatigue, worry and problems have left you. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
153:Always remember the good things that we do. They have to outweigh the evil we fight against otherwise we lose. You have to visualize how this ends and how life goes on after we win; otherwise the present swallows you whole with despair. ~ Rachel Higginson, #NFDB
154:Now imagine that you are going beneath the surface of the ocean. Below the surface all is calm, silent, and serene. As you visualize yourself going deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean, feel that a profound peace is entering you. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
155:I mean, if 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself "Dijkstra would not have liked this," well, that would be enough immortality for me. ~ Edsger Dijkstra, #NFDB
156:I mean, if 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself "Dijkstra would not have liked this", well, that would be enough immortality for me. ~ Edsger W Dijkstra, #NFDB
157:Their presence and attitude remind me of Raffe. He would fit in. It’s easy to visualize him sitting in the booth with that group, drinking and laughing with the gang. Well, the laughing part takes a little imagination, but I’m sure he’s capable of it. ~ Susan Ee, #NFDB
158:A lot of people think, “If I think positive thoughts, or if I visualize having what I want, that will be enough.” But if you’re doing that and still not feeling abundant, or feeling loving or joyful, then it doesn’t create the power of the attraction. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
159:Do we not all do monstrous things to prevent the ultimate monstrous act? I like to visualize the world as a china plate held aloft by two sticks, one the US, the other the USSR. If one stick rises, so must the other, or else the plate goes smash. ~ Guillermo del Toro, #NFDB
160:creative forces comes only when there is a completely rounded-out thought, when there is a fully developed mental picture, or when the imagination can visualize the fulfillment of our ambition and see in our mind a picture of the object we desire... ~ Claude M Bristol, #NFDB
161:The idea that I’ve wounded the brute’s tiny cat feelings just invites further taunting. But Prim’s genuinely distressed for him. So instead, I visualize Buttercup’s fur lining a pair of gloves, an image that has helped me deal with him over the years. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
162:But a book? You go into it. There’s no visual or auditory other than what forms in your own mind. You visualize the characters, the scene, through the words. You, as reader, interpret the tone of voice, the colors, the movement as you physically turn the pages. ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
163:What comes to mind when you think of heaven? Heaven is referred to in fifty-four of the Bible's sixty-six books, and the final two chapters of the Bible are a virtual travelogue of our heavenly home. To visualize heaven accurately, study the Bible continually. ~ David Jeremiah, #NFDB
164:It's hard to visualize James Bond without seeing one of the actors who played him. And it's hard to visualize Harry Potter without seeing Daniel Radcliffe. A movie is so visually powerful, so overwhelming, that it tends to crowd out how you might have imagined things. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
165:Visualization is the process of creating pictures in your mind of yourself enjoying what you want. When you visualize, you generate powerful thoughts and feelings of having it now. The law of attraction then returns that reality to you, just as you saw it in your mind. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
166:If our scientists invent concepts like forces, it is only because they cannot visualize the invisible vibrations that fill the empty space around us. Some scientists sneer at the mention of higher dimensions because they cannot be conveniently measured in the laboratory. ~ Michio Kaku, #NFDB
167:A lot of people assume that New Castrati meant "gay." No, that's why I came up with the term "New Castrati." It has nothing to do with sexual orientation. It has to do with lack of manhood. It has to do with men with no "circular orbs," however you wish to visualize it. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
168:When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that-which-is-not-God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
169:At a personal level, as a Buddhist practitioner, I deliberately visualize and think about death in my daily practice. Death is not separated from our lives. Due to my research and thoughts about death, I have some guarantee and some conviction that it will be a positive experience. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
170:I had often joked in my speeches that I had imaginary conversations with Mrs. Roosevelt to solicit her advice on a range of subjects. It's actually a useful mental exercise to help analyze problems, provided you choose the right person to visualize. Eleanor Roosevelt was ideal. ~ Hillary Clinton, #NFDB
171:When I can’t sleep, I think about the transparent glass box that is still stirring with life even in the darkness of night. That pristine aquarium is still operating like clockwork. As I visualize the scene, the sounds of the store reverberate in my eardrums and lull me to sleep. ~ Sayaka Murata, #NFDB
172:But visualization isn’t simply about daydreaming of some trophy ceremony—real or metaphorical. You must also visualize the challenges that are likely to arise and determine how you will attack those problems when they do. That way you can be as prepared as possible on the journey. ~ David Goggins, #NFDB
173:Where should I start? Start from the statement of the problem. ... What can I do? Visualize the problem as a whole as clearly and as vividly as you can. ... What can I gain by doing so? You should understand the problem, familiarize yourself with it, impress its purpose on your mind. ~ George Polya, #NFDB
174:I devote well over an hour at target practice for two reasons. First, there are a number of new weapons to train with, and I want to test them all out. Second, I naturally visualize Isla’s face in place of the target sheet, and I never get tired of blasting her head into smithereens. ~ Siobhan Davis, #NFDB
175:When hope is fleeting, stop for a moment and visualize, in a sky of silver, the crescent of a lavender moon. Imagine it -- delicate, slim, precise, like a paper-thin slice from a cabochon jewel.
It may not be very useful, but it is beautiful.
And sometimes it is enough. ~ Vera Nazarian,#NFDB
176:All Egypt is obsessed with death! And do you know why, Renisenb? Because we have eyes in our bodies, but none in our minds. We cannot conceive of a life other than this one - of a life after death. We can visualize only a continuation of what we know. We have no real belief in a God. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
177:The events might have taken place twelve centuries back, but when I closed my eyes, I could visualize many things. It made me very emotional. Later, when I grew up, I became passionate about history and started detaching it from emotional point of view and became more aware of the facts. ~ Sudha Murty, #NFDB
178:Always, when you know what you don't want, that's when the rocket of desire is born of what you do want. That is the fruit of your experience. Now pluck it and savor it and enjoy it. Visualize it, and find the feeling place of it. And live happily ever after, once you get the hang of this. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
179:"Simply look with perceptive eyes at the world about you, and trust to your own reactions and convictions. Ask yourself: "Does this subject move me to feel, think and dream? Can I visualize a print - my own personal statement of what I feel and want to convey - from the subject before me?"" ~ Ansel Adams, #NFDB
180:if we look forward to a future in which mankind behaves rationally and avoids self-destruction, we can visualize a world that will be more complicated than the one we know today, but a world that will run better and, most of all, a world in which the individual will count for more, not less. ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
181:If you would like to imagine the birth of the mighty National Security Agency, please visualize two men in a small room, one with a pug nose, pecking at a typewriter, the other a dandy in a suit and bow tie, smoking a pipe, wondering what his wife was up to at home, and if she was missing him. ~ Jason Fagone, #NFDB
182:The Russell Cosmogony with its new concepts of light, matter, energy, electricity and magnetism is a simple yet complete, consistent and workable cosmogony which will enable future scientists to visualize the universe as a unified whole, and will open the door to the New Age of Transmutation. ~ Walter Russell, #NFDB
183:One easy way to visualize the special angles in radians is to think of the twelve hours numbered around the circumference of a clock face. One hour of travel by the hour hand is π/6, two hours is π/3, three hours is π/2, six hours is π, and so on. (Thanks are due to Jeffrey T. Birt for this suggestion.) ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
184:No matter what the odds, we can make this lifetime the best it can be. Think of the story about Morris Goodman in the film of The Secret. Morris lay in hospital completely paralyzed, only able to blink his eyes. But he knew he could still use his mind to visualize, and, against all odds, Morris walked. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
185:...she was at war with the world and woke up each day feeling bruised, imagining a horde of faceless people who were all against her. It terrified her, to be unable to visualize tomorrow...To be here, living abroad, not knowing when she could go home again, was to watch love become anxiety. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #NFDB
186:When I write, I never think of segments as chapters; I think of them as scenes. I always visualize them in my mind. Then I try to get the scene down on paper as closely as I can. That's the one thing that readers don't see - what you have in your mind. The reader can only see what you get on the page. ~ Robert Cormier, #NFDB
187:Schwartz said that several of the early computer engineers relied on LSD in designing circuit chips, especially in the years before they could be designed on computers. “You had to be able to visualize a staggering complexity in three dimensions, hold it all in your head. They found that LSD could help. ~ Michael Pollan, #NFDB
188:You only have control over three things in your life - the thoughts you think, the images you visualize, and the actions you take (your behavior). How you use these three things determines everything you experience. If you don't like what you are producing and experiencing, you have to change your responses. ~ Jack Canfield, #NFDB
189:The cold war was over, but all the little games persisted. It was a good thing those puppets in the Middle East had been too busy grubbing around in their deserts to play any serious role in international espionage ... She took a calming moment to visualize the entire Arab world as a giant parking lot. Lovely. ~ Magnus Flyte, #NFDB
190:Radio astronomy reflects our fascination with how audio can be used to understand information or ideas. Just as scientists visualize data through charts and pictures, we can use 'data sonification' to translate radio signals into sound that help us better understand some of our most enigmatic planetary systems. ~ Honor Harger, #NFDB
191:He was exhausting. “You know I only want to sleep with you,” I blurted out. His sigh was both annoying and sweet at the same time. “Now, you see? Was that so hard?” I could actually visualize my hands around his throat, squeezing. “You’re thinking about throttling me, aren’t you?” He really did know me very well. ~ Mary Calmes, #NFDB
192:On the other hand, although I have a regular work schedule, I take time to go for long walks on the beach so that I can listen to what is going on inside my head. If my work isn't going well, I lie down in the middle of a workday and gaze at the ceiling while I listen and visualize what goes on in my imagination. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
193:Let yourself remember and visualize the ways you have hurt others. See the pain you have caused out of your own fear and confusion. Feel your own sorrow and regret. Sense that finally you can release this burden and ask for forgiveness. Take as much time as you need to picture each memory that still burdens your heart. ~ Iyanla Vanzant, #NFDB
194:To ask ‘What should we do with our brain?’ is above all to visualize the possibility of saying no to an afflicting economic, political, and mediatic culture that celebrates only the triumph of flexibility, blessing obedient individuals who have no greater merit than that of knowing how to bow their heads with a smile. ~ Catherine Malabou, #NFDB
195:The most dangerous threats to our species are precisely those that are most difficult to visualize: long-term, slow to emerge, amorphous. These threats include not only warming temperatures but also mutating viruses and political corruption and tend to be invisible, dimensionless, and pervasive, like death. Like natural gas. ~ Hope Jahren, #NFDB
196:Any man was capable of jaunting provided he developed two faculties, visualization and concentration. He had to visualize, completely and precisely, the spot to which he desired to teleport himself; and he had to concentrate the latent energy of his mind into a single thrust to get him there. Above all, he had to have faith. ~ Alfred Bester, #NFDB
197:I tried to visualize my jealousy as a yellowy-brown cloud boiling around inside me, then going out through my nose like smoke and turning into a stone and falling down into the ground. That did work a little. But in my visualization a plant covered with poison berries would grow out of the stone, whether I wanted it to or not. ~ Margaret Atwood, #NFDB
198:She’d long ago given up trying to visualize God. There was no He or She. This was a Presence higher than gender, race or religion, transcending identity. All she would ever hope to do was follow the lamplit path into a place within and yet beyond her own heart and stay there and wait, patient and passive and without forced piety. ~ Phil Rickman, #NFDB
199:I don't see any Stoic practice as problematic or risky, but I would advise to engage in extreme versions of the negative visualization exercise only if you are an advanced practitioner. The negative visualization is a meditation during which you visualize, slowly and deliberately, something bad or discomforting happening to you. ~ Massimo Pigliucci, #NFDB
200:IT’S so WRONG, so profoundly wrong, for a child to die before its parents. It’s hard enough to bury our parents. But that we expect. Our parents belong to our past, our children belong to our future. We do not visualize our future without them. How can I bury my son, my future, one of the next in line? He was meant to bury me! ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff, #NFDB
201:What is needed at that moment is a step away from the problem so that we can view it in the proper perspective. If a student depressed with his result, could just visualize his entire life and see himself years later in a successful career with a happy family and well cared-for parents, would the marks he has got at this moment matter at all? ~ Various, #NFDB
202:If you’re going to spend time thinking about bad things that might happen, then use that energy for a purpose. Go ahead and visualize the worst that can happen. But instead of wallowing in your worries, imagine how you’ll respond to them. Practice. Mentally rehearse what you’ll do. Imagine and envision yourself making it through hardship. ~ Eric Greitens, #NFDB
203:think them into being; see them, visualize them, and expect them—and they will be. And you will be guided, inspired, or led to the perfect action that will bring about the process that will lead you to that which you seek . . . and there is a great difference between that which we have spoken and the way most of the world is going about it. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
204:It's the feeling that really creates the attraction, not just the picture or the thought. A lot of people think, “If I think the positive thoughts, or if I visualize having what I want, that will be enough.” But if you're doing that and still not feeling abundant, or feeling loving or joyful, then it doesn't create the power of the attraction. ~ Jack Canfield, #NFDB
205:Your mental picture of yourself has a powerful effect on your behavior. Visualize yourself as the person you intend to be in the future. Your self-image, the way you see yourself on the inside, largely determines your performance on the outside. All
improvement in your outer life begins with improvements in your mental pictures, on the inside. ~ Brian Tracy,#NFDB
206:The word “autism” still conveys a fixed and dreadful meaning to most people—they visualize a child mute, rocking, screaming, inaccessible, cut off from human contact. And we almost always speak of autistic children, never of autistic adults, as if such children never grew up, or were somehow mysteriously spirited off the planet, out of society. ~ Temple Grandin, #NFDB
207:We can learn to trust ourselves by inquiring within. To practice doing this, sit quietly, close your eyes, and for a minute focus your attention on your breathing. Gently visualize your inner wisdom as a graceful butterfly. Admire her beauty, and encourage your butterfly to sit on your shoulder and whisper her wisdom in your ear. Be still and listen. ~ Sue Thoele, #NFDB
208:When van Gogh paints sunflowers, he reveals, or achieves, the vivid relation between himself, as man, and the sunflower, as sunflower, at that quick moment of time. His painting does not represent the sunflower itself. We shall never know what the sunflower itself is. And the camera will visualize the sunflower far more perfectly than van Gogh can. ~ D H Lawrence, #NFDB
209:If you want to increase your neural resonance skills, take a moment right now and practice. Turn your attention to someone who’s talking near you, or watch a person being interviewed on TV. As they talk, imagine that you are that person. Visualize yourself in the position they describe and put in as much detail as you can, as if you were actually there. ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
210:All things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
211:There are so many things happening nowadays that you've seen in films from years ago, like cloning and all of those things are actually happening now, so we can kind of visualize it a lot more, and I think our generation particularly know that we're going to be a big part of that, we we're kind of fascinated with how human beings will fare in the world. ~ Kaya Scodelario, #NFDB
212:Visualize a wagon wheel as a complete team. A leader might be the hub of the wheel at the center. Now suppose the spokes are the connecting relationships the leader is building with people on the outer rim of the wheel. If the hub is removed, then the entire wheel collapses. In a situation like that, if a team loses the leader, the entire team collapses. ~ Mike Krzyzewski, #NFDB
213:Every NBA arena has six cameras in the ceiling. The question is what does the software do with video feeds? How to surface that in a set of analytics? There are some "playbooks," but in most sports these days what you really want to share out with coaches and players is a set of video that lets you visualize what's going on and what's the best way to do things. ~ Steve Ballmer, #NFDB
214:If you need to visualize the soul, think of it as a cross between a wolf howl, a photon and a dribble of dark molasses. But what it really is, as near as I can tell, is a packet of information. It's a program, a piece of hyperspatial software designed explicitly to interface with the Mystery. Not a mystery, mind you - the Mystery. The one that can never be solved. ~ Tom Robbins, #NFDB
215:We know under Nebraska there is an underground aquifer that is probably underneath the whole state, but what form does it take? I kind of want to focus on that, for almost political means, because we keep digging more wells. We're not replenishing, and we're having a crisis in water around the world. But how do you visualize it? I don't know, so I know what I want to study. ~ Maya Lin, #NFDB
216:With hindsight we visualize memories of things, places, and events from the past. With foresight, we are also able to look forward in time—to use our imagination to envision a possible future. Imagination therefore enables us to have both a sense of history as well as a plan for the future. It establishes connections—visual bridges—between the past, present, and future. ~ Francis D K Ching, #NFDB
217:One of the most essential and mundane of human activities - taking care of children - requires high levels of anxious vigilance. ... [Parents] dare not risk assuming that the sudden quiet from the toddlers' room means they are studying with Baby Einstein. Visualize fratricidal stranglings and electric outlets stabbed with forks: this is how we have reproduced our genomes. ~ Barbara Ehrenreich, #NFDB
218:Architects mostly work for privileged people, people who have money and power. Power and money are invisible, so people hire us to visualize their power and money by making monumental architecture. I love to make monuments, too, but I thought perhaps we can use our experience and knowledge more for the general public, even for those who have lost their houses in natural disasters. ~ Shigeru Ban, #NFDB
219:The writing is never what takes the most time. It’s trying to figure what you’re going to put down that fills the days. With anger at your own ineptitude, with frustration that nothing is happening inside your head, with panic that maybe nothing will ever happen inside your head, with blessed little moments that somehow knit together so that you can begin to visualize a scene. ~ William Goldman, #NFDB
220:When the industrial revolution happened there was the Luddistic movement, and there was a fear that machinery would replace all the labor. Whenever we had a technological revolution we had this fear. So if you look backwards, these fears were not justified, and I think they were driven by our very human inability to visualize what new jobs will be created by this new technology. ~ Branko Milanovic, #NFDB
221:As Anne Lamott said, “Expectations are resentments waiting to happen.” We have the tendency to visualize an entire scenario or conversation or outcome, and when things don’t go the way we’d imagined, disappointment can become resentment. This often happens when our expectations are based on outcomes we can’t control, like what other people think, what they feel, or how they’re going to react. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
222:Onward and away from the self, until the lat substantial particle of the soul be stretched to infinity. In her panic-stricken flight she seemed to bear the whole world in her womb. We were being driven out of the confines of the universe towards a nebula which no instrument could visualize. We were being rushed to a pause so still, so prolonged, that death by comparison seems a mad witches' revel. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
223:That is as true for fiction or non-fiction. The writer has to really know their subject. It is really important to remember that the readers are a lot smarter than the writer. Also, good writing has to do with rewriting. You will never get it right the first time. So you rewrite and rewrite again until you get it right. Until you, and the reader, will be able to visualize what you're writing about. ~ Michael Scott, #NFDB
224:A near win shifts our view of the landscape. It can turn future goals, which we tend to envision at a distance, into more proximate events. We consider temporal distance as we do spatial distance. (Visualize a great day tomorrow and we see it with granular, practical clarity. But picture what a great day in the future might be like, not tomorrow but fifty years from now, and the image will be hazier.) ~ Sarah Lewis, #NFDB
225:I had Paterson, and The Art Lover, to guide me for The Tales of Horror (written from 1988-'97 and published in 1999), but I still was so lost, back then, as I tried to understand what I was writing and how it went together. There was a draft of that manuscript that had all these brightly colored paper clips on the pages so I could visualize what I saw as the book's themes and threads - that was a long time ago. ~ Laura Mullen, #NFDB
226:A chief cause of unhappiness is what I call mental movies. Mental movies are a misuse of the imagination. You know how it goes. You have a painful experience with someone, then run it over and over in your mind. You visualize what you said, what he did, how you both felt. As awful as it is, you feel compelled to repeat the film day and night. It is as if you were locked inside a theatre playing a horrible movie. ~ Vernon Howard, #NFDB
227:The process of creating art allows me to learn about the subject I'm illustrating. So, if I want to learn more about plantation life and slavery, I try to find clients that will give me an opportunity to work on projects that will visualize those experiences of the enslaved African and people of color. I get to learn about my roots, and my artwork allows the reader into that world by creating images that are accessible. ~ Jerry Pinkney, #NFDB
228:A vid comes to you, even at you. It’s visual, it’s auditory, and can, of course, pull you in. Its purpose is to do just that, draw you into the world you see and hear. But a book? You go into it. There’s no visual or auditory other than what forms in your own mind. You visualize the characters, the scene, through the words. You, as reader, interpret the tone of voice, the colors, the movement as you physically turn the pages. ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
229:To conjure a particular knowledge you visualize an architectural structure and then you walk around and see the details that then bring back the words or the poetry or the lines of thought. Memory's going extinct because we rely on machines and copies and so on. The idea of working with structures that conjure dreams, personages, history, time, that can be contained in this way as you walk through your mind, is a challenge. ~ Anne Waldman, #NFDB
230:The ripple effects of young Opal's murder in the corner of a field were more widespread than even Artemis could have imagined, though in truth imagine is the wrong verb, as Artemis Fowl was not in the habit of imagining anything. Even as a small boy, he had never nurtured daydreams of himself on horseback fighting dragons. What Artemis preferred to do was visualize an achievable objective and then work toward that goal. ~ Eoin Colfer, #NFDB
231:If I ever have to cast an acting role, I want the wrong person for the part. I can never visualize the right person in a part. The right person for the right part would be too much. Besides, no person is every completely right for any part, because part in a role is never real, so if you can't get someone who's perfectly right, it's more satisfying to get someone who's perfectly wrong. Then you know you've really got something. ~ Andy Warhol, #NFDB
232:Dimly, as if through a veil, geneticists were beginning to visualize patterns and themes: threads, strings, maps, crossings, broken and unbroken lines, chromosomes that carried information in a coded and compressed form. But no one had seen a gene in action or knew its material essence. The central quest of the study of heredity seemed like an object perceived only through its shadows, tantalizingly invisible to science. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee, #NFDB
233:Imagination is a great force. On the path of meditation, imagination is a barrier; on the path of love, imagination is a help. On the path of love, imagination is used as a device: You are told to imagine as intensely and passionately as possible. But on the path of meditation the same thing becomes a barrier.
Imagination simply means that you visualize a certain thing but you put so much energy into it that it almost becomes real. ~ Osho,#NFDB
234:I had a moment to visualize Larry out in the dark all alone, unarmed except for his cross. The thought made my skin cold. I opened my mouth to yell at him and closed it. Never dress anyone down in public unless it's an object lesson. I said, "Any tracks?" I gave myself a dozen brownie points for yelling.
"Do I look like Tonto? Beside the ground is just grass and it's been so dry lately. I don't think there'd be any tracks. ~ Laurell K Hamilton,#NFDB
235:And because the PageRanks are defined as proportions, they have to add up to 1 when summed over the whole network. This conservation law suggests another, perhaps more palpable, way to visualize PageRank. Picture it as a fluid, a watery substance that flows through the network, draining away from bad pages and pooling at good ones. The algorithm seeks to determine how this fluid distributes itself across the network in the long run. ~ Steven H Strogatz, #NFDB
236:Scientific realism in classical (i.e. pre-quantum) physics has remained compatible with the naive realism of everyday thinking on the whole; whereas it has proven impossible to find any consistent way to visualize the world underlying quantum theory in terms of our pictures in the everyday world. The general conclusion is that in quantum theory naive realism, although necessary at the level of observations, fails at the microscopic level. ~ Ravi Gomatam, #NFDB
237:Not unlike most people. When I dwell with you, I do so in the present—I live in the present. Not the past, although much can be remembered and learned by looking back, but only for a visit, not an extended stay. And for sure, I do not dwell in the future you visualize or imagine. Mack, do you realize that your imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely, if ever, pictures me there with you? ~ William Paul Young, #NFDB
238:I really do seek to create music that is timeless, ... Each project takes on its own life, and the songs from "A Time To Love" are the most appropriate for the statement I wanted to make...The most important thing is, when I do give the music, I'm satisfied with it, that it speaks for what I want to do...It is a different kind of lyric; it's very picturesque. I can see everything that I'm writing, I can visualize all those things happening. ~ Stevie Wonder, #NFDB
239:Can a physicist visualize an electron? The electron is materially inconceivable and yet, it is so perfectly known through its effects that we use it to illuminate our cities, guide our airlines through the night skies and take the most accurate measurements. What strange rationale makes some physicists accept the inconceivable electrons as real while refusing to accept the reality of a Designer on the ground that they cannot conceive Him? ~ Wernher von Braun, #NFDB
240:Visualize yourself confronted with the task of killing, one after the other, a cabbage, a fly, a fish, a lizard, a guinea pig, a cat, a dog, a monkey and a baby chimpanzee. In the unlikely case that you should experience no greater inhibitions in killing the chimpanzee than in destroying the cabbage or the fly, my advice to you is to commit suicide at your earliest possible convenience, because you are a weird monstrosity and a public danger. ~ Konrad Lorenz, #NFDB
241:The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel. I have read hundreds of personal development books, but this is the one that clearly showed me how to visualize, contemplate, and focus on what it was I truly wanted. It revealed to me that we only get what we desire most, and to apply myself with a laserlike focus upon a goal, task, or project. That in order to “have” you must “do,” and in order to “do” you must “be”—and this process is immediate. ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
242:I don't understand why we have to experiment with film. I think everything should be done on paper. A musician has to do it, a composer. He puts a lot of dots down and beautiful music comes out. And I think that students should be taught to visualize. That's the one thing missing in all this. The one thing that the student has got to do is to learn that there is a rectangle up there - a white rectangle in a theater - and it has to be filled. ~ Alfred Hitchcock, #NFDB
243:Magic is a convenient word for a whole collection of techniques, all of which involve the mind. In this case, we might conceive of these techniques as including the mobilization of confidence, will, and emotion brought about by the recognition of necessity; the use of imaginative faculties, particularly the ability to visualize, in order to begin to understand how other beings function in nature so we can use this knowledge to achieve necessary ends. ~ Margot Adler, #NFDB
244:Homeopathy did not merely seek to cure a disease but treated a disease as a sign of disorder of the whole human organism. This was also recognized in the Upanishad which spoke of human organs as combination of body mind and spirit. Homoeopathy would pay an important part in the Public Health of the country along with other systems. Medical facilities in India are so scanty that Homoeopathy can confidently visualize a vast field of expansion. ~ Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, #NFDB
245:I like movies that deal with trapped men. Men that need to make choices that are not obvious or easy choices. Then how do you visualize this? You create this character conflicted between two sides, because drama is about the conflict of two things, between your duty and your will, between what you want and what you can't have. It is all conflict between two things, and this is why you put your character in a place where you can visualize the conflict. ~ Hany Abu Assad, #NFDB
246:Children, when we go to the temple, do not hurry to have darshan, then make some offering and return home in a hurry. We should stand there patiently in silence for some time and try to visualize the beloved deity in our hearts. If possible, we should sit down and meditate. At each step, remember to do japa. Amma doesn't say that the offerings and worship are not necessary, but of all the offerings we make, what the Lord wants most is our hearts! ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
247:No matter what happens, you need to dream big. Unrealistically big! Even if it sounds totally crazy to you, I need you to still dream it and visualize it. If you come across challenges on the way to your dreams, do not go around them. Do not try to skip or leave them for later. Face them, fight through them, and win. Get to your goal, no matter what, and never lose hope or faith in your positive outcome. And when you achieve it, move on to the next one. ~ Veronika Gasparyan, #NFDB
248:So what are you doing?” Paul said, tapping the diary.
“Oh, um. Studying.”
His gaze took in the suspect graph and time line, and he raised his eyebrows. “For what?”
I blinked, at a loss for a response. I didn’t want to lie, but I couldn’t see telling him the truth. I’d been sitting here trying to visualize myself as Veronica Mars, all smart and badass. But in reality, I felt more like Inspector Gadget with my go-go button stuck in neutral. ~ Mindee Arnett,#NFDB
249: JACK CANFIELD Decide what you want. Believe you can have it. Believe you deserve it and believe it’s possible for you. And then close your eyes every day for several minutes, and visualize having what you already want, feeling the feelings of already having it. Come out of that and focus on what you’re grateful for already, and really enjoy it. Then go into your day and release it to the Universe and trust that the Universe will figure out how to manifest it. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
250:Lying is a full time occupation, even if you tell just one, because once you tell it, you're stuck with it. If you want to do it right, you have to visualize it, conjure the graphics, tone, and sequence of action, then relate it purposefully in the midst of seemingly spontaneous dialogue. The more actual the lie becomes to the listener, the more actual it becomes to the teller, which is scariest of all. Some people really get to believing their own lies. ~ Hilary Thayer Hamann, #NFDB
251:Our intellectual powers are rather geared to master static relations and that our powers to visualize processes evolving in time are relatively poorly developed. For that reason we should do (as wise programmers aware of our limitations) our utmost to shorten the conceptual gap between the static program and the dynamic process, to make the correspondence between the program (spread out in text space) and the process (spread out in time) as trivial as possible. ~ Edsger Dijkstra, #NFDB
252:Sheila, you’ve got to hang on. All this is just an increased power to think—to visualize, to handle data and the dreams you yourself have created. Nothing more.”
“But it is changing me!” The horror of death was in her now. She fought it with something like wistfulness: “—and where has our world gone? Where are our hopes and plans and togetherness?”
“We can’t bring them back,” he replied. Emptiness, irrevocability: “We have to make out with what we have now. ~ Poul Anderson,#NFDB
253:Decide what you want. Believe you can have it. Believe you deserve it and believe it’s possible for you. And then close your eyes and every day for several minutes, and visualize having what you already want, feeling the feelings of already having it. Come out of that and focus on what you’re grateful for already, and really enjoy it. Then go into your day and release it to the Universe and trust that the Universe will figure out how to manifest it. “Jack Canfield ~ Jack Canfield, #NFDB
254:Decide what you want. Believe you can have it. Believe you deserve it and believe it’s possible
for you. And then close your eyes and every day for several minutes, and visualize having what
you already want, feeling the feelings of already having it. Come out of that and focus on what
you’re grateful for already, and really enjoy it. Then go into your day and release it to the
Universe and trust that the Universe will figure out how to manifest it. “Jack Canfield ~ Jack Canfield,#NFDB
255:The probability of finding an electron or any other particle at one point or another can be imagined as a diffuse cloud, denser where the probability of seeing the particle is stronger. Sometimes it is useful to visualize this cloud as if it were a real thing. For instance, the cloud that represents an electron around its nucleus indicates where it is more likely that the electron appears if we look at it. If you have encountered them at school, these are the atomic orbitals. ~ Carlo Rovelli, #NFDB
256:Many people visualize a God who sits comfortably on a distant throne, remote, aloof, uninterested, and indifferent to the needs of mortals, until, it may be, they can badger him into taking action on their behalf. Such a view is wholly false. The Bible reveals a God who, long before it even occurs to man to turn to him, while man is still lost in darkness and sunk in sin, takes the initiative, rises from his throne, lays aside his glory, and stoops to seek until he finds him. ~ John R W Stott, #NFDB
257:Once I had an opportunity to talk with Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, about the fact that I was not able to do my practice properly. I had just started the vajrayana practices and I was supposed to be visualizing. I couldn't visualize anything. I tried and tried but there was just nothing at all; I felt like a fraud doing the practice because it didn't feel natural to me. (...). So he encouraged me by saying that as long as you have these kinds of doubts, your practice will be good. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
258:Even if you find him. Even if he didn't leave you on purpose, he can't possibly live up to the person you've built him into."
It's not like the thought hasn't occurred to me. I get that the chances of finding him are small, but the chances of finding him as I remember him are even smaller. But I just keep going back to what my dad always says, about how when you lose something, you have to visualize the last place you had it. And I found―and then lost―so many things in Paris. ~ Gayle Forman,#NFDB
259:Westerners think of Hindus as idol worshipers, but what is it they themselves worship? Money and power – aren’t those idols? There is nothing wrong or contrary to spiritual truth in using images as reminders of high principles. How many people are able to visualize such abstractions as love or wisdom? The Hindu images are not idols. They are symbols of different aspects of God. Their very variety shows a recognition of the fact that God is infinite."
—Paramhansa Yogananda ~ Paramahansa Yogananda,#NFDB
260:When a difficult situation comes into your life, it is possible to tune in to your mind and say, ?Okay, choose.? Are you going to make yourself miserable or content? Are you going to visualize scarcity or abundance? Are you going to put yourself down for getting angry with your husband or are you simply going to notice what insecurity you were feeling at the time and discuss it with him? The choice is definitely yours. Pick the one that contributes most to your aliveness and growth. ~ Susan Jeffers, #NFDB
261:A quantum atom with two electrons is a much more complicated object to visualize, and I'm not aware that it's ever been done very well. The challenge is that for each possible position of one electron, the wave function of the other is a different three-dimensional object. So really, the natural home of the total wave function, for the two-electron system, is a space of 3 + 3 = 6 dimensions. It is quite a challenge to present such an object in a way that human brains find meaningful. ~ Frank Wilczek, #NFDB
262:you first visualize how much you want to eat and then start with half the amount. The trick is to eat it in double the time you typically take. It means smaller morsels of food enter the stomach, thus improving the micronutrient assimilation and insulin response. This process can be repeated if required, but the key is to be without gadgets during meal times. This was one of Kareena’s well-kept secrets (when she says she eats everything), till she shared it on our fb live chat. This ~ Rujuta Diwekar, #NFDB
263:It is natural but wrong to visualize the singularity as a kind of pregnant dot hanging in a dark, boundless void. But there is no space, no darkness. The singularity has no “around” around it. There is no space for it to occupy, no place for it to be. We can't even ask how long it has been there—whether it has just lately popped into being, like a good idea, or whether it has been there forever, quietly awaiting the right moment. Time doesn't exist. There is no past for it to emerge from. ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
264:It is natural but wrong to visualize the singularity as a kind of pregnant dot hanging in a dark, boundless void. But there is no space, no darkness. The singularity has no “around” around it. There is no space for it to occupy, no place for it to be. We can’t even ask how long it has been there—whether it has just lately popped into being, like a good idea, or whether it has been there forever, quietly awaiting the right moment. Time doesn’t exist. There is no past for it to emerge from. And ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
265:What we have in mind for that agency,” McElroy told lawmakers, was an entity that would handle “all satellite and space research and development projects” but also have “a function that extends beyond the immediate foreseeable weapons systems of the current or near future.” McElroy was looking far ahead. America needed an agency that could visualize the nation’s needs before those needs yet existed, he said. An agency that could research and develop “the vast weapons systems of the future. ~ Annie Jacobsen, #NFDB
266:Years later, (Paul) Jones described the mental gymnastics that went into writing these scripts. "Every evening I would close my eyes in a quiet place in my apartment ... I would visualize the opening and walk myself through the day and imagine the different emotional states the market would go through... Then when you get there, you are ready for it. You have been there before. You are in a mental state to take advantage of emotional extremes because you have already lived through them. ~ Sebastian Mallaby, #NFDB
267:That’s a well-thought out layout,” Caldenia said. “But why pink marble?” She waved at the ceiling. “Pink marble, white ceiling, golden accents… With the electric lighting it will turn into this ghastly orange.”
“I had one chance to impress the Arbiter and I had to improvise.”
Caldenia arched one eyebrow.
“I saw it in a movie once,” I explained. “It was easy to visualize.”
“Was it a movie for adults?”
“It had a talking candelabra who was friends with a grumpy clock.”
“I see. ~ Ilona Andrews,#NFDB
268:How much energy will it take to propel a spaceship to ultra-high speeds? To keep things easy to visualize, we are going to calculate the energy needed to propel a one-pound object to 50% of the speed of light. The formula to determine this is: Kinetic Energy = 1/2 (mass) (velocity) (velocity) To propel an object that weighs one pound to a velocity 50% of the speed of light would require an energy source equal to the energy of 98 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs. That's a tremendous amount of energy.[24] ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
269:Even if we don’t go as far as Descartes’s belief in an immaterial soul that somehow interacts with our body, it’s tempting to visualize a dictatorial “self” inside our brain that is the locus of our self-awareness. Philosopher Daniel Dennett coined the term “Cartesian theater” to describe the supposed mental control room containing a tiny homunculus who gathers all of the input from our sensory organs, accesses our memories, and sends out instructions to the various parts of our bodies. Consciousness ~ Sean Carroll, #NFDB
270:The classic one for me is one of my favorite images - left-versus-right political-spectrum image. I was trying to visualize the concepts on the political spectrum. I'm left-leaning, and I discovered as I was doing it that I had an impulse to make the left-hand side appear better than the right-hand side. That was manifesting in the way I was choosing certain words, framing certain ideas. I shared it with a few people, and they all said, "Oh my God, this is really biased." I hadn't seen it at all. ~ David Mccandless, #NFDB
271:One reason we can change our brains simply by imagining is that, from a neuroscientific point of view, imagining an act and doing it are not as different as they sound. When people close their eyes and visualize a simple object, such as the letter a, the primary visual cortex lights up, just as it would if the subjects were actually looking at the letter a. Brain scans show that in action and imagination many of the same parts of the brain are activated. That is why visualizing can improve performance. ~ Norman Doidge, #NFDB
272:Someone called me into a castle. He was in an upstairs window. It was impressive and beautiful. I get inside. I can’t find him. Then there are hands reaching out to me. I move closer, but then I see the hands are on arms coming out of the walls. They reach around my neck and are trying to pull me into the wall. I am terrified and try to fight. I don’t want to disappear.8 With this dream, Angela had been able to visualize the nameless terror that haunted her, making intimate relationships impossible. While ~ Stephen A Mitchell, #NFDB
273:Hinton spent most of his adult years trying to visualize higher spatial dimensions. He had no interest in finding a physical interpretation for the fourth dimension. Einstein saw, however, that the fourth dimension can be taken as a temporal one. He was guided by a conviction and physical intuition that higher dimensions have a purpose: to unify the principles of nature. By adding higher dimensions, he could unite physical concepts that, in a three-dimensional world, have no connection, such as matter and energy. ~ Michio Kaku, #NFDB
274:For example, when practitioners transform into Shenlha Ökar (Shen Deity of White Light), they visualize their bodies as being adorned with the thirteen ornaments of peacefulness that in themselves evoke the enlightened quality of peacefulness.2 Shenlha Ökar himself embodies all six of the antidote qualities of love, generosity, wisdom, openness, peacefulness, and compassion; so as soon as you transform into Shenlha Ökar, you instantly embody these same qualities. ~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind, #NFDB
275:try to visualize all the streams of human interaction, of communication. All those linking streams flowing in and between people, through text, pictures, spoken words and TV commentaries, streams through shared memories, casual relations, witnessed events, touching pasts and futures, cause and effect. Try to see this immense latticework of lakes and flowing streams, see the size and awesome complexity of it. This huge rich environment. This waterway paradise of all information and identities and societies and selves. ~ Steven Hall, #NFDB
276:That’s how I approach just about everything. I spend my life getting ready to play “Rocket Man.” I picture the most demanding challenge; I visualize what I would need to know how to do to meet it; then I practice until I reach a level of competence where I’m comfortable that I’ll be able to perform. It’s what I’ve always done, ever since I decided I wanted to be an astronaut in 1969, and that conscious, methodical approach to preparation is the main reason I got to Houston. I never stopped getting ready. Just in case. ~ Chris Hadfield, #NFDB
277:Men are the softer sex, squeamish about blood in the main. I know it's the same for human men, Luke was extremely disinclined to discuss my first experience of a woman's menses."
Luke stared ferociously into the middle distance, obviously trying to visualize himself somewhere else, having an entirely different conversation. Serene patted him on the back.
"Perfectly all right, I should have had more respect for your delicate masculine sensibilities."
"Thank you," said Luke, sounding very far away. ~ Sarah Rees Brennan,#NFDB
278:It is natural but wrong to visualize the singularity as a kind of pregnant dot hanging in a dark, boundless void. But there is no space, no darkness. The singularity has no “around” around it. There is no space for it to occupy, no place for it to be. We can't even ask how long it has been there—whether it has just lately popped into being, like a good idea, or whether it has been there forever, quietly awaiting the right moment. Time doesn't exist. There is no past for it to emerge from. And so, from nothing, our universe begins. ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
279:It is natural but wrong to visualize the singularity as a kind of pregnant dot hanging in a dark, boundless void. But there is no space, no darkness. The singularity has no “around” around it. There is no space for it to occupy, no place for it to be. We can’t even ask how long it has been there—whether it has just lately popped into being, like a good idea, or whether it has been there forever, quietly awaiting the right moment. Time doesn’t exist. There is no past for it to emerge from. And so, from nothing, our universe begins. ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
280:It's all about yin and yang," she said, stroking my hair in her slow calming way, her voice as sweet and delicate as summer rain. "Balancing your energy. When you're angry or upset, stop for a moment and close your eyes. Breath in slowly. Imagine as you do that the air you take in is bright and golden, as lovely and light as your eyes. Let that brightness fill your belly. Then, when you exhale, picture the darkness that had been within you--whatever it was that upset you -- and visualize it leaving your body as you release your breath. ~ Natasha Ngan, #NFDB
281:S-curves are helpful retrospective visualizations—but they aren’t as effective in real time. An S-curve helps us understand the adoption of a new technology like the smartphone, but it doesn’t allow us to visualize events along the route, since those events are independent variables, and they don’t necessarily build upon each other in the same way that technology advances do. Instead, we need to think in terms of roadblocks and express lanes. The more significant the event, the bigger the block, and the more time it will take to drive around it. ~ Amy Webb, #NFDB
282:Take 15 minutes daily, thinking of pleasant scenarios regarding your body, with the sole intent of enjoying your body and appreciating its strength and stamina and flexibility and beauty. When you visualize for the joy of visualizing rather than with the intention of correcting some deficiency, your thoughts are more pure and, therefore, more powerful. When you visualize to overcome something that is wrong, your thoughts are diluted with the "lackful" side of the equation. In time, your physical condition will acquiesce to your dominant thoughts. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
283:It is said that it is far more difficult to hold and maintain leadership (liberty) than it is to attain it. Success is a ruthless competitor for it flatters and nourishes our weaknesses and lulls us into complacency. We bask in the sunshine of accomplishment and lose the spirit of humility which helps us visualize all the factors which have contributed to our success. We are apt to forget that we are only one of a team, that in unity there is strength and that we are strong only as long as each unit in our organization functions with precision. ~ Samuel J Tilden, #NFDB
284:Once you start deliberately offering thought, then you can never offer enough action to keep up with the thought. Once you access the Energy that creates worlds, a huge vortex comes into place, and there's just not enough action for you to keep up with that. And so, what you have to do is visualize every step of the way, envision you happy in the process. Envision things in place, envision people catching on. Just envision it working. Skip over the how and the where and the when and the who - and just stay focused upon the what and the why. Abraham ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
285:31. For your exercise this week, visualize your friend, see him exactly as you last saw him, see the room, the furniture, recall the conversation, now see his face, see it distinctly, now talk to him about some subject of mutual interest; see his expression change, watch him smile. Can you do this? All right, you can; then arouse his interest, tell him a story of adventure, see his eyes light up with the spirit of fun or excitement. Can you do all of this? If so, your imagination is good, you are making excellent progress. ~ Charles F Haanel, The Master Key System, #NFDB
286:As the audience filed back in, I began, cartoonishly, to envisage the fatal malady that, without anyone's recognizing it, was working away inside us, within each and every one of us: to visualize the blood vessels occluding under the baseball caps, the malignancies growing beneath the permed white hair, the organs misfiring, atrophying, shutting down, the hundreds of billions of murderous cells surreptitiously marching this entire audience toward the improbable disaster ahead. I couldn't stop myself. The stupendous decimation that is death sweeping us all away. ~ Philip Roth, #NFDB
287:Obviously, we’re still in the Middle Ages of technology, but in a few years we’ll probably have machines that will allow you to visualize dreams. Do you know that in the United States they’re already talking about installing scanners in courtrooms? Imagine those machines projecting a defendant’s memories. No more lies; verdicts that are always reliable…And I’m not even talking about other fields, like medicine, psychiatry, or business. There’s also neuropolitics, which offers the possibility of accessing voters’ deep-seated feelings toward a given candidate. ~ Franck Thilliez, #NFDB
288:the shadows caressed the folds. I tried to see how light that was reflected from one object subtly colored the shadows of another object. I noticed how the glint of a lustrous spot on a shiny surface moved when I tilted my head. When I looked at a distant tree and a near one, I tried to visualize the lines of perspective. When I saw an eddy of water, I compared it to a ringlet of hair. When I couldn’t understand a math concept, I did the best I was able to visualize it. When I saw people at a supper, I studied the relationship of their motions to their emotions. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
289:I often think that we are like the carp swimming contentedly in that pond. We live out our lives in our own "pond," confident that our universe consists of only the familiar and the visible. We smugly refuse to admit that parallel universes or dimensions can exist next to ours, just beyond our grasp. If our scientists invent concepts like forces, it is only because they cannot visualize the invisible vibrations that fill the empty space around us. Some scientists sneer at the mention of higher dimensions because they cannot be conveniently measured in the laboratory. ~ Michio Kaku, #NFDB
290:Pick someone in your life you admire. Your grandfather, an old college professor, a friend—it doesn’t matter who, as long as you have total respect for them and you admire their life or accomplishments. Then when you’re about to take a leap, visualize this person at your side, rooting for you, telling you how much they believe in you. Try it when you ask for a raise, or ask someone on a date, or go for a bank loan to start your small business, or do anything scary that takes you outside your comfort zone. We all need a little encouragement and support sometimes. ~ Jillian Michaels, #NFDB
291:During a trip to the United Kingdom in March 2000, Acting President Putin seemed eager to demonstrate his Western orientation, hinting in an interview at the possibility of closer cooperation between Europe and Russia and even NATO and Russia. “Russia is part of the European culture,” he explained. “And I cannot imagine my country in isolation from Europe and what we often call the civilized world. So it is hard for me to visualize NATO as the enemy.” When asked point-blank if Russia might join NATO, Putin replied, “I don’t see why not. I would not rule out such a possibility. ~ Michael McFaul, #NFDB
292:Einstein’s discovery of special relativity involved an intuition based on a decade of intellectual as well as personal experiences.9 The most important and obvious, I think, was his deep understanding and knowledge of theoretical physics. He was also helped by his ability to visualize thought experiments, which had been encouraged by his education in Aarau. Also, there was his grounding in philosophy: from Hume and Mach he had developed a skepticism about things that could not be observed. And this skepticism was enhanced by his innate rebellious tendency to question authority. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
293:No other idea is so powerful in developing self-confidence as this simple belief when practiced. To practice it simply affirm “God is with me; God is helping me; God is guiding me.” Spend several minutes each day visualizing His presence. Then practice believing that affirmation. Go about your business on the assumption that what you have affirmed and visualized is true. Affirm it, visualize it, believe it, and it will actualize itself. The release of power which this procedure stimulates will astonish you. Feelings of confidence depend upon the type of thoughts that habitually occupy your mind. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
294:Gollum is, however, a fully embodied image of the sin addict’s soul. He brings to life with monstrous vigor the words of Christ that everyone who sins is a slave to sin10 and the teaching of St. Paul about the slavery of sin.11 As a mirror of scorn and pity toward man, he is so powerful that we only have to visualize Gollum as the shriveled wreck of our sin-enslaved soul to shiver in horror and disgust at the vision being presented to us. It’s as though the English language needs a new verb, to gollumize, so that we can express the grim and graphic reality of this vision of the reality of sin. It ~ Joseph Pearce, #NFDB
295:In three separate studies, psychologists observed 262 students to see the impact of visualization on outcomes. The students were asked to visualize in one of two ways: Those in one group were told to visualize the outcome (like getting an “A” on an exam) and the others were asked to visualize the process needed to achieve a desired outcome (like all of the study sessions needed to earn that “A” on the exam). In the end, students who visualized the process performed better across the board—they studied earlier and more frequently and earned higher grades than those who simply visualized the outcome. ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
296:She understood that grief is not neat and orderly; it does not follow any rules. Time does not heal it. Rather, time insists on passing, and as it does, grief changes but does not go away. Sometimes she could actually visualize her grief. It was a wave, a tsunami that came unexpectedly and swept her away. She could see it, a wall of pain that had grabbed hold of her and pulled her under. Some days, she could reach the air and breathe in huge comforting gulps. Some days she barely broke the surface, and still, after all this time, some days it consumed her and she wondered if there was any way free of it. ~ Ann Hood, #NFDB
297:Objections #4 and #5 (“I can wait” / “it’s too difficult”) are best addressed via Education-Based Selling. Often, your prospects haven’t fully realized they have a problem, particularly in the case of Absence Blindness (discussed later). If the business doesn’t realize it’s losing $10 million in the first place, it’s difficult to convince them that you can help. The best way to get around this is to focus your early sales efforts on making your customers smarter by teaching them what you know about their business, then helping them Visualize what their involvement would look like if they decide to proceed. ~ Josh Kaufman, #NFDB
298:There are many ways that I have hurt and harmed others, have betrayed or abandoned them, caused them suffering, knowingly or unknowingly, out of my pain, fear, anger, and confusion.
Let yourself remember and visualize the ways you have hurt others. See the pain you have caused out of your own fear and confusion. Feel your own sorrow and regret. Sense that finally you can release this burden and ask for forgiveness. Take as much time as you need to picture each memory that still burdens your heart. And then as each person comes to mind, gently say:
I ask for your forgiveness, I ask for your forgiveness. ~ Jack Kornfield,#NFDB
299:There is a misconception, geocentric and anthropomorphic, common to the large majority the the earthbound, which causes them to visualize a planetary system stereoscopically. The mind's eye sees a sun, remote from a backdrop of stars, and surrounded by spinning apples -- the planets. Step out on your balcony and look. Can you tell the planets from the stars? Venus you may pick out with ease, but could you tell it from Canopus, if you had not previously been introduced? That little red speck -- is it Mars, or is it Antares? Blast for Antares, believing it to be a planet, and you will never live to have grandchildren. ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
300:Stellar orbits in galaxies, on a time scale of some 200 million years, take on a three-dimensional character instead of making perfect ellipses. Three-dimensional orbits are as hard to visualize when the orbits are real as when they are imaginary constructions in phase space. So Henon used a technique comparable to the making of Poincare maps. He imagined a flat sheet placed upright on one side of the galaxy so that every orbit would sweep through it, as horses on a race track sweep across the finish line. Then he would mark the point where the orbit crossed this plane and trace the movement of the point from orbit to orbit. ~ James Gleick, #NFDB
301:If athletes include as part of their training the visualization of their sport and mentally picturing themselves going through all the steps required for success, how then can believers fail to visualize what is more important and consequential than sport? People of spiritual elevation prepare themselves psychologically for the ultimate journey. Although death is a sudden severance from this life, one remains conscious in a different way. In fact, the deceased is in a hyperconscious state that makes this life appear like a dream. ʿAlī ibn AbīṬālib, may God be pleased with him, said, “People are asleep. When they die, they wake up. ~ Hamza Yusuf, #NFDB
302:However, some cannot live without their war and are unable to give up their hate. They are matured by conflict and cannot define themselves other than by what they fought. They consider themselves the polar opposite to their enemy, the antithesis of their enemy. They are the white hats whilst the enemy are the black hats. Their problem is that they cannot visualize a world without hats – and fail to see that the ugly processes of war ironed out those distinctions. And worse still, even when there are no black hats left, they seek others they deem suitable for that attire, because in the end it is not the enemy that matters, but the hate. ~ Neal Asher, #NFDB
303:This is a good time to remember that when we harden our heart against anyone, we hurt ourselves. The fear habit, the anger habit, the self-pity habit—all are strengthened and empowered when we continue to buy into them. The most compassionate thing we can do is to interrupt these habits. Instead of always pulling back and putting up walls, we can do something unpredictable and make a compassionate aspiration. We can visualize this difficult person’s face and say his name if it helps us. Then we say the words: “May this person who irritates me be free of suffering and the roots of suffering.” By doing this, we start to dissolve our fear. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
304:This is, in fact, exactly how electrical engineers go about understanding and debugging circuits such as computer boards (to reverse engineer a competitor’s product, for example), using logic analyzers that visualize computer signals. Neuroscience has not yet had access to sensor technology that would achieve this type of analysis, but that situation is about to change. Our tools for peering into our brains are improving at an exponential pace. The resolution of noninvasive brain-scanning devices is doubling about every twelve months (per unit volume).31 We see comparable improvements in the speed of brain scanning image reconstruction: ~ Ray Kurzweil, #NFDB
305:Any preprogrammed physical response is potentially susceptible to the wedge as long as it has three key characteristics. First there needs to be a clearly identifiable external stimulus. Second, that stimulus must trigger a predictable automatic biological response or reflex. Third, that physical response must elicit a feeling or sensation you can visualize or imagine independently of the external trigger. If the reflex has these characteristics, then using the wedge is as simple as setting up an environmental stimulus and then resisting the sensation that it triggers. Over time it becomes easier to maintain the tension between reflex and mental control. ~ Scott Carney, #NFDB
306:but the older priestesses had explained to her, as they gathered in the courtyard, that the Moon God was effacing the brightness of the Goddess, and she ran out with them joyously to join in the shrieks of the women to frighten him away. Later it had been explained to her how the sun and moon moved, and why, now and again, one of them crossed the face of the other; that it was in the way of nature, and the common people’s beliefs about the face of the Gods were symbols which these people, at the current state of their evolution, needed to visualize the great truths. Some day all men and women would know the inner truths, but now they needed them not. ~ Marion Zimmer Bradley, #NFDB
307:I remember when "atheist" was a scary word.
I remember little suits, on little boys, with no lapels.
I remember dining room table leaves.
I remember a brief period of "bad breath" concern: the product of a health class at school.
I remember that "most bad breath is caused by germs."
I remember that germs are everywhere!
I remember trying to visualize germs (physically) as they crawl around all over everything.
I remember that my vision of germs pretty much resembled normal insects, only much smaller, of course.
I remember sneezing into my hand, out in public, and then the problem of what to "do" with it. ~ Joe Brainard,#NFDB
308:Visualize many pots filled with water, standing in a garden. Then imagine the moon shining down from above. In every pot, the moon's reflection will appear separate. In fact, however, all the pots reflect the same moon.
"That is how God is in the souls of men. Though reflected in every human being, He is forever untainted by human consciousness. Even if you broke all the pots, the moon's light would remain the same.
"Wise is he who, beholding the light of life shining in his little `pot' of human consciousness, looks up to its origins in the `moon' above-in God. But foolish, he who becomes
engrossed in the moon in its reflection. When the pot breaks, what will he have left? ~ Swami Kriyananda,#NFDB
309:It was a perfect school for Einstein. The teaching was based on the philosophy of a Swiss educational reformer of the early nineteenth century, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who believed in encouraging students to visualize images. He also thought it important to nurture the “inner dignity” and individuality of each child. Students should be allowed to reach their own conclusions, Pestalozzi preached, by using a series of steps that began with hands-on observations and then proceeded to intuitions, conceptual thinking, and visual imagery. 56 It was even possible to learn—and truly understand—the laws of math and physics that way. Rote drills, memorization, and force-fed facts were avoided. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
310:growing up so poor that for a time his family lived in their Volkswagen van on a relative’s lawn, Jim Carrey believed in his future. Every night in the late 1980’s, Carrey would drive atop a large hill that looked down over Los Angeles and visualize directors valuing his work. At the time, he was a broke and struggling young comic. One night in 1990, while looking down on Los Angeles and dreaming of his future, Carrey wrote himself a check for $10 million and put in the notation line “for acting services rendered.” He dated the check for Thanksgiving 1995 and stuck it in his wallet. He gave himself five years. And just before Thanksgiving of 1995, he got paid $10 million for Dumb and Dumber. ~ Benjamin P Hardy, #NFDB
311:Therein lies the key, I think, to Einstein’s brilliance and the lessons of his life. As a young student he never did well with rote learning. And later, as a theorist, his success came not from the brute strength of his mental processing power but from his imagination and creativity. He could construct complex equations, but more important, he knew that math is the language nature uses to describe her wonders. So he could visualize how equations were reflected in realities—how the electromagnetic field equations discovered by James Clerk Maxwell, for example, would manifest themselves to a boy riding alongside a light beam. As he once declared, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”6 ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
312:Gorgeous, arrogant and pissed off?” I chuckled a little. “Yes, that’s him.” “His name is Graham Morgan, and I know just where you should bring the phone.” I fished a pen from my purse. “Okay.” “Are you anywhere near the 1 train?” “I’m not too far.” “Okay. Well, hop on the 1 and take that all the way downtown. Pass Rector Street and get off at the South Ferry Terminal.” “Okay. I can do that.” “Once you’re off. Take a right on Whitehall and then a left on South Street.” I knew the area and tried to visualize the buildings around there. It was a pretty commercial neighborhood. “Won’t that take me to the East River?” “Exactly. Toss that asshole’s phone in, and forget you ever saw the man.” The phone line went dead. ~ Vi Keeland, #NFDB
313:puzzling to me that so many self-help gurus urge people to visualize victory, and stop there. Some even insist that if you wish for good things long enough and hard enough, you’ll get them—and, conversely, that if you focus on the negative, you actually invite bad things to happen. Why make yourself miserable worrying? Why waste time getting ready for disasters that may never happen? Anticipating problems and figuring out how to solve them is actually the opposite of worrying: it’s productive. Likewise, coming up with a plan of action isn’t a waste of time if it gives you peace of mind. While it’s true that you may wind up being ready for something that never happens, if the stakes are at all high, it’s worth it. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
314:It’s puzzling to me that so many self-help gurus urge people to visualize victory, and stop there. Some even insist that if you wish for good things long enough and hard enough, you’ll get them—and, conversely, that if you focus on the negative, you actually invite bad things to happen. Why make yourself miserable worrying? Why waste time getting ready for disasters that may never happen? Anticipating problems and figuring out how to solve them is actually the opposite of worrying: it’s productive. Likewise, coming up with a plan of action isn’t a waste of time if it gives you peace of mind. While it’s true that you may wind up being ready for something that never happens, if the stakes are at all high, it’s worth it. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
315:Linking topology and dynamical systems is the possibility of using a shape to help visualize the whole range of behaviors of a system. For a simple system, the shape might be some kind of curved surface; for a complicated system, a manifold of many dimensions. A single point on such a surface represents the state of a system at an instant frozen in time. As a system progresses through time, the point moves, tracing an orbit across this surface. Bending the shape a little corresponds to changing the system's parameters, making a fluid more visous or driving a pendulum a little harder. Shapes that look roughly the same give roughly the same kinds of behavior. If you can visualize the shape, you can understand the system. ~ James Gleick, #NFDB
316:It's puzzling to me that so many self-help gurus urge people to visualize victory, and stop there. Some even insist that if you wish for good things long enough and hard enough, you'll get them - and, conversely, that if you focus on the negative, you actually invite bad things to happen. Why make yourself miserable worrying? Why waste time getting ready for disasters that may never happen? Anticipating problems and figuring out how to solve them is actually the opposite of worrying: it's productive. Likewise, coming up with a plan of action isn't a waste of time if it gives you peace of mind. While it's true that you may wind up getting ready for something that never happens, if the stages are at all high, it's worth it. ~ Chris Hadfield, #NFDB
317:Gates got up, but not fast or jerkily, with the same slowness that had always characterized him. He wiped the sweat off his palms by running them lightly down his sides. As though he were going to shake hands with somebody.
He was. He was going to shake hands with death.
He wasn't particularly frightened. Not that he was particularly brave. It was just that he didn't have very much imagination. Rationalizing, he knew that he wasn't going to be alive anymore ten minutes from now. Yet he wasn't used to casting his imagination ten minutes ahead of him, he'd always kept it by him in the present. He couldn't visualize it. So he wasn't as unnerved by it as the average man would have been.
("3 Kills For 1") ~ Cornell Woolrich,#NFDB
318:On April 18, 1906, when that earthquake hit San Francisco and took David from her, Vivien began to speak the language of grief. She understood that grief is not neat and orderly; it does not follow any rules. Time does not heal it. Rather, time insists on passing, and as it does, grief changes but does not go away. Sometimes she could actually visualize her grief. It was a wave, a tsunami that came unexpectedly and swept her away. She could see it, a wall of pain that had grabbed hold of her and pulled her under. Some days, she could reach the air and breathe in huge comforting gulps. Some days she barely broke the surface, and still, after all this time, some days it consumed her and she wondered if there was any way free of it. ~ Ann Hood, #NFDB
319:He was aware of his trauma, but he was using it to distance himself from life. He had a story about himself but no access to who he might have been before his trauma derailed him. I was trying to use his feelings of deprivation as a means of bringing him back in touch with a more fundamental truth about himself, to guide him back toward—or at least help him to visualize—the intrinsic relational foundation of his being. By not fighting with his internal wounds, by not insisting on making them go away, by not recruiting everyone in his intimate life to save him from his feelings of abandonment, by simply resting with them the way we do in meditation, he could learn, as the Buddha did, that he already was the love he thought he lacked. ~ Mark Epstein, #NFDB
320:You determine your assumptions in this way: Form a mental image, a picture of the state desired, of the person you want to be. Concentrate your attention upon the feeling that you are already that person. First, visualize the picture in your consciousness. Then feel yourself to be in that state as though it actually formed your surrounding world. By your imagination that which was a mere mental image is changed into a seemingly solid reality. The great secret is a controlled imagination and a well-sustained attention firmly and repeatedly focused on the object to be accomplished. It cannot be emphasized too much that, by creating an ideal within your mental sphere, by assuming that you are already that ideal, you identify yourself with it and ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
321:Or one can visualize the process as follows: as the planet approaches the sun, its speed increases. It shoots past the sun, but as it does so, the clutching hand of gravity swings it round - as a running child grabbing at a maypole is swung around it - so that it now continues in the opposite direction. If its velocity on the approach-run had been exactly the amount required to prevent it from falling into the sun, it would continue in a circle. But as it was slightly greater, the receding run will carry it into an elongated path, which the planet pursues at slackening speed in the teeth of the sun's attraction, as it were, gradually curving inward; until, after passing the aphelion, the curve again approaches the sun and the whole cycle starts again. ~ Arthur Koestler, #NFDB
322:I take a few breaths to calm myself, step back, and lift Buttercup by the scruff of the neck. 'I should have drowned you when I had the chance.' His ears flatten and he raises a paw. I hiss before he gets a chance, which seems to annoy him a little, since he considers hissing his own personal sound of contempt. In retaliation, he gives a helpless kitten mew that brings my sister immediately to his defense.
'Oh, Katniss, don't tease him,' she says, folding him back in her arms. 'He's already so upset.'
The idea that I've wounded the brute's tiny cat feelings just invites further taunting. But Prim's genuinely distressed for him. So instead, I visualize Buttercup's fur lining a pair of gloves, an image that has helped me deal with him over the years. ~ Suzanne Collins,#NFDB
323:Once I had an opportunity to talk with Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, about the fact that I was not able to do my practice properly. I had just started the vajrayana2 practices and I was supposed to be visualizing. I couldn’t visualize anything. I tried and tried but there was just nothing at all; I felt like a fraud doing the practice because it didn’t feel natural to me. I was quite miserable because everybody else seemed to be having all kinds of visualizations and doing very well. He said, “I’m always suspicious of the ones who say everything’s going well. If you think that things are going well, then it’s usually some kind of arrogance. If it’s too easy for you, you just relax. You don’t make a real effort, and therefore you never find out what it is to be fully human. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
324:According to Southwest CEO Gary Kelly, a company’s purpose should answer the question, “Why do we exist?” Kelly adds, “We exist to connect people to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel.”6 Only storytelling can rally passionate people around a common purpose. Each week Kelly gives a “shout out”—public praise—to employees who have gone above and beyond to show great customer service. Each month the Southwest Spirit magazine features the story of an employee who has gone above and beyond. Southwest highlights positive behaviors through a variety of recognition programs and awards. Finally, internal corporate videos are filled with real examples and stories to help employees visualize what each step of the purpose looks and feels like. ~ Carmine Gallo, #NFDB
325:I can’t imagine anything more shallow or unsatisfying than the cult of realism in fiction that all one wants to do is to write about surfaces and words that people say, the looks on people’s faces, the clothes they’re wearing. When I think of the word fiction I think of someone at a desk, grappling with what are largely unseen, what I call the invisible world or the world of the mind. Fiction starts and for me never gets away from the realm of the mind and even when I read I can never forget that what I am reading is the product of a human hand and that behind what I’m reading is a human voice and I hear that voice in the sentences and phrases I read and being a curious human being I visualize, if I haven’t seen a photograph of the author, I visualize the possessor of that voice. ~ Gerald Murnane, #NFDB
326:Recondition your reactions to dominant people. Try to visualize yourself behaving in a firm manner, armed with well-prepared facts and evidence. Practice saying things like “Hold on a minute—I need to consider what you have just said.” Also practice saying “I’m not sure about that. It’s too important to make a snap decision now.” Don’t cave in for fear that someone might shout at you or have a tantrum. Have faith that your own abilities will work if you use them. Non-assertive people are often extremely strong in areas of process, detail, dependability, reliability, and working cooperatively with others. These capabilities all have the potential to undo a dominating personality who has no proper justification. Recognize your strengths and use them to defend and support your position. ~ Dale Carnegie, #NFDB
327:Good people are rarely suspicious: they cannot imagine others doing things they themselves are incapable of doing; usually they accept the undramatic solution as the correct oe, and let matters rest there. Then too, the normal are inclined to visualize the [psychopath] as one who's as monstrous in appearance as he is in mind, whihch is about as far from the truth as one could well get...These monsters of real life usually looked and behaved in a more normal mannerthan their actually normal brothers and sisters; they presented a more convincing picture of virtue than virtue presented of itself--just as the wax rosebud or the plsatic peachseemd more perfect to the eye, more what the mind thought a rosebud or a peach should be, than the imperfect original from which it had been modelled. ~ Robert D Hare, #NFDB
328:Mass culture is Peter Pan culture. It tells us that if we close our eyes, if we visualize what we want, if we have faith in ourselves, if we tell God that we believe in miracles, if we tap into our inner strength, if we grasp that we are truly exceptional, if we focus on happiness, our lives will be harmonious and complete. This cultural retreat into illusion, whether peddled by positive psychologists, Hollywood, or Christian preachers, is a form of magical thinking. It turns worthless mortgages and debt into wealth. It turns the destruction of our manufacturing base into an opportunity for growth. It turns alienation and anxiety into a cheerful conformity. It turns a nation that wages illegal wars and administers off-shore penal colonies where it openly practices torture into the greatest democracy on earth. ~ Chris Hedges, #NFDB
329:As she wrote her pulse quickened to the pleasure of forming the phrases,--her blood warmed to the joy of the working. She was experiencing a return of the familiar sensation of happiness in constructing. Quite suddenly, in fancy she caught in the far distance a glimpse of silver wings. It gave her a warm thrill of gratification too deep for words. Immediately she knew through some inner consciousness, that no matter what the future would hold--joy or sorrow, happiness or grief--that no matter where life's paths would lead her--through sharp and stony ways or beside still waters--buried deep within her was an indestructible capacity to visualize a white bird flying. She might never get close to the way of its winging, but always there would be joy in lifting her eyes to the glory of its distant flight. ~ Bess Streeter Aldrich, #NFDB
330:The Bill of Responsibilities I. You have the responsibility to ask only for opportunity. II. You have the responsibility to seek and find your true place in life. III. You have the responsibility to write down compelling goals for your life. IV. You have the responsibility to invest your minutes and hours wisely. V. You have the responsibility to visualize the attainment of your goals in rich, vivid detail. VI. You have the responsibility to talk yourself into success. VII. You have the responsibility to choose a high-energy lifestyle. VIII. You have the responsibility to develop every area of your life to its maximum. IX. You have the responsibility to provide more value and contribution if you desire more rewards. X. You have the responsibility to persist until you succeed. ~ Tommy Newberry, #NFDB
331:If we can’t see or even visualize a trend as it is emerging, we subjugate it to the distant future and assume that we can have no bearing on it today. This is why you see so many predictions, where experts in various subject areas guesstimate when a particular tech innovation will arrive. We assign a timeline that sounds far-off (twenty-five years from now, fifty years from now), and then we essentially allow ourselves to stop tracking it. This is especially true of trends that are still emerging from the fringe, such as a Brainet connecting a cardiologist, a vascular expert, and a roboticist with cardiac and thoracic surgeons for a complex operation. In order to calculate where a trend is on its trajectory, we have to resolve our own belief biases and fight against our desire to confirm the existence of a future scenario before we believe in its plausibility. ~ Amy Webb, #NFDB
332:But since the day you came back into my life I have not once stopped thinking about you. You consume my thoughts. You consume everything about me. I was lost without you, floating…. drifting…. completely bored and without purpose. Which, by the way, it’s really hard to get that way when you’re King. And then there was you. You walked into my life and stole that part of me. You took whatever ugliness I had become and you reminded me of the man I could be, the man I was supposed to be. You are this beacon of light, this destination I will fight to get to. You are everything I need and want and want to become. I have fallen completely in love with you, Amelia. So yes, I do want a beach and rum, but most of all I want to give you a ring, because when I visualize my future, every scenario I come up with includes you. You are my life now and I will fight with everything I am to end this conflict and give you the life you deserve. ~ Rachel Higginson, #NFDB
333:In my book (and this is my book!) magical thinking is the alchemy that you can use to visualize and project yourself into the professional and personal life that you want. I’m not talking about stuff like ”the secret self-help book, which basically tells you to tape a picture of a car to the wall and then sit on the couch and wait for someone to drop it off in your driveway. I am talking about visulatization that works when we actually get off our asses and do stuff. How totally crazy it that? Each time you make a good decision or do something nice or take care of yourself; each time you show up to work and work hard and do your best at everything you can do, you’re planting seeds for a life that you can onlye hope will grow beyond your wildest dreams. Take care of the little things – even the little things you hate- and treat them as promises to your own future. Soon you’ll see that fortune favors thhe bold who get shit done. ~ Sophia Amoruso, #NFDB
334:In my book (and this is my book!) magical thinking is the alchemy that you can use to visualize and project yourself into the professional and personal life that you want. I’m not talking about stuff like The Secret self-help book, which basically tells you to tape a picture of a car to the wall and then sit on the couch and wait for someone to drop it off in your driveway. I am talking about visualization that works when we actually get off our asses and do stuff. How totally crazy is that? Each time you make a good decision or do something nice or take care of yourself; each time you show up to work and work hard and do your best at everything you can do, you’re planting seeds for a life that you can only hope will grow beyond your wildest dreams. Take care of the little things—even the little things that you hate—and treat them as promises to your own future. Soon you’ll see that fortune favors the bold who get shit done. ~ Sophia Amoruso, #NFDB
335:What are you doing?" Alain asked.
"Starting a fire, of course." Mari held up the thing in her hand. "It's a fire-starter. A really simple device. Haven't you ever seen one?"
Alain shook his head. "Never. That thing seems very complicated. I do not understand how it can work."
"How do you start fires?"
That was a Guild secret. Or was it? The elders had told him that no Mechanic could understand how it worked. What would this Mechanic say if he told her? "I use my mind to channel power to create a place where it is hot, altering the nature of the illusion there," Alain explained, "and then use my mind to put that heat on what I want to burn."
"Oh," Mechanic Mari said. "Is that actually how you visualize the process?"
"That is how it is done," Alain said.
"That's...interesting." She grinned. "So, instead of making fire by doing something complicated or hard to understand like striking a flint, you just alter the nature of reality. That is a lot simpler. ~ Jack Campbell,#NFDB
336:Soon after you confront the matter of preserving your identity, another question will occur to you: “Who am I writing for?” It’s a fundamental question, and it has a fundamental answer: You are writing for yourself. Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person. Don’t try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors and readers don’t know what they want to read until they read it. Besides, they’re always looking for something new. Don’t worry about whether the reader will “get it” if you indulge a sudden impulse for humor. If it amuses you in the act of writing, put it in. (It can always be taken out, but only you can put it in.) You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for. If you lose the dullards back in the dust, you don’t want them anyway. This ~ William Zinsser, #NFDB
337:The first step is to visualize what the inside of your drawer will look like when you finish. The goal should be to organize the contents so that you can see where every item is at a glance, just as you can see the spines of the books on your bookshelves. The key is to store things standing up rather than laid flat. Some people mimic store displays, folding each piece of clothing into a large square and then arranging them one on top of the other in layers. This is great for temporary sales displays in stores, but not what we should be aiming for at home, where our relationship with these clothes is long term. To store clothes standing, they must be made compact, which means more folds. Some people believe that more folds means more wrinkles, but this is not the case. It is not the number of folds but rather the amount of pressure applied that causes wrinkling. Even lightly folded clothes will wrinkle if they are stored in a pile because the weight of the clothes acts like a press. ~ Marie Kond, #NFDB
338:Once I had an opportunity to talk with Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, about the fact that I was not able to do my practice properly. I had just started the vajrayana* practices and I was supposed to be visualizing. I couldn’t visualize anything. I tried and tried but there was just nothing at all; I felt like a fraud doing the practice because it didn’t feel natural to me. I was quite miserable because everybody else seemed to be having all kinds of visualizations and doing very well. He said, ‘I’m always suspicious of the ones who say everything’s going well. If you think that things are going well, then it’s usually some kind of arrogance. If it’s too easy for you, you just relax. You don’t make a real effort, and therefore you never find out what it is to be fully human.’ So he encouraged me by saying that as long as you have these kinds of doubts, your practice will be good. When you begin to think that everything is just perfect and feel complacent and superior to the others, watch out! ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
339:History is not lacking is either religions or prophets, even without gods. He is asked to leap. All he can reply is that he doesn't fully understand, that is it not obvious. Indeed, he does not want to do anything but what he fully understands. He is assured that this is the sin of pride, but he does not understand the notion of sin; that perhaps hell is in store, but he has not enough imagination to visualize that strange future; that he is losing immortal life, but that seems to him an idle consideration. An attempt is made to get him to admit his guilt. He feels innocent. To tell the truth, that is all he feels--his irreparable innocence. This is what allows him everything. Hence, what he demands of himself is to live solely with what he knows, to accommodate himself to what is, and to bring in nothing that is not certain. He is told that nothings is. But this at least is a certainty. And it is with this that he is concerned: he wants to find out if it is possible to live without appeal. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
340:The defendant's behavior prejudiced the jury. He never admitted or even seemed to realize that what he had done was a brutal crime; he never argued that he had lost control or had not known what he was doing or that he would never do anything like it again. He just described his encounter with the victim without exaggeration, and in the most ordinary of terms.
Almost all of us on the jury were able to discuss and imagine how he had committed the crime and what had impelled him to do it. To clarify certain aspects of his case, some of the jurors acted out the role of the accused in an attempt to make the rest of us understand his motives. After the trial, however, I realized that there was very little speculation in the jury room about the victim of the murder. Many of us could easily visualize ourselves in the act of killing, but few of us could project ourselves into the act of being killed in any manner. We did our best to understand the murder: the murderer was a part of our lives; not so the victim. ~ Jerzy Kosi ski,#NFDB
341:I was never able to conquer the distance between persons. An animal is fixed to its here-and-now by the senses, but man manages to detach himself, to remember, to sympathize with others, to visualize their states of mind and feelings: this, fortunately, is not true. In such attempts at pseudo merging and transferral we are only able, imperfectly, darkly, to visualize ourselves.
What would happen to us if we could truly sympathize with others, feel with them, suffer for them? The fact that human anguish, fear, and suffering melt away with the death of the individual, that nothing remains of the ascents, the declines, the orgasms, and the agonies, is a praiseworthy gift of evolution, which made us like the animals. If from every unfortunate, from every victim, there remained even a single atom of his feelings, if thus grew the inheritance of
the generations, if even a spark could pass from man to man, the world would be full of raw, bowel-torn howling.
We are like snails, each stuck to his own leaf. ~ Stanis aw Lem,#NFDB
342:Perhaps it is the language that chooses the writers it needs, making use of them so that each might express a tiny part of what it is. Once language has said all it has to say and falls silent, I wonder how we will go on living. Problems already begin to appear, perhaps they are not problems as yet, rather different layers of meaning, displaced sediments, new questioning formulations, take for example the phrase, 'Over the great nakedness of truth, the diaphanous cloak of imagination.' It seems clear, compact, and conclusive, a child would be able to understand and repeat it in an examination without making any mistakes, but the same child might recite with equal conviction a different phrase, 'Over the great nakedness of imagination, the diaphanous cloak of truth,' which certainly gives one more to ponder, more to visualize with pleasure, the imagination solid and naked, the truth a gauzy covering. If our maxims are reversed and become laws, what world will be created by them. It is a miracle that men do not lose their sanity each time they open their mouths to speak. ~ Jos Saramago, #NFDB
343:It is a matter of persisting. At a certain point on his path the absurd man is tempted. History is not lacking in either religions or prophets, even without gods. He is asked to leap. All he can reply is that he doesn't fully understand, that it is not obvious. Indeed, he does not want to do anything but what he fully understands. He is assured that this is the sin of pride, but he does not understand the notion of sin; that perhaps hell is in store, but he has not enough imagination to visualize that strange future; that he is losing immortal life, but that seems to him an idle consideration. An attempt is made to get him to admit his guilt. He feels innocent. To tell the truth, that is all he feels — his irreparable innocence. This is what allows him everything. Hence, what he demands of himself is to live solely with what he knows, to accommodate himself with what is, and to bring in nothing that is not certain. He is told that nothing is. But this at least is certainty. And it is with this that he is concerned: he wants to find out if it is possible to live without appeal. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
344:STEWARDSHIP DELEGATION Stewardship delegation is focused on results instead of methods. It gives people a choice of method and makes them responsible for results. It takes more time in the beginning, but it’s time well invested. You can move the fulcrum over, you can increase your leverage, through stewardship delegation. Stewardship delegation involves clear, up-front mutual understanding and commitment regarding expectations in five areas. DESIRED RESULTS. Create a clear, mutual understanding of what needs to be accomplished, focusing on what, not how; results, not methods. Spend time. Be patient. Visualize the desired result. Have the person see it, describe it, make out a quality statement of what the results will look like, and by when they will be accomplished. GUIDELINES. Identify the parameters within which the individual should operate. These should be as few as possible to avoid methods delegation, but should include any formidable restrictions. You wouldn’t want a person to think he had considerable latitude as long as he accomplished the objectives, only to violate some long-standing ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
345:Phase 4: Future Dreams Up to this point, you’ve focused on the present. In this phase, you express intentions for your future happiness. I credit this phase with the massive growth and joy I’ve experienced in my career. Years ago, I visualized the life I have today. Today, I visualize years ahead while still being happy in the now. Doing this on a daily basis seems to help my brain find the optimal paths to realizing my dreams. When I’m visualizing my future life, I think three years ahead, and I suggest you do the same in this phase. And whatever you see three years ahead—double it. Because your brain will underestimate what you can do. We tend to underestimate what we can do in three years and overestimate what we can do in one year. Some people think that being “spiritual” means having to be content with one’s current life. Rubbish. You should be happy no matter where you are. But that shouldn’t stop you from dreaming, growing, and contributing. Choose an end goal from your answers to the Three Most Important Questions in Chapter 8 and spend a few minutes just imagining and thinking with joy about what life would be like if you had already attained this end goal. ~ Vishen Lakhiani, #NFDB
346:Phase 4: Future Dreams Up to this point, you’ve focused on the present. In this phase, you express intentions for your future happiness. I credit this phase with the massive growth and joy I’ve experienced in my career. Years ago, I visualized the life I have today. Today, I visualize years ahead while still being happy in the now. Doing this on a daily basis seems to help my brain find the optimal paths to realizing my dreams. When I’m visualizing my future life, I think three years ahead, and I suggest you do the same in this phase. And whatever you see three years ahead—double it. Because your brain will underestimate what you can do. We tend to underestimate what we can do in three years and overestimate what we can do in one year. Some people think that being “spiritual” means having to be content with one��s current life. Rubbish. You should be happy no matter where you are. But that shouldn’t stop you from dreaming, growing, and contributing. Choose an end goal from your answers to the Three Most Important Questions in Chapter 8 and spend a few minutes just imagining and thinking with joy about what life would be like if you had already attained this end goal. ~ Vishen Lakhiani, #NFDB
347:Cremisia said, “No, Signore. In this we have misunderstood. Nothing is the absence of anything we may understand. It is invisible in this world, has no presence or substance, neither sight nor sound, touch nor taste, not even, usually, any feeling of itself. It is the vast and unknowable sea that rings us round and lies beyond the physical reality of life, and out of which fly amazements and miracles unforetold. It is what awaits us, just as it is the fount from which we sprang. And being Nothing, we cannot here remember it, just as, here, we fear to enter it again. It is Un-ness, it is Death, it is the empty and unknowable ending. And yet, and yet, in fact it is only perceived in this way since we have here no words for it, no channels of our clever physical minds able to capture and convey its being, either to others or ourselves. It is—here—so unlike here, and what we too are when here, that we find no method to visualize or reclaim it. Or—if some great poet or mystic somewhat may, he, being lost for words, can only resort to symbols, architypes most others will dismiss. Only before, or after life, do we know it. When we are one with it, with Nothing, nothing at all, Nihil. Only then. ~ Tanith Lee, #NFDB
348:To visualize this dance, the transparent components of the cell had to be coloured using a stain. As it happened, the stains that were best able to colour the chromosomes were acidic. Unfortunately, these stains tended to dissolve the mitochondria; their obsession with the nucleus meant that cytologists were simply dissolving the evidence. Other stains were ambivalent, colouring mitochondria only transiently, for the mitochondria themselves rendered the stain colourless. Their rather ghostly appearance and disappearance was scarcely conducive to firm belief. Finally Carl Benda demonstrated, in 1897, that mitochondria do have a corporeal existence in cells. He defined them as ‘granules, rods, or filaments in the cytoplasm of nearly all cells … which are destroyed by acids or fat solvents.’ His term, mitochondria (pronounced ‘my-toe-con-dree-uh’), was derived from the Greek mitos, meaning thread, and chondrin, meaning small grain. Although his name alone stood the test of time, it was then but one among many. Mitochondria have revelled in more than thirty magnificently obscure names, including chondriosomes, chromidia, chondriokonts, eclectosomes, histomeres, microsomes, plastosomes, polioplasma, and vibrioden. ~ Nick Lane, #NFDB
349:Suggestions were given on how to promote mental flexibility. Included were the following: Try to identify with the central person, object, or process in the center of the problem. See how the problem looks from this vantage point. Try to “see” the solution—to visualize how various parts might work together, how a certain situation will work out. Scan rapidly through a large number of possible solutions, ideas, and data. The “right” solution will often appear with a sort of intuitive “knowing” that it is the answer. You will also find that you can be simultaneously aware of an uncommonly large number of ideas or pieces of data processes simultaneously. You will be able to step back from the problem and see it in a new perspective, in more basic terms. Since there is much less of yourself invested than in your prior trials, you will be able to abandon previously tried approaches and start afresh. Above all, don’t be timid about asking for answers. If you want to see the solution in a three-dimensional image, or to project yourself forward in time, or to view some microscopic physical process or something not visible to the physical eye, or to reexperience some event out of the past, by all means do so. Ask. Don’t let your questions be limited by your notion of what can or cannot be done. ~ James Fadiman, #NFDB
350:Our imaginations are forlornly under-equipped to cope with distances outside the narrow middle range of the ancestrally familiar. We try to visualize an electron as a tiny ball, in orbit around a larger cluster of balls representing protons and neutrons. That isn’t what it is like at all. Electrons are not like little balls. They are not like anything we recognize. It isn’t clear that ‘like’ even means anything when we try to fly too close to reality’s further horizons. Our imaginations are not yet tooled-up to penetrate the neighbourhood of the quantum. Nothing at that scale behaves in the way matter – as we are evolved to think – ought to behave. Nor can we cope with the behaviour of objects that move at some appreciable fraction of the speed of light. Common sense lets us down, because common sense evolved in a world where nothing moves very fast, and nothing is very small or very large. At the end of a famous essay on ‘Possible Worlds’, the great biologist J. B. S. Haldane wrote, ‘Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose…I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy.’ By the way, I am intrigued by the suggestion that the famous Hamlet speech invoked by Haldane is conventionally mis-spoken. The normal stress is on ‘your’: ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
351:Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to. Creative individuals don’t have to be dragged out of bed; they are eager to start the day. This is not because they are cheerful, enthusiastic types. Nor do they necessarily have something exciting to do. But they believe that there is something meaningful to accomplish each day, and they can’t wait to get started on it. Most of us don’t feel our actions are that meaningful. Yet everyone can discover at least one thing every day that is worth waking up for. It could be meeting a certain person, shopping for a special item, potting a plant, cleaning the office desk, writing a letter, trying on a new dress. It is easier if each night before falling asleep, you review the next day and choose a particular task that, compared to the rest of the day, should be relatively interesting and exciting. Then next morning, open your eyes and visualize the chosen event—play it out briefly in your mind, like an inner videotape, until you can hardly wait to get dressed and get going. It does not matter if at first the goals are trivial and not that interesting. The important thing is to take the easy first steps until you master the habit, and then slowly work up to more complex goals. Eventually most of the day should consist of tasks you look forward to, until you feel that getting up in the morning is a privilege, not a chore. ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, #NFDB
352:In 1994 another bombshell was dropped. Edward Witten of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study and Paul Townsend of Cambridge University speculated that all five string theories were in fact the same theory-but only if we add an eleventh dimension. From the vantage point of the eleventh dimension, all five different theories collapsed into one! The theory was unique after all, but only if we ascended to the mountaintop of the eleventh dimension.
In the eleventh dimension a new mathematical object can exist, called the membrane (e.g., like the surface of a sphere). Here was the amazing observation: if one dropped from eleven dimensions down to ten dimensions, all five string theories would emerge, starting from a single membrane. Hence all five string theories were just different ways of moving a membrane down from eleven to ten dimensions.
(To visualize this, imagine a beach ball with a rubber band stretched around the equator. Imagine taking a pair of scissors and cutting the beach ball twice, once above and once below the rubber band, thereby lopping off the top and bottom of the beach ball. All that is left is the rubber band, a string. In the same way, if we curl up the eleventh dimension, all that is left of a membrane is its equator, which is the string. In fact, mathematically there are five ways in which this slicing can occur, leaving us with five different string theories in ten dimensions.) ~ Michio Kaku,#NFDB
353:As an example of the use of technology in the democratic process, I visualize an election scenario where a candidate files his nomination from a particular constituency. Immediately, the election officer verifies the authenticity from the national citizen ID database through a multipurpose citizen ID card. The candidate’s civic consciousness and citizenship behaviour can also be accessed through the police crime records. The property records come from land registration authorities across the country. Income and wealth resources come from the income tax department, as well as other sources. The person’s education credentials come from his university records. The track record of employment comes from various employers with whom he has worked. The credit history comes from various credit institutions like banks. The person’s legal track records come from the judicial system. All the details arrive at the computer terminal of the election officer within a few minutes through the e-governance software, which would track various state and central government web services directories through the network and collect the information quickly and automatically and present facts in real-time without any bias. An artificial intelligence software would analyse the candidate’s credentials and give a rating on how successful that person would be as a politician. The election officer can then make an informed choice and start the electoral processes. ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
354:Every day, sometimes when I am doing my meditation practice and sometimes when I am working at my computer or sitting in my car waiting for a traffic light to change or sharing a meal with friends, I turn my attention to my breath and visualize myself on some inner plane of the imagination turning my face toward that which is larger than myself—the Great Mystery. I only have to turn my face toward it. I become aware of the temperature of the air touching my cheek. I imagine the molecules of oxygen and hydrogen and carbon dioxide colliding in exuberant activity, caressing the skin of my face. And I become aware that these molecules are alive with a vibration, a presence that is there also in the cells of my skin and in the molecules of those cells and in the atoms and subatomic particles of those. Slowly I turn my attention to an inner view of the landscape around and within me, and I become aware of this presence, like the hum of a great song constantly reverberating throughout and emanating from my body, the chair supporting me, the ground beneath me, and the people around me. And I know this presence as a whole that is larger than the sum of the parts and yet inseparable from the parts—including me—which are in a state of constant change. And I experience this presence, this bloodred thread of being that runs through the dark tapestry of daily life, as that which gives me the ability to truly know each other as another myself—as compassion. ~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer, #NFDB
355:Bad or good, movies nearly always have a strange diminishing effect on works of fantasy (of course there are exceptions; The Wizard of Oz is an example which springs immediately to mind). In discussions, people are willing to cast various parts endlessly. I've always thought Robert Duvall would make a splendid Randall Flagg, but I've heard people suggest such people as Clint Eastwood, Bruce Dern and Christopher Walken. They all sound good, just as Bruce Springsteen would seem to make an interesting Larry Underwood, if ever he chose to try acting (and, based on his videos, I think he would do very well ... although my personal choice would be Marshall Crenshaw). But in the end, I think it's best for Stu, Larry, Glen, Frannie, Ralph, Tom Cullen, Lloyd, and that dark fellow to belong to the reader, who will visualize them through the lens of the imagination in a vivid and constantly changing way no camera can duplicate. Movies, after all, are only an illusion of motion comprised of thousands of still photographs. The imagination, however, moves with its own tidal flow. Films, even the best of them, freeze fiction - anyone who has ever seen One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and then reads Ken Kesey's novel will find it hard or impossible not to see Jack Nicholson's face on Randle Patrick McMurphy. That is not necessarily bad ... but it is limiting. The glory of a good tale is that it is limitless and fluid; a good tale belongs to each reader in its own particular way. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
356:If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize, who you are and what you want to become in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape your journey by default. Your silence makes you reactive vs. proactive. God will bring people in your life that can take you on many different journeys that will bring about different outcomes to your life mission. However, if you are not proactive and define your dreams you will never know where “you” need to be and who needs to be with you to fulfill what God is asking you to do. Your life is your own. You must define your dreams, not live someone else’s vision of a good life. What is it that God is asking you to do with the talents and hobbies you enjoy? What were you blessed with a desire for? A good life is one spent in the service of helping others. Find a life partner that will help you reach God’s highest potential—service to humanity, service to his Kingdom, service to building others up. Also, begin any choice with the end in mind. This means to begin each day with a clear vision of your desired direction. It is not enough to live a passive life of religious devotion. God asked you to do more than worship. He has called you to serve, not to be a servant to other people’s dreams. You and only you know where your heart must travel. God brings you storms in life to wake you up. Don’t see it as his disappointment, but as his parental love for you. Life was not meant to stay the same. If someone truly loves you they will never take you away from God’s plan, they will only magnify it. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
357:What we can imagine as plausible is a narrow band in the middle of a much broader spectrum of what is actually possible. [O]ur eyes are built to cope with a narrow band of electromagnetic frequencies. [W]e can't see the rays outside the narrow light band, but we can do calculations about them, and we can build instruments to detect them. In the same way, we know that the scales of size and time extend in both directions far outside the realm of what we can visualize. Our minds can't cope with the large distances that astronomy deals in or with the small distances that atomic physics deals in, but we can represent those distances in mathematical symbols. Our minds can't imagine a time span as short as a picosecond, but we can do calculations about picoseconds, and we can build computers that can complete calculations within picoseconds. Our minds can't imagine a timespan as long as a million years, let alone the thousands of millions of years that geologists routinely compute. Just as our eyes can see only that narrow band of electromagnetic frequencies that natural selection equipped our ancestors to see, so our brains are built to cope with narrow bands of sizes and times. Presumably there was no need for our ancestors to cope with sizes and times outside the narrow range of everyday practicality, so our brains never evolved the capacity to imagine them. It is probably significant that our own body size of a few feet is roughly in the middle of the range of sizes we can imagine. And our own lifetime of a few decades is roughly in the middle of the range of times we can imagine. ~ Richard Dawkins, #NFDB
358:Rendezvous
[For Nathan Altermann ]
Altermann, sipping wine, reads with a look
Of infinite patience and slight suffering.
When I approach him, he puts down his book,
Waves t the chair beside him like a king,
Then claps his hands, and an awed waiter fetches
Bread, kosher sausage, cake, a chicken's wing,
More wine, some English cigarettes, and matches.
‘Eat, eat,' Altermann says, ‘this is good food.'
Through the awning over us the sunlight catches
His aquiline sad head, till it seems hewed
From tombstone marble. I accept some bread.
I've lunched already, but would not seem rude.
When I refuse more, he feeds me instead,
Heaping my plate, clapping for wine, his eyes
-Expressionless inside the marble head—
Appearing not to notice how the flies
Form a black, sticky icing on the cake.
Thinking of my health now, I visualize
The Aryan snow floating, flake upon flake,
Over the ghetto wall where only fleas
Fed well, and they and hunger kept awake
Under sharp stars, those waiting for release.
Birds had their nests, but Jews nowhere to hide
When visited by vans and black police.
The shekinah rose where a people died,
A pillar of flame by night, of smoke by day.
From Europe then the starved and terrified
Flew. Now their mourner sits in this café.
Telling me how to scan a Hebrew line.
Though my attention has moved far away
His features stay marble and aquiline.
But the eternal gesture of his race
Flowing through the hands that offer bred and wine
Reveals the deep love sealed in the still face.
~ Dom Moraes,#NFDB
359:A hundred years hence
Who it is
With such curiosity
Reads my poems
A hundred years hence!
Shall I be able to send you
An iota of joy of this fresh spring morning
The flower that blooms today
The songs that the birds sing
The glow of todays setting sun
Filled with my feelings of love?
Yet for a moment
Open up your southern gate
And take your seat at the window
Look at the far horizon
And visualize in your minds eye
One day a hundred years ago
A restless ecstasy drifted from the skies
And touched the heart of this world
The early spring mad with joy
Knew no bounds
Spreading its restless wings
The southern breeze blew
Carrying the scent of flowers pollen
All on a sudden soon
They coloured the world with a youthful glow
A hundred years ago.
That day a young poet kept awake
With an excited heart filled with songs
With so much ardour
Anxious to express so many things
Like buds of flowers straining to bloom
One day a hundred years ago.
A hundred years hence
What young poet
Sings songs in your homes!
For him
I send my tidings of joy of this spring.
Let it echo for a moment
In your spring, in your heartbeats,
In the humming of the bees
In the rustling of the leaves
A hundred years hence.
A transcreation of the poem 1400 Sal (The year 1400) from the collection Chitra by Rabindranath Tagore.
It was written on the 2nd of Falgun (first month of spring), 1302 (1895-96), of the Bengali calendar. Translated by Kumud Biswas.
Translated by Kumud Biswas
~ Rabindranath Tagore, A Hundred Years Hence
,#NFDB
360:Because we don't know, do we? Everyone knows . . . How what happens the way it does? What underlies the anarchy of the train of events, the uncertainties, the mishaps, the disunity, the shocking irregularities that define human affairs? Nobody knows, Professor Roux. "Everyone knows" is the invocation of the cliche and the beginning of the banalization of experience, and it's the solemnity and the sense of authority that people have in voicing the cliché that's so insufferable. What we know is that, in an unclichéd way, nobody knows anything. You can't know anything. The things you know you don't know. Intention? Motive? Consequence? Meaning?
All that we don't know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing.
As the audience filed back in, I began, cartoonishly, to envisage the fatal malady that, without anyone's recognizing it, was working away inside us, within each and every one of us: to visualize the blood vessels occluding under the baseball caps, the malignancies growing beneath the permed white hair, the organs misfiring, atrophying, shutting down, the hundreds of billions of murderous cells surreptitiously marching this entire audience toward the improbable disaster ahead. I couldn't stop myself. The stupendous decimation that is death sweeping us all away. Orchestra, audience, conductor, technicians, swallows, wrens—think of the numbers for Tanglewood alone just between now and the year 4000. Then multiply that times everything. The ceaseless perishing. What an idea!
What maniac conceived it? And yet what a lovely day it is today, a gift of a day, a perfect day lacking nothing in a Massachusetts vacation spot that is itself as harmless and pretty as any on earth. ~ Philip Roth,#NFDB
361:On a professional basis, when I’m asked what I want to be known for, my answer is simple: My work with children. I believe that every child is a leader and should be seen as such. When it comes to children, don’t define them by their behaviors. Visualize and affirm them as leaders. Leadership is affirming people’s worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves. We can raise a generation of leaders by teaching the children their innate worth and goodness, by helping them see within themselves the great power and potential they have. I am so pleased to see that thousands of schools around the world are now teaching the 7 Habits to children, teaching them who they really are and what they are capable of. We’re teaching them integrity, resourcefulness, self-discipline, the win-win way of life. We’re teaching them to welcome instead of distrust people who are different from them. We’re teaching them how to “sharpen the saw,” to never stop growing and improving and learning. This is being done through our The Leader in Me program that is being implemented in thousands of schools around the world. In these schools they learn that everyone is a leader, not just a few popular ones. They learn the difference between primary success that comes from real, honest achievement and secondary success—worldly recognition—and they learn to value primary success. They learn that they have this marvelous gift of choice, that they don’t have to be discouraged victims or cogs in a machine. Imagine the future if children grow up deeply connected to these principles, banishing victimism and dependency, suspicion and defensiveness—as fully responsible citizens who take very seriously their obligations to others. That future is possible. That’s what I want to be remembered for. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
362:The human form, it’s a symphony. Tiny interlocking movements that join together in song.” He slid his hands down over her knuckles until he was gripping the very tips of her fingers. “You play a more delicate tune than I do. Have you never noticed?”
Cass stared at her own hand. She tried to visualize the structures beneath her skin--the bones and muscles, the strange ropelike things connecting the two. It was hard to focus. Falco’s touch was so warm. “I’m not in the habit of staring at myself,” she said, pulling away. “It’s vain.”
Falco shook his head. “How terrible it must be to be a member of the noble class. So many rules. Such restraint. You must feel like a caged bird, battering its wings against the sides of its golden prison.”
Cass didn’t say anything for a second. That was exactly how she felt, and he had put it into words better than she had ever been able to do. She repeated the sentence in her mind, intending to write it in her journal when she returned home. But even though it was true, she didn’t want to admit to Falco that he was right. “I’m no one’s pet,” she insisted.
“You’re not?” Falco raised an eyebrow. The way he was looking at her made Cass feel out of breath. He tucked the bit of parchment into the pocket of her cloak. “Keep it,” he said. “You can hang it in your cage.” Then he turned as if to go.
“I mean it!” Cass cried out. “I’m not like all the others.” She realized she was squeezing her hands into fists.
“Is that so?” Falco turned back toward her, and all of the air went out of Cass’s chest. They were separated by half an inch of space. She was hot all over, as though someone had lit a fire under her skin. Falco stared at her so intensely, she felt she could fall into his eyes, into the swirling mists she saw reflected there.
“Yes,” she whispered.
His lips quirked into a small smile. “Prove it,” he said. ~ Fiona Paul,#NFDB
363:Let us see what words can do. Will you understand me, for a start, if I tell you that I have never known what I am? My vices, my virtues, are under my nose, but I can’t see them, nor stand far enough back to view myself as a whole. I seem to be a sort of flabby mass in which words are engulfed; no sooner do I name myself than what is named is merged in him who names, and one gets no farther. I have often wanted to hate myself and, as you know, had good reasons for so doing. But my attempted hatred of myself was absorbed into my insubstantiality and was nothing but a recollection. I could not love myself either, I am sure, though I have never tried to. But I was eternally compelled to be myself; I was my own burden, but never burdensome enough, Mathieu. For one instant, on that June evening when I elected to confess to you, I thought I had encountered myself in your bewildered eyes.
You saw me, in your eyes I was solid and predictable; my acts and moods were the actual consequences of a definite entity. And through me you knew that entity. I described it to you in my words, I revealed to you facts unknown to you, which had helped you to visualize it. And yet you saw it, I merely saw you seeing it. For one instant you were the heaven-sent mediator between me and myself, you perceived that compact and solid entity which I was and wanted to be in just as simple and ordinary a way as I perceived you. For, after all, I exist, I am, though I have no sense of being; and it is an exquisite torment to discover in oneself such utterly unfounded certainty, such unsubstantiated pride. I then understood that one could not reach oneself except through another’s judgment, another’s hatred. And also through another’s love perhaps; but there is here no question of that. For this revelation I am not ungrateful to you. I do not know how you would describe our present relations. Not goodwill, nor wholly hatred. Put it that there is a corpse between us. My corpse. ~ Jean Paul Sartre,#NFDB
364:[W]e can calculate our way into regions of miraculous improbability far greater than we can imagine as plausible. Let's look at this matter of what we think is plausible. What we can imagine as plausible is a narrow band in the middle of a much broader spectrum of what is actually possible. Sometimes it is narrower than what is actually there. There is a good analogy with light. Our eyes are built to cope with a narrow band of electromagnetic frequencies (the ones we call light), somewhere in the middle of the spectrum from long radio waves at one end to short X-rays at the other. We can't see the rays outside the narrow light band, but we can do calculations about them, and we can build instruments to detect them. In the same way, we know that the scales of size and time extend in both directions far outside the realm of what we can visualize. Our minds can't cope with the large distances that astronomy deals in or with the small distances that atomic physics deals in, but we can represent those distances in mathematical symbols. Our minds can't imagine a time span as short as a picosecond, but we can do calculations about picoseconds, and we can build computers that can complete calculations within picoseconds. Our minds can't imagine a timespan as long as a million years, let alone the thousands of millions of years that geologists routinely compute. Just as our eyes can see only that narrow band of electromagnetic frequencies that natural selection equipped our ancestors to see, so our brains are built to cope with narrow bands of sizes and times. Presumably there was no need for our ancestors to cope with sizes and times outside the narrow range of everyday practicality, so our brains never evolved the capacity to imagine them. It is probably significant that our own body size of a few feet is roughly in the middle of the range of sizes we can imagine. And our own lifetime of a few decades is roughly in the middle of the range of times we can imagine. ~ Richard Dawkins, #NFDB
365:It was a sort of car that seemed to have a faculty for motion with an absolute lack of any accompanying sound whatsoever.
This was probably illusory; it must have been, internal combustion engines being what they are, tires being what they are, brakes and gears being what they are, even raspy street-surfacing being what it is. Yet the illusion outside the hotel entrance was a complete one. Just as there are silencers that, when affixed to automatic hand-weapons, deaden their reports, so it was as if this whole massive car body were encased in something of that sort. For, first, there was nothing out there, nothing in sight there. Then, as though the street-bed were water and this bulky black shape were a grotesque gondola, it came floating up out of the darkness from nowhere. And then suddenly, still with no sound whatsoever, there it was at a halt, in position.
It was like a ghost-car in every attribute but the visual one. In its trancelike approach and halt, in its lightlessness, in its enshrouded interior, which made it impossible to determine (at least without lowering one's head directly outside the windows
and peering in at nose-tip range) if it were even occupied at all, and if so by whom and by how many.
You could visualize it scuttling fleetly along some overshadowed country lane at dead of night, lightless, inscrutable, unidentifiable, to halt perhaps beside some inky grove of trees, linger there awhile undetected, then glide on again, its unaccountable errand accomplished without witness, without aftermath. A goblin-car that in an earlier age would have fed folklore and rural legend. Or, in the city, you could visualize it sliding stealthily along some warehouse-blacked back alley, curving and squirming in its terrible silence, then, as it neared the mouth and would have emerged, creeping to a stop and lying there in wait, unguessed in the gloom. Lying here in wait for long hours, like some huge metal-cased predatory animal, waiting to pounce on its prey.
Sudden, sharp yellow spurts of fangs, and then to whirl and slink back into anonymity the way it came, leaving the carcass of its prey huddled there and dead.
Who was there to know? Who was there to tell? ("The Number's Up") ~ Cornell Woolrich,#NFDB
366:One method that Einstein employed to help people visualize this notion was to begin by imagining two-dimensional explorers on a two-dimensional universe, like a flat surface. These “flatlanders” can wander in any direction on this flat surface, but the concept of going up or down has no meaning to them. Now, imagine this variation: What if these flatlanders’ two dimensions were still on a surface, but this surface was (in a way very subtle to them) gently curved? What if they and their world were still confined to two dimensions, but their flat surface was like the surface of a globe? As Einstein put it, “Let us consider now a two-dimensional existence, but this time on a spherical surface instead of on a plane.” An arrow shot by these flatlanders would still seem to travel in a straight line, but eventually it would curve around and come back—just as a sailor on the surface of our planet heading straight off over the seas would eventually return from the other horizon. The curvature of the flatlanders’ two-dimensional space makes their surface finite, and yet they can find no boundaries. No matter what direction they travel, they reach no end or edge of their universe, but they eventually get back to the same place. As Einstein put it, “The great charm resulting from this consideration lies in the recognition that the universe of these beings is finite and yet has no limits.” And if the flatlanders’ surface was like that of an inflating balloon, their whole universe could be expanding, yet there would still be no boundaries to it.10 By extension, we can try to imagine, as Einstein has us do, how three-dimensional space can be similarly curved to create a closed and finite system that has no edge. It’s not easy for us three-dimensional creatures to visualize, but it is easily described mathematically by the non-Euclidean geometries pioneered by Gauss and Riemann. It can work for four dimensions of spacetime as well. In such a curved universe, a beam of light starting out in any direction could travel what seems to be a straight line and yet still curve back on itself. “This suggestion of a finite but unbounded space is one of the greatest ideas about the nature of the world which has ever been conceived,” the physicist Max Born has declared.11 Yes, ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
367:For our story, the most important proposed expansion of the equations of physics is supersymmetry, often fondly called SUSY. Supersymmetry, as the name suggests, proposes that we should use equations with larger symmetry.
SUSY's new symmetry is related to the boost symmetry of special relativity. As you may recall, boost symmetry says that the basic equations don't change when you impart a common, constant velocity to all the components of the system you're describing. (Dirac had to modify Schrodinger's equation to give it that property.) Supersymmetry likewise says that the equations don't change when you impart a common motion to all the components of the system you're describing. But it's a very different kind of motion from what's involved in boost symmetry. Instead of motion through ordinary space with a constant velocity, supersymmetry involves motion into new dimensions!
Before you get carried away with visions of spirit worlds and wormholes through hyperspace, let me hasten to add that the new dimensions have a very different character from the familiar dimensions of space and time. They're quantum dimensions.
What happens to a body when it moves in the quantum dimensions isn't that it gets displace-there's no notion of distance out there-instead, its spin changes. The "superboosts" turn particles with a given amount of intrinsic spin into particles with a different amount of spin. Because the equations are supposed to stay the same, supersymmetry relates properties of particles with different spin. SUSY allows us to see them as the same particle, moving in different ways through the quantum dimensions of superspace.
You can visualize the quantum dimensions as new layers of the Grid. When a particle hops into these layers its spin changes, and so does its mass. Its charges-electric, color, and weak-stay the same.
SUSY might allow us to complete the work of unifying the Core. Unification of the different charges, using the symmetry SO(10), united all the gauge bosons into a common cluster, and all the quarks and leptons into a common cluster. But no ordinary symmetry is capable of joining those two clusters, for they describe particles with different spins. Sypersymmetry is the best idea we have for connecting them. ~ Frank Wilczek,#NFDB
368:Ancestors
To tell the truth, we should not exist. We, not any collective plural, just you and me. Let us use our imaginations to visualize for a moment the circumstances and conditions of the life of our parents, then our grandparents, then great-grandparents, thus further and further back. Even if among them all there happened to be wealthy individuals or men of privilege, the stench and filth in which they lived, as that then was the rule, would have astonished us who use showers and toilets. What was even more certain was among them the presence of starvelings, for whom a piece of dry bread in pre-harvest time meant happiness. Our ancestors died like flies from epidemics, from starvation, from wars, though children swarmed, for every twelve of them only one or two survived. And what strange tribes, what ugly snouts behinds you and me, what bloody rites in honor of gods carved in the trunk of a linden tree! Back to those who are stalking through the undergrowth of a murky primeval forest with chipped stones for their only weapons, in order to split the skulls of their enemies. It would seem as if we had only parents and that's all, but those other pre-pre-predecessors exist, and with them their afflictions, manias, mental illnesses, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whatnot, and how do you know they do not continue on in you? And what was the probability that among the children of your great-great-grandparents the one survived who would beget your ancestor? And what the probability that this would repeat itself in the next generation?
Altogether, a very slim chance that we would be born in these skins, as these, not other, individuals, in whom the genes met those of the devil knows what whores and oafs. The very fact that our species survived and even multiplied beyond measure is astonishing, for it had much against it, and the primeval forest full of animals stronger than humans may serve till now as a metaphor for man's precarious situation - let us add viruses, bacteria, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, but also his own works, atomic weapons and the pollution of nature. Our species should have disappeared a long time ago, and it is still alive, incredibly resistant. That you and I happen to be part of it should be enough to give us pause for meditation. ~ Czes aw Mi osz,#NFDB
369:Action Step: Nourished by “Light” You can prove to yourself how nourishing a new word can be once it begins to be your personal theme. Let’s use the word light. Since it’s the opposite of heavy, this word is one of the best for our purposes. The more you bring light into your life, the easier it will be to lose weight. Why? Because light covers so many positive experiences. Look at the following usages: Lighthearted Light-handed Enlightened Feeling light and bright The light of inspiration Lightness of being The light of the soul The light of God If you had these things in your life, it would be much easier for your body to be light. Your mind would be sending messages that are the opposite of heavy, dull, inert, tired, bored, dark, unenlightened. Start to rid yourself of those messages and let your body conform to lightness and all of its positive connotations. With this background, you can proceed to use light in various ways, beginning with the physical sensation of being light. Exercise: Filling with Light Sit in a quiet room by yourself. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths until you feel centered and ready. (It’s best to sit upright if you can rather than lounging back in your chair.) Breathing normally, visualize light filling your chest each time you inhale. The light is soft, warm, and white. Watch it suffuse your chest. Now exhale normally, but leave the light inside. On your next breath, take in more light. See the light filling your chest now begin to suffuse the rest of your body, moving down into your abdomen. Don’t force the visualization, and don’t worry if you have trouble seeing the light—even a faint sense of white light is good enough. With each breath, let the light suffuse your arms, then your hands all the way to the fingertips. Let it suffuse your legs down to your toes. Finally, send the light into your head and out the top in a beam that reaches high. Sit with the light for a few moments, then lift your arms, letting them float upward as if the light is causing them to rise. You are like a balloon filled completely with light. Enjoy the sensation, then open your eyes. This is a good exercise to counteract feelings of dullness, heaviness, fatigue, and sadness. The sensation of being physically light, paired with the visualization of inner light, creates a big change in how you relate to your body. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
370:In a world dominated by violent and passive-aggressive men, and by male institutions dispensing violence, it is extraordinary to note how often women are represented as the perpetrators of violence, most of all when we are simply fighting in self-defense or for our children, or when we collectively attempt to change the institutions that are making war on us and on our children. In reality, the feminist movement could be said to be trying to visualize and make way for a world in which abortion would not be necessary; a world free from poverty and rape, in which young girls would grow up with intelligent regard for and knowledge of their bodies and respect for their minds, in which the socialization of women into heterosexual romance and marriage would no longer be the primary lesson of culture; in which single women could raise children with a less crushing cost to themselves, in which female creativity might or might not choose to express itself in motherhood. Yet, when radical feminists and lesbian/feminists begin to speak of such a world, when we begin to sketch the conditions of a life we have collectively envisioned, the first charge we are likely to hear is a charge of violence: that we are “man-haters.” We hear that the women’s movement is provoking men to rape; that it has caused an increase in violent crimes by women; and when we demand the right to rear our children in circumstances where they have a chance for more than mere physical survival, we are called fetus-killers. The beating of women in homes across this country, the rape of daughters by fathers and brothers, the fear of rape that keeps old—as well as young—women off the streets, the casual male violence that can use a car to run two jogging women off a country road, the sadistic exploitation of women’s bodies to furnish a multibillion-dollar empire of pornography, the decision taken by powerful white males that one-quarter of the world’s women shall be sterilized or that certain selected women—poor and Third World—shall be used as subjects for psychosurgery and contraceptive experiments—these ordinary, everyday events inevitably must lead us to ask: who indeed hates whom, who is killing whom, whose interest is served, and whose fantasies expressed, by representing abortion as the selfish, willful, morally contagious expression of woman’s predilection for violence? ~ Adrienne Rich, #NFDB
371:Every Saturday, heat or cold, rain or shine, Milly would see Avery running up their road, her long blond ponytail swishing in time with her legs, just as the sun was making gemstones out of the fields and the hills and the bales of hay scattered across the landscape. Twiss would still be snoring away upstairs. Years of sleep remedies had failed to subdue her; she still slept like a wild animal and woke like one, too.
On warm mornings, Milly would take her cup of tea out to the porch to watch Avery run by. Though she'd never been a runner herself- she didn't like the sensation of breathlessness, or the hard thunk of her heart- she'd loved to watch Twiss run. And Avery was an even better runner than Twiss had been, and certainly more graceful. She'd run first on the Spring Green high school team and then on the university team and now was training to run the marathon in the Olympic trials.
In an interview, when a reporter from the 'Gazette' asked her why she ran, Avery said, "Why does anybody do anything?" which had made Milly like Avery even more.
Each Saturday morning, after she passed the driveway, Avery would pick up speed in order to crest the upcoming hills. Sometimes she ran with a yellow music player and matching headphones, but most of the time, she ran without them.
"Something comes in and something goes out," Avery had added in the interview, as if she'd been playing at being coy but couldn't really play when it came to running. "I'd keep running forever if my legs would let me."
"Tell me about the routes you run in Spring Green," the reporter had said.
"My favorite is my Saturday route," Avery said. "There's this little purple meadow I pass on my way up into the hills. When I was little, my grandpa used to say it was enchanted. He said if you walked through it, you'd never be the same person again."
"Where did he hear the story?" the reporter asked.
"I guess he used to know the people who lived in that house," Avery said.
"The bird sisters?" the reporter said.
"All I know is, when I pass that meadow, suddenly I can run faster," Avery said.
"Are you superstitious?"
"I visualize the meadow during all of my races, if that's what you mean."
"Have you ever walked through it?"
"I believe in it too much," Avery said.
"Can you be more specific?" the reporter asked.
"No," Avery said. ~ Rebecca Rasmussen,#NFDB
372:With his five senses he engages this real world. All things necessary to his physical existence he apprehends by the faculties with which he has been equipped by the God who created him and placed him in such a world as this. Now, by our definition also God is real. He is real in the absolute and final sense that nothing else is. All other reality is contingent upon His. The great Reality is God who is the Author of that lower and dependent reality which makes up the sum of created things, including ourselves. God has objective existence independent of and apart from any notions which we may have concerning Him. The worshipping heart does not create its Object. It finds Him here when it wakes from its moral slumber in the morning of its regeneration. Another word that must be cleared up is the word reckon. This does not mean to visualize or imagine. Imagination is not faith. The two are not only different from, but stand in sharp opposition to, each other. Imagination projects unreal images out of the mind and seeks to attach reality to them. Faith creates nothing; it simply reckons upon that which is already there. God and the spiritual world are real. We can reckon upon them with as much assurance as we reckon upon the familiar world around us. Spiritual things are there (or rather we should say here) inviting our attention and challenging our trust. Our trouble is that we have established bad thought habits. We habitually think of the visible world as real and doubt the reality of any other. We do not deny the existence of the spiritual world but we doubt that it is real in the accepted meaning of the word. The world of sense intrudes upon our attention day and night for the whole of our lifetime. It is clamorous, insistent and self-demonstrating. It does not appeal to our faith; it is here, assaulting our five senses, demanding to be accepted as real and final. But sin has so clouded the lenses of our hearts that we cannot see that other reality, the City of God, shining around us. The world of sense triumphs. The visible becomes the enemy of the invisible; the temporal, of the eternal. That is the curse inherited by every member of Adam's tragic race. At the root of the Christian life lies belief in the invisible. The object of the Christian's faith is unseen reality. Our uncorrected thinking, influenced by the blindness of our natural hearts and the intrusive ubiquity of visible things, tends to draw a contrast between the ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
373:The crust [of the earth] is very thin. Estimates of its thickness range from a minimum of about twenty to a maximum of about forty miles. The crust is made of comparatively rigid, crystalline rock, but it is fractured in many places, and does not have great strength. Immediately under the crust is a layer that is thought to be extremely weak, because it is, presumably, too hot to crystallize. Moreover, it is thought that pressure at that depth renders the rock extremely plastic, so that it will yield easily to pressures. The rock at that depth is supposed to have high viscosity; that is, it is fluid but very stiff, as tar may be. It is known that a viscous material will yield easily to a comparatively slight pressure exerted over a long period of time, even though it may act as a solid when subjected to a sudden pressure, such as an earthquake wave. If a gentle push is exerted horizontally on the earth's crust, to shove it in a given direction, and if the push is maintained steadily for a long time, it is highly probable that the crust willl be displaced over this plastic and viscous lower layer. The crust, in this case, will move as a single unit, the whole crust at the same time. This idea has nothing whatever to do with the much discussed theory of drifting continents, according to which the continents drifted separately, in different directions.
[...]
Let us visualize briefly the consequences of a displacement of the whole crustal shell of the earth. First, there will be the changes in latitude. Places on the earth's surface will change their distances from the equator. Some will be shifted nearer the equator, and others farther away. Points on opposite sides of the earth will move in opposite directions. For example, if New York should be moved 2,000 miles south, the Indian Ocean, diametrically opposite, would have to be shifted 2,000 miles north. [...] Naturally, climatic changes will be more or less proportionate to changes in latitude, and, because areas on opposite sides of the globe will be moving in opposite directions, some areas will be getting colder while others get hotter; some will be undergoing radical changes of climate, some mild changes of climate, and some no changes at all.
Along with the climatic changes, there will be many other consequences of a displacement of the crust. Because of the slight flattening of the earth, there will be stretching and compressional effects to crack and fold the crust, possibly contributing to the formation of mountain ranges. there will be changes in sea level, and many other consequences. ~ Charles H Hapgood,#NFDB
374:PROTECTION
Going to sleep is a little like dying, a journey taken alone into the unknown. Ordinarily we are not troubled about sleep because we are familiar with it, but think about what it entails. We completely lose ourselves in a void for some period of time, until we arise again in a dream. When we do so, we may have a different identity and a different body. We may be in a strange place, with people we do not know, involved in baffling activities that may seem quite risky.
Just trying to sleep in an unfamiliar place may occasion anxiety. The place may be perfectly secure and comfortable, but we do not sleep as well as we do at home in familiar surroundings. Maybe the energy of the place feels wrong. Or maybe it is only our own insecurity that disturbs us,and even in familiar places we may feel anxious while waiting for sleep to come, or be frightenedby what we dream. When we fall asleep with anxiety, our dreams are mingled with fear and tension, sleep is less restful, and the practice harder to do. So it is a good idea to create a sense of protection before we sleep and to turn our sleeping area into a sacred space.
This is done by imagining protective dakinis all around the sleeping area. Visualize the dakinis as beautiful goddesses, enlightened female beings who are loving, green in color, and powerfully protective. They remain near as you fall asleep and throughout the night, like mothers watching over their child, or guardians surrounding a king or queen. Imagine them everywhere, guarding the doors and the windows, sitting next to you on the bed, walking in the garden or the yard, and so on, until you feel completely protected.
Again, this practice is more than just trying to visualize something: see the dakinis with your mind but also use your imagination to feel their presence. Creating a protective, sacred environment in this way is calming and relaxing and promotes restful sleep. This is how the mystic lives: seeing the magic, changing the environment with the mind, and allowing actions, even actions of the imagination, to have significance.
You can enhance the sense of peace in your sleeping environment by keeping objects of a sacred nature in the bedroom: peaceful, loving images, sacred and religious symbols, and other objects that direct your mind toward the path.
The Mother Tantra tells us that as we prepare for sleep we should maintain awareness of the causes of dream, the object to focus upon, the protectors, and of ourselves. Hold these together inawareness, not as many things, but as a single environment, and this will have a great effect in dream and sleep.
~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep,#NFDB
375:30. Take the same position as heretofore and visualize a Battleship; see the grim monster floating on the surface of the water; there appears to be no life anywhere about; all is silence; you know that by far the largest part of the vessel is under water; out of sight; you know that the ship is as large and as heavy as a twenty-story skyscraper; you know that there are hundreds of men ready to spring to their appointed task instantly; you know that every department is in charge of able, trained, skilled officials who have proven themselves competent to take charge of this marvelous piece of mechanism; you know that although it lies apparently oblivious to everything else, it has eyes which see everything for miles around, and nothing is permitted to escape its watchful vision; you know that while it appears quiet, submissive and innocent, it is prepared to hurl a steel projectile weighing thousands of pounds at an enemy many miles away; this and much more you can bring to mind with comparatively no effort whateveR But how did the battleship come to be where it is; how did it come into existence in the first place? All of this you want to know if you are a careful observer.
31. Follow the great steel plates through the foundries, see the thousands of men employed in their production; go still further back, and see the ore as it comes from the mine, see it loaded on barges or cars, see it melted and properly treated; go back still further and see the architect and engineers who planned the vessel; let the thought carry you back still further in order to determine why they planned the vessel; you will see that you are now so far back that the vessel is something intangible, it no longer exists, it is now only a thought existing in the brain of the architect; but from where did the order come to plan the vessel? Probably from the Secretary of Defense; but probably this vessel was planned long before the war was thought of, and that Congress had to pass a bill appropriating the money; possibly there was opposition, and speeches for or against the bill. Whom do these Congressmen represent? They represent you and me, so that our line of thought begins with the Battleship and ends with ourselves, and we find in the last analysis that our own thought is responsible for this and many other things, of which we seldom think, and a little further reflection will develop the most important fact of all and that is, if someone had not discovered the law by which this tremendous mass of steel and iron could be made to float upon the water, instead of immediately going to the bottom, the battleship could not have come into existence at all. ~ Charles F Haanel, The Master Key System,#NFDB
376:Techniques Phase 1 Night is the time to practice this technique, as you will require deep, undisturbed concentration, and the airways are less likely to be cluttered during the dark of the day. You will be using the visualization function initially, but instead of retaining internalization, you are going to externalize your consciousness (as in shapeshifting). Seat yourself in your usual working position. Go into meditation to center yourself. Visualize yourself standing directly in front of where you are. Observe the back of your head, your height, your stance—everything about yourself that you can see. It is not possible to observe your own face in this context, just as it is not possible to observe your own physical form (except in a mirror), as we are aware only of our internalized externalization of image and not the way we appear to an observer. Next you are to project your consciousness into your body. By this I mean that you are no longer the person observing, but the person being observed. Look around your immediate environment. Go to the doorway and walk around the room, looking at everything: look behind objects, inside cupboards and boxes, look closely at books, pictures, everything. Continue this exercise nightly until you are familiar with your immediate surroundings. Always reenter your prone material body the way you left. Phase 2 Begin with meditation. Go with the process of projecting into the externalized image of yourself. You may now proceed to leave the room with which you have oriented yourself over the preceding nights and travel around the house in which you live, observing at all times and remaining aware of all things your senses perceive. If there are other people in the house, you may pick up on their emotions, moods, dream patterns, etc., but at this stage, do not work at having them become aware of your presence (they may become aware of you anyway, especially if they are asleep and traveling close to their physical habitat). Continue with this exercise until you are familiar with the process. Phase 3 Begin with meditation. Project your consciousness into your self-image. You can now leave the house and move around outside. Be aware of the time. Observe all that is around you. Now you can begin the process of expanding your entity. If you bend your knees and jump, you will discover that you are weightless and can keep rising into the atmosphere as long as you desire. You can also think your astral body from one place to another without necessarily following a familiar route. Practice this often, but don’t forget to follow the return-to-body procedure! I tend to stress this like a mother-hen. I’ve had horrible postastral dysfunction occur due to both interruption and lack of experience, and it has sometimes been days before I stopped feeling dizzy and/or nauseous and disoriented. Sleeping lots tends to fix it, though. ~ Ly de Angeles, #NFDB
377:Cohen continued to struggle with his own well-being. Even though he had achieved his life’s dream of running his own firm, he was still unhappy, and he had become dependent on a psychiatrist named Ari Kiev to help him manage his moods. In addition to treating depression, Kiev’s other area of expertise was success and how to achieve it. He had worked as a psychiatrist and coach with Olympic basketball players and rowers trying to improve their performance and overcome their fear of failure. His background building athletic champions appealed to Cohen’s unrelenting need to dominate in every transaction he entered into, and he started asking Kiev to spend entire days at SAC’s offices, tending to his staff. Kiev was tall, with a bushy mustache and a portly midsection, and he would often appear silently at a trader’s side and ask him how he was feeling. Sometimes the trader would be so startled to see Kiev there he’d practically jump out of his seat. Cohen asked Kiev to give motivational speeches to his employees, to help them get over their anxieties about losing money. Basically, Kiev was there to teach them to be ruthless. Once a week, after the market closed, Cohen’s traders would gather in a conference room and Kiev would lead them through group therapy sessions focused on how to make them more comfortable with risk. Kiev had them talk about their trades and try to understand why some had gone well and others hadn’t. “Are you really motivated to make as much money as you can? This guy’s going to help you become a real killer at it,” was how one skeptical staff member remembered Kiev being pitched to them. Kiev’s work with Olympians had led him to believe that the thing that blocked most people was fear. You might have two investors with the same amount of money: One was prepared to buy 250,000 shares of a stock they liked, while the other wasn’t. Why? Kiev believed that the reluctance was a form of anxiety—and that it could be overcome with proper treatment. Kiev would ask the traders to close their eyes and visualize themselves making trades and generating profits. “Surrendering to the moment” and “speaking the truth” were some of his favorite phrases. “Why weren’t you bigger in the trades that worked? What did you do right?” he’d ask. “Being preoccupied with not losing interferes with winning,” he would say. “Trading not to lose is not a good strategy. You need to trade to win.” Many of the traders hated the group therapy sessions. Some considered Kiev a fraud. “Ari was very aggressive,” said one. “He liked money.” Patricia, Cohen’s first wife, was suspicious of Kiev’s motives and believed that he was using his sessions with Cohen to find stock tips. From Kiev’s perspective, he found the perfect client in Cohen, a patient with unlimited resources who could pay enormous fees and whose reputation as one of the best traders on Wall Street could help Kiev realize his own goal of becoming a bestselling author. Being able to say that you were the ~ Sheelah Kolhatkar, #NFDB
378:Suicide Note
'You speak to me of narcissism but I reply that it is
a matter of my life' - Artaud
'At this time let me somehow bequeath all the leftovers
to my daughters and their daughters' - Anonymous
Better,
despite the worms talking to
the mare’s hoof in the field;
better,
despite the season of young girls
dropping their blood;
better somehow
to drop myself quickly
into an old room.
Better (someone said)
not to be born
and far better
not to be born twice
at thirteen
where the boardinghouse,
each year a bedroom,
caught fire.
Dear friend,
I will have to sink with hundreds of others
on a dumbwaiter into hell.
I will be a light thing.
I will enter death
like someone’s lost optical lens.
Life is half enlarged.
The fish and owls are fierce today.
Life tilts backward and forward.
Even the wasps cannot find my eyes.
Yes,
eyes that were immediate once.
Eyes that have been truly awake,
eyes that told the whole story—
182
poor dumb animals.
Eyes that were pierced,
little nail heads,
light blue gunshots.
And once with
a mouth like a cup,
clay colored or blood colored,
open like the breakwater
for the lost ocean
and open like the noose
for the first head.
Once upon a time
my hunger was for Jesus.
O my hunger! My hunger!
Before he grew old
he rode calmly into Jerusalem
in search of death.
This time
I certainly
do not ask for understanding
and yet I hope everyone else
will turn their heads when an unrehearsed fish jumps
on the surface of Echo Lake;
when moonlight,
its bass note turned up loud,
hurts some building in Boston,
when the truly beautiful lie together.
I think of this, surely,
and would think of it far longer
if I were not… if I were not
at that old fire.
I could admit
that I am only a coward
crying me me me
and not mention the little gnats, the moths,
forced by circumstance
to suck on the electric bulb.
But surely you know that everyone has a death,
183
his own death,
waiting for him.
So I will go now
without old age or disease,
wildly but accurately,
knowing my best route,
carried by that toy donkey I rode all these years,
never asking, “Where are we going?”
We were riding (if I’d only known)
to this.
Dear friend,
please do not think
that I visualize guitars playing
or my father arching his bone.
I do not even expect my mother’s mouth.
I know that I have died before—
once in November, once in June.
How strange to choose June again,
so concrete with its green breasts and bellies.
Of course guitars will not play!
The snakes will certainly not notice.
New York City will not mind.
At night the bats will beat on the trees,
knowing it all,
seeing what they sensed all day.
~ Anne Sexton,#NFDB
379:One of the positive side-effects of maintaining a very high degree of awareness of death is that it will prepare the individual to such an extent that, when the individual actually faces death, he or she will be in a better position to maintain his or her presence of mind. Especially in Tantric Buddhism, it is considered that the state of mind which one experiences at the point of death is extremely subtle and, because of the subtlety of the level of that consciousness, it also has a great power and impact upon one’s mental continuum. In Tantric practices we find a lot of emphasis placed on reflections upon the process of death, so that the individual at the time of death not only retains his or her presence of mind, but also is in a position to utilize that subtle state of consciousness effectively towards the realization of the path. From the Tantric perspective, the entire process of existence is explained in terms of the three stages known as ‘death’, the ‘intermediate state’ and ‘rebirth’. All of these three stages of existence are seen as states or manifestations of the consciousness and the energies that accompany or propel the consciousness, so that the intermediate state and rebirth are nothing other than various levels of the subtle consciousness and energy. An example of such fluctuating states can be found in our daily existence, when during the 24-hour day we go through a cycle of deep sleep, the waking period and the dream state. Our daily existence is in fact characterized by these three stages. As death becomes something familiar to you, as you have some knowledge of its processes and can recognize its external and internal indications, you are prepared for it. According to my own experience, I still have no confidence that at the moment of death I will really implement all these practices for which I have prepared. I have no guarantee! Sometimes when I think about death I get some kind of excitement. Instead of fear, I have a feeling of curiosity and this makes it much easier for me to accept death. Of course, my only burden if I die today is, ‘Oh, what will happen to Tibet? What about Tibetan culture? What about the six million Tibetan people’s rights?’ This is my main concern. Otherwise, I feel almost no fear of death. In my daily practice of prayer I visualize eight different deity yogas and eight different deaths. Perhaps when death comes all my preparation may fail. I hope not! I think these practices are mentally very helpful in dealing with death. Even if there is no next life, there is some benefit if they relieve fear. And because there is less fear, one can be more fully prepared. If you are fully prepared then, at the moment of death, you can retain your peace of mind. I think at the time of death a peaceful mind is essential no matter what you believe in, whether it is Buddhism or some other religion. At the moment of death, the individual should not seek to develop anger, hatred and so on. I think even non-believers see that it is better to pass away in a peaceful manner, it is much happier. Also, for those who believe in heaven or some other concept, it is also best to pass away peacefully with the thought of one’s own God or belief in higher forces. For Buddhists and also other ancient Indian traditions, which accept the rebirth or karma theory, naturally at the time of death a virtuous state of mind is beneficial. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
380:Motion in space can proceed in any direction and back again. Motion in time only proceeds in one direction in the everyday world, whatever seems to be going on at the particle level. It’s hard to visualize the four dimensions of spacetime, each at right angles to the other, but we can leave out one dimension and imagine what this strict rule would mean if it applied to one of the three dimensions we are used to. It’s as if we were allowed to move either up or down, either forward or back, but that sideways motion was restricted to shuffling to the left, say. Movement to the right is forbidden. If we made this the central rule in a children’s game, and then told a child to find a way of reaching a prize off to the right-hand side (“backward in time”) it wouldn’t take too long for the child to find a way out of the trap. Simply turn around to face the other way, swapping left for right, and then reach the prize by moving to the left. Alternatively, lie down on the floor so that the prize is in the “up” direction with reference to your head. Now you can move both “up” to grasp the prize and “down” to your original position, before standing up again and returning your personal space orientation to that of the bystanders.* The technique for time travel allowed by relativity theory is very similar. It involves distorting the fabric of space-time so that in a local region of space-time the time axis points in a direction equivalent to one of the three space directions in the undistorted region of space-time. One of the other space directions takes on the role of time, and by swapping space for time such a device would make true time travel, there and back again, possible. American mathematician Frank Tipler has made the calculations that prove such a trick is theoretically possible. Space-time can be distorted by strong gravitational fields,and Tipler’s imaginary time machine is a very massive cylinder, containing as much matter as our sun packed into a volume 100 km long and 10 km in radius, as dense as the nucleus of an atom, rotating twice every millisecond and dragging the fabric of space-time around with it. The surface of the cylinder would be moving at half the speed of light. This isn’t the sort of thing even the maddest of mad inventors is likely to build in his backyard, but the point is that it is allowed by all the laws of physics that we know. There is even an object in the universe that has the mass of our sun, the density of an atomic nucleus, and spins once every 1.5 milliseconds, only three times slower than Tipler’s time machine. This is the so-called “millisecond pulsar,” discovered in 1982. It is highly unlikely that this object is cylindrical—such extreme rotation has surely flattened it into a pancake shape. Even so, there must be some very peculiar distortions of space-time in its vicinity. “Real” time travel may not be impossible, just extremely difficult and very, very unlikely. That thin end of what might be a very large wedge may, however, make the normality of time travel at the quantum level seem a little more acceptable. Both quantum theory and relativity theory permit time travel, of one kind or another. And anything that is acceptable to both those theories, no matter how paradoxical that something may seem, has to be taken seriously. Time travel, indeed, is an integral part of some of the stranger features of the particle world, where you can even get something for nothing, if you are quick about it. ~ John Gribbin, #NFDB
381:Heightened capacity for visual imagery and fantasy “Was able to move imaginary parts in relation to each other.” “It was the non-specific fantasy that triggered the idea.” “The next insight came as an image of an oyster shell, with the mother-of-pearl shining in different colors. I translated that in the idea of an interferometer—two layers separated by a gap equal to the wavelength it is desired to reflect.” “As soon as I began to visualize the problem, one possibility immediately occurred. A few problems with that concept occurred, which seemed to solve themselves rather quickly…. Visualizing the required cross section was instantaneous.” “Somewhere along in here, I began to see an image of the circuit. The gates themselves were little silver cones linked together by lines. I watched the circuit flipping through its paces….” “I began visualizing all the properties known to me that a photon possesses and attempted to make a model for a photon…. The photon was comprised of an electron and a positron cloud moving together in an intermeshed synchronized helical orbit…. This model was reduced for visualizing purposes to a black-and-white ball propagating in a screwlike fashion through space. I kept putting the model through all sorts of known tests.” 5. Increased ability to concentrate “Was able to shut out virtually all distracting influences.” “I was easily able to follow a train of thought to a conclusion where normally I would have been distracted many times.” “I was impressed with the intensity of concentration, the forcefulness and exuberance with which I could proceed toward the solution.” “I considered the process of photoconductivity…. I kept asking myself, ‘What is light? and subsequently, ‘What is a photon?’ The latter question I repeated to myself several hundred times till it was being said automatically in synchronism with each breath. I probably never in my life pressured myself as intently with a question as I did this one.” “It is hard to estimate how long this problem might have taken without the psychedelic agent, but it was the type of problem that might never have been solved. It would have taken a great deal of effort and racking of the brains to arrive at what seemed to come more easily during the session.” 6. Heightened empathy with external processes and objects “…the sense of the problem as a living thing that is growing toward its inherent solution.” “First I somehow considered being the needle and being bounced around in the groove.” “I spent a productive period …climbing down on my retina, walking around and thinking about certain problems relating to the mechanism of vision.” “Ability to grasp the problem in its entirety, to ‘dive’ into it without reservations, almost like becoming the problem.” “Awareness of the problem itself rather than the ‘I’ that is trying to solve it.” 7. Heightened empathy with people “It was also felt that group performance was affected in …subtle ways. This may be evidence that some sort of group action was going on all the time.” “Only at intervals did I become aware of the music. Sometimes, when I felt the other guys listening to it, it was a physical feeling of them listening to it.” “Sometimes we even had the feeling of having the same thoughts or ideas.” 8. Subconscious data more accessible “…brought about almost total recall of a course that I had had in thermodynamics; something that I had never given any thought about in years.” “I was in my early teens and wandering through the gardens where I actually grew up. I felt all my prior emotions in relation to my surroundings. ~ James Fadiman, #NFDB
382:I'm unaccustomed to being cooped up all day-I really must insist that you permit me to enjoy a short walk."
"Not on your life," Fletcher growled.
From the sound, Breckenridge realized the group had moved closer to the tap.
"You don't need to think you're going to give us the slip so easily," Fletcher said again.
"My dear good man"-Heather with her nose in the air; Breckenridge could tell by her tone-"just where in this landscape of empty fields do you imagine I'm going to slip to?"
Cobbins opined that she might try to steal a horse and ride off.
"Oh,yes-in a round gown and evening slippers," Heather jeered. "But I wasn't suggesting you let me ramble on my own-Martha can come with me."
That was Martha's cue to enter the fray, but Heather stuck to her guns, refusing to back down through the ensuing, increasingly heated verbal stoush.
Until Fletcher intervened, aggravated frustration resonating in his voice. "Look you-we're under strict orders to keep you safe, not to let you wander off to fall prey to the first shiftless rake who rides past and takes a fancy to you."
Silence reigned for half a minute, then Heather audibly sniffed. "I'll have you know that shiftless rakes know better than to take a fancy to me."
Not true, Breckenridge thought, but that wasn't the startling information contained in Fletcher's outburst. "Come on, Heather-follow up."
As if she'd heard his muttered exhortation, she blithely swept on. "But if rather than standing there arguing, you instead treated me like a sensible adult and told me what your so strict orders with respect to me were, I might see my way to complying-or at least to helping you comply with them."
Breckenridge blinked as he sorted through that pronouncement; he could almost feel for Fletcher when he hissed out a sigh.
"All right," Fletcher's frustration had reached breaking point. "If you must know, we're to keep you safe from all harm. We're not to let a bloody pigeon pluck so much as a hair from your head. We're to deliver you up in prime condition, exactly as you were when he grabbed you."
From the change in Fletcher's tone, Breckenridge could visualize him moving closer to tower over Heather to intimidate her into backing down; he could have told him it wouldn't work.
"So now you see," Fletcher went on, voice low and forceful, "that it's entirely out of the question for you to go out for any ramble."
"Hmm." Heather's tone was tellingly mild.
Fletcher was about to get floored by an uppercut. For once not being on the receiving end, Breckenridge grinned and waited for it to land.
"If, as you say, your orders are to-do correct me if I'm wrong-keep me in my customary excellent health until you hand me over to your employer, then, my dear Fletcher, that will absolutely necessitate me going for a walk. Being cooped up all day in a carriage has never agreed with me-if you don't wish me to weaken or develop some unhealthy affliction, I will require fresh air and gentle exercise to recoup." She paused, then went on, her tone one of utmost reasonableness, "A short excursion along the river at the rear of the inn, and back, should restore my constitution."
Breckenridge was certain he could hear Fletcher breathing in and out through clenched teeth.
A fraught moment passed on, then, "Oh, very well! Martha-go with her. Twenty minutes, do you hear? Not a minute more."
"Thank you, Fletcher. Come, Martha-we don't want to waste the light."
Breckenridge heard Heather, with the rather slower Martha, leave the inn by the main door. He sipped his ale, waited. Eventually, Fletcher and Cobbins climbed the stairs, Cobbins grumbling, Fletcher ominously silent.
The instant they passed out of hearing, Breckenridge stood, stretched, then walked out of the tap and into the foyer. Seconds later, he slipped out of the front door. ~ Stephanie Laurens,#NFDB
383:So what did you and Landon do this afternoon?” Minka asked, her soft voice dragging him back to the present.
Angelo looked up to see that Minka had already polished off two fajitas. Damn, the girl could eat. “Landon gave me a tour of the DCO complex. I did some target shooting and blew up a few things. He even let me play with the expensive surveillance toys. I swear, it felt more like a recruiting pitch to get me to work there than anything.”
Minka’s eyes flashed green, her full lips curving slightly. Damn, why the hell had he said it like that? Now she probably thought he was going to come work for the DCO. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t, not after just reenlisting for another five years. The army wasn’t the kind of job where you could walk into the boss’s office and say, “I quit.”
Thinking it would be a good idea to steer the conversation back to safer ground, he reached for another fajita and asked Minka a question instead. “What do you think you’ll work on next with Ivy and Tanner? You going to practice with the claws for a while or move on to something else?”
Angelo felt a little crappy about changing the subject, but if Minka noticed, she didn’t seem to mind. And it wasn’t like he had to fake interest in what she was saying. Anything that involved Minka was important to him. Besides, he didn’t know much about shifters or hybrids, so the whole thing was pretty damn fascinating.
“What do you visualize when you see the beast in your mind?” he asked.
“Before today, I thought of it as a giant, blurry monster.
But after learning that the beast is a cat, that’s how I picture it now.” She smiled. “Not a little house cat, of course. They aren’t scary enough. More like a big cat that roams the mountains.”
“Makes sense,” he said.
Minka set the other half of her fourth fajita on her plate and gave him a curious look. “Would you mind if I ask you a personal question?”
His mouth twitched as he prepared another fajita. He wasn’t used to Minka being so reserved. She usually said whatever was on her mind, regardless of whether it was personal or not.
“Go ahead,” he said.
“The first time we met, I had claws, fangs, glowing red eyes, and I tried to kill you. Since then, I’ve spent most of the time telling you about an imaginary creature that lives inside my head and makes me act like a monster. How are you so calm about that? Most people would have run away already.”
Angelo chuckled. Not exactly the personal question he’d expected, but then again Minka rarely did the expected.
“Well, my mom was full-blooded Cherokee, and I grew up around all kinds of Indian folktales and legends.
My dad was in the army, and whenever he was deployed, Mom would take my sisters and me back to the reservation where she grew up in Oklahoma. I’d stay up half the night listening to the old men tell stories about shape-shifters, animal spirits, skin-walkers, and trickster spirits.” He grinned. “I’m not saying I necessarily believed in all that stuff back then, but after meeting Ivy, Tanner, and the other shifters at the DCO, it just didn’t faze me that much.”
Minka looked at him with wide eyes. “You’re a real American Indian? Like in the movies? With horses and everything?”
He laughed again. The expression of wonder on her face was adorable. “First, I’m only half-Indian. My dad is Mexican, so there’s that. And second, Native Americans are almost nothing like you see in the movies. We don’t all live in tepees and ride horses. In fact, I don’t even own a horse.”
Minka was a little disappointed about the no-horse thing, but she was fascinated with what it was like growing up on an Indian reservation and being surrounded by all those legends. She immediately asked him to tell her some Indian stories. It had been a long time since he’d thought about them, but to make her happy, he dug through his head and tried to remember every tale he’d heard as a kid. ~ Paige Tyler,#NFDB
384:GURU YOGA
Guru yoga is an essential practice in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. This is true in sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen. It develops the heart connection with the masteR By continually strengthening our devotion, we come to the place of pure devotion in ourselves, which is the unshakeable, powerful base of the practice. The essence of guru yoga is to merge the practitioner's mind with the mind of the master.
What is the true master? It is the formless, fundamental nature of mind, the primordial awareness of the base of everything, but because we exist in dualism, it is helpful for us to visualize this in a form. Doing so makes skillful use of the dualisms of the conceptual mind, to further strengthen devotion and help us stay directed toward practice and the generation of positive qualities.
In the Bon tradition, we often visualize either Tapihritsa* as the master, or the Buddha ShenlaOdker*, who represents the union of all the masters. If you are already a practitioner, you may have another deity to visualize, like Guru Rinpoche or a yidam or dakini. While it is important to work with a lineage with which you have a connection, you should understand that the master you visualize is the embodiment of all the masters with whom you are connected, all the teachers with whom you have studied, all the deities to whom you have commitments. The master in guru yoga is not just one individual, but the essence of enlightenment, the primordial awareness that is your true nature.
The master is also the teacher from whom you receive the teachings. In the Tibetan tradition, we say the master is more important than the Buddha. Why? Because the master is the immediate messenger of the teachings, the one who brings the Buddha's wisdom to the student. Without the master we could not find our way to the Buddha. So we should feel as much devotion to the master as we would to the Buddha if the Buddha suddenly appeared in front of us.
Guru yoga is not just about generating some feeling toward a visualized image. It is done to find the fundamental mind in yourself that is the same as the fundamental mind of all your teachers, and of all the Buddhas and realized beings that have ever lived. When you merge with the guru, you merge with your pristine true nature, which is the real guide and masteR But this should not be an abstract practice. When you do guru yoga, try to feel such intense devotion that the hair stands upon your neck, tears start down your face, and your heart opens and fills with great love. Let yourself merge in union with the guru's mind, which is your enlightened Buddha-nature. This is the way to practice guru yoga.
The Practice
After the nine breaths, still seated in meditation posture, visualize the master above and in front of you. This should not be a flat, two dimensional picture-let a real being exist there, in three dimensions, made of light, pure, and with a strong presence that affects the feeling in your body,your energy, and your mind. Generate strong devotion and reflect on the great gift of the teachings and the tremendous good fortune you enjoy in having made a connection to them. Offer a sincere prayer, asking that your negativities and obscurations be removed, that your positive qualities develop, and that you accomplish dream yoga.
Then imagine receiving blessings from the master in the form of three colored lights that stream from his or her three wisdom doors- of body, speech, and mind-into yours. The lights should be transmitted in the following sequence: White light streams from the master's brow chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your entire body and physical dimension. Then red light streams from the master's throat chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your energetic dimension. Finally, blue light streams from the master's heart chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your mind.
When the lights enter your body, feel them. Let your body, energy, and mind relax, suffused inwisdom light. Use your imagination to make the blessing real in your full experience, in your body and energy as well as in the images in your mind.
After receiving the blessing, imagine the master dissolving into light that enters your heart and resides there as your innermost essence. Imagine that you dissolve into that light, and remain inpure awareness, rigpa.
There are more elaborate instructions for guru yoga that can involve prostrations, offerings, gestures, mantras, and more complicated visualizations, but the essence of the practice is mingling your mind with the mind of the master, which is pure, non-dual awareness. Guru yoga can be done any time during the day; the more often the better. Many masters say that of all the practices it is guru yoga that is the most important. It confers the blessings of the lineage and can open and soften the heart and quiet the unruly mind. To completely accomplish guru yoga is to accomplish the path.
~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep, [T3],#NFDB
385:For instance, a popular game with California occultists-I do not know its inventor-involves a Magic Room, much like the Pleasure Dome discussed earlier except that this Magic Room contains an Omniscient Computer.
To play this game, you simply "astrally project" into the Magic Room. Do not ask what "astral projection" means, and do not assume it is metaphysical (and therefore either impossible, if you are a materialist, or very difficult, if you are a mystic). Just assume this is a gedankenexperiment, a "mind game." Project yourself, in imagination, into this Magic Room and visualize vividly the Omniscient Computer, using the details you need to make such a super-information-processor real to your fantasy. You do not need any knowledge of programming to handle this astral computer. It exists early in the next century; you are getting to use it by a species of time-travel, if that metaphor is amusing and helpful to you. It is so built that it responds immediately to human brain-waves, "reading" them and decoding their meaning. (Crude prototypes of such computers already exist.) So, when you are in this magic room, you can ask this Computer anything, just by thinking of what you want to know. It will read your thought, and project into your brain, by a laser ray, the correct answer.
There is one slight problem. The computer is very sensitive to all brain-waves. If you have any doubts, it registers them as negative commands, meaning "Do not answer my question." So, the way to use it is to start simply, with "easy" questions. Ask it to dig out of the archives the name of your second-grade teacher. (Almost everybody remembers the name of their first grade teacher-imprint vulnerability again-but that of the second grade teacher tends to get lost.)
When the computer has dug out the name of your second grade teacher, try it on a harder question, but not one that is too hard. It is very easy to sabotage this machine, but you don't want to sabotage it during these experiments. You want to see how well it can be made to perform.
It is wise to ask only one question at a time, since it requires concentration to keep this magic computer real on the field of your perception. Do not exhaust your capacities for imagination and visualization on your first trial runs.
After a few trivial experiments of the second-grade-teacher variety, you can try more interesting programs. Take a person toward whom you have negative feelings, such as anger, disappointment, feeling-of-betrayal, jealousy or whatever interferes with the smooth, tranquil operation of your own bio-computer. Ask the Magic Computer to explain that other person to you; to translate you into their reality-tunnel long enough for you to understand how events seem to them. Especially, ask how you seem to them.
This computer will do that job for you; but be prepared for some shocks which might be disagreeable at first. This super-brain can also perform exegesis on ideas that seem obscure, paradoxical or enigmatic to us. For instance, early experiments with this computer can very profitably turn on asking it to explain some of the propositions in this book which may seem inexplicable or perversely wrong-headed to you, such as "We are all greater artists than we realize" or "What the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves" or "mind and its contents are functionally identical."
This computer is much more powerful and scientifically advanced than the rapture-machine in the neurosomatic circuit. It has total access to all the earlier, primitive circuits, and overrules any of them. That is, if you put a meta-programming instruction into this computer; it will relay it downward to the old circuits and cancel contradictory programs left over from the past. For instance, try feeding it on such meta-programming instructions as: 1. I am at cause over my body. 2. I am at cause over my imagination. 3.1 am at cause over my future. 4. My mind abounds with beauty and power. 5.1 like people, and people like me.
Remember that this computer is only a few decades ahead of present technology, so it cannot "understand" your commands if you harbor any doubts about them. Doubts tell it not to perform. Work always from what you can believe in, extending the area of belief only as results encourage you to try for more dramatic transformations of your past reality-tunnels.
This represents cybernetic consciousness; the programmer becoming self-programmer, self-metaprogrammer, meta-metaprogrammer, etc. Just as the emotional compulsions of the second circuit seem primitive, mechanical and, ultimately, silly to the neurosomatic consciousness, so, too, the reality maps of the third circuit become comic, relativistic, game-like to the metaprogrammer. "Whatever you say it is, it isn't, " Korzybski, the semanticist, repeated endlessly in his seminars, trying to make clear that third-circuit semantic maps are not the territories they represent; that we can always make maps of our maps, revisions of our revisions, meta-selves of our selves. "Neti, neti" (not that, not that), Hindu teachers traditionally say when asked what "God" is or what "Reality" is. Yogis, mathematicians and musicians seem more inclined to develop meta-programming consciousness than most of humanity. Korzybski even claimed that the use of mathematical scripts is an aid to developing this circuit, for as soon as you think of your mind as mind 1 , and the mind which contemplates that mind as mind2 and the mind which contemplates mind2 contemplating mind 1 as mind3, you are well on your way to meta-programming awareness. Alice in Wonderland is a masterful guide to the metaprogramming circuit (written by one of the founders of mathematical logic) and Aleister Crowley soberly urged its study upon all students of yoga. ~ Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising,#NFDB
7 Occultism
6 Psychology
6 Integral Yoga
2 Philosophy
1 Science
1 Poetry
1 Mysticism
1 Integral Theory
1 Fiction
1 Christianity
1 Buddhism
1 Baha i Faith
6 The Mother
6 Satprem
5 Carl Jung
4 Thubten Chodron
3 Peter J Carroll
3 Jordan Peterson
2 Aleister Crowley
4 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
3 Maps of Meaning
3 Liber Null
2 The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
2 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
2 Mysterium Coniunctionis
2 Aion
2 Agenda Vol 11
0 1962-08-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Because the other end is the new creation, so its clear that. How MANY steps will it take, how many incomplete or imperfect things, approximations, attemptshow many MINUSCULE realizations for you to simply acknowledge, Yes, indeed, were on the way? For how many oh, you could practically say centuries will it be like this before the glorious body of a supramental being appears? Something came yesterday evening (it seemed like mere excitation to me); it was a power of creative imagination attempting to Visualize supramental forms, beings that live in other worlds, and all sorts of things like that. I saw many things. But it seemed so like champagne bubbles! Thats all very nice, I said, for widening my power of imagination so I can present these forms to the Lord. But its not necessary! (Mother laughs) It really seemed so. There was a time when I considered it a great creative power (and many things that I saw in those moments of super-creativity, super-imagination, were actually realized years later on earth), and this time it came again (perhaps to give me a little fun, a little spectacle along the way), it came and I looked at it; I could see all its power, I could see it was something trying to materialize in the future, and I said, What histrionics! Why go through all these theatrics? Jugglers.
And it was supramental light, it originated in supramental light. How beings from other worlds would relate with the future beings, and all sorts of similar thingsbedtime stories.
0 1963-07-10, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And the Power I would have to tell a mountain of experiences. For years and years and years, the Power was like this (gesture above the head): the Consciousness is there and the Power acts from there (same gesture). But it takes a long time to materialize (it depends on the person, but anyway, it always takes some time to materialize), and it gets distorted on the way, so that whats left is a rather ineffective residue. And I was wondering within me, But for all that to change, a DIRECT power is needed! A power that would make itself felt directly, in other words, that would pass from cell to cell: vibrations of the same quality. Its beginning to come. But I was also wondering why it didnt come faster. Although I know very well: its because we distort everything; we are so accustomed to living in a MENTALIZED consciousness that we distort everything, and naturally the Power cannot come just to get distorted. So now, the lesson is this: the Power comes for a specific action, for instance, to act on someone the Power is here, it actsand at the same time, I am given the opportunity to observe, really to Visualize the (how should I put it?) Sri Aurobindo uses the word accretion (outgrowth isnt the word, it gives the feeling of something growing from within out thats not it, its something that comes from outside and is added on). I Visualize how deformation sets in and is automatically added on to the Powerwhich spoils everything. So the Power stops short, everything reverts to its place and it starts all over again.
It takes a very sharp, attentive, and above all impersonal observation (impersonal in the sense of objective, without any reaction) to see those things.
0 1967-05-03, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes. My feeling (because Ive studied your problem a good deal I seem as if I couldnt care less, but thats not true! Ive studied your problem a great deal), my feeling is that in your higher mind, the faculty of expression is developedhighly developedso that as soon as the Light touches, it is transformed into ideas, words, concepts, like that. It DOESNT HAVE THE TIME to be Visualized. Its not outwardly, but right up above that it is (how can I put it?) particularly and exceptionally active and expressive (something quite rare, because generally, in everyone, its nebulous up above). And because it has developed in that way (which is a higher condition), you are lacking the primary condition which is the vision, the shock of the Light.
So there is only one solution. To me, there is a solution: its the sudden contact with a HIGHER light in the Supermind. Sri Aurobindo said (thats obvious, its always like that) that there are several layers (its not quite like layers, but never mind), several layers of supramental light. The first (the one that has manifested), that one you immediately transformed into conceptions, ideas and words. That is, something a large number of intellectuals are praying and imploring to haveyou had it spontaneously, lets say. So the first contact, the dazzling contact of the Light, that you havent had. But when a HIGHER light comes, you will have it.
0 1970-01-03, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All that is certainly the consciousness of what Sri Aurobindo called the supramental:1 the being to come after man. How will he be? I havent yet seen I havent yet seen that. I did see, I did have perceptions of the superman, the intermediary being, but you clearly feel its only an intermediary being. What will that being be like who will come after the superman? I dont know. Because we are still much too human; when we Visualize the Supreme Consciousness in a form, the Supreme Being and so on the Supremewe tend to give it a form similar to the human one, but thats our old habit. I saw that future being (I saw it many years ago): it was clearly a far more harmonious and expressive form than the human one, but there was a likeness, it was still a human form, that is to say, with a head and arms and legs and Will it be that? I dont know. There will necessarily be that as an intermediarynecessarily. There were all those kinds of apes which acted as intermediaries between the animal and man. But lightness, invulnerability, moving about at will, luminosity at willall that goes without saying, its part of supramental qualities, but Oh, yes, also clothing at will: its not something foreign added on, its the substance that takes on certain forms. All that I had seen, and I told Sri Aurobindo about it, and Sri Aurobindo himself gave me certain demonstrations (I see him sometimes and he shows me). He simply said what the intermediary step will be. But all descriptions are worthless. And when I see him at night (sometimes I spend hours with him), its so natural and spontaneous that I am not even observing, This is like this, that is like thatno. In the morning, with a concentration, the impression remains very strong, but as for the details as we here understand them, you cant say.
Similarly, that sort of thing (Sri Aurobindo too calls it perception), that perception which replaces vision and all the rest is very strong at night. Its hard to say. You have an impression of it when you wake up, but not the capacity; the full capacity is not there.
0 1970-05-27, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What will that being be like who will come after the superman? I dont know. Because we are still much too human; when we Visualize the Supreme Consciousness in a form, the Supreme Being and so on the Supremewe tend to give it a form similar to the human one, but thats our old habit. I saw that being
So here, are you referring to the supramental being, or to the being intermediary between man and the supramental? You say:
0 1972-01-12, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I remember, the experience is still very vivid. As I told you, T.J. has a very childish consciousness, so I said to her: you see, its as if the Whole (not the Divine separate from the creation: the Whole) projected itself on a screen in order to see itself. Therefore its infinite, its foreverits never the same and it never ends. Its like a projection to Visualize the details and be conscious of oneself in another way.8
The metaphor is quite childlike, of course, but very evocative thats how I saw it then. Exactly the impression of an infinite Whole projecting itself endlessly.
1.01 - Who is Tara, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
the fully enlightened body and mind of a Buddha. When we Visualize Tara and
regard her as the resultant Tara that we will become, we are inspired to train
1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
(or different philosophies) that eternally characterize human societies can usefully be Visualized as combat
undertaken by different standards of value (and, therefore, by different hierarchies of motivation). The
--
that man can Visualize it only through phantoms. But all this and it should not be forgotten is an
image not only of the Feminine but particularly and specifically of the Maternal. For in a profound way
1.02 - The Three European Worlds, #The Ever-Present Origin, #Jean Gebser, #Integral
The conception of man as subject is based an a conception of the world and the environment as an object. It is in the paintings of Giotto that we See first expressed, however tentatively, the objectified, external world. Early Sienese art, particularly miniature painting, reveals a yet spaceless, self-contained, and depthless world significant for its symbolic content and not for what we would today call its realism. These "pictures" of an unperspectival era are, as it were, painted at night when objects are without shadow and depth. Here darkness has swallowed space to the extent that only the immaterial, psychic component could be expressed. But in the work of Giotto, the latent space hitherto dormant in the night of collective man's unconscious is Visualized; the first renderings of space begin to appear in painting signalling an incipient perspectivity. A new psychic awareness of space, objectified or externalized from the psyche out into the world, begins a consciousness of space whose element of depth becomes visible in perspective.
This psychic inner-space breaks forth at the very moment that the Troubadours are writing the first lyric "I"-Poems, the first personal poetry that suddenly opens an abyss between man, as poet, and the world or nature (1250 A.D.). Concurrently at the University of Paris, Thomas Aquinas, following the thought of his teacher Albertus Magnus, asserts the validity of Aristotle, thereby initiating the rational displacement of the predominantly psychic-bound Platonic world.
1.03 - Invocation of Tara, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
Tantra, only contain the deity Visualized in front of us;
whereas rituals of the third group, the Yoga Tantra,
most often imply the deity Visualized in' front of us
and ourselves in the form of the deity.
Finally, rituals of the fourth group, the Anuttarayoga Tantra, propose either the deity Visualized in
front of us and ourselves as the deity perceived as
--
- During the first sequence, Tara is Visualized in front
of .us with her right hand in the mudra of sublime
--
phase (Tibetan, kyerim) during which we Visualize
ourselves in the form of the deity.
--
"power" (Tibetan, wang) to Visualize the deity, to
recite her mantra, and to accomplish her
1.03 - Tara, Liberator from the Eight Dangers, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
may also Visualize Tara in front of us, radiating green light. This light ows
into us, lling our body/mind, so that there is no space for the eight dangers
1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
embedded implicitly in the way you Visualize things. You dont see an explicit infinity because it is
captured implicitly inside the images you manipulate.394
1.05 - Dharana, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
3:The moment then that the student takes a simple subject - or rather a simple object - and imagines it or Visualizes it, he will find that it is not so much his creature as he supposed. Other thoughts will invade the mind, so that the object is altogether forgotten, perhaps for whole minutes at a time; and at other times the object itself will begin to play all sorts of tricks.
4:Suppose you have chosen a white cross. It will move its bar up and down, elongate the bar, turn the bar oblique, get its arms unequal, turn upside down, grow branches, get a crack around it or a figure upon it, change its shape altogether like an Amoeba, change its size and distance as a whole, change the degree of its illumination, and at the same time change its colour. It will get splotchy and blotchy, grow patterns, rise, fall, twist and turn; clouds will pass over its face. There is no conceivable change of which it is incapable. Not to mention its total disappearance, and replacement by something altogether different!
1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
individual, he does not see the negative aspect of the social world, and he cannot Visualize the beneficial
aspect of chaos. He is frightened enough to develop the discipline of a slave, so that he can maintain his
1.07 - A Song of Longing for Tara, the Infallible, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
things that ordinary beings cant. If we Visualized President Roosevelt and
prayed to him, could he bless and inspire our mind? From his side, has he
--
But lets not become smug thinking that because we Visualize altruistically giving up our body that we are actually capable of doing it. I had a rude
awakening about this when the second intifada began. Id been going to Israel
1.07 - The Literal Qabalah (continued), #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
The correspondences of each unit may be indefinitely extended, since each Sephirah and each subsidiary Path may be Visualized as containing a Tree of Life within its own sphere, and may thus be divided for the purpose of more precise and close analysis into ten subdivisions. The
Tree itself may also be placed in each of, what are called,
1.09 - Taras Ultimate Nature, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
the correct view of reality. When we Visualize Tara, we begin with the lotus
on which she is seated. The lotus represents the determination to be free
1.10 - THE FORMATION OF THE NOOSPHERE, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
which I Visualize, what becomes of that pearl beyond price, our
personal being? What remains of our freedom of choice and ac-
1.13 - Gnostic Symbols of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
prehensive and so difficult to Visualize in itself that a great many
different expressions are required in order to bring out its vari-
1.14 - The Structure and Dynamics of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
This lapis symbolism can once more be Visualized diagram-
matically as a double pyramid:
1.34 - The Tao 1, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Anyhow (you protest) this is getting away from the question as to what Tao actually is. Good; but I want you to abstain from trying to make an intellectual image of it, still less to Visualize it. I tried at one time to do something of the sort with the Fourth Dimension:[61] Hinton gives a practice involving complex patterns of cubes; and I was never able to make anything of it.
As I said above, it is a matter of Neschamah; but what follows may help you.
1f.lovecraft - The Loved Dead, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
the garish light of day penetrated my hiding-place that I Visualized
the certain consequences of my rashly purchased relief. By this time
1.rt - A Hundred Years Hence, #Tagore - Poems, #Rabindranath Tagore, #Poetry
And Visualize in your minds eye
One day a hundred years ago
2.01 - THE ARCANE SUBSTANCE AND THE POINT, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[36] The tremendous role which the opposites and their union play in alchemy helps us to understand why the alchemists were so fond of paradoxes. In order to attain this union, they tried not only to Visualize the opposites together but to express them in the same breath.1 Characteristically, the paradoxes cluster most thickly round the arcane substance, which was believed to contain the opposites in uncombined form as the prima materia, and to amalgamate them as the lapis Philosophorum. Thus the lapis2 is called on the one hand base, cheap, immature, volatile, and on the other hand precious, perfect, and solid; or the prima materia is base and noble,3 or precious and parvi momenti (of little moment). The materia is visible to all eyes, the whole world sees it, touches it, loves it, and yet no one knows it.4 This stone therefore is no stone,5 says the Turba, that thing is cheap and costly, dark, hidden, and known to everyone, having one name and many names.6 The stone is thousand-named like the gods of the mystery religions, the arcane substance is One and All (
). In the treatise of Komarios, where the philosopher Komarios teaches the Philosophy to Cleopatra, it is said: He showed with his hand the unity of the whole.7 Pelagios asks: Why speak ye of the manifold matter? The substance of natural things is one, and of one nature that which conquers all.8
--
[39] The alchemists seem to have Visualized their lapis or prima materia in a similar manner. At any rate they were able to cap the paradoxes of Monomos. Thus they said of Mercurius: This spirit is generated from the substances of the sea26 and calls himself moist, dry, and fiery,27 in close agreement with the invocation to Hermes in the magic papyrus entitled The Secret Inscription, where Hermes is addressed as a damp-fiery-cold spirit (
).28
2.02 - Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
Through imagination, we can Visualize the uncreated worlds of potential that lie within us.
Through conscience, we can come in contact with universal laws or principles with our own singular talents and avenues of contri bution, and with the personal guidelines within which we can most effectively develop them. Combined with self-awareness, these two endowments empower us to write our own script.
--
Now if I were sitting at that funeral we Visualized earlier, and one of my children was about to speak, I would want his life to represent the victory of teaching, training, and disciplining with love over a period of years rather than the battle scars of quick-fix skirmishes. I would want his heart and mind to be filled with the pleasant memories of deep, meaningful times together. I would want him to remember me as a loving father who shared the fun and the pain of growing up. I would want him to remember the times he came to me with his problems and concerns. I would want to have listened and loved and helped. I would want him to know I wasn't perfect, but that I had tried with everything
I had. And that, perhaps more than anybody in the world, I loved him.
--
If we use the brain dominance theory as a model, it becomes evident that the quality of our first creation is significantly impacted by our ability to use our creative right brain. The more we are able to draw upon our right-brain capacity, the more fully we will be able to Visualize, to synthesize, to transcend time and present circumstances, to project a holistic picture of what we want to do and to be in life.
Expand Perspective
--
There are a number of ways to do this. Through the powers of your imagination, you can Visualize your own funeral, as we did at the beginning of this chapter. Write your own eulogy. Actually write it out. Be specific.
You can Visualize your twenty-fifth and then your fiftieth wedding anniversary. Have your spouse Visualize this with you. Try to capture the essence of the family relationship you want to have created through your day-by-day investment over a period of that many years.
You can Visualize your retirement from your present occupation. What contri butions, what achievements will you want to have made in your field? What plans will you have after retirement?
Will you enter a second career?
Expand your mind. Visualize in rich detail. Involve as many emotions and feelings as possible.
Involve as many of the senses as you can.
I have done similar visualization exercises with some of my university classes. "Assume you only have this one semester to live," I tell my students, "and that during this semester you are to stay in school as a good student. Visualize how you would spend your semester.
Things are suddenly placed in a different perspective. Values quickly surface that before weren't even recognized.
--
Then I can Visualize it. I can spend a few minutes each day and totally relax my mind and body. I can think about situations in which my children might misbehave. I can Visualize them in rich detail.
I can feel the texture of the chair I might be sitting on, the floor under my feet, the sweater I'm wearing.
--
We would try to get him in a very relaxed state of mind through deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation technique so that he became very quiet inside. Then I would help him Visualize himself right in the heat of the toughest situations imaginable.
He would imagine a big blitz coming at him fast. He had to read the blitz and respond. He would imagine giving audibles at the line after reading defenses. He would imagine quick reads with his first receiver, his second receiver, his third receiver. He would imagine options that he normally wouldn't do.
--
If you Visualize the wrong thing, you'll produce the wrong thing.
Dr. Charles Garfield has done extensive research on peak performers, both in athletics and in business. He became fascinated with peak performance in his work with the NASA program, watching the astronauts rehearse everything on earth again and again in a simulated environment before they went to space. Although he had a doctorate in mathematics, he decided to go back and get another Ph.D. in the field of psychology and study the characteristics of peak performers.
One of the main things his research showed was that almost all of the world-class athletes and other peak performers are Visualizers. They see it; they feel it; they experience it before they actually do it.
They Begin with the End in Mind.
2.05 - Habit 3 Put First Things First, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
Desired Results: Create a clear, mutual understanding of what needs to be accomplished, focusing on what, not how; results, not methods. Spend time. Be patient. Visualize the desired result.
Have the person see it, describe it, make out a quality statement of what the results will look like, and by when they will be accomplished.
3.11 - Spells, #Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E, #unset, #Zen
into something that its conscious mind can Visualize--the most horrible beast. Only the
spell recipient can see the phantasmal killer (the caster sees only a shadowy shape), but if
3.4.2 - Guru Yoga, #The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, #Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, #Buddhism
What is the true master? It is the formless, fundamental nature of mind, the primordial awareness of the base of everything, but because we exist in dualism, it is helpful for us to Visualize this in a form. Doing so makes skillful use of the dualisms of the conceptual mind, to further streng then devotion and help us stay directed toward practice and the generation of positive qualities.
In the Bon tradition, we often Visualize either Tapihritsa* as the master, or the Buddha Shenla Odker*, who represents the union of all the masters. If you are already a practitioner, you may have another deity to Visualize, like Guru Rinpoche or a yidam or dakini. While it is important to work with a lineage with which you have a connection, you should understand that the master you Visualize is the embodiment of all the masters with whom you are connected, all the teachers with whom you have studied, all the deities to whom you have commitments. The master in guru yoga is not just one individual, but the essence of enlightenment, the primordial awareness that is your true nature.
The master is also the teacher from whom you receive the teachings. In the Tibetan tradition, we say the master is more important than the Buddha. Why? Because the master is the immediate messenger of the teachings, the one who brings the Buddha's wisdom to the student. Without the master we could not find our way to the Buddha. So we should feel as much devotion to the master as we would to the Buddha if the Buddha suddenly appeared in front of us.
Guru yoga is not just about generating some feeling toward a Visualized image. It is done to find the fundamental mind in yourself that is the same as the fundamental mind of all your teachers, and of all the Buddhas and realized beings that have ever lived. When you merge with the guru, you merge with your pristine true nature, which is the real guide and master. But this should not be an abstract practice. When you do guru yoga, try to feel such intense devotion that the hair stands up on your neck, tears start down your face, and your heart opens and fills with great love. Let yourself merge in union with the guru's mind, which is your enlightened Buddha-nature. This is the way to practice guru yoga.
The Practice
After the nine breaths, still seated in meditation posture, Visualize the master above and in front of you. This should not be a flat, two dimensional picture-let a real being exist there, in three dimensions, made of light, pure, and with a strong presence that affects the feeling in your body, your energy, and your mind. Generate strong devotion and reflect on the great gift of the teachings and the tremendous good fortune you enjoy in having made a connection to them. Offer a sincere prayer, asking that your negativities and obscurations be removed, that your positive qualities develop, and that you accomplish dream yoga.
Then imagine receiving blessings from the master in the form of three colored lights that stream from his or her three wisdom doors- of body, speech, and mind-into yours. The lights should be transmitted in the following sequence: White light streams from the master's brow chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your entire body and physical dimension. Then red light streams from the master's throat chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your energetic dimension. Finally, blue light streams from the master's heart chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your mind.
4.04 - Conclusion, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
375 In dream v, the anima is Visualized somewhat romantically
as the "distinguished" fascinating woman, who nevertheless has
5.01 - The Dakini, Salgye Du Dalma, #The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, #Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, #Buddhism
She is formless in sleep practice itself, but as we are falling asleep she is Visualized as a luminous sphere of light, a tigl. Light is Visualized, rather than a form like the syllables used in dream yoga, because we are working on the level of energy, beyond form. We are trying to dissolve all distinctions such as inside and outside, self and other. When visualizing a form, it is the habit of the mind to think of that form as something other than itself, and we must go beyond dualism. The dakini is the representation of the clear light. She is what we already are in our pure state: clear and luminous. We become her in sleep practice.
When we develop a relationship with Salgye Du Dalma, we connect to our own deepest nature.
We can further this connection by remembering her as much as possible. During the day she can be Visualized in samboghakaya* form: pure white, luminous, and beautiful. Her translucent body is made wholly of light. In her right hand she holds a curved knife, and in her left hand a bowl made from the top of a skull. She abides in the heart center, sitting upon a white moon disc, which rests on a golden sun disk, which in turn rests upon a beautiful blue, four-petaled lotus. As in guru yoga, imagine yourself dissolving into her, and she into you, mixing your essence until it is one.
Wherever you are, she is with you, residing in your heart. When you eat, offer her food. When you drink, offer her what you drink. You can talk to her. If you are in a space in which you can listen, let her talk to you. This does not mean you should go crazy, but you can use your imagination. If you have read books on dharma and listened to talks on these topics, imagine her giving you the teachings that you already know. Let her remind you to remain in presence, to cut through ignorance, to act compassionately, to be mindful, and to resist distractions. Your teacher may not always be available, nor your friends, but the dakini is. Make her your constant companion and the guide of your practice. You will find that eventually the communication will start to feel real; she will embody your own understanding of the dharma and reflect it back to you. When you remember her presence, the room you are in will seem more luminous and your mind will become lucid; she is teaching you that the luminosity and lucidity you experience is the clear light that you really are. Train yourself so that even feelings of disconnection and the arising of negative emotions automatically remind you of her; then confusion and emotional snares will serve to bring you back to awareness like the bell of a temple that marks the beginning of practice.
6.08 - THE CONTENT AND MEANING OF THE FIRST TWO STAGES, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[748] This raised the question of the way in which the coniunctio could be effected. Dorn answered this by proposing, instead of an overcoming of the body, the typical alchemical process of the separatio, solutio, incineratio, sublimatio, etc. of the red or white wine, the purpose of this procedure being to produce a physical equivalent of the substantia coelestis, recognized by the spirit as the truth and as the image of God innate in man. Whatever names the alchemists gave to the mysterious substance they sought to produce, it was always a celestial substance, i.e., something transcendental, which, in contrast to the perishability of all known matter, was incorruptible, inert as a metal or a stone, and yet alive, like an organic being, and at the same time a universal medicament. Such a body was quite obviously not to be met with in experience. The tenacity with which the adepts pursued this goal for at least seventeen hundred years can be explained only by the numinosity of this idea. And we do indeed find, even in the ancient alchemy of Zosimos, clear indications of the archetype of the Anthropos,221 as I have shown in Psychology and Alchemy; an image that pervades the whole of alchemy down to the figure of the homunculus in Faust. The idea of the Anthropos springs from the notion of an original state of universal animation, for which reason the old Masters interpreted their Mercurius as the anima mundi; and just as the original animation could be found in all matter, so too could the anima mundi. It was imprinted on all bodies as their raison dtre, as an image of the demiurge who incarnated in his own creation and got caught in it. Nothing was easier than to identify this anima mundi with the Biblical imago Dei, which represented the truth revealed to the spirit. For the early thinkers the soul was by no means a merely intellectual concept; it was Visualized sensuously as a breath-body or a volatile but physical substance which, it was readily supposed, could be chemically extracted and fixed by means of a suitable procedure. This intention was served by the preparation of the phlegma vini. As I pointed out earlier, this was not the spirit and water of the wine but its solid residue, the chthonic and corporeal part which would not ordinarily be regarded as the essential and valuable thing about the wine.
[749] What the alchemist sought, then, to help him out of his dilemma was a chemical operation which we today would describe as a symbol. The procedure he followed was obviously an allegory of his postulated substantia coelestis and its chemical equivalent. To that extent the operation was not symbolical for him but purposive and rational. For us, who know that no amount of incineration, sublimation, and centrifuging of the vinous residue can ever produce an air-coloured quintessence, the entire procedure is fantastic if taken literally. We can hardly suppose that Dorn, either, meant a real wine but, after the manner of the alchemists, vinum ardens, acetum, spiritualis sanguis, etc., in other words Mercurius non vulgi, who embodied the anima mundi. Just as the air encompasses the earth, so in the old view the soul is wrapped round the world. As I have shown, we can most easily equate the concept of Mercurius with that of the unconscious. If we add this term to the recipe, it would run: Take the unconscious in one of its handiest forms, say a spontaneous fantasy, a dream, an irrational mood, an affect, or something of the kind, and operate with it. Give it your special attention, concentrate on it, and observe its alterations objectively. Spare no effort to devote yourself to this task, follow the subsequent transformations of the spontaneous fantasy attentively and carefully. Above all, dont let anything from outside, that does not belong, get into it, for the fantasy-image has everything it needs.222 In this way one is certain of not interfering by conscious caprice and of giving the unconscious a free hand. In short, the alchemical operation seems to us the equivalent of the psychological process of active imagination.
Big Mind (non-dual), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Another way to Visualize this that may be helpful is to think of the self and the noself sitting in two chairs, side by side. I want now to speak to that which is standing behind and above these two chairs, at the apex of the triangle. So you both include and transcend the self and the no-self. I'm going to give you the name the Unique Self. I would like your permission, please, to speak to what I call the Unique Self.
--- The Unique Self (Beyond self and no-self)
LUX.01 - GNOSIS, #Liber Null, #Peter J Carroll, #Occultism
The nature of a sexual working: lends itself readily to the creation of independent orders of being - evocation. Also in works of invocation where the magician seeks union with some principle (or being), the process can be mirrored on the physical plane; one's partner is Visualized as an incarnation of the desired idea or god. Prolonged sexual excitement through karezza, inhibition of orgasm, or repeated orgasmic collapse can lead to trance states useful for divination. It may be necessary to regain one's original sexuality from the mass of fantasy and association into which it mostly sinks. This is achieved by judicious use of abstention and by arousing lust without any form of mental prop or fantasy. This exercise is also therapeutic. Be ye ever virgin unto Kia.
The concentrations: leading to magical trance are discussed in Liber MMM.
LUX.03 - INVOCATION, #Liber Null, #Peter J Carroll, #Occultism
Drawing blood from his right shoulder with a dagger, he traces the sigil of Mars on his breast and the Eye of Horus on his brow. With a sharp sword, he draws the symbols of Mars about him in his mind's eye in lines of crimson fire and Visualizes himself in the form of the god Horus.
Then he begins his war dance while an assistant, if he has one, continues to beat the rhythm, apply the scourge, or discharge firearms. Martial music may be played by some machine. As he dances wildly to his god he chants:
MMM.02 - MAGIC, #Liber Null, #Peter J Carroll, #Occultism
Ritual is a combination of the use of talismanic weapons, gesture, Visualized sigils, word spells, and magical trance. Before proceeding with sigils or dreaming, it is essential to develop an effective Banishing Ritual. A well-constructed banishing ritual has the following aspects. It prepares the magician more rapidly for magical concentration than any of the trance exercises alone. It enables the magician to resist obsession if problems are encountered with dream experiences or with sigils becoming conscious. It also protects the magician from any hostile occult influences which may assail him.
To develop a banishing ritual, first acquire a magical weapon - a sword, a dagger, a wand, or perhaps a large ring. The instrument should be something which is impressive to the mind and should also represent the aspirations of the magician. The advantages of hand-forging one's own instruments, or discovering them in some strange way, cannot be overemphasized. The banishing ritual should contain the following elements as a minimum.
First, the magician describes a barrier about himself with the magical weapon. The barrier is also strongly Visualized. Three dimensional figures are preferable. See figure 1 on page 20.
Second, the magician focuses his will on a Visualized image: for example, the image of the magical weapon, or his own imaginary third eye, or perhaps a ball of light inside his own head. A sound concentration may additionally or alternatively be used.
Third, the barrier is reinforced with power symbols drawn with the magical weapon. The traditional five-pointed star or pentagram can be used, or the eight-pointed star of Chaos, or any other form. Words of power may also be used.
Prayers and Meditations by Baha u llah text, #Prayers and Meditations by Baha u llah, #unset, #Zen
I swear by Thy glory, O Thou Who art the Lord of all being and the Possessor of all things visible and invisible! Every man of understanding hath been so bewildered at Thy knowledge, and every man endued with insight been so perplexed in his attempt to fathom the signs of Thy great glory, that all have recognized their powerlessness to Visualize, and their impotence to soar into, the heaven wherefrom one of the Luminaries of the Manifestations of Thy knowledge and of the Day-Springs of Thy wisdom hath shone forth. Who is he that shall befittingly describe this most sublime station and this most august seat-- the seat which, as decreed by Thee, transcendeth the comprehension of Thy creatures and the testimonies of Thy servants, and which hath everlastingly been hid from the understanding and the knowledge of men, and been closed with the seal of Thy name, the Self-Subsisting.
I swear by Thy glory and Thy sovereignty which overshadow the kingdoms of earth and of heaven! Were any of Thy chosen Ones and Thy Messengers to meditate on the manifold evidences of Thy most exalted Pen--a Pen which is driven by the fingers of Thy will--and were he to muse on its mysteries, and its tokens, and all that it showeth forth, he would be so perplexed that his tongue would fail to extol and describe Thee, and his heart would be utterly unable to understand Thee. For he would, at one time, discover that from this Pen there floweth out unto all created things the water that is life indeed, and that the Pen itself hath been named by Thee the trumpet whereby the dead speed out of their sepulchers. At another time he would find that there proceedeth from this Pen such fire as Thine own Revelation can kindle, and as He Who conversed with Thee (Moses) on Sinai hath perceived.
The Act of Creation text, #The Act of Creation, #Arthur Koestler, #Psychology
a Visualizer, and not a verbalizer; the highest compliment we pay to
those who trade in verbal currency is to call them 'visionary thinkers'.)
--
of solid matter. He Visualized the universe patterned by these lines or
rather by narrow tubes through which all forms of 'ray- vibrations' or
--
work in a living fish, suddenly Visualized it as a pump but the analogy
between the gory mess he actually saw and the neat metallic gadget
--
imagery does not work in such precise fashion. The Visualizer rather
feels his way around a problem and strokes it with his eye, as it were,
--
It is of course, not enough to Visualize oneself as a passenger riding
on a ray of light; and the ride lasted ten years, even for Einstein. But
--
dently belonged to the category of Visualizers saw the solution in a
manner for which the following description of a young woman with-
--
and yet be unable to Visualize her in his mind's eye or give a detailed
description of her appearance. Her 'living image' in the reader is not
--
cannot be Visualized as a mechanical record like a gramophone groove,
'stamped* into the brain and activated by specific pathways. Such an
--
The learning process is, somewhat paradoxically, cssiest to Visualize
as a reversal of the hierarchic sequence of operations which will
--
Thus, in round figures, the Visualizers learned twice as fast, the ver-
balizers four times as fast as the motor learners.
--
thus Visualized as creating the world out of His own depth, and the
HABIT AND ORIGINALITY
--
Faraday, as we know, was a Visualizer, who saw the universe pat-
terned by lines of force like the familiar diagrams of iron filings
The Anapanasati Sutta A Practical Guide to Mindfullness of Breathing and Tranquil Wisdom Meditation, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
sign (nimitta in Pali, this can be a light or other Visualized
mind-made pictures) arise in mind at certain times when one
The Logomachy of Zos, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
touch something and Visualize nothing. Emotive sensation is our highest
process and function.
--
What is Abstract Art? Something we do not Visualize or conceive before
reification; something we feel differently about rather than know;
--
one who is able not only to Visualize but to incarnate them.
Everyone desires to escape from themselves- by any or every means- a
--
is essentially hypothetical and related to concepts; a Visualized
phantasm
The Zahir, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
Time, which generally attenuates memories, only aggravates that of the Zahir. There was a time when I could Visualize the obverse, and then the reverse. Now I see them simultaneously. This is not as though the Zahir were crystal, because it is not a matter of one face being superimposed upon another; rather, it is as though my eyesight were spherical, with the Zahir in the center. Whatever is not the Zahir comes to me fragmentarily, as if from a great distance: the arrogant image of Clementina; physical pain. Tennyson once said that if we could understand a single flower, we should know what we are and what the world is. Perhaps he meant that there is no fact, however insignificant, that does not involve universal history and the infinite concatenation of cause and effect. Perhaps he meant that the visible world is implicit in every phenomenon, just as the will, according to Schopenhauer, is implicit in every subject. The Cabalists pretend that man is a microcosm, a symbolic mirror of the universe; according to Tennyson, everything would be. Everything, even the intolerable Zahir.
Before 1948 Julia's destiny will have caught up with me. They will have to feed me and dress me, I shall not know whether it is afternoon or morning, I shall not know who Borges was. To call this prospect terrible is a fallacy, for none of its circumstances will exist for me. One might as well say that an anesthetized man feels terrible pain when they open his cranium. I shall no longer perceive the universe: I shall perceive the Zahir. According to the teaching of the Idealists, the words "live" and "dream" are rigorously synonymous.
--- Overview of verb visualize
The verb visualize has 4 senses (first 1 from tagged texts)
1. (4) visualize, visualise, envision, project, fancy, see, figure, picture, image ::: (imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind; "I can't see him on horseback!"; "I can see what will happen"; "I can see a risk in this strategy")
2. visualize, visualise ::: (view the outline of by means of an X-ray; "The radiologist can visualize the cancerous liver")
3. visualize, visualise ::: (form a mental picture of something that is invisible or abstract; "Mathematicians often visualize")
4. visualize, visualise ::: (make visible; "With this machine, ultrasound can be visualized")
--- Grep of noun visualize
visualizer
Wikipedia - Aphantasia -- Condition in which an individual cannot voluntarily visualize imagery
Wikipedia - Cholecystography -- Radiological procedure used to visualize the gallbladder and biliary channels
Wikipedia - Evolutionary landscape -- A metaphor used to visualize the processes of evolution
Wikipedia - Magic Music Visuals -- Music visualizer and VJ software application
Wikipedia - Neuroimaging -- Set of techniques to measure and visualize aspects of the nervous system
Wikipedia - Rachel Binx -- American data visualizer, developer, and designer
Wikipedia - Spaghetti plot -- A method of viewing data to visualize possible flows through systems
Wikipedia - The Advanced Visualizer -- A 3D graphics software package
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17363.Relativity_Visualized
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22859583-the-art-of-war-visualized
https://bejeweled.fandom.com/wiki/Visualizers
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications#Audio_visualizers
File System Visualizer
HOOPS Visualize
Journal of Visualized Experiments
Visualize
Visualizer
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